The families in the records. Follow the records, people, objects and places from this period. This is a growing selection from the research.
Henry Cotton lists Peter O’Molchollynd as a canon of Armagh, citing the register of Archbishop Fleming. The entry does not identify Peter as a bell keeper.
Source: Henry Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae, vol. III (1851), p. 62; and William Reeves, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 27.Henry Cotton lists Peter O’Mulchollyn among those present when the chapter of Armagh chose Robert Fitzhugh as archbishop on 10 September 1416. The pope did not confirm the choice. Cotton cites Archbishop Swayne’s register; his spelling differs from the 1406 entry.
Read about Peter → · Henry Cotton, Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae, vol. III (1851), p. 62.
The Annals of the Four Masters name O’Mellan, keeper of the Bell of Patrick’s Will, among the Ulster chiefs taken prisoner.
Annals of the Four Masters · M1425 ↗The annals record that Patrick O’Mulholland and the son of O’Mellan were killed in the same action. The entry does not call either man a keeper.
Annals of the Four Masters · M1432.2 ↗Archbishop John Prene’s register names John O’Mellan and Patrick O’Mulchallynd as keepers. The bell was placed in Patrick’s custody pending further church direction.
Source: William Reeves, “On the Bell of St Patrick,” Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 27 (1877), pp. 11–24; Armagh registers.William Reeves and James O’Laverty describe an entry involving Magonius O’Mulhallan and Patrick O’Kegan’s rectory of Inisthayde, or Ballyscullion. O’Laverty says Magonius was directed to restrain those disturbing the rector. The date and the act’s attribution need further checking against the register.
William Reeves, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore (1847), p. 374; James O’Laverty, vol. III (1884), p. 324.
Reeves records that on 11 April 1466 Primate Bole addressed letters to Dean Charles O’Mellan and the clergy of Armagh concerning Twoll and John O’Mellan, accused of taking two horses. The letters deprived them of privileges they claimed by reason of custody of St Patrick’s Bell. This record describes their claim; it does not establish how custody was exercised at the time.
Source: William Reeves, “On the Bell of St Patrick,” Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 27 (1877), pp. 11–24; Armagh registers.