Women litigants in early eighteenth-century Ireland

Abstract

The loss of the records was devastating for Irish historiography. The impact was particularly severe for Irish legal history as most of the court records from the medieval period through to the nineteenth century were destroyed. Identifying litigants in any Irish court, regardless of gender, became a major challenge. By the early seventeenth century, the Dublin administration had extended its control over the whole of the island of Ireland and English common law had gradually replaced the customary law of Gaelic society, usually referred to as Brehon law. In 1724, William Fitzmaurice was in his early thirties. Arthur Mohan’s guardian took a keen interest in the legal disputes involving her grandson’s estate. She had formerly and unsuccessfully taken legal action to have her own jointure recognized and was, therefore, familiar with the relevant documentation in the family archive.