The Earl of Cork Bound Volume has been fully catalogued and is listed below.
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1. [1685]- 1795
The bound volume contains three sections - transcriptions of the rentals for the Earl of Cork on Lady’s Day in 1695 by Harrys Oldfield in 1795; the library catalogue for the library at Dromana House, Villierstown, which was written by Harrys Oldfield; and the manuscript catalogue of the books owned by Harrys Oldfield.
The volume records two rental types - the “Chief Rents” and rents due from various places mainly in Counties Waterford, Cork and Kilkenny. Firstly, the “Chief Rents “were all due on 25th July at the house of the Earl of Cork in Lismore, Co Waterford. The rents are due from the Earl of Orrery, Lord Shannon and Mr. Robert Boyle. It's noted that each Earl must present themselves to the Earl of Cork each year with a specific named gift. Lord Shannon for instance to present “case of pistols” and the Earl of Orrery to present “one favre sword or rapier and dagger then most in use”. Other chief rents include “rents in and near the City of Dublin” which include those from “Mr Henry Aston for the Coffee House” held for 20 years from 24th June 1667” and for “a house the Barbados near the Castle Gate” for 25yrs from Lady’s Day 1683”. Totals amount for the “Chief Rents” are given at the end of section in pounds, shillings and pence.
The second and largest rentals are those for mainly the two counties of Waterford and Cork. There are also rentals in “Connought & Lower Ormonde”.
For County Waterford, places include, “Lisfinny and Tallow”, “Mollanna and Ballinatra”, (Molana and Ballynatray), Lismore,”Mocollop”, “Capoquin, Affane and Bewly”, (Cappoquin, Affane and Bewley”) Dungarvan and Kilwatermoy.
For County Cork, there are entries for “Kylnatallon” (Barony of Kinnatalloon), “Mogealy and Curryglasse” (Mogeely and Curraglass), “Killmakoe” (Kilmacow), “Youghal" , "Inchiquin”, “Condons”, “Bandon”, “Kilnallmeaky” (Barony of Kilnameaky, Co. Cork), “Clonakilty”, “Carbery”, and “Iniskeane” (Enniskeane, Co. Cork).
Each placename has similar details including name of tenant, townland or location of property, type of property such as “house and garden”, “cabin and garden”, “castle and lands” or “2 plo~wlds of Ballyinsimon” and Ballylesky”, the start year of the rental which may include a reference to “Lady’s Day”. Some rentals do not refer to “Lady’ Day”. Each rental entry records the amount of money to be paid by the tenant. Many placenames have column entries with subtotals for rents paid by tenants and the total amount of money paid by each placename in pounds, shillings and pence.
Some placenames including Lismore, Cappoquin, Affane and Bewley, Dungarvan and Inchiquin have separate entries for “Chief Rents” There is a rental for “Youghall 49” and “Rents in and near Youghall” and “Killwatermoy Tythes” and “Lismore Tythes”.
There is also a rental entry for “Joynter Rents”. These are a form of joint rents. They are all located in the Bandon area.
At the end of the Rents section is a summary page titled “Recapitulation/ Denominations”. This includes entries under the following headings “Arrears”, “Denominations”, (Place named Rentals), Rent sub totals and “half yearly rent” totals in pounds, shilling and pence. Also includes numerical details for “Best Beasts”, “Herryott”, “Muttons” “Horse Man” and “Fowl”.
This copy rental is signed by Harrys Oldfield and covers 119 pages of the bound volume.
The second part of the volume is the catalogue of the books in Dromana Library in 1795 and are broadly arranged into subject related sections. These are represented by numbers N.1 -10. Each number is further subdivided and defined by letters of the alphabet starting with the letter “A”. Information is recorded in column style which includes subject content of section, total number of copies on the subject and the number of copies “Wanting” for a section.
N.1 to relate to Government, politics of states, ancient and relevant to the date of the catalogue c. 1795. Reference also made to document type such as pamphlets, journals and books.
N.2 relates to Literature including Greek, Latin, English including, Chaucer and Shakespeare.
N.3. relate to European countries including Ireland and includes reference to “Petty’s [Political] Anatomy of Ireland “ (N.3.C page 6)
This section covers 32 pages of the volume.
The final part of the volume relates to Harrys Oldfield's “A Catalogue of my own Books”. The books are listed numerically, No. 1 – 314, with numbers missing from list. The items listed have details of title, place where printed and the year of printing. Subject content of the books include religion, philosophy, travel, genealogy, histories of Ireland, England, ancient histories, Greek, Latin, English and French literature. Publication dates range from c. [1586] – 1792. This section covers 8 pages of the volume.
