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The lawsuit arose after the death, in 1690, of Maximilian O\u2019Dempsey, 3rd<\/sup> Viscount Clanmalier, between his widow, Anne (n\u00e9e Bermingham), Viscountess Clanmalier, and his nephew, Terence Quin. Quin swore to the Prerogative Court of Armagh that an ailing Lord Clanmalier determined to make a will on 29 November 1690, that he had \u2018call\u2019d for pen & inke\u2019 but there was none available at his home in Ballykean in County Offaly, and that his request to have his will witnessed by two gentleman was similarly frustrated, with the activities of Raparees in the county making travel dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Clanmalier was instead compelled to declare his will orally (known as a nuncupative will) in front of \u2018severall good and credible witnesses\u2019 from the locality. This included Fr Edward Fox, a Catholic priest who lived with Lord Clanmalier and served as his chaplain for five or six years; John Foran from \u2018Kilclonbranene\u2019 (Clonbrennan?); John Byrne of Mountmellick; and Elizabeth Heelan from Kilcooney. All of Quin\u2019s witnesses were Irish speakers, which reflected the prevalence of the native language in rural Ireland and indicated Lord Clanmalier\u2019s bilingualism. On the agreement of both parties, one John Dempsey was employed to \u2018interprett indifferently\u2019 between the witnesses and the English-speaking court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The testimony of Quin and his witnesses diverged on certain points, but they agreed that Lord Clanmalier had made some or all of the following provisions: \u00a3500 to Colonel James Dempsey and his children; \u00a390 as a legacy for his soul; \u00a360 to his chaplain, Fr Fox; \u00a35 to a Fr Molloy; \u00a33 to Fr Dermot Malone; and 40 shillings to Fr Philip Reilly. (Indeed, Clanmalier\u2019s award of legacies to four priests demonstrates the significance of the Catholic nobility in providing patronage to the church and its clergy in the late seventeenth century.) Significantly, the witnesses who appeared before the court also testified that Lord Clanmalier had left the rest of his estate or a sum of \u00a3500 to Quin, who was his sister\u2019s son. Quin explained the omission of Lady Clanmalier from her husband\u2019s will by pointing out that he had previously settled a lifetime interest in lands valued at \u00a32,500 on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lady Clanmalier\u2019s counsel, Richard Bourke asserted that Quin had \u2018misbehaved himselfe\u2019 and had \u2018not demean\u2019d himselfe respectfully\u2019 toward Lord Clanmalier. Bourke further argued that Lord Clanmalier\u2019s nuncupative will (which was subsequently committed to paper) was fabricated or had been altered in Quin\u2019s favour and he interrogated the witnesses who appeared on Quin\u2019s behalf to determine the truth of the matter. As well as shining a light on their respective connections to Lord and Lady Clanmalier and Terence Quin, the witnesses\u2019 testimonies reveal a significant amount about their personal circumstances. Speaking in Irish, John Foran testified that he was 75 years old and had resided at \u2018Kilclonbranene\u2019 for seven years, where he worked as a ploughman, adding that with his debts paid, he was not worth three pence. Foran knew Lord Clanmalier since the latter\u2019s birth, and it was this long acquaintance that compelled him to visit the dying nobleman, who then spoke of his intentions for his estate in Foran\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seventeen-year-old John Byrne dwelt in Lord Clanmalier\u2019s house for three years before the nobleman\u2019s death, where he was likely employed as a servant. Like Foran, he spoke in Irish and swore to the Prerogative Court that \u2013 along with Fr Fox, John Foran, Elizabeth Heelan, and a (since deceased) clerk named James Dempsey \u2013 he had heard Lord Clanmalier declare his intentions for his estate. Byrne also divulged details about his life after Clanmalier\u2019s death, confirming that he had returned to live with his father in Mountmellick in County Laois, where he served as an apprentice glover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Heelan testified in the Irish language, too, and informed the court that she was about 26 years old, that she lived in Kilcooney with her husband and brother and that she was \u2018not worth twenty shillings in the world.\u2019 Heelan was probably a servant \u2013 like Byrne, she resided in Clanmalier\u2019s house at the time of his death. According to her testimony, she was part of a group with Fox, Foran, Byrne, Dempsey and another woman named Catherine Kelly, who heard Lord Clanmalier speak about his wishes for his estate \u2018about eight or nine days\u2019 before he died. However, Heelan confirmed that the viscount did not intend his comments to be taken for a will; she instead believed that he would make his will in the presence of Fr Fox, at a remove from his servants and neighbours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among other things, the witnesses were asked whether they knew Lady Clanmalier and whether or not Lord Clanmalier had a \u2018great esteem\u2019 for her \u2018during his life\u2019; they were also asked if they expected to gain anything from Terence Quin for agreeing to appear on his behalf. All swore that they expected no remuneration for their appearance before the court, and Fox, Foran and Heelan each confirmed that they had known Lady Clanmalier for many years and that they knew her to be held in great esteem by her husband. John Byrne, however, diverged on this point; he suggested that there was an estrangement between the couple and stated that he \u2018often heard his Lordship say that he wonder\u2019d why her Ladyship stay\u2019d away.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I often heard his Lordship say that he wonder\u2019d why her Ladyship stay\u2019d away.\u2019<\/p>Statement of John Byrne to the Prerogative Court of Armagh As a servant, John Byrne\u2019s proximity to Lord Clanmalier allowed him intimate knowledge of the nobleman\u2019s life. The formal framework of a court case, meanwhile, provided him with an opportunity to put that knowledge on the record and, ultimately, to put himself into the historical record. Of course, we cannot know how much of Byrne\u2019s testimony was true, but his claim that the Clanmaliers lived separate lives is backed up by other evidence: in 1676, after making a bad investment, Lord Clanmalier agreed that his wife could have a separate settlement of the Kildare lands she had brought to their marriage, as the coheir (with her sister, Mary) of her brother, John Bermingham. Lady Clanmalier used part of her income to build a house near Oxmantown Green in Dublin and very rarely visited her husband after that point.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is possible that Byrne, alongside Foran and Heelan, received some inducement for testifying on behalf of Quin, who could offer them a financial reward for bending the truth. The economic disparity that existed between each of them and Quin and the Clanmaliers was patent. Fr Fox certainly had something significant to gain for presenting his version of Lord Clanmalier\u2019s will. In some ways, however, the truth of their testimonies is less significant than their relatively substantial presence in the historical record. Theirs are not the voices that we typically find in early modern Irish sources; their testimonies were mediated both by an interpreter and the court clerk who transcribed their translated speech, but they nonetheless appear as individuals, with their names, ages, places of residence and occupations recorded for posterity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can interpret their testimonies in different ways, but we meet them as individuals, with full lives, and we cannot be indifferent to their presence in the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lawvpractice.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-27-at-15.12.50.png\")
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(Countess of Clanmalier v Quin, 1692)<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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