Donated Material: Court Reports and Legal Records (including Evictions)
Ejectment Books of County Clare 1816-1835
The Ejectment Books are a summary record of ejectment cases before the Circuit Court. In order to evict their tenants legally, landlords had to receive a judgement in their favour from the Circuit Court. County Clare has the most complete set of ejectment records of any county in Ireland. Each book contains the names of evicted tenants, landlords and their attorneys, the location of farms and sometimes details of leases and grounds for seeking eviction. There are seventeen surviving books for Clare for the period 1816-1850 and twenty-eight books for 1850-1914. Two books are listed as missing. The Ejectment Books are held in the National Archives in Dublin.
This resource consists of extracts from the first six
of the early Ejectment Books of County Clare and covers the period 1816-1835
and contains over 4,500 records. (Ejectment Books ID/40/16 – ID/40/32).
Details included here are the name of the tenant (Defendant), the location,
parish and barony of the holding and the name of the landlord (Plaintiff).
The records are arranged alphabetically by tenants’ surnames. The
project was initiated and executed by Nicola Jennings who kindly donated
her work to Clare County Library for this website.
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image for larger view
Transcriber’s Note:
The original spelling has been adhered to wherever possible. Surnames
given here with a question mark are names which were difficult to read
and where the spelling was uncertain, so I have attempted to give the
closest name that I could but there is still room for doubt. Entries cancelled
in the original records are included but marked with an asterisk. Where
an alternative spelling has been found elsewhere this alternative spelling
has been included in brackets. Where the names of occupants of properties
adjoining the property in question are given these have also been included
but without an accompanying landlord, indicating that they are not up
for eviction, and with the designation, farm, holding, wall or house in
lieu of title. In the database the phrase ‘lands of’ implies
‘the part of lands of …’ and not the whole. Where more
than one Plaintiff is named the Defendant is entered twice, but multiple
Plaintiffs have only one entry, the first name, and subsequent names being
referred to simply as ‘and others’. Accessing
the original entry in the Ejectment Books is recommended. Not all Defendants
were evicted; many cases were dismissed, or heard again at a later date.
Reference to the complete entry in the Ejectment book is required in order
to ascertain the outcome of the case or if more details information than
that given in the database is sought. The Ejectment Books are accessed
by the date of the Session, and the name of the landlord.
Clare County Library is grateful to Nicola Jennings for donating this material.
