O'BRIEN OF THOSMOND.
(Vol. ix., p. 125.)
In corroboration of my former suggestion, that Nicholas Thosmound of Somersetshire was an O'Brien of Thomond, I beg to add some farther facts. Cotemporary with him was William Toutmound, who obtained in the sixth year of Henry IV. a grant of the office (in England) of chief carpenter of the king for his life. This singular office, "Capitalis Carpentarius Regis," must, I suppose, be called Lord High Carpenter of England, in analogy with the offices of steward, butler, &c. It is mentioned in the Calendar of Patent Rolls of England at the 6 Henry IV.; and in the same repository is mention of a grant long before by Henry III. of the land of Tosmond in Ireland, to A. R. Tosmond (R standing, I presume, for "Regi," for the Irish Toparchs were then thus designated by the English government). In this case then we have the letter s used for t, as in the Inq. P. M. of Alicia, wife of the before-mentioned Nicholas Thosmound. In the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium of England, in 15 Edw. II., is the expression "Regalitatem de Totamon," applied to the district of Thomond in Ireland. It seems not unlikely that the two cotemporary individuals mentioned above were sons or grandsons of Turloch, or Tirrèlagh, O'Brien, sovereign of Thomond from 1367 to 1370, when he was supplanted by his nephew Brien O'Brien, ancestor of the Marquis of Thomond. For this Turloch was in some favour with the government, by whom his distress was sometimes relieved. Thus it appears from the printed calendar of Irish Chancery Rolls, that a writ of liberate issued in the 4th Rich. II. for the payment to him of forty marks; and again, 5 Rich. II., of twenty marks, "ei concord. p¯ recompens. labor." He was much befriended by the Earl of Desmond, whose successor being high in favour with the kings Henry V. and VI., obtained a large grant of land in the county of Waterford, which he immediately conferred on the sons of Turloch. Yet some of those sons may, through his interest, have been established in England. It becomes, therefore, a matter of considerable interest to ascertain whether the Inq. P. M. 2 Henry IV. contains any proof that Nicholas Thosmound was an O'Brien.
While on this subject, may I inquire the reason why the O'Briens quarter with their own arms the bearing of three piles meeting in a point? These latter were the arms of the English baronial family of Bryan, not at all connected with the Irish family. I suspect the Irish were late in their assumption of arms, and borrowed in many cases the arms of English families of nearly similar names.
A. B.