J. Macray.
St. Patrick's Purgatory (Vol. vii., p. 552.).—Some degree of doubt appearing to exist, by the statement in p. 178. of the present volume, as to the position of the real St. Patrick's Purgatory, I send the following from Camden:
"The Liffey," says he, "near unto his spring head, enlarges his stream and spreads abroad into a lake, wherein appears above the water an island, and in it, hard by a little monastery, a very narrow vault within the ground, much spoken of by reason of its religious horrors. Which cave some say was dug by Ulysses when he went down to parley with those in hell.
"The inhabitants," he continues, "term it in these days Ellan n' Frugadory, that is, The Isle of Purgatory, or St. Patrick's Purgatory. For some persons devoutly credulous affirm that St. Patrick, the Irishmen's apostle, or else some abbot of the same name, obtained by most earnest prayer at the hands of God, that the punishments and torments which the wicked are to suffer after this life, might here be presented to the eye; that so he might the more easily root out the sins and heathenish errors which stuck so fast to his countrymen the Irish."
G. W.
Stansted, Montfichet.
Sir George Carr (Vol. vii., pp. 512. 558.).—Since W. St. and Gulielmus replied to my Query, I have discovered more particular information regarding him. In a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, I find the following:
"Sir George Carr of Southerhall, Yorkshire, married, on Jan. 15, 1637, Grissell, daughter of Sir Robert Meredith, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland; their son, William Carr, born Jan. 11, 1639, married on August 29, 1665, Elizabeth, daughter of Francis (Edward) Synge, Bishop of Cork. There were two children of this marriage: Edward, born Oct. 7, 1671 (who died unmarried); and Barbara, born May 12, 1672; she married John Cliffe, Esq., of Mulrankin, co. Wexford, and had several children, of whom the eldest, John, was grandfather of the present Anthony Cliffe of Bellevue, co. Wexford, Esq."
Edward Synge was Bishop of Cork from Dec. 1663 to his death in 1678.
Sir George Carr appears to be the son of William Carr, the eldest son of James Carr of Yorkshire: see Harl. MS. 1487, 451.
Sir Robert Meredith, father of Lady Carr, married Anne, daughter of Sir William Upton, Clerk of the Council in Ireland.