| “For the Castle of Rendon, to pay for the garrison and other necessaries | £439 | 0 | 3¼” |
So in the account of Robert de Ufford, chief justice of Ireland, of all receipts, expenses, &c., delivered by Adam de Wettenhall into the Exchequer, from Christmas to Michaelmas, 4 Edward I. (1276), among the items are allowances for supplies of victuals for the garrison of Ren-duin, the construction of a mill, and other works of a new construction, the repairing of a fosse there, &c. Again, in the accounts for the following year, 1277, the following item occurs:—
| “To Richard de Marisco, for works in the fosse and castle of Rendon | £7 | 10 | 0” |
And in the pipe roll of the 8th Edward I. there are similar accounts of disbursements for repairs to this fortress.
These notices are perhaps of little general interest, but they afford conclusive evidences of the ancient importance of this fastness, and the value set upon its possession as necessary to the support of the English interests in Connaught. The same records preserve the names of three of its constables, viz:—
Walter le Enfant was constable in 1285-87.
Richard Fitz-Simon Fitz-Richar was constable, with the annual fee of £40, in 1326.
John de Funtayns was constable, with the same fee, in 1334.
It appears that during the reigns of the first three Edwards, Rinn-duin became the seat of a town of some importance; and it was also the seat of a parish church and two monastic establishments, of which one was a priory for Knights Hospitallers, or for Cross-bearers, which, according to Ware, was said to have been founded in the reign of King John, and, as some writers say, by his express command. Be this, however, as it may, Philip de Angulo, or Costelloe, was a great benefactor to it in the reign of Henry III., if not actually, as it is probable, its founder.
From the Annals of the Four Masters we learn that the celebrated Irish historian and topographer John More O’Dugan died, “among the monks of John the Baptist,” in this monastery in 1372. He was the hereditary antiquary of Hy Maine, or O’Kelly’s country, and author of the topographical and historical poem reciting the names of the principal tribes and districts in Meath, Ulster, and Connaught, with the names of the chiefs who presided over them at the close of the twelfth century, as well as of several other works of great value which have descended to our times.