Galway City

There is little accurate information of an early date available regarding Galway. From the first part of the thirteenth century the town was under the control of the heads of the family of De Burgh, Anglo-Norman Lords of Connacht, who appointed its provosts or portreeves. Towards the close of the same century expenditure is recorded to have been made on the walls and fortifications of Galway from tolls levied there on wine, wool, cloth, leather, salt, fish, and other articles. The customs received at Galway in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were considerable. Richard II in 1396-7, by charter, conferred on Galway various privileges in connection with trade, and authorised the Provost and burgesses to elect annually from among themselves a sovereign or chief magistrate for the town. This charter set forth that

"the key to parts of the land of the King of England in Ireland was the town of Galway, in which his liege people as well as strangers were received, protected and comforted, but that it was so encompassed by English rebels and Irish enemies, that traders and others dared not approach it by land or water without a considerable guard; and that the burgesses, for its safe custody and defence, to their great impoverishment, maintained at their own cost, many men-at-arms, continuously by day and night."

The annual election of a Mayor and Bailiffs was sanctioned by Richard III in 1484, under a charter which included a prohibition against any lord, official, or other person entering the town without licence from its authorities. In the same year the Church of St. Nicholas was, with Papal sanction, made collegiate under the rule of a warden and vicars, to be annually elected by the Mayor and his council.

Henry VIII, in 1536, addressed a mandate, dated from Greenwich on 28th April 1536, to Galway, in which, among other matters, he ordered the inhabitants not to sell merchandise except in market towns; to shave their "over lips," to let their hair grow till it covered their ears; to wear English caps and attire shaped after the English fashion; to forego the use of saffron in their garments, to have not more than five standard ells in their shirts; to adopt the long bow and English arrows; to learn to speak English, to "use themselves after the English fashion," to reform the administration of justice by the Mayor and Bailiffs, not to succour the King's enemies, and not to forestall Limerick Market. In 1545Henry VIII confirmed the previous charters of Galway and added further privileges.

A Charter was granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1575, about which time Camden in his Britannia described Galway as a very fair and proper town, nearly circular in form, and built almost entirely of solid stone. He added that it was well frequented by merchants, and had easy and gainful traffic by exchange of rich commodities both by sea and land.

By a charter from James I in December, 1610, the first Sheriffs of Galway were appointed, and the town was constituted a separate county. At that period and subsequently, Mayors and Sheriffs of the Catholic religion, after their elections, declined office and incurred fines rather than take the oath of supremacy.

In 1642-3 Galway allied itself to the Irish Confederation in favour of Charles I. The administration of the town was then assumed by the Catholics, and continued by them till its surrender in 1652, to the Parliamentarian forces, after a siege of nine months. Under the Parliamentarians the government of the town was taken from the Catholics, who were treated with the greatest severity. In a petition for relief from the government of the time at Dublin, they described themselves as the descendants of "an ancient colony of English, planted in this nook of the country and endowed by the Crown of England, with charters, grants and immunities."

A charter of incorporation was, in 1676, granted to Galway by Charles II. In 1686 Catholics were, by order of James II admitted to the Corporation. A Catholic Mayor was elected, and a new charter was given by the King in 1687. During the subsequent war Galway took the side of James II in opposition to William III. It was besieged with quite a large force by General de Ginkle in 1691, and surrendered on honourable terms in July of that year. The administration of the town subsequently came into the hands of the followers of William and Mary.