[Notes from "A Miracle of Learning", 1998, ed. by Toby Barnard,
Da'ibhi' O'Cro'ini'n, & Katharine Simms]
[excerpted by Mark Murphy, 11 Aug 2003]

'A Miracle of Learning', Studies in manuscripts and Irish learning.  
Essays in honour of William O'Sullivan [longtime Keeper of the
Manuscripts at Trinity College, Dublin.]

p. 40
Chapter Three by Da'ibhi' O'Cro'ini'n
Lebar buide meic murchada [Yellow Book of MacMurrough]

Trinity College Dublin MS 1336, book Senchas Ma'r.
Various vellum books & fragments, mostly legal tracts, written at
different times.  Elaborate & decorative.  Came to the Trinity Library
as a gift from Sir John Sebright in 1786.  In possession of the Mac
Aodhaga'in (McEgan) family for years.  One fragment refers to Lebar buide.
Col. 729: Scriptural genealogies beginning with Noah & sons.  Note at 
bottom says "Amail adeir in Lebar Buidhe Meic Murcada annso anuas" or
"the foregoing, as the Yellow Book of MacMurrough says".  What is the
Yellow Book? It is not named in some other sources (i.e. Keating, et al.)
p. 41
Not to be confused with other Yellow Books.  May be tied to the Yellow
Book of Lecan.  Accounts of the life of Mary.  Mixed Irish-Latin.  
[goes into discussion of Noah genealogy]  
p. 47
Yellow Book of MacMurrough is a lost text.  Notes from text in 1336 refer
to it.  More genealogy of Noah & differences between the various texts.
12th Century Book of Leinster also contains biblical genealogies & those
of Irish saints.
p. 48
Lebar Buide Meic Murchada probably contained a version of the Sex Aetates
Mundi (SAM) not available today.  The Lebar Buide may also have been a 
South Leinster manuscript.  SAM figured prominently in all synchronistic
manuscripts of the 11th & 12th centuries.
Attempts to associate the Book of Leinster with the family of Diarmait
MacMurchada (Ui' Chennselaig king of Leinster in the late 12th century,
and would-be "high-king" of Ireland), have been dismissed.  Not a shred of
evidence that MacMurchada ever saw the Book of Leinster, much less read
it.  The compiler of the Book of Leinster, Ae'd MacCrimthainn, was an
exact comtemporary of MacMurchada.  Book was known as Lebar na 
Nuachongba'la (book of new foundation).

p. 164
Chapter Ten by Rolf Loeber
Preliminaries to the Massachusetts Bay Colony: the Irish ventures of
Emanuel Downing and John Winthrop Sr [may relate to Jasper Crane migration]
1630s migration led by John Winthrop Sr. supported by his brother-in-law
Emanuel Downing which established the Mass. Bay Colony.  They collaborated
on a settlement in Ireland prior to that.  Downing's land acquisitions in
1610s, marriage to Winthrop family, attracted English settlers to Ireland.
p. 165 
Downing b. 1585 Ipswich, Suffolk.  He & Winthrop went to Cambridge at same 
time.  Both left without degrees, probably friends.  Winthrop ancestral estate
in Suffolk.  Downing witnessed estate of Adam Winthrop to son John before 
1618. Winthrops puritans.  Downing in Dublin by 1611.  
p. 166
Downing developed large plantations in Ulster & Leinster.
p. 169
David M'Morghe or McMurrough received grant of lands of 'Moynerathe' 
(Mountrath), 'Cloneenowghe' (Clonenagh) and 'Trummorroghe' (Trumra) in 1563.
The grant specified the service of a 20th part of a knight's fee, at a rent
of L1.12s.2d for the first 7 years, and L2.8s.3d afterwards, with the 
obligation to maintain two English horsemen.  In addition, the grant 
stipulated conditions typical for plantation areas: the settlers were not to
use the Brehon law, to use only the English language and costume, and not to
keep Irishmen carrying weapons.  The plantation conditions also included
tenure by knight service, which held a freeholder responsible for performing
military service.  This included the obligation to join army commanders with
armed servants and tenants in case of hostilities with the Irish.  Six years
later these conditions were eased when the property and the nearby lands of
Rosskelton were passed to Francis Cosby. 
p. 170 
on or before May 1620, Richard Cosby sold the lands of Mountrath to Emanuel
Downing.
p. 173
During Downing's time there were two waves of settlers at Mountrath.  First
settlement did not flourish & their origins are not known, most likely 
recruited from England, abandoned settlement in 1622, which coincided with
Winthrop coming over to Dublin in that year to meet the Irish partners in 
the plantation.  2nd wave of planters came in 1623 out of England, many from
Suffolk through Winthrop.
p. 178
Another great problem was the unrest caused by the return of the O'Mores and
the O'Conners to the area, from the winter of 1622 onwards.  These "rebels" 
were noted at Ballaghmore in 1624, not very far from Mountrath, on the border
of counties Laois and Offaly.  In Sept. 1626 the continued unrest caused by
these septs culminated in a proclamation banning them from County Laois.
Another reason for Downing leaving Ireland and giving up the Mountrath
plantation was reduction in his pay in Court of Common Pleas.  He worked as
an attorney for Richard Boyle, eark of Cork, as late as 1624.  
Growing toleration of Catholicism [as opposed to Puritanism] also led to 
Downing leaving.  Escape from religious toleration and exposure to the forces
of the Roman Catholic church were certainly some of the reasons for the 
eventual migration of Winthrop and his followers to New England in 1630.
Downing is know to have disapproved of religious toleration in England; he
also wrote in 1633 that whereas the aims of the settlers of Virginia were
purely for profit, the Massachusetts planters went 'some to satisfy their own
curiosity in point of conscience, others, which was more general, to transport
the Gospel to those heathen that never heard thereof'.
p. 179
Winthrop's role in the Mountrath plantation should not be exaggerated and 
awaits further research.  In 1623 the five partners of the plantation (4 from
Suffolk) met in Dublin with Winthrop.  About this time the decision was made
to introduce new settlers from England, but within 3 years Downing sold the
plantation to Sir Charles Coote (1626), who later was successful with 
creating an iron works there.
p. 181
Mountrath is about 47 miles from Dublin, a day's travel on horseback.  In 
1659 was most populous town in Laois.  
p. 182
Downing & Winthrop's joint efforts in Mass. Bay Colony.
At end of July or start of August 1629, they planned proposed transfer of the 
government of the MBC and themselves to New England.  Downing's name on the
list 15 Oct 1629, but when Winthrop and his fleet of ships sailed from 
England in spring of 1630, Downing stayed behind.  Downing's children by his
first wife did cross over before 1634.
p. 183
In London, Downing became responsible for work in England supporting MBC.
Downing crossed over to New England in 1638.  Likely the Mountrath experiences
taught Downing how to supervise settlements.  One of most important parallels
was the establishment of an iron works in New England.  Evidence that John
Winthrop Jr iron works in 1643 stimulated by experience gained in Ireland.
Example, in early 1645 Downing wrote to Winthrop Jr from London that the
investors in the iron works in New England had agreed with Richard Leader to
supervise the work.  He added, "you know the man, he lived in Ireland...he is
a perfect accountant, hath skills in mynes, and tryall of mettals..", but 
Leader's work was in late 1630s in Limerick, and he was only 11 in 1620 when
Downing purchased the Mountrath plantation.
Winthrop Jr, on return to England in 1635, driven by foul weather onto the
coast of Ireland.  He was said to have visited Coote's iron works in County
Leitrim at this time, but only speculation.  Some Irish settlers came to New
England during this time who probably had iron work experience.
p. 184
Irish rebellion broke out in 1641.  After that, little interchange between 
New England and Ireland [until Cromwell, eh?]