Abstract

By 1640 small corporate towns had become an established feature of Irish Life. many of these were recent creations, stemming from the plantation and colonisation schemes of the early seventeenth century. Others, particularly in the Pale, were much older being the result of the earlier Anglo-Norman colonisation process. While it is possible to recreate something of the topography and formal government structures of these towns much less is known about how they actually worked. Corporation minutes were either not kept or have not survived before the end of the seventeenth century. Only occasionally when a dispute erupted is it possible to catch a glimpse of town government at work. The document printed here, from one of the petition books of lord Deputy Wentworth, provides such a glimpse in the case of Mullingar.