Whiteboys (Ir. buachaillí bána), a movement of agrarian protest, so called because of the white shirts worn over everyday clothing. Protest began in Co. Tipperary in 1761, spreading to Cos. Limerick, Waterford, Cork, and Kilkenny, and continuing to 1765. The main grievances were the enclosure of common land, the encroachment of livestock on tillage, and tithes, especially on potatoes. A second wave of protest, in 1769–75, affected Kilkenny, Tipperary, Queen's County (Laois), Carlow, and Wexford, with tithes on corn, rents, and evictions as the major grievances. In the early 19th century, ‘Whiteboy’ continued to be used as a general term for agrarian protestors. The Whiteboy Acts (1766, 1776, 1787) created numerous capital offences connected with protest.

widows and heiresses

represented a major complicating factor in the combination of land‐ownership and military service on which the feudal system rested. In the feudal system, property was inherited by male primogeniture. The entitlement of women was limited to the right of a widow to a life interest in part of her husband's estate, and to the right of the nearest female relative or relatives to inherit in default of male heirs.

A widow was entitled to her dower, which was usually one‐third of her husband's estate, unless otherwise specified at the time of the marriage, and she sheld it for life, irrespective of any subsequent remarriage. This contrasted with the right of a widower to a life interest in all of his wife's property, if a living child had been born of the marriage. The simultaneous existence of widows of successive holders of the same land meant the diminution of the inheritance of the eventual heir and could cause major problems relating to the defence and administration of the lands. Legally a widow could not remarry without the consent of the lord, and there were severe financial penalties for doing so. However, she could not be coerced into marriage, and might purchase the right to marry a man of her choice.

Except in cases of entailed property, such as earldoms, the lack of a direct male heir meant that the property went to the dead man's closest female relative or relatives. Unlike male descent, which went by strict primogeniture, heiresses who were in the same relationship to the deceased tenant took equal shares, which were inheritable by their heirs. The eldest co‐heiress usually received the caput or chief manor of the estate as part of her share. This subdivision of estates led to problems in management and local defence, and sometimes gave rise to unrest among the junior branches of the family, who were excluded from the inheritance. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the estates of many of the original tenants‐in‐chief in Ireland were inherited by co‐heiresses. Examples of major estates fragmented in this way include the Marshal and de Verdon estates and the lands of the earl of Gloucester, while the earldom of Ulster eventually came into the possession of the crown through the marriages of a succession of heiresses.

The marriage of an heiress, like that of a male heir, belonged to the lord, and was a commodity which could be bought and sold. The lord could choose her husband, but she was protected by a provision in Magna Carta which prevented her from being married to someone inferior in rank. Many of the heiresses of estates in Ireland married husbands resident in England; this led to problems of defence and exacerbated the wider problem of absenteeism which confronted the Dublin government during the later Middle Ages.

Bibliography

Otway‐Ruthven, A. J. , The Partition of the de Verdon Lands in Ireland in 1332, Royal Irish Academy Proceedings, 66C (1967)

Philomena Connolly

Whiteboys members of small illegal, largely Roman Catholic, peasant bands in 18th-century Ireland. First organized (c.1759) in protest against the large-scale enclosure of common lands and other causes of agrarian distress, they were so called because on their nocturnal raids they often wore white disguises. They were heavily suppressed (1765), but outbreaks of similar activity recurred during periods of extreme agricultural hardship. Hostility (1775–85) was largely aimed at tithe collectors. There were similar, although shortlived, Protestant groups in Ulster, the Oakboys (1763) and the Steelboys (1770). Terrorist activity hastened the establishment of the Irish Parliament (1782), in which Henry Grattan attempted to reform the system of tithes. Although the Whiteboys were suppressed, they set a pattern for agrarian unrest that continued under various names and later became politicized.

Whiteboys was the name adopted by agrarian rebels in Ireland from 1761 onwards. The immediate cause of the outrages seems to have been the enclosure of common land for pasture, but grievances soon included tithes and extortionate leases. Bands of armed men rode at night with comparative impunity, levelling walls, maiming cattle, and burning houses. The centre of the movement was Munster, where the native Irish were poorest. Supported by widespread intimidation, it was difficult to deal with and continued for some decades.

J. A. Cannon

Whiteboys was the name adopted by agrarian rebels in Ireland from 1761 onwards. The immediate cause of the outrages seems to have been the enclosure of common land for pasture, but grievances soon included tithes and extortionate leases. The centre of the movement was Munster, where the native Irish were poorest. Supported by widespread intimidation, it was difficult to deal with and continued for some decades.