The Sources The National Library of Ireland has two volumes with the reference: JLB 94107. The first is the better-known Ireland List of Persons who have suffered Losses of Property, 1798 published in 1800. The second volume contains extracts of the Journals of the House Commons of Ireland, 1796-1800, no date of publication given. On the inside cover of the first volume there are two notes written in pencil stating 'Commission for Enquiry into the Losses' and 'Note: See Appendix House Commons Journals, 1800. (Feb 1800 p. clviii in which sums allowed and disallowed are set out for each county, also proportion of sum payable) (P. O'Conenbhair 18.iv.35).' The volume is divided into counties each of which has the following heading and tailpiece: LIST of PERSONS who have suffered LOSSES in their PROPERTY in the COUNTY of (X) and who have given in their Claims on or before the 6th of April, 1799, to the Commissioners for enquiring into the Losses sustained by such of his Majesty's Loyal Subjects, as have suffered in their Property by the Rebellion. This List is published for the Purpose of calling the Attention of all Persons well acquainted with the County of (X), to the several Claims therein specified; and all such Persons are requested to communicate as soon as possible to the Commissioners, (or any one of them) under Cover to the Right Honorable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Parliament House Dublin, such Observations respecting the Loyalty or Losses of the several persons mentioned therein, as may enable the Commissioners to ascertain their Title to Compensation. William Porter, 69 Grafton St. printed all counties except for Tipperary (John Exshaw, 98 Grafton St.), Wexford and Wicklow (W. Sleater, Dame St. Dublin). The second volume contains extracts of the Journals of the House Commons of Ireland, 1796-1800, and includes a revised list by the compensation Committee with emendations and adjudications before the process was transferred to London after the Act of Union. The other items of merit are two lists of surrenders in the City of Dublin and barony of Coolock, Co. Dublin. In detail the references of the three pieces herein published are and headings are: Journals of the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland.1796. to. 1797 Vol. XVII, pp.277-290 An account of the several Persons to whom the Magistrates of the Barony of Coolock have granted Protection and received into his Majesty's Peace since the 23rd Day of May 1798, with the Names and Places of Abode of each Person, and the Kind and Number of Arms delivered by such persons on receiving such Protection (Originally published in 1798, no further details) 1798 XVII pp. 829-959 An account of the Number of Persons who have surrendered themselves in the City of Dublin, confessed themselves being engaged in the present Rebellion, and the number of Arms surrendered, from 29th June last to the 9th Day of September 1798. (Originally published in Dublin 9th September 1798 by Wm. B. Swan and Henry C. Sirr) 1800 XIX pp. 158-498 An account of the Names of the several Persons who have given in Claims or have made any Demands for Relief as suffering Loyalists to the Commissioners for ascertaining the same, distinguishing their Abodes and Additions, the Counties in which they reside, and also the Places and Counties where such Losses have been sustained, the Nature of the Loss, the Amount of the Sums claimed by each respectively, the Adjudication of the Commissioners, and the Proportion of the Sum payable under Act 39 Geo. III Ch. 65, on such Claims as have been decided upon by the said Commissioners. (The abstract of the account was originally published by order of the Commissioners from Parliament House, 7th February 1800; Richard Carter, secretary There are six other reports in the second volume, with the following headings: Reports on the Foundling Hospital Reports from the Committee of Secrecy Extracts from the Publications of United Irishmen Proclamations and Letters Testimony and Evidence to Parliamentary Committees and State Trials Papers of Lord Edward Fitzgerald etc. These are essential sources for the Rebellion but are not dealt with here. Editorial Issues The transfer of data from a late 18th century publication to a late 20th century computer software program suitable for CDs and other electronic formats has entailed a number of editorial decisions. The two main issues were the choice of Lists of Claimants and the transcription of the data. The second later List of Claimants has been chosen because it is probably the most complete and accurate, though it is impossible to 100% sure due to the destruction of all the primary documentation after transfer of the commission to London. It is more complete than the first list with about 10% more claims, for instance Co. Wexford has 62 further entries. The values of the claims were also re-calculated for the second publication since there are occasional differences, some significant, between the two lists and it was on amounts of the latter list that claims were assessed and paid. Otherwise there is little difference between them with the exception of typographical layout and description of losses. In the former case these relate to space saving by the typesetters i.e. by the time they reached the end of Wexford in the second List they were getting fed up with repetition so that, for instance, all Williams become Wm. It is also possible that, for the same reason, descriptions of losses are shortened and abbreviated. The data was transferred to a data base format for ease of publication and research. The transcription into a number of data base fields entailed some chopping and rearranging of data. These fields and the relevant issues are discussed in below. As a general point the spelling of names of people and places has not been standardized but occupations have been. The standardization of surnames and place names is a recent phenomenon created for the benefit of government bureaucrats and mapmakers. From a historical perspective this is not recommended as it can edit out subtle but significant variations of names at a time when universal literacy was confined to the island's political, military and religious elites as well as the merchant classes. These phonetic variations from different parts of the island are often significant. An analysis of the spelling also can indicate changes in pronunciation over time. Earlier pronunciations may be more accurate as they are closer to the original surname or placename. Names of People. The surnames and first names are put into separate fields. Double-barreled surnames and more than one first name are not separated. Appellations, such Rev., Senior, Junior etc., are placed with the first name, so these appear as John Rev. or William Senior, Michael Junior etc. Occupations These are listed in a separate field. Place Names The residence of the claimant and the location of the loss are listed in separate fields. Though in the majority of cases this is the same place a significant minority of losses are in other locations, often in different counties. Two further fields give the counties of residence and loss. When the losses occurred in different counties than for indexing purposes either the county of residence or place first mentioned is given. In some cases it was not possible to identify the county where the loss was sustained because these were goods in transit by road, canal or coastal boats between two, not necessarily adjacent, counties, i.e. Galway and Dublin. In the case of Wicklow a further field has been added, which identifies, where possible, the Civil Parish in which the loss occurred, see the Wicklow chapter for further details. Description of Losses These are listed in a separate field. The spellings and order have not been standardized. However presentation has been modified to a certain extent in the following manner. All 'and's have been deleted and replaced with a comma. All 'one's have been deleted so the for instance 'one Cow' is given as 'Cow', otherwise the numbers are given in numerical form. All Nouns have been capitalized. Amounts These are given in pounds, shillings and pence, otherwise abbreviated as £. s. d. though these symbols are omitted. For example £12 5s 4d is given as 12/5/4 and £10 is given as 10. All œd have been omitted for technical reasons. For those unfamiliar with the Sterling system there were twelve pence in a shilling and twenty shillings in a pound, (240d in £1). At time of publication one euro (?) is equivalent to 15s 9d and one cent is 1.9d. £1 is equivalent to ?1.27, 1s to 6c, and 1d to 0.5c. These are not necessarily equivaelant in value. Agricultural labourers received around 6d per day and might earn £10 in a year, a horse cost £10 on average and a small farmer might pay 10/- per annum for one acre though this would depend on its quality.