fiant

A fiant was a writ issued to the Irish Chancery mandating the issue of letters patent under the Great Seal of Ireland. The name {{lang|la|fiant}} comes from the opening words of the document, {{lang|la|Fiant litterae patentes}}, Latin for "Let letters patent be made".{{cite book

|author=Séamas Ó Scannláin

|title=Poets and poetry of the Great Blasket

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wm1iAAAAMAAJ

|accessdate=21 August 2013

|date=15 December 2003

|publisher=Mercier Press

|isbn=978-1-85635-416-5

|page=115}} Fiants were typically issued by the chief governor of Ireland, under his privy seal; or sealed by the Secretary of State, who served as "Keeper of the Privy Seal of Ireland", just as the English Secretary of State did in England.{{cite journal|last=Wood|first=Herbert|date=1928–29|title=The Offices of Secretary of State for Ireland and Keeper of the Signet or Privy Seal|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C|volume=38 |jstor=25515934|pages=51–68: 56}} Fiants dealt with matters ranging from appointments to high office and important government activities, to grants of pardons to the humblest of the native Irish.Dudley Edwards and O'Dowd 2002 p.17 Fiants relating to early modern Ireland are an important primary source for the period for historians and genealogists.{{cite book

|author=Anthony Adolph

|title=Collins Tracing Your Irish Family History

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uzpUiE7zMy8C&pg=PT209

|accessdate=21 August 2013

|date=21 January 2010

|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers

|isbn=978-0-00-736095-6

|pages=209–}} The Tudor fiants were especially numerous, many relating to surrender and regrant. A fiant often provides more information than the ensuing letters patent recorded on patent rolls.{{cite book|last=Roulston|first=William J.|title=Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors: The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZJ-kPLnZr8C&pg=PA47|accessdate=21 December 2016|year=2005|publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation|isbn=9781903688533|page=47}} There are also fiants for which the patent roll does not list any letters patent, either because none were issued or because those issued were never enrolled, through accident or abuse.Dudley Edwards and O'Dowd 2002 p.19 Prior to the Act of Explanation 1665, letters patent were enrolled (if at all) after they were granted; under the act, the fiant was enrolled first, and the letters issued afterwards.PROI, 7th Report, p.27 Thereafter the rolls, which were catalogued in the 19th century, give the same information as the original fiants.

The Public Record Office of Ireland (PROI) held Chancery fiants from 1521 (Henry VIII) up to 1891 (Victoria),Wood 1919, pp.10–11 as well as Crown and Hanaper fiants (1619–1873),Wood 1919, p.48 Privy Council of Ireland fiant books (1711–1832),Wood 1919, p.199 and Signet Office (Chief Secretary for Ireland) fiant books (1796–1830).Wood 1919, p.211 The originals were destroyed in the 1922 explosion in the Four Courts. The fiants of the Tudor sovereigns had been calendared and published from 1875–90.Dudley Edwards and O'Dowd 2002 p.20{{cite book

|title=Archivum franciscanum historicum: periodica publicatio trimestris cura pp. Collegii D. Bonaventurae

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glnZAAAAMAAJ

|accessdate=21 August 2013

|volume=77

|year=1984

|publisher=Ad Claras Aquas prope Florentiam

|page=117}} An 1820s manuscript calendar of the fiants of James I and Charles I is available in the PROI (now the National Archives of Ireland).Dudley Edwards and O'Dowd 2002 p.136