From the return with regard to the county of Fermanagh we obtain similar information, with some additional particulars deserving of notice. ‘For the lands of inheritance in Fermanagh,’ otherwise called Maguire’s Country, he says, ‘they stood not in the same terms as the lands in Monaghan. For the signorie or chiefry and the demesne lands, that were the inheritance of MacGuire himself, were reduced and vested in the Crown.’... But forasmuch as the greatest part of the inhabitants of that country did claim to be freeholders of their several possessions, who, surviving the late rebellion, had never been attainted, so as we could not clearly entitle the Crown to their land;’ and he adds, that ‘they held the same not according to the course of common law but by the custom of tanistry, whereby the eldest of every sept claimed a chiefry over the rest, and the inferior sort divided their possessions after the manner of gavelkind.’ Sir John tells us that, ‘First we thought it meet to distinguish the possessions, next to inquire of the particular possessors thereof. Touching the possessions,’ he says, ‘we found Fermanagh to be divided into seven baronies, viz., Magheryboy, Clanawley, Clankelly, Maghery, Stephanagh, Tirkennedy, Knockrinie, and Lough Lurgh. Every of these baronies contains seven _Ballybetaghs_ and a half of land, chargeable with McGuire’s rent, and other contributions of the country. Every _Ballybetagh_ is divided into four quarters of land, and every quarter into four _taths_, so as a _Ballybetagh_ containeth sixteen _taths_, as it doth in Monaghan, but the measure of this country is far larger; besides the freeland, whereof there is good quantity in every barony, is no parcel of the seven _Ballybetaghs_ and a half, whereof the barony is said to consist. For these reasons Fermanagh, containing but fifty-one _Ballybetaghs_ and a half of chargeable lands, is well-nigh as large an extent as Monaghan, which hath in it an hundred _Ballybetaghs_.’ ‘Touching the freeland we found them,’ he says, ‘to be of three kinds— ‘1. Church land or _termon_ lands, as the Irish call it. ‘2. The mensal land of McGuire. ‘3. Land given to certain septs privileged among the Irish, viz., the lands of the chroniclers, rimers, and gallo-glasses. ‘The Church land was either monastery land, _Corbe_ land, or _Erenach’s_ land. The monastery land lay in the barony of Clanawley, and did not exceed two _Ballybetaghs_, but the lands belonging to the _Corbes_ and _Erenachs_ are of far greater quantity, and are found in every barony. They told me,’ he adds, ‘that the word _Termon_ doth signify in the Irish tongue a liberty or freedom, and that all church lands whatsoever are called _termon_ lands by the Irish, because they were ever free from all impositions and cuttings of the temporal lords, and had the privilege of sanctuary.’