The Guild of St Anne was established in Dublin in 1430, receiving a charter from King Henry VI (1422–1461). Guilds or fraternities were associations that offered social solidarity and protection to particular interest groups in medieval cities. The Guild of St Anne continued to have a charitable role in the relief of the poor through to the late eighteenth century.

Through donations and bequests from its members, the Guild of St Anne became a wealthy organisation owning extensive property (lands and houses) in the city and county of Dublin.

Medieval guilds usually funded chapels within parish churches and paid for priests to sing masses for the benefit of their members. The chantry chapel of St Anne’s Guild was in St Audoen’s church, Cornmarket. St Audoen’s is the only remaining medieval parish church in Dublin. The chapel of the Guild of St Anne had become derelict by the eighteenth century but is now restored and accessible to visitors.

The Charles Haliday collection of manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy includes medieval documents relating to the Guild of St Anne. Many of the deeds preserved in the collection record transactions relating to the properties owned by the guild. They are an important primary source for the history of the city of Dublin. The earliest property deeds in the collection pre-date the granting of the royal charter in 1430 but they relate to properties later owned by the guild. The ‘White Book’ (RIA MS 12 O 13) records many of the charitable activities of the guild.

The Guild of St Anne ceased to exist in the early nineteenth century. Medieval and early modern manuscripts relating to the guild were acquired by historian and book collector Charles Haliday, MRIA (1789–1866). After his death, the Guild of St Anne manuscripts were among the extensive collection donated to the Royal Irish Academy library in January 1867 by his widow, Mrs Mary Haliday.

Outline list of the Guild of St Anne collection

RIA MS 12 D 1: The Book of St Anne’s Guild. A volume of accounts and leases relating to St Anne’s Guild, Dublin, 1584–1817.

RIA MS 12 O 13: The White Book of the Guild of St Anne, Dublin, containing records of admissions and other proceedings, 1655–1687, and copies of oaths to be taken by the master and wardens of the guild. This manuscript has been digitised.

RIA MS 12 P 1: Accounts of the Guild of St Anne, Dublin, 1708–1779.

RIA MS GSA: original vellum deeds of the Guild of St Anne. These documents are now categorised as GSA, with the contents arranged chronologically, by reign of monarch. Former shelf-marks in the range 12 S 22–12 S 33 are no longer used.

Contents are arranged chronologically, by reign of monarch.

  • RIA MS GSA/Henry III (1216–1272), Edward I (1272–1307), Edward II (1307–1327), Edward III (1328–1377)
  • RIA MS GSA/Richard II (1378–1399)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry IV (1400–1413)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry V (1414–1422)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry VI, 3–13 (1424–1435)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry VI, 14–37 (1435–1459)
  • RIA MS GSA/Edward IV (1462–1482), Edward V (1483), Richard III (1483–1485), Henry VII (1485–1505)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry VIII, 1–30 (1510–1539)
  • RIA MS GSA/Henry VIII, 31–8 (1539–1547)
  • RIA MS GSA/Edward VI (1549–1552), Mary (1554), Philip & Mary (1558), Elizabeth I (1558–1585)
  • RIA MS GSA/Elizabeth I, 35–43 (1593–1601)
  • RIA MS GSA/James I (1604–1623)
  • RIA MS GSA/Charles I (1626–1639)
  • RIA MS GSA/Commonwealth (pre-1653–1656), Charles II (1664–1674)
  • RIA MS GSA/William & Mary, William III, Anne, George I, George II, and undated fragments
  • RIA MS GSA/Paper documents (Box formerly labelled 12 S 32)
  • RIA MS GSA/Paper documents (Box formerly labelled 12 S 33)

Later transcripts and summaries of the deeds of the Guild of St Anne

RIA MS 12 G 10: Abstracts of deeds of the Guild of St Anne, Dublin, for the period 13th to 18th century. This is a 19th-century transcript (incomplete) of James Goddard’s abstracts of the deeds, the original of which was made in 1722 and is held in Dublin City Library & Archives, MS 246. The RIA copy contains transcripts of 841 deeds, not all of which now survive.

RIA MS 12 B2 4: A volume of Latin copies and English translations of 13th to 15th-century deeds of the guild of St Anne. Copied by W.H. Hardinge, 1860.

RIA MS 12 S 33(a): Ludwig Bieler, Calendar of the deeds of the Guild of St Anne. Unpublished typescript in English, summarising the contents of the individual deeds.

RIA MS 4 A 34: Transcripts of material formerly in 12 S 31, together with a short introduction by K.W. Nicholls (c.1964).

Further Reading

H.F. Berry, ‘History of the religious gild of S. Anne, in S. Audoen’s church, Dublin, 1430–1740, taken from its records in the Haliday Collection, RIA’, Proceedings RIA 25C (1904–5), pp. 21–106.

‘Calendar of the deeds of the Guild of St Anne’ by Ludwig Bieler. Unpublished typescript in English, summarising the contents of the individual deeds (RIA MS 12 S 33(a)).

Directory of Historic Dublin guilds edited by Mary Clark & Raymond Refaussé (Dublin, 1993).

Adrian Empey, ‘The layperson in the parish: the medieval inheritance’, in The laity and the Church of Ireland, 1000–2000: all sorts and conditions edited by Raymond Gillespie and William G. Neely (Dublin, 2000), pp. 36–41.

Colm Lennon, ‘The chantries in the Irish Reformation: the case of St Anne’s Guild, Dublin, 1550–1630’, in Religion, conflict and coexistence in Ireland: essays presented to Monsignor Patrick Corish edited by R.V. Comerford, Mary Cullen, J.R. Hill and Colm Lennon (Dublin, 1990), pp. 6–25, 293–297.

Colm Lennon, ‘The Fraternity of St Anne in St Audoen’s parish, Dublin’, in Treasures of Irish Christianity: people and places, images and texts edited by Salvador Ryan and Brendan Leahy (Dublin, 2012), pp. 116–118.

Colm Lennon, ‘Charitable property: the manuscripts of St Anne’s Guild, Dublin’, Royal Irish Academy, Library lunchtime lecture, 1 March 2017.