Florence MacMoyer ( ; fl. 1662 – 12 February 1713), a native of Ballymoyer, County Armagh, Ireland was the last hereditary keeper of the 9th-century Book of Armagh. MacMoyer, who gave evidence against Oliver Plunkett during his trial "for promoting the Roman faith" in the 1680s, died in 1713.
Life Florence MacMoyer was born at Ballymyre during in the 17th century and became a schoolteacher.
MacMoyer was the last hereditary keeper of the 9th-century Book of Armagh. Reputedly pawning the book for five pounds in 1680, MacMoyer used this money to travel to London to give evidence at the trial of Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett, with his cousin, Friar John MacMoyer. Described in several sources as having engaged in perjury, he return to Ireland in 1683, with his "reputation totally discredited" and his name "universally despised".
Florence MacMoyer, who was imprisoned for some time after his return to Ireland, was unable to reclaim the Book of Armagh. He died in 1713 and was buried in Ballymoyer Old Graveyard. A headstone marking his grave, which was "treated with indignity", was later moved into Ballymoyer House.
Book of Armagh The Book of Armagh, a 9th-century Irish manuscript written mainly in Latin, is valuable for containing early texts relating to St Patrick. It contains some of the oldest surviving specimens of Old Irish and one of the earliest manuscripts produced by an insular church to contain a near complete copy of the New Testament. The book was kept by members of the MacMoyer family who had lived at Ballymacmoyer since the 14th century.
In A Compendium of Irish Biography, published by Alfred Webb in 1878, it states that:
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