Clyn, John (d. 1349?), Franciscan friar and annalist, appears to have come from a minor gentry family of north Co. Kilkenny. Much of our evidence for his life is circumstantial and comes from internal evidence in his annals, ‘Annalium Hiberniae chronicon, ad annum MCCCXLIX’. ‘Clyn’ is an unusual Anglo-Irish surname, occurring mainly in Kilkenny (it may be related to the two townlands of Clintstown in Kilkenny, or to Clinstown, Co. Meath). John Clyn probably joined the Franciscans early in life. Later tradition, reported by Archbishop James Ussher (qv), holds that Clyn held a doctorate, but there is no evidence that he attended Oxford or Cambridge. This does not rule out the possibility of a continental education or possibly an education at the small university in Dublin in the fourteenth century. Clyn was clearly educated enough to write his chronicle in Latin and hold the position of guardian of the Franciscan house at Carrickbeg, near Carrick-on-Suir (1336–8?). He may have lived in Dublin (1331–2) and Kilkenny (1334–5) before going to the house in Carrick. Sometime before 1348, possibly as early as 1339, Clyn returned to Kilkenny, and later tradition holds that he was the guardian of the house there. He almost certainly attended the general chapter of the Franciscan order in Marseilles in 1343, and may have made some contacts at the papal court in Avignon. It is noteworthy that entries in the Clyn annals after 1343 carry entries for events in continental Europe.
The ‘Annalium Hiberniae’ is a compilation to 1332, relying on several sources for its content; from 1333 Clynn appears to have become its author, with entries thereafter carrying both more detail and personal comment. While there is minimal information on the Franciscans in the ‘Annalium Hiberniae’, it is an invaluable window on a local world, where great lords, Anglo-Irish marcher kings and Gaelic lords interact. Clyn shows marked interest in the military society of Kilkenny and its environs. He was close to the Freigne family, in particular Sir Fulk de la Freigne (qv), whom he describes approvingly on his death in 1349 as ‘a man devoted to war and the military life from boyhood’. Clyn is especially important as a source for the black death in Ireland in 1349, providing an eyewitness account of the pestilence and its impact. The commonly held belief that he died of the plague cannot be substantiated, though the last entry in his annals is for Freigne's death in 1349. The original manuscript disappeared in the seventeenth century, but not before four transcriptions were made. In 1849 the antiquarian Richard Butler (qv), edited and published with the Irish Archaeological Society The annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn and Thady Dowling: together with the annals of Ross. A new edition and translation of Clyn's annals (with parallel English and Latin text) by Bernadette Williams was published in 2007.