Celtic Church. [a. Irish comharba.] Successor in an ecclesiastical office, abbot, vicar; an order of old Irish monks (O’Reilly).
1656. J. Chaloner, in D. King, Vale Royall, IV. 21. All such goods also, as by the Law should have fallen to the next Heir, as Coarbes, the Coroner is to have them [on death of a Felon].
1865. M‘Lauchlan, Early Sc. Church, xxi. 324. The coarb or successor of Columba was usually an ecclesiastic of the Irish church.
1878. Mackintosh, Civiliz. Scotl., I. Introd. 126. In the early Irish church some of the Coarbs were women.
1882–3. A. F. Mitchell, in Schaff, Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 1234. The mother-house of Iona and its presbyter abbot, the coarb of Columba.
Hence Coarb-ship.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 205. The Coarb-ship descended to their children.
