John Clyn, O.F.M. (c. 1286 – c. 1349), of the Friars Minor, Kilkenny, was a 14th-century Irish friar and chronicler who lived at the time of the Black Death. Background Clyn was probably born in Leinster some years prior to 1300, possibly at Baile a Clinn/Clyn's town/Clintstown, in the parish of Conahy, some six and a half miles north-west of Kilkenny. The surname Clyn is found in Somerset and Bristol, which may have been where his Anglo-Norman ancestors originated. Career Bishop James Ussher stated, possibly in error, that Clyn was a doctor of the Franciscan Order. This statement may be a presumption as it has no supporting evidence. Clyn was well educated, though just where he received his education is unknown. He may have attended the university at Dublin, while Oxford and Cambridge remain more distant possibilities. Clyn is recorded as the Guardian of the friary of Carrick in 1336; Bernadette Williams believes that he would have been about fifty at that time ("around the same age as his hero Fulk de la Freigne"), as someone mature would have been needed to hold that post. Clyn may have attended the General Chapter of the Friars Minor at Marseilles in 1346. At some point between 1336 and 1348 he moved to Kilkenny. John Clyn wrote a diary, or journal, about the Black Death, which has become a key primary source on the plague. He left blank pages for those who wanted to "finish the work." He was still alive after 17 June 1349, his last entry in his annals being a eulogy for Fulk de la Freigne. It is unknown whether Clyn perished from the disease. Though the Black Death persisted in Ireland until 1350, Clyn may have survived it. If this is the case, he may have ceased writing " ... because of the death of his friend, and perhaps patron, Fulk de la Freigne." The Annals of Ireland In an effort to identify Clyn's purpose in writing his annals, Bernadette Williams states: "They are not a house chronicle, a town chronicle or a political history. ...the difference between a city and county annalist is quite evident; Clyn was not a member of the burgage population of Kilkenny but a man of the countryside. ... The reality is that Clyn was writing a military history of the geographical area of Kilkenny and Tipperary ... his audience was either the military