THE SETTLEMENT OF ULSTER
[Sidenote: Ulster before the settlement.]
The tribal system known to the writers of what are called the Brehon
laws survived much longer in Ulster than elsewhere. In the other three
provinces the Anglo-Norman invaders may not have made a complete
conquest, but they had military occupation and many of their leaders
took the position of Irish chiefs when the weakening power of the
Crown made it impossible to maintain themselves otherwise. Yet they
never forgot their origin, and were ready enough to acquiesce when
the Tudor sovereigns reasserted their authority. But there were no
Butlers, Fitzgeralds, or Barries in Ulster, while the Burkes withdrew
into Connaught and assumed Irish names. For a long time the native
clans were left almost to their own devices. Con Bacagh O'Neill, when
he accepted the earldom of Tyrone in 1543 and went to England to be
invested, took a long step towards a new state of things. Through
ignorance or inadvertence the remainder was given to Matthew Ferdoragh,
who was perhaps not an O'Neill at all. Shane O'Neill, the eldest
son of undoubted legitimacy, kept the leadership of his clan, while
insisting in dealing with the government that he was Con's lawful heir.
Even Shane admitted that Queen Elizabeth was his sovereign. When the
original limitation of the peerage took practical effect, and Hugh
O'Neill became Earl of Tyrone, the feudal honour was most useful on
one side while the tribal chiefry was still fully maintained on the
other. In two cases, decided by the Irish judges in 1605 and 1608
respectively, gavelkind or inheritance by division among all males was
abolished as to lands not forming part of the chief's demesne, and
Tanistry as to the land of the elective chief. This purely judge-made
law was followed in the settlement of Ulster with far too little regard
to the actual state of things there.[55]
[Sidenote: The tribal system.]
[Sidenote: Backward state of the natives.]
Without going into the technicalities of Celtic tenure it may be
assumed for historical purposes that the Ulster Irish consisted of
the free tribesmen who had a share in the ownership of the soil and
the mixed multitude of broken men who were not only tolerated but
welcomed by the great chiefs, but who were not joint proprietors though
they might till the land of others. A large part of the inferior
class consisted of the nomad herdsmen called _creaghts_, who were an
abomination to the English. There was always much more land than could
be cultivated in a civilised way, and the cattle wandered about, their
drivers living in huts and sheds till the grass was eaten down, and,
then removing to a similar shelter in another place. One main object
was to turn these nomads into stationary husbandmen, and it was not
at all easy to do. Still more troublesome were the 'swordsmen'--that
is, the men of free blood whose business had always been fighting and
who would never work. They formed the retinue of Tyrone and the rest,
and when the chiefs were gone they had nothing to do but to plunder
or to live at the expense of their more industrious but less noble
neighbours. 'Many natives,' says Chichester, 'have answered that it is
hard for them to alter their cause of living by herds of cattle and
creaghting; and as to building castles or strong bawns it is for them
impossible. None of them (the Neales and such principal names excepted)
affect above a ballybetoe, and most of them will be content with two or
three balliboes; and for the others, he knows whole counties will not
content the meanest of them, albeit they have but now their mantle and
a sword.' Some of these men owned land with or without such title as
the law acknowledged. The radical mistake of the English lawyers was
in ignoring the primary fact that land belonged to the tribe and not
to the individual. It is true that the idea of private property was
extending among the Irish, and that the hereditary principle tended
to become stronger, but the state of affairs was at best transitional,
and the decision in the case of gavelkind went far in advance of the
custom. Yet it might possibly have been accepted if Chichester's
original idea had been followed. He wished first to distribute among
the Irish as much land as they could cultivate, and to plant colonists
on the remainder. What really happened was that everything was done to
attract the undertakers, and as the rule of plantation allowed no Irish
tenants to have leases under them the natives who remained were reduced
to an altogether inferior position. The servitors were allowed to give
leases to the Irish, whom they might keep in order by their reputation
and by the possession of strong houses. But the amount of land assigned
for this purpose was inadequate, and the Irish tenants, who for the
most part were not given to regular agriculture, soon found themselves
poor and without much hope of bettering their condition. Very light
ploughs attached to the tails of ponies were not instruments by which
the wilderness could be made to blossom like the rose. This system of
ploughing certainly shows a low condition of agriculture, and it was
general wherever estates were allotted to native gentlemen. 'Tirlagh
O'Neale,' says Pynnar, 'hath 4,000 acres in Tyrone. Upon this he hath
made a piece of a bawn which is five feet high and hath been so a long
time. He hath made no estates to his tenants, and all of them do plough
after the Irish manner.' Mulmory Oge O'Reilly had 3,000 acres in Cavan,
lived in an old castle with a bawn of sods, and 'hath made no estates
to any of his tenants, and they do all plough by the tail.' Brian
Maguire, who had 2,500 acres in Fermanagh, lived in a good stone house
and gave leases to some of his tenants, but even they held to the Irish
manner of ploughing. A good many of the undertakers made no attempt to
build, and of course the lands were in the occupation of Irishmen who
were liable to be disturbed at any moment, and therefore very unlikely
to improve.[56]
[Sidenote: First schemes of settlement.]
The injustice of confiscating several counties for the default of
certain chiefs is obvious to us, even if we admit that their forfeiture
was just. But no Englishman at the time, not even Bacon, seems to have
had any misgivings. The packet in which the flight of the Earls was
announced contained a letter from Sir Geoffrey Fenton to Salisbury with
the first rough sketch of the Ulster settlement. The old secretary
pointed out that the opportunity had at last come for pulling down the
proud houses of O'Neill and O'Donnell, for vesting all in the Crown,
and for improving the revenue, 'besides that many well-deserving
servitors may be recompensed in the distribution, a matter to be taken
to heart, for that it reaches somewhat to his Majesty's conscience and
honour to see these poor servitors relieved, whom time and the wars
have spent even unto their later years, and now, by this commodity,
may be stayed and comforted without charge to his Majesty.' A few days
later Chichester wrote more in detail. His idea was to divide the land
among the inhabitants as far as they were able to cultivate it. After
that there would be plenty left for colonists, and to reward those
who had served the King in Ireland. This was the course he advised;
otherwise he saw nothing for it but to transplant all the people of
Tyrone, Donegal, and Fermanagh with their cattle into waste districts,
'leaving only such people behind as will dwell under the protection of
the garrisons and forts,' which were to be strengthened and multiplied.
Sir Oliver St. John advised some garrisons and corporations, but relied
rather upon making the Irish tenants of the Crown at high rents. The
Irish, he said, were more used to esteem a landlord whom they knew than
a king of whom they seldom heard. Make the King their landlord and they
will turn to him, neglecting 'their wonted tyrants whom naturally they
love not.' Salisbury had already turned his attention to the subject,
and the Privy Council in England lost no time in expressing their
general approval of Chichester's plan.[57]
[Sidenote: Bacon on colonisation.]
Bacon's attention was much drawn to Ireland at this critical time, and
Chichester's secretary, Henry Perse, kept him well informed. Davies
wrote to him at length about the flight of the Earls, and he saw that
the opportunity had come for making a fresh start. 'I see manifestly,'
he told Davies, 'the beginning of better or worse.' It may therefore be
assumed that he had some hand in the proceedings that followed. Both
he and Chichester were naturally thinking of the scheme of American
colonisation which had just so nearly failed, and were anxious that
the mistakes made should not be repeated. 'I had rather labour with my
hands,' said the Lord Deputy, 'in the plantation of Ulster than dance
or play in that of Virginia.' The American enterprise, said the Lord
Chancellor, 'differs as much from this, as Amadis de Gaul differs from
Cæsar's Commentaries.' Bacon warned the Government against sending
over needy broken-down gentlemen as settlers. Men of capital were
to be preferred, such as were fit to 'purchase dry reversions after
lives or years, or to put out money upon long returns.' They might
not go themselves, but they would send younger sons and cousins to
advance them, while retaining the property 'for the sweetness of the
expectation of a great bargain in the end.' He thought enough was not
done to encourage the growth of towns and fortified posts, and yet the
example of the Munster failure was ready to hand as to 'the danger
of any attempts of kernes and swordsmen.' The wisdom of this advice
was seen in 1641, when Londonderry alone stood out in all the planted
counties. Bacon discouraged facilities for making under-tenancies, for
the excluded natives would offer tempting rents and fines, the interest
of the grantee waning when he parted with actual possession. Here also
the advice was good. The undertakers took Irish tenants, in spite of
the rules, because they could get no others, and these tenants turned
against them when the day of trial came.[58]
[Sidenote: Scots in Ulster. Bishop Montgomery]
The Scottish element in the north of Ireland has played an important
part in history. One of James's first acts was to nominate Denis
Campbell, who had long been Dean of Limerick, to the sees of Derry,
Raphoe, and Clogher. Campbell died before consecration, and George
Montgomery was appointed instead. Montgomery was of the family of
Braidstane in Ayrshire, an offshoot of the House of Eglinton, who found
his way to the English Court and made himself useful both to Cecil and
to the King of Scots. His elder brother Hugh remained in Scotland and
retailed the news to his own sovereign. George received the living
of Chedzoy in Somerset, and the deanery of Norwich, and through life
he showed a remarkable aptitude for holding several preferments
together. Queen Elizabeth died, and the laird of Braidstane took part
in the great Scotch invasion. Having lodged himself at Westminster,
says the family historian, 'he met at Court with the said George (his
only then living brother), who had with long expectations waited for
those happy days. They enjoyed one the other's most loving companies,
and meditating of bettering and advancing their peculiar stations.
Foreseeing that Ireland must be the stage to act upon, it being
unsettled, and many forfeited lands thereon altogether wasted, they
concluded to push for fortunes in that kingdom.' The laird accordingly
devoted himself to acquiring an estate and a peerage in Down at the
expense of the O'Neills, and the parson to enriching the Church and
himself in other parts of Ulster.[59]
[Sidenote: A lady colonist.]
The idea that high Irish preferment involved corresponding duties seems
to have been very imperfectly understood at this time. Mrs. Montgomery,
writing from Chedzoy, informed her relations that the King had bestowed
on her husband three Irish bishoprics, 'the names of them I cannot
remember, they are so strange, except one which is Derye.' Fifteen
months later, on the eve of their departure from London, she reported
that the King had dismissed the Bishop with many gracious words. 'I
hope we shall not long stay in Ireland, but once he must needs go.'
They were met and escorted into Derry 'by a gallant company of captains
and aldermen,' and found it a much nicer place than they expected.
Their house was English built, small but very pretty and capable of
enlargement if Sister Peggy and her husband would come over. There were
several ladies and gentlemen 'as bravely apparelled as in England. The
most that we do mislike is that the Irish do often trouble our house,
and many times they doth lend to us a louse, which makes me many times
remember my daughter Jane, which told me that if I went into Ireland I
should be full of lice.' Excellent flax was to be bought at sixpence a
pound, and thread at one shilling, the land was good, and the tenants
were continually bringing in beeves and muttons. This lady, who thought
only of a short visit, was destined to have some very disagreeable
adventures and to remain in Ireland till her death, when her husband
wrote of 'the best gift I ever received, the greatest loss I ever had
in this world.'[60]
[Sidenote: Episcopal property.]
[Sidenote: A jury of Celtic experts.]
Montgomery was at once admitted by the King's special order to the
Irish Council, and events soon showed that he enjoyed a good share of
royal favour. Chichester was directed to inquire by commission as to
the state of ecclesiastical property in his three dioceses. The King's
letter set forth that Church lands had long been usurped by temporal
lords, and until the legal tangle could be cleared no grants of Termon
or abbey lands were to be made in Monaghan and Fermanagh. Davies, who
at first accepted the Bishop's claim without question, took enormous
pains to understand the real nature of these Termon lands, and he seems
to have come near the truth. Montgomery claimed that they were rightly
the absolute property of the Church, while Tyrone and the other Irish
chiefs maintained that only rents were payable, the tribal ownership
with fixity of tenure belonging to the Erenachs, who had for ages
been in actual possession. Thus old Miler Magrath, who had jobbed
Church property so shamelessly, held Termon-Magrath, which included St.
Patrick Purgatory, in succession to his father. Davies felt that his
law was at fault, and after long controversies hit upon the plan of
swearing in a jury of clerks or scholars to find the facts, 'who gave
them more light than ever they had before touching the original and
estate of Erenachs and Termon lands.' Of these fifteen jurors thirteen
spoke Latin fluently. Their verdict was hostile to Montgomery, who
contended that the Termons were episcopal demesne lands; but James, on
his principle of 'no bishop, no king,' having asserted his claim to the
forfeited property, made it all over to the Church. This was after the
flight of Tyrone, but Montgomery's proceedings may have been one cause
of it. He claimed that his patent gave him everything that he or his
predecessors had enjoyed, but others were for construing it strictly,
and there were many suits against him upon colour of terming divers
parcels of his inheritance to be monasteries, friaries, and of abbey
land, and the Bishops of Clogher and Derry, where their predecessors
had only chief rent, would now have the land itself. And he besought
the King to stop such mean courses and make them rest content with what
their predecessors had enjoyed for many years.[61]
[Sidenote: Church and Crown.]
Chichester's expedition into the North in the summer of 1608 was a
military promenade and an assize circuit combined, an inquiry about
the escheated lands being added to the normal business. The commission
included no bishop, and Montgomery, who was present during part of
the circuit, made this a reason for objecting to anything being done.
Davies and Ridgeway found that the Termon lands were in 'possession
of certain scholars called Erenachs, and whereof they were in ancient
times true owners and proprietors, the Tyrone jury found to be vested
in the Crown by the statute 11th of Elizabeth, whereby Shane O'Neill
was attainted, and never since diverted by any grant from the late
Queen or his Majesty.' Montgomery claimed the Termons as demesne, and
hurried over to Court with his grievance, carrying a recommendation
from Chichester for the bishopric of Meath, which fell vacant at the
moment. Davies took care that all the Ulster bishops should be of
the next commission, but Chichester ventured to hint that Montgomery
affected worldly cares too much and thought too little of reforming his
clergy.[62]
[Sidenote: Chichester's original plan.]
On October 14, 1608, Ley and Davies left Ireland, carrying with them
Chichester's instructions as to the plantation of Ulster. He briefly
described the position of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Donegal, Cavan, Armagh,
and Coleraine or Londonderry, desiring them to note 'that many of the
natives in each county claim freehold in the lands they possess; and
albeit their demands are not justifiable by law, yet it is hard and
almost impossible to displant them.' Even those who were tainted by
rebellion should be considered, and only 'the rest of the land' passed
to undertakers or to well-chosen servitors. The oath of supremacy was
to be taken by all settlers, but some exceptions might be allowed
in the case of natives who were to build houses like those in the
Pale. The English and Scotch settlers were to build castles, thus
securing themselves against native aggression, and the poorer officers
were to be placed in the most dangerous places with small salaries
to enable them to keep armed men. The natives, as less outlay was
demanded from them, were required, and would be willing, to pay more
rent than the settlers. The committee appointed to make arrangements
in London consisted of Ley and Davies, Sir Anthony St. Leger, Sir
Henry Docwra, Sir Oliver St. John, and Sir James Fullerton, with whom
Bishop Montgomery was afterwards associated. They all had experience
of Ulster except St. Leger, who was Master of the Rolls in Ireland,
and had been a commissioner of the Munster settlement, and Fullerton,
who was doubtless expected to look after the Scotch element in the
business. Chichester thought it necessary to warn Salisbury about his
Majesty's partiality for his original subjects, being of opinion that
Highlanders or Islemen introduced into Ulster would be more troublesome
and less profitable than the Irish themselves. In about two months
the London committee had got so far as to produce a detailed plan for
the settlement of Tyrone, and a copy of this was sent to the Lord
Deputy.[63]
[Sidenote: British settlers invited over.]
At the beginning of 1609 the English Government printed and circulated
a sort of prospectus, whereby settlers might be induced to offer
themselves. Scotch and English undertakers were invited for tracts of
a thousand, fifteen hundred, and two thousand acres, paying quit-rents
to the Crown at the rate of six shillings and eightpence for every
sixty acres, but rent-free for the first two years. It was intended
that the largest grantees should hold by knight-service, but this
burdensome tenure was afterwards abandoned at Chichester's earnest
prayer and common socage was everywhere substituted. The undertakers,
whose portions were to be assigned by lot, were to build castles and
bawns or courtyards within two years, and to have access to the royal
forests for materials, being bound to keep, train and arm men enough
for their defence. Chichester said that two years was not long enough
to allow for the buildings, and the time was afterwards extended. Every
undertaker was to take the oath of supremacy before his patent could be
sealed; none might alienate to the Irish. They were to provide English
or Scotch tenants only, and were tied to five years personal residence.
Tenancies at will were prohibited. The servitors, generally men with
some military experience, were allowed to have Irish tenants, in which
case they were to pay 8_l._ for every thousand acres; but where they
established British tenants this was reduced to 5_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._
Alienations to the Irish were forbidden, or to any one who would not
take the oath of supremacy, the privileges and duties of the servitors
being for the rest much the same as in the first case. The native
Irish who formed the third class of grantees were subject, after the
first year, to quit-rents twice as large as the undertakers, being
subject to the same conditions as to tenures and building, but nothing
was said about the oath of supremacy. Chichester knew that the natives
could not as a rule build castles or bawns, and this part of the plan
turned out to be unworkable. He protested from first to last that too
little land was reserved to the Irish. There were further provisoes for
erecting market towns and corporations, for at least one free school
in every county and for a convenient number of parish churches with
incumbents supported by tithes.[64]
[Sidenote: Chichester's criticisms.]
All schemes of colonisation devised at a distance must necessarily be
modified when the actual work begins. Chichester at once objected to
the principle of division 'in the arithmetical proportion or popular
equality' proposed. The grants should, he thought, be larger or
smaller according to local circumstances, and to the qualifications of
particular settlers. A few eminent persons with means and reputation
might, if liberally treated, act as protectors to weaker men who would
be exposed to attacks from the natives. People coming from the same
part of Britain should be encouraged to settle near together, and this
could not be done if everything was left to the chances of a lottery.
Moses indeed was the wisest of law-givers, but 'the Hebrews were mighty
in number and rich in substance; compelled into the land of promise
by divine necessity, to extinguish the nations and to possess their
vineyards, cities, and towns already built, where, and not elsewhere,
they and their posterities were to remain. But in the present
plantation they have no armies on foot, they are but a few, without
means of plantation (as being separated by sea) and every man having
free will to take or leave. The country to be inhabited has no sign of
plantation, and yet is full of people and subject, but of no faith nor
truth in conversation, and yet hardly, or not at all, to be removed,
though they be thorns in the side of the English. The county of Tyrone,
with Coleraine, only has 5,000 able men.'
[Sidenote: The natives neglected.]
He objected altogether to tenure by knight-service, and that idea was
abandoned, and also to a strict limitation of time for building without
considering local difficulties. It was evident to him that too little
land was assigned to native freeholders, especially in Tyrone, the
result of which must be discontent, especially as it was intended to
remove the 'swordsmen or idle gentlemen who in effect are the greatest
part of men bearing credit and sway in that province.' And Chichester
begged that the greatest possible latitude should be given to the
commissioners who had to decide questions upon the spot.[65]
[Sidenote: Survey of escheated lands.]
Sir John Davies returned to Ireland at the beginning of May 1609, in
full possession of the King's mind on the subject of the plantation.
A commission was issued to Chichester and fifteen others, named for
the most part by him, to survey the escheated counties and to decide
as to the proportions to be allotted to the settlers and natives. In
order to meet difficulties about the rights of his see raised by Bishop
Montgomery, he was made a commissioner along with the Primate and the
Bishop of Kilmore. Davies thought seventeen too many, but the quorum
was five, and nothing was to be done without the consent of the Deputy,
the Chancellor, the Primate and the Bishop of Derry. The commissioners
left Dundalk on August 3 and remained in Ulster until Michaelmas.
Besides the business of surveying they prepared an abstract of the
King's title and held assizes for gaol delivery and other purposes in
each of the six escheated counties. Davies constantly reported progress
to Salisbury, not failing to point out that it was still necessary
to take military precautions everywhere. 'Our geographers,' he said,
'do not forget what entertainment the Irish of Tyrconnel gave to a
map-maker about the end of the late great rebellion; for one Barkeley
being appointed by the late Earl of Devonshire to draw a true and
perfect map of the north parts of Ulster, when he came into Tyrconnel,
the inhabitants took off his head, because they would not have their
country discovered.'[66]
[Sidenote: The area underestimated.]
[Sidenote: Lord Audley's proposals]
The Commissioners depended on a survey in which the amount of land
available was enormously underrated, even if we suppose that all the
waste was omitted. Thus the area of Tyrone was stated as 98,187 acres,
whereas it really contains 806,650, of which more than a quarter is
waste and water. Well informed people no doubt suspected something of
this, and hoped in the scramble to get much more than the estimated
quantity. One ambitious undertaker accordingly offered to take charge
of 100,000 acres in Tyrone, which was more than the whole county was
supposed to contain. Upon this he proposed to bind himself in a penalty
of 1,000_l._ to build thirty-three castles with 600 acres attached to
each, and as many towns each with 2,400, and to settle at least 1,000
families. There were further provisions for markets and fairs, and
for the erection of glass, iron, and dye works. The rent offered was
553_l._ and all was to be completed within five years, when this bond
might be cancelled. Upon this Chichester sarcastically remarks that he
is 'an ancient nobleman and apt to undertake much; but his manner of
life in Munster and the small cost he has bestowed to make his house
fit for him, or any room within the same, does not promise the building
of substantial castles or a convenient plantation in Ulster. Besides
which he is near to himself and loves not hospitality. Such an one will
be unwelcome to that people and will soon make himself contemptible,
and if the natives be not better provided for than I have yet heard
of they will kindle many a fire in his buildings before they be half
finished.' Davies, however, who had married Lord Audley's daughter,
was much comforted to hear that one whose ancestors had conquered
North Wales and had been among the first invaders of Ireland should
desire to be an undertaker 'in so large and frank a manner.' Possibly
Lord Audley's intention resembled that of a speculator who applies
for 10,000_l._ worth of stock on the chance of 500_l._ being allotted
to him. In consideration of his services at Kinsale and elsewhere,
3,000 acres in Tyrone were granted to him and his wife, 2,000 to his
eldest son Mervyn, and 2,000 to his second son Ferdinand. When Carew
visited these lands in 1611 he reported that nothing at all had been
done. Audley was created Earl of Castlehaven in 1616, and died in the
following year, but his infamous successor was not more active. Pynnar
reported in 1619 that the acreage was considerably larger than had been
expressed in the grant, and that upon it there was 'no building at
all, either of bawn or castle, neither freeholders.' There were a few
British tenants at will, but they were fast leaving the land, for the
tenants could not get leases without offering large fines for decreased
holdings. The younger Castlehaven had by some means got possession
of 2,000 acres more originally granted to Sir Edward Blunt, and upon
this a house had been built. The total result was that sixty-four
British tenants had sixty acres apiece, but they could lay out nothing
without leases, and were all going away. The rest, says Pynnar, 'is
let to twenty Irish gentlemen, as appeareth by the Rent-roll, which
is contrary to the articles of plantation; and these Irish gentlemen
have under them, as I was informed by the tenants and gentlemen in the
country, about 3,000 souls of all sorts.' Thus were sown the dragon's
teeth which in due time produced the rebellion of 1641.[67]
[Sidenote: Londonderry and Coleraine.]
The fate of Randolph's and Docwra's settlements, or perhaps the fear
that O'Cahan might yet be restored, prevented applications for grants
in the county of Coleraine or what is now known as Londonderry. It
occurred to James or to Salisbury that the difficulty could be got
over by offering the whole district to the city of London, whose
wealth might enable them to settle and defend it. The suggestion was
made to the Lord Mayor, who on July 1, 1609, directed each of the
City companies to name four representatives for the discussion of the
subject. In addition to the published papers a special document was
communicated to the City in which the advantages of the settlement were
duly set forth. Derry might be made impregnable, and probably Coleraine
also, and charters with great privileges were offered for each. The
negotiations which followed were not conducted by the Irish Government,
but between the Privy Council and the City direct. On January 28, 1610,
articles were agreed upon by which the Corporation bound themselves to
lay out 20,000_l._ and to build within two years 200 houses at Derry
and 100 at Coleraine, sites being provided for 300 more in the one
case and for 200 in the other. Afterwards they were allowed to finish
building at Coleraine before beginning at Derry, conditional on their
making the fortifications there defensible before the winter of 1611.
The whole county, with trifling exceptions, was granted to the City in
socage, and they had the ecclesiastical patronage within the two new
towns and the fisheries of the Foyle and the Bann. It was not intended
that there should be any delay in setting to work, and the Londoners
undertook to build sixty houses at Derry and forty at Coleraine before
November. On the other hand the King covenanted to protect them until
they were strong enough to protect themselves, and to give his consent
to such legislation as might be found necessary. Formal charters were
not, however, granted until 1613.[68]
[Sidenote: Sir Thomas Phillips.]
After O'Dogherty's sack some of the burned-out houses at Derry were
made habitable by Captain John Vaughan, and cabins were also built
among the ruins, so that the Londoners had some shelter. At Coleraine
they were better off. A lease of which there were still some years to
run had been granted to Captain, afterwards Sir Thomas, Phillips of
the Dominican monastery there, and he had bought other land in the
neighbourhood. Phillips had learned the art of war abroad, and quickly
fulfilled Chichester's prophecy that it would be safer in his hands
than 'left to the use of priests and friars, who to this time have ever
enjoyed it.' When O'Dogherty broke out, Phillips had only thirty-two
soldiers available, but many fled to him from Derry, and he armed the
men as they came in so that no attack was made by the Irish. When the
settlement of the Londoners was first mooted, Sir Thomas gave all
the help he could. He was bound to give up Coleraine to the King if
required for a garrison or corporate town, but received a grant of
Limavady in exchange for his other possessions. He went over to England
with a strong recommendation from Chichester, and enlarged there upon
the profits to be expected by the Londoners. When the agents of the
City arrived in Ulster he accompanied them in their tour and gave
all the help he could. 'At Toome,' he says, 'I caused some ore to be
sent for of which the smith made iron before their faces, and of the
iron made steel in less than one hour. Mr. Broad, one of the agents
for the City, who has skill in such things, says that this poor smith
has better satisfied him than Germans and others that presume much of
their skill.' He showed the agents the woods and fisheries. With the
exception of Phillips's lands and those belonging to the Church all the
country outside the liberties of the two corporations was divided among
the twelve City companies.[69]
[Sidenote: Slow progress of the work.]
[Sidenote: Activity of the Londoners.]
Towards the close of 1610 it became evident that the settlement
of Ulster could not be completed for some time. It was scarcely,
Chichester said, 'a work for private men who expect a present profit,
or to be performed without blows or opposition.' Jesuits and friars
were busy in exciting the people and inducing them to expect Tyrone's
return, and they always found means to communicate with the fugitives
abroad. A still greater cause for discontent was the way in which the
land had been divided. Chichester 'conceived that one-half of each
county would have been left assigned to natives; but now they have but
one barony in a county and in some counties less.' He had protested
against this all along, but with little effect. The Irish, Davies
said, objected to be small freeholders, as they would be obliged to
serve on juries and spend double the value of their land at sessions
and assizes. They all preferred to be under a master, and they did
not much care what master provided he were on the spot with will and
power to protect them. They would live contentedly enough as tenants
under any one, even a Protestant bishop, 'as young pheasants do under
the wings of a home-hen though she be not their natural mother.' But
when the time came the natives found that half a loaf was better than
no bread, and accepted the lands allotted to them. The Londoners,
having more capital and better support than the other undertakers, had
got to work the quickest, and the Attorney-General was so struck by
the preparations at Coleraine, that he was reminded of 'Dido's colony
building of Carthage,' and quoted Virgil's description of the scene.
Four months later he reported that undertakers were coming over by
every passage, 'so that by the end of summer the wilderness of Ulster
will have a more civil form.' Barnaby Rich, who had written many books
about the country, was even more optimistic. Being asked sixteen times
in one week what he thought of the new plantation, he answered that
Ireland was now as safe as Cheapside: 'the rebels shall never more
stand out hereafter, as they have done in times past.'[70]
[Sidenote: English and Scots compared.]
Chichester was a good deal less sanguine than Davies both as to present
and future. The English undertakers were with few exceptions not quite
of the right kind. They were plain country gentlemen not apparently
possessed of much money, and not very willing to lay out what they
had. Many sought only for present advantage, and sold their claims to
anyone who would buy. The Scotch were perhaps poorer, but they came
with more followers and persuaded the natives to work for them by
promising to get the King's leave for them to remain as tenants. The
Irish were ready to do anything to avoid 'removing from the place of
their birth and education, hoping at one time or other to find an
opportunity to cut their landlords' throats; for they hate the Scottish
deadly, and out of their malice towards them they begin to affect the
English better than they have been accustomed.' In the meantime they
provided concealed arms. Three years later it was found that the Scotch
were very much inclined to marry Irish girls, for which reproof and
punishment were prescribed by the King lest the whole settlement should
degenerate into an Irish country. The best chance, Chichester thought,
was to induce as many old tried officers as possible to settle upon
the land. The natives had learned to obey them, and they knew what
could and what could not be done. There was, however, a tendency in
high quarters to provide for young Scotch gentlemen, and to neglect
'ancienter captains and of far better worth and desert' who knew the
country well. Sir Oliver Lambert was sent over to represent the case of
the veterans, not as the best orator but because he had 'long travelled
and bled in the business when it was at the worst, and had seen many
alterations since he first came into the land.'[71]
[Sidenote: Mission of Carew, 1611.]
James was puzzled by conflicting accounts, and reminded Chichester
that he had followed his guidance more closely than any king had ever
followed any governor. In order that he might have someone thoroughly
informed to apply to he sent over a special commissioner, who was to
view the plantation as far as it had got and advise generally as to how
the Irish Government might be made financially self-supporting. The
person chosen was the famous ex-president of Munster, now Lord Carew,
who as Vice-Chamberlain of the Queen's household would always be at
hand. Special letters were at the same time sent to Clanricarde and
Thomond, who were personal friends of Carew's. The King seems to have
been struck by Chichester's often reiterated opinion that sufficient
provision had not been made for the natives in the escheated counties,
and he directed Chichester and Carew to find out 'how his Majesty may
without breach of justice make use of the notorious omissions and
forfeitures made by the undertakers of Munster, for supply of some such
portion of land as may be necessary for transplanting the natives of
Ulster.'[72]
[Sidenote: His prophecy,]
Carew left Dublin on July 30 accompanied by Chichester, Ridgeway,
Wingfield, and Lambert. For three weeks there was unceasing rain,
and Carew was near being drowned in fording a flooded river. The
commissioners found large numbers of Irish still upon lands from which
they ought to have departed according to the theory of the plantation,
and at Ballyshannon they addressed a warrant to the sheriff of each
escheated county to remove them all by May 1 next. The work was,
however, being imperfectly done, and Carew's real opinions may best
be gathered from a paper drawn up by him three years later. Formerly,
he said, there was always a strong royalist party among the older
population of Ireland, but religious feeling had brought the old
English and the native Irish much nearer together. Many had learned
something of war abroad, and something also of policy, and they would
have the advantage of giving the first blow. They would 'rebel under
the veil of religion and liberty, than which nothing is esteemed so
precious in the hearts of men,' and even the inhabitants of the Pale
would be drawn in for the first time in history. 'For this cause, _in
odium tertii_, the slaughters and rivers of blood shed between them is
forgotten and the intrusions made by themselves or their ancestors on
either part for title of land is remitted.'
[Sidenote: which was fulfilled.]
[Sidenote: A settler's precautions.]
Tyrone's return was still looked for, and if that were unlikely on
account of his age, there was always the chance of a foreign invasion.
If the King of Spain sent 10,000 men into Ireland 'armed with the
Pope's indulgences and excommunications,' all the modern English and
Scotch would be instantly massacred in their houses, 'which is not
difficult to execute in a moment by reason they are dispersed, and
the natives' swords will be in their throats in every part of the
realm like the Sicilian Vespers, before the cloud of mischief shall
disappear.' The reconquest would be a Herculean labour. Citadels at
Waterford, Cork, and some other places, and a small standing army
always ready to move were the chief precautions to be taken. Carew
was a true prophet, though the crisis did not come in his lifetime.
Officers from the Netherlands, indulgences and excommunications, with
occasional supplies of arms and ammunition, but without the 10,000 men
of Spain, were enough to maintain a ten years' war, and the labour of
ending it was indeed Herculean.[73]
Chichester's long experience as governor of Carrickfergus before he
assumed the government, had not led him to think the Ulster Irish
irreclaimable. By giving them as much land as they could manage
properly, along with the example of better farmers from England and
Scotland, he hoped to make them into tolerably peaceful subjects. The
undertakers, however, were of course chiefly actuated by considerations
of profit, and at first regarded the natives as a mere hindrance,
though afterwards they learned to value their help and sometimes to be
on very good terms with them. Among the first adventurers was Thomas
Blenerhasset, of Horseford, in Norfolk, who was more or less joined
in the enterprise with several other East Anglians. He has left us
an account of how the thing struck him in 1610, and he was from the
first of opinion that the main point was to guard against 'the cruel
wood-kerne, the devouring wolf, and other suspicious Irish.' He had
been with Chichester at Lifford, and learned among other things that
Sir Toby Caulfield, who was not at all an unpopular man, had to drive
in his cattle every night, 'and do he and his what they can, the wolf
and the wood-kerne, within caliver shot of his fort, have often times a
share.' At first he had agreed with Bacon that isolated castles could
not be maintained so as to guard a settlement, but while modifying
this idea somewhat, he still held that a strong town was the best
guarantee for peace. He contemplated a state of things in which the
burghers of Lifford, Omagh, Enniskillen, Dungannon, and Coleraine
should frequently sally forth in bands of 100 at a time from each
place, join their forces when necessary, and discover every hole, cave,
and lurking place, 'and no doubt it will be a pleasant hunt and much
prey will fall to the followers.' Even the wolf would be scared by
these means, and 'those good fellows in trowzes' the wandering herdsmen
would no longer listen to revolutionary counsels or shelter the lurking
wood-kerne. Blenerhasset had a grant of 1,500 acres in Fermanagh on
the east side of Lough Erne. When Pynnar saw the place after eight
years' work he found the undertaker's wife and family living in a good
stone house with a defensible courtyard. Over 250 acres was leased to
tenants for life or years, and there were a few English cottages with
the beginnings of a church. It was supposed that twenty-six men were
available, 'but I saw them not, for the undertakers and many of the
tenants were absent.'
[Sidenote: The settlers outnumbered.]
In partnership with his kinsman Sir Edward, Blenerhasset had also an
adjacent property of 1,000 acres which had been originally granted
to John Thurston of Suffolk, and upon this Pynnar found 'nothing at
all built and all the land inhabited with Irish,' whose names as they
stood in 1629 have been preserved. Sir Edward Blenerhasset and his
son Francis had another lot upon which there were twenty-two British
families and no Irish, 'but the undertaker was in England.' The natives
upon one of these three portions were no doubt more numerous than the
English on the other two, and they were always there, and there is
evidence to show that even where Pynnar found none there were many ten
years later.[74]
[Sidenote: Position of the natives.]
If Chichester's plan of providing for the Ulster Irish first and giving
the surplus land to colonists had been carried out, there might have
been some chance of a peaceful settlement. Without much capital or
agricultural skill the natives would probably have remained poor, and
the remnant of the chiefs would have certainly gone on trying to live
in the old profuse way with diminished means; but there would have been
many conservative forces at work, for most men would have had something
to lose. As it was both gentlemen and kerne remained in considerable
numbers, and never ceased to hope for a return to the old system. They
felt themselves in an inferior position, but were never able to make
a serious move until the difficulties of Charles I. with Scotland and
with the English Parliament paralysed the central government. The
Munster precedent ought to have given warning enough, but the means
of defence possessed by the colonists were very inadequate, and the
army was small. The natives had still a great numerical preponderance
in Ulster, though they retained but a fraction of the land, and the
colonists were not so well armed as to make up the difference. A muster
taken after 1628 gives 13,092 as the total number of British men in
the province, and of these only 7,336, or not much more than half,
were in the escheated counties. Down, which was outside the plantation
scheme, contained 4,045. The province possessed but 1,920 stand of
firearms, muskets, calivers and snaphaunces, and there were not even
swords or pikes for all. Any smith could make a pike, and swords
were easily hidden, so that the colonists had but little advantage
if regular troops are left out of the account. Lord Conway saw the
necessity of protecting his property against the kerne, but the arms
which he provided were stopped in Lancashire, and he had to appeal
to the English Government for leave. Yet the Lord Deputy had already
received strict orders to see that the tenants of Ulster undertakers
were trained, and to take care that they were not fraudulently counted
in among the soldiers of paid regiments.[75]
[Sidenote: Bodley's survey, 1615.]
[Sidenote: Pynnar's survey, 1618-19.]
To the end of his life James continued to take a great interest in the
Ulster settlement, and was impatient when slow progress was reported.
Sir Josiah Bodley, who had former experience to help him, made a
general survey or inspection, which was concluded early in 1615. The
result was disappointing, very few having carried out their engagements
to the full. Some had built without planting, others had planted
without building, and in general they retained the Irish style to avoid
which was a fundamental reason for the enterprise. The Londoners and
other defaulters were given till the end of August 1616 to make good
their shortcomings, and some advance was made in consequence of the
King's threats. The survey so well known as Pynnar's followed at the
end of 1618. Pynnar found that in the six counties there were 1,974
British families, including 6,215 men having arms and being capable of
bearing them. One hundred and twenty-six castles had been built and
forty-two walled enclosures without houses. Of substantial unfortified
houses Pynnar saw 1,897, and he heard of a good many more, but he
thought it very doubtful whether the colony would endure. 'My reason,'
he says, 'is that many of the English tenants do not yet plough upon
the lands, neither use husbandry.' They had not confidence enough to
provide themselves with servants or cattle, and much of the land was
grazed by Irish stockholders, who contributed nothing to the general
security. There might be starvation but for the Scottish tenants,
who tilled a great deal. The Irish graziers were more immediately
profitable than English tenants, and their competition kept up the
rents. The Irish, though indispensable, were dangerous, and there were
more of them on the Londoners' lands than anywhere else. The agents
indeed discouraged British settlers, persuading their employers at home
that the land was bad, and so securing the higher rents which native
graziers were ready to give or at least to promise. 'Take it from me,'
said Bacon, 'that the bane of a plantation is when the undertakers
or planters make such haste to a little mechanical present profit,
as disturbeth the whole frame and nobleness of the work for times to
come.'[76]
[Sidenote: Fresh survey in 1622.]
Four years later there was yet another survey which may be taken to
describe the state of the colony at the end of James I.'s reign. The
commissioners, who divided the work among themselves, reported that
much had been done, but that the conditions insisted on by the King
had on the whole not been performed. Many of the undertakers were
non-resident, their agents retained native tenants and the British
settlers complained that 'the Irish were countenanced by their
landlords against them.' But few freeholders were made, rents were too
high, and covenants too stringent. Some promised leases informally
'which giveth such as are unconscionable power to put poor men out of
their holdings when they have builded with confidence of settlement.'
Much building was badly done, and instead of encouraging villages the
undertakers dispersed their tenants 'in woods and coverts subject to
the malice of any kerne to rob, kill, and burn them and their houses.'
Copies of the conditions to which undertakers were bound could not
be had, and so the humbler settlers were at their mercy and that of
their agents and lawyers. The servitors were rather better than the
undertakers, but their faults were of the same kind, and they also
were 'so dispersed that a few kerne might easily take victuals from
them by force if they gave it not willingly.' The Irish grantees
as a rule built nothing, and their enclosures made with sods were
valueless. They made no estate of any kind to their tenants, but kept
to the old Irish exactions, and they ploughed in the 'Irish barbarous
manner by the tails of their garrons.' The commissioners recommended
that the King should give new patents instead of those which deserve
to be forfeited. A full fourth part of the undertaken lands should
be leased for twenty-one years or lives to the Irish on condition
of living in villages, going to church, wearing English clothes,
ploughing in English fashion, bringing up their children to learning
an industry, and enclosing at least a fourth of their cultivated land.
Undertakers were to be fined if they took Irish tenants or graziers
on any other terms, and alienation for any longer term was to involve
forfeiture.[77]
[Sidenote: The natives not transplanted.]
Whether as tenants, graziers, or labourers, the Irish inhabitants
were found indispensable. Early in 1624 their stay was officially
sanctioned, pending inquiry, and in 1626 there was a further extension
to May 1628, and after that for another year; but neither then nor
later was the transplantation really carried out. The undertakers, or
some of them, had indeed their own grievances. Having been unable to
perform their covenants strictly, and being afraid of forfeiture, some
of them offered to submit to a double rent and other penalties, in
consideration of a fresh title, but this arrangement was not carried
out. The result of the uncertainty was that hundreds of British
families gave up the idea of settling and went away, while the Irish
held on desperately whether the legal landlords liked it or not.[78]
[Sidenote: The Londoners criticised.]
[Sidenote: The first school.]
Sir Thomas Phillips, officially described as 'a brave soldier all
his life,' kept O'Cahan's castle at Limavady in good repair, with
drawbridge, moat, and two tiers of cannon. His two-storied residence,
slated, with garden, orchard, and dovecote, stood by, and a mile
from it he had built a village of eighteen small houses. He was thus
in a position to criticise both Londonderry and Coleraine, and was
much disgusted at the Londoners' proceedings. It seemed to him that
they cared only for present profit, and made very little attempt to
carry out the conditions of their grant. The new city was, indeed,
well walled when Pynnar saw it, but the gates were incomplete and
the inhabitants not nearly enough to defend so great a circuit.
Phillips was employed both by St. John and Falkland to superintend the
settlement, and in the survey of 1622 he was associated with Richard
Hadsor, a practised official who could speak Irish. Thomas Raven,
employed as surveyor by the Londoners, evidently thought Phillips right
in the main, but was shy about giving information, though anxious
to do so in obedience to actual orders. The number of inhabitants
in Londonderry had slightly increased, but 300 more houses would be
required ere the walls could be properly manned. There were actually
109 families living in stone houses, and about twelve more in cabins,
but not more than 110 armed men were available in the town, and about
half that number outside. There was no church except a corner of the
old monastery which had been repaired before O'Dogherty's rising, and
it would not hold half the people, few as they were. Near it, however,
was 'a fair free school of lime and stone, slated, with a base-court
of lime and stone about it built at the charges of Matthias Springham
of London, merchant, deceased.' Twelve guns were mounted on the fort
at Culmore. At Coleraine the number of men was nearly as great as at
Londonderry, but the walls or ramparts were of earth, not faced with
stones, and subject to frequent crumblings. There was a small church
with a bell. The great want at this place was a bridge, and it was
thought by some that the Londoners were unwilling to supply it, because
they made so much by the ferry. The estates of the twelve companies
were perhaps in proportion rather better managed than those of the city
of London itself, but there were the same complaints everywhere of
insufficient encouragement to settlers, of leases withheld or delayed,
and of Irish tenants who would promise any rent being preferred to
British colonists. Phillips thought there were about 4,000 adult males
in the whole county, of whom three-fourths were Irish. Of the remaining
quarter not two-thirds were capable of bearing arms effectively, and
in the last year of James's reign Phillips declared his belief that
the colonists were really at the mercy of the natives. The towns, such
as they were, seemed 'rather baits to ill-affected persons than places
of security,' and there were so many robberies and murders that fresh
settlers were hardly to be expected.[79]
[Sidenote: English, Scotch and Irish.]
The original idea of the plantation was to settle English and Scotch
undertakers in about equal numbers. The Scotch on the whole made the
best settlers, in spite of, or possibly in consequence of, their
tendency to intermarry with the Irish, and there can be no doubt
that the ecclesiastical policy of James and Charles drove many
Presbyterians from their own country to Ulster. The chiefs of the
Hamiltons and Montgomeries might favour the official Church, but
Strafford found his most determined enemies among the humbler Scots,
and he seriously thought of banishing them all. Even under Cromwell
they did not get on too well with the English, but in the long run
Anglicanism and Presbyterianism combined sufficiently to give a
permanently Protestant tone to the northern province. The rebellion of
1641 prevented the colonists from dividing their forces as they might
otherwise have done, and the alliance held good in 1688, and even,
after a very short hesitation, in 1798. By the partiality of James a
very great quantity of land was given to the Church, and especially to
the Bishops, most of whom did not do very much for the common defence.
Of the whole land granted in the six escheated counties, little more
than one-tenth was given as property to the natives; the rest of them
lived chiefly as dependants on the undertakers, and without legal
interest in the land which they were forced to till for a subsistence.
And there were a large number whose business had been fighting, and
who lived on those who worked when there was no longer any fighting to
be done. Thus very few of the Ulster Irish had anything to lose by a
successful revolt, and many might think they had a great deal to gain.
The acreage of the grants was far less than the actual contents of the
different counties, and thus there was still plenty of room for the
nomad herdsmen whose descendants flocked to Owen Roe's standard.
[Sidenote: Distribution of land.]
From what seems to be authentic abstracts it appears that out of a
nominal total of 511,465 acres in the escheated counties rather more
than two-fifths were assigned to British undertakers. Outside of the
Londoners' district at least, the shares of Scotch and English grantees
were about equal. Rather more than one-fifth went to the Church,
including 12,300 acres for education, and rather more than one-fifth to
servitors and natives combined, about 60,000 acres to patentees outside
the settlement, and something over 6,000 acres to individual Irishmen
of whom Connor Roe Maguire's share was the largest. To servitors
and natives about an equal area was given; but the latter were many
times as numerous, so that their lots were very small, often as little
as forty or fifty acres. 8,536 acres were devoted to schools at
Enniskillen and Mountnorris, and to sites for towns at those places, as
well as at Dungannon, Rathmullen, and Virginia. Many sales, exchanges,
and dispositions by will were made during the reign of James, but the
proportional distribution remained about the same.[80]
[Sidenote: Results and expectations.]
The permanent effects of the Ulster settlement have been very great,
though statesmen like Carew could see that there were many dangers
ahead. The tone of the Court and of all who wished to please the King
by prophesying smooth things may be gathered from the masque which Ben
Jonson produced at Somerset's marriage. Four Irishmen are brought on
the stage, who speak in an almost unintelligible jargon. An epilogue
in verse alludes to the plantation, whereby James was to raise Ireland
from barbarism and poverty, 'and in her all the fruits of blessing
plant.' The letter-writer Chamberlain says many people disliked the
performance, thinking it 'no time as the case stands to exasperate the
nation by making it ridiculous.' And most modern readers will be of the
same opinion.[81]
FOOTNOTES:
[55] _Le Case de Gavelkind_, 3 Jac., and _Le Case de Tanistry_, 5 Jac.,
in Davies' reports, 1628.
[56] A Ballyboe varied from sixty to 120 acres, and a Ballybetagh
was about 1,000. An introduction to the very large and complicated
question of Celtic tenures may be had through Maine's _Early History of
Institutions_ and Joyce's _Social History of Ancient Ireland_, 1903.
[57] Fenton to Salisbury, September 9, 1607; Chichester to same,
September 17; St. John to same, October 9; Salisbury to Chichester and
Privy Council to same, September 27.
[58] Chichester to Salisbury, October 2, 1605; to the King, October 31,
1610. Bacon to Davies, October 23, 1607, in Spedding's _Life_, iv. 5,
and his 'Considerations touching the plantation of Ireland, presented
to the King' on January 1, 1608-9, _ib._ pp. 123-125.
[59] Hill's _Montgomery MSS._, p. 19.
[60] Letters of Mrs. Susan Montgomery (_née_ Stayning) in Part III. of
_Trevelyan Papers_ (Camden Society), May 20, 1605; August 21, 1606;
October 8, 1606 (from Derry). Bishop Montgomery's letter of February
16, 1614, _ib._
[61] The King to Chichester, May 2, 1606; Bishop Montgomery to
Salisbury, July 1, 1607; Chichester to Salisbury, January 26, 1607;
Tyrone's petition calendared at 1606 No. 89 with the references there;
Davies to Salisbury, August 28, 1609; Todd's _St. Patrick_, p. 160. The
speculations of Ussher and Ware on this subject are obsolete.
[62] Davies to Salisbury, August 5, 1608.
[63] Instructions to Ley and Davies, October 14, 1608; Chichester to
the King, October 15, and to Salisbury, October 18; Project of the
Committee for the plantation of Tyrone, December 20.
[64] 'Orders and Conditions of Plantation,' printed in Harris's
_Hibernica_, p. 63, and in Hill's _Plantation in Ulster_, p. 78.
Project for the Plantation in _Carew_, dated January 23, 1608, but
evidently belonging to 1608-9; it does for the other escheated counties
what was done for Tyrone only in the MS. dated December 20, 1608.
[65] Chichester to the Privy Council, March 10, 1609, and to Davies,
March 31.
[66] The Commission is calendared at July 19, 1609, and printed in
Harris's _Hibernica_, and by Hill. Davies to Salisbury, August 28, 1609.
[67] The 'Project,' dated January 23, 1608-9, is printed in _Carew_,
vi. 13, in Harris's _Hibernica_, 53, and in Hill's _Plantation of
Ulster_, 90. The passages concerning Lord Audley and his family are
collected by Hill.
[68] The negotiations are detailed in Hill's _Plantation_. Instructions
to Sir John Bourchier, May 1611.
[69] Chichester to Cecil, June 8, 1604; Phillips to Salisbury, May 10,
1608, September 24, 1609; Chichester to Salisbury, April 7, 1609. A
tolerable understanding of the Ulster settlement generally, and of the
Londoners in particular, may be arrived at through Hill's _Plantation
in Ulster_, 1877, and J. C. Beresford's _Concise View of the Irish
Society_, 1842.
[70] Davies to Salisbury, September 24, 1610. A more elaborate version,
intended probably for private circulation, is printed from a Harleian
MS. in Davies' _Tracts_ and dated November 8. Same to same, January
21, 1610-11. B. Rich's _New Description of Ireland_, London, 1610,
dedicated to Salisbury.
[71] Chichester to Salisbury, November 1610 (No. 915 in _Cal._); the
King to Lord Chichester, June 5, 1614.
[72] Chichester to the King and to Northampton, October 31, 1610;
Davies to Salisbury, September 24. The instructions to Carew with
the King's letter to Chichester, Clanricarde, and Thomond are all in
_Carew_, June 24, 1611.
[73] Diary of Lord Carew's journey in 1611 in _Carew_, No. 126; _ib._
No. 156; Carew to Salisbury, September 6, 1611.
[74] Blenerhasset's 'Direction for the Plantation of Ulster', 1610, is
reprinted in _Contemporary History_, i. 317.
[75] The Ulster muster-roll printed in _Contemp. Hist._, i. 332 from
Add. MS. 4770, mentions the Earldom of Fingal, which was not created
till 1628. Directions to the Lord Deputy, 1626, No. 521. Lord Conway to
the Lord Treasurer, January 4, 1628.
[76] The King to Chichester, March 25, 1615; Pynnar's Survey, 1618-19,
printed by Hill and in Harris's _Hibernica_; Bacon's speech in 1617 in
Spedding's _Life_, vi. 206.
[77] Brief return of the 1822 survey in _Sloane MS._ 4756.
[78] _Proclamation_ of December 13, 1627, in the Irish R.O.
[79] The last volume of Russell's and Prendergast's Calendar
_passim_, especially T. Raven to Phillips, June 24, 1621; Survey of
the Londoners' Plantation, August 10 to October 10, 1622; Phillips's
petition to the King, July 6, 1624, and his proposed remedies,
September 24.
[80] Three papers among the _Carew MSS._ for 1611 calendared as Nos.
130, 131, and 132.
[81] Nicoll's _Progresses of King James_, ii. 733, where Chamberlain's
letter to Carleton is dated January 5, 1513-14.