THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER.
In the account which the lord deputy gave of the flight of Tyrone
and Tyrconnel, he referred to the mistake that had been committed in
making these men proprietary lords of so large a territory, '_without
regard to the poor freeholders' rights, or of his majesty's service,
or the commonwealths, that are so much interested in the honest
liberty of that sort of men_.' And he considered it a providential
circumstance that the king had now an opportunity of repairing that
error, and of relieving the natives from the exactions and tyranny of
their former barbarous lords. How far this change was a benefit to
the honest freeholders and the labouring classes may be seen from the
reports of Sir Toby Caulfield to the lord deputy, as to his dealings
with those people. He complains of his ill success in the prosecution
of the wood-kerne. He had done his best, and all had turned to
nothing. When the news of the plantation came, he had no hope at all,
for the people then said it would be many of their cases to become
wood-kerne themselves out of necessity, 'no other means being left for
them to keep being in this world than to live as long as they could
by scrambling.' They hoped, however, that so much of the summer being
spent before the commissioners came down, 'so great cruelty would not
be showed as to remove them upon the edge of winter from their
houses, and in the very season when they were employed in making their
harvest. They held discourse among themselves, that if this course had
been taken with them in war time, it had had some colour of justice;
but being pardoned, and their land given them, and they having lived
under law ever since, and being ready to submit themselves to the
mercy of the law, for any offence they can be charged withal, since
their pardoning, they conclude it to be the greatest cruelty that was
ever inflicted upon any people.'
It is no wonder that Sir Toby was obliged to add to his report this
assurance: 'There is not a more discontented people in Christendom.'
It is difficult to conceive how any people in Christendom could be
contented, treated as they were, according to this account, which the
officer of the Government did not deny; for surely no people, in any
Christian country, were ever the victims of such flagrant injustice,
inflicted by a Government which promised to relieve them from the
cruel exactions of their barbarous chiefs--a Government, too, solemnly
pledged to protect them in the unmolested enjoyment of their houses
and lands. How little this policy tended to strengthen the Government
appears from a confession made about the same time by the lord deputy
himself. He wrote: 'The hearts of the Irish are against us: we have
only a handful of men in entertainment so ill paid, that everyone is
out of heart, and our resources so discredited, by borrowing and
not repaying, that we cannot take up 1,000 l. in twenty days, if the
safety of the kingdom depended upon it. The Irish are hopeful of the
return of the fugitives, or invasion from foreign parts.'
But the safety of England, do what she might in the way of oppression,
lay then, as it lay often since, and ever will lie, in the tendency
to division, and the instability of the Celtic character. The Rev. Mr.
Meehan, with all his zeal for Irish nationality, admits this failing
of the people with his usual candour. He says: 'These traits, so
peculiar to the Celtic character, have been justly stigmatised by a
friendly and observant Italian (the Nuncio Rinuccini) who, some thirty
years after the period of which we are writing, tells us that the
native Irish were behind the rest of Europe in the knowledge of
those things that tended to their material improvement--indifferent
agriculturists, living from hand to mouth--caring more for the sword
than the plough--good Catholics, though by nature barbarous--and
placing their hopes of deliverance from English rule on foreign
intervention. For this they were constantly straining their eyes
towards France or Spain, and, no matter whence the ally came, were
ever ready to rise in revolt. One virtue, however--intensest love of
country--more or less redeemed these vices, for so they deserve to be
called; but to establish anything like strict military discipline
or organisation among themselves, it must be avowed they had no
aptitude.' This, says Mr. Meehan, 'to some extent, will account for
the apathy of the Northern Catholics, while the undertakers were
carrying on the gigantic eviction known as the plantation of Ulster;
for, since Sir Cahir O'Dogherty's rebellion till 1615, there was only
one attempt to resist the intruders, an abortive raid on the city of
Derry, for which the meagre annals of that year tell us, six of the
Earl of Tyrone's nearest kinsmen were put to death. Withal the people
of Ulster were full of hope that O'Neill would return with forces to
evict the evicters, but the farther they advanced into this agreeable
perspective, the more rapidly did its charms disappear.
The proclamations against wood-kerne present a curious picture of
these 'plantation' times. The lord deputy, in council, understood
that 'many idle kerne, loose and masterless men, and other disordered
persons, did range up and down in sundry parts of this kingdom, being
armed with swords, targets, pikes, shot, head-pieces, horsemen's
staves, and other warlike weapons, to the great terror of his
majesty's well-disposed subjects, upon whom they had committed many
extortions, murders, robberies, and other outrages. Hence divers
proclamations had been published in his majesty's name, commanding
that no person of what condition soever, travelling on horseback,
should presume to carry more arms than one sword or rapier and dagger;
and that no person travelling on foot should carry any weapons at all.
Twenty days were allowed for giving the arms to the proper officers.
If the proclamation was not obeyed within that time, the arms were
to be seized for the king's use, and the bearers of them committed to
prison.
On July 21, 1609, a commission was issued by the crown to make
inquisition concerning the forfeited lands in Ulster after the flight
of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel. The commissioners included the
Lord-Deputy Chichester, the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, Sir John
Davis, attorney-general; Sir William Parsons, surveyor-general, and
several other public functionaries. This work done, King James, acting
on the advice of his prime minister, the Earl of Salisbury, took
measures for the plantation of Ulster, a project earnestly recommended
by statesmen connected with Ireland, and for which the flight of
O'Neill and O'Donel furnished the desired opportunity. The city of
London was thought to be the best quarter to look to for funds to
carry on the plantation. Accordingly, Lord Salisbury had a conference
with the lord mayor, Humphry Weld, Sir John Jolles, and Sir W.
Cockaine, who were well acquainted with Irish affairs. The result was
the publication of 'Motives and Reasons to induce the City of London
to undertake the Plantation in the North of Ireland.'
The inducements were of the most tempting character. It is customary
to speak of Ulster, before the plantation, as something like a desert,
out of which the planters created an Eden. But the picture presented
to the Londoners was more like the land which the Israelitish spies
found beyond Jordan--a land flowing with milk and honey. Among
'the land commodities which the North of Ireland produceth' were
these:--the country was well watered generally by abundance of
springs, brooks, and rivers. There was plenty of fuel--either wood,
or 'good and wholesome turf.' The land yielded 'store of all necessary
for man's sustenance, in such a measure as may not only maintain
itself, but also furnish the city of London yearly with manifold
provision, especially for their fleets--namely, with beef, pork, fish,
rye, bere, peas, and beans.' It was not only fit for all sorts of
husbandry, but it excelled for the breeding of mares and the increase
of cattle; whence the Londoners might expect 'plenty of butter,
cheese, hides, and tallow,' while English sheep would breed abundantly
there. It was also held to be good in many places for madder, hops,
and woad. It afforded 'fells of all sorts in great quantity, red deer,
foxes, sheep, lambs, rabbits, martins and squirrels,' &c. Hemp and
flax grew more naturally there than elsewhere, which, being well
regarded, would give provision for canvas, cables, cording, besides
thread, linen cloth, and all stuffs made of linen yarn, 'which are
more fine and plentiful there than in all the rest of the kingdom.'
Then there were the best materials of all sorts for building, with
'the goodliest and largest timber, that might compare with any in his
majesty's dominions;' and, moreover, the country was 'very plentiful
in honey and wax.'
The sea and the rivers vied with the land in the richness of their
produce. 'The sea fishing of that coast was very plentiful of all
manner of usual sea fish--there being yearly, after Michaelmas, for
taking of herrings, above seven or eight score sail of his majesty's
subjects and strangers for lading, besides an infinite number of boats
for fishing and killing.'
The corporation were willing to undertake the work of plantation if
the account given of its advantages should prove to be correct.
With the caution of men of business, they wished to put the glowing
representations of the Government to the test of an investigation by
agents of their own. So they sent over 'four wise, grave, and discreet
citizens, to view the situation proposed for the new colony.' The men
selected were John Broad, goldsmith; Robert Treswell, painter-stainer;
John Rowley, draper; and John Munns, mercer. On their return from
their Irish mission they presented a report to the Court of Common
Council, which was openly read. The report was favourable. A company
was to be formed in London for conducting the plantation. Corporations
were to be founded in Derry and Coleraine, everything concerning
the colony to be managed and performed in Ireland by the advice and
direction of the company in London. It was agreed between the Privy
Council and the City that the sum of 20,000 l. should be levied,
15,000 l. for the intended plantation, and 5,000 l. 'for the clearing
of private men's interest in the things demanded.' That 200 houses
should be built in Derry, and room left for 300 more. 'That 4,000
acres lying on the Derry side, next adjacent to the wherry, should be
laid thereunto--bog and barren mountain to be no part thereof, but
to go as waste for the city; the same to be done by indifferent
commissioners.'
The royal charters and letters clearly set forth the objects of the
plantation. James I., in the preamble of the charter to the town of
Coleraine, thus described his intentions in disposing of the forfeited
lands to English undertakers: 'Whereas there can be nothing more
worthy of a king to perform than to establish the true religion of
Christ among men hitherto depraved and almost lost in superstition;
to improve and cultivate by art and industry countries and lands
uncultivated and almost desert, and not only to stock them with
honest citizens and inhabitants, but also to strengthen them with
good institutions and ordinances, whereby they might be more safely
defended not only from the corruption of their morals but from their
intestine and domestic plots and conspiracies, and also from foreign
violence: And whereas the province of Ulster in our realm of Ireland,
for many years past, hath grossly erred from the true religion of
Christ and divine grace, and hath abounded with superstition, insomuch
that for a long time it hath not only been harassed, torn, and wasted
by private and domestic broils but also by foreign arms: We therefore,
deeply and heartily commiserating the wretched state of the said
province, have esteemed it to be a work worthy of a Christian prince,
and of our royal office, to stir up and recal the same province from
superstition, rebellion, calamity, and poverty, which heretofore
have horribly raged therein, to religion, obedience, strength, and
prosperity. And whereas our beloved and faithful subjects the mayor
and commonalty and citizens of our city of London, burning with a
flagrant zeal to promote such our pious intention in this behalf, have
undertaken a considerable part of the said plantation in Ulster, and
are making progress therein'.
King James, having heard very unsatisfactory reports of the progress
of the plantation, wrote a letter to the lord deputy in 1612,
strongly complaining of the neglect of the 'Londoners' to fulfil the
obligations they had voluntarily undertaken. He had made 'liberal
donations of great proportions of those lands to divers British
undertakers and servitors, with favourable tenures and reservations
for their better encouragement; but hitherto neither the safety of
that country, nor the planting of religion and civility among those
rude and barbarous people, which were the principal motives of that
project, and which he expected as the only fruits and returns of
his bounty, had been as yet any whit materially effected. He was not
ignorant how much the real accomplishment of the plantation concerned
the future peace and safety of that kingdom; but if there was no
reason of state to press it forward, he would yet pursue and effect
that object with the same earnestness, 'merely for the goodness and
morality of it; esteeming the settling of religion, the introducing
of civility, order, and government among a barbarous and unsubjected
people, to be acts of piety and glory, and worthy also a Christian
prince to endeavour.'
The king therefore ordered that there should be a strict inquiry into
the work done, because 'the Londoners pretended the expense of great
sums of money in that service, and yet the outward appearance of it
was very small.' The lord deputy was solemnly charged to give him
a faithful account without care or fear to displease any of his
subjects, English or Scottish, of what quality soever.'
Sir Josias Bodley was the commissioner appointed for this purpose. He
reported very unfavourably, in consequence of which his majesty
called upon the Irish society and the several companies to give him an
account of their stewardship. He also wrote again to the lord deputy
in 1615. The language the king uses is remarkable, as proving the
_trusteeship_ of the companies. Referring to Bodley's report he
said:--
'We have examined, viewed, and reviewed, with our own eye, every part
thereof, and find greatly to our discontentment the slow progression
of that plantation; some few only of our British undertakers,
servitors, and natives having as yet proceeded effectually by the
accomplishment of such things in all points as are required of them
by the articles of the plantation; the rest, and by much the greatest
part, having either done nothing at all, or so little, or, by reason
of the slightness thereof, to so little purpose, that the work seems
rather to us to be forgotten by them, and to perish under their hand,
than any whit to be advanced by them; some having begun to build and
not planted, others begun to plant and not built, and all of them, in
general, retaining the Irish still upon their lands, the avoiding of
which was the fundamental reason of that plantation. We have made
a collection of their names, as we found their endeavours and
negligences noted in the service, which we will retain as a memorial
with us, and they shall be sure to feel the effects of our favour and
disfavour, as there shall be occasion. It is well known to you that
if we had intended only (as it seems most of them over-greedily
have done) our present profit, we might have converted those large
territories to our escheated lands, to the great improvement of the
revenue of our crown there; but we chose rather, for the safety of
that country and the civilizing of that people, to part with the
inheritance of them at extreme undervalues, and to make a plantation
of them; and since we were merely induced thereunto out of reason of
state, we think we may without any breach of justice make bold with
their rights who have neglected their duties in a service of so much
importance unto us, and by the same law and reason of state resume
into our hands their lands who have failed to perform, according to
our original intention, the articles of plantation, and bestow them
upon some other men more active and worthy of them than themselves:
and the time is long since expired within which they were bound to
have finished to all purposes their plantation, so that we want not
just provocation to proceed presently with all rigour against them.'
He gave them a year to pull up their arrears of work, and in
conclusion said to Chichester: 'My lord, in this service I expect that
zeal and uprightness from you, that you will spare no flesh, English
or Scottish; for no private man's worth is able to counterbalance
the particular safety of a kingdom, which this plantation, well
accomplished, will procure.'
Two or three years later, Captain Pynnar was sent to survey the lands
that had been granted to the undertakers, and to report upon the
improvements they had effected. A few notices from his report will
give an idea of the state of Ulster at the commencement of this great
social revolution:--
Armagh was one of the six counties confiscated by James I. The
territory had belonged to the O'Neills, the O'Hanlons, the O'Carrols,
and M'Kanes, whose people were all involved more or less in the
fortunes of the Earl of Tyrone, who wielded sovereign power over this
portion of Ulster. The plantation scheme was said to be the work of
the Privy Council of Ireland, and submitted by them for the adoption
of the English Government. It was part of the plan that all the lands
escheated in each county should be divided into four parts, whereof
two should be subdivided into proportions consisting of about 1,000
acres a piece; a third part into proportions of 1,500 acres; and the
fourth in proportions of 2,000 acres. Every proportion was to be made
into a parish, a church was to be erected on it, and the minister
endowed with glebe land. If an incumbent of a parish of 1,000 acres he
was to have sixty; if of 1,500 acres, ninety; and if 2,000 acres, he
was to have 120 acres; and the whole tithes and duties of every
parish should be allotted to the incumbent as well as the glebe. The
undertakers were to be of several sorts. 1st, English and Scotch, who
were to plant their proportions with English and Scotch tenants; 2nd,
servitors in Ireland, who might take English or Scotch tenants at
their choice; 3rd, natives of the county, who were to be freeholders.
With respect to the disposal of the natives, it was arranged that the
same course should be adopted as in the county of Tyrone, which was
this: some were to be planted upon two of the small proportions, and
upon the glebes; others upon the land of Sir Art O'Neill's sons and
Sir Henry Oge O'Neill's sons, 'and of such other Irish as shall be
thought fit to have any _freeholds_; some others upon the portions of
such servitors as are not able to inhabit these lands with English or
Scotch tenants, especially of _such as best know how to rule and
order the Irish_. But the swordsmen (that is, the armed retainers or
soldiers of the chiefs) are to be transplanted into such other parts
of the kingdom as, by reason of the wastes therein, are fittest to
receive them, namely, into Connaught and some parts of Munster, where
they are to be dispersed, and not planted together in one place; and
such swordsmen, who have not followers or cattle of their own, to be
disposed of in his majesty's service.' This provision about planting
the swordsmen, however, was not carried out. The whole county of
Armagh was found to contain 77,300 acres of arable and pasture land,
which would make 60 proportions. That county, as well as other parts
of ancient Ireland, was divided into ballyboes, or townlands, tracts
of tillage land surrounding the native villages unenclosed, and held
in _rundale_, having ranges of pasture for their cattle, which were
herded in common, each owner being entitled to a certain number of
'collops' in proportion to his arable land. As these ballyboes were
not of equal extent, the English made the division of land by acres,
and erected boundary fences.
The primate's share in this county was 2,400 acres. The glebes
comprised 4,650 acres; the College of Dublin got 1,200, and the Free
School at Armagh 720; Sir Turlough M'Henry possessed 9,900 acres,
and 4,900 had been granted to Sir Henry Oge O'Neill. After these
deductions, there were for the undertakers 55,620 acres, making in all
forty-two proportions.
Number one in the survey is the estate of William Brownlow, Esq.,
which contained two proportions, making together 2,500 acres. Pynar
reported as follows: 'Upon the proportion of Ballenemony there is a
strong stone house within a good island; and at Dowcoran there is a
very fair house of stone and brick, with good lyme, and hath a strong
bawne of timber and earth with a pallizado about it. There is now laid
in readiness both lyme and stone, to make a bawne thereof, the which
is promised to be done this summer. He hath made a very fair town,
consisting of forty-two houses, all which are inhabited with
English families, and the streets all paved clean through; also two
water-mills and a wind-mill, all for corn, and he hath store of arms
in his house.'
Pynar found 'planted and estated' on this territory 57 families
altogether, who were able to furnish 100 men with arms, there not
being one Irish family upon all the land. There was, however, a number
of sub-tenants, which accounts for the fact that there was 'good store
of tillage.' Five of the English settlers were freeholders, having 120
acres each; and there were 52 leaseholders, whose farms varied in size
from 420 acres to 5; six of them holding 100 acres and upwards. This
was the foundation of the flourishing town of Lurgan.
Mr. Obens had 2,000 acres obtained from William Powell, the first
patentee. He had built a bawne of sods with a pallizado of boards
ditched about. Within this there was a 'good fair house of brick and
lyme,' and near it he had built four houses, inhabited by English
families. There were twenty settlers, who with their under-tenants
were able to furnish forty-six armed men. This was the beginning of
Portadown.
The fourth lot was obtained from the first patentee by Mr. Cope, who
had 3,000 acres. 'He built a bawne of lyme and stone 180 feet square,
14 feet high, with four flankers; and in three of them he had built
very good lodgings, which were three stories high.' He erected
two water-mills and one wind-mill, and near the bawne he had built
fourteen houses of timber, which were inhabited by English families.
This is now the rich district of Lough Gall.
It should be observed here that, in all these crown grants, the
patentees were charged crown rents only for the _arable_ lands
conveyed by their title-deeds, bogs, wastes, mountain, and unreclaimed
lands of every description being thrown in gratuitously; amounting
probably to ten or fifteen times the quantity of demised ground set
down in acres. Lord Lurgan's agent, Mr. Hancock, at the commencement
of his evidence before the Devon Commission, stated that 'Lord Lurgan
is owner of about 24,600 acres, with a population of 23,800, under the
census of 1841'--that is, by means of original reclamation, drainage,
and other works of agricultural improvement, Mr. Brownlow's 2,500
acres of the year 1619, had silently grown up to 24,600 acres, and
his hundred swordsmen, or pikemen, the representatives of 57 families,
with a few subordinates, had multiplied to 23,800 souls. Now Mr.
Hancock founds the tenant-right custom upon the fact that few, if any,
of the 'patentees were wealthy;' we may therefore fairly presume that
the _settlers built their own houses, and made their own improvements
at their own expense_, contrary to the English practice.' As the
population increased, and 'arable' land became valuable, bogs, wastes,
and barren land were gradually reclaimed and cultivated, through
the hard labour and at the cost of the occupying tenantry, until the
possessions of his descendants have spread over ten times the area
nominally demised by the crown to their progenitor. This process went
on all over the province.
Sixteen years passed away, and in the opinion of the Government the
London companies and the Irish Society, instead of reforming as Irish
planters, went on from bad to worse. Accordingly, in 1631, Charles I.
found it necessary to bring them into the Star Chamber. In a letter to
the lords justices he said:--
'Our father, of blessed memory, in his wisdom and singular care,
both to fortify and preserve that country of Ireland from foreign and
inward forces, and also for the better establishment of true religion,
justice, civility, and commerce, found it most necessary to erect
British plantations there; and, to that end, ordained and published
many politic and good orders, and for the encouragement of planters
gave them large proportions and privileges. Above the rest, his grace
and favour was most enlarged to the Londoners, who undertook the
plantation of a considerable part of Ulster, and were specially
chosen for their ability and professed zeal to public works; and yet
advertisements have been given from time to time, not only by private
men, but by all succeeding deputies, and by commissioners sent from
hence and chosen there, and being many of them of our council, that
the _Londoners for private lucre_ have broken and neglected both their
general printed ordinances and other particular directions given by us
and our council here, so as if they hall escape unpunished all others
will be heartened to do the like, and in the end expose that our
kingdom to former confusions and dangers; for prevention whereof we
have, upon mature advice of our councillors for those causes, caused
them to be questioned in our high court of Star-chamber here, whence
commission is now sent to examine witnesses, upon interrogatories, for
discovery of the truth; and because we understand that the Londoners
heretofore prevailed with some, from whom we expected better service,
that in the return of the last commission many things agreed under the
hands of most commissioners were not accordingly certified: Now that
our service may not surfer by like partiality, we will and require
you to have an especial eye to this business; and take care that this
commission be faithfully executed, and that no practice or indirect
means be used, either to delay the return or to frustrate the ends of
truth in every interrogatory.'
This proceeding on the part of the crown was ascribed to the influence
of Bishop Bramhall, who had come over with Lord Strafford as his
chaplain. The result was, that in 1632 the whole county of Londonderry
was sequestrated, and the rents levied for the king's use, the Bishop
of Derry being appointed receiver and authorised to make leases. The
lord chancellor, with the concurrence of the other judges, decreed
that the letters patent should be surrendered and cancelled. This
decree was duly executed.
Cromwell reinstated the companies in their possessions, and Charles
II., instead of reversing the forfeiture, granted a new charter. This
charter founded a system of protection and corporate exclusiveness,
the most perfect perhaps that ever existed in the three kingdoms.
He began by constituting Londonderry a county, and Derry city a
corporation--to be called Londonderry. He named the aldermen and
burgesses, who were to hold their offices during their natural lives.
He placed both the county and city under the control of 'the Irish
Society,' which was then definitely formed. He appointed Sir Thomas
Adams first governor, and John Saunders, deputy governor. He also
appointed the twenty-four assistants, all citizens of London. He
invested the society with full power 'to send orders and directions
from, this kingdom of England into the said realm of Ireland, by
letters or otherwise, for the ordering, directing, and disposing of
all and all manner of matters and things whatsoever of and concerning
the same plantation, or the disposition or government thereof. The
grant of property was most comprehensive:--
'We also will, and, by these presents for us, our heirs and
successors, do give, grant, and confirm to the said society of the
governor and assistants [London] of the new plantation in Ulster
within the realm of Ireland, and their successors: 'All that the city,
fort, and town of Derry, and all edifices and structures thereof, with
the appurtenances, in the county of the city of Derry aforesaid, in
the province of Ulster, in our realm of Ireland; and also the whole
island of Derry, with the appurtenances, and all lands and the whole
ground within the island of Derry aforesaid, in the said county of the
city of Derry, otherwise Londonderry, within the province of Ulster,
in our aforesaid realm of Ireland. And also all those lands next
adjacent to the said city or town of Derry, lying and being on or
towards the west part of the river of Loughfoyle, containing by
estimation four thousand acres, besides bog and barren mountains,
which said bog and barren mountains may be had and used as waste to
the same city belonging. And also all that portion and proportion
of land by the general survey of all the lands in the aforesaid late
county of Coleraine, now Londonderry, heretofore taken, called the
great proportion of Boughtbegg, lying and being in the barony or
precinct of Coleraine, now Londonderry, within the province of Ulster
aforesaid, in our said realm of Ireland; that is to say, all lands,
tenements, and other hereditaments, called and known by the names, and
situate, lying, and being in or within the several towns, villages,
hamlets, places, balliboes, or parcels of land following, that is to
say: Hacketbegg, being two balliboes of land; Aglakightagh, being two
balliboes of land; Altybryan, being one balliboe of land; Bratbooly,
being one balliboe of land; Hackmoore, being one balliboe of land;
Tirecurrin, being one balliboe of land; Edermale, being one balliboe
of land; Lennagorran, being one balliboe of land; Knockmult, being one
balliboe of land; Boughtmore, being one balliboe of land; Boughtbegg,
being one balliboe of land, &c.
'We will also, and by these presents for us, our heirs and successors,
do grant and confirm to the said society of the governor and
assistants [London] of the new plantation in Ulster, and their
successors, that they and their successors, and also all their
assigns, deputies, ministers, and servants shall and may have full
liberty of fishing, hawking, and fowling in all the places, tenements,
shores, and coasts aforesaid, at their will and pleasure.
'And that it shall and may be lawful to and for them and every of them
to draw and dry their nets, and pack the fishes there taken upon any
part of the shores and coasts aforesaid where they shall fish; and
the salmons and other fishes there taken to take thence and carry away
without any impediment, contradiction, or molestation of us or others
whomsoever, wheresoever it shall happen to be done.
'And that in like manner they may have the several fishings and
fowlings within the city of Londonderry aforesaid, and in all lands
and tenements before mentioned to be granted and confirmed to the said
society of the governor and assistants [London] of the new plantation
in Ulster and their successors, and in the river and water of
Loughfoile, to the ebb of the sea, and in the river or water of Bann
to Loughneagh.'
The grants were made without any reservation in favour of the tenants
or the old inhabitants, saving some portions of land given by letters
patent by his grandfather to 'certain _Irish gentlemen_ in the said
county of Londonderry, heretofore inhabiting and residing, and who
were heretofore made freeholders, and their successors, under a small
yearly rent,' which was to be paid to the Irish Society. Even the
Irish gentlemen were not allowed to hold their ancient inheritance
directly under the crown. I am informed that there is but one Roman
Catholic landed gentleman now remaining in the whole province of
Ulster.
The Londoners had extraordinary privileges as traders. They had free
quarters in every port throughout the kingdom, while they treated all
but the members of their own body as 'foreigners.' They knew nothing
of reciprocity:--'And further we will, and, by these presents for us,
our heirs and successors, do grant and confirm to the said mayor and
commonalty and citizens of our city of Londonderry aforesaid, that all
citizens of the said city of Londonderry and liberty of the same (as
much as in us is) be for ever quit and free, and all their things
throughout all Ireland, of all tolls, wharfage, murage, anchorage,
beaconage, pavage, pontage, piccage, stallage, passage, and lestage,
and of all other tolls and duties.'
The 'foreigners,' including all his majesty's subjects but the
favoured few within the walls of Derry, were forbidden to buy or sell,
or practise any trade in this sanctuary of freedom and head-centre
of 'civility.' 'And that merchants and others which are not of the
freedom of the city of Londonderry aforesaid shall not sell by
retail any wines or other wares whatsoever within the same city of
Londonderry, the suburbs, liberties, or franchises of the same, upon
pain of forfeiture for the things so bought, or the value thereof,
to the use of the mayor and commonalty and citizens of the city of
Londonderry aforesaid. And also that no person being a foreigner from
the freedom of the city aforesaid shall use or exercise within the
same city, liberties or suburbs of the same, any art, mystery, or
manual occupation whatsoever, to make his gain and profit thereof,
upon pain of forfeiture of forty shillings for every time wherein
such person shall use or exercise within the said city of Londonderry,
liberties, and suburbs of the same, any art, mystery, or manual
occupation as aforesaid.'
Foreigners were not allowed to buy from or sell to foreigners, and
there was to be no market for the accommodation of the unprivileged
inhabitants within seven miles of the city.
Similar exclusive privileges were conferred upon the corporation of
Coleraine. Such was the system established by the City of London in
its model communities in Ireland--normal schools of freedom, fountains
of civilising and Christianising influences which were to reclaim and
convert the barbarous and superstitious natives into loyal subjects
and enlightened Protestants! What the natives beheld in Londonderry
was, in fact, a royal organisation of selfishness, bigotry, and
monopoly, of the most intensely exclusive and repulsive character. In
one sense the Londoners in Derry showed that they peculiarly prized
the blessings of civilisation, for they kept them all to themselves.
The fountain was flowing in the most tempting manner before the
thirsty Irish, but let them dare to drink of it at their peril! A fine
which no Irishman was then able to pay must be the penalty for every
attempt at civilisation!
The representatives of Derry and Coleraine were not only elected
without cost, but paid for their attendance in Parliament.
From the very beginning, the greatest possible care was taken to
keep out the Irish. The society, in 1615, sent precepts to all the
companies requiring each of them to send one or two artisans, with
their families, into Ulster, to settle there; and directions were also
given, in order that Derry might not in future be peopled with Irish,
that twelve Christ's Hospital and other poor children should be sent
there as apprentices and servants, and the inhabitants were to be
prohibited from taking Irish apprentices. Directions were also given
to the companies, to repair the churches on their several proportions,
and furnish the ministers with a bible, common-prayer book, and a
communion cup. The trades which the society recommended as proper to
introduce into Ulster were, weavers of common cloth, fustians, and
new stuffs, felt-makers and trimmers of hats, and hat-band makers,
locksmiths and farriers, tanners and fellmongers, iron makers,
glass-makers, pewterers, coast fishermen, turners, basket-makers,
tallow-chandlers, dyers, and curriers.
The Christ's Hospital children arrived safe, and became the precious
seed of the 'prentice boys.
In 1629 the following return was made of the total disbursements by
the Londoners in Derry from January 2, 1609, to this year:--
£
For 77-1/2 houses at 140 l. a house 10,850
For 33 houses at 80 l. a house 2,680
For the Lord Bishop's house 500
For the walls and fortifications 8,357
For digging the ditch and filling earth for the rampire 1,500
For levelling earth to lay the rampire 500
For building a faggot quay at the water-gate 100
For two quays at the lime kilns 10
For the building of the town house 500
For the quays at the ferry 60
For carriage and mounting the ordnance 40
For arms 558
For a guardhouse 50
For the platforms for bulwarks 300
For some work done at the old church 40
For some work done at the town pike 6
For sinking 22 cellars, and sundry of the houses not
done at first, at 20 s. cellar, one with another 440
For the building of lime kilns 120
______
26,611
______
Sum total, as given in the Commissioners' account 27,197
The exclusive and protective system utterly failed to accomplish its
purpose in keeping out the Irish.
Sir Thomas Phillips made a muster-roll in 1622, in which he gives
110 as the number of settlers in the city of Derry capable of bearing
arms. There are but two Irish names in the list--Ermine M'Swine, and
James Doherty. The first, from his Christian name, seemed to have
been of mixed blood, the son of a judge, which would account for
his orthodoxy. But his presence might have reminded the citizens
unpleasantly of the Irish battle-axes. Never were greater pains taken
to keep a community pure than within the sacred precincts of the
Derry walls; and never was Protestantism more tenderly fostered by
the state--so far as secular advantages could do it. The natives
were treated as 'foreigners.' No trade was permitted except by the
chartered British. They were free of tolls all over the land, and for
their sake restrictions were placed on everybody that could in any way
interfere with their worldly interests. So complete was the system
of exclusion kept up by the English Government and the London
corporation, in this grand experiment for planting religion and
civility among a barbarous people, that, so late as the year 1708,
the Derry corporation considered itself nothing more or less than _a
branch of the City of London_! In that year they sent an address to
the Irish Society, to be presented through them to the queen. 'In this
address they stated themselves to be a branch of the City of London.
The secretary was ordered to wait upon the lord lieutenant of Ireland
with the address and entreat the favour of his lordship's advice
concerning the presenting of the same to her majesty.' A few days
after it was announced that the address had been graciously received,
and published in the _Gazette_.
The Irish were kept out of the enclosed part of the city till a late
period. In the memory of the present generation there was no Catholic
house within the walls, and I believe it is not much longer since
the Catholic servants within the sacred enclosure were obliged to go
outside at night to sleep among their kinsfolk. The English garrison
did not multiply very fast. In 1626 there were only 109 families
in the city, of which five were families of soldiers liable to
be removed. Archbishop King stated that in 1690 the whole of the
population of the parish, including the Donegal part, was about 700.
But the irrepressible Irish increased and multiplied around the walls
with alarming rapidity. The tide of native population rose steadily
against the ramparts of exclusion, and could no more be kept back than
the tide in the Foyle. In the general census of 1800 there were no
returns from Derry. But in 1814 it was stated in a report by the
deputation from the Irish Society, that the population amounted at
that time to 14,087 persons. This must have included the suburbs. In
the census of 1821 the city was found to have 9,313 inhabitants. The
city and suburbs together contained 16,971.
The report of the commissioners of public instruction in 1831 made a
startling disclosure as to the effect of the system of exclusion in
this 'branch of the City of London.' In the parish of Templemore (part
of) there were--
Members of the Established Church 3,166
Presbyterians 5,811
Roman Catholics 9,838
The report of 1834 gave the Roman Catholics, 10,299; the
Presbyterians, 6,083; and the Church only 3,314.
The figures now are--Catholics 12,036
Protestants of all denominations 8,839
Majority of Irish and Catholics in this
'branch of the City of London' 3,197
This majority is about equal to the whole number which the exclusive
system, with all its 'protection' and 'bounties,' could produce for
the Established Church in the course of two centuries! If the Irish
had been admitted to the Pale of English civilisation, and instructed
in the industrial arts by the settlers, the results with respect to
religion might have been very different. In the long run the Church
of Rome has been the greatest gainer by coercion. Derry has been a
miniature representation of the Establishment. The 'prentice boys,
like their betters, must yield to the spirit of the age, and submit
with the best grace they can to the rule of religious equality.
The plantation was, however, wonderfully successful on the whole. In
thirty years, towns, fortresses, factories, arose, pastures, ploughed
up, were converted into broad corn-fields, orchards, gardens, hedges,
&c. were planted. How did this happen? 'The answer is that it sprang
from the security of tenure which the plantation settlement supplied.
The landlords were in every case bound to make fixed estates to their
tenants at the risk of sequestration and forfeiture. Hence their
power of selling their plantation rights and improvements. This is the
origin of Ulster tenant-right.'
Yet the work went on slowly enough in some districts. The viceroy,
Chichester, was not neglected in the distribution of the spoils. He
not only got the O'Dogherty's country, Innishown, but a large tract in
Antrim, including the towns of Carrickfergus and Belfast. An English
tourist travelling that way in 1635 gives a quaint description of the
country in that transition period:--
On July 5 he landed at Carrickfergus, where he found that Lord
Chichester had a stately house, 'or rather like a prince's palace.'
In Belfast, he said, my Lord Chichester had another _daintie_, stately
palace, which, indeed, was the glory and beauty of the town. And there
were also _daintie_ orchards, gardens, and walks planted. The Bishop
of Dromore, to whom the town of Dromore entirely belonged, lived
there in a 'little timber house.' He was not given to hospitality, for
though his chaplain was a Manchester man, named Leigh, he allowed
his English visitor to stop at an inn over the way. 'This,' wrote the
tourist, 'is a very dear house, 8 d. ordinary for ourselves, 6 d. for
our servants, and we were overcharged in _beere_.' The way thence
to Newry was most difficult for a stranger to find out. 'Therein he
wandered, and, being lost, fell among the Irish _touns_.' The Irish
houses were the poorest cabins he had seen, erected in the middle of
fields and grounds which they farmed and rented. 'This,' he added,
'is a wild country, not inhabited, planted, nor enclosed.' He gave an
Irishman 'a groat' to bring him into the way, yet he led him, like a
villein, directly out of the way, and so left him in the lurch.
Leaving Belfast, this Englishman said: 'Near hereunto, Mr. Arthur
Hill, son and heir of Sir Moyses Hill, hath a brave plantation,
which he holds by lease, and which has still forty years to come.
The plantation, it is said, doth yield him 1,000 l. per annum.
Many Lancashire and Cheshire men are here planted. They sit upon a
rack-rent, and pay 5 s. or 6 s. for good ploughing land, which now is
clothed with excellent good _corne_.'
According to the Down survey, made twenty-two years later, Dromore had
not improved: 'There are no buildings in this parish; only Dromore, it
being a market town, hath some old thatched houses and a ruined church
standing in it. What other buildings are in the parish are nothing but
removeable _creaghts_.'
To the economist and the legislator, the most interesting portions
of the state papers of the 16th and 17th centuries are, undoubtedly,
those which tell us how the people lived, how they were employed,
housed, and fed, what measure of happiness fell to their lot, and what
were the causes that affected their welfare, that made them contented
and loyal, or miserable and disaffected. Contemporary authors, who
deal with social phenomena, are also read with special interest for
the same reason. They present pictures of society in their own time,
and enable us to conceive the sort of life our forefathers led, and to
estimate, at least in a rough way, what they did for posterity.
Harris was moved to write his 'History of Down' by indignation at
the misrepresentations of the English press of his day. They had the
audacity to say that 'the Irish people were uncivilised, rude, and
barbarous; that they delighted in butter _tempered_ with oatmeal,
and sometimes flesh without bread, which they ate raw, having
first pressed the blood out of it; and drank down large draughts of
usquebaugh for digestion, reserving their little corn for the horses;
that their dress and habits were no less barbarous; that cattle
was their chief wealth; that they counted it no infamy to commit
robberies, and that in their view violence and murder were in no way
displeasing to God; that the country was overgrown with woods, which
abounded in wolves and other voracious animals,' &c. It was, no doubt,
very provoking that such stories should be repeated 130 years
after the plantation of Ulster, and Harris undertook, with laudable
patriotism, to show 'how far this description of Ireland was removed
from the truth, from the present state of only one county in the
kingdom.' The information which the well-informed writer gives is most
valuable, and very much to the purpose of our present inquiry.
More than half the arable ground was then (in 1745) under tillage,
affording great quantities of oats, some rye and wheat, and 'plenty
of barley,' commonly called English or spring barley, making excellent
malt liquor, which of late, by means of drying the grain with Kilkenny
coals, was exceedingly improved. The ale made in the county was
distinguished for its fine colour and flavour. The people found the
benefit of '_a sufficient tillage_, being not obliged to take up
with the poor unwholesome diet which the commonalty of Munster and
Connaught had been forced to in the late years of scarcity; and
sickness and mortality were not near so great as in other provinces of
the kingdom.'
Yet the county Down seemed very unfavourable for tillage. The
economists of our time, perhaps our viceroys too, would say it was
only fit for bullocks and sheep. It was 'naturally coarse, and full of
hills; the air was sharp and cold in winter, with earlier frosts than
in the south, the soil inclined to _wood_, unless constantly ploughed
and kept open, and the low grounds degenerated into morass or bog
where the drains were neglected. Yet, by the constant labour and
industry of the inhabitants, the morass grounds had of late, by
burning and proper management, produced surprisingly large crops
of rye and oats. Coarse lands, manured with lime, had answered the
farmers' views in wheat, and yielded a great produce, and wherever
marl was found there was great store of barley. The staple commodity
of the county was linen, due care of which manufacture brought great
wealth among the people. Consequently the county was observed to be
'populous and flourishing, though it did not become amenable to the
laws till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, nor fully till the reign of
James I.' The English habit, language, and manners almost universally
prevailed. 'Irish,' says Harris, 'can be heard only among the inferior
rank of _Irish Papists_, and even that little diminishes every day, by
the great desire the poor natives have that their children should
be taught to read and write in the English tongue in the Charter, or
other English Protestant schools, to which they willingly send them.'
The author exults in the progress of Protestantism. There were but two
Catholic gentlemen in the county who had estates, and their income was
very moderate. When the priests were registered in 1704 there were but
thirty in the county. In 1733 the books of the hearth-money collectors
showed--
Protestant families in the county Down 14,000
Catholic families 5,210
Total Protestants, reckoning five a family 70,300
Total Catholics 26,050
______
Protestant majority 44,250
Our author, who was an excellent Protestant of the 18th century type,
with boundless faith in the moral influence of the Charter schools,
would be greatly distressed if he could have lived in these degenerate
days, and seen the last religious census, which gives the following
figures for the county of Down:--
Protestants of all denominations 202,026
Catholics 97,240
_______
Total population 299,266
The total number of souls in the county in the year 1733 was 96,350.
These figures show that the population was more than trebled in 130
years, and that the Catholics have increased nearly fourfold.
The history of the Hertfort estate illustrates every phase of the
tenant-right question. It contains 66,000 acres, and comprises the
barony of Upper Massereene, part of the barony of Upper Belfast, in
the county of Antrim, and part of the baronies of Castlereagh and
Lower Iveagh, in the county of Down; consisting altogether of no
less than 140 townlands. It extends from Dunmurry to Lough Neagh, a
distance of about fourteen miles as the crow flies. When the Devon
commission made its inquiry, the population upon this estate amounted
to about 50,000. It contains mountain land, and the mountains are
particularly wet, because, unlike the mountains in other parts of the
country, the substratum is a stiff retentive clay. At that time there
was not a spot of mountain or bog upon Lord Hertfort's estate that
was not let by the acre. About one-third of the land is of first-rate
quality; there are 15,000 or 16,000 acres of mountain, and about the
same quantity of land of medium quality.
In the early part of Elizabeth's reign this property formed a section
of the immense territory ruled over by the O'Neills. One of these
princes was called the Captain of _Kill-Ultagh_. In those times, when
might was right, this redoubtable chief levied heavy contributions
on the settlers, partly in retaliation for aggressions and outrages
perpetrated by the English upon his own people. The queen, with the
view of effecting a reconciliation, requested the lord deputy, Sir H.
Sidney, to pay the Irish chief a visit. He did so, but his welcome
was by no means gratifying. In fact, O'Neill would not condescend to
receive him at all. His reason for exhibiting a want of hospitality
so un-Irish was this:--He said his 'home had been pillaged, his lands
swept of their cattle, and his vassals shot like wild animals.' The
lord deputy, in his notes of the northern tour, written in October,
1585, says:--'I came to Kill-Ultagh, which I found rich and plentiful,
after the manner of these countries. But the captain was proud and
insolent; he would not come to me, nor have I apt reason to visit
him as I would. But he shall be paid for this before long; I will not
remain in his debt.' The 'apt reason' for carrying out this threat
soon occurred. Tyrone had once more taken the field against the queen;
the captain joined his relative; all his property was consequently
forfeited, and handed over to Sir Fulke Conway, a Welsh soldier of
some celebrity. Sir Fulke died in 1626, and his brother, who was a
favourite of Charles I., succeeded to the estate, to which his royal
patron added the lands of Derryvolgie, thus making him lord of nearly
70,000 statute acres of the broad lands of Down and Antrim. The
Conways brought over a number of English and Welsh families, who
settled on the estate, and intermarrying with the natives, a race of
sturdy yeomen soon sprang up. The Conways were good landlords, and
greatly beloved by the people. With the addition made to the property
the king conferred upon the fortunate recipient of his bounty the
title of Baron. At the close of 1627, Lord Conway began the erection
of a castle (finished in 1630) on a picturesque mount overlooking
the Lagan, and commanding a view of the hills of Down. During the
struggles of 1641 the castle was burned down, together with
the greater part of the town, which up to this time was called
Lisnagarvah, but thenceforth it received the name of Lisburn. Very
little, however, had been done by the settlers when the outbreak
occurred, for an English traveller in 1635 remarked that 'neither the
town nor the country thereabouts was _planted_, being almost all woods
and moorish.' About a month after the breaking out of the rebellion
the king's forces, under Sir George Rawdon, obtained a signal victory
over the Irish commanded by Sir Phelim O'Neill, Sir Con M'Guinness,
and General Plunket. In 1662 the town obtained a charter of
incorporation from Charles II., and sent two members to the Irish
parliament, the church being at the same time made the cathedral for
Down and Connor. The Conway estates passed to the Seymours in this
way. Popham Seymour, Esq., was the son of Sir Edward Seymour, fourth
baronet, described by Bishop Burnet as 'the ablest man of his party,
the first speaker of the House of Commons that was not bred to the
law; a graceful man, bold and quick, and of high birth, being the
elder branch of the Seymour family.' Popham Seymour inherited the
estates of the Earl of Conway, who was his cousin, under a will dated
August 19, 1683, and assumed in consequence the surname of Conway.
This gentleman died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother
Francis, who was raised to the peerage in 1703 by the title of Baron
Conway, of Kill-Ultagh, county Antrim. His eldest son, the second
baron, was created Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hertfort in 1750. In
1765 he was Viceroy of Ireland, and in 1793 he was created Marquis
of Hertfort. The present peer, born in the year 1800, is the fourth
marquis, having succeeded his father in 1842.
Lisburn is classic ground. It represents all sorts of historic
interest. On this hill, now called the Castle Gardens, the Captain
of Kill-Ultagh mustered his galloglasse. Here, amid the flames of the
burning town, was fought a decisive battle between the English and the
Irish, one of the Irish chiefs in that encounter being the ancestor of
the restorer of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The battle lasted till near
midnight, when the Irish were put to flight, leaving behind them dead
and wounded thrice the number of the entire garrison. Here, on this
mount, stood William III. in June, 1690. I saw in the church the
monument of Jeremy Taylor, and the pulpit from which the most eloquent
of bishops delivered his immortal sermons. I saw the tablet erected
by his mother to the memory of Nicholson, the young hero of Delhi,
and those of several other natives of Lisburn who have contributed,
by their genius and courage, to promote the fame and power of England.
Among the rest Lieutenant Dobbs, who was killed in an encounter with
Paul Jones, the American pirate, in Carrickfergus Bay.
I received a hospitable welcome from a loyal gentleman in the house
which was the residence of General Munroe, the hero of '98, and saw
the spot in the square where he was hanged in view of his own windows.
But I confess that none of the monuments of the past excited so much
interest in my mind as the house of Louis Crommelin, the Huguenot
refugee, who founded the linen manufacture at Lisburn. That house is
now occupied by Mr. Hugh M'Call, author of 'Our Staple Manufactures,'
who worthily represents the intelligence, the public spirit, and
patriotism of the English and French settlers, with a dash of the
Irish ardour, a combination of elements which perhaps produces the
best 'staple' of character. I stood upon the identical oak floor upon
which old Crommelin planned and worked, and in the grave-yard
Mr. M'Call deciphered for me the almost obliterated inscriptions,
recording the deaths of various members of the Crommelin family. Their
leader, Louis himself, died in July, 1727, aged 75 years.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove three quarters of a
million of Protestants out of France. A great number settled
in London, where they established the arts of silk-weaving in
Spitalfields and of fancy jewellery in St. Giles's. About 6,000 fled
to Ireland, of whom many settled in Dublin, where they commenced the
silk manufacture, and where one of them, La Touche, opened the first
banking establishment. Wherever they settled they were missionaries of
industry, and examples of perseverance and success in skilled labour,
as well as integrity in commerce. Many of those exiles settled in
Lisburn, and the colony was subsequently joined by Louis Crommelin,
a native of Armandcourt near St. Quentin, where for several centuries
his forefathers had carried on the flaxen manufacture on their own
extensive possessions in the province of Picardy. Foreseeing the
storm of persecution, the family had removed to Holland, and, at the
personal request of the Prince of Orange, Louis came over to take
charge of the colonies of his countrymen, which had been established
in different parts of Ireland. The linen trade had flourished in this
country from the earliest times. Linen formed, down to the reign of
Elizabeth, almost the only dress of the population, from the
king down--saffron-coloured, and worn in immense flowing robes,
occasionally wrapped in various forms round the body. Lord Stafford
had exerted himself strenuously to improve the fabric by the forcible
introduction of better looms; but little had been done in this
direction till the Huguenots came and brought their own looms, suited
for the manufacture of fine fabrics. Mark Dupre, Nicholas de la
Cherois, Obre, Rochet, Bouchoir, St. Clair, and others, whose ashes
lie beside the Lisburn Cathedral and in the neighbouring churchyards,
and many of whose descendants still survive among the gentry and
manufacturers of Down and Antrim, were, with Crommelin, the chief
promoters of the linen trade which has wrought such wonders in the
province of Ulster. Lord Conway granted the Lisburn colonists a site
for a place of worship, which was known as the French Church, and
stood on the ground now occupied by the Court-house in Castle Street.
The Government paid 60 l. a year to their first minister, Charles de
la Valade, who was succeeded by his relative, the Rev. Saumarez du
Bourdieu, distinguished as a divine and a historian. His father was
chaplain to the famous Schomberg, and when he fell from his horse
mortally wounded the reverend gentleman carried him in his arms to
the spot on which he died a short time after. Talent was hereditary in
this family, the Rev. John du Bourdieu, rector of Annahilt, was author
of the Statistical Surveys of Down and Antrim, published by the Royal
Dublin Society. Referring to his ancestors he says that his father
had been fifty-six years minister of the French Church in Lisburn. Mr.
M'Call states that, for some time before his death in 1812, he held
the living of Lambeg, the members of the French Church having by that
time merged into union with the congregation of the Lisburn Cathedral.
A similar process took place in Dublin, Portarlington, and elsewhere,
the descendants of the Huguenots becoming zealous members of the
Established Church.
Du Bourdieu informs us that Louis Crommelin obtained a patent for
carrying on and improving the linen manufacture, with a grant of 800
l. per annum, as interest of 10,000 l., to be advanced by him as a
capital for carrying on the same; 200 l. per annum for his trouble;
120 l. per annum for three assistants; and 160 l. for the support of
the chaplain. Mr. M'Call, in his book, copies the following note of
payments made by the Government from 1704 to 1708:--
£ s. d.
Louis Crommelin, as overseer of linen manufacture 470 19 0
W. Crommelin, salary and rent of Kilkenny factory 451 6 7
Louis Crommelin, to repay him for sums advanced to
flax dressers and reed makers, and for services of
French ministers 2,225 0 0
Louis Crommelin, for individual expenses and for
sums paid Thomas Turner, of Lurgan, for buying
flax-seed and printing reports 993 4 0
Louis Crommelin, three years' pension 600 0 0
French minister's two years' pension 120 0 0
_______________
Total £4,860 9 7
It should be mentioned, that when the owner of Lisburn, then Earl of
Hertfort, held the office of lord lieutenant in 1765, with his son,
Viscount Beauchamp, as chief secretary, he rendered very valuable
services to the linen trade, and was a liberal patron of the damask
manufacture, which arrived at a degree of perfection hitherto
unequalled, in the hands of Mr. William Coulson, founder of the great
establishment of that name which still flourishes in Lisburn, and
from whom not only the court of St. James's but foreign courts also
received their table linen. Du Bourdieu mentions that Lisburn and
Lurgan were the great markets for cambrics--the name given to cloth
of this description, which was then above five shillings a yard; under
that price it was called lawn. In that neighbourhood cambric had been
made which sold for 1 l. 2 s. 9 d. a yard unbleached. The principal
manufacturing establishments in addition to Messrs. Coulsons' are
those of the Messrs. Richardson and Co. and the Messrs. Barbour.
Lord Dufferin has written the ablest defence of the Irish landlords
that has ever appeared. In that masterly work he says: 'But though
a dealer in land and a payer of wages, I am above all things an
Irishman, and as an Irishman I rejoice in any circumstance which tends
to strengthen the independence of the tenant farmer, or to add to
the comfort of the labourer's existence.' If titles and possessions
implied the inheritance of religion and blood, Lord Dufferin ought
indeed to be 'Irish of the Irish' as the men of Ulster in the olden
times proudly called themselves. On the railroad from Belfast to
Bangor there is a station constructed with singular beauty, like
the castellated entrance to a baronial hall, and on the elaborately
chiselled stone we read 'Clandeboye.' Under the railway from Graypoint
on Belfast Lough runs a carriage-drive two miles long, to the famous
seat of the O'Neills, where his lordship's mansion is situated,
enclosed among aged trees, remembrancers of the past. Perhaps, there
is no combination of names in the kingdom more suggestive of the
barbaric power of the middle ages and the most refined culture of
modern civilisation. The avenue, kept like a garden walk, with a
flourishing plantation on each side, was cut through some of the
best farms on the estate, and must have been a work of great expense.
Taking this in connection with other costly improvements, among which
are several picturesque buildings for the residence of workmen--model
lodging-houses resembling fancy villas at the seaside--we can
understand how his lordship, within the last fifteen years, has paid
away in wages of labour the immense sum of 60,000 l., at the rate of
4,000 l. a year.
The Abbot of Bangor never gave employment like that. William O'Donnon,
the last of the line, was found in the thirty-second year of Henry
VIII. to be possessed of thirty-one townlands in Ards and Upper
Clandeboye, the grange of Earbeg in the county Antrim, the two
Copeland Islands, the tithes of the island of Raghery, three rectories
in Antrim, three in Down, and a townland in the Isle of Man. The
abbey, some of the walls of which still remain, adjoining the parish
church, was built early in the twelfth century. We are informed by
Archdall, that it had so gone to ruin in 1469 through the neglect
of the abbot, that he was evicted by order of Pope Paul II., who
commanded that the friars of the third order of St. Francis should
immediately take possession of it, which was accordingly done,
says Wadding, by Father Nicholas of that order. The whole of the
possessions were granted by James I. to James Viscount Clandeboye.
Bangor was one of the most celebrated schools in Ireland when this
island was said to have been 'the _quiet_ abode of learning and
sanctity.' As to the quiet, I could never make out at what period it
existed, nor how the 'thousands' of students at Bangor could have been
supported. The Danes came occasionally up the lough and murdered the
monks _en masse_, plundering the shrines. But the greatest scourges of
the monasteries in Down and elsewhere were, not the foreign pagans and
pirates, but the professedly Christian chiefs of their own country. It
appears, therefore, that neither the Irish clergy nor the people have
much reason to regret the flight of the Celtic princes and nobles, who
were utterly unable to fulfil the duties of a government; and who did
little or nothing but consume what the industry of the peasants, under
unparalleled difficulties, produced. The people of Clandeboye and
Dufferin might have been proud that their chief received 40 l. a year
as a tribute or blackmail from Lecale, that he might abstain from
visiting the settlers there with his galloglasse; but Lord Dufferin,
the successor of the O'Neill of Clandeboye, spends among the peasantry
of the present day 4,000 l. a year in wages. And how different is the
lot of the people! Not dwelling in wattled huts under the oaks of the
primeval forest, but in neat slated houses, with whitewashed walls,
looking so bright and pretty in the sunshine, like snowdrops in the
distant landscape. On the hill between Bangor and Newtownards, Lord
Dufferin has erected a beautiful tower, from which, reclining on his
couch, he can see the country to an immense extent, from the mountains
of Antrim to the mountains of Mourne, Strangford Lough, Belfast Lough,
the Antrim coast, and Portpatrick at the other side of the Channel,
all spread out before him like a coloured map.