THE HARRYING OF SIR RANDAL.
To complete the uprooting of the Ulster chiefs, an onslaught on
Sir Randal MacDonnell was undertaken. The persecution of the other
chieftains might be palliated by the plea of political necessity;
but, with the passing of Elizabeth, no such excuse in MacDonnell’s
case existed. He, like O’Cahan, had been induced by Chichester
to forsake O’Neill in 1602, and the surrender at Mellifont was
largely brought about by this desertion. His loyalty to James I.
as a Scottish noble was undoubted, but for full seven years he was
pursued by the malice of the Deputy, who thwarted the King’s wishes
in his regard, to feed a personal grudge and win private profit. This
vendetta ended in Chichester’s occupying the judgment seat to decide
the title to Sir Randal’s fishery, after he had secretly grabbed it
for himself.
MacDonnell’s Patent was the first issued by James on becoming King of
Ireland in 1603. It was a favour shown to Randal as the Scoto-Irish
Lord of the Isles, and the brother-in-law of Hugh O’Neill. It
confirmed to him 333,907 acres in Antrim—an enormous estate—but
reserved to the Crown three-fourths of the tidal fishery of the Bann.
This grant (dated 6th July, 1603) was distasteful to the hungry
Captains avid for spoil, and cavil was raised against it from the
outset.
To meet opposition, Sir Randal obtained a second King’s Letter,
instructing Deputy Cary to issue an amended Patent. Cary was slow
in his obedience, and was recalled before complying. Chichester, on
succeeding him, ignored the royal order altogether. He had forged for
himself a life-estate in the Bann and Lough Neagh, by “amplifying”
his Patents, and astutely worked to prevent recognition being given
to the title of any legitimate owner. Delay drove MacDonnell to apply
for a third King’s Letter, and James I. signed this in April, 1606.
Chichester’s hand was thereby forced; but—nimble in resource—he
dispatched Hamilton to London to crave permission to stay the Patent.
He wrote to Cecil in June, 1606: “Sir Randal MacDonnell is neither
faithful nor obedient ... as Mr. Hamilton can at large inform you.”
The pair who had fraudulently conveyed to themselves the entire
Bann (tidal and non-tidal) with Lough Neagh, on the 14th February
and 3rd March, 1606, now battled fiercely to block the making of a
genuine grant to Randal. They failed, however, for, such was the
King’s liking towards his Scoto-Irish liegeman, that MacDonnell, who
travelled to London to checkmate the intrigue, returned triumphant
with the royal warrant. The baffled Deputy was compelled to issue the
amended Patent in July, 1606. Still he was not to be baulked, and
cast about for a new expedient to undo the King’s will. Hot foot, he
set on Hamilton to bring a suit before himself in the Privy Council,
and allege a prior title in the Bann to that of Sir Randal. In this
litigation the validity of the fishery grant was disputed; and Davies
was enlisted to assail the Patent on that point. A trio such as
Chichester, Hamilton, and Davies was not easy to match; and in legal
jousting they easily outpointed the Lord of the Isles.
Bringing on the case in Randal’s absence, the Deputy, who had
previously acted as judge in the trial of O’Cahan v. O’Neill, where
his own claim to the Bann underlay the action, bettered that shameful
precedent. Judicially weighing Hamilton’s “rights,” but without
hearing the other side, he decided that MacDonnell’s “fourth” of the
Bann should be put in sequestration “pending a suit at law”; and he
appointed his henchman, Captain Phillips, Receiver over the profits.
MacDonnell was then in London, and only learnt of the sequestration
on reaching Ireland. Straightway upon his return he sent this protest
to Cecil:—
“Upon my arrival I found myself dispossessed of the fourth part of
the fishery of the Bann, which his Majesty was pleased to grant me
by Patent, being the best stay of my living. This was wrought by
means of one Mr. James Hamilton, who, searching and prying curiously
into my Patent (as he doth into many other men’s estates), seeks to
take advantage upon words and other sly causes, thereby to void my
interest and to pass it to himself, upon other men’s grants, which he
hath purchased.”
He added that Hamilton was abetted by Captain Phillips, who had
been his own tenant of the fishing; and that they had laid two
informations against him in the Star Chamber. He, therefore, begged
Cecil to write to the Deputy “not to be a partial judge betwixt me
and those that take my fishing from me.” Little did he know that
Hamilton was only a stalking-horse for the Deputy, who, two months
before, had taken a conveyance of his fishery.
Chichester, in a letter to Cecil of the 12th September, 1606, tried
to blunt Randal’s complaint by slandering his victim anew. “There is
not a more cankered and malicious person than Sir Randal MacDonnell,
who from a beggar is made great, and yet rests unthankful.” His
report, during O’Neill’s rebellion in 1601, belied the story of the
“thankless beggar made great,” for Sir Arthur then certified that
“Randal and O’Cahan are two of the richest and strongest adherents
of Tyrone.” MacDonnell’s Patent merely gave him what his ancestors
had held through several reigns, and, on an appeal to the King, the
sequestration was quashed.
The Deputy, however, returned to the attack. On the 2nd April, 1607,
he procured a King’s Letter reciting:—“Sir Randal’s followers having
riotously asserted his right to the fourth part of the fishing of
the Bann, and having by surprise obtained King’s Letters dissolving
the sequestration of said fishings made by the Deputy and Council
pending a suit at law, the sequestration is to be re-imposed until
the suit at law be determined.” This missive arrived in Dublin just
as O’Cahan’s petition against O’Neill was being heard in the Castle
Chamber. Taught by the treatment meted out to his brother-in-law,
MacDonnell realised that, if he submitted himself to this tribunal,
he was lost. Being not only an Irish, but a Scottish chieftain,
he wielded influence at Court which the Earl of Tyrone could not
command, and was less afraid to trust himself there. So he faced for
London a third time, and again urged and won his suit before the
King. A warrant from his Majesty announced his victory on the 22nd
August, 1607, and commanded Chichester “to dissolve the sequestration
of the Bann and to take order that Sir Randal MacDonnell should enjoy
his portion of it.”
The decision would have worked a complete overthrow of the Star
Chamberers but for an unexpected turn in affairs. In September,
1607, the Flight of the Earls startled the kingdom and threw supreme
power into Chichester’s hands. The event was revolutionary, and the
confiscation of Ulster was its consequence.
With the knowledge that a Plantation was resolved on, the Deputy,
on the 13th January, 1608, raised anew the question of Sir Randal’s
“fourth.” He coolly referred to it in a letter to Cecil as “the
case in controversy between Sir Randal MacDonnell and Mr. James
Hamilton, concerning the fourth part of the fishery of the Bann,
sometime debated before me, and order thereupon made by myself and
the Council.” He went on to announce that he had “caused the King’s
learned counsel here to draw the case according to the records,” and
was sending it to London for the information of the Privy Council.
This admission that he had acted as judge in the action might seem to
show candour, but no one then was aware that MacDonnell’s fishery had
been conveyed to him. The Deputy’s adjudication in Hamilton’s favour
was the counterpart of his decision in O’Cahan v. O’Neill; yet,
so obscure were his devices, that the fact that he was personally
interested in the suit lay hidden for three centuries. The Attorney
and Solicitor-General, who “drew the case according to the records,”
knew the truth, but suppressed it. So, the Privy Council, unaware of
the guilty secret, allowed the sequestration to be re-imposed for the
third time, to the despair of Randal, who hastened to London in June,
1608. This time he met with failure there, for Chichester was now
all-powerful. His journey, however, so much upset the Deputy that, to
baffle MacDonnell beyond hope of recovery, he resorted to a desperate
shift. It took the shape of transferring his fishery to a stranger;
by which device it was hoped to raise an insurmountable obstacle in
his path. To give solemnity to the stratagem, Chichester, by an act
of State, gave it validity in the King’s name. On the 1st July, 1608,
while MacDonnell was making his way to the steps of the Throne his
“fourth” was conferred by Patent (with much other gear) on “our dear
Arthur Bassett of Dublin.”
Here indeed was legerdemain. James Hamilton we know; Thomas Irelande
we know; Auditor Ware we know; John Wakeman we know; John King we
know; Carew and Cary we know; but who was this new ensign of the
brigand troupe? He appeared in the lists with vizor down, and was
previously unknown to fame. The stranger, however, was no less a
person than Chichester’s nephew—fresh landed a year before from
Devonshire.
The manufacture for him of a Patent purporting to affectionately
embody the royal wishes was a masterstroke.