C in 1652, left Ireland, carrying with him the royal authority.' "And within a twelvemonth after, Mortogh O'Brien, the last of the Irish commanders, fubmitted to the parliament, on the ufual terms of transportation; by the favour of which," adds my author," "twenty-feven thousand men had been that year sent away.' "Cromwell," fays a late hiftorian,'" in order to get free of his enemies, did not scruple to transport forty thoufand Irifh from their own country, to fill all the armies in Europe with complaints of his cruelty, and admiration of their own valour." This, together with the multitudes destroyed by the fword, during the war, and by famine and peftilence" after it, caufed a prodigious fcarcity of people in the kingdom. But to fupply that defect, Fleetwood, deputy for the parliament, invited over feveral colonies 4 from Borl. Irish Rebel. 2 Ib. 3 Dalrymp. Mem. of Great Brit. vol. i. part 2. p. 267. The Earl of Clanrickard, finding the Irish affairs in a defperate condition, with what forces he had left, retired into the town of Carrick, where, being encompaffed by our men on all fides, he fubmitted, and obtained liberty to transport himself with three thousand men, to any foreign country in friendship with the commonwealth, within the space of three months." Ludlow's Mem. vol. i. p. 418. • Colonel Fitzpatrick was the first (in 1652) who submitted (to the parliament's commiffioners in Ireland), on condition to be tranfported with his regiment, into the fervice of the king of Spain; which was a great blow to the Irish confederacy, who were very defirous to treat in conjunction, hoping to obtain more favourable terms, in confideration of their numbers, infomuch that they published declarations against him, and the Irish clergy excommunicated him, and all thofe who joined him. Notwithstanding which Colonel O'Dwyer, commander in chief of the Irish in the counties of Waterford and Tipperary, followed his example." Id. ib. p. 403. "The Irish that fubmitted were about three thousand.” Id. ib. p. 411. d" In the fummer of 1650, the plague fo exceedingly raged in Dublin, as 'tis reported there died thereof 17000 perfons." Borl. Hift. of the Irish Rebel. f. 345. from England; offering good conditions to fuch families as would fettle in Ireland; whereupon great numbers of all forts and fexes, flocked to that kingdom." "It cannot be imagined,' in how eafy a method, and with what peaceable formality, that whole great kingdom was taken from the juft owners and proprietors, and divided among those who had no other right to it, but that they had power to keep it. In lefs than two years after Lord Clanrickard left Ireland, this new government feemed to be perfectly established; infomuch that there were many buildings erected for ornament, as well as ufe; orderly and regular plantations of trees and fences, and enclosures raised throughout the kingdom; purchases made by one from the other, at very valuable rates; and jointures fettled upon marriages; and all the conveyances and fettlements executed, as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles." On the 26th of September, 1653, the English parliament declared, that the rebels in Ireland were fubdued, and the rebellion ended; and thereupon proceeded to the distribution of their lands, in pursuance of the act of fubfcriptions 17° Caroli. "This being notified to the government of Ireland," Lord Broghill, afterwards Earl of Orrery, propofed at a council of war of all the chief commanders for the parliament, that the whole kingdom fhould be furveyed, and the number of acres taken, with the quality of them; and then, that all the foldiers fhould bring in their demands of arrears; and fo give every man, by lot, as many acres as fhould anfwer the value of his demand." "But a good and great part (fays Lord Clarendon)," as I remember, of the province of Munfter (county of Tipperary), Cromwell had referved to himself, as a demefne, as he called it, for the ftate; and in which no adventurer or foldier fhould demand his lot to be affigned; 5 Life of Clarend. vol. ii. p. 117-8. affigned; and no doubt, intended both it and the state for the making great his own family." ४ This propofal was agreed to, and all Ireland being furveyed, the best land was rated only at four fhillings an acre, and fome only at a penny. ΤΟ "No men The foldiers drew lots in what part of the kingdom their portions should be afligned them. Great abuse was committed in fetting out the adventurers fatisfaction for the money they had advanced, at the beginning of the war; for they had whole baronies fet out to them in grofs; and then they employed furveyors of their own, to make their admeasurements.' had fo great shares as they who had been inftruments to murder the king. What lands they were pleased to call unprofitable (which were thrown in gratis), they returned as fuch, let them be never fo good and profitable."" The lands held by the foldiers as unprofitable, and as fuch returned into the furveyor's office, amounted to 605,670 acres. In this manner was the whole kingdom divided between the foldiers, and the adventurers of money. CHA P. * Morrice's Life of Orrery. Id. ib. ⚫ Cart. Orm, vol. ii. fol. 301. " Id. ib. • Lord Antrim's eftate, confifting of 107,611 acres, was allotted to Sir John Clotworthy, afterwards Lord Maffareene, and a few others, in confideration of their adventures and pay, which did not in all exceed the fum of 7000l. Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 278. СНА Р. II. The transplantation of the Irish into Connaught. CROMWELL' and his council, finding the utter extirpation of the nation, which they had intended, to be in itself very difficult, and to carry in it fomewhat of horror, that made fome impreffion upon the ftone-hardness of their own hearts, after fo many thousands deftroyed by the fword, fire, famine, and the plague; and after fo many thousands tranfported into foreign parts, found out the following expedient of transplantation, which they called an act of grace. There was a large tract of land, even to the half of the province of Connaught, that was separated from the rest, by a long and large river, and which, by the plague and many maffacres, remained almoft defolate. Into this space and circuit of land, they required all the Irish ("whom Cromwell had declared innocent of the rebellion," fays Leland,) to retire by a certain day, under the penalty of death; and all who after that 'Clarend. Life, vol. ii. p. 116. 2 Hift. Ir. vol. iii. p. 409. By a proclamation of Cromwell and his council, printed at Dublin by William Bladon, in the year 1654," they were commanded to transplant themselves before the 1ft day of March next ensuing, into the province of Connaught, and county of Clare, according to former declarations, and to address themfelves to thofe that are there empowered for that purpose, to take out their respective affignments for lands, and proceed to build and fettle themselves there, and make provifion for their families; and this upon the highest penalties." See Walsh's Reply to a Perfon of Quality, p. 33. The fame contemporary writer mentions, "the rigorous execution of this proclamation, in the long imprisonment of fome, the exile of others, and the death of Hethrington in the market-place of Dublin, for not obeying it, as the paper on his breaft when he was executed, expreffing the caufe of his death, did manifeft: and in the general rule fo well known, which that time, should be found in any other part of the kingdom, man, woman, or child might be killed, by any body who faw or met them. The land within this circuit, the most barren in the kingdom, was, out of the grace and mercy of the conquerors, affigned to thofe of the nation who were enclofed, in fuch proportions as might with great industry preserve their lives; and to those perfons from whom they had taken great quantities of land in other provinces, they affigned greater proportions within this precinct. And that they might not be exalted with this merciful donative, it was a condition that accompanied this their accommodation, that they should all give releases of their former rights and titles to the land that was taken from them, in confideration of what was now affigned them; and fo they should for ever bar themselves, and their heirs, from laying claim to their old inheritance. " What should they do," continues my author, author," they would not be permitted to go out of this precinct, to fhift which they had to force the obedience of all the Irish to that proclamation, turning them to Barbadoes, or putting them to death, expreffed in plain English at Kilkenny by Colonel Axtel, in the cafe of Mrs. Martha Harpol." Id. ib. p. 148. "That all the tranfplanted Irish (says Walfh) to a man, at least the generality of them, and hereof I am very certain, deny any kind of exchange or bargain made by them for fuch lands, in lieu of their own proper eftates, or any release given, or disclaim made, or promife engaged to quit from thenceforth, or at any time after, their own former titles to those estates, whence they had been fo forcibly removed: and likewife deny that they could, if they would, prejudice, or bind, those of their children who had, by antient or late agreement, before the wars, those very eftates entailed upon them." Id. ib. Yet even those unhappy gentlemen, who were thus violently driven from their own fair estates, into thofe barren wastes of Connaught and Clare (though after a most rigorous inquifition by the late ufurpers, they were all found innocent of the rebellion), were, after the king's return, debarred by his declaration for the fettlement of Ireland, from being ever restored to their eftates, on pretence "that they had fued out decrees from the ufurpers (which, on the highest penalty, they were compelled to do), and were bound thereby, and were not to be relieved against their own act." See his majefty's Declaration, November 1660. Cart. Orm. vol. ii. fol. 216. |