service. However, when the rebels came near us, Captn. Robt. King with his troop (well mounted and well armed with back and breast, and as well disciplined as any in Ireland), was commanded to pass by their front to their left flank, as Sir Chas. Coote and Sir Ed. Povey, with the rest of their troops being before, nearer to the top of that ridge of ground, were almost past, that they might make way for our forlorn hope of musketeers, to play in the front of their great body of pikes coming on. Captn. Robt. King (an old soldier) in executing of this, saw (by the badness of the ground he marched on, and by the rebels' haste to come up) that he should not, without disorder, get by the left point of this battalia, gave orders to his men to fire in flank all at once, when they should be close up with the point of the battalia, over one another's horses' manes, which was a thing seldom heard of or practised, yet was no new thing either to him or his, for he had taught them this, amongst other points of war he had long nurtured them in, which they exactly performed, when he was come within two pikes' length of the enemy, with their carbines. At which time our forlorn hope of foot being come up, fired with excellent success on that part of the front that lay to the right hand; so that by this unsuspected way of firing by the horse (timely assisted by the foot), the enemy was soon put into disorder, with the loss of many men ; which breach Captn. King soon apprehending, and finding the pikes of the fallen men to have entangled and galled others, he rushed in with his horse, and breaking the left corner of the battalia, so amazed the rebels, as they fell into disorder, who (quitting their pikes all at once) made a great noise, and began to run; but before their running (that was almost as soon as Captn. King was got into to their front), Sir Chas. Coote and Sir Ed. Povey charged them in the flank, with their troops, with which they had kept the upper ground, on purpose to encounter with the 160 horse of the rebels; and to them was Captn. Robert King drawing to second them or to fall into the flank of this battalia (which he had new broken); but the rebel horse fled before they were able to come near, and therefore they had leisure to fall into the flank of the foot. This battalia of pikes was supposed to be 1,200. They had 1,000 musketeers which, either by bad way or staying longer than the others to receive ammunition, were not come up to begin the battle, but were within musket shot, who also ran for company. Our men pursued and killed most of them, but were commanded not to come too near Ballintober, where the credulous were to believe, some had seen beyond the castle another great body of men; so as not pursuing this victory, we lost the benefit of it. In this battle there was a young gentleman on the Irish side, who very gallantly behaved himself, after that his party was fled, getting to the corner of the ditch, where with his pike he withstood the encounter of five horse, that had spent their shot, till a gigantic soldier of the English, getting within him, slew him. And amongst the dead, one pulling a Mountero from the head of one, there fell down long tresses of flaxen hair, who being further searched, was found a woman. "11

After this the President went into Co. Galway.

The defeat of the Irish in this battle was followed by further disasters; but the parliamentary forces could not be kept in the field without large demands on the English treasury. To accomplish the double object of punishing the Irish for their rebellion, and to provide funds for carrying on

1 Borlase, History of Irish Rebellion, p. 81.

the war, in 1642 an Act of Parliament was passed confiscating 2,500,000 acres of Irish land, which were offered as security to those who would advance money towards raising and paying the army which was to be sent to Ireland to subdue the rebels. Those who thus contributed their money were termed "adventurers," as having adventured or risked their money in a very doubtful speculation; and they were to have the right, conjointly with the House of Commons, to nominate the officers conducting the expedition.1

These adventurers were to have estates given to them in Ireland according to the following tariff. One thousand acres; in Leinster for £600, in Munster for £450, in Connaught for £300, and in Ulster for £200. Shortly after the money was subscribed, the disputes between King Charles I. and the parliament culminated in open hostilities; and the funds ostensibly raised to suppress the Irish rebellion were devoted to other purposes in England, the adventurers being left to their own devices and uncompensated with the land, on the security of which they had advanced their money.

Referring to this Act of confiscation in 1641, Mr. Gilbert says:

"The Irish protested against this Act as contrary to the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and to the rights of the monarchy. They asserted the independence of their own Legislature under the Crown, and declared that no authentic record or precedent could be adduced to prove that statutes made in England were accepted as binding in Ireland, unless with the assent of the parliament of Ireland. Unsummoned and unheard they were now declared rebels. The estates of the Irish, and a vast extent of Ireland, were offered to be granted in exchange for contributions of money even from the Dutch."*

As might naturally be expected, continued hostilities followed the passing of this Act, and Ireland was soon divided into three hostile camps: those who obeyed the orders of the Council of the Confederate Catholics at Kilkenny; those who followed Ormond and Clanricarde; and the parliamentary party. These hostilities continued until the execution of the king and the arrival of Cromwell in 1649, when, by the most inhuman and wholesale massacres, the Irish were reduced to subjection, and new forfeitures and confiscations immediately followed.

The soldiers who had not received their pay, the adventurers, who had not received the promised equivalent for the money they had advanced, and the whole host of Cromwell's followers, had to be satisfied. To meet their claims, as well as wholly to extirpate the Irish Catholics and Royalists,

See Appendix L. Votes of Lords and Commons, 1641-1642.

History of the Confederation and War in Ireland, edited by Gilbert, Vol. I., p. xxxv.

parliament, in 1652, confiscated the whole of the land of Ireland, but "allotted" Connaught to the Irish, in order that the new English might plant and inhabit the other three provinces in security. All the Irish (according to the original scheme of the parliament), except those who had adopted the religion of the English nation, were to transplant thither, on the presumption that "they did not love England." To make room for them, the native Irish in Connaught were despoiled of their property, the country having been previously reduced almost to the state of a desert. By this Act of 1652, certain leading chiefs and supporters of the late king were excepted from all pardon either for life or estates; and amongst others named in the list so excepted, were Charles O'Conor Don of Ballintober, and O'Conor Roe. All the Irish who held the rank of Colonel, or any higher rank in the army of the king, which had served against Cromwell, were declared outlaws, and their estates forfeited with a proviso that lands to the proportion and value of one-third of their former estate might be allotted to their wives and children. Those who held a lower rank than Colonel were classed under what was termed the seventh qualification, and forfeited two-thirds of their lands, and had to transplant to Connaught. Those proprietors who had taken no part in the war, but remained quiet, came under what was termed the eighth qualification, and as "not having manifested a constant good affection" for the parliament; they were to transplant, and, if Catholics, to forfeit one-third, and if Protestants, one-fifth, of their property. All within these qualifications were to receive their proportion of land in Connaught; but by an ordinance of the Protector and council, Protestants were allowed to compound for a fine equal to one-fifth, and were dispensed from transplanting.

As soon as this Act was passed, steps were taken to put its provisions into execution; but the work of transplantation turned out to be much more difficult than had at first been anticipated. The inhabitants of the other provinces of Ireland had little desire to transplant into Connaught; and the proprietors there, as may well be imagined, had less desire to make room for them. Besides, the inquiries into the qualifications and claims of all those ordered to remove, were of the most difficult character; and the result was, that several years passed over before even the first certificates for transplantation were given. After the passing of the Act, commissioners were appointed, who, from the fact of their sitting at Loughrea, were called the Loughrea Commissioners, whose duty it was to allocate the lands in Connaught to the claimants from the other portions of Ireland. On the 6th January, 1654, these commissioners received their first instructions; but it soon became evident that the mere

I I

apportionment of the lands of Connaught was more than sufficient to tax all their energies, and that another body should be appointed to determine, in the first instance, under what qualification each claimant came, and the amount and value of land to be given to him. Accordingly, other commissioners, who sat in Athlone, were appointed on 28th December in the same year. Their business was two-fold: First, to discriminate the guilt or innocence of every proprietor, and to determine his qualification; and second, to ascertain the size and value of the lands he lately held, and the nature of his estate.

The claimant having obtained his certificate from the Athlone commissioners, had then to appear before those sitting in Loughrea, whose duty it was to set out particular lands, in quantity and value according to the Athlone decree, and the assignments then made were called the "final settlements." Few of these were made out before July, 1655. By a fiction of law, the Connaught proprietors themselves were supposed to transplant; and even where the transplantations consisted in the confiscation of two-thirds of their lands, and the receipt of a certificate for the remaining one-third, they were termed "transplanted persons," and had to go through all the forms of presenting their claims before the two sets of commissioners.

In the interval between the passing of the confiscating Act of 1652, and the hearing of the claims at Athlone, Charles O'Conor Don died, probably about the beginning of the year 1655, leaving two sons, Hugh, already alluded to, and Charles. Had he lived, he could have made no claim before the commissioners, as he was exempted by name from all pardon in the Act above quoted. After his death, his widow, Mary O'Conor, presented her claim to be treated as a transplanted person, and obtained a decree at Athlone, dated 8th June, 1656, and had by "final settlement," dated 30th June, 1657, "assigned and sett out y lands following:-Rathnelolliagh, Moyne, Rathmeage, Brackloon, Keily, and Barrinagh,2 in all 700 acres," out of an estate which, from a subsequent claim, appears to have equalled 6,000 acres.

1669.

HUGH" O'CONOR DON," SON OF CHARLES, born 1617; died

Hugh O'Conor, son of Charles, was born about the year 1617. He also married into the Burke family, his wife being Isabella, daughter of Ulick Burke of Castlehackett. At the time of the breaking out of the rebellion, he was

1 Reports and Schedules. See Appendix M.

Barrinagh, in O'Flynn's country, parish of Kiltullagh; the other lands part of the manor of

Ballintober.

That Hugh O'Conor's wife was daughter of Burke of Castlehackett is not quite certain. This is stated in Burke's Landed Gentry, Vol. I., under “Burke of Ower."

the full vigour of youthful manhood, and was immediately appointed colonel in the Irish army in Connaught. As before mentioned, in this capacity he was engaged in the expedition against Castlecoote in 1642, and was there taken prisoner. Belling, in his History of the Irish Confederation, refers to this event in the following terms:

"While the warre in Munster proceeded after this manner, the multitude in Connaught having, as in other places of the kingdom, put an end to their harvest of 'scabbadging,' those of the gentry, whose name and family gave them a title to the dependance of many followers, imadgining that the times were become such, as the best plea for their safety must be derived from their force in arms, began to gather men, to cause pikes and skeines to be made, which were the onely weapons then to be had in such plenty as might arme a body of men, and (which was nowhere omitted) to despatch letters into forraigne parts, and to authorize some ecclesiasticall persons to implore assistance for the support of the Catholicke cause, whereof each of them would have it beleeved that himself was a very eminent protector. Some of them likewise, encouradged with the little or noe resistance the English Protestants who lived among them, were able to make, thought it noe difficult matter to drive them out of the strong-hoults to which they retyred, and therfore begann to distress their places of refuge, and especially Castlecoote, which being well fortified and furnished with a considerable number of men, as well of the inhabitants as of the English Protestants that resorted thither for shelter, was therfore, and by means of the advantageous situation of it, looked upon as a place from whence the country might be much annoyed. But Hugh, son to O'Connor Dunn, having had fourscore of his men and some officers killed, and himself with some others being made prisoners in an attempt he made to fetch a prey from thence, by Sir Charles Coote, who pursued him with the men of his garrison, made the Irish thenceforth more warye in their enterprises, and the English more venturous in their excursions."

Having been taken prisoner, Hugh O'Conor was first carried to Castlecoote, and was subsequently brought before Sir Robert Meredith in Dublin, where he was subjected to the examination already quoted. As appears by subsequent depositions, he remained in confinement for eight or nine months. The conditions upon which he was liberated are not recorded, but they were evidently such as permitted him to rejoin his regiment, and to take the command again in the Irish Confederate forces.

This command he held until the general break-up of the Confederacy,

'Gilbert's History of the Irish Confederation, Vol. I., pp. 94, 95.

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This examination is also referred to in the journal of Captain William Tucker, agent for the Adventurers in 1642-1643. Also," he says, "O'Connor Dun was presented, per Sir Charles Coote, a prisoner. This O'Connor was a colonel, and confessed his fault; but yet, said he, was one amongst the rest, and that in his conscience he knew no other than that he fought for the king, and for that purpose had taken an oath to fight for him and their religion. He was also committed a close prisoner."