chief ancient followers of this country are-the O'Haras and the O'Quins, who dwell upon their lands and yield rent and service to the Scot; they are able to make 60 strong and well-furnished horsemen and about 200 footmen. Towns in this country are only Carrickfergus. Castles wardable are only Belfast, “Edenduchar"ı and Older fleete (Larne); and castles defaced are these: Portmuck in Island Magee, Glenarm, and Red Bay in the Glynnes, and Castle Martin in the Route.

It may easily be perceived by this slender and brief description of Ulster, what hath been and are the reasons why this province hath been from time to time more chargeable to her Majesty than any other, as namely, the want of good towns and fortified places, wherewith other places are better replenished.

And next the sufferance of the O'Neills to usurp the government of the several captains and freeholders, and by little and little to exceed the bounds of their own and so increase upon the possessions of other; whereby they were made stronger than otherwise they could have been, and abled thereby to wage and maintain the greater number of Scots.

Thirdly, the confining so near to the Isles of Scotland, and the continual commerce which the Irishry have with the people of these parts, occasioneth the often coming in of them, to the great hurt of this province and the subjects which dwell there.

Fourthly, and lastly, the want of due exercises of religion and justice, of sacred and civil instructions, is the occasion of much impiety and barbarousness; which two are the mother and nurse of all their disobedience, disorder and disloyalty. . . .

Since the writing of the premises I do perceive by letters lately received out of Ireland, that the Earl of Tyrone hath taken upon him the rule of Sir Hugh Magennis . . . and sundry others, who at my coming thence depended only upon the Queen.2

(2) The Royal Commission, 1609. [A Commission to inquire into the King's Title to the several escheated and forfeited lands in Ulster, in the several counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Cavan (21 July, 1609). Pr. in W. Harris's Hibernica (1747), pp. 68-9.]

James, etc., to our right trusty and well-beloved Sir Arthur Chichester, kt., our Deputy of our Realm of Ireland, Thomas, Archbishop of Dublin, our Chancellor in our said Realm... etc., etc., greeting.

Whereas great scopes and extents of land in the several counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Cavan within

1 Probably Edenduffcarrick or Shane's Castle.

a Hugh O'Neill was, at this time, augmenting his power with a view to throwing off his allegiance.

our Province of Ulster, are escheated and come to our hands by the attainder of sundry traitors and rebels, and by other just and lawful titles, whereof we have caused heretofore several inquisitions to be taken, and surveys to be made, which being transmitted and presented unto us, we considered with our Privy Council attending our person, how much it would advance the welfare of that Kingdom, if the said land were planted with colonies of civil men and well affected in religion; whereupon there was a project conceived for the division of the said lands into proportions, and for the distribution of the same unto undertakers, together with certain articles of instruction for such as should be appointed commissioners for the said plantation; which project and articles signed with our own hand we have lately transmitted unto you our Deputy. And whereas we are informed that in the inquisitions and surveys formerly taken there have been some omissions, as well of the ecclesiastical lands claimed by the several bishops, within whose dioceses the said escheated lands do lie, as of the lands merely temporal, which might the more easily happen, by reason that the quantity and measure of lands in those countries, which were not in former times governed by the English laws, were unknown to our officers and ministers there.

.. KNOW YE, that we reposing special trust and confidence in your wisdoms, diligence and sincerity . . . do make .. you or any five or more of you (whereof you our said Deputy shall be always one) to be our commissioners, and we do hereby give unto you... full power and authority to inquire as well by the oaths of good and lawful men, as by such other good ways and means as to you shall seem fit and convenient, what castles, manors, lordships, lands, tenements, rents, services, etc., in the several counties of Armagh, Coleraine, Tyrone, Donegal, Fermanagh or Cavan are escheated and come to our hands and possession by virtue of any Act or Acts of Parliament, by attainder of any person or persons, by breach of any condition or conditions contained in any letters patent, by escheat, forfeiture or by any other ways or means whatsoever; and to make a survey of the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, and of every part thereof, by the numbers of ballybetaghs, ballyboes, polles, tathes, acres or other measures and quantities of land used and known in the said several counties, and after inquisition and survey thereof taken as aforesaid, to plot and divide the said lands into several parishes, precincts and proportions and to distinguish the same by particular names, "mears and bounds" (i.e. boundaries).

And, we do further

1 For notes upon Irish land measures, see a paper on "The Townland Distribution of Ireland," by Bishop Reeves in Procs. Roy. Irish Acad. (1862), VII. 473, also Hill, Plantn. in Ulster, pp. 92, 97, 101, 112. See p. 324 n. I.

authority to hear and determine all titles, controversies and matters whatsoever, which shall arise, and be moved or pretended as well between us and our subjects, as between party and party, concerning the said lands. . . . And we do hereby give you ... full power and authority to do and execute all and every other act or acts . . . which you . . . shall in your discretion think pertinent and convenient for and towards the perpetration, furtherance or finishing of the said plantation.

["A Brief of the Proceedings of the Commissioners for the Plantation in Ulster since July last" (19 March, 1610). Cal. S.P. Ireland, pp. 409-10.]

About the end of July last they began their journey into Ulster where they lay in camp nine weeks, and during that time performed two principal things.

They took inquisitions in every county whereby they distinguished the Crown lands from the ecclesiastical lands consisting of the bishops' demesne and mensal lands, and of termon and erenach lands, and therein supplied divers omissions in the former surveys touching the quantity of lands belonging to the King and to the Church, but touching the title, the termon and erenach lands were found for his Majesty, and that the bishops had only rent and pensions out of the same.3

The counties being divided into baronies, they made a description of every barony in a several map and card as well by view as by the information of the inhabitants, which is so exactly and particularly done, that the name and situation of every ballyboe, [etc.], is expressed, besides every castle, fort, mountain, lake, river

and all other notorious landmarks and distinctions, so as the most obscure part of the King's dominions is now as well known and more particularly described than any part of England. These two services they performed in their journey, besides the sessions of justice which were held in every county, wherein pretended titles were examined, possessions quieted, and many causes heard and ended, and withal 1,000 loose and idle swordsmen were sent away into Sweden, which tendeth very much to the preparation of the plantation.

After their return (to Dublin), they finished their former work in three principal points. An abstract was made out of many

The Inquisitions are published as an appendix to the Inquisitionum . . . Repertorium (Irish Record Commission).

* These lands, roughly speaking, were glebe lands. See Ware's Antiquities (ed. Harris), ch. xxxv.; Bishop Usher, "Original and first Institution of Coarbs, Erenachs and Termon Lands," pr. in Vallancey's Collectanea de rebus Hibernicis (1770). Hill's Plantn. in Ulster, pp. 162, 168, 172, 180-7, 210. See p. 324 n. 2.

3 The King wished to be declared undisputed owner of these lands in order that he might be able to impose upon the prelates the usual conditions of plantation in the manage ment of extensive estates.-Cal. S.P.I. (1608–10), p. 564; Hill, op. cit., pp. 121, 171.

records as well of the King's titles as of his subjects' titles to all the lands within the escheated counties, which are reduced into a book of cases signed by the chief judges and the Attorney-General, wherein appear what lands the King may dispose to undertakers by a good and just title. The inquisitions were drawn into form of law, examined by the bishops, engrossed and returned, and lastly exemplified under the Great Seal of England. The maps were finished, and therein as well the proportions for undertakers of all sorts as the Church lands and lands already granted and assigned to forts, corporate towns, free schools, etc., are distinguished by sundry marks and colours.

I

(3) Bacon's Views on the Plantation. ["Certain Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland" (1608). Life and Letters of Francis Bacon (ed. Spedding), IV. 116-28.]

For the excellency of the work, I will divide it into four noble and worthy consequences that will follow thereupon.

The first of the four is Honour; whereof I have spoken enough already, were it not that the Harp of Ireland puts me in mind of that glorious emblem or allegory wherein the wisdom of antiquity did figure and shadow out works of this nature. For the poets feigned that Orpheus, by the virtue and sweetness of his harp, did call and assemble the beasts and birds, of their nature wild and savage, to stand about him, as in a theatre; forgetting their affections of fierceness, of lust and of prey, and listening to the tunes and harmonies of the harp . . . which fable was anciently interpreted of the reducing and plantation of Kingdoms; when people of barbarous manners are brought to give over and discontinue their customs of revenge and blood and of dissolute life and of theft and rapine, and to give ear to the wisdom of laws and governments; whereupon immediately followeth the calling of stones for building and habitation, and of trees for the seats of houses, orchards, inclosures, and the like. This work therefore, of all other most memorable and honourable, your Majesty hath now in hand, specially if your Majesty join the harp of David, in casting out the evil spirit of superstition, with the harp of Orpheus, in casting out desolation and barbarism.

The second consequence of this enterprise, is the avoiding of an inconvenience, which commonly attendeth upon happy times, and is an evil effect of a good cause. The revolution of this present

age seemeth to incline to peace almost generally in these parts, and your Majesty's most Christian and virtuous affections do promise the same more specially to these your Kingdoms. An effect

This discourse was presented by Bacon to James I, as a New Year's gift at the opening of 1609.

of peace in fruitful Kingdoms (where the stock of people receiving no consumption nor diminution by war doth continually multiply and increase) must in the end be a surcharge or overflow of people more than the territories can well maintain; which many times insinuating a general necessity and want of means into all estates, doth turn external peace into internal troubles and seditions. Now what an excellent diversion of this inconvenience is ministered by God's providence to your Majesty in this plantation of Ireland, wherein so many families may receive sustentations and fortunes, and the discharge of them also out of England and Scotland may prevent many seeds of future perturbations. . . . So shall your Majesty in this work have a double commodity, in the avoidance of people here, and in making use of them there.

The third consequence is the great safety that is like to grow to your Majesty's estate in general by this act; in discomforting all hostile attempts of foreigners, which the weakness of that Kingdom hath heretofore invited: wherein I shall not need to fetch reasons far off, either for the general or particular.

The fourth and last consequence is the great profit and strength which is like to redound to your Crown, by the working upon this unpolished part thereof: whereof your Majesty, being in the strength of your years, are like by the good pleasure of Almighty God to receive more than the first fruits, and your posterity a growing and springing vein of riches and power. For this island being another Britain, as Britain was said to be another world, is endowed with so many dowries of Nature (considering the fruitfulness of the soil, the ports, the rivers, the fishings, the quarries, the woods and other materials, and specially the race and generation of men, valiant, hard and active) as it is not easy, no not upon the Continent, to find such confluence of commodities, if the hand of man did join with the hand of Nature. So then for the excellency of the work, in point of honour, policy, safety and utility. . . .

The means of accomplishing this work consisteth of two principal parts. The first, the invitation and encouragement of undertakers; the second, the order and policy of the project itself. . . . All men are drawn into actions by three things-pleasure, honour, and profit. But before I pursue these three motives, it is fit in this place to interlace a word or two of the quality of the undertakers. Wherein my opinion simply is, that if your Majesty shall make these portions of land which are to be planted, as rewards or as suits, or as fortunes for those that are in want, and are likest to seek after them, that they will not be able to go through with the charge of good and substantial plantations but will deficere in opere medio... so that this must rather be an adventure for such as are full, than a setting up of those that are low of means: for those men indeed are fit to perform these undertakings which were