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PLANTATION OF ULSTER.

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First, the lands were completely cleared. Then they were divided into four equal portions, viz. two of lots of 1,000 acres, one of lots of 1,500 acres, and one of lots of 2,000 acres each. The largest lots were reserved for undertakers,' and the next for servitors,' from England and Scotland, chiefly from the latter country. The undertakers were men with capital, who would build castles and keep a certain number of armed retainers. The servitors were men who had served some time in Ireland, either in the army or in civil offices. The smaller lots of 1,000 acres were divided among these and the natives, but on condition, as regards the latter, that they should take the oath of supremacy. This condition, of course, was tantamount to a complete exclusion of the Catholics. The natives were also bound to reside in the open plains, leaving the strong positions to the British adventurers, and further they were prohibited from admitting any tenant not of British origin.2

One good feature of the plan was, that the settlers were bound to let their lands at determined rents, and for no less. term than twenty-one years, or three lives. All were strictly prohibited from alienating their lands to mere Irish,' or demising any portions of them to such persons as should refuse to take the oaths to Government. Their tenants' houses were to be built after the English fashion, and grouped in towns or villages.

An annual rent was reserved to the Crown for every sixty English acres, 6s. 8d. from the British undertakers, 10s. from

1 Carte computes the number of English settlers in Ulster at 20,000, and of Scotch at 100,000, in 1641. Life of Ormond,' vol. i. p. 177.

2 These conditions were afterwards somewhat modified. Dr. Leland says that the undertenants and servants of the Irish were allowed to be of their own country and religion, and while all other planters were obliged to take the oath of supremacy they were tacitly exempted. That is, at best, though they were not pressed to take the oath, they were bound to do so, and it hung in terrorem over them. He adds that the servitors were allowed to take their tenants either from Ireland or Britain, so that no recusants (i.e. Catholics) were admitted, and that the British undertakers were confined to entertain English and Scotch only.

servitors, and 138. 4d. from Irish natives. One of the professed objects of the plantation was to increase the royal revenues.

The city of London took an important part in the scheme. The corporation accepted large grants in the county of Derry, thence called Londonderry. They undertook to expend 20,000l. on the plantation and to build the cities of Derry and Colrain, and they stipulated for such privileges as would make their settlement convenient and respectable.' The king was greatly pleased, and remarked that, when his enemies should hear that the famous city of London had a footing therein, they should be terrified from looking into Ireland, the backdoor to England and Scotland."

Government undertook to maintain suitable garrisons for the protection of the planters. It was on this occasion that the order of baronets was instituted with a view to raising money for the maintenance of the king's army in the province. The title was to be conferred, by patent, on gentlemen of three descents, and possessing lands to the annual value of 1,000l. It was to be limited to 200 individuals, and it was promised that no new title of honour should ever be created between barons and baronets.2 The patents were offered at 1,095. each, the estimated cost of the support of thirty soldiers in Ulster for three years at eight pence daily pay. In six years ninety-three patents were sold producing 101,835l.,3 which money, we are informed, never found its way to Ireland."4

James's principal agent in the plantation of Ulster was Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy, who is described as 'active, vigilant, cautious, and firm,' and possessing much local knowledge. Chichester obtained, as his reward, the lion's share, having been vested with the territory of Innoshowen and all the lands possessed by O'Dogherty, a tract of country far

1 The London Companies. See Appendix XVIII.

2 Somers' Tracts, 11, 254. 3 Abstract of King's Revenue, pp. 36-38. 4 Order of Baronets. See Appendix XIX.

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exceeding the allotments generally made to northern undertakers,"1

On the whole, although the execution fell far short of the original idea, James had reason to congratulate himself on the success of the project. It is true that extensive tracts, being mountainous and uncultivated, were never planted, that British tenants could not be found in sufficient numbers, and that consequently several estates were restored, by grant, to their original possessors on their paying a large composition and making professions of loyalty to the Crown. But, on the other hand, a considerable portion was permanently planted, improvements in agriculture were introduced, and several towns were built and incorporated by the king.

The whole scheme, however, was accompanied by the grossest oppression and injustice. The great lords, whose lands were escheated for rebellion, possessed only the suzerainté, the property of the soil being, to a great extent, vested in their feudatories, who, in most cases, were loyal, peaceable, well-affected men. Surely these men ought not to have been disturbed. The king, or his grantee, ought to have stepped into the place of their suzerain. But no; all were indiscriminately expelled. Again, not only all native Irish, as in the plantation of Elizabeth, but also all Catholics, even though of English descent, were virtually prohibited from being holders or tenants. Thus the great bulk of the people were excluded from the soil.

Here is another of the striking anomalies of the history of Ireland. In the great changes of the territorial arrangements of other countries, the tenure was altered, but the tenants were allowed to remain undisturbed; whereas in Ireland, not only

1 Leland, vol. ii. p. 452. Chichester's estates were valued at 10,000%. per annum in 1633. Strafford's State Letters,' vol. ii. p. 294. It is said that Chichester's descendant, the Marquis of Donegal, would now enjoy an income of 300,000l. a year from Belfast alone, but for long leases granted by a former proprietor.

was the tenure altered, but the tillers of the soil were all expelled from the lands which they and their ancestors had occupied for centuries.

In several districts, the commissioners appointed to distribute the lands, scandalously abused their trusts, and, by fraud or violence, deprived the natives of those possessions, which the king had reserved for them,'' subject always to their abandoning their religion, by their taking the oath of supremacy. Some indeed were suffered to enjoy a small pittance of such reservation ; others were totally ejected.' Bishop Stearne relates that, in the small county of Longford, twenty-five of one sept were all deprived of their estates, without the least compensation, or any means of subsistence assigned to them.2 The resentment of such sufferers was in some cases exasperated by finding their lands transferred to hungry adventurers, who had no services to plead; and sometimes to those who had been rebels and traitors."3 It is worthy of note, too, that the oath of supremacy was not enforced on the Scotch Presbyterians in Ulster, who had as strong an objection to take it as the Irish Catholics.

If we contrast the privileges and protection afforded the Scotch and English settlers and their complete freedom of religious worship with the wrongs, injustices, and heavy persecutions for conscience sake, under which the great majority of the nation then suffered at the hands of their rulers, and continued to suffer for two centuries, we can well understand the difference in their relative social and economic conditions in after times; and it is only a matter of surprise, that difference is not greater. 2 MS. Trinity College, Dublin.

1 Leland, vol. ii. 481.
3 Leland, ibid.

DESIGNED PLANTATION OF THE OTHER PROVINCES. 267

CHAPTER LX.

JAMES'S DESIGN TO EXTEND THE PLANTATION TO THE OTHER PROVINCES INIQUITOUS ATTEMPTS TO DEPRIVE PROPRIETORS OF THEIR ESTATES THE 'DISCOVERERS,' THEIR PROCEEDINGS, RESULTING IN THE SEIZURE, IN THE KING'S NAME, OF THE SEA-BOARD OF LEINSTER FROM DUBLIN TO WATERFORD, AND FIVE MIDLAND COUNTIES-THE KING NEXT CLAIMS THE WHOLE PROVINCE OF CONNAUGHT AND THE COUNTY OF CLARE; LARGE COMPOSITIONS AND FINES PAID BY THE PROPRIETORS TO SECURE THEIR POSSESSIONS.

JAMES was anxious to extend to the other three provinces the plantation scheme he had so largely carried out in Ulster. For this purpose, it was necessary the crown should first get possession of the lands. There was no rebellion to afford a pretext for wholesale confiscation. A new mode was devised of dispossessing the owners of their ancient inheritance. This was simply an universal ejectment on the title. By this iniquitous procedure, under the guise of law, every rood of land in the possession of the Irish was sure to be adjudged the property of the crown. A crowd of English adventurers, called 'Discoverers,' engaged in the work. Several were encouraged by grants of estates, and all were attracted by the ease with which large fortunes were acquired in Ireland. They ransacked old records; they detected concealments of lands, which in the confusion of former times either had or were alleged to have been concealed and detained from the crown. Countenanced by the State, they dispossessed the old inhabitants, or obliged them to compound for their intrusion; and invariably they were themselves vested with portions of the lands or otherwise rewarded.'

Where no grant appeared, or descent or conveyance in pursuance of it could be proved (says Carte), the land was immediately adjudged to belong to the crown. All grants taken from the crown since 1st Edward II. till 10th Henry VII. had been resumed by Parliament; and the lands of all absentees and of all that were driven out by the Irish, were by

1 Leland, vol. ii. p. 453.

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