Ireland under the Stuarts and during the Interregnum, Vol. I (of 3), 1603-1642. Bagwell, Richard
were to build castles and bawns or courtyards within two years, and to have access to the royal forests for materials, being bound to keep, train and arm men enough for their defence. Chichester said that two years was not long enough to allow for the buildings, and the time was afterwards extended. Every undertaker was to take the oath of supremacy before his patent could be sealed; none might alienate to the Irish. They were to provide English or Scotch tenants only, and were tied to five years personal residence. Tenancies at will were prohibited. The servitors, generally men with some military experience, were allowed to have Irish tenants, in which case they were to pay 8l. for every thousand acres; but where they established British tenants this was reduced to 5l. 6s. 8d. Alienations to the Irish were forbidden, or to any one who would not take the oath of supremacy, the privileges and duties of the servitors being for the rest much the same as in the first case. The native Irish who formed the third class of grantees were subject, after the first year, to quit-rents twice as large as the undertakers, being subject to the same conditions as to tenures and building, but nothing was said about the oath of supremacy. Chichester knew that the natives could not as a rule build castles or bawns, and this part of the plan turned out to be unworkable. He protested from first to last that too little land was reserved to the Irish. There were further provisoes for erecting market towns and corporations, for at least one free school in every county and for a convenient number of parish churches with incumbents supported by tithes.64
All schemes of colonisation devised at a distance must necessarily be modified when the actual work begins. Chichester at once objected to the principle of division ‘in the arithmetical proportion or popular equality’ proposed. The grants should, he thought, be larger or smaller according to local circumstances, and to the qualifications of particular settlers. A few eminent persons with means and reputation might, if liberally treated, act as protectors to weaker men who would be exposed to attacks from the natives. People coming from the same part of Britain should be encouraged to settle near together, and this could not be done if everything was left to the chances of a lottery. Moses indeed was the wisest of law-givers, but ‘the Hebrews were mighty in number and rich in substance; compelled into the land of promise by divine necessity, to extinguish the nations and to possess their vineyards, cities, and towns already built, where, and not elsewhere, they and their posterities were to remain. But in the present plantation they have no armies on foot, they are but a few, without means of plantation (as being separated by sea) and every man having free will to take or leave. The country to be inhabited has no sign of plantation, and yet is full of people and subject, but of no faith nor truth in conversation, and yet hardly, or not at all, to be removed, though they be thorns in the side of the English. The county of Tyrone, with Coleraine, only has 5,000 able men.’
He objected altogether to tenure by knight-service, and that idea was abandoned, and also to a strict limitation of time for building without considering local difficulties. It was evident to him that too little land was assigned to native freeholders, especially in Tyrone, the result of which must be discontent, especially as it was intended to remove the ‘swordsmen or idle gentlemen who in effect are the greatest part of men bearing credit and sway in that province.’ And Chichester begged that the greatest possible latitude should be given to the commissioners who had to decide questions upon the spot.65
Sir John Davies returned to Ireland at the beginning of May 1609, in full possession of the King’s mind on the subject of the plantation. A commission was issued to Chichester and fifteen others, named for the most part by him, to survey the escheated counties and to decide as to the proportions to be allotted to the settlers and natives. In order to meet difficulties about the rights of his see raised by Bishop Montgomery, he was made a commissioner along with the Primate and the Bishop of Kilmore. Davies thought seventeen too many, but the quorum was five, and nothing was to be done without the consent of the Deputy, the Chancellor, the Primate and the Bishop of Derry. The commissioners left Dundalk on August 3 and remained in Ulster until Michaelmas. Besides the business of surveying they prepared an abstract of the King’s title and held assizes for gaol delivery and other purposes in each of the six escheated counties. Davies constantly reported progress to Salisbury, not failing to point out that it was still necessary to take military precautions everywhere. ‘Our geographers,’ he said, ‘do not forget what entertainment the Irish of Tyrconnel gave to a map-maker about the end of the late great rebellion; for one Barkeley being appointed by the late Earl of Devonshire to draw a true and perfect map of the north parts of Ulster, when he came into Tyrconnel, the inhabitants took off his head, because they would not have their country discovered.’66
The Commissioners depended on a survey in which the amount of land available was enormously underrated, even if we suppose that all the waste was omitted. Thus the area of Tyrone was stated as 98,187 acres, whereas it really contains 806,650, of which more than a quarter is waste and water. Well informed people no doubt suspected something of this, and hoped in the scramble to get much more than the estimated quantity. One ambitious undertaker accordingly offered to take charge of 100,000 acres in Tyrone, which was more than the whole county was supposed to contain. Upon this he proposed to bind himself in a penalty of 1,000l. to build thirty-three castles with 600 acres attached to each, and as many towns each with 2,400, and to settle at least 1,000 families. There were further provisions for markets and fairs, and for the erection of glass, iron, and dye works. The rent offered was 553l. and all was to be completed within five years, when this bond might be cancelled. Upon this Chichester sarcastically remarks that he is ‘an ancient nobleman and apt to undertake much; but his manner of life in Munster and the small cost he has bestowed to make his house fit for him, or any room within the same, does not promise the building of substantial castles or a convenient plantation in Ulster. Besides which he is near to himself and loves not hospitality. Such an one will be unwelcome to that people and will soon make himself contemptible, and if the natives be not better provided for than I have yet heard of they will kindle many a fire in his buildings before they be half finished.’ Davies, however, who had married Lord Audley’s daughter, was much comforted to hear that one whose ancestors had conquered North Wales and had been among the first invaders of Ireland should desire to be an undertaker ‘in so large and frank a manner.’ Possibly Lord Audley’s intention resembled that of a speculator who applies for 10,000l. worth of stock on the chance of 500l. being allotted to him. In consideration of his services at Kinsale and elsewhere, 3,000 acres in Tyrone were granted to him and his wife, 2,000 to his eldest son Mervyn, and 2,000 to his second son Ferdinand. When Carew visited these lands in 1611 he reported that nothing at all had been done. Audley was created Earl of Castlehaven in 1616, and died in the following year, but his infamous successor was not more active. Pynnar reported in 1619 that the acreage was considerably larger than had been expressed in the grant, and that upon it there was ‘no building at all, either of bawn or castle, neither freeholders.’ There were a few British tenants at will, but they were fast leaving the land, for the tenants could not get leases without offering large fines for decreased holdings. The younger Castlehaven had by some means got possession of 2,000 acres more originally granted to Sir Edward Blunt, and upon this a house had been built. The total result was that sixty-four British tenants had sixty acres apiece, but they could lay out nothing without leases, and were all going away. The rest, says Pynnar, ‘is let to twenty Irish gentlemen, as appeareth by the Rent-roll, which is contrary to the articles of plantation; and these Irish gentlemen have under them, as I was informed by the tenants and gentlemen in the country, about 3,000 souls of all sorts.’ Thus were sown the dragon’s teeth which in due time produced the rebellion of 1641.67
The fate of Randolph’s and Docwra’s settlements, or perhaps the fear that O’Cahan might yet be restored, prevented applications for grants in the county of Coleraine or what is now known as Londonderry. It occurred to James or to Salisbury that the difficulty could be got over by offering the whole district to the city of London, whose wealth might enable them to settle and defend it. The suggestion was made to the Lord
‘Orders and Conditions of Plantation,’ printed in Harris’s
Chichester to the Privy Council, March 10, 1609, and to Davies, March 31.
The Commission is calendared at July 19, 1609, and printed in Harris’s
The ‘Project,’ dated January 23, 1608-9, is printed in