Co. Londonderry – Historical Background Paper the Plantation
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Co. Londonderry – Historical Background Paper The Plantation of Ulster and the creation of the county of Londonderry On the 28th January 1610 articles of agreement were signed between the City of London and James I, king of England and Scotland, for the colonisation of an area in the province of Ulster which was to become the county of Londonderry. This agreement modified the original plan for the Plantation of Ulster which had been drawn up in 1609. The area now to be allocated to the City of London included the then county of Coleraine,1 the barony of Loughinsholin in the then county of Tyrone, the existing town at Derry2 with adjacent land in county Donegal, and a portion of land on the county Antrim side of the Bann surrounding the existing town at Coleraine. The Londoners did not receive their formal grant from the Crown until 1613 when the new county was given the name Londonderry and the historic site at Derry was also renamed Londonderry – a name that is still causing controversy today.3 The baronies within the new county were: 1. Tirkeeran, an area to the east of the Foyle river which included the Faughan valley. 2. Keenaght, an area which included the valley of the river Roe and the lowlands at its mouth along Lough Foyle, including Magilligan. 3. Coleraine, an area which included the western side of the lower Bann valley as far west as Dunboe and Ringsend and stretching southwards from the north coast through Macosquin, Aghadowey, and Garvagh to near Kilrea. 4. Loughinsholin, formerly an area in county Tyrone, situated between the Sperrin mountains in the west and the river Bann and Lough Neagh on the east, and stretching southwards from around Kilrea through Maghera, Magherafelt and Moneymore to the river Ballinderry. 5. North West Liberties, formerly an area in county Donegal comprising the parish of Templemore. 6. North East Liberties, formerly an area in county Antrim which included the parishes of Coleraine, Ballyaghran and Kildollagh along with parts of the parishes of Ballywillin and Ballyrashane. Map of the Baronies in the New County of Londonderry 1 The counties of Coleraine, Donegal and Tyrone along with Armagh and Monaghan had just been created in 1585. Sometime later the county of Cavan, which had been included in the province of Connaught, was added to the province of Ulster. To people today the only one of these counties that is not recognisable is the county of Coleraine which had been formed from O’Cahan’s country which lay to the north of the Sperrins between the rivers Foyle and Bann, viz. the baronies of Tirkeeran and Keenaght. Within the county of Coleraine these two baronies had been known as Anagh and Limavaddye respectively. 2 In 1604 Sir Henry Dowcra had been granted a charter by James I for the settlement at Derry as a town fit for war and merchandise. It is not entirely clear if the word city was used in the charter. 3 Particularly since the recent troubles, various attempts have been made to accommodate both communities within the province, who argue that the correct name for the city is either Derry or Londonderry. The following are now in use – Derry, Londonderry, Derry ~ Londonderry, Derry/Londonderry, Stroke City, and the latest - The Walled City. 1 The Irish Society, a body created in 1613, began the task of building the two key settlements in the county - the city of Londonderry on Dowcra’s old town of Derry and the town of Coleraine again on the site of an existing settlement. They were also charged with settling the liberties around each settlement with British tenants. The task of building settlements and peopling the rest of the county was put in the hands of twelve companies.4 London Companies' Estates, Church Lands & Native Freeholds in the County, 1613 Beginning in the west of the county, were the Goldsmiths with their main settlement at Goldsmiths Village (later called Newbuildings); the Grocers with their main settlement at Muff (later called Eglinton); the Fishmongers with their main settlement at Ballykelly; the Haberdashers with their main settlement at Artikelly; the Clothworkers with their main settlement at Articlave. Then south from Coleraine, the Merchant Taylors with their main settlement at Macosquin; the Ironmongers with their main settlement at Agivey, later Garvagh;5 the Mercers with their main settlement at 4 Each company headed up a group of sub-companies e.g. the Ironmongers’ group included the Brewers, Scourers, Coopers, Pewterers, Barber- Surgeons and Carpenters. 5 In actual fact Garvagh was on church land and belonged to the Cannings who were the first chief tenants and agents of the Ironmongers’ estate. 2 Movanagher, later Kilrea; the Vintners with their main settlement at Bellaghy; the Salters with their main settlement at Salterstown, later Magherafelt; the Drapers with their main settlement at Moneymore. Then west of the Drapers were the Skinners with their main settlement at Dungiven. The Skinners’ estate was perhaps the most scattered of all the estates. It had land in three different baronies – Loughinsholin, Keenaght and Tirkeeran. In the east it ‘marched’ with the Drapers’ estate and in the west with the Goldsmiths’ estate. The map on the previous page shows clearly the patchwork quilt pattern of the company lands amongst the lands which were allocated to the church and to some Irish families. The latter were known as native freeholds. The main beneficiaries of the native freeholds, which tended to be located well away from the main planter settlements, were the O’Cahans in the baronies of Tirkeeran, Keenaght and Coleraine and the O’Mullans in the baronies of Tirkeeran and Keenaght. The townland of Ballycarton in Magilligan was granted to a McGilligan and the townland of Boveedy, near Kilrea, was granted to a McCowell. Note that these freeholds were all located in O’Cahan’s country. No native freeholds were granted in the barony of Loughinsholin which was in O’Neill’s country. By the time of the Civil Survey in 1654 only a few native freeholders remained.6 The rest had either sold their lands to speculators such as the Beresfords or had them confiscated by the Crown in either 1615 or after the 1641 rebellion.7 There were two ‘non-company’ estates in the county which originally belonged to Sir Thomas Phillips, a servitor. These were at Limavady and Moyola. The Limavady estate was eventually bought by the Conollys who had also bought the Vintners at Bellaghy. The Moyola estate became the property of the Dawsons who gave their name to the main settlement, Castledawson. Since the history of the colonisation and settlement of the county and the province is well documented in the books of Moody, Robinson and Perceval-Maxwell and in many articles and papers that have been written over the years, I do not intend to cover that here in any detail.8 Instead, I want to concentrate on two key sources that family historians would use to identify the names of planters and native Irish during this period. These are the Muster Rolls of the 1620s and 1630s and the Tax Returns of the 1660s. The undertakers who were granted land in the Plantation of Ulster were required to muster their tenants periodically - they had to "have ready in their houses at all times, a convenient store of arms, wherewith they may furnish a competent number of men for their defence, which may be viewed and mustered every half year". A number of musters were taken on the company lands between 1618 and 1631. Some of these only provide numbers of men and arms on each estate, but there are two that list names – 1622 [for the City and Liberties of Londonderry, the Town and Liberties of Coleraine and the Vintners’ Estate at Bellaghy] and 1630/31 for all company lands except the Salters and the Skinners. These are useful because they give us some idea of the country of origin of the planters. Many of these planter surnames could be English or Scottish which in a sense reflects the pattern of planter settlement during the first half of the seventeenth century. There were areas within the county that had pockets of Scottish settlement such as the Haberdashers’ estate near Limavady and the Clothworkers’ Estate in the parishes of Dunboe and Killowen. Both areas had benefited from the colonising efforts of Sir Robert McClelland of Kirkcudbright. The barony of Loughinsholin would have had more English than Scottish settlers in the first half of the seventeenth century but these were still outnumbered by the native Irish.9 The better and more accessible lands of the Grocers, Fishmongers and Merchant Taylors’ estates would have had more settlers than those in the south of the county and in the early years had probably more English than Scottish settlers. The names in both the 1622 and the 1630/31 muster rolls are available as databases on the CD. During the years 1660-1663 a number of Tax Returns survive for the county which give us an idea of who was living there at that time. There is a Poll Tax Return for 1660 [usually referred to as Pender’s Census of 1659], Subsidy Rolls for 1662 and Hearth Money Rolls for 1663. These sources come at the end of a period that had seen the initial colonisation of the county by British settlers, the attempt by the native Irish in the rebellion of 1641 to reverse that 6 These were Tomlin O’Mullan who retained the townlands of Tamnagh, Dreen and half of Altinure and James O’Quinn, son of Turlogh, an Irish Protestant, who had bought the townland of Strathall from John Freeman in 1640.