:^tit THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY ^4-A5 ' • V.'- ^ V>; Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. University of Ilknois Library WS C4 !t^:; RPR 2 7 !3d5 NOV 2 5 1980 U u. 27214 ^ CONFISCATION IN IRISH HISTORY • '^Duhai'ow*: jl£^ e s m o n c . r;.!jsKerryiQ_^ InsHMy' _^Bj:e..w^;:'J...'Carbery ^7^/^ .r? EXPLANATORY NOTES. - Area p'^rieJ u;idei* Philip and Mary. .^^V^^>;;tv:^ Jh€ actual plamtatioH afftetti o<t/y Leix mm4 that fart 0/ Ofal^ ^rattlf m*4tf O^CfM' m^. sporadic Gonftaeatlon* unde^ FKxabAth of 4UtHct« occupied by th* "nwp* Irlfth" /"vf- rfdic/ij giuen in tkt Uxt tH* mrta metma/tg eoit/l$eatwJ a/ttr thi 09smom4 riMl/9» 0V*fM4 he ac^arattJjf marktd or a map •/ fht* »cqI* Sfmoit tht onlj oontlmi0iu trneti CO«ff<ahl«tf u/ert tfiott htl'd by totnt nat/ut ir/$M clam$ W/ . O'OomopMut Ufor O'Mahom/ (^ttmmn m^iinrn en4 Carbery). Mac Amtiffe in norVi-m$$tfm OuhaUoi% ttac Cmfik)/§ v/CvaiRpff^f . QtwCmmm lto» and Clan D9rmom4 , mm Th« tu Plantation Countl«» of UUtw. ^rca «fr«ctcd by the Plantation of Ltfnttap. tamp ifamaa i Area or StrafTord'a D>VDO««tf Plantation In Limtrlck and Tlpoertry 41- nm^amm^ G^or^TrhtUpTPhilfp A Son, t«^ MAP I. : : CONFISCATION IN IRISH HISTORY B¥ WII.I.IAM Fr T.^^JJTLER, M.A. (M.R.I.A.) Author of "The Lombard Communes" Second Edition DUBLIN LONDON Thk Talbot Press, Ltd. T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd, 89 Talbot Street 1 AdeI/Phi Terrace First Edition 1917 Reprinted 1918 9 4{.£r CONTENTS t Introductory Note vii. ^ Chapter Paob I. The Tudor Confiscations 1 ^y II. The Plantation of Ulster 37 III. The Plantation of Leinster 55 IV. The Confiscation of Connaught and -^ Ormond 97 V. The Cromwellian Confiscation 115 F VI. The Restoration Settlement 165 VII. Jacobites and Willia mites 206 VIII. The Results of Confiscation 233 Index 257 4^0(48 MAPS Paor Map I. General Map of Ireland to show localities mentioned in the text frontispiece Map it. Ireland under Henry VIII. 6 Map III. South-East Leinster in the 16th Century 62 Map IV. To illustrate the Plantation of Leinster 88 Map V. East Munster in the 16th Century 108 Ti. \ INTRODUCTORY NOTE In working at one phase of Irish history my aim has been above all to find out and set down what actually happened; a matter not at all as easy as one might suppose if one were merely to consider the number of works dealing with Ireland in which the various confiscations have been treated more or less fully. As to figures one soon learns that it is rare that any two sources agree ; quotations from original documents are often inaccurate ; the totals set out in the printed copies of our original records rarely agree with the figures of the various items which go to make them up. In certain cases, notably as to the extent of the confiscations under Cromwell and William of yt)range, and as to the exact state of landed j property in Ireland after the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, there is still a field open to research. My acknowledgments are due to the courtesy of the officials of the Dublin Record Office and to the Librarian of Lambeth Palace. vu. I * CONFISCATION IN IRISH HISTORY CHAPTER I THE TUDOR CONFISCATIONS The History of Irish Confiscations may almost be said to be the history of Ireland from the first coming of the Anglo-Norman invaders until five centuries later, when confiscation ceased, ap- parently for much the same reason as a fire burns itself out, because there was nothing more left ta confiscate. The first confiscation, following on the invasion^ differed radically from those that came later, because it was carried out by right of sword, with- out any attempt at justification by legal quibbles. To some extent the Normans in Ireland were only following the example set by their grandfathers in England. But there was one important point of procedure which has profoundly differentiated the history of the two countries. William the Conqueror claimed to be lawful King of England, whose right was disputed by the Pretender Harold and other rebels. If the English lost their lands it was as rebels. Theoretically he (D 390) I B — 2 CONFISCATION IN IRISH HISTORY confirmed all previous laws and customs, and left all loyal subjects in enjoyment of their own.^ Practically, at first a considerable number of Englishmen kept their lands, and though this number was afterwards greatly reduced, there was no legal barrier to the acquisition of land by an Englishman, and no Englishman could be deprived of any lands he had, unless under some alleged ground for dispossessing him. The result was that in a hundred years the two races began to amalgamate, and that at the death of King John, if not sooner, the amalgamation was complete. But the procedure in Ireland was quite different. The Irish, with but very few exceptions, were dispossessed of their lands in the conquered dis- tricts. Even Giraldus Cambrensis comments on this as likely to hinder the process of conquest. And Sir John Davies in his ** Discovery of the True Causes why Ireland was never Entirely Sub- dued" devotes several pages to showing how the native Irish were shut out from the enjoyment of English laws, and were reputed as aliens.^ And in particular he dwells on the fact that the native Irish were deprived of their lands.^ He says ^'And though they (the Anglo-Normans) had not gained the possession of one-third of the whole liingdom, yet in little they were owners and lords of all, so as nothing was left to be granted to the ( 1 In particular the men of London and of Kent seem to have had all their former customs guaranteed to them. 2 Sir J. Davies expressly contrasts the policy of William the Conqueror in England with that of his successors in Ireland. 3 Discovery. Here Davies exaggerates. There were mor than "ten persons of the English nation" among whom Ireland was cantonised. THE TUDOR CONFISCATIONS 3 natives." And in his letter to the Earl of Salis- bury dealing— with the Plantation of Cavan he declares '* When the English Pale was first planted all the natives were clearly expelled, so as not one Irish family had so much as an acre of freehold in all the five counties of the Pale." Sir J. Davies is an authority not always to be blindly followed. We can, however, check his statements from the lists of forfeiting proprietors in 1641. From these we find that in Louth, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, South Wexford, Waterford, there were practically no landowners of Irish descent. In the beginning, no doubt, the process of confis- cation—expropriation as some modern writers prefer to call it—was not complete. Mac Gilla- mocholmog was left in possession of much of south County Dublin. The country round Ferns was left to Murtough Mac Murrough. The Irish proprietors were not expelled from portions of Westmeath, Ossory, and Leix.* But their tenure was precarious. They were allowed to retain the more inaccessible and barren districts until such time as the settlers might feel able and willing to occupy them. Dr. Bonn declares that ' the law held all the Irish, except ' the five bloods," to be villeins, and so incapable of holding freehold estates. The position, in fact, of those whose lands were not occupied by the settlers was singularly like that of the natives in Ehodesia at the present day. As long as it suited the ruling class they might * Orpen : Ireland under the Normans, Vol. II., p. 133. ; 4 CONFISCATION IN IRISH HISTORY occupy certain districts, paying wiiatever rent or other dues might be extracted from them. But at any moment colonists might settle on these lands, driving them off altogether, or allowing them to remain in a more or less servile condition. Modern writers seem to hold that the Irish ought to have been, or actually were, satisfied with this state of affairs, just as eels are said to like being skinned.* The lower orders, we are told, benefited immensely by the more settled govern- ment, with its ensuing security, brought in by the settlers. But this view takes no account of the loss of property and position suffered by the free clansmen. No doubt the servile classes did rise in position, or, what was much the same, saw those who had been their superiors depressed to their own level.** But to the free clansmen, and above all to the leading families, the new state of affairs must have been intolerable. A native Irish writer sums up the position tersely. The foreigners considered every foreigner noble even if he was ignorant of letters, and con- sidered none of the Gael to be noble, even if he owned land. The most exhaustive account of the new order consequent on the Anglo-Norman In- vasion is to be found in Dr. Bonn's Englische Kolonisation ijn Irland, a work indispensable to aH ^tudent&-t5J Irish history.^ He sums up me s See Orpen and Knox. 6 Pretty full records of the condition of the Irish tenants or rather serfs in the districts subject to the Anglo-Norman* are now available in print: for instance in the "Pipe Roll of Cloyne." published in Jour. Cork Hut. and Arch. Soc.y 1914 Begley s Limerick^ and elsewhere.