great loss whether it turned to the benefit of the Queen or no is not known But to the Treasurers and Paymasters without doubt it brought in good gain whose avarice which is a diligent searcher of hidden gains may seem to have devised it The Money now generally used in Ireland there being little of English because prohibited to be transported thither beyond the summe of five pounds as I take it for the better encouragement of Trade between both Kingdoms is most of all Spanish Coyn to wit pieces of Eight at 4 s. 6 d. the piece consisting of Plate pieces Mexico and old Peru with half and quarter pieces The new Perues whereof there was a good quantity being not long since called in and by reason they were thought to be abused and falsified converted into Plate to the great benefit of some in Dublin and the no small loss at that time of a great many people in Ireland A piece of old English Gold is hardly to be seen in Ireland except what is closely kept in private hands though there was a great proportion thereof before the late Wars which commonly passed from hand to hand in ordinary Payments There is a small quantity of Brass Coyn that is used there for the conveniency of change I have already hinted Buildings how that the Irish by reason of their Barbarous Laws and Customs did never build any Houses of Brick or Stone some few poor Religious Houses excepted before the Reign of King Henry the Second which seems as manifest as strange by the entertainment of the said King received at their chief City of Dublin Anno 1172. who was unavoidably necessitated for meer accommodation finding there no fit place for his reception to set up a long house made of smoothed Wattles after the manner of the Country wherein he pompously entertained the greâ—t Irish Lords and Princes at Christmas All their Forts Castles Stately Buildings and other Edifices were afterwards Erected by the English except as I said some of the Maritine Towns which were built by the Ostmanni or Easterlings who antiently came and Inhabited Ireland The Buildings of Ireland much improved by the last forty years Peace During the last forty years peace in Ireland there were many lovely Houses built through most part of that Kingdom by the English Nobility and Gentry with delicate improvements in Orchards Gardens and Inclosures correspondent thereunto There was also at the same time by way of imitation the like good indeavours of making handsome Improvements and Buildings by the better sort of Irish both in Towns and Country But the fair Dwellings of the English were so badly handled by the Irish in the heat of the War that scarce any part of them except the main Walls escaped from fireing upon which being generally made of Massy Stone the English have rebuilt and are building besides a great number upon new foundations many fair Structures But that which has been hitherto The Nasty Irish Cabbins a great blemish to Ireland and I doubt will ever hereafter be a blemish to the flourishing state of Ireland in point of Building is the great number of Nasty-Smoaky-Cabbins every where made up of Wattles without any Chimnies wherein the poorer sort of Irish do well which cannot be altogether ascribed to their meer poverty and antient custom but rather much more to the uncertainty of the tenure whereby they hold the same being Tenants only but from May to May that so they may more easily quit their Station and try their fortunes else where for an other year though many times to as little effect in case they find themselves over-much opprest by their Landlords Their Parish Churches were generally as meanly built in Ireland as their practice was in Religion but now that the Country comes to be inhabited by a more civil and better Principled people it may be justly hoped and likewise expected that there will be by degrees a Reformation in this particular as well as in other matters of less moment since the handsome building and adorning of Churches do conduce much to draw the rude people to the the reverencing and frequenting thereof CHAP. II. Of the Inhabitants their Laws Religion and Manners Of their Number Language Stature Dyet Attire Recreations Names and Sir-names I have already declared how it is most probable that the first Inhabitants of this Island came hither out of Britain Inhabitants and Laws now called England and Wales And therefore shall proceed to give some farther Account touching the Laws of this Realm both Ancient and Modern The Brehon Law by which the Irish governed themselves was a Rule of Right unwritten but delivered by Tradition from one to another in which often times there appeared great shew of Equity in determining the Right between party and party but in many things repugning quite both to Gods Law and Mans The partiality and impiety of the Brehon Irish Law As for example in the case of Murder the Brehon that is their Judge would compound between the Murderer and the Friends of the party Murdered which Prosecuted the Action that the Malefactor should give unto them or to the Child or Wife of him that is slain a recompence which they called an Eriach By which vile Law of theirs many Murders amongst them were made up and smothered And this Judge being as he was called the Lords Brehon adjudged for the most part a better share unto this Lord that is the Lord of the Soil or the head of that Sept and also unto himself for his judgment a greater portion then unto the Plaintiffs or parties grieved Sir Edward Poynings the best Reformer of the Laws of Ireland He that gave the fairest beginning to the Reformation of the Laws of Ireland of any till his time was Sir Edward Poynings Lord Deputy of Ireland in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh who finding in that Realm nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish there a well governed Common-wealth and to that end he held a Parliament no less famous than that of Kilkenny and more available for the Reformation of the whole Kingdom For whereas all wise men did ever concur in opinion that the readiest way to Reform Ireland was to settle a form of Civil Government there conformable to that of England To bring this to pass Sir Edward Poynings did pass an Act whereby all the Statutes made in England before that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland Neither did he only respect the time past but provided also for the time to come For he caused an other Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament of Ireland but such as should be first Transmitted into England and approved by the King and Council there as good and expedient for that Land and so returned back again under the Great Seal of England This Act though it seem Prima facie to restrain
THE PRESENT STATE OF Ireland TOGETHER With some Remarques Upon the Antient State thereof Likewise a Description of the Chief Towns With a MAP of the Kingdome LONDON Printed by M. D. for Chr. Wilkinson at the Black-Boy in Fleet-Street and T. Burrell at the Golden-Ball under St. Dunstans Church 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER MVch cannot be expected upon a Subject of this Nature from a private Person and one who was seconded with few other helps to accomplish his desires herein than to consult his own thoughts and a mall number of Books that lay by him However the Reader may be well assured there is nothing offered here to his consideration in relation to the Present or Antient State of Ireland as far as the Subject would possibly admit of the same but what is back'd with good Authority and faithfully related by the Author according to the best information he could obtain As for other matters here Essayed by way of conjecture the Author well hopes this mean attempt will shortly administer a fit occasion for a more knowing Person and abler Pen to render the World more ample satisfction touching the Publick Affairs and State of that Kingdome wherein it may seem strange how that this our Age affords many Treatises entituled The present State of Enngland France Italy Holland Venice Muscovy c. yet not any thing of that Nature since his Majesties happy Restauration hath been hitherto presented to publick view in relation to the State of Ireland though it be one of the chiefest Members of the British Empire as if either there were no such thing in Nature Or at least that the Affairs thereof afforded not any thing worthy of Note whereas indeed the continued infelicity of that unhappy Kingdome till of late might alone besides many other remarkes made mention of in this ensuing Treatise justly breed some curiosity in any knowing person to take into his consideration what were the true causes why that Realm whereof our Kings of England have born the Title of Sovereign Lords for the space of four hundred and odd years a period of time wherein divers great Monarchies have risen from Barbarism to Civility and fallen again to Ruine was not in all that space of time throughly subdued reduced to the obedience of the Crown of England although there hath been almost a continual War between the English and the Irish and why the manners of the meer Irish were so little altered till King James his Reign since the days of King Henry the Second as appeareth by the description made by Giraldus Cambrensis who lived and wrote in that time although there hath been since that time so many English Colonies planted in Ireland as that if the people had been numbred by the Poll such as were descended of English race would have been found more in number than the antient Natives To give therefore a brief account of the true causes of those disorders as also of the exquisite remedies applyed by the late Settlement of Ireland in order to a perfect Reformation of the same is one of the chief ends and design of this discourse wherein if it gives the Reader any competent satisfaction the Author will deem himself thereby well rewarded for his pains THE CONTENTS OF THE First Part. THat Ireland is supposed to be first Inhabited by the Britains page 1. That it was first Invaded by the Saxon Monarchs p. 3. Next by the Northern Nations about the year 830. of Danes Swedes and Normans all passing under the Names of Norwegians p. ib. And last of all by the English in K. Henry the Seconds time p. 4. That the Conquest of Ireland by the English ever since Henry the Seconds time till now of late was imperfect by reason of two great Defects the first whereof consisted in faint prosecution of the War and the next in in the loosness of the Civil Government p. 6. Of the faint prosecution of the War and the causes of it p. ib. That notwithstanding many obstructions yet the first English Adventurers during the first forty years gained many large proportions of Land in the Provinces of Leinster Munster Connaght and Ulster p. 8. That the English being for a long time necessitated to maintain a bordering War with the Irish wholy at the charge of the English Planters the English Plantations in Ireland began thereupon to decay p. 9 10 11. That Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond was the first began that wicked Extortion of Coine Livery and Pay in K. Edward the Seconds time which soon after proved the utter ruine of all the English Colonies in Ireland except those few within the Pale which Interest of the English could never be put in a way of recovery again till about the beginning of Queen Eâ—izabeths Reign p. 12 13. That by reason of the said Earl of Desmond and divers other Grandees of the first English Conquerors getting vast Estates from the English Colonies in Ireland by those horrible oppressioins of Coin and Livery c. many of the English fled into England and the rest in a small tract of time so much degenerated into Irish manners as that they hated the very name of the English and took upon them Irish Nick-names p. 14 15. That those great English Lords the better to maintain their said unlawful Acquisitions became thereupon Arch Enemies both to the Government and the Laws of England refusing to appear at Parliaments and no way observing the Dictates and Command of the Chief Governors of that Realm p. 16 17. That by these means and by reason of the English Nobility and Gentry passing afterwards out of Ireland into England to be engaged in the Civil-Wars between York and Lancaster wherein most of them perished the Irish became victorious over all the English except those within the Pale without bloud or sweat p. 17 18. That it was a great hindrance to the full Conquest of Ireland that the first English Conquerors did not equally communicate the English Laws to the Irish as well as to English Planters ib. That by means thereof the English Conquerors maintained perpetual Enmity and War with the Irish for their own private ends and advantages to the distruction of the Country p. 19. That this was contrary to the practice of the Roman State who never refused to communicate their Laws to the rude and barbarous people they conquered p. 20. And to the practice of William the Conqueror who Governed both Normands and the English under one Law p. 21. And against the prudent course Edward the First observed in the reducing of Wales p. ib. That the next Error in the Civil pollicy was the over great proportions of Land with great Royalties and Liberties granted to the first English Adventurers in Ireland which occasioned many notorious inconveniencies p. 22. The reason why such vast proportions of Land were given to the first Adventurers in Ireland p. 30. The manner how Ireland was divided among the English Conquerors in
the chief causes that obstructed the Conquest of Ireland till about the latter end of Queen Elizabeths reign as to Martial Affairs And secondly loosness in the Civil Government of Ireland for not communicating the Laws of England to the Irish I shall now endeavour in the next place to give some satisfaction touching those defects that were observed to be in the Civil Policy and Government of this Kingdome which gave no less impediment to the full Conquest thereof which doth first consist in this That the Crown of England did not from the beginning give Laws to the Irishry though the Irish did often desire to be admitted to the benefit of it and protection of the English Laws but could not obtain it For although King Henry the Second before his return out of Ireland held a Counfel or Parliament at Lismore where the Laws of England were willingly accepted off by all the Irishry and that confirm'd by their Oaths And though King John in the twelfth year of his Reign did establish the English Laws and Customes here and the Courts of Judicature at Dublin and placed Sheriffs and other Ministers to rule and govern the people according to the Laws of England yet it is evident by all the Records of this Kingdome that onely the English Colonies and some few Septs of the Irishry as O Neal of Vlster O Malaghlin of Meath O Connagher of Connaght O Brien of Thomond and Mac Muorrogh of Lynster who were enfranchised by special Charters were admitted to the benefit and protection of the Laws of England for in them onely the English Laws were published and put in execution and in them onely did the Itinerant Judges make their Circuits and Visitations of Justice as namely in the Counties of Dublin Kildare Meth Vriel Catherlogh Kilkenny Wexford Waterford Cork Limrick Kerry and Typperary and not in the Countries possessed by the Irishry which contained at least two third parts of the Kingdome and even in these Counties the said Laws stretcht no farther then the Lands of the English Colonies did extend so that the Irish were not only disabled to bring any actions but they were so far out of the protection of the Law as it was often adjudged no Fellony to kill a meer Irish man in time of Peace from whence it came to pass that in all the Parliament Rolls which are extant from the 40th year of Edward the Third when the Statutes of Kilkenny were enacted till the Reign of King Henry the Eighth we find the degenerate and disobedient English called Rebels but the Irish which were not in the Kings Peace are called Enemies Whereby it it is manifest that such as had the Government of Ireland under the Crown of England did intend to maintain a perpetual Separation and Enmity between the English and the Irish pretending that the English should in the end be able to root out the Irish which the English not being able to effect caused a perpetual War between both Nations which continued four hundred and odd years and might have continued to the worlds end if in the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign the Irishry had not been broken and Conquered by the Sword and since the beginning of King James his Reign had not been protected and governed by the Law Contrary to the practice of the Romans and others c. who communicated their Laws to the Conquered This was contrary to the practice of the Roman State which Conquered so many barbarous and civil Nations and therefore knowing by experience the best and readiest way of making a perfect and absolute Conquest refused not to communicate their Laws to the rude and barbarous people whom they had conquered neither did they ever put them out of their Protection after they had once submitted themselves but rather the better to assure their conquest by all the means imaginable they could allured them to Civility and Learning whereof the antient Britains were a famous instance This was also against the practise William the Conqueror used who governed both the Normans and the English under one Law And against the prudent course that hath been observed in the reducing of Wales partly perform'd by King Edward the First and altogether finished by King Henry the Eighth by dividing the whole Countrey into Shires and Circuits and establishing a Common-wealth amongst them according to the English Government by means whereof that entire Countrey was in a short time so securely setled in Peace and Obedience and hath attained to that civility of manners and plenty of all things as now we find it not inferiour to the best parts of England That the over great proportions of Land granted to the first Conquerors of Ireland occasioned great inconveniencies The next Error in the Civil Policy which hindered the perfection of the Conquest of Ireland did consist in the distribution of the Lands and Possessions which were won and conquered from the Irish For the Scopes of Land which were granted to the first Adventurers were too large and the Liberties and Royalties which they obtained therein were too great for Subjects though it stood with reason that they should be liberally rewarded out of the fruits of their own labours since they managed the War upon their own account and received no pay from the Crown of England whereupon ensued divers inconveniencies that gave great impediment to the Conquest for first Earl Strongbow was entituled to the whole Kingdom of Lynster partly by Invasion and partly by Marriage albeit he surrendered the same entirely to King Henry the Second his Soveraign The manner how Ireland was divided amongst the first Engâ—ish Conquerors for that with his License he came over and with the aid of his Subjects he had gained that great Inheritance yet did the King regrant back again to him and his Heiâ—s all that Province reserving only the City of Dublin and the Cantreds next adjoyning with the Maritine Towns and principal Forts and Castles Next the same King granted to Robert Fitz-Stephen and Miles Cogan the whole Kingdom of Corke from Lismore to the Sea To Philip le Bruce he gave the whole Kingdome of Lymrick with the Donation of Bishopricks and Abbies except the City and one Cantred of Land adjoyning To Sir Hugh de Lacy all Meath To Sir John de Courcy all Vlster To William Bourke Fitz-Adelin the greatest part of Connaght In like manner Sir Thomas de Clare obtained a grant of all Thomond and Otho de Grandison of all Tipperary and Robert le Poor of the Territory of Waterford the City it self and the Cantred of the Oastmen only excepted And thus was alâ— Ireland Cantonized among ten Persons of the English Nation And though they had not gained the Possession of one third part of the whole Kingdom yet in Title they were owners and Lords of all so as nothing was left to be granted to the Natives whose petty Kings and Great ones our great English Lords could not endure
they should Reign in Ireland nay they were come that height by these great Possessions that they could not brook that the Crown of England it self should have any Jurisdiction or Power over them For many of these Lords to whom our Kings had granted these petty Kingdoms did by Vertue and Colour of these Grants claim and exercise Jura Regalia within their Territories in so much as there were no less than eight Counties Palatines in Ireland at one time The first English Conquerors exercise Regal Power These absolute Palatines made Barons and Knights did exercise high Justice in all points within their Territories erected Courts for Criminal and Civil Causes and for their own Revenues in the same form as the Kings Courts were established at Dublin made their own Judges Seneschalls Sheriffs Coroners and Escheators so as the Kings Writ did not run in those Counties which took up more then two parts of the English Colonies but onely in Church Lands lying within the same which were called the Cross wherein the King made a Sheriff And so in each of these Counties Palatines there were two Sheriffs one of the Liberty and another of the Cross whereby it is manifest how much the Kings Jurisdictions was restrained and the power of these Lords enlarged by these high Priviledges Again these great undertakers were not tied to any form of Plantation but all was left to their discretion and pleasure And although they builded Castles and made Freeholders yet were there no tenures or services reserved to the Crown but the Lords drew all the respect and dependancy of the common people unto themselves Now let us see what inconveniences did arise by these large and ample Grants of Lands and Liberties to the first Adventurers in the Conquest The great inconveniences that ensued the Grant of whole Provinces and petit Kingdoms to the first English Conquerors of Ireland Without doubt by these Grants of whole Provinces and petty Kingdoms these few English Lords pretended to be Proprietors of all the Land so as their was no possibility left of settling the Natives in their Possessions and by consequence the Conquest became impossible without the utter extirpation of all the Irish which these English Lords were not able to perform nor perhaps willing if they had ability Notwithstanding because they did still hope to become Lords of those Lands which were possessed by the Irish whereunto they pretended Title by their large Grants And because they did fear that if the Irish were received into the Kings protection and made Liege-men and Free Subjects the State of England would establish them in their possessions by Grants from the Crown reduce their Countries into Counties ennoble some of them and enfranchise all and make them amensurable to the Law which would have abridged and cut off a great part of that greatness which they had promised unto themselves They therefore perswaded the King of England that it was unfit to communicate the Laws of England unto them and that it was the best policy to hold them as Aliens and Enemies and to prosecute them with a continual War whereby they obtained another Royal Prerogative and Power Which was to make War and Peace at their Pleasure in every part of the Kingdom which gave them an absolute command over the Bodies Lands and Goods of the English Subjects there And besides the Irish inhabiting the Lands fully Conquered and reduced being in the condition of Slaves and Villains did render a greater Profit and Revenue than if they had been the Kings Free Subjects and therefore for these two causes last expressed they were not willing to root out all the Irishry Again Those large Scopes of Land and great Liberties with absolute Power to make War and Peace did raise the English Lords to that height of Pride and Ambition as they could not endure one another but grew to a mortal War and Dissention amongst themselves insomuch that whole Towns and Countries have often times been destroyed by their Contentions which brought forth divers mischiefs that did not onely disable the English to finish the Conquest of all Ireland but did endanger the loss of what was already gained And of Conquerors made themselves Slaves to that Nation which they did intend to Conquer For whensoever one English Lord had vanquished another the Irish waited and took the opportunity and fell upon that Country which had received the blow and so daily recovered some part of the Lands which were possessed by the English Colonies Besides The English Lords to strengthen their Parties did Ally themselves with the Irish and drew them in to dwell amongst them and gave their Children to be fostered by them and having no other means to pay or reward them suffered them to take Coyn and Livery upon the English Free-holder which oppression was so intollerable as that the better sort were enforced to quit their Free-holds and fly into England and never returned though many Laws were made in both Realms to remand them back again and the rest which remained became degenerate and meer Irish as is before declared And the English Lords finding the Irish Exactions to be more profitable then the English Rents and Services and loving the Irish tyranny which was tyed to no Rules of Law or Honor better than a just and lawful Seigniory did reject and cast off the English Law and Government received the Irish Laws and Customes took as aforesaid Irish Sir-names refused to come to the Parliaments which were summoned by the King of Englands Authority and scorned to obey the English Knights which were sent to command and govern this Kingdome Why the Kings of England Granted such large Proportions of Land to the first Conquerors of Ireland But this ought withal to be taken into consideration that as these Grants of little Kingdomes and great Royalties to a few private persons did produce the mischiefs spoken of before So the true cause of making those Grants did proceed from this That the Kings of England being otherwise imployed and diverted did not make the Conquest of Ireland their own work and undertook it not royally at their own charge but as it was first begun by particular Adventurers so they left the prosecution thereof to them and other Adventurers who came to seek their Fortunes in Ireland wherein if they could prevail they thought it in Reason and Honor they could do no less than make them Proprietors of such Scopes of Land as they could Conquer People and Plant at their own charge reserving only the Sovereign Lordship to the Crown of England But if the Lyon had gone to hunt himself the shares of the inferiour Beasts had not been so great If the Invasion had been made by an Army transmitted furnished and supplyed onely at the Kings charges and wholly paid with the Kings Treasure as the Armies of Queen Elizabeth and King James were as the Conquest had been sooner atchieved so the Servitors had been contented
in abundance with all sorts of Fish sprinkled with many very sweet Islands and goodly Lakes like little Inland-Seas which will carry even Ships upon their waters adorned with goodly Woods even fit for building of Houses and Ships so commodiously as that if some Prince in the World had them they would soon hope to be Lords of all the Seas and ere long of all the World Also full of very good Forts and Havens opening upon England as inviting us to come unto them to see what excellent Commodities that Country can afford besides the Soil it self most fertile fit to yeild all kind of Fruit that shall be committed thereunto And lastly the Heavens most mild and temperate though somewhat more moist in the parts towards the West How far Ireland differs from England in Aire and Commodities Ireland differs not much from England for all manner of Commodities either for Feeding or Cloathing or for Pleasure or Profit but only in this that the Aire thereof though very wholsome and delectable is neither so clear nor subtil as ours of England by reason of the Sun being frequently overshadowed with clouds even almost as well in Summer as in Winter which is therefore nothing favourable for the ripening of Corn and Fruits but so grateful to the ground that it causeth grass to grow abundantly not only fresh and long but withal very sweet for all kind of Cattle and in Winter is more subject to Wind than Snow or Frost the Wool of this Country is said to be not of so fine a grain as that of England but the Sheep of as large a body and so all other kind of Cattle if bred there after the way of England Coal they have none but what is neer Kilkenny and that in no great quantity however plentifully supplied with Fuel by reason of their neighbouring Boggs though otherwise over-plentifully dispersed through all parts of the Kingdom Iron Ore they have none as I take it but what is brought out of England which occasions as I suppose so few Iron Mills in Ireland there being of late years but two that I have heard off viz. one at Mountrath in the Kings County and another at Corfew in the County of Wexford neer the Town of Wexford the fewness whereof I presume is no great loss to that Country the Woods there the over-plenty whereof was formerly complained of being now of late too much destroyed even to admiration Some Mines of Lead have been found there of late by the industry of the English the chief whereof was that called the Silver Mines in the County of Typperary not far from Limrick out of which was extracted some proportion of Silver which gave it the Denomination England and Ireland may be esteemed without doubt to be two of the most plentiful Kingdoms for Provisions for the extent of them of any in the whole World but that which causes the vast difference between the value of the Stock and Lands of the one and the other though both conveniently situated for Trade is that of Traffick and Commerce and till of late the sloathfulness of the people of Ireland in not disposing themselves to Manufactury a great rectification whereof may be well hoped will fall out even in this our Age whereunto there is already given a very fair beginning by the British Planters Money The Irish till of late times did for the most part mannage their Trade and Commerce amongst themselves by exchange of Wares Trade driven formerly in Ireland hy Commutation of Commodities and commutation of Commodities having little or no coyn stirring even amongst their greatest Lords and Noblemen And no great marvel it should be so in Ireland since that of old the most usual material of money amongst the Roman Provinces was seldome Gold or Silver but Brass sometimes Leather Corium forma publica percussum as Seneca hath it This last kind of Money was by Frederick the Second made current when he besieged Millaine The like is said to have been used here in England in the time of the Barons Wars and why not since no longer ago than in the year 1574 the Hollanders then being in their Extremities made money of Past-board But this happened only in case of necessity The Metals of Gold and Silver having for many hundred years though not in such abundance been the principal instrument of Exchange and Barter and so questionless will continue to the end of the World English Moneys prohibited to be transported out of England into Ireland In the three and fortieth year of Queen Elizabeths Reign being Anno 1601. It was commanded by Proclamation as also King Henry the Seventh had provided by Act of Parliament that no man should carry over English money into Ireland for as much as the Rebels drew unto themselves a great part thereof to buy Ammunition and Provision for the Wars and from thence the Merchants carried it into forraign Countries to the great detriment of England There was therefore a serious deliberation then had about changing the Irish Coyâ— by mingling some Brass with it foâ— that the Irish War drew yearly oâ—â— of England 160000 l. Sterling Here upon some were of opinion that thâ— Charges of the War might be abâ—ted that all the good Money migâ—â— by Exchange be drawn out of Ireland into England that so the Râ—bels when the good Money faileâ— would be excluded from all Coâ—merce with Forreigners and of necessity weakned Others argued 〈◊〉 the contrary that this change woulâ— redound to the dishonor of the Queen and the dammage of the Subject that the good Money of Ireland could not be drawn thence without a great charge to the Queen that the gain gotten thereby if new Money were Coyned in England would not when the Accounts were cast up countervail the Charges of carrying over A Mint not profitable to be set vp in Ireland and much less if it were Coyned in Ireland where a Mint must needs be set up at great Charges and Minters must be hired for great wages Neither could the Commerce of the Rebels with Forreigners be impeached whilst there was Silver in the new Coyn which the Merchant knew well enough how to seperate unto whom it is all one whether he receive one piece of Money or three of the same value and that it was to be feared least the Souldiers would mutiny for thereby their pay would be diminished But Buckhurst Lord Treasusurer a man very skilful in Money matters with much ado extorted from the Queen out of necessity for that is the Law of Time which he urged that the Money should be changed for a time to be called back again afterwards to the highest value for she many times said that this would depress her Fame and be grievous to the Army Yet did the Army continue without tumult and commotion through the Queens rare happiness which retained her Authority with her People joyned with love To the Army certainly it proved a
gallant and truly meritorious The Irish unanimously agreed to root the English out of Ireland It is not to be denyed but that the first and most bloudy executions were made in the Prevince of Vlster and there they continued longest to execute their rage and cruelty yet must it be acknowledged that all the other three Provinces did concur with them as it were with one common consent to destroy and pluck up by the roots all the British planted throughout the Kingdom And for this purpose they went on not only murdering stripping and driving out all of them Men Women and Children but they laid wast their Habitations burnt their evidences defaced in many places all the Monuments of Civility and Devotion the Courts and places of the English Government Nay as some of themselves exprest it they resolved not to leave them either Name or Posterity in Ireland Having thus far briefly rendered an account touching matter of fact That the Irish can pretend no grievances as motives to the last Rebellion An. 164â— transacted in this most bloudy Rebellion I shall in the next place take an occasion to enquire whether this desperate resolution of the Irish proceeded from the sense of some grievous oppressions imposed upon by their English Governours or rather meerly from an impetuous desire they had to draw the whole Government of the Kingdom of Ireland into their own hands Upon due consideration whereof I cannot find they had the least cause to complain of oppression for his late Majesties Indulgence was so great towards his Subjects of Ireland as that in the year 1640. upon their complaints and a general Remonstrance sent over unto him from both Houses of Parliament then sitting at Dublin by a Committee of four Temporal Lords of the Upper House and twelve Members of the House of Commons with instructions to represent the heavy pressures they had for some time suffered under the Government of the Earl of Strafford He took these Grievances into his Royal Consideration descended so far to their satisfaction as that he heard them himself and made present Provisions for their redress And upon the decease of Mr. Wandsford Master of the Rolls in Ireland and then Lord Deputy there under the said Earl of Strafford who still continued Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom though then accused of High Treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London by the Parliament of England His Majesty sent a Commission of Government to the Lord Dillon of Kilkenny West and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Wards in Ireland yet soon after finding the choice of the Lord Dillon to be much disgusted by the Committee he did at their Motion cause the said Commission to be Cancell'd and with their consent and approbation placed the Government upon Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlace Knight Master of the Ordinance both esteemed persons of great Integrity and the Master of Wards by reason of his very long continued imployment in the State his particular knowledge of the Kingdom much valued and well beloved amongst the People They took the Sword upon the ninth of February 1640. And in the first place they aplyed themselves with all gentle lenitives to mollifie the sharp humours raised by the rigid passages in the former Government They declared themselves against all such proceedings lately used as they found any ways varying from the Common Law They gave all due encouragement to the Parliament then sitting to endeavour the reasonable ease and contentment of the people freely ascenting to all such Acts as really tended to a Legal Reformation They betook themselves wholly to the advice of the Councel and caused all matters as well of the Crown as Popular Interest to be handled in his Majesties Courts of Justice no way admitting the late exorbitancies so bitterly decryed in Parliament of Paper-Petitions or Bills in Civil Causes to be brought before them at the Councel-board or before any other by their Authority They by his Majesties gracious directions gave way to the Parliament to abate the Subsidies there given in the Earl of Straffords time and then in Collection from forty thousand pounds each Subsidy to twelve thousand pounds a piece so low did they think fit to reduce them And they were farther content because they saw his Majesty most absolutely resolved to give the Irish Agents full satisfaction to draw up two Acts to be passed in the Parliament most impetuously desired by the Natives The one was the Act of Limitations which unquestionably settled all Estates of Land in the Kingdom quietly enjoyed without claim or interruption for the space of sixty years immediately preceding The other was for the relinquishment of the right and title which his Majesty had to the four Counties in Connaght legally found for him by several Inquisitions taken in them and ready to be disposed upon a due Survey to British undertakers as also to some Territories of good extant in Mounster and the County of Clare upon the same title Thus was the present Government most sweetly tempered and carryed on with great lenity and moderation the Lords Justices and Councel wholly departing from the rigour of former courses did gently unbend themselves into a happy and just compliance with the seasonable desires of the people And his Majesty that he might farther testify his own settled resolution for the continuation thereof with the same tender hand over them having first given full satisfaction in all things to the said Committee of Parliament still attending their dispatch did about the latter end of May 1641. declare Kobert Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant General of the Kingdom of Ireland He was Heir to Sir Philip Sidney his Unckle as well as to Sir Henry Sidney his Grandfather who with great Honour and much Integrity long continued Chief Governour of Ireland during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and being a person of excellent Abilities by Nature great Acquisitions from his own private Industry and publick Imployment abroad of exceeding great Temper and Moderation was never engaged in any publick pressures of the Common-wealth and therefore most likely to prove a just and gentle Governour most pleasing and acceptable to the people The Romish Catholicks privately enjoyed the exercise of their Religion through all Ireland Moreover the Romish Catholicks privately enjoyed the free exercise of their Religion throughout the whole Kingdom according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome They had by the over great indulgence of the late Governours their Titular Arch-bishops Bishops Vicars general Provincial Consistories Deans Abbots Priors Nuns who all lived freely though somewhat covertly among them and without controul exercised a voluntary jurisdiction over them they had their Priests Jesuits and Fryars who were of late years exceedingly multiplyed and in great numbers returned out of Spain Italy and other forreign parts where the Children of the Natives of Ireland that way devoted were sent usually to receive their Education And these without
any manner of Restraint had quietly settled themselves in all the chief Towns Villages Noblemen and private Gentlemens houses throughout the Kingdom So as the private exercise of all their Religious Rites and Ceremonies were freely enjoyed by them without any manner of disturbance and not any of the Laws put in execution whereby heavy penalties were to be inflicted upon transgressors in that kind Now seeing we have manifestly found by woful experience that all those Princely favours and tender proceedings of his late Majesty towards the Irish That no Princely favors can oblige the Popish-Irish part to be Loyal to the Crown of England proved altogether ineffectual to contain them within the due bounds of Loyalty and Obedience The world may easily believe that their designs by their last Rebellion tended to no other end than the utter subversion of the English Government in Ireland The utter subversion of the Enlish Government designed by the last Rebellion in Ireland An. 1641. and the establishing of the same in the hands of their own Natives for confirmation whereof we have the Testimony of a Franciscan Fryar who was one of their Councel who tells us that the last Session of Parliament held at Dublin being proroged in August 1641. and the time drawing nigh for putting their design in execution of surprising Dublin Castle and all other places of Strength in the possession of the English in Ireland there was a great meeting appointed of the heads of the Romish Clergy and other Lay-men of their faction to be at the Abby of Mullifarvan A Councel held at Mullifarvan Abby in Meath whether to Kill or Banish all the English out of Ireland An. 1641. in the County of West-Meath where amongst other matters there debated the question was what course should be taken with the English and all others that were found in the whole Kingdom to be Protestants The Councel was therein divided 1. The Council divided some for Banishing Some were for their Banishment without attempting on their Lives for this was given the Instance of the King of Spains expelling out of Granado and other parts of his Dominions the Moors to the number of many hundred of thousands all of them being dismissed with their Lives Wives and Children with some part of their Goods if not the most part that this his way of proceeding redounded much to the honor of Spain whereas the Slaughter of many Innocents would have laid an everlasting blemish of cruelty on that State that the like usage of the English their Neighbours to whom many there present owed if no more yet their Education would gain much to the Cause both in England and other parts That their Goods and Estates seized upon would be sufficient without medling with their Persons that if the contrary course were taken and their bloud spilt besides the Curse it might draw from Heaven upon their Cause it might withal increase and provoke the Neighbour Kingdome of England and that justly taking a more severe revenge on theâ— and theirs even to extirpation if 〈◊〉 had the upper hand Others for cutting off all the English 2. On the other side was urgeâ— a contrary preceeding to the utteâ— cutting off all the English Protestants where to the instance of the dismissed Moors it was answered thâ—â— that was the sole Act of the King anâ— Queen of Spain contrary to the aâ—vise of their Councel which howsoever it might gain that Prince a namâ— of mercy yet therein the event shewed him to be most unmerciful noâ— onely to his own but to all Christendome beside That this was evidenâ— in the great and excessive charge thaâ— Spain hath been since that time puâ— unto by those Moors and their posterity to this day All Christendom also hath and doth still groan undeâ— the miseries it doth suffer by the Pyracies of Algiers Sally and the like Dens of Thieves That all this mighâ— have been prevented in one hour by a general Massacre applying thaâ— it was no less dangerous to expel thâ— English That these Robbers anâ— banished men might again return with swords in their hands who by their hard usage in spoiling might be exasperated and by the hope of recovering their former Estates would be incensed far more than strangers that were sent against them Being neither in their persons injured nor grieved in their estate that therefore a general Massacre were the safest and readiest way for freeing the Kingdom of any such fears 3. In which diversity of opinions howsoever the first prevailed with some for which the Franciscans saith this Frier did stand yet others inclined to the second some again leading to a middle way neither to dismiss nor kill And according to this do we find the event and course of their proceedings But both was practised with that of imprisonment In some places they were generally put to the sword or to other miserable ends some restrain their persons in durance knowing it to be in their hands to dispatch them at their pleasures in the mean time they being reserved either for profit by their ransome or for exchange of Prisoners or gaining their own paâ—dons by the lives of their Prisoners if time would serve or by their death if the worst did happen to satisfie their fury The third sort at the first altogether dismissed theâ—â— prisoners but first having spoileâ— them of their goods and after of their raiment exposing the miserable wretches to cold and famine whereby many have perished by deaths worse then sword or halter Hitherto of their Counsels and the effect of them Now for their intentions all being reduced whicâ— God forbid into their power anâ— thereof did they as by some Law give such peremptory conclusions that it may well be wondered thâ— thoughts of men professing themselves wise should be so vain and herein I do still follow mine Informer What the Irish would have done if they had prevailed First Their Loyalty to his Majesty should be still reserved Thâ— said they of the modest sort Buâ— both his Revenues and Governmeâ—â— must be reduced to certain bounds His Rents none other then the aâ—cient reservations before the Plantation and Customs so ordered as to them should be thought fitting Secondly for the Government such as would be esteemed loyal would have it committed to the hands of two Lords Justices one of the ancient Irish Race the other of the ancient Brittish Inhabitants in the Kingdom Provided that they be of the Romish Profession Thirdly That a Parliament should be forthwith called consisting of whom they should think fit to be admitted wherein their own religious men should be assistants Fourthly Poynings Act should be repealed and Ireland declared to be a Kingdom independant on England and without any reference unto it in any case whatsoever Fifthly All Acts prejudicial to the Romish Religion should be abolished and it to be enacted That there should be none ohter profession in the Kingdom but the Romish
Affairs of that Kingdome expecting direction from hence the delays whereof were oftentimes through other greater affairs most irksome the oportunities there in the mean time past away and greater danger did often grow which by such timely prevention might easily have been stopped And this is worthily observed by Machiavel in his discourses upon Livie where he commendeth the manner of the Romans Government in giving absolute Power to all their Councellors and Governors which if they abused they afterwards should dearly answer And the contrary thereof he reprehendeth in the States of Venice of Florence and many other Principalities of Italy who use to limit their chief Officers so strictly as that thereby they have oftentimes lost such happy occasions as they could never come unto again The like whereof who so hath been conversant in the Government of Ireland especially during Queen Elizabeths Reign hath too often seen to their great hindrance and hurt That besides the want of Power there were eminent defects observed in the managemet of the publick Affairs of Ireland Besides this want of Power which did hinder the good Reformation of Ireland there were eminent defects noted in the mangement of the publick Affairs of that Kingdom by some of the chief Governors thereof who seeing the end of their Government to draw nigh and some mischiefs and practices growing up which afterwards might work trouble to the next succeeding Governor would not attempt the redress or cutting off thereof either for fear they should leave the Realm unquiet at the end of their Government or that the next that came should receive the same too quiet and so happily win more praise thereof than they before And therefore they would not seek at all to repress that evil but would either by granting protection for a time or holding some emparlance with the Rebel or by treaty of Comissioners or by other like devices only smother and keep down the flame of the mischief so it might not break out in their time of Government what came afterwards they cared not or rather wish'd the worst To this may be added The savoring of the Irish and depressing of the English an ill practice by some of the Lord Deputies of Ireland that when the Irish have been broken by the Sword of one Governour and thereby consequently made fit and capable for subjection another succeeding as it were into his harvest and finding an open way made for what course he pleased bent not to that point which the former intended but rather quite contrary and as it were in scorn of the former and in vain vaunt of his own Councels would tread down and disgrace all the English and set up and countenance the Irish all that he he could thereby to make them more tractable and buxome to his Government wherein he thought much amiss for surely his Government could not be sound and wholsome for that Realm it being so contrary to the former For it was even as two Physicians should take one sick body in hand at two sundry times of which the former would minister al things meet to purge and keep under the body the other to pamper and strengthen it suddenly again whereof what is to be looked for but a most dangerous relapse Therefore by all means it ought to be fore-seen and assured that after once entering into this course of Reformation there be afterwards no remorse nor drawing back for the sight of any such rueful objects as must thereupon follow nor for compassion of their Calamities seeing that by no other means it is possible to cure them and that these are not of will but of very urgent necessâ—ty The Lord Lieutenant The Lord Deputies of Ireland assâ—sted by a Privy Councel or Lord Deputy of Ireland hath for his assistance a Privy Councel attending on him though resident for the most part at Dublin and in emergencies or cases of more difficult nature proceedeth many times in an arbitrary way without formalities of Law Sir Henry Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland in Queen Elizabeths time The Lords Presidents of Connaght and Mounster instituted in Queen Elizabeths time to enure and acquaint the People of Mounster and Connaght with the English Government again which had not been in use among them for the space of two hundred years before he instituted two Presidency Courts in those two Provinces placing Sir Edward Fitton in Connaght and John Perrot in Mounster The Lord President of Mounster hath one Assistant twelve learned Lawyers and a Secretary CHAP. IV. Of the Title changed from Lord to King of Ireland in the time of Henry the Eighth Of the Titles of the Crown to every part of Ireland and to the whole diverse ways And several claims to the Land of Ireland Of the Revenue and Strength Title altered from Lord to King SIR Anthony Saint-Leger Lord Deputy of Ireland in a Parliament which he held the 33. of Henry 8. caused an Act to pass which gave unto King Henry the Eighth his Heirs and Successors the Name Stile and Title of King of Ireland Whereas before that time the Kings of England were stiled but Lords of Ireland Although indeed they were absolute Monarchs thereof and had in right all Royal and Imperial Jurisdiction and Power there as they had in the Realm of England And yet because in the vulgar conceit the name of King is higher than the name of Lord assuredly the assuming of this Title hath not a little raised the Sovereignity of the Kings of England in the minds of this people And because it hath been doubted by some whether we might Lawfully fight against the Irish I shall for farther satisfaction here insert the Right and Title the Crown of England hath to the Kingdom of Ireland as to every part of it and to the whole divers ways I will begin with the Pedigree of William Earl Marshal Title to Leinster for thereupon depend many Records in Ireland and the King of Englands Right to Leinster Walter Fitz Richard who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror died Lord Strongbow of Strigule alias Chepstow without Issue to whom succeeded his Sisters Son who was created the first Earl of Pembroke and had Issue Richard the inheritor of Leinster by a Covenant and Marriage of Eva the Sole Daughter of Mac Murrough King of Leinster This Richard conveyed to Henry the Second all his Title and held of him the Lordship of Leinster in four Counties Wexford Catherlagh Ossory and Kildare Richard left Issue a Daughter Issabel married to William Earl Marshal of England now Earl of Pembroke Lord Strongbow and Lord of Leinster William had Issue five Sons who died without Issue when every of them except the youngest had successively possessed their Fathers Lands and five Daughters Maud Jone Issabel Sibil and Eve among whom the Patrimony was parted Anno 31. H. 3. Of these Daughters bestowed in Marriage are descended many Noble Houses as the Mortimers Bruises Clares
c. born Subjects to the Crown of England paying ever to the King his Duties reserved Title to Meth. Hugh de Lacy Conquerour of Meth had Issue Walter de Lacy who held the same of King John paying a Fine of four thousand Marks Sterling and hence began all the several Claims there with Alegiance sworn and done by their Ancestors Title to Mounster At the very first arrival of Henry the Second the Princes of Mounster came universally and did homage voluntarily and acknowledged to him and his Heirs Duties and pays for ever John de Courcy Conquerour and Earl of Vlster dyed without Issue Title to Ulster Connaght King John Lord of Ireland gave the Earldome to Hugh de Lacy who who had Issue Walter and Hugh who died without Issue and one Daughter married to Reymond Burke Conquerour and Lord of Connaght Connaght descended to divers Heirs owing service to the Prince but Vlster returned by devolution to the special Inheritance and the Revenues of the Crown of England in this manner The said de Burgo had Issue Richard who had Issue John who had Issue William who was slain without Issue and a Daughter Elizabeth entitled to thirty thousand Marks yearly by the Earldome of Vlster whom Edward the Third gave in marriage to Lionel his second Son Duke of Clarence who had Issue a Daughter Philippe married to Edward Mortimer who had Issue Edmund Anne Elianor Edmund and Elianor died without Issue Anne was married to Richard Earl of Cambridge Son to Edmund of Langley Duke of York fift Son to Edward the Third which said Richard had Issue Richard Plantaginet Father to Edward the Fourth Father to Elizabeth Wife to Henry the Seventh and Mother to Henry the Eighth Father to Mary Edward the Sixth and Elizabeth Several Claims to the Land of Ireland Several claims to the Land of Ireland 1. Mac Gil-murrow King of Ireland with all his Petty Princes Lords and Captains summoned to King Arthurs Court held in Carlion Anno 519. did accordingly their homage and attended all the while his great Feast and Assembly lasted 2. The Monarch of all Ireland and all other both Reges and Reguli for them and for theirs for ever betook themselves to Henry the Second An. Dom. 1172. namely those of the South whiles he lay at Waterford Dermot K. of Corke which is the Nation of the Mac Cartyes at Cashel Donald K. of Limrick which is the Nation of the Obrenes Donald K. of Ossory Mac Shaghlon King of Ophaly at Divelin did the like Okernel King of Vriel Ororick King of Meth Roderick King of all Ireland and of Connaght This did they with consents and shouts of their People and King Henry returned without any Battle given Only Vlster remained which John de Courcy soon after conquered and Oneale Captain of all the Irish there came to Dublin to Richard the Second An. 1399. and freely bound himself by Oath and great Sums of Money to be true to the Crown of England 3. The same time O Brien of Thomond Oconar of Connaght Arthur Mac Murrow of Leinster and all the Irish Lords which had been somewhat disordered renewed their Obedience 4. When Ireland first received the Christian Faith they gave themselves into the Jurisdiction both Spiritual and Temporal of the See of Rome The Temporal Lordship Pope Adrian conferred upon Henry the Second and he gave the same to John his younger Son afterwards King of England and so it returned home to the Crown 5. Alexander the Third confirmed the Gift of Adrian as in both their Charters is expressed at large 6. Vivian the Legate on the Popes behalf did Accurse and Excommunicate all those that fell from the Obeysance of the Kings of England 7. The Clergy twice Assembled once at Cashell secondly at Armagh plainly determined the Conquest to be Lawful and threatnad all people under pain of Gods and holy Churches indignation to accept of the English Kings for their Lords from time to time 8. It would ask a Volume to recite the Name of such Irish Princes who since the Conquest have continually upon Occasions Revolts or Petitions sworn Truth and Faith to the Kings of England and from time to time received Honors Wages Fees Pardons and made Petitions And thus I think no reasonable man will doubt of a Right so old so continued so ratified and so many ways confessed The Kings Revenue in Ireland was spent and wholy exhausted in the publick service and therefore The Kings Revenue in Ireland wholy spent on that Kingdome in all the ancient Pipe-Rolls in the times of King Henry the Third Edward the First Edward the Second and Edward the Third between the Receipts and Allowances there is this entrie In Thesauro nihil For the Officers of the State and the Army spent all so as there was no surplusage of Treasure And here I may well take occasion to shew the vanity of that which is reported in the Story of Walsingham touching the Revenue of the Crown in Ireland which he saith did amount to thirty thousand Pounds a year in the time of King Edward the Third The vain story of 30000 l. yearly Revenue in E 3ds time refuted If this Writer had known that the Kings Courts had been established in Ireland more than a hundred years before King Edward the Third was born or had seen either the Parliament Rolls in England or the Records of the Receits and Issues in Ireland he had not left this vain report to Posterity for both the Benches and Exchequer were erected in the twelfth year of King John And it is Recorded in the Parliament Rolls of 21. of Edward the Third remaining in the Tower that the Commons of England made Petition that it might be enquired why the King received no benefit of his Land in Ireland considering he possessed more there than any of his Ancestors had before him Now if the King at that time when there were no standing Forces maintained there had received thirty thousand pounds yearly at his Exchequer in Ireland he must needs have made profit by that Land considering that the whole charge of the Kingdome in the 47th year of Edward the Third when the King did pay an Army there did amount to no more than eleven thousand and two hundred pounds per Annum as appeareth by the Contract of William Winsore Besides it is manifest by the Pipe-Rolls of that time whereof many are yet preserved in Breminghams Tower and are of better credit than any Monks story that during the Reign of King Edward the Third the Revenue of the Crown of Ireland both certain and casual did not rise unto ten thousand pound per Annum though the medium be taken of the best seven years that are be found in that Kings time The like Fable hath Hollingshead touching the Revenue of the Earldome of Vlster which saith he in the time of King Richard the Second was thirty thousand Marks by the year Whereas in
The Life-Guard did consist of a hundred Men besides Officers and each of the other twenty nine Troops consisted of forty five men besides Officers only the Troops belonging to the general Officers had each of them fifty Men besides Officers viz. the Lord Lieutenants the Lieutenant Generals the Major Generals the Commissary Generals and the Scout-Master Generals Each Company in the Regiment of Guards did consist of an hundred Men besides Officers and each of the afforesaid sixty Companies consted of sixty Men besides Officers the whole Standing Army in Ireland amounting then to 1598 Horse and 4250 Foot The yearly pay of the whole Army with Horse and Foot Guards amounted to 140664 l. 8 s. 6 d. In the Militia of Ireland there are 103 Troops of Horse The Militia of Ireland 127 Companies of Foot by the instructions from the Lord Lieutenant and Council to the Commissioners of Array in each County each Troop was to consist of 50 Men besides Officers and every Company of 100 private Soldiers the whole Militia of Ireland amounting to 5150 Horse besides Officers and 12700 Foot besides Officers Since the aforesaid Establishment made in 1669. there have been several Reducements and alterations in the Army of Ireland and as it admits of more so it will be more than difficult to be exact in particulars This being premised I shall proceed to tell the Reader A caution against training the Irish to the Feats of Arms as being of ill coâ—sequence to tâ—e English Inte est in Ireland that hence forwards there will be no more need of training up the Irish together with the English in the Feats of Arms which as I hinted already sorted very ill with the English Interest in Ireland especially since the nine and twentieth year of Queen Elizabeths Reign being An. 1587. In which year Sir John Perot then Lord Deputy of Ireland being called home and having delivered up his Charge to Sir Will. Fitz-Williams the appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland it was observed that till that time the English men had very easie Wars in Ireland eight hundred Foot and three hundred Horse was holden an Invincible Army Randolph with six hundred English easily discomfited O-Neale with four thousand Irish Colier in the year 1571. with his one onely Company defeated a thousand Hebridanes in Connaght Three hundred Horse overthrew the Butlers with a great rabble of Rebels and to omit other such like two Companies of Foot won in one day above twenty Castles of the Irish But after they were by Perots commandment trained daily at home taught to use their weapons and discharge their Pieces at a Mark that they might be the more ready Servitors against the Hebridanes and afterwards being bred up â—n thâ— Netherland Wars they had leaâ—ned the manner of fortifications they â—hen and ever after certainly exercised the English with 〈…〉 difficult War This puts me in mind of another like passage I have read in a discription of Novum Belgium or New Netherland in America now called New-Yorke where relating the story how upon complaint made by King Charles the first to the States of Holland a little before the last unhappy Civil Wars in England of some of the Hollanders incroaching upon some parts of his Territories in Virginia then called New-Nederland but now New-Yorke the States having by publick Instrument utterly disclaimed any pretensions thereunto the Hollanders then inhabiting there did seem willing to be gone and leave all they had there for the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds yet taking advantage of the trouble which not long after followed in England they not only raised their demands to a greater height but furnished the Native Indians with Arms and taught them how to use their Weapons A most mischievous and wicked act not only tending to the dammage and discouragement of the then present Adventurers but even to the Extirpation of all the Christians out of those Countries But the best was they were the first that smarted by it the Savages thus Armed and Trained fell foul upon them destroying their Farm-houses and forcing them to betake themselves to their Forts and Fortresses How far the application of this Story may fit the Subject in hand as the matter stands in controversie between the Protestant party and Papists in Ireland I refer to the consideration of the judicious Reader The manner of Electing Parliament Men in this Kingdome Election is the same with that in England but the Acts are drawn up and pass'd differently as also those in Scotland where the Lords of the Articles after the Parliament is met prepare the Bills but here the Lord Lieutenant and Councel usually draw up such Bills as they think fit and transmit them to his Majesty and Councel in England where they come under a new Debate and if approved returned back under the Great Seal to the Lord Lieutenant who offers them to the Parliament Each House may reject them or else must consent to them in terminis without any alteration When any Bills are thus by both Houses agreed to then they are presented to the Lord Lieutenant who gives the Royal Assent The Law whereby the Houses are not trusted with the framing of their own Bills is called Poynings Law of which look back to page 106. A List of what Places Returns Parliament Men in IRELAND COm Ardmagh 2 Bor. of Ardmagh 2 Bor. of Charlemont 2 6 Com. Antrym 2 Bor. of Belfast 2 Bor. of Carickfergus 2 Bor. of Lisbon 2 Bor. of Antrym 2 10 Com. Catherlaugh 2 Bor. Catherlaugh 2 Bor. Old Leighlin 2 6 Com. Corke 2 City of Corke 2 Bor. of Mallow 2 Bor. of Baltimore 2 Bor. Cloghnekilty 2 Bor. Bandon Bridge 2 Bor. Kinsayle 2 Bor. Youghall 2 16 Com. Cavan 2 Borough of Cavan 2 Bor. of Belturbet 2 6 Com. Clare 2 Bor. of Inish 2 4 Com. Dublin 2 City of Dublin 2 Univer of Dublin 3 Bor. of Newcastle 2 Bor. of Swords 2 11 Com. Down 2 Bor. Down 2 Bor. Newtown 2 Bor. Newâ—y 2 Balkillaleagh 2 Bor. Bangor 2 Bor. Hilsborough 2 14 Com. Donegal 2 Bor Lifford 2 Bor. Ballyshannon 2 Bor. Killbeggs 2 Bor. Donegall 2 Bâ—r. St. Johns town 2 12 Villa de Drogheda 2 2 Com. Gallway 2 Bor. Gallway 2 Bor. Athenry 2 Bor. Tuam 2 8 Com. Fermanagh 2 Bor. Eniskilling 2 4 Com. Kerry 2 Bor. Traley 2 Bor. Dingleicough 2 Bor. Ardfart 2 8 Com. Kilkenny 2 Bor. Callen 2 Bor. Thomas town 2 Bor. Gowran 2 Bor. Emisteoge 2 Bor. Knoctopher 2 Bor. St. Kennis 2 Civit. Kilkenny 2 16 Com. Kildare 2 Bor. Kildare 2 Bor. Naas 2 Bor. Athy 2 8 Com. Regis 2 Bor. Philips town 2 Bor. Banagher 2 6 Com. Letrim 2 Bor. James-town 2 Bor. Carricdrumrusck 2 6 Com. Lymrick 2 Civit. Lymrick 2 Bor. Kilmallock 2 Bor. Askeaton 2 8 Com. Longford 2 Town of Longford 2 Bor. St. Johns town 2 Bor. Lainsborough 2 8 Com. Louth 2 Bor. Carlingford 2 Bor. Dundalke 2 Bor. Atherdee 2 8
Henry the Seconds time and soon after p. 23. That when the Roman Generals had with the publick charge Conquered many Kingdoms and Common-wealths they were rewarded with honorable Offices and Triumphs and not made Lords and Proprietors of whole Kingdoms and Provinces p. 31. That William Duke of Normandy in the Conquest of England which he made his own work distributed sundry Lordships and Monnors unto his followers but gave not away whole Shires and Counties as was done in Ireland in Demesne to any of his Servitors whom he desired to advance p. ib. The like did Edward the First in the Conquest of Wales p. 32. That as the best policy was not observed in the distribution of the Conquered Lands in Ireland by the first English Adventurers so were they deceived in the choice of the fitttest places to settle their Plantations in p. 34. That the Nature of the Irish Customs are such that of necessity they make those people Rebels who make use of the same to all good Government and to the destruction of the Common-wealth wherein they live p. 37. That the frequent Rebellions in Ireland in Queen Elizabeths Reign especially that notorious one of the Earl of Tyrone and his Adherents chiefly fomented by the Pope and the King of Spain did so far provoke the Queen as that she made an absolute Conquest of the Irishry p. 44 That upon the finishing of the said Conquest to the end the long for wished perpetual Peace and Settlememt of that Kingdom might be established on firm foundations 't was propounded as the fittest expedient that all the forfeited Lands in Ireland might be disposed of to such English as should be brought out of England to plant the same paying thereout yearly by way of Quit-Rent a reasonable consideration to the Crown of England towards the maintenance of a Standing Army in Ireland p. 46. The same method being observed by the Romans to continue their Conquered Couâ—tries in due Obedience to them And which should also have been also put in practice by the first English Conquerors of the Realm of Ireland p. 48. That all such Irish who had forfeited the said Lands were to be transplanted from one Province into another and to become only Tenants to the English p. 50. That King James being swayed by wilder Councels wholy waving the Transplantation of laying hold on the said forfeited Lands did by an Act of Olivion remit all manner of offences committed against the Crown by the said Earl of Tyrone and the rest of the Irish which mild resolution of his was like to be soon after ill requited by the said Earl and his Adherents who practicing a new Rebellion in the North of Ireland and failing therein fled upon the guilty conscience thereof to the Spanish Netherlands giving thereby an excellent opportunity to settle a brave British Plantation within the fix forfeited Counties in the Province of Ulster p. 50 51. How far King James proceeded in the Reformation and Settlement of Ireland by dividing the same into Counties and thereby consequently making way for the Laws of England to be put in execution in all parts of the Kingdome and by ascertaining also all mens Estates according to English tenure c. with many other publick Acts tending to the future good Government and welfare of that Realm p. ib. That notwithstanding all those excellent Constitutions yet the foundation of that settlement of Ireland not long after received a shake by the Irish denying to contribute towards the maintenance of a standing Army in Ireland An. 1627. except they might first obtain a Tolleration of the Romish Religion though the Lord Primate Usher in a set Speech in the presence of the Lord Deputy Falkland made use of many strong Arguments and reasons to press them thereunto p. 53. That the loss of this rare opportunity by the Irish to express the height of their Loyalty to his Majesty of England can never be sufficiently repented of by them p. 54. That the Lord Primate Usher wisely foresaw a storm impending which was not long after unhappily verified by the bloody Rebellion in Ireland Anno 1641. without the least provocation given by the English to the Irish to perpetrate so wicked an Act wherein were barbarously destroyed in a very short space of time by the Sword and Famin above a hundred and fifty thousand Protestants p. 54 to 64. That the English could not obtain an opportunity to be throughly revenged on the Irish for their inhumane slaughtering of their Country-men till the year 1649. from what time within the compass of about three years it is conceived there was not left undestroyed by the Sword Plague and Famin above the eighth part of all the Irish Nation Being a just judgment of God fallen upon them for their impious carriage towards the poor Protestant British Planters p. 66. That the Irish Nation being thus broken all the Romish-Irish Proprietors were commanded upon pain of death by a certain day to transplant themselves from the Provinces of Lynster Munster and Ulster into the Province of Connaght and County of Clare which was performed accordingly p. 67. A brief description of the admirable Strength of the Province of Connaght as well by Art as Natuâ—e As also of the lamentable waste condition all Ireland was reduced unto in the close of the War An. 1652 1653. p 67 to 70. That immediately after the said Transplantation of the Irish being in the year 1653. certain Regiments of the English Army were disbanded and setled upon the Lands fallen by Lot to them for their Arrears within the Provinces of Lynster Munster and Ulster p. 68. c. That both English and Irish within three years after were setled upon their respective proportions of Land assigned to them or fallen by Lot in all parts of Ireland p. 68 69. That within three years ensuing the said Settlement there appeared a strange alteration in the general state of Ireland from a most ruinous to a reviving Common-wealth p. 70 71. That as his Majesties Restauration crowned the joy of oll the English in Ireland so it did as much deject the Irish who immediately expected thereupon to be generally restored to their former Estates p. 72. What alteration hapened to the Settlement of Ireland since his Majesties Restauration p. 73 216 c. How that that perpetual Peace and Settlement of Ireland which was so solidly discoursed of and stoutly fought for in Queen Elizabeths Reign and very far proceeded in King James his time Is now fully perfected and confirmed by our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the Second to the glory of God and the great honor and profit of his Majesty and security of his three Kingdoms p. 74 to 79. THE CONTENTS OF THE Second Part. OF the Name of Ireland and its Climate p. 80. Of its Dimension p. 81. Of the Division Form Aire and Commodities of the Province of Lynster p. 82. Of Munster p. 84. Of Ulster p. 87. And of Connaght
p. 90. A Character of all Ireland and how far it differs from England in Aire and Commodities c. p. 93 94. Of the Money of Ireland p. 96. Of its Buildings p. 101. Of its Inhabitants and Laws p. 105. And of its Religion p. 111. Of the Manners of the Irish Antient and Modern p. 120. How lovingly the Irish lived of late times in Neighbourhood with the English till October 23. An. 1641. And how strangly they altered upon the sudden from more than ordinary good Offices of Kindness to extream Barbarisme and cruelty towards their said English Neighbuors and the rest of the Protestant British Planters in Ireland with the manner motives and causes of the same p. 123 c. Of the number of the Inhabitants of Ireland p. 145. Of the Irish Language p. 147. Of their Stature p. 150. Of their Dyet p. 151. Of their Attire p. 152 Of their Recreations p. 153. Of the Irish Names p. ibid. Of their Sir names p. 154. Of the Government of Ireland p. 156 A Catalogue of the Lord Lieutenants Deputies Lord Justices p. 158 The Title of the Kings of England altered from Lords of Ireland to King p. 17â— The Titles of the Crown of England to every part of Ireland and to the whole divers ways As to Lynster p. 171. To Meath p. 172. To Munster p. ibiâ— To Ulster and Connaght p. 173 Of the several Claims of the Crowâ— of England to the Land of Ireland p. 174 Of the Revenue of Ireland p. 183 A Table for Reducing Plantation-Acres p. 186. Of the Strength of Ireland and how it principally consists by its dependency on the Crown of England p. 196. By what ways and means the English since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign and a little before did again extend their Power and Interest in Ireland beyond the narrow Limits of the English Pale p. ibid. Of the great advantages that will accrue in the future to the English by their late vast Acquisitions in Ireland the better to enable them thereby to breed up their Children for the service of that Kingdom both in Church and State p. 205. How that the Popish Irish Lawyers and Divines did of late times abuse the advantage they had by their good Education to the ruine of their own Country p. 206. Of how many Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot the present Standing Army in Ireland consists p. 217. Of the Militia in Ireland p. 218. How that henceforth there will be no-more need of Trayning up the Irish together with the English in the Feats of Arms which of late times proved very destructive to the English Interest in Ireland p. ibid. Of Electing Parliament men p. 221. A List of what places Return Parliament-men p. 223. Nobility Subsidy p. 227. Subsidies of the several Bishopricks p. 231. Provincial Subsidies p. 233. Salaries belonging to several Courts of Judicature c. p. 236. Military Payments p. 239. Provincial Officers c. p. 240. Creation-Money p. 243. Perpetuities and Temporary Payments p. 245 247. Pensions and Annuities p. 246. THE CONTENT OF THE Third Part. TO the Reader p. 24â— That it much imports the futurâ— security of the Protestant British Planters to be for the most part if not whoâ— possess'd by way of habitation of thâ— chief Cities and strong Towns of Ireland which was sufficiently evidence by the examples of the Cities of Dublin Limrick and Gallaway upon the firâ—â— breaking out of the last Rebellion in Ireland begun the 23d of October Annâ— 1641. p. 249 The Characters of some of the chieâ— Towns and Cities of Ireland wherebâ— is discovered how conveniently they arâ— situated as they lie in the respectivâ— Provinces in reference to Trade and Strength both forreign and domestick How they increased and flourished during the last forty years Peace And what probability there is of their future flourishing state and condition with many other things remarkable in relation thereunto p. 255. In the Province of Munster Of Waterford p. ibid. Of Kingsale p. 257. Of Corke p. 258. Of Youghall p. ibid. Of Limrick p. 259. Of Clonmell p. 260. In the Province of Connaght Of Gallaway p. 261. Of Sleygoe p. 263. Of James-Town p. 265. Of Athlone p. 266. In the Province of Vlster Of Carlingford Dundalk p. 267. Of Cnockfergus p. ibid. Of London-derry p. 268. In the Province of Lynster Of Wexford p. 269 Of Kilkenny p. 270 Of Ross p. ibid Of Carlough p. 271. Of Tredagh p. 272. Of Dublin p. ibid. IRLANDIA THE Present State OF IRELAND TO pass by the story how Caesaria Ireland supposed to be first Inhabited by the Britains Noah's Neece inhabited IRELAND before the Flood and how three hundred years after the Flood it was subdued by one Bartholanus a Scythian who overcame here I know not what Giants with other such stuffe wholly resting on the Testimony of the Irish Chronicles which are thought to relish too much of the Fable and not altogether to rely upon that opinion grounded on very probable Circumstances that this Island was first Inhabited by the mixt Nations of Spaniards Gaules Africans or Gothes coming out of Spain and by the Britains out of Britain the Irish being observed to partake of tho Customes and Manners of each of these People but it seems most likely that the first Inhabitants thereof came wholly out of Britain Britain being the nighest unto it and thereby affording the conveniency of a more speedy Waftage thither and the antient Customes Laws Language and Dispositions of these People being not much unlike the Britains though they were accounted far more Barbarous and Savage by most antient Writers than those of Britain are said to be at the first discovery having never been made so happy as to come under the power of the Romans the Great Masters of Civility and good Letters in the West of Europe by means whereof their Actions and Affairs were buried in Oblivion The Ancient Inhabitants of this Island being thus conceived to be Originally Britains Ireland first Invaded by the Saxon Monarch and the Scots found to inhabit here about the fall of the Roman Empire the first Onset it received by way of Invasion was by the Saxon Monarchs who casting their Eyes upon it made themselves Masters of Dublin and some other places but could not long possess the same as being hardly able to defend their own against that People The next that undertook the Conquest thereof being about Anno 830. Next by the Northern Nations all passing under the Names of Danes Swedes Normans were the Northern Nations of Danes Swedes and Normans all passing in the Chronicles of those times under the Name of Norwegians who first scouring along the Sea-coasts by way of Pyracy and afterwards finding the weakness of the Island being divided amongst many petit and inconsiderable Princes made an absolute Conquest of it under the Conduct of one Turgesius whom they Elected for their King but were soon rooted out by
the policy of the King of Meth the only Irish Prince then in favour with the Tyrant These Northern Nations were the first that brought the Irish acquainted with Traffick and Commerce and with building of Castles and Fortresses only upon the Sea-coasts having hitherto known no other defence but Woods Boggs or Stoakes And last of all by the English in K. Henry 2ds reign An. 1172. After this the Roytelets or petty Princes enjoying their former Dominions till the year 1172. in which Dermot Mac Morogh King of Lynster having forced the Wife of Maurice O Rorke King of Meth was driven by him out of his Kingdome who applying himself to Henry the Second of England for succor received Aid under the leading of Richard de Clare Sir-named Strongbow Earle of Pembroke to be restored to his Kingdom by whose good success and the rest of the Adventurers upon the Arrival of Henry the Second in Ireland his very Presence without drawing his Sword prevailed so far as that all the petty Kings or great Lords within Lynster Connaght and Munster submitted themselves unto him promising to pay him Tribute and acknowledging him their chief and Soveraign Lord But as the Conquest was but slight and superficial so the Irish Submissions were but weak and fickle assurances to hold in Obedience so considerable a Kingdom for no sooner were the Kings of Englands backs turned but the Irish returned to their former Rebellions and the Kings of England had here no more power or profit than the great ones of the Country were pleased to give them for they governed their People by the Brehon Law they made their own Magistrates and Officers pardoned and punished all Malefactors within their several Countries made War and Peace one with the other without controulment and this they did not only during the Reign of King Henry the Second but also in the times succeeding even until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which Conquest became thus imperfect by reason of two great Defects first in the faint prosecution of the War and next in the loosness of the Civil Government The Conquest of Ireland by the English imperfect till of late by reason of two defects viz. first faint Prosecution of the War the Causes of it As touching the carriage of Martial Affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the Second at what time the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress the the Rebellion of Tyrone which in the end made an universal and absolute Conquest of all the Irishry It is very evident that the English either raised here or sent hither from time to time out of England were alwaies too weak to Subdue and Master so many Warlike Nations or Septs of the Irish as did possess this Island and besides their weakness they were ill paid and worse Governed And if at any time there arrived out of England an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break or subdue this People being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident and impediment or other before the perfection of the Conquest of it as namely Henry the Second by the Rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the Third and Edward the Second by the Barrons Wars Edward the First by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the Third and Henry the Fift by the Wars of France Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth by Domestick contention for the Crown of England it self Richard the Third not worth mentioning as having never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the Seventh within two years and an half after his Usurpation And Henry the Seventh himself though he made the happy Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking Spirits of the House of York which he could not conjure down without the expence of some Bloud and Treasure Henry the Eighth was diverted by his two Expeditions into France at the first and latter part of his Reign and in the middle thereof wholly taken up with the troubles created to him by the great alteration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And lastly the Infancy of King Edward and the Coverture of Queen Mary which were both not-abilities in Law did likewise in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland so that all the Kings of England coming thus far short as to the perfecting of the true Conquest of Ireland let us examine what other impediments were given thereunto in point of Martial Affairs by the Adventurers themselves that first undertook the Conquest of this Kingdom upon their own account That the first English Adventurers had good success in Ireland during the first forty years It doth appear that for the space of about forty years after the first landing of the English in Ireland till the seventeenth year of King John during all which time there was no Army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest of Ireland that the Adventurers and Colonies already planted there proceeded with so much good success as they gained very large portions of ground in every Province As namely the Earl of Strongbow by his Marriage with the Daughter of Mac Morrogh in Lynster the Laâ—ies in Meth the Giraldines and other Adventurers in Munster the Andeleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Connaght The English Colonies being thus dispersed through all the Provinces of Ireland were necessitated But being necessitated for a long time to maintain a bordering War against the Irish at the charge of the English Planters from the twelfth year of King John till the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the Third being about an hundred and fifty years to maintain a continual bordering War between them and the Irish without receiving during all that time any supply either of Men or Money out of England to manage the same So that all the chief Governours of the Realm and the English Lords who had gotten such great Possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make War and Peace at their pleasure without the least advice or direction from the State being forced to levy all their Forces within the Land who being ill Paid and worse Governed it so came to pass the publick Revenues of Ireland being then inconsiderable to sustain such a charge that as well the Ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governour upon Journeys and general Hostings were for the most part laid upon the poor Subjects descended of English race which burden was in some measure tollerable during the Reign of King Henry the Third and Edward the First but afterwards became insupportable in the time of King
Edward the Second For Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond being chief Commander of the Army against the Scots began that wicked extortion of Coyn and Livery and pay that is he and his Army took Horse-meat Mans-meat and Money at their pleasure without giving any Ticket or other satisfaction for the same This wicked imposition made High Treason by the Statute of 11. The English Plantations in Ireland began to decay H. 4. became afterwards so habitual and general a fault of all the Governours and Commanders of the Army in this Land that in a short time it inforced because the great English Lords and Captains had power to impose this charge when and where they pleased many of the poor English Free-holders to give unto those Lords a great part of their Lands that they might hold the rest free from that extortion And many others not being able to endure so intollerable a burthen did utterly quit their Free-holds and returned into England by means whereof the English Colonies did soon grow poor and feeble and the English Lords became rich and mighty for having placed Irish Tenants upon the Lands relinquished by the English upon whom they levied all Irish exactions and with whom they married fostered and made Gossips so as within one age both English Lords and Free-holders became degenerate and meer Irish in their Language Apparel Arms and manner of fight and all other Customs of life whatsoever That Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond was the first began that wicked Custome of Coyn and Livery But that I may not quit my self so soon of this subject before I give a more particular satisfaction to the Reader touching the evil consequences that ensued upon the general practice of this wicked Extortion of Coin and Livery which indeed was one of the chiefest causes of the sudden decay and ruine of the first English Colonies in Ireland he may be pleased to understand that the forementioned Thomas Fitz-Morrice Earl of Desmond did soon by these oppressive courses grow from a mean to a mighty Estate in so much that his ancient inheritance being not one thousand Marks yearly he became able to dispend every way ten thousand pound per Annum These possessions being thus unlawfully gained could not be maintained by the just and honorable Laws of England which would have restored the true owners to their Land again And therefore this Great Man found no better means to continue and uphold his ill purchased greatness then by rejecting the English Laws and Government and assuming in lieu thereof the barbarous Customs of the Irish whereupon followed the defection of those four Counties Which proved the utter ruine of the first English Colonies in Ireland except those within the Pale containing the greatest parts of Munster viz. Kerry Limrick Cork and Waterford from the obedience of the Law and so successively by the same means and much about the same time the rest of the English Lords and Free-holders in Ireland except those of the English Pale fell away from the English Law and Government in the end of King Edward the Second's Reign and in the beginning of King Edward the third And truly it is here a fit subject of wonder All the English Colonies in Ireland except those within the Pale degenerate into meer Irish manners to consider to what height of baseness the English arrived unto by this defection in so much as within less time then the Age of a Man they had no marks or differences left amongst them of that Noble Nation from which they were descended for they did not onely forget the English Language and scorn the use thereof but grew to be ashamed of their very English Names though they were Noble and of great Antiquity and took Irish Sir-names and Nick-names Namely the two most potent families of the Bourkes in Connaght after the house of the Red Earl failed of Heirs Males called their Chiefs Mac William Eighter and Mac William Oughter In the same Province Bremingham Baron of Athenry called himself Mac Yeoris D'Execester or d' Exon was called Mac Jordan Mangle or d' Angulo took the name of Mac Costello Of the inferiour Families of the Bourks one was called Mac Hubbard another Mac David In Munster of the great Families of the Geraldines planted there one was called Mac Morrice chief of the house of Lixnaw and another Mac Gibbon who was also called the White Knight The chief of the Baron of Dunboyns house who is a branch of the House of Ormond took Sir-names of Mac Pheris Condon of the County of Waterford was called Mac Majoke and the Arch-Deacon of the County of Kilkenny Mac Odo And this they did in contempt and hatred of the English Name and Nation of whom these degenerated Families became more mortal enemies then the meer Irish The Native Subjects of Ireland The Civil War of York and Lancaster furthered the ruine of the English Colonies in Ireland of English Race in Henry the 6th's time seeing the Kingdome thus utterly ruined passed in such numbers into England as one Law was made there to transmit them back again and another Law made in Ireland to stop their passage in every Port and Creek And as one ill fortune happens in the neck of another the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry of Meth past over afterwards into England and were slain with Richard Duke of York who had been long Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the Battle of Wakefield in York-shire after whose death while the Wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster were in their heat almost all the good English blood which was left in Ireland was spent in these civil dissentions so as the Irish became Victorious over all without blood or sweat except onely that little Canton of Land as aforesaid called the English Pale containing the Counties of Dublin Louth Kildare and Meth which last hath since the time of King Henry the Eight been subdivided into three Counties that is to say East-Meath West-Meath and Longford which onely maintained a bordering War and retained the form of an English Government so that by the fourteenth of King Edward the Fourth the State of Ireland was grown to so low an ebbe upon an English account that at their erecting a Fraternity of men of Armes called the Brotherhood of S. George for the defence of the said Pale they exceeded not in number above 200. being all the standing Forces that were then in Ireland and as they were Natives of the Kingdom so the Kingdom it self did pay their wages without expecting any Treasure out of England However the great Lords of the natural Irish and degenerate English being divided into many factions and never conjoyned in any one principle of common interest and thereby consequently becoming very inconsiderable this small spot of ground was valiantly maintained for a long time by the weak but united Forces of the Kings of England Having proceeded thus far in examining
with lesser proportions For when Scipio Pompey and Caesar and other Generals of the Roman Armies as Subjects and Servants of that State and with the Publick Charge had Conquered many Kingdomes and Common-Weals we find them rewarded with Honorable Offices and Triumphs at their return and not made Lords and Proprietors of whole Provinces and Kingdomes which they had subdued to the Empire of Rome Likewise when the Duke of Normandy had Conquered England which he made his own work and perform'd it in his own person he distributed sundry Lordships and Manners unto his Followers but gave not away whole Shires and Countries in Demesne to any of his Servitors whom he most desired to advance Again From the time of the Norman Conquest till the Reign of King Edward the First many of our English Lords made War upon the Welch-men at their own charge the Lands which they gained they held to their own use were called Lords Marchers and had Royal Liberties within their Lordships Howbeit these particular Adventurers could never make a Conquest of Wales But when King Edward the First came in person with his Army thither kept his Residence and Court there made the reducing of Wales an enterprize of his own he finished that work in a Year or two whereof the Lords Marchers had not perform'd a third part with their continual Bordering War for two hundred Years And withall we may observe that though this King had now the Dominion of Wales in jure proprietatis as the Statute of Rutland affirmeth which before was subject unto him but in jure feodali And though he had lost divers principal Knights and Noble men in that War yet did he not reward his Servitors with whole Countries or Counties but with particular Mannors and Lordships As to Henry Lacie Earl of Lincoln he gave the Lordship of Denbigh and to Reighnold Gray the Lordship of Ruthen and so to others If the like course had been used in the winning and distribuiting of the Lands of Ireland that Island had been fully conquered before the Continent of Wales had been reduced But the truth is when private men attempt the Conquest of Countries at their own charge commonly their enterprizes do perish without success as when in the time of Queen Elizabeth Sir Thomas Smith undertook to recover the Ardes and Chatterton to reconquer the Fues and Orier The one lost his Son and the other himself and both their Adventures came to nothing And as for the Crown of England it hath had the like Fortune in the Conquest of this Land as some Purchasers have who desire to buy Land at too easie a Rate they find those cheap Purchasers so full of trouble as they spend twice as much as the Land is worth before they get the quiet possession thereof And as the best policy was not observed in the distribution of the Conquered Lands That the first English Adventurers in Ireland were deceived in the choice of the fittest places to settle their Plantations in so as I conceive that the first Adventurers intending to make a full Conquest of the Irish were deceived in the choice of the fittest places for their Plantation For they sate down and erected their Castles and Habitations in the Plains and open Countries where they found most fruitful and profitable Lands and turned the Irish into the Woods and Mountains Which as they were proper places for Out-laws and Thieves so were they their Natural Castles and Fortifications thither they drave their preys and stealths there they lurkt and lay in wait to do mischief These â—â—st places they kept unknown by making the ways and entries thereunto impassable there they kept their Creaghts or Herds of Cattle living by the Milk of the Cow without Husbandry or Tillage there they encreased and multiplyed unto infinite numbers by promiscuous generation among themselves there they made their Assemblies and Conspiracies without discovery But they discovered the weakness of the English dwelling in the open plains and thereupon made their Sallies and Retreats with great advantage Whereas on the other side if the English had builded their Castles and Towns in those places of fastness and had driven the Irish into the plains and open Countries where they might have had an eye and observation upon them the Irish had been easily kept in order and in short time reclaimed from their wildness There they would have used Tillage dwelt together in Town ships learned Mechanical Arts and Sciences The Woods had been wasted with the English Habitations as they were afterwards about the Forts of Mariborough and Philipston which were built in the fast places in Leinster and the ways and passages throughout Ireland would have been as clear and open as they are in England or Ireland at this day Having thus far recounted the manifold defects mischiefs and impediments that both in the Civil and Martial Affairs so long obstructed the ful Conquest of Ireland I should have here also briefly recited the many good Laws and Ordinances made and enacted from time to time by the Kings of England and the Parliaments in Ireland for redressing the said mischiefs and inconveniences but all fair endeavours and purposes of this kind proving abortive and ineffectual for want of the Sovereign Sword as well as the Royal Scepter to put the same in execution I shall now onely set forth the Nature of the Irish Customs with the evil Consequences thereof and then proceed to a conclusion of this discourse containing those Affairs that shall appear most remarkable in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First and especially in the Reign of our present Gratious Sovereign King Charles the Second in order to the Reformation and good Government of this Realm If we consider the Nature of the Irish Customs The Nature of the Irish Customs destructive to all good Government we shall find that the people which doth use them must of necessity be Rebels to all good Government destroy the Common-Wealth wherein they live and bring Barbarisme and Desolation upon the richest and most fruitful Land of the World For whereas by the just and honorable Law of England and by the Laws of all other well governed Kingdoms and Common-wealths Murder Manslaughter Rape Robbery and Theft are punished with Death By the Irish Custom or Brehen Law the highest of these offences was punished onely with Fine which they called an Erick Therefore when Sir William Fitz-Williams being Lord Deputy told Maguire that he was to send a Sheriff into Farmannagh being lately before made a County your Sheriff said Maguire shall be welcome to me but let me know his Erick or the price of his head before hand that if my people cut it off I may cut the Erick upon the Country As for Oppression Extortion and other trespasses the weaker had never any remedy against the stronger whereby it came to pass that no man could enjoy his Life his Wife his Lands or
thereof she most happily brought it to an end by the utter overthrow of the said Tyrone and the Spanish Forces at the Siege of Kingsale under the prudent conduct of the Lord Montjoy then Lord Deputy of Ireland in the eighth year after it brake forth which Rebellion had been begun upon private grudges intermixed with ambition cherished by contempt and parsimony in England spread over all Ireland by pretext of restoring the Romish Religion and hope of unbridled licentiousness and impunity Strengthened by the light credulity of some and secret favour of others which were of great authority as also by one or two prosperous successes Spanish Pentions Spanish Forces and Papal Indulgences and protected by the wicked emulations of the English by a by-partite Government the covetousness of the old Soldiers the cunning practices of Tyrone by his dissembled truces and submissions by the protections of Malefactors bought for money the most cumbersom difficulty of places and by the desperate kind of men safer in the nimbleness of their heels than stableness in Battle The waies propounded in Q. Elizabeths Reign to establish a perpetual peace in Ireland This War proving thus difficult and very tedious and like to have been also very dangerous in case Tyrone and the Spaniards had prevailed at Kingsale caused many wise and worthy persons of the English party to advise of the best ways that could be thought on how the Irish after the suppression of this Rebellion might be assuredly contained in their future Obedience to the Crown of England and not be subject to those frequent relapses whereof the English and the honester sort of Irish had too often had a sad experience in the conclusion of which debate it was generally agreed upon that the fittest remedy and expedient to prevent all those future mischiefs and inconveniences would be upon the subduing of Tyrone and his Confederates to transplant the Rebels of Vlster into Leinster and those of Leinster into Vlster and to give all their Lands to such English as should be invited to come out of England to Plant the same with such Estates as should be thought meet and for such rents as in the whole would maintain four thousand five hundred Soldiers and those disposed of as now they are in very advantageous and well fortified Garrisons which might prove an exceeding good thing both to her Highness to have so many old Soldiers alwaies ready at a call to what purpose soever she please to imploy them and also to have that Land thereby so strengthened that it should neither fear any forreign Invasion nor practice which the Irish should ever attempt but should keep them under in continual awe and firm obedience This was therefore a notorious Error and proved as you have heard of sad consequence to the first English Adventurers and Conquerers of this Kingdome not to have ascertained by way of Chiefry to be raised yearly out of the Conquered Lands a â—ompetent maintenance for the perpetual continuing of five or six thousand Soldiers in pay which should have been disposed of in several strong Garrisons through all Ireland as aforesaid then would have followed that the Laws of England might have been as freely communiâ—ated to the Irish as well as to the English Colonies without any need of turning the Irish into Desarts and Mountains still to continue them in their Barbarisme but rather to have made use of them as the present English Planters do for their Tenants and Labourers to the great benefit and security of the Publick as well as the Private advantage of the English in Ireland And this was the course which the Romans observed in the Conquest of England for they planted some of their Legions in all places convenient the which they caused the Counntry to maintain by cutting upon every portion of Land a reasonable rent which they called Romescot the which might not surcharge the Tenant or Free-holder and might defray the pay of the Garrisons And this hath been alwaies observed by all Princes in all Countries to them newly subdued to set Garrisons amongst them to keep them in duty whose burthen they made them to bear and the want of this Ordinance in the first Conquest of Ireland by Henry the Second was the cause of the so short decay of that Government and the quick recovery again of the Irish therefore by all means this was to be provided for And this was thought to be worthy of blame that in the Planting of Munster after the suppression of the Earl of Desmond's Rebellion Anno 1580. that no care was had of this Ordinance nor any strength of Garrison provided for by a certain allowance out of all the forfeited Lands but only the present profit looked into and the safe continuance thereof for ever thereafter neglected Under every of those English men were to be placed some of those Irish to be Tenants for a certain Rent according to the quantity of such Land as every man should have alloted to him and should be able to Weild wherein this special regard was to be had that in no place under any Landlord there should be many of them placed together but dispersed wide from their acquaintance and scattered far abroad through all the Country for that was the evil which was then found in Ireland that the Irish dwelt together by their Septs and several Nations so as they might practice or conspire what they pleased whereas if there had been English well placed amongst them they should not have been able once to stir or murmur but that it should be known and they shortned according to their demerits But King James being swayed by milder Councils How far K. James proceeded in the Reformation and settlement of Ireland though Tyrone and all his Adherents had absolutely submitted themselves both as to life and estate to be at his Majesties pleasure did by a General Act of State calâ—ed The Act of Oblivion published by Proclamation under the great Seal remit and utterly extinguish all offences against the Crown and all particular Trespasses between Subject and Subject done at any time before his Majesties Reign to all such as would come into the Justice of the Assize by a certain day and claim the benefit of this Act. And by the same Proclamation all the Irishry who for the most part in former times were left under the tyranny of their Lords and Chieftains and had no defence or Justice from the Crown were received into his Majesties immediate protection The Publick Peace being thus established the State proceeded next to establish the Publick Justice in every part of the Realm by dividing all Ireland into Shires and erecting Circuits in every Province and Governing all things therein according to the Laws of England But being it was impossible to make a Common-wealth in Ireland without performing another service which was the settling of all the Estates and Possessions as well of Irish as English throughout the Kingdome
Therefore whereas there was as you heard but one Free-holder in a whole Country which was the Lord himself the rest holding in Villenage and being subject to the Lords immeasurable Taxations whereby they had no encouragement to Build or Plant Now the Lords Estate was divided into two parts that which he held in Domain to himself which was still left unto him and that which was in the hands of the Tenants who had Estates made in their possessions according to the Common Law of England paying instead of uncertain Irish Impositions certain English Rents whereby the people have since set their minds upon repairing their Houses and Manuring their Lands to the great increase of the Private and Publick Revenues These proceedings bred such comfort and security in the hearts of all men as thereupon ensued for the space of about forty years the calmest and most universal Peace that ever was seen in Ireland But the foundation of this so long for wished The Foundation of that settlement shaken Anno 1627. by the Irish refusing to contribute towards the pay of a standing Army in Ireland and most delectable Peace was not so deeply laid but but that it received a shake by the first storm that threatned England for being engaged in a War with France and Spain about the beginning of his Majesties Reign King Charles the First and having therefore occasion to send some additional Forces into Ireland for the better assuring the Peace thereof in such a doubtful time of trouble A proposition was made by the then Lord Deputy Falkland to the chief of the Irish Nation for the contributing of a competent sum of Money towards the maintenance of those Forces to be established by way of a stanâ—ing Army in Ireland To which they would not condescend without a Toleration of Religion first obtained and then they would willingly maintain five hundred horse and five thousand foot wherein the Protestants must have born a share also But the Protestants not approving thereof The Lord Archbishop Vsher then Lord Primate of Ireland was desired by the said Lord Deputy at a great Assembly both of Irish and English met at his Majesties Castle at Dublin the last of April Anno 1627 to press the Irish by very strong Arguments to a condescention of the said proposition where amongst many other most excellent ones then made use of by his Lordship to induce them thereunto He declared that the resolution of those Gentlemen in denying to contribute unto the supplying of the Army sent thither for their defence did put him in mind of the Philosophers Observation That such as have respect to a few things are easily misled the present pressure which they sustained by the imposition of Souldiers and the desire they had to be cas'd of that burthen did so wholly possess their minds that they had onely an eye to the freeing of themselves from that incumbrance without looking at all to the Desolations that were like to come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an Army in a readiness might be a means to have prevented The lamentable effects said he of our last Wars in this Kingdome doth yet freeshly stick in our memories Neither can we so soon forget the depopulation of our Land when besides the cumbustions of War the extremity of famine grew so great that the very Women in some places by the way side have surprized the men that rod by to feed themselves with the flesh of the Horse of the Rider and that now again said he here is a storm towards wheresoever it will light every wise man will easily foresee which if we be not careful to meet with in time our State may prove irrecoverable when it will be too late to think of had I wist Proceeding farther he recounted to them how that in the days of King Henry the Eighth the Earl of Desmond had made an offer of the Kingdom of Ireland to the French King Ireland offered to Sale to the French King in days of K. Henry the Eighth the Instrument whereof remains yet upon Record in the Court of Paris and that the Bishop of Rome afterwards transfer'd the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the Fift which new Grants were confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to settle the Crown of Ireland upon the Spanish Infanta Which Donations of the Popes howsoever they were in themselves of no value yet would they serve for a fair colour to a Potent Pretender who is able to supply by the power of the Sword whatsoever therein may be thought defective Whereunto might be added that of late in Spain at the very same time when the Treaty of the Match was in hand there was a Book published with great approbation there by one of Irish Birth Philip O Sullevan wherein the Spaniard is taught that the ready way to establish his Monarchy for that is the only thing he mainly aimeth at and is plainly there confessed is first to set upon Ireland which being quickly obtained the Conquest of Scotland of England next then of the Low-Countries is foretold with great facility will follow after Neither have we more cause saith my Lord in this regard A distinction of the Irish. to be afraid of a forreign Invasion than to be jealous of a Domestick Rebellion Where least I be mistaken as your Lordships have been lately I must of necessity put a difference betwixt the Inhabitants of this Nation some of them are descended of the Race of the antient English or otherwise hold their Estates from the Crown and have Possessions of their own to stick to who easily may be trusted against a forreign Invader although they differ from the State in matter of Religion for proof of which fidelity in this kind he saith he need go no farther than the late Wars in the time of the Earl of Tyrone wherein they were assaulted with as powerful Temptations to move them from their Loyalty as possibly could be afterwards presented unto them for at that time not only the King of Spain did confederate himself with the Rebels and landed his Forces at Kingsale for their assistance but the Bishop of Rome also with his Breves and Bulls sollicited the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland to Revolt from their Obedience to the Queen declaring that the English did fight against the Catholick Religion and ought to be oppugned as much as the Turks importing the same favours to such as should set upon them as he doth unto such as fight against the Turks and finally promising unto them that the God of Peace would tread down their Enemies under their feet speedily And yet for all the Popes promises and threatnings which were also seconded by a Declatation of the Divines of Salamanca and Valledolid not only the Lords and Gentlemen did constantly continue their Allegiance to the Queen but were also encouraged so to do by the Priests of
the Pale that were of Popish Profession who were therefore vehemently taxed by the Traytor Suellevan for exhorting them to follow the Queens side which he is pleased to term Insanam venenosam Doctrinam tartareum Dogma a mad and venemous Doctrine and a hellish Opinion But besides these there were a great number of Irish who either bore a secret grudge against the English planted among them or having nothing at all to lose upon the first occasion are apt to joyn with any forraign Invader for we have not used that pollicie in our Plantations that wise States have used in former times They when the setled new Colonies in any place did commonly translate the antient Inhabitants to other dwellings We have brought new Planters into the Land meaning those got by Desmonds Rebellion and six Counties in Vlster by Tyrone and his Adherents departing into Spain and have left the old Inhabitants to shift for themselves who being strong in body and daily increasing in number and seeing themselves deprived of their means and maintenance which they and their Ancestors had formerly injoyed would undoubtedly be ready when any occasion offered it self to disturb our quiet whether then saith he we cast our eyes abroad or look at home we see our danger is very great The Romish Irish as well as the Protestant British Planters are in equal danger of a Common Enemy Neither may you my Lords and Gentlemen that differ from us in point of Religion imagin that the Community of profession will exempt you more than us from the danger of a Common Enemy Whatsoever you may expect from a forreigner you may conjecture by the Answer which the Duke of Medina Sidonia gave in this case in 88. That his Sword knew no difference between a Catholick and an Heretick but that he came to make way for his Master and what kindness thy looked for from the Country-men that were to joyn with them they might judg as well by the carriage which they ordinarily used towards them both in the Court and Colledges abroad as by the advice not long since presented by them unto the Council of Spain wherein they would not have so much as the Irish Priests and Jesuits that are descended of English bloud to be trusted but would have you and all yours to be accounted Enemies to the designs of Spain In the Declaration published about the begining of the Insurrection of James Fitz-Morrice in the South the Rebels professed it was no part of their meaning to subvert Honorabile Anglorum solium their quarrel was only against the Person of Queen Elizabeth and her Government But now the case is otherwise the Translating of the Throne of the English to the Power of a Forreigner is the thing that mainly is intended and the re-establishing of the Irish in their Antient Possessions which by the the Vallour of our Ancestors were gained from them This saith my Lord you may assure your self Manet alta mente repostum and makes you more to be hated of them than any other of the English Nation whatsoever The danger therefore being thus common to us all it stands us upon to joyn our best helps for the avoiding of it The Irish refuse to contribute towards a standing Army in Ireland except they might first obtain a toleration of the Romish Religion But all these strong arguments with many more could not prevail in the least with the Irish to contribute one peny in answer to his Majesties desires on this so important an occasion without they might first obtain a Toleration of their Religion To which the Lord Primate told them that the onely way was to grant to his Majesty freely what they would give without all manner of conditions that might seem unequal unto any side and to refer unto his own sacred breast how far he would be pleased to extend or abridge his favours of whose Lenity in forbearing the execution of the Statute he said the Recusants of Ireland had found such experience that they could not expect a greater liberty by giving any thing that was demanded then now already they did freely enjoy The loss of which rare opportunity so seasonably offering it self to the Irish Nation That the Irish have cause to repent their not contributing towards a standing Army in Ireland to express the height of their Loyalty and dutifulness to his Majesty by a free and generous contribution upon so important occasion they have now leasure enough to repent for their forwardness manifested afterwards in levying of Forces and contributing towards the maintainance of that Army designed for an Expedition against the Scots may seem to proceed as much if not more from the prejudice the Irish had against that Nation both upon the account of their Religion and their daily accession in great Numbers out of Scotland to inhabit the North parts of Ireland then any thing of a generous Loyalty that might move them then more then formerly thereunto And as for what overtures and offers of kindnesses were tendered by them to his Majesty during the late unhappy Wars in England was but to fish in troubled waters with an expectation after the Example of other disobedient Subjects to extort from his Majesty by reason of the disadvantages of the times such unequal Conditions as they were out of all hopes to obtain from him in a Calmer season Besides they had the honour upon this occasion to have many of their Country men trained up to Military Discipline amongst the English Soldiery which at last sorted not to the best for that many of the Irish Soldiers and Commanders proved afterwards unhappily to be the very Ring leaders of that bloody Rebellion begun in Ireland the 23d of October Anno. 1641. I have more largely insisted upon this of my Lord Primates Speech then did well consist with my designed brevity First because it doth excellently set forth the General State of Ireland both as touching points of Interest and also transactions since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign down almost as far as the last Irish Rebellion Anno 1641. Secondly for that it justifies the necessity of maintaining a standing Army in Ireland and the conveniency of the late settlement thereof as very suitable to the whole scope and subject of this discourse Thirdly and lastly because I find my Lord Primate a true Prophet by this his Speech wherein he foresaw the storm that afterwards fell upon Ireland in the year 1641. In which were most inhumanly massacred by the outragious carriage of the Irish about a hundred and fifty thousand of the Brittish Planters without the least provocation given by them to the Irish to perpetrate so wicked and unparalel'd Act of Barbarism But the unhappy troubles that soon after followed in England hindered the English from having an opportunity to be throughly revenged on the Irish for their perfidiously massacred Country-men all Ireland as well as England being in the mean time divided into
several factions the Popish Irish party of the supream Counsel against the Popes Nuntio and his party afterwards some English and Irish for and others against my Lord of Ormonds Peace and at last some of the Protestant party and of the Irish for the King and some others of both parties for the Rump-Parliament but all in a confusion till the year 1649. The English find an opportunity to be throughly revenged en the Irish Anno 1649. c. At what time a considerable Army of English being transported into Ireland where after two Disputes the one at Dublin and the other at Tredagh the Royal party there finding no probability of effecting any thing advantageous to his Majesties Service joyning their forces with those newly landed out of England so bore down the Irish that in less space than three years there was scarce an Irish man through all Ireland that durst hold up his hand against them and by a necessary severity put in practice for the soon finishing of the War the whole Kingdome became upon a sudden so depopulated that considering what vast numbers of people were destroyed by the Sword Famine and Plague it is thought that in the conclusion of the said War there was not left living the eighth part of all the Irish Nation a just judgment of God inflicted on them for their notorious Barbarisme committed in their massacring the English The Irishry being thus broken the Irish Proprietors of Lands within the Provinces of Munster Leinster The Irish being broken are Transplanted into the Provinces of Connaght and County of Clare and Vlster were commanded by Proclamation by a certain day upon pain of Death to Transplant themselves into the Province of Connaght and County of Clare there to receive their proportions of Land according to their Qualifications the which very speedily and submissively they performed accordingly This Province of Connaght and County of Clare for their Natural and Artificial strength are worth the noting being altogether environed on the West and South-west part thereof by the vast Ocean and almost encompassed on the East and North-East part thereof in the whole length from North to South for the space of one hundred and forty miles or thereabouts with the great for the most part impassable River Shannon except by Boat or Bridge And on all sides and parts of the said Province of Connaght and County of Clare so beset with mighty strong Garrisons as namely Limrick Galloway Athlone James-Town the Forts of Slego and Belick in the County of Mayo with many other Garrisons of lesser moment and yet of no small strength that should the Irish at any time appear to stir in the least to oppose the Ruling power it were no less then wilfully to expose themselves to immediate slaughter and the mercy of the Sword This service being thus perform'd together with the turning out about the same time by degrees all the Popish Irish Proprietors out of all the strong Towns and Cities in Ireland Some part of the English Army disbanded after the Irish Transplantation and bringing in Protestant Planters as fast as they could to succed them in their habitations soon after followed the disbanding of certain Regiments of the Army who received their respective proportions of Land for their Arrears in the Provinces of Lynster Munster and Vlster according to their Lots upon every Acre whereof was imposed a certain Chiefry or Quit-Rent to be yearly paid after the expiration of five years towards the defraying of the Publick charge of the Kingdome The same method was soon after observed in satisfying the Arrears of the rest of the Army And about the same time the Commissioners sate at Athlone for determining the Qualifications of the Irish who having there received their doom immediately posted to Lougreah to get their respective proportions of Land to be assigned to them either in Connaght or the County of Clare according to the tenor of their said determined Qualifications from Commissioners siting at Lougreah for that purpose upon every Acre whereof a Quit-Rent was also imposed to be paid yearly after the expiration of five years as aforesaid towards the Publick charge All these things being effected The English and Irish setled upon their respective proportions of Lands within the compass of three years Whereupon followed a strange alteration in the general Face and State of Ireland and brought to this pass within the compass of three years or thereabouts this settlement having been first begun Anno 1653. there appeared within three or four years following such a strange alteration in the general Face and State of Ireland as might justly work much admiration in any sober man who having travelled over a considerable part of this Realm in the years 1652 and 1653. should on one side but consider what a dreadful wast Country he had beheld where for ten sometimes twenty or thirty Miles together nay indeed almost all the Kingdom over except about the English Garrisons one should not behold The lamentable condition all Ireland was reduced unto in the close of the War An. 1652 1653. Man Bird or Beast appear the very wild Fowls of the Aire and the wild Beasts of the Field being either dead or having departed out of those Desolations and thousands of Irish daily starving for want of Food did in this extremity ordinarily feed on the Souldiers Horses for which no satisfaction was in any times received but with the loss of their lives Nay the Famin grew generally at last to that height that the Irish did not only feed upon Horses but upon dead Corps taken out of the Graves the English Army and all those that followed them being in the mean time necessitated to be upon the matter wholy supplyed out of England with all manner of Provisions as well as Pay I say these things being seriously considered could not choose but pierce a heart of Stone with grief and sorrow Ireland reviving again from its ruinous coâ—dition But on the other side what true hearted English man or indeed any Christian but would have rejoyced to see a considerable number of all sorts of people repairing securely from all parts of the Country four times in the year to receive Justice in the four Courts of Judicature at Dublin according to the nature of their Complaints To see the Judges twice a year ride through all the Circuits in Ireland bravely attended and entertained by the Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and many other persons of good quality being all English accompanied also with many Irish both Gentry and Commons To see moreover both English and Irish together with the additional number of many thousands of English Welch and Scots with some Dutch that yearly Transported themselves hither to Plant diligently applying themselves all over Ireland to Tillage and breeding of of all sorts of Cattle with a competent proportion whereof the whole Country became in a few years indifferently well Planted
though not with a sufficient numbeâ— of people to inhabit the same which are still wanting and will be so yet for many years to come repairing as fast as they could ruined Houses and Towns and building of new ones forwarding Merchandize and Commerce and carefully promoting all other ways and means that tended to the repair of a ruined Common-wealth The Irish rejoycing though they had got but small Estates in lieu of great ones after so terrible a storm But most of the English rejoycing much more as having got far better Estates then ever they expected to inherit from their Ancestors The joy of the English in Ireland crowned by the happy restauration of his Majesty and the Irish dejected thereby But that which crowned the joy of all the English hearts in Ireland and as much dejected the Transplanted Irish who now expected no less then to be generally restored to their former Estates was the happy Restauration of his Majesty into England wherein Ireland received no other change or alteration but the Soldiers parting withal or purchasing one third of all the Lands assigned them for their Arrears which was cast into a common stock to satisfie Reprisals that so they might get the rest confirm'd to them by his Majestie And the deposing of all the Cities and Corporate Towns of Ireland with the four Counties formerly reserved for the Publick to the 49 men many whereof notwithstanding they had performed excellent service in the late Wars of Ireland yet received no satisfaction till of late for their Arrears being formerly neglected therein by reason of their noted loyalty to his Majesty And the restoring of some Noble men and others of the Irish Nation to their former Estates either by passing their Tryals at the Court of Claims at Dublin or by meriting the same by their good services to his Majesty Now that I may draw to an end of this Discourse and endeavour to prove what I formerly proposed That that Eternal Peace of Ireland That perpetual Peace is now established in Ireland by the late settlement thereof being the conclusion of this discourse which was so solidly discoursed of and stoutly fought for in Queen Elizabeths time And very far proceeded in by King James But is absolutely perfected as I said according to all humane appearance by the last settlement of Ireland confirmed by his gracious Majesty King Charles the Second I desire the Reader to take these things into his consideration As first to observe The good consequences by the late settlement of Ireland By dividing the great Irish Lords and Gentry from their numerous Train of Adherents and Tenants that by the Transplantation of the Irish Proprietors into the Province of Connaght and County of Clare those Irish so Transplanted were not onely provided of a livelihood to support them settled in such a place of security as that they are wholly dis-enabled thereby to work any prejudice to the English Government And separated for the most part from their numerous train of Tenants and Adherents who willingly staid behind them becoming Tenants to the no small Advantage of the English but to the great disadvantage of the Irish Lords and Great ones of that Nation who at all times chiefly relied upon these kind of people to promote their many Rebellions in Ireland all which matters though of very great importance were notwithstanding wholly neglected or omitted by the English in all their former Settlements of this Realm But also by this Transplantation of the said Irish Proprietors the English being invested by way of Propriety and Tenancy in above three parts of four of all the Lands in Ireland there will hereafter be no need to fear as formerly the English being now the greater Number in all their Publick Assemblies and Parliaments that there shall be any farther obstruction given by the Popish Irish party By increasing the Number of Protestant Justices of Peace and Parliament men c in Ireland either to the making of good Laws or putting the same in execution or to the imposing of Money towards the payment of the Army or any other publick charges Or that the English shall henceforth fear to be any way degenerated by reason of their marrying and fostering with the Irish having there people enough of their own Nation and Religion upon the place as well to supply their continual wants therein as also by those their dispersed and growing Numerous habitations in most parts of the Kingdome will prove a singular good means to civilize the Irish from their wonted Barbarism Secondly That by having now which was otherwise formerly all the strong Towns and Cities of Ireland By the English having the possession by way of habitation of all the strong Towns and Cities of Ireland for the most part inhabited by Protestants and being withall better fortified as not only environed with strong Walls about them but also mightily strengthened by well fortified Cittadels within them to present surprisals and bravely man'd with Men Arms and Amunition to defend them the whole Kingdome is thereby become better secured from future Rebellions and consequently the Brittish Planters from having any more their throats cut by the Irish It being observed formerly that there was nothing did more stay and strengthen this realm then the well fortified Corporate Towns as by proof hath manifestly appeared in many Rebellions till the last in which when all the Countries have swerved the Towns have stood fast and yielded good relief to the English Soldiers in all occasions of service The want of which supply by the Revolt of most of the Corporate Towns of this Kingdom Anno 1641 First occasioned the inhumane slaughter of the greatest part of the Brittish Planters there who in their extremity sought the protection of those Towns but could not obtain it Secondly the continuance of the War so long And last of all the universal desolation of the Country and almost a total extirpation of the whole Irish Nation out of Ireland Thirdly and lastly And by increasing of his Majesties Revenue in Ireland beyond all former examples that by the late increase of his Majesties standing Revenue in Ireland beyond all former Examples As namely by the Imposition of Quit-Rents upon all the Lands of the Adventurers Soldiers and Transplanted Irish Hearth Money Excise c. which wil be much more encreased beyond what it now is by the Industry of so great and universal a Brittish Plantation as will inhabite this Country when fully Planted It may therefore be very well hoped that Ireland will in a short time become so well improved thereby as to be sufficiently able not onely to maintain a good standing Army upon the account of its own proper Revenues to make the Irish desist from doing themselves and the English harm the want whereof proved the ruine of all former Settlements there since the first Conquest of it by the Engglish and discharge all other Publick Expences But will also
ere long afford yearly some competent supply of money towards the filling of the English Exchequer by way of retaliation in lieu of those many and great Summs sent at several times out of England for the support of this so long unhappy Kingdom The premisses being therefore seriously and duly considered I think I may safely conclude that that Eternal Peace of Ireland so solidly discoursed of and stoutly fought for in Q. Elizabeths time And very far proceeded in by K. James Is now absolutely established as I said according to all humane appearance by his gracious Majesty our dread Sovereign K. Charles the Second who long may he live in all earthly happiness so that I suppose it may be now more truly said then ever that Ireland which formerly served but as a Grave to bury our best men and a Gulf to swallow our greatest Treasures is brought by the prudence and policy of her late Kings and Lord Deputies to be an Orderly Common-Wealth civil in it self and in time like to prove profitable to the Prince and at all times a good additional strength to the Brittish Empire PART II. CHAP. I. Of Its Name Climate Dimensions Division Aire Soil Commodities Money and Buildings Name Climate IReland was once called Scotia from the Scots who inhabited there and Scotia major to distinguish it from Scotland in the Isle of Britain But the general Name hereof is Ireland by the Latins called Hibernia by the Greeeks Iernia And though some frame a wrested Etymology from Iberus a Spanish Captain and some from Irnaulph once a supposed Duke hereof as others ab Hyberno aâre the winter-like and inclement air Yet probably the Name proceeded from Erin which signifieth in their own language a Western Land And yet we must not pretermit the Etymon given us by Bochartus more neer the name than most of his other Fancies who will have it called Hibernia from Ibernae a Phaenician word signifying the farthest Habitation there being no Country known amongst the Antients which lay West of Ireland and is seated under the eighth and tenth Climates the longest day being 16 hours and a half in the Southern and 17 hours 3 quarters in the Northern parts It is in length 300. and in breadth Dimension 120. Miles in shape some have formed it like an Egge and others compared it to the Fore-leg of a Boar if the simile breed no offence contains by computation about fifteen millions of Acres it is about halfe as big as England and Wales and much about the same bigness as Scotland including the Islands thereunto belonging Division It was divided antiently into five Provinces each one a Kingdom in it self that is to say 1. Leinster 2. Meath 3. Vlster 4. Connaght and 5. Mounster but of late time the Province of Meath is reckoned for a member or part of Leinster within these four Provinces according to the latest Division are conteined 2328. Parishes Leinster This Province the Natives call Leighingh the Britains Lein in Latine Lagenia in the antient lives of the Saints Lagen and in English Leinster It lyeth Eastward along the Hibernicum Sea on Connaght side Westward it is bounded with the River Shanon the North with the Territory of Louth and the South with part of the Province of Mâ—â—nster The Country butteth upon England as Mounster and Connaght do on Spain The Form Form thereof is Triangle and sides not much unequal from her South-East unto the West point about 80 miles from thence to her North-west about 70 miles and her East coast along the Irish Sea-shore eighty miles the Circumference upon two hundred and seventy miles The Aire Aire is clear and gentle mixt with a temperate disposition yeilding neither extremity of Heat or Cold according to the seasonable times of the Year and the natural condition of the Continent The Soil is generally Fruitful Plentiful both in Fish and Flesh and in other Victuals as Butter Cheese and Milk It is Fertile in Corn Cattle and Pasture ground and now in a much better way of improving than formerly in regard the English do generally affect to inhabite in this Province more than in any other part of Ireland by reason of its neerer Neighbourhood to the Metropolitan City of Dublin and bordering so neer upon England doth thereby consequently afford them both more pleasure and profit It is well watered with Rivers and indifferently well Wooded except the County of Develin which complains much of that want being so destitute of Wood that they are compelled to use a clammy kind of fat Turff for their Fuel or Sea-coal brought out of England The Commodities Commodities of this Country do chiefly consist in Cattle Sea-Fowl and Fish It breeds many excellent good Horses called Irish Hobbies which have not the same pace that other Horses have in their course but a soft and round amble setting very easily Division This Province containeth the Counties of Kilkenny Caterlogh Queens County Kings County Kildare East-Meath West-Meath Weshford Wicklo and Dublin In which are comprehended 926. Parishes whereof 47. Towns of Note and 102. Castles well fortified and able to make good resistance against an Enemy The English being forced to fortifie themselves in their Plantations with strong holds and fortresses against the incursious of the Natives Mounster This Province is called in Irish Mawn in a more ordinary construction of Speech Wown in Latin Momonia and in English Mounster lyeth open Southward to the Virginean Sea Northward it fronteth part of Connaght The East is Neighboured by Leinster And the West is altogether washed with the Ocean Westward The Form Form thereof is quadrant or four-square and in length extended from Ballattimore Bay in her South unto the Bay of Galoway in her North is about 90. miles Her broadest part from East to West is from Waterford Haven to Feriter Haven and containeth an hundred miles The whole Circumference by following the Promontories and Inlets are above four hundred and forty miles The Aire Aire mild and temperate neither too chilling Cold not tâ—o schorching Hot. The Soil in some parts Hilly looking a loft with Wooddy Wild and Solitary Mountains Yet the Vallies below are garnished with Corn-fields And generally all both pleasant for Sight and fertile for Soil The general Commodities Commodities of this Province are Corn Cattel Wood Wool and Fish The last whereof it affords in every place plenty and abundance of all sorts But none so well known for the Store of Herrings that are taken there as is the Promontory called Eraugh that lies between Bautre and Ballatimore Bay Whereunto every year a great Fleet of Spaniards and Portugals resort even in the midst of Winter to Fish also for Cods Division It was in times past divided into many parts as Towoun that is North Mounster whereof Twomond al-Thomond or County of Clare was accounted part of it Deswoun that is South Mounster Hierwoun that is
the Liberty of the Subjects of Ireland yet was it made at the Prayer of the Commons upon just and important cause For the Governors of that Realm especially such as were of that Country Birth Poynings Act made at the request of the Commons of Ireland had laid many opprssions upon the Commons And amongst the rest they had imposed Laws upon them not tending to the general good but to serve private turns and to strengthen their particular factions This moved them to refer all Laws that were to be past in Ireland to be considered corrected and allowed first by the State of England which had alwaies been tender and careful of the good of this people and had long since made them a Civil Rich and Happy Nation if their own Lords and Governors there had not sent bad intelligence into England Besides this he took special Order that the Summons of Parliament should go into all the Shires of Ireland and not to the four Shires onely within the English Pale for out of that little Precinct there were no Lords Knights or Burgesses Summoned to the Parliament neither did the Kings Writ run in any other part of the Kingdom and for that cause specially he caused all the Acts of Parliament lately before holden by the Viscount of Gormanston to be repealed and made void On these foundations they have raised many superstructures both of Law and Government enacted in their own Parliaments summoned by the Lord Deputy at the Kings appointment Amongst many inconveniences which have been observed in the Laws of England in relation to the Government of Ireland whereof a reformation was wisht this was a main one That when any of the Irish intended to go into Rebellion Entailing of Lands supported the Rebellions in Ireland they would convey away all their Lands and Lordships to Feoffees in trust whereby they reserved to themselves but a State for term of life which being determined by the sword or by the halter their Lands straight came to their heirs and the Crown of England defrauded of the intent of the Law which laid that grievous punishment upon Traytors to forfeit all their Lands to the Prince to the end that men might the rather be terrified from committing treasons for many which would little esteem of their own lives yet for remorse of their Wives and Children would be with-held from that heinous crime This appeared plainly in the late Earl of Desmond For before his breaking forth into open Rebellion he had conveyed secretly all his Lands to Feoffees of trust in hope to have cut off her Majesty from the Escheat of his Lands which inconvenience though well enough avoided at that time by an Act of Parliament obtained with much difficulty which by cutting off and frustrating all such conveyances as had at any time by the space of twelve years before his Rebellion been made within the compass whereof the fraudulent Feoffment and many the like of others his accomplices and fellow traytors were contained gave all his Lands to the Queen yet were it not an endless trouble supposing such Acts were easily brought to pass that no Traitor or Fellon should be attainted but a Parliament must be called for bringing of his Lands to the Crown which the Law giveth it Although since the time of St. Patrick Anno 430 Christianity was never extinct in Ireland Religion yet the Government being hailed into contrary factions the Nobility lawless the multitude wilful it came to pass that Religion waxed with the temporal common sort cold and feeble untill the Conquest by King Henry the Second did settle it The Honourable state of Marriage they much abused either in contracts unlawful meetings the Levitical and Canonical degrees of prohibition or in divorcements at pleasure or in omitting Sacramental solemnities or in retaining either Concubines or Harlots for Wives yea where the Clergy were faint they could be content to Marry for a year and a day of probation and at the years end to return her home upon any light quarrels if the Gentlewomans friends were weak and unable to avenge the injury Never was there heard of so many dispensations for Marriage as those men show I pray God grant they were all authentick and builded upon sufficient warrant The Disorders of the Church of Ireland about the latter end of Q. Elizabeths Reign and the causes of it About the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign the Church of Ireland was infested not onely with gross Symony greedy covetousness fleshly incontinency careless sloath and generally a disordered life in the common Clergy-men But besides all these had their particular enormities for all the Irish Priests which then enjoyed the Church-livings were in a manner meer Lay-men saving that they had taken holy Orders but otherwise they did go and live like Lay-men follow all kind of Husbandry and other worldly affairs as other Irish men did They neither read Scriptures nor preach to the People nor administer Communion but Baptism they did for they Christened then after the Popish fashion onely they took the Tithes and Offerings and gathered what fruit else they might of their Livings the which they converted as badly and some of them they said paid as due Tributes and Shares of their Livings to their Bishops I mean those which were Irish as they received them duly Which shameful abuses the English Governours could not redress because they knew not the parties so offending for the Irish Bishops had their Clergy in such aw and subjection under them that they durst not complain of them so as they might do to them what they pleased for they knowing their own unworthiness and incapacity and that they were still removeable at their Bishops will yielded to what pleased him and he took what he listed yea and some of them whose Diocesses were in remote parts somewhat out of the Worlds eye did not at all bestow the Benefices which were in their own donation upon any but kept them in their own hands and did set their own Servants and horse-boys to take up the Tithes and Fruits of them with the which some of them purchased great Lands and built fair Castles upon the same Of which abuse if any question were moved they had a very seemly colour and excuse that they had no worthy Ministers to bestow them upon but kept them so unbestowed for any such sufficient person as should be offered unto them To meet with this mischief there was a Statute enacted in Ireland which seems to have been grounded upon a good meaning That whatsoever English-man of good conversation and sufficiency should be brought to any of the Bishops and nominated unto any Living within their Diocess that were presently void that he should without any contradiction be admitted thereunto before any Irish which good Law though it had been well observed and that none of the Bishops had transgressed the same yet it wrought no Reformation thereof for many defects First there
were no such sufficient English Ministers sent over as might be presented to any Bishop for any Living but the most part of such English as came over thither of themselves were either unlearned or men of some bad note for which they had forsaken England So as the Bishop to whom they should have been presented might justly reject them as incapable and insufficient Secondly the Bishop himself being perhaps an Irish man who being made Judge by that Law of the sufficiency of the Ministers might at his own Will dislike of the English man as unworthy in his Opinion and admit of any Irish whom he should think more for his turn And if he should at the Instance of any English man of countenance there whom he would not displease accept of any such English Minister as should be tendered unto him yet he would under-hand carry such a hard hand over him or by his Officers wring him so sore that he would soon make him weary of his poor Living Lastly the Benefices themselves were so mean and of so small profit in those Irish Countreys through the ill husbandry of the Irish people which did inhabit them that they would not yeild any competent maintenance for any honest Minister to live upon scarcely to buy him a Gown And had all this been redressed yet what good should any English Minister have done amongst them by teaching or preaching unto them which either could not understand him or would not hear him Or what comfort of life could he have where his Parishoners were so insatiable so intractable so ill affected to him as they usually are to all the English Or finally how durst almost any honest Ministers that were peaceable civil men commit their safety to the hands of such Neighbours as the boldest Captains durst scarce dwell by The Church of Ireland much Reformed of late But these Obstructions by the special Providence of God appearing in the late Revolutions of Ireland seems upon the matter to be wholly taken away for first there are now in Ireland together with other Divines that commonly repair thither out of England and Scotland a sufficient number of able Ministers bred up in Trinity Colledge at Dublin to supply the above mentioned first Defect Secondly all the Bishops of Ireland are now worthy learned Protestants who with all the endeavours they can do incourage Protestant Ministers to settle themselves in such convenient places as they may do God and that Countrey good service and themselves have thereby a comfortable subsistance Besides the English Magistracy and Gentry being now so generally dispersed through all parts of Ireland do give great countenance to the Protestant Ministry to proceed cheerfully and industriously in their Vocations Lastly the Benefices themselves are now by the industry and good husbandry of the British Planters together with the uniting of two or three Parishes into one to supply the imperfect Plantation thereof become so considerable and will much more hereafter when fully Planted as to be able to yeild a competent maintenance for honest learned Ministers to live upon and which is a farther encouragement to them have already very considerable Congregations of Protestant-Plantres through most parts of the Kingdom to attend upon Divine Service every Sabbath-day The Revenues of the Church oâ— Ireland have much encreased of late in this manner The Revenues of the Church of Ireland much increased of late and the manner how First it was observed that the Clergy of this Countrey were formerly little beholding to their Lay-Patrons some of their Bishops being so poor that they had no other Revenues than the Pasture of two Milch Beasts And so far had the Monasteries and Religious Houses invadeâ— by Appropriations the Churcheâ— Rites that of late times in the wholâ— Province of Connaght the whole stipend of the Incumbent was not above forty shillings in some placeâ— not above sixteen So that the pocâ— Irish must needs be better fed thaâ— taught For ad tenuitatem Benefici orum necessario sequitur ignorantia Sacerdotum Poor Benefices will be fitted with ignorant Priests said Panormitan rightly But this was remedied in part by his Sacred Majesty King Charles the Second Monarch of Great Britain who liberally aâ— the Suit of the late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury restored unto this Chuch all the Impropriations and portions of Tithes which had been vested in the Crown An Action of most singular Piety and Princely Bounty Secondly King James out of the forfeited Lands of the six Counties in Vlster allowed fair proportions of Land as Gleabable to those Parishes within the said forfeited Counties which has caused them for so much to be counted better Livings for Ministers than in any other part of that Kingdom Thirdly That by the care the Earl of Strafford had while he was Lord Deputy of Ireland to increase the Revenues of that Church he recovered by Law Suits great quantities of Land in many parts of Ireland which the Church enjoys to this very day Fourthly and lastly That the whole Kingdom of Ireland may be justly thought to be so far improved during the last forty years peace by the industry of the British Planters and by the Irish also in imitation of the same as that all the Lands thereof and consequently the Tythes in proportion came to be worth in yearly value four or five times more than it ever amounted unto in any former Age And therefore we need not much marvel how that this last Rebellion Anno 1641. became more bloudy and universal than any of the former the Popish Irish Clergy and Lawers well understanding that the Sovereign Command of Ireland was now worth the contending for Bishopricks of Ireland Reckoned in Ireland at and since the Reformation four Arch-bishops nineteen Bishops and one University viz. Dublin Manners The Irish have long since had the Character of being Religious Frank Amorous Ireful Sufferable of pains infinite very glorious many Sorcerers excellent Horse-men delighted with Wars great Alms-givers passing in Hospitality The lewder sort both Clerks and Lay-men sensual and loose to Leachery above measure The same being virtuously bred up or Reformed are such mirrours of Holiness and Austerity that other Nations retain but a shew or shadow of Devotion in comparison of them As for Abstinence and Fasting which these days make so dangerous this is to them a familiar kind of Chastisement In which virtue and divers other how far the best excel so far in Gluttony and other hateful Crimes the Vitious they are worse than too bad They follow the dead Corps to the grave with hollowings and barbarous out-cryes pittiful in appearance whereof grew as I suppose the Proverb To weep Irish These people of late times The good agreement bewixt the Irish and the English in Ireland during the last forty years peace were so much civilized by their Cohabitation with the English as that the antient Animosities and Hatred which the Irish had been ever observed to
Sixthly That onely the ancient Nobility of the Kingdome should stand and of them such as should refuse to conform to the Romish Religion to be removed and others put in their room howsoever the then present Earl of Kildare was to be excluded and another established in his place Seventhly All Plantation Lands to be recalled and the antient proprietors to be reinvested in their former estates with the limitations in their Covenant expressed That they had not formerly sold their interests on valuable considerations Eighthly That the respective Countries of the Kingdom should be sub-divided and certain Bounds or Barronies assigned to the chief Septs and others of the Nobility who were to be answerable for the Government thereof And that a standing Army might be still in being the respective Governors being to keep a certain number of men to be ready at all risings out as they term'd it They also being to build and maintain certain Fortresses in places most convenient within their Precincts And that these Governours should be of absolute power only responsible to the Parliament Lastly for maintaining a correspondency with other Nations and for securing the Coasts that also they might be rendered considerable unto others a Navy of a certain number of Ships was to be maintained That to this end five Houses were to be appointed one in each Province accounting Meath for one of them That to those houses should be allotted an annual pension of certain thousands of pounds to be made up of part of the Lands appropriate to Abbeys And a farther Contribution to be raised in the respective Provinces to that end That these Houses were to be assigned to a certain Order of Knights answerable to that of Malta who were to be Sea-men And to Maintain this Fleet that all Prizes were to be apportioned some part for a Common Bank the rest to be divided to which purpose the felling of Woods serviceable for this use was to be forbidden The house for this purpose to be assigned to the Province of Leinster was Kilmainham or rather Houth the Lord of Howith being otherwise to be accommodated provided he joyn with them that place being esteemed most convenient in respect of scituation which they had small grounds to hope for The Transplantation justified by reason of the late barbarous carriage of the Irish towards the English The serious consideration of this strange behaviour of the Irish towards the English hath given them just cause to place a wall of seperation between them and such dangerous Neighbours by whose barbarous carriage and inhumanity there were since the Rebellion first brake out unto the time of the cessation made Sept. 15. 1643. which was not full two years after three hundred thousand British and Protestants cruelly murthered in cold bloud destroyed some other way or expelled out of their habitations according to the strictest conjecture and computation of those who seemed best to understand the numbers of English planted in Ireland besides those few which perished in the heat of fight during the War The losses sustained by the British Planters in the space of 2. years from Oct. 23. 1641. amounted to 635375 l. And upon an enquiry made in Ireland An. 1641. of their losses sustained in their Estates Fortunes and Livelyhoods by Spoil and Robbery from the 23. of October 1641. till the 8. of March following by estimation they amounted to six hundred thirty five thousand three hundred seventy five pounds And if a right information could have been taken as I supposed would have amounted to neer five hundred times as much It hath been said of late by some Number of Inhabitants that the people of England are quadrubled within four hundred years as doubling every two hundred years How true this may be in relation to England I know not but I am perswaded that this observation may be more properly applyed to Ireland which has been within these four hundred years mightily improved by clearing of grounds from a Wilderness and thereby consequently giving way for the enlargment of peoples Habitations Ireland being reported to be generally overgrown with Woods in Giraldus Cambrensis his time Though Ireland was very populous before the last War and is computed to be half as big as England yet I dare not say that it contained half as many people as England did because above one fourth part of Ireland is taken up with unprofitable Boggs Lakes and barren Mountains and for that the Towns Cities of England are far greater and more numerous in proportion than those of Ireland in so much as that the City of London it self may be thought to contain more people than one half of the Kingdom of Ireland in the best of times But whether Ireland did in its prime contain two millions of people or what more I will not take upon me to determin but do submit the decision of so doubtful a matter to more knowing persons together with the enquiry whither in time to come when Ireland shall be fully inhabited it may be thought though mixedly the English may inhabit the proportion of about one Province and an half of it though most numerous in the Provinces of Mounster and Leinster The Irish the like proportion of one Province and an half more though most numerous in the Province of Connnaght And the Scots inhabiting the proportion of a fourth part of Ireland but more numerous in the Province of Vlster than in any other The Irish tongue is sharp and sententious Their Language offereth great occasion to quick Apothegms and proper allusions wherefore their common Jesters Bards and Rymers are said to delight passingly those that conceive the grace and propriety of the tongue But the true Irish indeed differeth so much from that they they commonly speak that scarce one amongst five score can either write read or understand it Therefore it is prescribed among certain their Poetes and other Students of Antiquity The Italian Spanish and French Tongues are compounded of the Latine The German high and low Country Saxon Scotland and English have great affinity North-Wales South-Wales Cornwall and Little Britain in France as Cambrensis and Sir John Price have learnedly discoursed but the Irish except the Redshanks and the Scottish of the High-lands have affinity with no Tongue as I can learn more then with the British Language Many reasons there are to induce one to be of this opinion first of all according to the first command the Celtick Tongue was of force in all these Northern parts Bodinus writeth that the British and Celtick Language was all one Pausanius the Greecian maketh mention how the Celts in their Language called a Horse Marc and three Horses Trimarc the which the Welchman useth to this day with a guttural alteration Margh and Treemargh Also Camden the learned Antiquary of this our Age is of this opinion remembring the Story of Gurguntius and the infinite number of British Words in use among the Irish the which
little more honour but for the most part with one and the same authority And without doubt those first Justicers of Ireland as the Justicer of England who in that age was also for brevity called Justice were ordained for keeping of the Peace and Ministring of Justice to all and every person as were the Proprietors and Proconsuls in old time among the Romans which were sent into a Province with highest command Before we pass further Let us take a view of the Catalogue here before us comprehending this following Table A Table shewing the Names and Titles of all the Lord Lieutenants Deputies and Lord Justices of Ireland with the time they began their Government since the 16th Year of the Reign of Henry the Seventh unto this present Year 1672. Order Their Names Titles they had before Titles in Ireland Month. Day Year 1 Henry Duke of York L. Lieuten   1501 2 Gerrald Earl of Kildare Deputy   1501 3 Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lieuten   1520 4 Piers Butler Earl of Ossory Deputy    5 Gerrald Earl of Kildare Deputy    6  Baron of Delvin Deputy    7 Piers Butler Earl of Ossory Deputy   1529 8 Will. Skevington Knight Deputy   1530 9 Gerrald Earl of Kildare Deputy   1532 10 Will. Skevington Knight Deputy October 4 1534 11 Leonard Lord Gray Deputy January 1 1534 12 William Brereton Knight Deputy   1540 13 Anthon. S. Leager Knight Deputy July 25 1541 14 William Brabazon Knight Justice April 1 1546 15 Anthon. S. Leager Knight Deputy August 4 1546 16 Edw. Bellingham Knight Deputy May  1548 17 Francis Bryen Knight Justice Decemb. 27 1549 18 William Brabazon Knight Justice Februar  1549 19 Anthon. S. Leager Knight Deputy August 4 1550 20 James Crofts Knight Deputy April 29 1551 21 Thomas Cusack Gerrald Ailmer Knights Justices Decemb.  1552 22 Anth. S. Leager Knight Deputy Septemb. 1 1554 23 Thomas Lord Fitz-Water Deputy May 26 1555 24 Hugh Cruwen Henry Sidney Arch. Bish Dub. L. Chan. Knight and Treasurer Justices   1557 25 Henry Sidney Knight Justice February 6 1557 26 Thomas Earl of Sussex Deputy April 27 1558 27 H. Sidney absent Sussex in Scotia Knight Justice Septemb. 24 1558 28 Thomas Earl of Sussex Deputy    29 Henry Sidney Knight Justice Decemb. 13 1558 30 Thomas Earl of Sussex Deputy August 27 1559 31 W. Fitz-Williams Knight Justice February 15 1559 32 Thomas Earl of Sussex Lieutenant June 24 1560 33 W. Fitz-Williams Knight Justice February 2 1560 34 Thomas Earl of Sussex Lieutenant June 1 1561 35 W. Fitz Williams Knight Justice January 22 1561 36 Thomas Earl of Sussex Lieutenant July 24 1562 37 Nicholas Arnold Knight Justice May 25 1564 38 Henry Sidney Knight Deputy June 20 1565 39 Doe Weston W. Fitz-Williams Lord Chancellor Knight Justices Octob. 14 1567 40 Henry Sidney Knight Deputy Octob. 20 1568 41 W. Fitz-Williams Knight Justice March 26 1570 42 W. Fitz-Williams Knight Deputy June 13 1570 43 Henry Sidney Knight Deputy Septemb. 18 1575 44 William Drurie Knight Justice Septemb. 14 1578 45 William Petham Knight Justice October 11 1579 46 Arthur Lord Gray Deputy August 12 1580 47 Adam Loftus Henry Wallop Arch. Bish Dub. L. Chan. Knight and Treasurer Justices   1582 48 John Perrott Knight Deputy June 21 1584 49 W. Fitz-Williams Knight Deputy June 30 1588 50 William Russel Knight Deputy August 11 1594 51 Thomas Lord Burrogh Deputy May 22 1597 52 Thomas Norris Knight Justice October 30 1597 53 Adam Loftus Arch-Bish Dub. L. Chan. Justice Novemb. 27 1597 53 Robert Gardiner Knight Justice Novem. 27 1597 54 Rob. D'Evercux Earl of Essex Lieutenant April 15 1598  Adam Loftus Arch-Bish Dub. L. Chan. Justices   1599 55 George Carie Knight and Treasurer   56 Charles Blunt Lord Mount-joy Lieutenant   1599 57 George Carie Knight and Treasurer Deputy April 29 1603 58 Arthur Chichester Knight Deputy February 3 1604  Thomas Jones Arch Bish Dub. L. Chan. Justices March 14 1613 59 Rich. Wingfeild Knight and Marshal     60 Arthur Chichester Lord Belfast Deputy July  1614 61 Thomas Jones John Denham Arch-Bish Dub. L. Chan. Knight Justices February 11 1615 62 Oliver St. John Knight Deputy August 30 1616 63 Adam Loftus K. Visc Ely L. Chan. Justices May 4 1622  Rich. Wingfeild Visc Poyerscourt 64 Henry Carie Visc Faulkland Deputy Septemb. 8 1622 65 Adam Lâ—ftus Visc Ely L. Chan. Justice October 25 16â—â— 65 Richard Boyle Earl of Cork L. Treas Justice October 25 1629 66 Tho. Wentworth Visc Wentworth Deputy   1633 67 Adam Loftus Char. Wandesford Visc Ely L. Chan. Esq Mr. of the Rolls Justices June 2 1636 68 Tho. Wentworth Visc Wentworth Liutenant   1636 69 Robert Dillon Char. Wandesford Lord Kilkenny West Esq Mr. of the Rolls Justices   1639 70 Tho. Wentworth Earl of Strafford Lieutenant   1640 71 Char. Wandesford Master of the Rolls Deputy April 1 1640 72 William Parsons John Burlace K. Mr. of the Wards K. Mr. of the Ordnance Justices Decemb.  1641 73 John Burlace Henry Fichburne K. Mr. of the Ordnance K. Gover. of Drogheda Justices Decemb.  1642 74 James Butler Earl Marq. of Ormond Lieutenant   1643  Maur. Eustace Lord Chancellor  Decemb 31  75 Roger Earl of Orrery Justices January 17 1660  Charles Earl of Montrath  Decemb. 31  76 James D. Mar. E. of Ormond Lieutenant July 28 1662 77 Thomas Earl of Ossory Deputy May 31 1663 78 James D. Mar. E. of Ormond Lieutenant Septemb.  1665 79 Thomas Earl of Ossory Deputy April 25 1668 80 John Lord Roberts Lieutenant Septemb. 18 1669 81 John Lord Berkley Lieutenant April 21 1670 82 Michael Boyle Arthur Forbs Arch. Bish Dub. L. Chan. Knight Justices   1671 83 John Lord Berkley Lieutenant Septemb.  1671 84 Henry Capell Earl of Essex Lieutenant May 21 1672 Notwithstanding what before is said The great Power and Train of the Vice-Roys or Deputies of Ireland no Vice-Roy in all Europe hath greater Power or comes neerer the Majesty of a King in his Train and State yet it was thought that in the times of trouble this should have been one principal in the appointing of the Lord Deputies Authority that it should be more ample and absolute than it is and that he should have uncontrouled Power to do any thing that he with the advisement of the Councel should think meet to be done for that it was impossible for the Councel here to direct a Governour there who should be forced oftentimes to follow the necessity of present occasions and to take the suddain advantage of time which being once lost could not be recovered whilst The want of more absolute power in the Deputies of of Ireland was formerly prejudicial to the
truth though the Lordships of Connaght and Meath which were then parcel of the Inheritance of the Earl of Vlster be added to the Accompt the Revenue of that Earldome came not to the third part of that he writeth For the Accompt of the Profits of Vlster yet remaining in Breminghams Tower made by William Fitz-Warren Seneschall and Farmer of the Lands in Vlster seized into the Kings hands after the death of Walter de Burgo Earl of Vlster from the fifth year of Edward the Third until the eighth year do amount but to nine hundred and odd pounds at what time the Irishry had not made so great an invasion upon Earldome of Vlster as they had done in the time of King Richard the Second As vain a thing it is that hath been seen written in an ancient Manuscript touching the Customes of Ireland in the time of King Edward the Third that those duties in those days should yearly amount to ten thousand Marks which to search and view of the Records there can justly be controlled For upon the late reducing about the beginning of King James his Reign of this ancient Inheritance of the Crown which had been deteined in most of the Port Towns of that Realm The Customs of Ireland of little value till King James his Reign being but 1000 l. per An. for the space of one hundred years and upwards some pains being taken to visit all the Pipe Rolls wherein the Accompts of Customs are conteined those duties were found to be answered in every Port for two hundred and fifty years together but could not find that at any time they did exceed a thousand Pounds per Annum and no marvel for the Subsidy Poundage was not then known and the greatest profit did arise by the Cocquet of Hides for Wooll and Wooll-fells were ever of little value in that Kingdome till of late The Profit of the Custome-house in Ireland in the last year of King James his Reign did amount to thirty thousand Pounds per Annum The Customes of Ireland advanced to 30000 l. per An. in the last year of K. James his Reign And what great improvements were made thereof by the Earl of Strafford in the time of his Government I cannot find because they fell together with him But what that branch of the Revenue now comes to together with the rest paid yearly to his Majesties Exchequer in Ireland I shall here render a particular account of which at first view considering that Countrey is not yet half Planted with People may be much wondred at But when I call to mind Sir Audley Mervyns expressions Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland delivered in a Speech of his to his Grace the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdome Feb. 13. 1662. being these viz. That they did understand the usual proceedings of Parliaments to begin at Grievances and to conclude with Supplies But that they had inverted that Order by applying themselves in the first place to the settling a constant Revenue for his Majesty and granting other Temporary Aides far above their Abilities though far less than what his Majesties goodness might challenge from them then the wonder ceases for as I have already observ'd while the Popish Irish party bore sway in the Publick Assemblies of that Realm they appeared averse not only to contribute towards the Publick Charge unless upon their own Terms though the occasions were never so urgent and they in a condition more able to discharge the same than now of late But repented themselves of those good Acts they had once consented to in this kind in order to his Majesties Service which they evidently expressed by their forward accepting the abatement of the fore-mentioned Subsidies in the Earl of Straffords time from forty thousand Pounds each Subsidy to twelve thousand pounds a piece An Act far different from the behaviour of those Loyal English hearts in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who contributed so freely to supply her Majesties necessities in the Publick Concern as that sometimes she refused their kindnesses accounting the Money in the purses of her good Subjects to be as ready for her Service when occasion required as if they had been lock'd up in her own Coffers The particulars of his Majesties present Revenue in Ireland The particulars of his Majesties present Revenue in Ireland amounting to 219500 l. according the Demise made by King Charles the Second to John Forth and his Partners by Indenture bearing date July 12. 1669. are as followeth viz. His Revenue arising by Hearth-Money Licenses to Retail Wine and Strong-Waters the New Quit-Rents given to his Majesty by the Acts of Setlement and Explanation the Chief Rents Fee Farm Rents Rent-Service Rent-Charge Rents See Rents reserved upon Leases exceeding one and twenty years Copy hold and all other antient Crown Rents set for seven years commencing at Christmas 1668. rendring yearly for the same ninety one thousand and five hundred Pounds And his Majesties Revenue arising by Customes and imported Excise set for six years commencing at Christmas An. 1669. rendering yearly seventy five thousand Pounds And his Majesties Revenue arising by Inland Excise and by Licenses to retaile Ale and Beer set for four years and three quarters from March 25. 1671. rendering yearly fifty three thousand Pounds for the first four years and thirty nine thousand seven hundred and fifty three thousand Pounds during the last three quarters amounting in the whole yearly to two hundred nineteen thousand five hundred Pounds The Grant made to the Lord Ranelagh of all the Revenue of Ireland continues to Decemb. 26. 1675. So that by this we may see in part what hopeful advantages are like in time to accrew to the Crown of England by having Ireland for the most part inhabited by Protestant British Planters whose Loyalty and Industry will I make no doubt cause that Kingdome to become in a short time a most flourishing Countrey A Table for Reducing Plantation Acres into English and Ascertaining the Kings Rent in the several Provinces of IRELAND according to the Explanatory Act viz. For every English Statute Acre in the Province of Leinster 3 d. Munster 2 d. ob Connaght 1 d. q. Vlster 2 d Irish English Acres Leinster Munster Vlster Connaght Ir. A. En. A. R. P. Pts. l. s. d. q. l. s. d. q. l. s. d. q. l. s. d. q. 1 1 2 9 21 0 4 3 0 3 3 0 3 1 0 2 2 2 3 0 38 42 0 9 3 0 7 1 0 6 2 0 4 3 3 4 3 17 63 1 2 2 0 11 0 0 0 3 0 7 1 4 0 1 36 84 1 7 2 1 2 2 1 1 0 0 9 3 5 8 0 15 105 0 2 1 1 6 1 1 4 1 1 0 0 6 9 2 35 5 2 5 1 1 9 3 1 7 2 1 2 2 7 11 1 14 26 2 10 0 2 1 2 1 10 3 1 5 0 8 12 3 33 44 3 2 3 2 5 1 2 2 0 1 7
153 3 21 â—9 1 18 5 3 1 8 10 1 1 5 7 3 19 2 3 96 155 2 0 80 1 18 10 2 1 9 2 0 1 5 1 0 19 5 1 97 157 0 19 â—01 1 19 3 2 1 9 5 2 1 6 2 1 19 7 3 98 158 2 39 1 1 19 8 1 1 9 9 1 1 6 5 2 19 10 0 99 159 1 18 22 2 0 1 0 1 10 0 3 1 6 8 3 1 00 0 2 100 161 3 37 43 2 0 6 0 1 10 4 2 1 7 0 0 1 00 3 0 110 178 0 29 11 2 4 6 2 1 13 5 2 1 9 8 1 1 2 3 1 120 194 1 0 100 2 8 7 3 1 16 5 0 1 12 4 3 1 4 3 2 130 210 2 2 68 2 12 7 1 1 19 5 3 1 15 1 1 1 6 3 3 140 226 3 4 36 2 16 8 0 2 2 6 1 1 17 9 2 1 8 4 1 150 247 3 36 4 3 0 9 0 2 5 6 0 2 0 6 0 1 10 4 2 160 259 0 27 93 3 4 9 2 2 8 7 1 2 3 2 2 1 12 4 3 170 275 1 19 61 3 8 10 0 2 11 7 2 2 5 10 3 1 14 5 0 180 291 2 11 29 3 12 10 3 2 14 8 0 2 8 7 1 1 16 5 1 190 307 3 2 118 3 16 11 1 2 17 8 2 2 11 3 2 1 18 5 3 200 323 3 34 86 4 1 0 0 3 0 9 0 2 14 0 0 2 0 5 3 250 404 3 33 47 5 1 2 3 3 15 11 1 3 7 6 0 2 10 7 2 300 485 3 32 8 6 1 5 3 4 11 1 2 4 1 0 0 3 0 9 0 350 566 3 30 90 7 1 8 3 5 6 3 2 4 14 6 0 3 10 10 2 400 647 3 29 51 8 1 11 3 6 1 5 3 5 8 0 0 4 1 0 0 450 728 3 28 12 9 2 2 3 6 6 8 0 6 1 5 3 4 11 1 1 500 809 3 26 94 10 2 5 3 7 11 10 1 6 14 11 3 5 1 2 3 550 890 3 25 55 11 2 8 3 8 7 0 2 7 8 5 3 5 11 4 1 600 971 3 24 16 12 2 11 3 9 2 2 3 8 1 11 3 6 1 5 3 650 1052 3 22 98 13 3 2 3 9 17 5 0 8 15 5 3 6 11 7 1 700 1133 3 21 59 14 3 5 3 10 12 7 1 9 8 11 3 7 1 8 3 750 1214 3 20 20 15 3 8 3 11 7 9 2 10 2 5 3 7 11 10 1 800 1295 3 18 102 16 3 11 2 12 2 11 3 10 15 11 3 8 1 11 3 850 1376 3 17 63 17 04 2 7 12 18 2 0 11 9 5 3 8 12 1 1 900 1457 3 16 24 18 04 5 2 13 13 4 1 12 2 11 3 9 2 2 3 950 1538 3 14 100 19 04 â— 2 14 8 6 2 12 16 5 3 9 12 4 1 1000 1619 3 13 67 20 04 11 2 15 3 6 2 13 9 11 3 10 2 5 3 1500 2429 3 0 40 30 07 5 1 22 15 7 0 20 4 11 2 15 3 8 2 2000 3239 2 27 13 40 09 1 10 30 7 5 1 26 19 11 2 20 4 1 12 2500 4049 2 13 107 50 12 4 3 37 19 3 2 33 14 11 1 25 6 2 1 3000 485â— 2 0 8 60 14 10 2 45 11 1 3 40 9 11 0 30 7 5 0 3500 5669 1 27 53 70 17 3 1 53 8 0 0 â—7 4 11 0 35 8 8 0 4000 6479 1 14 26 80 19 10 0 60 14 10 2 53 19 10 3 40 9 10 3 4500 7139 1 0 120 91 02 3 3 68 6 8 3 60 14 10 3 45 11 1 3 5000 8099 0 27 39 101 04 9 2 75 18 7 0 67 9 10 2 50 12 4 2 5500 8909 0 14 66 111 07 3 1 83 10 5 2 â—4 4 10 1 55 13 7 1 6000 7919 0 01 39 121 09 9 0 91 2 3 3 80 19 10 1 60 14 10 1 6500 10528 3 28 12 131 122 3 98 14 2 0 87 14 100 65 16 1 0 7000 11338 3 14 106 141 148 2 106 6 0 1 94 9 100 70 17 3 3 8000 12958 2 28 52 161 19 8 0 121 9 9 0 107 199 2 80 199 2 9000 14578 0 01 119 182 0â— 7 â— 136 13 5 2 121 9 9 1 91 02 3 1 10000 16198 1 15 65 202 00 7 0 151 17 2 1 134 19 9 0 101 04 9 0 11000 17818 0 29 11 222 14 6 2 167 00 10 3 148 9 8 3 111 07 2 3 12000 19438 0 02 78 242 19 6 0 182 04 7 2 161 19 8 2 121 09 8 2 13000 21057 3 16 24 263 04 5 2 197 08 4 0 175 9 8 0 131 12 2 0 14000 22677 2 29 91 283 09 5 0 212 12 0 3 188 19 7 3 141 14 7 3 15000 24297 2 03 37 303 14 4 2 227 15 9 1 202 9 7 2 151 17 2 2 20000 32396 2 31 09 404 19 2 0 303 14 4 1 269 19 6 0 202 09 6 0 30000 48595 0 06 74 607 08 9 0 455 11 6 2 404 19 3 0 303 14 3 0 40000 64793 1 22 18 809 18 4 0 607 08 8 3 339 19 0 0 404 19 0 0 50000 80991 2 37 83 1012 07 11 1 759 05 10 3 674 18 9 0 506 03 9 0 Strength Seeing the Irish Nation by reason of their barbarous Laws and Customs could never upon their own soore put themselves in any hopeful way of erecting a Common-wealth in Ireland The Irish Nation inconsiderable but by their dependency on the Crown of England either before or since the Conquest of it by K. Henry the Second And that it is most evident unless they were bred under The manner how the English did again extend their bounds beyond the narrow Limits of the English Pale since the beginning of Q. Elizabeths reign and a little before and protected by the English Laws and Government they had never been otherwise looked upon in the World but as a mean and despicable people I shall therefore since a true measure of the strength of Ireland must be taken upon an English accout here briefly relate by what ways and means the English since the beginning of Quen Elizabeths Reign and a little before did again extend their power and interest in Ireland beyond the nâ—rrow Limtis of the English Pale 1. Viz. By the Rebellion of the Moors and Connors in the Reign of Ed. 6. and Q. Mary 1. In the first place I find that Sir Edward Bellingham being Lord Deputy of Ireland in King Edward the Sixths time was the first Deputy since the Reign of King Edward the Third that by a Martial course extended the border beyond the Limits of the English Pale by beating and breaking the Moors and Connors and building the Forts of Leix and Offaly To which work Thomas Earl of Sussex Lord Deputy of Ireland in Queen Marys Reign
that the Parliament of England had with great alacrity and readiness undertaken the War and not only engaged themselves to his Majesty to send over powerful supplies both out of England and Scoâ—land but by their publick order of both Houses sent over to the Lords Justices and Printed at Dublin in the month of November fully declared their resolutions for the vigorous prosecution of the War of Ireland And that some Forces were arrived at Dublin out of England the Siege of Drogedah or Tredagh raised those bold perfidious Traitors beaten back into the North the Lords of the Pale banished by force of his Majesties Armies of their own Habitations which were all spoiled and laid waste yet I say Such was the strength of the Conspiracy and so deeply were they engaged in it as that Limrick and Gallaway did openly declare themselves for the Rebels The one by besieging the English who had betaken themselves for protection in the Castle of Limrick And the other those who had upon the like score possessed themselves of the Fort of Gallaway both being at last forced to yeild for want of timely relief by means whereof many thousands of the English were exposed to the slaughter of their barbarous Enemies in a great part of the Provinces of Connaght Leinster and Munster which otherwise might have been wholy preserved from ruine if these two Towns alone which are admirable for their strength and situation had but cheerfully opened their Gates to the destressed and firmly continued in their ancient Loyalty to the Crown of England But seeing they so wilfully acted this mad part by the powerful advice of their Popish Priests and Lawyers wherewith they did at that time mightily abound having then but a very inconsiderable number of Protestant Families to bear any sway amongst them I shall therefore conclude that next to a good Standing Army the most infallible way under God to secure both the Government and the British Planters in Ireland is to have the chief Towns and Fortresses thereof for the most part if not altogether Inhabited by Protestant Families A brief Character of the principal of which are here presented to your view and consideration in hopes that many more well worthy of notice will shortly be added to this number by such ingenious persons as are throughly acquainted with and well affected to that Country The Characters of the Chief Towns and Cities of IRELAND as they lie in each Province and first of those in the Province of Munster viz. MVNSTER WATERFORD Waterford on the River Shoure a well traded Port a Bishops See and the second City of the Kingdome of great fidelity till of late to the English since the Conquest of Ireland and for that cause endowed with many ample Priviledges First built by some Norwegian Pyrates who though they fixed it in one of the most barren parts and most foggy Aire of all the Country yet they made choice of such a safe and Commodious Site for the use of Shipping that of a Nest of Pyrates it was soon made a Receit for Merchants and suddenly grew up to great Wealth and Power And though it stands at a reasonable good distance from the main Sea yet Ships of the greatest burthen may safely saile to and ride at Anchor before the Key thereof which I presume is the handsomest of any in the Kings Dominions And for the conveniency of conveighing Commodities in smaller Vessels to several Towns in the adjacent Countries and namely Clonmell Carricke Rosse Kilkenny Carloe c. by two brave Navigable Rivers more neer Neighbours to this viz. the Noare and Barrow commonly called the three Sisters because a little below Waterford they all empty themselves in one channel into the Sea no place in Ireland can any way compare with it except Limrick This may be farther observed that this is the neerest Port and the readiest place in all Ireland to correspond with Bristol and all other Towns of Traffick upon the River Severn by a due Easterly wind from Bristol hither and so back from hence to Bristol by a due Westerly wind without any variation which necessity of various winds in the same Voyage occasions oftentimes passages at Sea to become both tedious and dangerous Kingsale Kingsale upon the Mouth of the River Bany a commodious Port opposite to the Coasts of Spain and fortified in Tirones Rebellion by a Spanish Garison under the command of Don John D' Aquila but soon recovered after the defeat of that Grand Rebel neer the Walls thereof by the valour and indefatigable industry of Charles Lord Montjoy the then Lord Deputy of this Kingdom This Town hath this peculiar property that it is the only safe and ready Port in all Ireland for our English Ships and others to victual at or refresh themselves bounding for or returning homewards from the West Indies and many other parts of the World Corke Corke by the Latines called Corcagia the principal of that County and a Bishops See well walled and fitted with a very commodious Haven consisting chiefly of one Street reaching out in length Inhabited by a civil wealthy and industrious people being now generally all English This may be farther said in praise of this place that it is like to be ere long as in good part already a very flourishing City being the Shire Town of the largest richest and best Inhabited County with English and Irish of any in Ireland And withal the only throughfare of all English Goods and Commodities as they tearm them namely rich Broad-Cloaths Stuffs and Linnen Fruits Spices c. sent most commonly this way out of England for those two remarkable Port-Towns of Limrick and Gallaway Yonghall Yonghall upon the Sea provided of a safe Road or convenient Haven it hath this peculiar that it is the most convenient place in all the South parts of Ireland from whence to transport Cattle Sheep c. to Mynhead or to any parts of the West of England Limrick Limrick the principal of that County and the fourth in estimation of all the Kingdome Situate in an Island compassed round about with the River Shannon by which means well fortified A well frequented Empory and a Bishops See Distant from the main Ocean about sixty miles but so accommodated by the River that Ships of burthen come up close to the very Walls The Castle and the Bridge pieces of great strength and beauty were of the foundation of King John exceedingly delighted with the situation This may be farther observed touching the happy situation of this place in relation to Traffick and Commerce that though by reason of some Cataracts or Rocky Falls in the River Shannon a little above Limrick the Merchants are necessitated for the space of about eight or nine miles to convey their Goods by Land as far as Killaloo but being brought thither they may be carried up along the said River by Boats of indifferent good Burthen into many parts of the
England being Holy Head twelve hours Saile with a prosperous Gale of Wind and about twenty Leagues distance from this place The first affords it an excellent conveniency for all manner of businesses to be transacted to and from this City as well by Water as Land into all parts of the Kingdome with as little charge as possibly may be The other a rare advantage for the maintenance of Traffick and Commerce with England and all other parts of the World especially with the City of London from whence upon the least notice given Merchantable Goods of all kinds are soon dispatched hither or into any other parts of this Realm as occasion requires And that with far more speed than formerly by reason of the late erecting of Post-houses in all the principal Towns and Cities of this Kingdome which accommodates all persons with the conveniency of keeping good correspondency by way of Letters and that most commonly twice a week with any even the remotest part of Ireland at the charge of eight pence or twelve pence which could not formerly be brought to pass under ten or twenty shillings and that sometimes with so slow a dispatch as gave occasion many times of no small prejudice to the parties concern'd All these conveniencies and advantages have so far contributed to the present splendor and great increase of this City as that it now may be justly conceived to be grown within this fifty or sixty years twice as large and for handsomness of Building beyond all compare of what it might any way pretend unto in any former Age. Dublin thus wholy deriving her present lustre and happiness from the late prosperous Settlement of Ireland under the English Government being but a very mean and inconsiderable Metropolis for so Noble a Kingdom during the long continued misgovernment of that Realm bares in some particulars somewhat a like resemblance with that of the City of London Which first since quitting our selves from our expensive Relation and Correspondency with the Church of Rome The declining of our unprofitable Contests with France The Reducing of Ireland to an Orderly Common-wealth And last of all by the happy Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in the Person of King James of blessed memory thereby succesfully affording us a veny fit opportunity of turning the curreâ—t of all our vast former expences both of Blood and Treasure into the honorable and profitable undertaking of a gallant Trade with both the Indies and many other parts of the World But especially by planting of already very considerable Colonies in the West-Indies hath grown since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign till this present being about an hundred and twelve years to be twice as large and much more beautiful then ever it was since the first foundation thereof being some two thousand five hundred years agoe It is therefore well observed That there is required to the Magnificence and Splendor of Cities First a Navigable River or some such easie passage by Sea which will bring thither a continual Concourse and Trade of Merchants as at Venice London Amsterdam Secondly some Staple-Manufactories and Commodities which will draw the like resort of Merchants though the conveniency of Sea or Rivers invite them not As at Newremberge in Germany a drie Town but mightily Traded Thirdly the Palace of the Prince for ubi Imperator ibi Roma where the Court is there will be a continual confluence of Nobles Gentry and Merchants and all sorts of Trades And by this means Madrid not long since a poor and beggerly Village is grown the most populous City in all Spain Fourthly the residence of the Nobility beautifieth a City with Stately and Magnificent Buildings which makes the Cities of Italy so much excel our in England their Nobles dwelling in the Cities and ours for the most part in their Country-Houses Fiftly the Seats or Tribunals of Justice on which both Advocates and Clients are to give attendance as in the Parliamentary Cities in France and in Spires in Germany Sixthly Universities and Schools of Learning to which the Youth from all parts are to make resort which hath been long the chief cause of the flourishing of Oxford Cambridge Bononia in Italy and other Cities of good Note beyond the Seas Seventhly Immunity from Tolls and Taxes most men being desirous to inhabite there where their Income will be greatest their Priviledges largest and their disbursments least So Naples Venice Florence having been dessolated by Plagues were again suddenly re-peopled by granting large Immunities to all comers in All which Requisites are as I conceive inherent and inseparable in and to the above mentioned two Cities to wit London and Dublin The City of Dublin in times past for the due Administration of Civil Government had a Provost for the Chief Magistrate But in the year of Mans Redemption 1409. King Henry the Fourth granted them liberty to Elect every year a Mayor and two Bayliffs and that the Mayor should have a guilt Sword carried before him for ever And Edward the Sixth to heap more honour upon this place changed the two Bayliffs afterwards into Sheriffs And of late our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the Second honored this City with a Lord Mayor So that there is nothing wanting here that may serve to make the State of a City most magnificent and flourishing FINIS Books Printed for Christopher Wilkinson and Thomas Burrell AErius Redivivus Or the History of the Presbyterians Containing the Beginnings Progress and Successes of that Active Sect. Their Oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government Their Innovations in the Church and their Embroilments of the Kingdoms and States of Christendom in the persuit of their Designs from the year 1536. to the year 1647. By Peter Heylin D. D. in Folio Price bound 10 s. 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he termeth infinitam vim Britannicarum dictionum that the Britains first peopled this Land And although of a long time by reason of troubles and alterations the speech grew wholly out of use yet afterwards in success of time it was revived Secondly the British and Irish oft Matched together so that there grew among them great alliance and affinity to the fartherance of the Language Thirdly the first Conquerors in Henry the Seconds time that brake the Ice into this Land were Welch-men whose Names and Seats to this day are fresh in memory As for instance in the Dioces of Leighlin there is a Town called Villa Wallicorum the Town of Welch men Careg and Craig in the British or Welch Tongue is a Stone or Rock and of the Britains Carreggferggus Carreggmont-Griffiin Carregg in Shurie Carrigguaspin and Craigwading have their Names Likewise Llis in British is a Court or Palace of that in Ireland you have Lismore Lisfenyn Lislofty Lismakery Glan and Glyn are British words of them have you Glangibbon Glandoboy Glanreynold Glynburry Glyndelory Glynmoloura c. Inis an Island is British and Irish of which kind are Inissirocan Inishoven Inisdiok Inisuag Iniscorthie and the like Rath a Moat or round Trench whereof there are many in Ireland made by the Danes if Beda had not said that it was a Saxon word I would have said it had been British and how many names of places are compounded with it in Ireland were too long to reherse I will here give Stainhurst leave to conclude Omnes Insulae locos lucos Wallici nominis gloria implevit the renown of the Welch name saith he hath filled all the ways and woods of the Island The Irish are now generally bred both to read and speak the English Tongue The Irish are commonly of a large and handsome proportion of body clear of Skin and Hue. Their Women are well Favoured clear Coloured fair handed big and large suffered from their infancy to grow at Will nothing curious of their feature and proportion of body The Common sort of People in Ireland do feed generally upon Milk Dyet Butter Curds and Whey New bread made of Oat meal Beans Barly and Pease and sometimes of Wheat upon Festivals their bread being baked every day against the fire Most of their Drink is Butter-milk and Whey They feed much also upon Parsnips Potatoes and Water-cresses and in those Countreys bordering on the Sea upon Sea weeds as Dullusck Slugane but seldome eat Flesh The middle sott of the Irish Gentry differ not much from the same kind of Dyet save only that they oftner feed upon Flesh eat better Bread and drink Beer more frequently They are all of them when opportunity offers it self too much inclined to drink Beer and Vsquebagh to an excess And both Men and Women of all sorts extreamly addicted to take Tobacco in a most abundant manner The best sort of Irish do imitate the English both in Dyet and Apparel but not without a palpable difference most commonly in the mode of their Entertainment Atâ—â—â—e Trouses and Mantles were till King James and King Charles his Reign the general habit of the Irish their Mantles serving many times as a fit house for an Out-Law a meet bed for a Rebel and an apt cloak for a Thief But now the Men wear their cloaths altogether after the English fashion having converted their Mantles into Cloaks with which kind of wear they are much affected Formerly they used no Hats but Caps made of Irish Frize called Cappeenes and even now the middle sort of Gentry seldome wear Bands unless they go abroad amongst Strangers The Common sort of People both Men and Women wear no English Shoos but things called Irish Brogues thin soled somewhat like our Poumps and sowed altogether with Leather The ordinary sort ef Irish Women wear a kind of loose Gowns without stiffening with Petticoats and Wascoats without any Bodys having linnen Kerchers about their heads instead of head-cloaths and never using hats but covering their heads with their Mantles to save themselves from rain or the heat of the Sun The Irish Gentry are musically disposed Recreations therefore many of them play singular well upon the Irish-Harp they affect also to play at Tables The Common sort meet oftentimes in great numbers in plain Meadows or Ground to recreate themselves at a play called Bandy with Balls and crooked Sticks much after the manner of our play at Stoe-ball they are much given to Dancing after their Countrey way and the men to play upon the Jews-Harp and at Cards but for no great value The Irish Names Irish Names of Baptism are generally Teig Patrick Turlough Murrogh Mortoch Donoch Loughlin Dermot c. with many other Names made use of there as well as here in England as namely John Edmund Edward Thomas William James c. Sirnames For the better breaking of the Heads and Septs of the Irish which was one of their greatest strength and motive to lead them to Rebellion there was a law made in Ireland in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth by which it was commanded that whereas all men then used to be called by the name of their Septs according to the several Nations and had no Sirnames at all that from thenceforth each one should take upon himself a several Sirname either of his trade and faculty or of some quality of his body or mind or the place where he dwelt so as every one should be distinguished from the other or from the most part whereby they should not only not depend upon the head of their Sept as then they did but also in time learn quite to forget the Irish Nation And herewithall would I also wish all the O's and Mac's which the Heads of Septs have taken to their names to be utterly forbidden and extinguished For that the same being an Ordinance as some say first made by O Brien for for the strengthning of the Irish the abrogating thereof will as much infeeble them The custome of prefixing the vowel O to many of the chief Irish Sirnames began in the Reign of Brien Boria the son of Kennethy King of Ireland As for Mac in Sirnames it beareth no other signification then Fitz doth amongst the French and from them the English and Ap with the Welch And although it were more anciently used then the other yet it varied according to the Fathers Name and became not so soon fully settled in families CHAP. III. Of the Government THe Government Government of Ireland by Vice-Roys or Deputies were from the first entrance of the English under Henry the Second till King Edward the Third's days called Justicers of Ireland and Justicers and Keepers of the Land of Ireland then Lieutenants and their Vicegerent Deputies The Vice-Roys or Deputies of Ireland diversly named at sundry times Afterward they were at the Prince his pleasure tearmed somtimes Deputies somtimes Justicers and sometimes Lieutenants which is a
held here for the Province of Connaght And being also the greatest Through-fare from Lynster to Connaght and so from thence to Dublin will in all probability cause it in time to become a flourishing place though now but beginning to revive from its late dessolation to its pristine lustre In the Province of Ulster Both situated on the Sea side Carlingford and Dundalke and within the County of Louth likely to be thriving places by reason of their convenient situation for Traffick and the brave planted Countries with English thereabouts Knockefergus Knockefergus the chief of Antrim more proper Rockefergus and in that sence called Carigfergus by the Irish from one of the Kings of the Irish-Scots who there suffered Shipwrack Seated upon a large and capacious Bay which giveth it both a safe and Commodious Port as well by natural situation as the works of Art very strongly fortified by reason of the Neighbourhood of the Scots in Cantire from which little distant London-Derry London-Derry a Colony of Londoners the best built Town of any in the North of Ireland Situate in a Peninsula of forty Acres on the one side environed a great part of it with a River and on the other side impassable by reason of the Soyle alwaies deep and moorish This City being thus strongly situated by Nature and made stronger by Art will with the rest of the chief Towns of this Province soon become very considerable in point of Wealth and Power by reason of the speedy planting of this Northern part of the Kingdome by the great confluence of the Neighbouring Scots with many others who yeerly repair hither out of England and Wales upon the same score which benefit and advantage was timely experimented by the Officers of the Army who have been conceived to be more fortunate especially at first by receiving their Lots in this Province though computed the meanest and so accordingly rated in their Quit-Rents than they who got their respective proportions of Land for their Arrears in the other two Provinces of Lynster and Munster which fell in the main upon the first settlement much short of mens expectations as to this particular In the Province of Lynster Weishford or Wexford Wexford situate on the mouth of the River Slane The first of all the Towns in Ireland which received a Colony of English This Town holds a very good correspondency by way of Traffick with the City of Bristol and hath before it within a Sandy Bar lying between it and the Sea a fair Pool wherein most commonly are taken yearly great store of Herrings which are Transported beyond Sea to the great benefit of this place The River is Navigable by small Boats up to Ynish-corfey about six miles above this Town where there is a good quantity of Iron made which is carryed down this River to be dispersed into several parts of Ireland c. Kilkenny Kilkenny on the River Newre the chief Seat of the Bishop of Ossery and the fairest Town of all the Islands So called quasi Cella Cannici the Cell or Monastery of Canninus a man of great renown in those days for Piety in these parts of the Country This City besides that is situated in a very brave and well inhabited Country is also honored with two Noble Seats of the Duke of Ormond in and neer it that is to say the Castle of Kilkenny in it and Donmore House neer it Ross Ross once populous well Traded and of large circumference but of late very ruinous nothing almost remaining but the Walls which were built by Isabel the daughter of Richard Strongbow Earl of Pembroke the fortunate Conqueror of this Island for King Henry the Second now beginning to be pretty well inhabited and well deserving to be farther improved by the advance of Manufactury and Commerce as being situated upon a brave Navigable River where Ships of four or five hundred Tun may safely ride before the Key of it As yet destitute of any considerable Trade by reason of its too neer neighborhood to the City of Waterford But when the Country thereabouts comes to be better inhabited with English then it may be well hoped this Town will become a place of good consideration and consequence Caterlough commonly but corruptly Carlough Carlough having in it a strong Castle and being the chief of that County is now from a very mean beginning having been wholy destroyed by the late Wars grown to be a very fine Market Town increasing both in Wealth and good Buildings Situated neer a pleasant River Navigable by Boats from Ross hither placed in a fertile and well inhabited Countrey thirty miles from Dublin and in a very convenient Stage thither from the greatest part of Munster and a good part of the Province of Leinster which doth and will hereafter much conduce to its enlargement Tredagh Tredagh more properly Droghedagh situate on the River Boine on the edge of Vlster to which Province belongs so much of the Town as lieth on the North side of that River A very faire and populous City as well by Art as Nature very strongly fortified and furnished with a large and Commodious Haven It took the name Droghedah from the Bridge there built upon the River for the conveniency of passage as the word signifieth in that Language and therefore called Pontena by some Latine Writers Dublin Dublin supposed to be the Eblana of Ptolomie by the Irish called Balacleigh because being seated in a fenny and moorish Soil it was built on Piles as the word doth signifie in that Language Situate at or neer the mouth of the River Liffe which affordeth it a commodious Haven but that the entrances thereof are many times encumbred with heaps of Sand. The City very Rich and Populous as being the Metropolis of all the Island the Seat of the Lord Deputy an Arch-bishops See and an University besides the benefit redounding from the Courts of Justice In those respects well fortified against all emergencies and adorned with many goodly Buildings both private and publick The Principal of which are the Castle wherein the Lord Deputy resideth built by Henry Loundres once once Arch-Bishop here a Colledge founded by Queen Elizabeth to the honor and by the name of the Blessed Trinity The Cathedral Church dedicated to Saint Patrick the Apostle of the Irish Nation a fair Collegiate Church called Christ-Church besides thirteen others destinated to Parochial Meetings Being destroyed almost to nothing in the Danish War it was re-edified by Harald sirnamed Harfarger King of the Norwegians then Masters of most part of the Island and after the subjection of it to the Crown of England was peopled with a Colonie of Bristol men This may be farther observed that though Dublin is not seated in the best and most convenient place that is in the middle yet it is seated in the second best that is over against the middle of Ireland and directly opposite to the neerest passage into