at once inriched and civilized it would hardly be believed it were the same Spot of Earth Nay Over-flown and Moorish Grounds were reduced to the bettering of the Soyl and Air. The Purchasers who brought the Kingdom to this flourishing Condition fly to your Majesty for Succour offering not only their Estates and Fortunes but even their Lives to any Legal Trial within this your Majesties Kingdom being ready to submit their Persons and Estates to any established Judicature where if it shall be found that they enjoy any thing without Legal Title or done any thing that may forfeit what they have Purchased they will sit down and most willingly acquiesce in the Judgments But to have their Purchases made void their Lands and Improvements taken from them their Securities and Assurances for Money Lent declar'd Null and Void by a Law made ex post facto is what was never practised in any Kingdom or Countrey If the Bill now design'd to be made a Law had been attempted within two three four or five years after the Court for the execution of these Acts was ended the Purchasers would not have laid out their Estates in acquiring of Lands or in Building or Improving on them Thousands who had sold small Estates and Free-holds in England and brought the Price of them to Purchase or Plant here wou'd have stayed at home And your Majesties Revenue with that of the Nobility and Gentry had never come to the Height it did If your Majesty please to consider upon what Grounds and Assurances the Purchasers of Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom proceed you will soon conclude that never any proceeded upon securer Grounds The Acts of xvij and xviij of King Charles your Father of blessed Memory the First takes notice that there was a Rebellion begun in this Kingdom on the 23d of October 1641 And so doth a Bill once read in the House of Lords whoever looks into the Royal Martyrs Discourse upon that Occasion will see with what an abhorrence he laments it and that he had once thoughts of coming over in Person to suppress it Those Acts promise Satisfaction out of Forfeited Lands to such as would advance Money for reducing these disturbers of the publick Peace unto their Duty The Invitation was his late Majesties your Royal Brothers Letters from Breda some few weeks before his Restauration which hapned the 29th of May 1660 And within six Months after came forth his Majesties most Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of this Kingdom This may it please your Majesty is the Basis and Foundation of the Settlement and was some years after Enacted and made a Law by two several Acts of Parliament It is true that the Usurping Powers in the Year 1653. having by the permission of the Almighty as a just Judgment on us for our Sins prevailed here did dispose and set out the Estates of Catholicks unto Adventurers and Soldiers and in a year or two after transplanted out Catholick Free-holders for no other Reason but their being so in Connought where Lands were set out unto them under divers Qualifications which they and their Heirs or those deriving under them as Purchasers enjoy'd and still do enjoy under the Security of the before mentioned Acts of Parliament and Declaration His Majesties gracious Declaration of the 30th of November 1660. which I call the Foundation of the Settlement was before it was concluded on under the Consideration of that great Prince and the Lords of his Council of England where all Persons concerned for the Proprietors as well old as new were heard whoever reads will find the many Difficulties which he and his Council met with from the different and several Pretenders what Consideration was had and Care taken to reconcile the jarring Interests and to accommodate and settle as well as was possible the Mass and Body of Subjects here It was some years after before the Act for the Execution of his Majesties most Gracious Declaration became a Law It was neer two years upon the Anvil It was not a Law that past in few days or sub silentio It was first according to the then Course of passing Laws here framed by the Chief Governour and Council of this Kingdom by the Advice and with the Assistance of all the Judges and of his Majesties Council Learned in the Law and then transmitted into England to be further consider'd of by his Majesty and Lords of his Council there where the Counsel at Law and Agents of all Pretenders to the Propriety of Lands in this Kingdom were heard and that Act commonly called the Act of Settlement approved of and retransmitted under the Seal of England to receive the Royal Assent which it did after having passed both Houses of Parliament The Innocent Proprietors being restored pursuant to thiâ— Act and some Difficulties appearing as to the further execution of it Another Act passed commonly called the Act of Explanation which went the same Course and under the same Scrutiny It is confessed that though they are two Acts it was by the same Parliament who were chosen according to the ancient Course of Chusing Parliaments But if any miscarriage were in bringing that Parliament together or the procuring the aforesaid Acts of Parliament to pass which we can in no wise admit and the less for that your Majesties Revenue was granted and settled by the same Parliament and many good and wholsom Laws therein Enacted Yet it is manifest that nothing of that kind ought to affect the Plain and honest Purchaser who for great and valuable Considerations acquired Lands under the Security aforesaid and expended the remainder of his Means in Building Improving and Planting on them and that for the following Reasons First The Purchaser advising with his Counsel how to lay out or secure his Money that it may not lie dead not only to his but the publick detriment tells him that he is offer'd a Purchase of Lands in Fee or desired by his Neighbours to accommodate him with Money upon the Security of Judgment or Statute Staple and upon the enquiry into the Title he finds a good and Secure Estate as firm in Law as two Acts of Parliament in force in this Kingdom can make it and in many Cases Letters Patents upon a Commission of Grace for remedying of defective Titles he finds Possession both of many years gone along with this Title several descents past and possibly that the Lands have been purchased and passed through the hands of divers Purchasers He resorts to the Records where he meets with Fines and Common Recoveries the great Assurance known to the Laws of England Under which by the Blessing of God we live and tells him there is no scruple nor difficulty of Purchasing under this Title since he hath Security under two Acts of Parliament Certificates and Letters Patents Fines and Recoveries and that no Law of force in this Kingdom can stir much less shake this Title How is it possible to imagine that the
Successors to give them relief in a Case of so great moment and general concern as this is As for the general Reprizal mentioned to be made them out of the Rebels Estate which must not be conceived to give any colour to this manner of proceeding and ought to be equal to the Estate which the Proprietors shall be outed of that will be very uncertain for it must be known who the Rebels are and what their Lands amount to since it may be probably concluded that there are many of your Subjects now in England no way concerned in the Rebellion and would have ere this attended your Majesty here if they had not been hindred from coming by duress and Imbargo and many other legal and justifiable excuses too long for this present Paper and withal that where any of them are seised of any new Estates so much must be restored to the old Proprietors and what is also subject to their Settlements and other Incumbrances After all this it is in the power of your Majesty to prevent the total ruine of so many of your Subjects as have been Purchasers and Improvers in this Kingdom by prescribing more moderate ways than depriving them of the whole of what they have legally and industriously acquired and that Committees of both Houses may hear and enquire whether any medium may be found out betwixt the Extreams for the accommodating as near as may be the Purchaser and the old Proprietor so that if there because of Complaint it may not arise from a total disappointment of either Party This is a little of what may be said on this occasion but the hast of those who drew on this Bill will allow no further time at present It is proposed that his Majesty will hear Council on this occasion No. 23. The Lord Bishop of Meath's Speech in Parliament June the 4th 1689. Spoken on the Bill of Repeal of the Act of Settlement My Lords YOur Lordships have now under yoâ—â— Consideration a Bill of great Weight and Importance for the future Prosperity or Ruine of the King and Kingdom depends upon it A Bill that unsettles a former Foundation upon which this Kingdom 's Peace and Flourishing was superstructed and Designs to erect another in its stead the Success whereof is dubious and uncertain I shall therefore humbly crave your Leave to represent my Thoughts candidly and impartially upon it And that so much the rather because I am here summoned by the Kings Writ to give his Majesty my best Advice for his own Service and the good of the Nation My Lords In every Law two things are to be consider'd First that it be just and doth no Man wrong Secondly and that it be pro bono publico And I am humbly of Opinion that this Bill is faulty in both these Respects and therefore ought not to pass this House It is unjust to turn men out of their Possessions and Estates without any Fault or Demerit To deprive Widows of their Jointures and Children of their Portions when they have done nothing to forfeit them But the Injustice will rise much higher if we consider it with a respect to Purchasers who have laid out all their Substance upon Estates deriv'd under the Acts that are now design'd to be Repeal'd What have they done to make them Delinquents except it be the laying out their Money on the Publick Faith of the Nation declared in two Acts of Parliament and on the Publick Faith of his Majesties Royal Brother expressed in his Letters Patents Their Case is yet harder If we consider the great Improvements they have made upon their Purchases which by this Bill they are like to lose without any Reprizal for them And if it be reasonable to restore the Old Proprietors to their Estates 't is enough for them to enjoy them in the same plight and condition that they left them But I see no Reason why they should have them in a better Condition or enjoy the Benefit of other mens Labours and Expences to the utter ruine of them and their Families Here Mercy should take place as well as Justice for the Purchasers are the Objects of them both Two things I am sensible may be reply'd to this and I am willing to consider them both First That if it be unjust to turn them out It is as unjust not to restore the Old Proprietor who hath been so long kept out of his Estate Secondly That there is no injury done to the present Possessor because he is to be repriz'd for his Losses As to the first of these I shall not at present meddle with the Reasons why they lost their Estates nor touch upon the Grounds and Occasions of their forfeiting their Interests in them being sensible that neither the time nor the place will admit a Discourse of this nature I shall therefore take it for granted that they were unjustly put out that it is just and reasonable that they should be restored but then it must be granted that it is unjust to turn out the present Purchaser and Possessor What then is to be done in this Case where the Justice or the Injury is alike on both sides If we restore the Old Proprietor we injure the present Possessor if we do do not we injure the Old Proprietor My Lords It is my humble Opinion which I submit to your Lordships better Judgments that we are to consider in this Case who hath most Justice on his side and incline the Ballance that way If it lies on the Old Proprietors side let him have it If not let the present Possessor enjoy it Now it appears to me that the Purchaser hath more Justice on his side than the Old Proprietor For he has both Law and Equity on his side he hath the Law on his side by two Acts of Parliament and the Kings Letters Patents and he hath the Equity by his Purchase Money whereas the Proprietor hath the Law against him and nothing but Equity to pretend to And I hope your Lordships will never think it reasonable to relieve a bare Equitable Right against a Purchaser that hath both Law and Equity If you do I am confident it is the first President of this kind As for the Reprizals I hear the Name of them in the Bill but I find nothing agreeable to the nature of them There are certain Conditions agreed on all hands to make up the Nature of a Reprizal None of which are like to be observed or kept here I shall name some of them and leave it to your Lordships Consideration how far they are like to be performed with the present Purchasers It is necessary to a Reprizal that it be as good at least if not in some respects better than the thing I am to part with That I my self be Judge whether it be better or worse That I keep what I have till I am reprized If my Neighbour comes to me and tells me that he hath a mind to my Horse
two hot headed Fellows amongst them but they universally talked at this rate And it was the common and encouraging Speech of the Earl of Tyrconnel from the very beginning of his Government and particularly when he took leave of several Privy Councellors and Officers at his going to wait on King James at Chester August 1687 I have put the Sword into your Hands And then in his usual Stile prayed God to damn them all if ever they parted with it again 9. 'T is further to be remembred that their Predecessors were so eager and earnest to recover this Power over their Vassals and to establish their Religion that they attempted to gain their Designs by that bloody Rebellion and Massacre in the year 1641. An Attempt no less desperate and unlikely to succeed than wicked and when their own Power appeared insufficient to gain their ends their supreme Council at Killkenny sent Commissioners with Instructions to offer up the Kingdom and themselves to the Pope the King of Spain or any other Foreign Popish Prince that would accept the Offer This was very well known to King James he was at the Council-Board when the original Instructions signed by order of the Supreme Council that then managed the Affairs of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland were produced before King Charles II and his Council in England in the year 1662 empowering their Agents to this effect and he might very well conclude that they who were willing to submit themselves to a Foreign Power to be rid of the Laws of England would heartily join with him to destroy them 10. Whosoever will consider Circumstances and lay things together will be apt to believe what is averred by some that King James before he declared his Religion had a desire and resolution to destroy the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms and make himself absolute if ever he came to the Crown after the manner of France and that the great motive of declaring himself a Roman Catholick at first wàs to make sure of that Party there are several things that rightly weighed will make this probable 1. If we consider that no Party amongst us was likely to be so wicked as to have bought his favour by joining with him in such a design except the Papists 2. Amongst Papists he chose out those and preferred them which he thought would be most Cordial to him and serve him most effectually in that design There can be no other reason given why he should be fonder of the Irish than the English Papists but that he thought the one more likely to go through with him than the other The English Papists are as Zealous in their Religion as the Irish and generally more honest Men yet the King rather chose to Cherish and Employ the latter The only imaginable Reason of his doing so was because the English were not so ready to give up the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom to the Prerogative as the Irish and since King James's kindness was distributed according to the readiness he found in Men to betray their Country rather than according to their Zeal for their Religion have we not reason to conclude the first to be the true motive of his kindness rather than the latter 3. Those Protestants or pretended Protestants that cordially and heartily espoused this design and served him effectually to oppress and ruin their fellow Subjects kept his favour pretty well and were Employed by him notwithstanding their being reputed Protestants a certain sign that the Reason he discharged Protestants from their Trusts and Offices was chiefly because he thought they would not serve him as he expressed it without reserve or contribute heartily to inslave themselves and their Posterity 4. He often declared and more especially in his Act for Liberty of Conscience made in his Parliament in Ireland that it was his constant Resolution that there should be no other Test or distinction amongst his Subjects but that of Loyalty by which all knew that he meant an absolute submission in every thing to his Will for he accounted every body disloyal that disputed or demurred at any of his Commands 5. As soon as the Irish began to dispute his Orders and stand on the Laws he took it heinously from them and they lost much of his favour he spake hardly of them and wished at any rate to be rid of them when the House of Commons crost some proposal of his he was very much out of humor and declared that all Commons were the same as he found by them when they quarrelled with the Earl of Melford his Secretary of State he complained that they used him basely and unkindly and that he never would have come amongst them if he had thought that they would not let him choose his own Servants when they would not suffer him to Dispense with their Act of Attainder or Pardon any Attained in it with a non obstante he is said to have fallen into so violent a Passion that his Nose fell a bleeding He was very angry with some of his Council when they demurred at his Levying twenty thousand pounds per month without Act of Parliament and said he could do nothing if he could not do that From whence we see that he reckoned all his Power nothing except he could impose Taxes as the King of France doth and that this lay at the bottom of all his Designs Nay it was commonly reported by the Roman Catholicks that King James boasted and pleased himself mightily that he had made himself Absolute which none of his Predecessors could do and had a more numerous Army than any of them and consequently was a more glorious King If then his chiefest design was to oppress our Laws and Liberties no body can doubt but he had Instruments whose Genius and Temper inclined them to assist him as long as they were like to go sharers with him in the Purchase SECT IX V. The Officers employed by King James were most of them unqualified by Law and consequently fit Instruments to destroy the Laws 1. MEN may live very comfortably in a Nation and yet be excluded from the Power or Government of it therefore it is no injustice to exclude a certain Rank of Men that want such Qualifications as may give the Common-Wealth confidence in them from intermedling in the Government Of this Nature we have had Laws in all Countries in the World and whatever be pretended they are very often both just and necessary nor is it reasonable that the King should have a power to dispense with such since they are often made on purpose to secure the Common-Wealth against his encroachments Of this Nature are our Laws that disable Papists from all Employments Civil and Military by an Act of Parliament made in the Reign of Henry VIII no Man is to Execute any Employment till he has taken the Oath of Supremacy This is repeated and confirmed by another in the second of Elizabeth And here it is
imposed on but contributed nothing to relieve us as we found to our Costs and the Protestant Judges and Burgesses finding that they were made Cyphers and Properties of themselves declined at last to Act in their Stations 5. Next to Chancery is the Kings Bench where Subjects are tryed for their Lives and Fortunes upon this was set Mr. Thomas Nugent made afterwards Baron of Riverstown the Son of one who had been Earl of Westmeath but had lost his Honor and Estate for being an Actor in the late Rebellion begun in 1641. This Mr. Nugent who had never been taken notice of at the Bar but for a more than ordinary Brogue on his Tongue as they call it and ignorance in the Law was pitched on by King James to judg whether the Outlawries against his Father and his fellow Rebels should be reversed and whether the Settlement of Ireland founded on those Outlawries should stand good It was a Demonstration to us what the King intended when he assigned us such a Chief Justice and indeed the Gentleman did not fail to answer the expectation conceived of him He reversed the Outlawries as fast as they came before him notwithstanding a Statute made in point against it and in all the Causes that ever came before him wherein the Plaintiffs and Defendants were Papist and Protestant I could not learn from the most diligent Observer that ever he gave Sentence for the latter Nay it is Shrewdly suspected that he went sharer in some considerable Causes and not only appeared for them on the Bench but also secretly incouraged and fomented them Before him a Deed should be judged Forged or not Forged according as it served a Popish Interest And a Protestant needed no more to gain a Cause against another Protestant than to turn Papist which manifestly appear'd in Sir Gregory Birns Case who merely by turning Papist as is noted before in the midst of his Suit against Captain Robert Fitz Gerald got a Deed condemned of Forgery and recovered five or six hundred pounds per annum notwithstanding Mr. Daniel Birn his Father some years before for pretending it was Forged had been Sued in an Action of the Case and forced to pay two hundred pound damages and though there appeared in Court a Bond under Birns Hand obliging him to pay two hundred pound to the Witnesses in case they should prove Captain Fitz Geralds Deed to be Forged yet the proof was accepted But these were common things in this Court and the mischief had been much greater had not a Writ of Error lyen from his Court to the Kings Bench in England In one thing more he signalized himself it was by committing and prosecuting people for feigned Offences and Treasons and by countenancing and encouraging and after discovery protecting false Witnesses against Protestants Many were brought in danger of their Lives by his contrivances and when the accused were acquitted on Tryal by a palpable Demonstration that the Witnesses were Perjured he declared that they neither could nor should be Prosecuted for they only sware for the King and he believed the accused persons guilty though it could not be proved In short he shewed all the venom and rigour against them he could he was set up to destroy them and he went as far in it as his power could reach his weakness not his inclination hindred him from carrying it farther It is not imaginable by any that have not seen and heard him how furiously and partially he was bent against Protestants it may be guessed how he stood inclined to them by the great Hand he had in promoting the Bill of Attainder and the Bill to vest all Absentees Goods in the King whereby much the greater part of the Protestants of Ireland lost all their Estates Personal and Real of which we shall speak more hereafter He was assisted on the Bench by Sir Bryan ô Neal as puny Judg a weak Man that had nothing to recommend him but Venom and Zeal being otherwise disabled both in his Reason and Body Only he had the faculty to do what he was bid especially when it suited with his own inveteracy against Englishmen and Protestants This Character may seem rigid but as many as knew him will not think it exceeds 6. The next Court for business though not for Precedence is the Exchequer in which all Actions wherein the Kings Revenue or any other Mans Estate is concerned may be tryed From this Court no Writ of Error lies in England so they were free here from that Check which was so troublesom to them in other Courts Upon this consideration it was that the whole business of the Kingdom so far as it concerned them was brought into this Court though not so proper for it Here were brought all Actions of Trespasses and Ejectments concerning Estates all Quo Warranto's against Corporations and Scire Facias's about Offices and they thought themselves concerned to have an able Man and one throughly Cordial to their Interest for the Chief Judg in it for if he had wanted Sense or Law though willing as they found by Experience in some of the other Courts he might have been unable to serve them in all Cases They therefore fixed on Mr. Stephen Rice afterward Sir Stephen who had formerly been noted for a Rook and Gamester at the Inns of Court He was to give him his due a Man of the best Sense amongst them well enough versed in the Law but most signal for his inveteracy against the Protestant Interest and Settlement of Ireland having been often heard to say before he was a Judg that he would drive a Coach and Six Horses through the Act of Settlement upon which both depended And before that Act was Repealed in their pretended Parliament he declared on the Bench that it was against Natural Equity and could not oblige This Man did King James choose for Chief Baron and for the final determination of all the Suits that lay between Protestants and Papists either in Common-Law or Equity And it is no hard matter to conjecture what success the Protestants met with in their Suits before a Judg that declared as he did that they should have no favour but Summum jus that is the utmost rigour of the Law Immediately his Court was filled with Popish Plaintiffs every one that had a forged Deed or a false Witness met with Favour and Countenance from him and he knowing that they could not bring his Sentences into England to be re-examined there acted as a Man that feared no after Account or Reckoning It was some considerable time before he would allow a Writ of Error into the Exchequer Chamber though that was in effect to themselves and when it was allowed it was to little purpose before such Judges It was before him all the Charters of the Kingdom were damned and that in a Term or two in such a manner that proved him a Man of Dispatch though not of Justice If he had been left alone it was
and intended more if their Power had continued 11. The Deputy-Mayor of Dublin Edmund Reily issued out an Order dated Sept. 27. 1689. for regulating the Rates of Provisions Country Goods and Manufactories to be sold in the City of Dublin in which he took care to set a very low Rate on such Goods as were then most in the hands of Protestants the Rate at which he ordered them to be sold was not one half of what they generally yielded When therefore any Papist had a mind to put off his Brass Mony he went to some Protestant Neighbor whom he knew to have a quantity of these Goods offered him the Mayor's Rate in Brass and carried away the Goods by Force This was practised even by the Lady Tyrconnel and several of their Grandees But the case was otherwise with Papists they sold at what Rate they pleased not minding the Proclamation of which Alderman Reily who issued it was an Instance He had a quantity of Salt in his hands and sold it at excessive Rates above what he compelled Protestants to part with theirs Complaint was made against him and he was indicted at the Tholsel which is the City Court that very Term in which the Proclamation came out upon the Traverse the Petty-Jury found him guilty and the Court Fin'd him in an 100 l. but all this was only a Blind for the Sheriffs set him at Liberty on his Parole after he was committed to them He brought his Writ of Error returnable into the King's-Bench but the Record was never remov'd nor the Fine levied And the Consequence was that neither he nor any Papist took notice of the Order and yet kept it in its full Force against Protestants 12. They saw therefore that it was resolved to leave them nothing that was easily to be found for Sir Thomas Hacket had made a Proposal to Seize Feather-Beds and other Furniture of Houses alledging that they would be good Commodities in France upon which the Protestants thought it the best way to exchange what Brass Mony they had into Silver and Gold and gave 2 l. 10 s. 3 l. 4 l. and at last 5 l. for a Guiney but even so 't was thought too beneficial for them and to stop it they procured a Proclamation dated June 15. 1690. whereby it is made Death to give above 1 l. 18 s. for a Guiney or for a Louis d'Or above 1 l. 10 s. c. The Papists needed not fear a Proclamation or the Penalty of it they had Interest enough to avoid it and therefore still bought up Gold at what rate they pleased but if any Protestant had been found Transgressing he must have expected the utmost Severity 13. And thus the case stood when His Majesty's Victory at the Boyn delivered us and let any one judge whether we had reason to be pleased with the Success and gratefully receive him that came to restore to us not only our Goods and Fortunes but the very Necessaries of Life and what Obligations we could have of Fidelity or Allegiance to King James who treated us plainly as Prisoners of War and as Enemies not Subjects and by designing and endeavoring our Ruin declared in effect he would govern us no longer but more expresly at his going away freely allowed us to shift for our selves and advised those about him both at the Boyn when he quitted the Field and the next Morning in Council at the Castle of Dublin to make the best Terms they could and quietly submit to the Conqueror who he said was a Merciful Prince SECT XII King James destroyed the Real as well as the Personal Estates of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland 1. THere remains yet to be spoken of a third part of the Property belonging to Protestants I mean their Real Estates and care was effectually taken to divest them of these as well as of their Personal Fortunes Their Estates of Inheritance were either acquir'd before the Year 1641. and were call'd Old Interest or else since that time and pass'd by the name of New Interest The greater part of Estates belonging to Protestants were of this last sort and they stood on this ground The Papists of Ireland as I have noted before had raised a most Horrid Rebellion against the King and Barbarously Murthered some Hundred Thousands of Protestants in Cold Blood in 1641. for which most of their Gentry were indicted and outlawed by due course of Law and consequently their Estates forfeited The English after a War of twelve Years reduced them with vast Expence of Blood and Treasure and according to an Act of Parliament past 17 Car. I. at Westminster the forfeited Estates were to be disposed of When King Charles II. was restored he restored many of the Papists and after two years Deliberation and the full hearing of all Parties before himself and Council in England he pass'd an Act in a Parliament held at Dublin commonly call'd The Act of Settlement whereby a general Settlement was made of the Kingdom and Commissioners appointed to hear and determine every Man's Claim After this upon some Doubts that arose another Act pass'd 17 Car. II. commonly call'd The Act of Explanation which made a further and final Settlement Every Protestant made his Claim before the Commissioners of Claims and was forced to prosecute it at vast Expences After this he got a Certificate from those Commissioners of what appear'd to belong to him for Arrears or Debentures and having retrenched a third of what was actually set out to him and in his Possession and paid one Years full improv'd value of what remain'd every Man pass'd a Patent for it a certain considerable yearly Rent called Quit-rent being reserved to the King out of every Acre these two Acts of Parliament at Dublin with that and other Acts at Westminster together with a Certificate from the Court of Claims and Letters Patents from the King pursuant to the Certificate from the Commissioners made up the Title which two thirds of the Protestants in Ireland had to their Estates Those Papists that had forfeited in 1641. were commonly known by the Name of Old Proprietors who notwithstanding their Outlawries and Forfeitures and the Acts of Parliament that were against them still kept up a kind of Claim to their forfeited Estates they were still suggesting new Scruples and Doubts and either disturbing the Protestant Possessors with Suits in which by Letters from Court they obtained Favour from some of the Judges or else threatning them with an after-reckoning The Protestants earnestly desired a New Parliament which might settle things beyond any Doubt and cut the Papists off from their Hopes and Expectations but King James when Duke of York had so great Interest with his Brother King Charles II. that he kept off a Parliament against all the Sollicitations that could be made for it for Twenty four Years to the no small Damage of the Kingdom on other accounts as well as this and he so encouraged those forfeiting Proprietors and
his Government over them 6. The Case of the Purchasers and Improvers in Ireland seem'd the hardest the Land forfeited by the Rebellion in 1641. was set out to those that had been Adventurers and Soldiers in that War and many of these had sold them at Twelve or Fifteen years Purchase the Purchasers had built fair Houses and Villages on them inclos'd Deer-Parks planted Orchards and Gardens and laid out vast Sums in these and other Improvements it seem'd hard to turn them out without consideration to try therefore whether any thing would make King James relent they endeavour'd to see what he would do for these poor Men how their Case was prest and represented to King James may be judged by a Paper given him by the Lord Granard and drawn up by the Chief Justice Keating with the Approbation of other Protestants 't is in the Appendix King James read it and made no other answer to it but That he would not do evil that good might come of it the meaning of which Words as then apply'd is not easily understood It has been a common Question put to the Gentlemen of Ireland by some that neither know them nor their Affairs What have you lost But sure whosoever knows the extent of Ireland and the value of Land in it will see that the Interest of the English Protestants ruined by King James since he came to the Crown is of greater value than the Estates of all that favour his Cause in England and Scotland and I suppose it would put them out of conceit with him or any other King that should take away but one half of their Estates from them SECT XIII Eighthly King James brought the Lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland into imminent danger 1. I Suppose from the former Sections it is sufficiently apparent what Invasions King James made on the Liberties and Fortunes of his Protestant Subjects there remained to them only their Lives and these as will appear from this Section were put in imminent danger by him many were lost and the rest escap'd with the greatest hazard When King James came into Ireland it was certainly his Interest to exercise his Clemency towards his Protestant Subjects and he knew it to be so and therefore in his Declaration which he sent privately into England he made large Professions of his tenderness towards them and boasted how much their safety had been his care every body expected a Proclamation for a General Pardon and Indemnity should have been sent before him and that â—e would have put an effectual stop to the illegal Prosecutions against their Lives and to the Robberies of their Fortunes that every where were going on at his coming but on the contrary he rather pusht on both and not content with the Laws that already were in force which Partial Judges and Juries wrâ—sted to destroy them he made new snares for them by Acts of his pretended Parliament and by several private declarations whereby not only he but his inferior Officers took on them to dispose of the Lives of Protestants 2. It is not reasonable to charge his Majesty with the private Murther committed on Men in their Houses which were many up and down the Kingdom several even in the City of Dublin Only thus far in some degree he may be thought responsible for them he knew very well with what barbarous Murthers the Papists of Ireland had been charg'd in the Rebellion of 1641 he knew what inveterate hatred they carried towards the Protestants and how many Tories and Robbers constantly disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom and yet without any necessity at all he threw himself upon these People he encouraged them he Armed them he gave Commissions even to those that had been Tories and guilty of Murthers and therefore cannot altogether be excused from the Irregularities committed by them especially when there was no search made after or Prosecution of the Murthers as it happened in the case of Colonel Murry of Westmeath Brother in law to my Lord Granard an old Gentleman who had serv'd King Charles the first and second and suffered considerably for his Loyalty he was way-laid and shot dead as he rode to his own House under King James's Protection and with some marks as he imagined of his Favour Yet no enquiry was made after it There were many such private Murthers but I do not think it necessary to insist on them I shall confine my self to such as are of a more publick Nature which gave us just reasons to fear that the Government had a design upon our Lives 3. Such were first encouraging Witnesses to swear us into feigned Plots and Conspiracies of these there were many set up in the Kingdom almost every County had one set up in it and many were put into Prison and indicted for high Treason as Captain Phillips and Mr. Bowen in the County oâ— Westmeath and several others in other places some of which I have before mentioned and when the perjuries of the Witnesses came to be plainly discovered they yet were encouraged and protected from any Legal prosecution Of this nature a Conspiracy was framing against one Mr. William Spike and if it had taken effect it would have reached to a great many more The contrivance was thus one Dennis Connor had a mind to a small Employment which Mr Spike held in the Castle he had petitioned for it but Spike by the Interest of my Lord Powis tho a Protestant kept his place being found diligent in it Connor resolv'd to try another experiment to get him removed he framed a Letter as from one in Inniskilling directed to Spike in which the writer thanks him for his Intelligence and refers to a method agreed on for seizing the Castle of Dublin on a certain Day The Letter to make the thing more credible abuses King James in very ill terms Connor drops this Letter in the Castle where Spike came every Day knowing that as soon as it was found Spike would be seized and then he might manage the Plot as he pleased but his Contrivance was spoiled for the Sentinel saw him drop the Paper and procured him immediately to be seized he was examined before the Chief Justice and I think before King James also why he wrote such a wicked Letter he said it was for the Kings service to remove Spike whom he believed to be a Rogue and who being a Protestant would betray the King Spike Prosecuted him in the Kings-Bench but after all that could be done the Jury brought Connor in not Guilty pretending that it did not appear that this was the very Letter dropt by Connor tho he had confest it before the King and the Lord Cheif Justice and tho it was proved and owned to be his hand and a rough draft of it found with him and the Sentinel swore he dropt a Letter which he delivered to the Officer and the Officer swore that was the Letter delivered by the Sentinel to him tho
this but rather than depend on the Faith of King James or his Party chose to suffer the utmost Extremity The Breach of Articles by my Lord Galmoy to Mr. Dixey a Young Gentleman Son to the Dean of Kilmore and Mr. Charlton was yet more barbarous the Lord Galmoy went down in March 168 to the County of Cavan and surpriz'd these two Gentlemen he had a Party of the Army with him and took up his Quarters at Belturbet His two Prisoners were to be exchanged for one Captain Mac Gwire then Prisoner at Crum a small Castle and the only place that stood out against King James in that County the owner of the Castle was one Captain Creighton who permitted Captain Mac Gwire to go to Belturbet on his parol to be a true Prisoner Mac Gwire so negotiated the matter that he return'd with a Summons and proposals as well for Inniskilling as the Castle of Crum and he suppos'd them not averse to a Surrender on good terms but the Lord Galmoy immagined that these Proposals would make the People of Crum secure and therefore that very Night without waiting for any answer he march'd to the Castle before they were aware and had almost surpriz'd them but the resolution of those within prevented the success of his perfidious design and forc'd him back without being able to do any other mischeif than the venting his Anger on his two Prisoners whom after his return to Belturbet he contrary to his Faith and Engagement hang'd on a Sign-Post and suffer'd their Bodies to lie unburied and be barbarously abused This was Captain Mac Gwires own account of the matter the consequence of which falshood was that those People would never hear of any terms afterwards and upon trial found much more safety in their Arms than in the Promises of King James or of any of his Party having baffled and cut off several considerable Bodies of his Forces sent against them and taken many and considerable prisoners whom yet they used with all Humanity as it were to reproach the barbarous and perfidious usage which their Prisoners met with but it was avowed and profest by the generality of King James's Men that they did not look on themselves to be obliged to treat the Rebels of the North as they call'd them as fair Enemies but as Traitors and infamous Persons whom they might destroy at any rate In the County of Longford some Protestants got into the Castle of Kenaught belonging to Sir Thomas Newcomen his Lady and those with her surrendred it on Articles January 13. 1689 to Brigadier Nugent slain afterwards by the Inniskillin Men at Cavan one of the Articles was for the Goods belonging to those in the House and their Friends notwithstanding which Nugent seiz'd and took away several parcels of Goods and several that were in the House as soon as they came out were plundered and stript naked Another Article was that the House of Kenaught should not be Burnt nor Injured notwithstanding which it was burnt to the Ground by Colonel Cohannaught Mac Gwire In short it was observ'd that amongst all the Articles into which King James or his Officers entred they never kept any to Protestants 5 A fifth Invasion on our Lives was that both King James and his inferiour Officers took on them to dispose of them by private Orders and Proclamations the penalty of violating which was often present Death thus the Proclamation that required us to bring in our Arms was on the Penalty of being left to the discretion of the Soldiers which was to expose our Lives and Fortunes to the Mercy of our greatest Enemies By a Proclamation dated July 20th 1689 all Protestants are required to bring in their Swords and other Arms on penalty of being dealt with as Rebels and Traitors The Proclamation dated June 15. 1690 forbad any to change a Guiney c. for more than 36 s. in Brass under pain of death and Colonel Lutterel published a Declaration forbidding more than five Protestants to assemble together or to be out of their Lodgings after Ten of the Clock at Night on the same Penalty the Declaration was of his own Penning and to gratifie the Curious I have put it in the Appendix the order to the Ministers to number the Protestants was likewise Penned by him and in it he declared that every one who did not enter in their Names by a certain Day should be treated as a Spy or Enemy nay sometimes he took on him to make Death the penalty of his verbal orders without a Declaration published Thus he commanded the Fellows and Scholars of the Colledge of Dublin upon pain of Death not to meet together or converse above Two or Three at a time and he would needs hang Mr. Piercy the Merchant as I shewed before without any notice given for saying that he was unwilling to part with his Goods In April 1690. The Quarter-Sessions for the County of Dublin were held at Kilmainham near Dublin Colonel Lutterel Governour of Dublin was on the Bench and in a Speech declared that King James wanted Wheat and other Grain for his Horses and that he had given the Countrey Farmers Three Weeks to bring in their Corn and had waited for their complyance during that time that he resolv'd to wait further til the Saturday after and if they did not bring it in by that time he would compel them that it was the King's will they should do it and he the King's Servant who would see his Masters Commands Executed and with a grear Oath swore he would hang that Man before his own Door that did not obey and bring in his Corn according to order Of this Speech the whole Bench and Country were Witnesses May the 7. 1690. the Lord Mayor thought fit to reinforce a former Proclamation about the rate of Goods in the Market but Colonel Lutterell did not think the Mayors Order sufficient and therefore published an Order of his own by beat of Drum declaring that whoever transgrest the Lord Mayors Order either by buying or selling should be hanged before their own doors About the same time Brigadier Sarsfield Published an Order requiring all Protestants on the borders to leave their Houses and retire Ten Miles from the Frontiers on pain of Death These were the Laws King James's Council and Ministers prescribed us by their Proclamations and Orders and these were the Acts of his Generals and Governours whom he made Guardians of the Lives and Fortunes of Protestants and yet they all came short of the inhumanity of his Parliament 6. It has been usual in Parliaments to attaint notorious Rebels and Traitors who were too strong for the Law or who being kill'd in their Rebellion could not be tryed or condemned by the ordinary course of it and when one or two in a King's Reign were thus attainted upon the most evident Proof and notoriety of the Fact it was counted a great matter even in the late Irish Rebellion none were attainted
Clergy were established in Ireland by as firm Laws as the Properties of the Laity The King by his Coronation Oath was obliged to maintain them Their Tithes and Benefices were their Free-holds and their Priviledges and Jurisdiction were settled and confirmed to them by the known and current Laws of the Kingdom according to which the King was obliged to govern them and whereof he was the Guardian The Clergy had beside all this peculiar Obligations on him and a Title to his Protection for they had espous'd his Interest most cordially Whilst Duke of York they used their utmost diligence to perswade the People to submit to Gods Providence and be content with his Succession to the Crown in case his Brother dyed before him and they prest that point so far that many of their People were dissatisfied with them and told them often with heat and concern what reward they must expect for their pains if ever he came to the Throne they saw their danger but could not imagine any man would be so unpolitick and ungrateful as to destroy such as had brought him to the Throne and could only keep him safe in it and therefore they ventured all to serve him and many of them by their Zeal for him lost the Affections of their People and their Interest with them It was chiefly due to their diligence and care that his Title from the beginning met not the least opposition in Ireland tho the Army in it were intirely Protestant Had they and the rest of the Protestants in this Kingdom been in any measure disloyally principled in the time of Monmouth and Argile's Rebellion they might easily have made an Insurrection more dangerous than both those and the least Mutiny or revolt amongst them could hardly have failed to have ruined King James's Affairs at that critical time but they were so far from attempting any such thing that they were as ready and as zealous to assist him as his very Guards at Whitehall which he himself could not but acknowledge how he rewarded them I have already shewn and how grateful he was to the Clergy that thus principled them will appear by the Sequel 4. First therefore when his Majesty came to the Crown he declared that he would protect the Church of England in her Government and Priviledges under which we suppos'd the Church of Ireland to be concluded And accordingly the Clergy and People of this Kingdom return'd his Majesty their Address of Thanks though they very well knew that this was no more than was due to them by the Laws and by the King's Coronation Oath in particular But they were soon told by the Roman Catholicks that his Majesty did not intend to include Ireland in that Declaration and that it must be a Catholick Kingdom as they term'd it Every discerning Protestant soon found by the method they saw his Majesty take that he in earnest intended to settle Popery in England as well as Ireland but he thought himself so sure of effecting it suddenly in Ireland that his Instruments made no scruple to declare their intentions nay they were so hasty to ruin our Religion that they did not so much as consult their own Safety but even before it was either seasonable or safe in the opinion of the wiser sort amongst themselves they began openly to apply all their Arts and Engines to effect it 1. By hindring the Succession and Supplies of Clergy-men 2. By taking away their maintenance 3. By weakning and then invading their Jurisdiction 4. By seizing on their Churches and hindring their Religious Assemblies 5. By violence against their Persons And 6. By slandering and misrepresenting them and their Principles SECT XV. 1. King James in order to destroy the Protestant Religion hindred the Education and Succession of Clergy-men 1. THE Good and Support of Religion doth very much depend on the educating and principling Youth in Schools and Universities and the Law had taken special care that these should be in the hands of English men and Protestants and the better to secure them the Nomination of the Schoolmasters in every Diocess except four is by a particular Act of Parliament lodged in the Lord Lieutenant or Chief Governour for the time being The Clergy of each Diocess by the Act are obliged to maintain a Schoolmaster and his Qualifications are described in the Act. But when the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government he took no notice of those Laws but when any School became void he either left it unsupplyed or put a Papist into it And in the mean time great care was taken to discourage such Protestant Schoolmasters as remain'd and to set up Popish Schools in opposition to them Thus they dealt with the School of Killkenny founded and endowed by the charitable Piety of the late Duke of Ormond they set up a Jesuits School in the Town and procured them a Charter for a Colledge there they drove away the Protestant Schoolmaster Doctor Hinton who had officiated in it with great industry and success and seiz'd on the School-house commonly call'd the Colledge and converted it to an Hospital for their Soldiers Thus in a few years they would not have left one publick School in the hands of a Protestant for the Education of their Youth 2. There is but one University in Ireland and there is a Clause in the Statutes thereof that gives the King Power to dispense with the said Statutes it was founded by Queen Elizabeth and certainly never designed by her or her Successors to be converted against the fundamental Design of its Institution into a Seminary of Popery yet advantage was taken of this Clause though we had reason to believe it would have been done if there had been no such Clause to put in Popish Fellows as soon as the Fellowships became vacant one Doyle a Convert was the first who was named a Person of so exceedingly lewd and vicious a Conversation as was fully prov'd before the Lord Tyrconnell and of so little Sence or Learning that it seemed impossible that any Government should have countenanc'd such a Man yet this did not much weigh with his Excellency and therefore the Colledge insisted upon another Point the Dispensation that Doyle had gotten through his ignorance was not for his purpose for it required in express Terms that he should take the Oath of a Fellow and that Oath includes in it the Oath of Supremacy the Provost tendered it to him but he durst not take it for fear of disobliging his own Party upon this they refused to admit him he insists on his Claim and complains to the Lord Deputy upon a hearing Justice Nugent Baron Rice and the Attorny General supplyed the Place of Advocates for him but the Case was so plain that even Justice Nugent had not the confidence to deny the insufficiency of his Dispensation and therefore they ordered him to get another But to be even with the Colledge for demurring on the King's Mandate they stopt
beating and injuring Protestants ibid. 12. In disarming them p. 67 13. The Dispensing Power of more mischief still than ill Administration First Only to be allowed in Cases of Necessity ibid. 14. Secondly In such Cases the People have as much right to it as the King Instance in the Sheriff of Warwickshire from Dr. Sanderson p. 68 15. Thirdly The wickedness either in King or People in pretending Necessity where there is none p. 69 16. King James's employing Popish Officers was such a Dispensation ibid. 17. And no Necessity for it unless such as was Criminal p. 70 18. King James dispensed with all when it was against Protestants p. 71 Sect. 4. Thirdly King James's dealing with Civil Offices and the Privy Council p. 72 1. Several outed notwithstanding Patents ibid. 2. Act of Parliament for voyding Patents Irish hereby made Keepâ—rs of Records which before they had corrupted when they could get to them p. 73 3. Revenue Officers changed for Roman Catholicks though to the Prejudice of the Revenue p. 74 4. Sheriffs and Justices of Peace from the Scum of the People ibid. 5. Privy-Councellors all in effect Papists p. 76 Sect. 5. Fourthly King James's dealing with Corporations p. 77 1. The Peoples security in these Kingdoms is the choice of Representatives in Parliament To preserve this Papists excluded from Corporations in Ireland Protestants had made great Concessions to the King by their New Rules for Corporations The King not satisfied with this but would have all p. 77 78 2. Rice and Nagle's managing of Quo Warranto's a horrid Abuse of the Kings Prerogative and the Law p. 78 79 3. Other methods of destroying Charters p. 80 4. Particular Corporations in Dublin how ordered ibid. 5. Voyding Charters led to voyding Parents for Estates ibid. 6. Corporations by the New Charters made absolute Slaves to the Kings Will. First by Consequence no free Parliament could be Returned Secondly Protestants could not serve in the Corporations p. 80 81 7. Protestants hereby driven from the Kingdom ibid. Sect. 6. Fifthly King James's Destruction of the Trade p. 82 1. Trade to be destroyed that the King might have his Will of his Subjects Poor People willing to serve for little in an Army as in France ibid. 2. In order to ruin the Protestants who were the chief Traders Driven hereby out of the Kingdom p. 83 3. This ruined a great many that depended on them ibid. 4. The Irish in employ who had the ready Mony gave it only to Papist Tradesmen p. 84 5. Exactions of the Revenue-Officers great discouragement to Merchants and Traders p. 85 6. Protestant Shoopkeepers quitted for fear of being forced to Trust ibid. 7. Transportation of Wooll connived at by Lord Tirconnell to ruin our woollen Trade p. 86 8. Roman Catholick principal Traders ruined also by King James by the Act of Repeal p. 87 Sect. 7. Sixthly King James's Destruction of our Liberty p. 88 1. No general Pardon at King James's Accession to the Crown Protestants hereby questioned for things in the Popish Plot on false Evidences ibid. 2. Protestants sworn into Plots and seditious Words Instance 1. In County Meath 2. In County Tipperary p. 88 89 3. New Magistrates in Corporations plagued Protestants p. 90 4. New Levies and Rapparee's imprisoned those that resisted their Robberies Instance in Mr. Brice of Wicklow Maxwel and Levis Queens County Sir Laurence Parsons p. 91 5. General imprisonment of Protestants from Midsummer 1689. to Christmas No Habeas Corpus's allowed Protestants of Drogheda barbarously used at the Siege and of the County of Cork by imprisonments p. 92 93 6. Hard Usage of Protestants in Prisons Powder placed to blow them up Leak's Evidence against the Prisoners in Dublin defeated by an Accident p. 93 7. K. James aware of all the ill Treatment of Protestants informed at large by the Bishop of Limrick All Protestants confined by his Proclamation to their Parishes p. 94 8. Arts to conceal this in England Intollerable staying in Ireland Necessary to close in with King William p. 95 Sect. 8. Seventhly King James's destruction of our Estates 1. By disarming the Protestants by Lord Tirconnell p. 97 1. Government dissolved that does not preserve Property ibid. 2. The Irish very low at the Prince of Oranges's Invasion Would easily have been brought to submit Protestants able to have mastered them Lord Mountjoy opposed seizing Tirconnell p. 97 98 3. Protestants resolved not to be the Aggressors were inclined to submit to King James till they found his destructive designs Monsieur d' Avaux complained of the Measures put on King James by Tirconnell p. 98 99 4. Tirconnell's Arts and Lyes to gain time pretending to be ready to submit to King William till he form'd his new Levies Lord Chief Justice Keatings Letters and Observations on it p. 99 5. New Levies necessary to be subsisted on Plunder This gave credit to the Letter to Lord Mount Alexander Decemb. 6. 1688. p. 101 6. And made Derry shut its Gates against the Earl of Antrims Regiment p. 102 7. Obliged to do thus by their Foundation p. 103 8. Provoked to it by the unjust taking away their Charter p. 104 9. This made also the Enniskiliners refuse two Companies sent by Lord Tirconnell and the Northern Gentlemen to enter into an Association for their own defence ibid. 10. Lord Tirconnell hastened to run them into blood before King James's coming p. 106 11. Justification of their declaring for their present Majesties ibid. 12. Their defence of themselves of great benefit to the Protestant Cause and almost miraculous p. 107 13. Lord Tirconnell's Lyes and Wheedles to Lord Mountjoy to send him to France p. 109 14. Lord Mountjoy's Reasons to accept it Articles granted to him by Tirconnell for the Protestants not kept p. 110 15. Lord Tirconnell proceeds to disarm the Protestants Manner of doing it and taking away their Horses A perfect Dragooning p. 111 16. Proclamation issued after it had been done by verbal Orders p. 113 17. The Arms for the most part embezled by the Soldiers who took them This had like to have occasioned a worse Dragooning prevented by the Bishop of Meath p. 113 114 18. The manner of taking up and embezling Horses p. 114 19. Miserable condition of the Protestants being disarmed amongst their Irish Enemies Protestants had the highest Legal Property in their Arms. The Government by taking them away must design their ruin p. 115 20. No Reason for disarming us but to make us a Prey p. 116 21. It was necessary in King James's Circumstances but the Necessity occasioned by his own fault ibid. Sect. 9. Secondly Lord Tirconnell's Attempts on the Protestants Personal Fortunes p. 117 1. Which he destroyed by encouraging Popish Tenants against their Protestant Landlords and swearing them into Plots Gentlemen forced to live for some time before the Turn on their Stocks p. 117 118 2. Forced into England with little ready Mony Many burnt out of their Houses in the Country Many robbed and some murthered
p. 118 119 3. Protestants impoverished by vexatious Law Suits p. 119 4. By Delays and the Treachery of Popish Council p. 120 5. By defending their Charters and being forced to take out new ones ibid. 6. By free Quarters Inkeepers and Houskeepers ruined p. 121 7. By the burden of Priests and Fryars p. 122 Sect. 10. Thirdly King James's own Attempts on the same p. 123 1. Quartering on private Houses contrary to the Articles to Lord Mountjoy Most Soldiers had many Quarters Mischievous in their Quarters Instance in Brown who robbed his Landlord and swore Treason against him p. 123 124 2. Plundering and killing the Protestants Stock Vast numbers destroyed and stolen p. 125 3. Irish encouraged to do so no Redress upon Complaints p 126 4. Nugent avowed it Rapparees Necessary Evils Stop put to this Trade when they began to rob one another p. 127 Sect. 11. Fourthly King James's further Methods to compleat the ruin of the Protestants Personal Fortunes p. 128 1. Taking away Absentees Goods Bill for it in Parliament ibid. Methods to drain those that staid of their ready Mony p. 129 1. By Licences for Ships to go for England ibid. 2. By pretended Liberty of Transporting Goods p. 130 3. Licences for Persons to go for England ibid. 4. By Protections granted and voided ibid. 5. By seizing Mony and Plate upon Informations ibid. 6. Boiselot's Dragooning of Cork ibid. 7. Act for the Subsidy at 20000 l. per Month on Lands ibid. 2. Second Subsidy of 20000 l. per Month on Personal Estates ibid. Debates in Council about this and Manner of ordering it ibid. 3. Tax for the Militia p. 132 4. Tax for fortifying the Avenues of Dublin ibid. 5. Tax for quartering Soldiers call'd Bed-Mony p. 133 6. Brass Mony Illegal Void the necessity of Parliaments ibid. Of what Metal and how much coined viz. 965375 l. in one year p. 134 Forced to be taken in all Payments ibid. Fitton forced it on Trustees for Orphans p. 135 7. Lutterell forced it on pain of Death by the Provost-Martial ibid. On Smith Leeson Bennet Widow Chapman her barbarous usage ibid. Papists not forced to receive it from Protestants p 136 8. Seizing of Protestants Wooll Hides Tallow p. 137 Peircy to have bin hanged for saying he was not willing to part with them p. 138 Protestants not permitted to Export them Their Imports seized ibid. 9. Seizing of Corn and Mault The Treason of having Bisket Giles Meigh p. 139 Difficult for Protestants to get Corn or Bread this before Harvest would have forced out all their Silver ibid. 10. Seizing Wool as soon as shorn p. 140 Searching Houses for Copper and Brass for the Mint and taking private Accompts of what else the Protestants had in in their Houses ibid. 11. Lord Mayors rating of Merchant Goods Forced on the Protestants but disregarded by the Papists instance in the very Lord Mayor himself ibid. 12. Proclamation to Rate Silver and Gold in Exchange for Brass on pain of death p. 141 13. Inference from the whole ibid. Sect. 12. Fifthly King James's destruction of the Protestants Real Estates p. 142 1. Explication of old and new Interest and account of the Acts of Settlement and of the Tenure by which the Protestants held their Estates ibid. The Papists outed of their Estates by the late Rebellion still kept up a claim to them and made Jointures and Settlements of them which were confirmed in King James's Parliament p. 143 2. King James at his first coming to the Crown gave out he would preserve the Acts of Settlement Lord Clarendon Lord Chancellor Porter and the Judges in Circuit directed to declare it ibid. The Papists knew it was only colour p. 144 Nagle's Coventry Letter first openly broke the matter October 26. 1686. ibid. Tirconnell at his coming Governour leaves it out of the Proclamation ibid. Nugent and Rice sent to England to concert the methods of Repealing it but concealed for the present their success p. 145 At their return prepared for a Parliament ibid. For which Matters had been fitted by the Quo Warranto's and reversal of Outlawries against the Irish Peers ibid. 3. Papists had not patience to wait for their Estates till a Parliament but went to work by counterfeit Deeds and by old Injunctions of the Court of Claims p. 146 4. Matters ripe for a Parliament but put off till the Parliament which was to sit in England November 1688. should take off the Penal Laws c. p. 147 5. at King James's arrival in Ireland it was against his Interest to call a Parliament First because of loss of time the Kingdom not reduced ibid. 6. Secondly which was King James's Allegation for not calling one in England this reflected on his sincerity p. 148 7. Thirdly It was the way to disoblige all that were inclined to him in England and Scotland ibid. 8. Fourthly It disobliged a great many of the Irish themselves ibid. 9. Fifthly It rendered all not under his power desperate p. 149 10. Against all Reason and Interest he called one being resolved to Dye a Martyr or Establish Popery ibid. 11. This Parliament fitted for our ruin both in respect of the King and of both Houses ibid. 13. Method of filling the House of Lords with Popish Peers Only four or five Protestant Temporal and four Spiritual Lords ibid. Several Acts past not by consent of these last though it be pretended in their Preambles p. 150 14. House of Commons how filled Manner of Electing Members Only two Protestants that could be called such in it p. 151 15. The whole House a slave to the Kings Will. No Protestations allowed p. 153 16. How much Reason we as well as England had to dread Papists in a Parliament p. 154 17. First Account of the Act of Repeal ibid. Secondly Of the Act of Attainder p. 155 Thirdly Clause in it of holding Correspondence since Aug. 1. 1688. ibid. Fourthly Clause of cutting off Remainders p. 156 Fifthly No Protestant might hope to be reprized by the Act of Repeal ibid. Sixthly Clause in the Act of Attainder against the Kings Pardoning which was the Reason this Act was kept so secret Copy procured by Mr. Coghlan Upon account of Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon Sollicited by Lord Seaforth King James in a Passion with Sir Richard Nagle for betraying his Prerogative by this Clause against Pardoning p. 157 158 159 18. Observations First King James could not dispense when the Irish pleased ibid. Secondly Near three thousand Protestants condemned for not coming in by a day and yet the Act never published but kept secret ibid. Thirdly Folly of attainted Persons to think of ever being Pardoned if King James be restored since it is not in his power p. 160 Fourthly Papists got into their Estates before the time set in the Act of Repeal ibid. 19. Means how the Papists got Possessions p. 161 First Popish Tenants attorn'd to their old Popish Landlords ibid. Secondly Advantages taken of Clauses in the Act of Repeal ibid.
Thirdly From Orders about Garrisoning Mansion-Houses Sending the Protestant Owners to the Goal who must never have expected either their Houses or Lives if King James had prevailed ibid. Estates of Absentees disposed of and promised to Papists p. 162 20. Objection That King James did not know the Consequence of Repealing the Acts of Settlement ibid. Answer First King James understood them better than any and held ten thousand pounds a year by them when Duke of York ibid. Secondly King James would not hear the Protestants plead at the Bar against the Repeal p. 163 Thirdly Bishop of Meath in a Speech in the House set forth the ill Consequences at large ibid. Fourthly The Protestants opposed it from Point to Point ibid. Fifthly Protestants were resolved to use their utmost that the ill intents of their Adversaries might appear the more p. 164 Sixthly Lord chief Justice Keating's Paper given to King James in behalf of Purchasers rejected ibid. 21. Protestants lost more in Ireland than all that favour King James's Cause in England are worth p. 165 Sect. 13. Eighthly The danger into which King James brought the lives of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland ibid. 1. At King James's Coming no General Pardon though it had been his Interest in respect of England ibid. 2. Is not chargeable with particular Murders further than by arming such Men as would be guilty of them p. 166 3. The Governments Design upon our Lives ibid. First by feigned Plots and Protecting the Perjured Witnesses Instance in Spikes Case The Dumb Friar p. 167 Secondly By wresting Facts to Treason Nugent declar'd Protestants having Arms to be so p. 168 Thirdly By violating Articles Mr. Brown of Cork Town of Bandon Earl of Inchiquin Captain Boyle Sir Thomas Southwell and his Party Lord Mountjoy's Soldiers Fort of Culmore King James's approach to Derry Captain Dixy Kenaght Castle p. 169 170 Fourthly By violating Protections p. 171 Protestants of Down p. 171 Protestants brought before Derry by General Rosen Bishop of Meath applyed to King James about it King James excused Rosen p. 173 174 Captain Barton of Carrick Mac Cross p. 175 Fifthly By private Orders and Proclamations with the penalty of Death Several Instances p. 178 Sixthly By the Act of Attainder Abstract of it Archbishops 2 Duke 1 Temporal Lords 63 Ladies 22 Bishops 7 Knights 85 Clergymen 83 Esquires and Gentlemen 2182 2445 p. 179 180 Not equalled by the Proscription at Rome Great part Attainted on Common Fame p. 182 Observations on the Act ibid. 1. Leaves no room for the King to Pardon ibid. 2. The Act concealed Out of the Power of an English Parliament to Repeal it by the Act for cutting off Ireland from England p. 183 3. The hast in drawing it up ibid. 4. Many left out particularly the Collegians and how ibid. 5. Applications in behalf of Protestants made their Case worse p. 184 6. Allowing of time to prove Innocency a meer Collusion ibid. 1. None knew what time was given ibid. 2. None knew what they would call Innocency Instance Desmineer and Ginnery ibid. 3. The Embargo on this side would not let them know on the other side 4. The Embargo on the other side would not let them come hither 5. To have come would have been an unwise Venture p. 177 4. Objection That few Protestants lost their Lives p. 178 Answer 1. When it is known how many have perished they will not appear few ibid. 2. The Irish Papists would not venture at much Murthering till they were past an after Reckoning they feared such Cruelty would be revenged on Roman Catholicks in England ibid. 3. Protestants were cautious not to provoke them and were true to one another p. 179 4. We dont know what would have been done with Attainted Persons ibid. 5. Protestants if Obnoxious absconded or escaped ibid. 6. The Support of King James's Army depended on the Protestants p. 179 Scotch Officers that came here wondered to find how Protestants were used having heard so much the contrary at home p. 180 The same given out in England Pity but those who believed and forwarded it had been sent hither ibid. The Irish doing what they did in their Circumstances what would they have done if left to their swing ibid. Sect. 14. Ninthly The method King James took to destroy our Religion p. 181 1. The Attempts against our Lives and Fortunes no sudden thing but the result of a long Design for which Tirconnel had 20000 l. per annum ibid. 2. King James pretended Liberty of Conscience but not to be expected from a Roman Catholick ibid. 3. The Laws and Coronation Oath secured our Religion The Clergy had merited from King James by opposing the Exclusion and disobliged their People p. 182 4. At his coming to the Crown the Roman Catholicks declared that his Promises to the Church were not intended for Ireland p. 183 Sect. 15. First By taking away our Schools and Universities p. 184 1. Lord Tirconnell put the Schools contrary to Law into the hands of Papists ibid. 2. And would have put in Popish Fellows into the College ibid. 3. Stopt the College Pension of 388 l. per annum from Easter 1688. turned out the Fellows and Students seized on the Library and Furniture p 193 4. Forbid three of them on pain of Death not to meet together p. 194 5. King James did not fill up vacant Bishopricks and Livings in his Gift ibid. 6. And allowed nothing for supplying the Cures p. 195 7. All the Bishops and Livings in the Kingdom would soon have come into the Kings hands p. 196 8. This not the effect of our Constitution the same in Popish Countries Thirty five Bishopricks void in France in 1688. King James's Ungratefulness to the Protestant Clergy ibid. Sect. 16. Secondly By taking away the Maintenance of the Clergy p. 197 1. Book-Mony denyed by the Papists from King James's coming to the Crown ibid. 2. Priests put in for Tythes Hardly recovered by Protestants p. 198 3. An Act of their Parliament applied Papists Tythes to the Priests ibid. 4. And Protestants Tythes too when the Priests had the Benefices ibid. 5. The Priests forc'd into Possession of Glebes where there were any p. 199 6. Protestant Clergy little better for the Tythes left to them Protestants had little Tythings left Priests by Dragoons seized what there was never wanted Pretences ibid. 7. House-Mony in Corporations taken away by their Parliament Pleaded against before the House of Lords but in vain p. 200 8. The same took away Ulster Table of Tythes p. 201 9. Duties payable to the King out of Livings were exacted wholly from the Protestant Incumbents though they had nothing left to them of their Livings their Persons seized and sent to Goal ibid. Collonel Moore Clerk of the First Fruits imprisoned because he would not be severe against them p. 202 Sect. 17. Thirdly By taking away the Jurisdiction of the Protestant Church ibid. 1. The Churches Right by Prescription to Jurisdiction ibid. 2. Act
of their Parliament destroyed this Jurisdiction by exempting all that please to be Dissenters p. 203 3. In most Diocesses the Bishops Dead or Attainted ibid. 4. They encouraged the most Refractory Dissenters Quakers against the Church p. 204 5. Likewise leud and debauched Converts ibid. 6. The Kings Courts hindred Bishops Proceedings against debauched Clergymen Instance in Ross and the Bishop of Killmore ibid. 7. King James appointed Chancellors Gordon a Papist in Dublin King James asserted a Power over his Protestant though not over his Roman Catholick Clergy A gross breach of Trust and provoking Temptation to his People p. 205 206 8. Papists encouraged Debauchery and had rather have us of no Religion than Protestants p. 206 Sect. 18. Fourthly By taking away their Churches p. 208 1. Priests declared they would have our Churches Act of their Parliament gave them to them with the Livings as they fell ibid. 2. At Duke Schonberg's landing they set the Rabble to deface them Instance in Trim and other Rudenesses p. 209 3. The Churches seized in Dublin Feb. 24. 1688. to put Arms in September 6. 1689. to search for Arms. Barbarities used in them In October and November the Churches seized throughout the Kingdom ibid. 4. By the Officers or Magistrates of the Army Christ Church Dublin seized p. 210 5. Protestants Complain and press to King James the Act for Liberty of Conscience Are referred by him to the Law ibid. 6. The injustice of this p. 211 7. For a colour to England and Scotland King James issues a Proclamation against seizing Churches which served only to hasten the doing of it ibid. 8. Priests slighted the Proclamation p. 212 9. Applications made to the King for Relief ibid. 10. On behalf of Waterford and Wexford King James Orders Restitution but is refused to be obeyed by the Mayors and Officers ibid. 11. On new Applications from the Protestants he refers Waterford Petition to the Earl of Tyrone Governor of Waterford who calls their Church a place of strength and turns it into a Garrison The Mayor of Wexford turned out but the Church never restored p. 213 12. When King James would have kept his word to us it was not in his Power by means of his Clergy ibid. 13. Act for Liberty of Conscience provides not against Disturbers of Assemblies p. 214 14. Many Disorders committed by their Soldiers in our Churches ibid. 15. Christ Church Dublin shut up September 6. Seized October 27. September 13. all Protestants are forbid to assemble July 13. 1689. all Protestants confined to their Parishes though two or three Parishes have but one Church June 30. more than five Protestants forbid to meet on pain of Death Had King James succeeded at the Boyne we should never have had our Churches again Liberty of Conscience brought to this p. 215 216 Sect. 19. Fifthly By encouraging Converts and ill Treatment of the Protestant Clergy p. 216 1. Protestant Wives severely treated by their Husbands Servants by their Masters Tenants by their Landords ibid. 2. Those that turned escaped Robberies c. p. 217 3. Protestant Clergy sure to be Plundered Bishops of Laughlin and Waterford ibid. 4. Without Horses in the Country and afronted in the Streets of Dublin p. 218 5. Dr. Foy's Treatment for resuting Mr. Hall Dr. King 's in his own Church Mr. Knight's by the Mayor of Scarborough c. ibid. 6. Oaths tendered them and upon their refusal imprisoned Hindred from visiting their Sick by Priests p. 219 7. Forced the Ministers to go about to take the number of their Parishoners p. 220 Sect. 20. Sixthly By Misrepresentations of them and their Principles p. 221 1 2. Priests told ignorant People that our Church allowed the King might oblige all his Subjects to be of his Faith ibid. 3. From the Doctrine of Non-Resistance they told us the King might use us as the Grand Seignior or the French King does his Subjects ibid. 4. King James warned the young Mr. Cecills against our Bishops as ill Men and all false to him p. 222 5. Yalden's weekly Abhorrences Scandalous falshood of Dr. King and Dr. Foy ibid. 6. Defence upon the whole of desiring and promoting King William to rescue us p. 224 7. From the lawfulness of the Grecians to desire or accept the like from a Christian Army ibid. Chap. IV. That there remained no prospect of Deliverance for us but from their present Majesties p. 225 1. There remained no defence for us from the Laws or King James ibid. 2. Unreasonable to trust to a new Miracle ibid. 3. Our Adversaries scoft us with Preaching Patience as Julian did the Christians ibid. 4 Mad at their Prey being rescued by his present Majesty p. 226 CHAP. V. A short Account of those Protestants who left the Kingdom and of those that stayed 228 Sect. 1. Concerning those who went away ibid. 1. Reason of this Section ibid. 2. No Law against Subjects Transporting themselves into the English Dominions ibid. 3. The Danger of staying and no prospect of doing good by their stay in Ireland 229 4. No prospect of being able to subsist in Ireland ibid. 5. The Reason of Clergy Mens going 230 6. The going away of so many of all sorts could not be without sufficient cause p. 231 7. Nor from a sudden and panick fear because it continued to the last p. 232 Sect. 2. Concerning those that stayed p. 233 1. Distribution of those that stayed into four sorts ibid. 2. First The meaner People either could not get away or were left in charge with the Concerns of those that went ibid. 3. Secondly The Gentlemen dreaded to beg or starve in England ibid. 4. Were willing to secure what they had if they could p. 234 5. Were desirous to Protect their poor Dependants ibid. 6. Were useful in interceding for and relieving many Distrest p. 235 7. In Counselling and advising inferior Protestants ibid. 8. Thirdly Those that had Employments their stay of great importance in preserving Records c. p. 236 9. Not safe for them to decline Acting till they were forced p. 237 10. In many Cases they were very beneficial to their Fellow Protestants ibid. 11. The few that did otherwise ought to suffer ibid. 12. Fourthly The Clergy need no Apology for staying Their Serviceableness in several instances p. 238 Conclusion 1. DIsclaiming Prejudice and Partiality p. 239 2. It were to be wished that Commissions might issue to enquire into the Damages of Protestants ibid. 3. The Irish may blame themselves for what they shall suffer in Consequence of these Troubles ibid. Index of the Appendix THE Act of Attainder in Ireland at large p. 241 The Persuasions and Suggestions the Irish Catholicks make to his Majesty supposed to be drawn up by Talbot Titular Archbishop of Dublin and found in Collonel Talbot's House July 1. 1671. p. 298 A Copy of a Letter of the Irish Clergy to King James in favour of the Earl of Tirconnell found amongst Bishop Tirrell's Papers in Dublin p. 301 The Copy
of a Letter sent the King August 14. 1686. found in Bishop Tirrel's but imperfect p. 303 Lord Clarendon's Speech in Council on his leaving the Government of Ireland p. 310 A General Abstract of the Gross Produce of his Majesties Revenue in Ireland in the three first years of the Management beginning at Christmas 1682. and ended Christmas 1685. p. 312 Sheriffs for the year 1687. p. 313 Lord Lieutenants and Debuty Lieutenants of Counties p. 324 Privy Councellors appointed by Letters from King James dated February 28. 1684. and such as were sworn since by particular Letters p. 333 The Civil List of Officers and the times of their entring on their Offices p. 334 An account of the General and Field Officers of King James's Army out of the Muster Rolls p. 341 A Copy of the Letter dispersed about the Massacre said to be designed on December 9. 1688. p. 345 Lord Mountjoy's Circular Letter on his going to France p. 346 Judge Keating's Letter to Sir John Temple December 29. 1688. p. 347 Proposals humbly offered to the Earl of Tyrconnell Lord Deputy by the Bishop Meath about the intended search for Arms p. 353 An account of the Conditions made in the Field between the High Sheriff of Gallway and the Prisoners afterwards condemned p. 356 A Copy of a Letter from Bishop Maloony to Bishop Tyrrell the Original found amongst Bishop Tyrrell's Papers March 8. 1689. p. 360 Presentment of the Grand Jury of Tipperary against Protestants p. 365 A List of all the Men of Note that came with King James out of France or that followed him after so far as could be Collected p. 366 A List of the Lords that sate in the pretended Parliament at Dublin held May 7. 1689. p. 369 The names of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses returned to the Parliament beginning May 7. 1689. p. 370 An Address to King James in behalf of Purchasers under the Act of Settlement by Judg Keating p. 377 The Lord Bishop of Meath's Speech in Parliament June 4. 1689. p. 389 Copies of the Orders for giving Possessions p. 388 Albaville's Instructions to the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer p. 392 A Petition of the Minister of Wexford for his Church and the Order thereupon p. 395 Mr. Prowd Minister of Trim his account of the remarkable Accident that happened upon Plundering the Church of Trim p. 397 General Rosen's Order to bring the Protestants before Derry p. 399 Advertisement as it was published by Mr. Yalden in his weakly Abhorrence concerning Dr. King and Dr. Foy p. 404 Collonel Lutterell's Order for numbering Protestants p. 406 Collonel Lutterell's Order forbidding above five Protestants to meet any where p. 407 THE STATE OF THE Protestants of Ireland Under the late King James's Government IN WHICH Their Carriage towards him is justified and the absolute Necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his Government and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated INTRODUCTION Containing an Explication of the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and stating the true Notion and Latitude of it 1. IT is granted by some of the highest assertors of Passive Obedience that if a King design to root out a people or destroy one main part of his Subjects in favour of another whom he loves better that they may prevent it even by opposing him with force and that he is to be judged in such a case to have Abdicated the Government of those whom he designs to destroy contrary to Justice and the Laws This is Grotius's Opinion in his Book De jure Belli Pacis lib. 1. cap. 4. § 11. where citing Barclay he says If a King be carried with a malitious design to the destruction of a whole Nation he loses his Kingdom which I grant since a will to Govern and to Destroy cannot consist together therefore he who professes himself an Enemy to a whole People doth in that very act Abdicate his Kingdom But it seems hardly possible that this should enter into the heart of a King who is not mad if he govern only one people but if he govern many it may happen that in favour of one people he may desire the other were destroyed Doctor Hammond asserts Passive Obedience as high as any yet he approves this passage of Grotius and of Barclay in his vindication of Christ's reprehending S. Peter from the exceptions of Mr. Marshall p. 327. of his first Volume Grotius saith he mentions some cases wherein a King may be resisted As in case a King shall Abdicate his Kingdom and manifestly relinquish his Power then he turns private man and may be dealt with as any other such And some other the like 2. And it is observable that generally in all Books and Sermons concerning Obedience to Governors where this case is put suppose a King endeavour to destroy his people there are only two answers given to it one is that his Officers and Ministers ought not to obey him if they do the Law will punish them The other is that this case ought not to be put that we ought not to suppose that any King will designedly endeavour to destroy his people nay the Author of Jovian will not allow us to suppose that any King will attempt in England to Govern altogether by Arbitrary Power and the Sword For says he Chap. 12. p. 272. To suppose this is plainly to suppose the utmost impossibility and p. 273. If a King should shut up the Courts obstruct or pervert Justice he allows that all his good Subjects and all the bad too that tendered their own safety would desert him and Chap. 6. p. 152. He says he should be tempted to pray for the destruction of such a Prince as the only means of delivering the Church Falkner in his Christian Loyalty B. 2. Chap. 5. N. 19 20 tells us But if ever any such strange case as is supposed should really happen I confess it would have its great difficulties He brings in Grotius De jure Belli Pacis lib. 1. cap. 4. N. 7. And Bishop Bilsons Christian Subjection Part 3. p. 519. edit 1585. as allowing it and seems to allow their judgment in the case but then tells us that the case above-mentioned ought not at all to be supposed or taken into consideration All which plainly grants that if a King do in earnest design the destruction of his Subjects and get Ministers and Officers to concur with him in it who are ready to execute his wicked intentions and against whom the Law yields no Protection that in such a case the Subjects may desert their Prince decline his Government and Service and seek Protection where they can find it 3. And indeed whoever considers the Discourses that have been written concerning Non-Resistance will find that the reasons given for it either from the nature of the Thing or Scripture reach only tolerable evils and prove that a man ought to be patient under pressures laid on him by his Governor when the mischief is not
Neighbours Cities especially Dublin encreased exceedingly Gentlemens Seats were built or building every where and Parks Enclosures and other Ornaments were carefully promoted insomuch that many places of the Kingdom equalled the Improvements of England The Papists themselves where Rancour Pride or Laziness did not hinder them lived happily and a great many of them got considerable Estates either by Traffick by the Law or by other Arts and Industry 2. There was a free Liberty of Conscience by connivence tho not by the Law and the King's Revenue encreased proportionably to the Kingdom 's Advance in Wealth and was every day growing it amounted to more than three hundred thousand pounds per annum a Sum sufficient to defray all the Expence of the Crown and to return yearly a considerable Sum into England to which this Nation had formerly been a constant Expence If King James had minded either his own Interest or the Kingdoms he would not have interrupted this happy Condition But the Protestants found that neither this nor the Services of any towards him nor his own good Nature were Barrs sufficient to secure them from Destruction 2. It is certainly the Interest of all Kings to govern their Subjects with Justice and Equity if therefore they understood or would mind their true Interest no King would ruin any of his Subjects but it often happens that either Men are so weak that they do not understand their Interest or else so little at their own Command that some foolish Passion or Humour sways them more than all the Interest in the World and from these proceeds all the ill Government which has ruined so many Kingdoms Now King James was so bent on gaining an absolute Power over the Lives and Liberties of his Subjects and on introducing his Religion that he valued no Interest when it came in competition with those 3. Every Body that knew King James's Interest and the true Interest of his Kingdoms knew that it concerned him to keep fair with Protestants especially with that party who were most devoted to him and had set the Crown on his Head and this had been in the Opinion of thinking Men the most effectual way to inlarge his Power and introduce his Religion but because it did not suit with the Methods his bigotted Counsellors had proposed he took a Course directly contrary to his Interest and seemed to take a peculiar pleasure in affronting and oppressing those very Men whom in Interest he was most concerned to cherish and support His Proceeding thus in England was visibly the Cause of his Ruin he had left himself no Friend to stand by him when he stood in greatest need of them Upon his coming to Ireland the Protestants had entertained some favourable Hopes that he would have seen and been convinced of his Error and would now at last govern himself by other measures it was manifestly his Interest to have done so and nothing in probability could have allayed the Heats of England and Scotland so much as his Justice and Kindness to the Protestants of Ireland nor could any thing have had so much the Appearance of an Answer to those many and evident Arguments by which they demonstrated his destructive Designs against those Kingdoms as to have had it to say that in Ireland where it was in his Power he was far from doing what they surmised he intended to do in England or if he had ever any such intentions it was plain he had now altered them These things were laid before him by some that wish'd well to his Affairs and had more Prudence than his furious and bigotted Counsellors and sometimes they seemed to make Impressions on him but the Priests and needy Courtiers who had swallowed in their Imaginations the Spoils and Estates of the Protestants of England as well as of Ireland could not endure to hear of this They seemed mightily afraid lest he should be restored to his Throne by consent of his Protestant Subjects For if so said they we know it will be on so strict Conditions that we shall gain but little by it it will not be in his power to gratifie us And not only they but the Irish in general likewise endeavoured to make his Restitution by way of Articles or Peace impracticable and impossible A Design so extremely foolish that it is strange any should be found so sillily wicked as to promote it or that King James should be so imposed on as to hearken to it and yet it is certain he did at least at some times entertain it and was heard to express himself to one that pressed him to Moderation to Protestants on this account that he never expected to get into England but with Fire and Sword However his Counsellors were not so weak but they saw what disadvantage his dealing with the Protestants had on his Interest in England and therefore they took care to conceal it as much as possible they stopped all Intercourse as far as they could with England they had a party to cry up the mildness of King James's Government towards the Protestants to applaud the Ease the Plenty the Security in which they lived and to run down and discredit all Relations to the contrary that came from Ireland These endeavoured to perswade the World that there was no such thing as a Bill of Attainder or of Repeal no Act taking away the Preferments or Maintenance of the Clergy nor any Imprisonment or Plundering of Protestants no taking away of Goods by private Orders of the King or levying of Monies by Proclamations In short they did that which on all occasions is the Practice and indeed Support of Popery They endeavoured to face down plain matter of Fact with Forehead and Confidence and to perswade the World that all these were mere Forgeries of King James's Enemies As many as believed these Allegations of theirs and were persuaded by them that the Protestants of Ireland were well used by King James were inclined to favour him a certain sign that if they had been really well used by him it would have gotten him many Friends and perhaps reconciled some of his worst Enemies But the Design entertained by him and his Party required the Ruin of Protestants and of their Religion whereas his Interest required that it should not be believed that he designed either and therefore Care was taken to prosecute the Design with all eagerness and deny the Matter of Fact with all impudence and his Majesty took care to promote both for he ruined the Protestants of Ireland by his Acts of Parliament and by the other Methods we shall hereafter speak of and by his Proclamations sent privately into England to his Partisans there assured the World that the Protestant Religion and Interest were his special care and that he had secured them against their Enemies It was his Interest to have done as well as pretended this but the carrying on his Design was so much in his Thoughts that he chose to sacrifice his
of Money to compound the Matter This Trick was very common and at last no Protestant tho he had ever so good Evidence against a Papist durst prosecute him for he was sure to be acquitted and then the Prosecutor was liable to the Revenge of an Action of the Case and the Damages that a Popish Jury pleased to give against him 12. There is an Act of Parliament 10 Henrici 7. cap. 12. That forbids keeping Guns or Ordnance without License from the Lord Lieutenant or Deputy The Design of it was to prevent the Irish from fortifying themselves in their little Castles whereby at that time they created the Government great Trouble and raised daily Rebellions But the Lord Chief Justice Nugent interpreted this to the disarming of all Protestants and because there chanced to be a Sword and Case of Pistols found September 6 1689 in some outward by place in Christs Church Dublin one Wolf the Subverger was committed to Newgate indicted and found guilty and had good luck to escape with his Life the Chief Justice declaring it was Treason tho Wolf was only indicted for a Misdemeanour 13. But had the Laws been in never so good Hands it could not have secured us from Destruction when the King who designed that Destruction against us pretended to be above all Laws and made no Scruple to dispense with them every Law in these Kingdoms is really a Compact between the King and People wherein by mutual consent they agree on a Rule by which he is to govern and according to which they oblige themselves to pay him Obedience But there is no general Rule but in some Cases it may prove inconvenient it is therefore agreed by all that in Cases of sudden and unforeseen Necessity there is no Law but may be dispensed with but then first it is observable that this Necessity must be so visible and apparent that all reasonable Men may see and be satisfied that it is not pretended and where the Necessity has been thus real no Man can shew that either the People or Parliament ever quarrelled with a King for using a dispensing Power 14. Secondly It must be observed that this Power of Dispensing in Cases of Necessity is mutual and belongs to the People as well as the King it being as lawful for a Subject in Cases of Necessity to dispense with his Obedience to a Law nay with his Allegiance to his King as for a King to dispense with the Execution of a Law or the exacting Obedience and this mutual power of dispensing with the Laws which are publick Compacts in Cases of Necessity is tacitly understood in them as well as in all other Covenants Doctor Sanderson proves this Power of Dispensing to belong to the People as well as to the Prince in his tenth Praelection N. 21. and he gives an Example in N. 22. The Case is thus The Conspirators after the Gunpowder Treason was discovered fled into Warwickshire and made an Insurrection the Sheriff raises the Posse Comitatus against them they fled from thence into Worcestershire where by the Law the Sheriffs of Warwick could not follow them but the Sheriff dispensed with the Law Judging saith he as he ought to have done That if he would perform right the Office of a good Subject the Observation of the Law in that Case of Necessity was very unseasonable and he ought to obey the Supreme Law which is the Safety of his Country The Sheriff did accordingly and was highly commended by King James the First for it There might be many Examples of this kind given in which the People are allowed to dispense even with their Allegiance in case of Necessity It is against the Allegiance of a Subject to own the Power of an Usurper to bear Arms to judge of Life and Death or administer Justice between Man and Man by his Commission and yet Dr. Sanderson determines it to be the Duty of a good Man to do all these if required by an Usurper Praelect 5. N. 19. and accordingly we find Judge Hales acted under the worst of Usurpers Oliver Cromwell and executed the Office of a Judge as may be seen in his Life 15. Thirdly 'T is the most wicked as well as hazardous thing that a King or People can do to pretend a necessity for dispensing with those publick Compacts when the pretence is not real for the publick Faith is hereby violated the party unconsulted is abused a just reason of Distrust raised between the King and People and they of the two that assume to themselves this power of dispensing upon a pretended not real necessity in Cases of great Moment to the Kingdom are in a fair way to lay a real necessity on the other party to dispense with their part of the Compact that is to say if the King will pretend a Necessity where there is none for his not governing by Laws in Cases that concern the common safety of the Kingdom he gives a shrewd Temptation and a justifiable Colour to his People to dispense with their Submission and Allegiance to him And it is full as good a Reason for a Peoples taking Arms to defend themselves against illegal Violence to alledge that they were necessitated to do so to prevent the Ruin and Destruction of them and their Posterity as it is for a King to alledge that he uses illegal Officers and Force to preserve himself and his Kingdoms And if the Allegation be real I do not see why it should not justifie the one as well as the other tho the one be against the Oath of Allegiance and the other against the Coronation Oath Cases of extreme Necessity being tacitly excepted in both Kings therefore that take on themselves to dispense with Laws without the consent either tacit or express of their People give an ill Precedent against themselves and must blame themselves if their People taught by them return it upon them 16. 'T is plain the Officers employed by King James in Ireland both Civil and Military were unqualified and uncapable by Law of those Employments If Lord Tirconnell for instance claimed Subjection of us by the Laws I do not see why he should expect the People to be better Observers of the Laws than he was Suppose that it was against the Law for them to resist him it was likewise against the Laws that he should command them if he dispensed in one Case they only dispensed in the other and in this Case it was as lawful for the one to dispense as the other I suppose the only Reason in a settled Government why one Man can claim our Submission and not another is because the known Laws give the one and not another the power of commanding but the Laws as well as the Interest of this Kingdom said positively that the Earl of Tirconnell and Men of his Character and Religion should not have any Office Civil or Military and therefore those Protestants that stood on their Defence against him
served Sir John Topham and Sir John Coghill for their Masterships of the Chancery And the Inferior Bodies of Cities learned this Trick from them and by it outed their Protestant Recorders even before their new Charters Some Officers that claimed a Title to their Offices by Law were not allowed a Legal Tryal but the Chancellor called them before him and on a private Hearing turned them out Thus he served Mr. Charles Baldwin one of the Examinators of the Chancery 2. But to proceed by Retail seemed tedious and therefore to make short Work and rid their Hands of Protestant Civil Officers at once as they had done of the Military They made an Act in their pretended Parliament to void all Patents for Offices during Life or Good Behaviour though granted by King James himself and though the Protestants had laid out their Fortunes to purchase them by King James's own Consent and Permission as many had done Now let the World judg what a step the disposal of these Offices was to the Destruction of Protestants when some of them were of such Consequence that an unfaithful Officer in them might undo many by destroying their Evidences for their Estates in what condition must Protestants be when the Records by which they held their Estates were put into the Hands of those who were their Adversaries in the claim and had nothing to bar them but these Records of which they were now made Keepers who had often before shocked the Protestant Titles by setting up counterfeit Deeds nay and corrupting the Records themselves even whilst Protestants had the keeping of them of which the Records in the Common Pleas Office are yet an unanswerable Evidence counterfeit Judgments being entred there to the sum of some one thousand pound by the Treachery of corrupting Papists I have for the satisfaction of the Reader set down in the Appendix the Names of the most considerable Officers belonging to the Courts that the Change may be more visible 3. The next sort of Officers were such as were concerned in the Revenue these were many of them during Pleasure The Revenue had for five or six years last past been managed by Commissioners to very great advantage They had gotten under them a set of very sharp and severe Officers many of which having been formerly concerned in Trade themselves knew all the Arts of cheating the King in his Duties and were able to discover them and he who was most acute and made greatest Advantage for the King was sure to keep his Place and to be advanced It was hard to find a set of Commissioners and Officers that could serve the King in his Revenue at the Rate these Persons did and therefore they were forced to be slow in changing them yet they did it by degrees and with such Circumstances as plainly discovered that they were resolved as soon as was possible to employ Roman Catholicks only To do them Justice they generally owned it and when any of them had a Friend to prefer to an Office in the Revenue his Argument to remove the Protestant Possessor usually was This Man must be removed and why not now As the Popish Bishop of Elphin wrote to Sir Patrick Trant from Gallway in order to remove a Protestant Gauger employed there In most places they turned out the Protestant Collectors and Officers and put in their Popish Friends though much to the Kings Loss as it often proved and as they themselves knew it would be and did not scruple to own it Their new Collectors either being so ignorant as not to make the best of their Places or so very Corrupt that they run away with the Mony when Collected as it happened at Clonmell or so abused their Trust that they were obliged to change no less than five or six at a time King James himself declaring publickly that they deserved to be hanged That there remained any Protestants employed in the Revenue was plainly from their not having time enough to train up others in their room and not from their intentions to continue Protestants in it to whom they envied even the hated Office of being Publicans 4. The third sort of Officers in the Kingdom are such as have Trust or Honour annexed to them but little Profit of this sort I reckon Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace It was no easie matter to find Roman Catholicks to put into these Offices and it was a most provoking sight to Protestants to see with what kind of Men they supplyed them they were forced to rake into the very Scum and Sink of the People to find a few to set on the Bench as I shewed before Men without Freehold without Sense and without Honesty were made Sherifs and yet they were forced to continue most of them two years not being able to find in some Counties any Roman Catholick that could pretend to be capable of such an Employment Thus in the County of Tyrone Turlogh ô Donelly served two years as Sheriff who had not one foot of Freehold and for his Honesty you may guess at it by this Story which is notoriously true His Son had stolen some Bullocks from his Neighbour Mr. Hamilton of Callidon and brought them to his Father the Sheriffs House some of them were killed and eaten in the House The Owner pursued and found the remainder which were restored and to Compound the Matter a Bond of sixteen pound was entred into by the Sheriff for such as were eaten and if I remember right a Warrant of Attorney for Judgment When he came to Dublin to pass his Accompts as Sheriff he was sued for the Mony but to avoid the Suit he listed himself a Foot Soldier in the Lord Maguires Company and pretended he was Enlisted in the Company two or three days before the Arrest which my Lord likewise vouched though really he was not Enlisted till after the Arrest or Execution Upon which the Attorney that took out the Action or Execution I do not remember which and the Person to whom he owed Mony were brought into great trouble and forced to abscond for violating the Privilege of the Army and obliged for Peace sake to depart from their Claim We had many such Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace and to demonstrate that they designed to out Protestants of all Power there was not one Protestant Sheriff in all Ireland for the year 1687 as may be seen in the Catalogue which I I have given of their Names in the Appendix except Charles Hamilton of Cavan who was put in by mistake as was supposed insteed of John Hamilton of Killeneur who is a Roman Catholick Nay it was designed that not one Protestant should sit on the Bench as Justice of Peace and the Design in a great measure effected not indeed by revoking their Commissions but by making it impossible for them to Act. It was now almost a necessary qualification to preserve a Man in his Place to change or dissemble his Religion and some
did worse that is betrayed it by their Compliance whilst yet they profest it Many who would not be guilty of such servility were turned out even from the mean Employments of a High or Petty Constable of a Goalour or Turn-Key of all which it were easie to give Examples but the thing being Universal makes that unnecessary Even these mean Employments were now counted too good for Protestants and all this contrary to the express Letter of the Law which admitted none but such as would take the Oath of Supremacy to any Office but they took a peculiar Pleasure to act in contempt and despite of the Laws and it seemed to them a kind of Conquest to turn a Man out of his Employment Office or Freehold contrary to Law In the mean time it was a melancholy thing for Protestants to live under such illegal Officers and have their Lives Estates and Liberties at the mercy of Sheriffs Justices and Juries some of whose Fathers or nearest Relations they had either hanged for Thieving Robbery and Murthering or killed in the very Act of Torying 5. I reckon as a fourth sort of Officers in the Kingdom such as were of the Privy-Council which in Ireland is a great part of the Constitution and has considerable Privileges and Power annexed to it Regularly no Act of Parliament can pass in Ireland till the chief Governor and Privy-Council do first certifie the Causes and Reasons of it It was therefore no less than necessary that King James should model this to his mind and he quickly ordered it so that the Papists made the majority in it and whereas before it was a Refuge and Sanctuary to the oppressed it now became a most effectual Instrument to strengthen the Popish Interest and give Reputation to their Proceedings We may guess what kind of Government King James designed when he was attended with such a Council and yet it is certain even some of these who were Protestants would have been turned out if they had not absented themselves and declined appearing at the Board but whether they appeared or no was of no consideration since it is plain they could do Protestants little service SECT V. Fourthly King James's ordering Corporations was an effectual means to destroy his Protestant Subjects and to alter the very Nature of the Government 1. WOever knows the Constitution of England and Ireland must observe that the Subjects have no other security for their Liberties Properties and Lives except the Interest they have of choosing their own Representatives in Parliament This is the only Barrier they have against the Encroachments of their Governor Take it away and they are as absolute Slaves to the Kings Will and as miserable as the Peasants in France Whoever therefore goes about to deprive them of this Right utterly destroys the very Constitution and Foundation of the Government Now the Protestants of Ireland finding the necessity of securing this right in their own Hands to preserve the Kingdom in Prosperity and Peace had procured many Corporations to be Founded and built many considerable Corporate Towns at their own Cost and Charges They thought it reasonable to keep these in their own Hands as being the Foundation of the Legislative power and therefore secluded Papists as Enemies to the English Interest in Ireland from Freedom and Votes in them by the very Foundation and Rules of planting them This Caution they extended by a Law to all other Corporations in the Kingdom excluding Papists likewise from them which they justly did if we remember that these Papists had forfeited their Right in them by their Rebellion in 1641 and by their having turned those Towns where they had Interest into Nests of Traitors against the King and into places of Refuge for the Murtherers of the English insomuch that it cost England some Millions to reduce them again into Obedience witness Killkenny Waterford Galway Lymerick and every other place where they had power to do it Add to this that generally the trading industrious Men of the Kingdom were Protestants who had built most of the Corporate Towns above thirty at once in King James the First 's time and a great part of the Freeholds of the Kingdom did also belong to Men of the same Religion insomuch that if a fair Election had been allowed in probability no Papist could have carryed it in any one County of Ireland All which considered it was but reasonable that the Protestants that had by so much Blood and Treasure brought the Kingdom into subjection to the Laws of England and planted it in such a manner as to render it worth the Governing by the King should be secured of their Representatives in Parliament especially when out of their great Loyalty and Confidence in the Kings kind intention to them they by some new Rules had condescended that none should Officiate as Majors Portrieves Magistrates or Sheriffs in the chief Towns till approved by the Kings chief Governor for the time being Their yielding this to the King was a sufficient security one would have thought to the Royal Interest A great diminution of their Liberties and such as never was yielded before to any King but this would not serve King James to be Absolute he must have the intire Disposition of them and the Power to put in and turn out whom he pleased without troubling the Formalities of Law To bring them therefore to this it was resolved to Dissolve them all Tyrconnel knew that the Protestants would never give up their Charters without being compelled by Law and therefore he endeavoured to prevail with them to admit Papists to Freedom and Offices in them that by their means he might have them surrendred but the Resolution of Sir John Knox then Lord Mayor of Dublin and of the then Table of Aldermen spoiled that Design and forced the King to bring Quo Warranto's against them since they would not easily consent to destroy themselves 2. The Chief Baron Rice and the Attorney General Nagle were employed as the fittest Instruments to carry on this Work To prevent Writs of Error into England all these Quo Warranto's were brought in the Exchequer and in about two Terms Judgments were entred against most Charters Whereas if either Equity or Law had been regarded longer time ought to have been allowed in matters of such Consequence for the Defendants to draw up their Plea than the Chief Baron took to dispatch the whole Cause and seize their Franchises Attorney General Nagle plaid all the little Tricks that could be thought of and had an ordinary Attorney brought such Demurrers or Pleadings into Court in a common Cause as he did in this most weighty Affair of the Kingdom he would have received a publick Rebuke and been struck out of the Roll for his Knavery or ignorance After all there was not one Corporation found to have Forfeited by a Legal Tryal neither was any Crime or Cause of forfeiture objected against them yet the Chief Baron gave Judgment against
to what he ought and this was a great Discouragement to Trading The Complaints of all People in general as well as of Merchants were great on the account of Exactions of the Officers of the Revenue who were grown up to a high degree of Exorbitance which with many other Abuses in the Kingdom proceeded from the long Disuse of Parliaments the inferior Officers being freed from that fear for twenty four years did forget that there were any to whom they were accountable besides their own Masters and therefore not only exacted upon and oppressed the Subjects but likewise treated them with insufferable Insolence while the Commissioners or Farmers strained and perverted the Laws for their own profit or to ingratiate themselves with the Courtiers on whose Favour they depended 6. There was a fourth thing that more peculiarly ruined the Protestant Trade and 't was thus the King's Revenue in Ireland was so considerable a part of each Man's Estate that most of the current Coin in the Kingdom came into the Treasury once in a year either for Hearth Money Crown Rents or some other Duties And the King having turned Protestants out of all profitable Employments and out of the Army and put in Papists his Revenue was paid out again to them and ought to have circulated indifferently amongst his Subjects as it used to do But so great was the Malice of these new Officers to Protestants that they combined amongst themselves to let them have as little of it as was possible and therefore where-ever they could lay it out with one of their own Religion they did it And very few Protestants ever received a Groat of their Money as the Citizens of Dublin can universally witness When they wanted Money they came to the Protestant Shops where they abused and affronted and terrified them if they refused to trust calling them Dogs Whigs Rebels and Traitors swearing with many Oaths that they would be revenged on them But if they had ready Money tho they had been formerly Customers to Protestants and in their Books they never came near them any more This Practice was so universal amongst them that even the Women learn'd it particularly the Lady Tyrconnel's Daughters for thus the Lady Ross and her Sister Dillon treated several Shopkeepers falling furiously upon them in the former Terms because their Servants refused to trust By the like rudeness the Exchange was intirely ruined neither Buyers nor Sellers being able to keep in it by reason of the Insolencies of the new Popish Officers who walked in it affronted and assaulted every Body or extorted their Goods from them for nothing the Shopkeepers not daring to refuse to trust them By this means the rich Shopkeepers were driven away and most of the considerable Shops shut up even in the principal Streets of the City long before we heard any News of the Prince of Orange As soon as the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government there was almost a Desolation in the Town and there were at least fourteen or fifteen Trades that had nothing to do the Government knew very well that this would be the Effect of their Proceedings and that the Trade Manufactures and Improvements of the Kingdom must cease if they went on at the Rate they did but they were so far from being concerned at it that they rather seemed well pleased with it 7. And to ruin our Trade intirely they suffered and connived at the Transportation of our Wool to France a thing so fatal to England as well as to Ireland that the Law has made it Felony to be punished with Death The new Mayor of Gallway Mr. Kyrovan was catched in the very Fact and the Delivery of a considerable Cargo sent by him into France was fully proved for which he ought to have been hanged but the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel notwithstanding all his Oaths and pretended Displeasure when the Mischief of it was laid before him quickly shewed this to be only a Copy of his Countenance for he not only granted him a Pardon and remitted his Forfeiture of about 10000 l. but as a further Mark of his Favour he continued him in his Mayoralty for another year Thus the Trade of the Kingdom was ruined and the Protestants who with vast Hazard and Charge carried it on had it left to their Choice whether they would stay here and starve or remove themselves to another Kingdom and I believe no Body will wonder if they had no great affection for a Government that designedly brought this hardship upon them 8. It must be acknowledged that King James did not only ruin the Protestant Trade but that he went a great way in destroying the Trade of the Roman Catholicks also It is well known that the Citizens of Gallway are the most considerable Roman Catholick Traders in Ireland many of whom had purchased Estates under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and must therefore fall together with them They foresaw their own Ruin in the Repeal of thâ—se Acts and petitioned the Parliament that Consideration might be had of their Purchases and Improvements but this reasonable Request was denyed them those Acts were repealed and by their Repeal left the most considerable Roman Catholick Traders in Ireland without Estates or Credit to follow their Trade or to answer their Correspondents abroad I might add here the further steps made by King James towards ruining the Protestant Trade by his coining Brass Money by his lodging it in Protestants Hands seising their Stocks and Commodities whereby they were utterly disabled to trade whilst Papists were not only spared but had the Protestants Goods put into their Hand But these with the other Influences the Brass Money had to destroy us will be more proper when we come to consider the Invasions made on our Properties SECT VII VI. King James's destructive Proceedings against the Liberties of his Protestant Subjects 1. THere is no worldly thing more valuable to Man than Liberty Many prefer it to life and few can live long without it 'T is the Darling of our Laws and there is nothing of which they are more tender But the Protestants of Ireland from the very beginning of King James's Reign had their Liberties invaded and at last intirely destroyed 'T was observable that at his coming to the Crown he made no Proclamation for a general Pardon as has been usual with Kings neither did he pass any Act of Grace in his first Parliament which gave a fair opportunity to the Papists of Ireland to revenge themselves on their Protestant Neighbors No sooner had they gotten Judges and Juries that would believe them but they began a Trade of Swearing and ripping up what they pretended their Neighbors had said of His late Majesty whilst Duke of York some years before especially in time of the Popish Plot. The new Justices of the Peace were eager to exercise their Offices and therefore on the slightest occasion bound over and committed their Protestant Neighbors many times without any reason
Proclamation by which they set a Rate upon Commodities dated February 28. 1689. then the King declared he wanted certain Quantities of these Goods and that he would have them at the Proclamation Rates The Lord-Mayor first then the Commissioners of the Revenue and afterwards Sir Thomas Hackett and others were employ'd to search for them and seize them They first sent out Officers to take an Inventory of all they could find in the Hands of Protestants some few escaped by giving good Bribes The Searchers return'd an account of the following Quantities in Dublin viz. 61105 Stones of Wooll 7780 hundred Weight of Tallow 14687 Raw Hides 18771 Tan'd Hides what return was made from other places we could not learn but we find when they came to Seize that the following Parcels were actually taken up viz.  Wooll Stone Tallow C Raw Hides Tan'd Hides C q In Dublin 10948½ 4230 3237 900-2 In the rest of the Kingdom 121339 12619 19100 1832-2 Total 132287½ 16849 22337 2732-2 Computing 35 Stones to a Bag of Wooll 600 Weight to a Cask of Tallow and four Tan'd Hides to an hundred Weight which appears to be the Proportions in Dublin where both the Number and Weight is return'd Some Gentlemen had saved their Wooll of the Year 1688. and had placed it in Dublin and the Port-Towns designing to send it off as soon as the Seas were open and it was all they had to begin the World with their Estates being taken from them by Act of Parliament and their Stocks and Household Goods by Robbers but now this remainder of their Fortunes was taken from them by the King himself and when they press'd the Commissioners of the Revenue to know the reason why they were thus used it was answered them by Sir Patrick Trant that he would not give any reason to Such Rogues but at last when urged he told them It was because they were Protestants Some particularly Mr. Piercy the Merchant being ask'd by Sir Thomas Hacket whether he was willing to part with his Goods answered very calmly That he was not willing if he could help it His saying so was reckoned a High Crime and he was brought before Colonel Luttrell Governour of Dublin who put the same question to him and upon his making the same answer condemned him in his Passion to be Hanged for opposing the King's Will He sent up and down for the Provo's to execute the Sentence and Swore many Oaths that he would have it done immediately Mr. Piercy continued under this Sentence for two Hours during which time the Provo's could not be found though diligent Search was made for them at last the Governour wearied with waiting and not able to find any to execute his Sentence was by some Intercession made to him content to dismiss Mr. Piercy for that time Some Protestants offered to Transport their Goods themselves into France and bring back such things as the King needed but this was refused them and the design being to ruin them such Goods as came to them from France were seiz'd on and put into the hands of Papists to be disposed of by them and the right Owners not suffered so much as to oblige a Friend with a little Salt or a Rundlet of Brandy Thus Mr. Bell a Protestant Merchant was served with a Ship that came to him from France and without any Crime alledged against him that he might think no more of Trading he was confined in close Prison and no body allowed to speak to him As to the Goods thus taken up King James dispos'd of them to Mr. Labady and other Papists so that this appear'd to be a meer Contrivance to get the Goods out of the Protestants hands and enrich the Papists and not as was pretended to supply the King's Necessity 9. Some Protestants had laid out their Brass Mony in Corn and Malt of this Commodity Brewers Maltsters and Bakers had good Quantities and some private Persons laid in enough for themselves and Families and perhaps a little to spare Some likewise had Provisions of Bisket Barrelled Beef and Bacon not knowing how the Market might be furnish'd after such Destruction of Provisions There was a general Search made for all these and they were for the most part taken away or seized for the King's use it was Criminal to have Barrelled Beef or Bisket in a House and Alderman Giles Meigh was clap'd up in Prison for the Treason of having some hundred of Bisket The like happened to several others they alledging that such as had them designed them for Schonberg's Army we were at a loss what the meaning of taking away Corn from Protestant Farmers House-keepers and Bakers should be when there was no Scarcity in the Kingdom and the Markets if left open were sufficient to furnish all but Sir Robert Parker and some others blab'd it out in the Coffee-house That they designed to starve one half of the Protestants and hang the other and that it would never be well till this were done We were very sensible that they were in earnest by the event for no Protestant could get a bit of Bread and hardly a drop of Drink in the whole City Twenty or Thirty Soldiers stood constantly about every Bake-house and would not suffer a Protestant to come nigh them if they sent into the Country and by Interest and a great Price got a Barrel of Wheat from a Popish Farmer it was seiz'd as it came to Town and though there was Plenty of all things yet several Protestant Families could not get one Loa◠of Bread sometimes in a Week sometimes in a Fortnight there was a general Cry for Bread and the Protestants could find no way to come by it but by buying it from the Soldiers who sold their Two-penny Loaves for a Shilling or eighteen Pence it was confidently reported that the Popish Store-keepers design'd to get all the Corn in the Kingdom into the King's Stores and then to let the Protestants have none out but for Silver and Gold which they did in good measure effect and it is certain before Harvest they would have starved many and drained all 10. Some few Protestants had under shelter of a good natured Popish Landlord or Neighbour preserved a few Sheep as soon as these were Shorn the Commissioners immediately seiz'd the Wooll and it was resolv'd to seize their Corn likewise where they had any as soon as it was cut and made up They found it a hard matter to get Copper or Brass to serve the Mint there were on this account several Searches made in Town and first the Braziers Shops were pillaged and then the Citizens Kitchens of their Brass Pots Skellets Boylers and their Houses of other Brass Utensils even to the Knockers of Doors hardly one such was left in the whole City Under the pretence of this they ordered their Emissaries to take a private Inventory of whatever they saw in the Possession of Protestants of which they made their uses as they had occasion
so kept them in Heart by countenancing them that they did not doubt some time or other to recover their Estates and they often told the English when heated by Drink or Passion that the time was drawing near when they would out them of their Estates and Improvements and send them to Dig or Beg. This Hope kept the Irish Idle and hindred them from applying themselves to any thing else and they were so sure of regaining their forfeited Estates that they disposed of them by Wills and Settlements as if in Possession which Wills and Settlements made by them whilst out of Possession are confirmed by a particular Act made in their late pretended Parliament 2. When King James came to the Crown they reckoned they had gained their Point and did not fail to labour it with all possible Industry and no doubt but his Majesty designed to gratifie them in it but he did not think fit to let the Protestants know his Intentions on the contrary he industriously concealed them He sent over the Lord Clarendon Lord-Lieutenant in the Year 1685. who arrived here January 10. he gave him in Charge to declare That he would preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation inviolable And accordingly the Lord Clarendon made this Declaration in Council and further gave it in Charge to all the Judges who solemnly declared on the Bench in their respective Circuits the Kings firm Intentions to preserve those Acts and in them the Protestant English Interest of Ireland At the same time Sir Charles Porter was sent over Chancellor of Ireland and he likewise had a Command from the King to assure all his Subjects that he would preserve these Acts as the Magna Charta of Ireland and Sir Charles at his entrance on his Office declared this solemnly on the Bench as Chancellor Fitton also after did and used withall to term it The Darling of the Nation and that it was the King's Pleasure to give his Subjects this Assurance These kind of Declarations were often repeated and gain'd Belief from the credulous Protestants especially that made by Sir Charles who behaving himself with Courage and Integrity in his Office went a great way to perswade them But the Papists were nothing daunted at it they knew that this was only a piece of Policy to â—ull us asleep till the Army was modelled and things fitted for repealing these Acts and then all the Protestations to the contrary would signifie nothing The new Attorney General Nagle was the first that durst openly propose the Repealing of them in his Letter from Coventry dated October 26. 1686. in which he endeavours to shew some Nullities and Invalidities in the Acts but mainly insists on the Inconveniency it would bring to the Popish Interest to have those Acts continued When the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government things were Riper and so King James ventured to discover his Intentions a little further and therefore in the first Proclamation issued out by the Lord-Deputy Tyrconnel and dated Feb. 21. 1686. he promised to defend the Laws Liberties and established Religion but upon debate at the Council-Board leaves out the Preservation of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation In Spring 1688. he sends over to England Chief Justice Nugent and Baron Rice to concert the Methods of repealing it That this was their Errand was publickly known and is confessed by my Lord Sunderland in his Letter to his Friend in London dated March 23. 1689. and if we believe him they bid 40000 l. to gain his Lordship to assist them but whatever his Lordship did with them it is certain they succeeded in their Design though perhaps a little delay'd in point of time and agreed on the several Steps by which they were to bring it to pass they knew it was generally discoursed that they went on this Errand and it would have alarm'd the whole Kingdom if they had own'd their Success they therefore dissembled it and contrived to have it given out that the King had rejected their Proposals but granted others that were very Beneficial to the Kingdom the Heads of which they took care to have published In the mean while they fell on prosecuting their Design according to the Secret Resolutions agreed on and began immediately to put things in order to have a Parliament that would be sure to answer their Intentions they proceeded to finish the Regulations of Corporations against which Quo Warranto's had before been issued as we have already shewed and that things might not stick in the House of Lords by reason of the Numerousness of the Protestant Peers and Bishops a List was drawn up of such Papists as the King might by Writ call into the House to Out-vote them The Sons of such Lords as had been Indicted and Out-lawed for the Rebellion in 1641. had brought Writs of Error to reverse their Father's Outlawries which made them uncapable of Sitting which was in effect to destroy the Act of Settlement that was founded on those Out-lawries The Protestants saw the Consequence of the Reversing them and therefore earnestly opposed it but Lord Chief Justice Nugent and his Fellow-Judges over-ruled all Oppositions that could be made and reversed as many as desired it Some of them when they had reversed the Outlawries ask'd the Attorney General whether they might not now Sue for their Estates He answered that they should have a little Patience perhaps they would come more easily meaning that when a Parliament sate it would by repealing the Act of Settlement give them their Estates without a Suit 3. But many had not Patience to wait the General Restitution and therefore as soon as they had Judges and Sheriffs to their mind they set up Counterfeit Deeds and easily obtained Verdicts if the Protestants brought a Writ of Error yet that did not benefit them nor stop their being outed of Possession for the Sheriffs on their own Heads gave the Old Proprietors Possession and left the Protestants to recover it by Injunction out of Chancery or by Common-Law Thus Doctor Gorge was outed by Mr. Barnwell of a great Estate and many others notwithstanding their Writs of Error Some Old Proprietors had gotten some Conditional Orders from the Commissioners of the Court of Claims for Estates many of which only enabled them to bring their Actions at Common-Law These had laâ—â— dormant since the sitting of the Court of Claims which was above Twenty Years but now instead of bringing their Actions into the Court they carried their old Injunctions which they had procured from the Court of Claims and which they thought not fit in all this time to execute as knowing legally they could not yet I say so long after the Dissolution of the Court which granted them they carried them to the Sheriffs and they without any more ado put them into Possession whereby they deprived the Subject of the Benefit of those Laws that make Fines levied with Non-claim a perpetual Bar and also dispossess'd and put by all intermediate
that we could promise our selves no help from his Negative Vote 13. The House of Lords if regularly assembled had consisted for the most part of Protestants and might have been a Check to the King's Intentions of taking away our Laws in a legal Method there being if we reckon the Bishops about Ninety Protestant Lords to Forty five Papists taking in the new Creations and attainted Lords But first to remove this Obstacle care had been taken to reverse the Outlawries of the Popish Lords in order to capacitate them to sit in the House 2. New Creations were made Sir Alexander Fitton the Chancellor was made Baron of Gosworth Thomas Nugent the Chief Justice Baron of Riverston Justin M'Carty Viscount Mountcashell Sir Valentine Brown Viscount Kenmare A List was made of more to be call'd into the House if there were occasion 3. They had several Popish Titular Bishops in the Kingdom and it was not doubted but if necessity required those would be call'd by Writs into the House 4. It was easie to call the eldest Sons of Noble-men into the Parliament by Writ which would not augment the Nobility and yet fill the House But there were already sufficient to over-vote the Protestants for there remain'd of about Sixty nine Protestant Temporal Lords only four or five in Ireland to sit in the House and of Twenty two Spiritual Lords only seven left in the Kingdom of which Dr. Michael Boyle Arch-bishop of Ardmah Dr. Hugh Gore Bishop of Waterford Dr. Roan Bishop of Killalâ—o were excused on the account of Age and Sickness The other four were Dr. Anthony Dopping Bishop of Meath Dr. Thomas Otway Bishop of Ossory Dr. Simon Digby Bishop of Lymerick and Dr. Edward Wettenhall Bishop of Cork and Ross these were oblig'd to appear upon their Writs directed to them and King James was forced sometimes to make use of them to moderate by way of Counterpoise the Madness of his own Party when their Votes displeas'd him But in the general they protested against most of the Acts and entered their Dissent It is observable that all these Acts of this pretended Parliament are said to be by the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal whereas not one Spiritual Lord consented to many of them but on the contrary unanimously protested against them and at passing the Act of Attainder of which more hereafter they were not so much as present They complain'd of this but were refus'd redress and the express mention of their consent continued Of Thirty seven Papist Lords there appear'd besides the new created Lords Twenty four at times of which Fifteen were under Attainders by Indictments and Outlawries two or three were under Age and there remain'd only Six or Seven capable of Sitting and Acting Chancellor Fitton now Baron of Gosworth was Speaker of the House of Lords King James was present constantly in the House and directed them not only in their Debates but likewise in their Forms and Ceremonies hardly one in either House having ever sate in a Parliament before 14. The House of Commons makes the Third Estate in Parliament and 't is by them that the People have a more immediate Interest in the Legislative Power the Members of this House being such as are return'd by the Peoples Free Election which is look'd on as the Fundamental Security of the Lives Liberties and Properties of the Subject These Members of the House of Commons are elected either by the Free-holders of Counties or the Free-men of Corporations And I have already shew'd how King James wrested these out of the Hands of Protestants and put them into Popish Hands in the new Constitution of Corporations by which the Free-men and Free-holders of Cities or Boroughs to whom the Election of Burgesses originally belongs are excluded and the Election put into the Hands of a small number of Men named by the King and removable at his pleasure The Protestant Free-holders if they had been in the Kingdom were much more than the Papist Free-holders but now being gone tho many Counties could not make a Jury as appear'd at the intended Tryal of Mr. Price and other Protestants at Wicklow who could not be tried for want of Free-holders yet notwithstanding the Paucity of these they made a shift to return Knights of the Shire The common way of Election was thus The Earl of Tyrconnel together with the Writ for Election commonly sent a Letter recommending the Persons he design'd should be chosen the Sheriff or Mayor being his Creature on receipt of this call'd so many of the Free-holders of a County or Burgesses of a Corporation together as he thought fit and without any noise made the return It was easie to do this in Boroughs because by their new Charters the Electors were not above Twelve or Thirteen and in the greatest Cities but 24 and commonly not half of these on the place The Method of the Sheriffs proceeding was the same the number of Popish Freeholders being very small sometimes not a Dozen in a County it was easie to give notice to them to appear so that the Protestants either did not know of the Election or durst not appear at it By these means the pretended Parliament consisted of the most Bigotted Papists and of such as were most deeply Interested to destroy the Protestant Religion and Protestants of Ireland One Gerrard Dillon Serjeant at Law a most furious Papist was Recorder of Dublin and he stood to be chosen one of the Burgesses for the City but could not prevail because he had purchased a considerable Estate under the Act of Settlement and they fear'd lest this might engage him to defend it Several Corporations had no Representatives either because they were in the Enemies hands or else because the Persons named by the Charter for Electors were so far remote that they could not come in such Numbers as to secure the Elections for Papists against the few Protestants that were left still in the Charters and who lived generally on the place I have mark'd the Boroughs and Counties that had no Representatives in number about Twenty nine few Protestants could be prevail'd with to stand tho they might have been chosen because they foresaw no possibility of doing good and thought it unsafe to sit in a Parliament which they judged in their Conscience Illegal and purposely design'd for Mischief to them and their Religion however it was thought convenient that some should be in it to observe how things went and with much perswasion and Intreaty Sir John Mead and Mr. Joseph Coghlan Counsellors at Law were prevail'd on to stand for the University of Dublin the University must chuse and it could not stand with their Honor to chuse Papists and therefore they pitch'd on these two Gentlemen who were hardly brought to accept of it as thinking it Scandalous to be in so ill Company and they could not prevail with themselves to sit out the whole Session but withdrew before the Act of Attainder
came to be concluded not enduring to be present at the passing of that and some other Barbarous Acts against which they found their Votes signified nothing while they staid There were four more Protestants return'd of whose Behaviour I can give no account or how they came to be return'd The generality of the Houses consisted of the Sons and Descendents of the Forfeiting Persons in 1641. Men that had no Freeholds or Estates in the Kingdom but were purposely elected to make themselves Estates by taking them away from Protestants 15. Now whilst the power of making and repealing Laws was in such hands what Security could Protestants promise themselves from any Laws or what probability was there that any Laws already made in their Favour would be continued Especially if we consider further that this Parliament openly profess'd it self a Slave to the King's Will and he was look'd on as Factiously and Rebelliously inclin'd that would dare to move any thing after any Favorite in the House had affirm'd that it was contrary to the King's pleasure Several Bills were begun in the House of Commons one for erecting an Inns of Court another for repealing an Act commonly call'd Poinings Act which requires that all Acts should be perused by the King and Council of England before they be offered to be pass'd by the Parliament in Ireland but King James signified his Dissatisfaction to these Bills and for that reason they and several others were let fall tho the Irish had talk'd much and earnestly desir'd the Repeal of Poinings Act it being the greatest Sign and means of their Subjection to England There was a doubt made in the House concerning the Earl of Strafford whether he should be attainted for Estate and Life several moved in his behalf but it was carried against him upon this Evidence Colonel Simon Lutterell affirmed in the House That he had heard the King say some hard things of him The King's pleasure therefore was the Law to which we were to trust for our Lives and Fortunes our Enemies having entirely engross'd the power of making and repealing Laws and devolved it on the King's pleasure the very Protestant Lords and Bishops being denied their Priviledge of entering their Protestations against such Votes as they conceiv'd Destructive to the Kingdom The King told them That Protestations against Votes were only used in Rebellious times and with much ado they were allowed to enter their Dissent tho after that was allowed them the Clerk of the Parliament one Polewheele a Nephew of Chancellor Fitton 's shifted them off and did not enter their Dissent to some Votes tho often sollicited and press'd to do it according to the Orders of the House 16. When King James had labour'd as much as in him lay to get a Parliament that would repeal the Penal Laws and Test in England and open the Houses to Papists he found at last that the great Obstacle that rendered the Kingdom so averse to this was the general Fear and Apprehension that the Legislative Authority would be engross'd by them and turn'd against Protestants this was so obvious and reasonable a Surmise that he knew there was no hopes that the People would side with him against their present Majesties if something were not done to satisfie them and therefore to remove this fear he published his Proclamation dated Sept. 20. 1688. wherein he declares himself willing that Roman Catholicks should remain incapable to be Members of the House of Commons if the Protestants of England had reason to apprehend that Papists would engross the Legislative Authority in England and from the Example of Queen Mary's House of Commons to dread such Law givers how much more reason had the Protestants of Ireland to dread that power when entirely engrossed by their most inveterate Popish Enemies whose Interest as well as Religion oblig'd them to divest all those that profess'd the Reform'd Religion not only of the Favour but likewise of the Benefits of Law 17. They sate from the Seventh of May till the Twentieth of July following and in that short time entirely destroy'd the Settlement of Ireland and outed both the Protestant Clergy and Laity of their Freeholds and Inheritances It is not to be exspected I should give an account of all their Acts that which concerns this present Section is to shew how they destroy'd the Protestants real Estates 1. And that was first by an Act of Repeal whereby they took away the Acts of Settlement and Explanation by virtue of which as I have already shew'd two thirds of the Protestants of the Kingdom held their Estates that is all that which is call'd New Interest was lost by this Repeal there is no consideration had in it how any Man came to his Estate but tho he purchased it at ever so dear a rate he must lose it and it is to be restor'd without Exception to the Proprietor or his Descendent that had it before October 22. 1641. upon what account soever he lost it tho they themselves did not deny but many deserv'd to lose their Estates even Sir Phelim O Neal's Son the great Murtherer and Rebel was restor'd 2. In order to make a final Extirpation of Protestants they contrive and pass an Act of Attainder by which all Protestants whose Names they could find of all Ages Sexes and Degrees are attainted of High Treason and their Estates vested in the King the pretence of this Attainder was their being out of the Kingdom at the time of passing the Act as shall be shewn in the next Section 3. Least some should be forgotten of those that were absent and not put into the Bill of Attainder they contriv'd a general Clause in the Act of Repeal whereby the real Estates of all who Dwelt or staid in any place of the three Kingdoms which did not own King Jame's Power or corresponded with any such as they term Rebels or were any ways aiding abetting or assisting to them from the First day of August 1688. are declared to be forfeited and vested in his Majesty and that without any Office or Inquisition found thereof By which Clause almost every Protestant that could Write in the Kingdom had forfeited his Estate for the Packets went from London to Dublin and back again constantly from August to March 1688. and few had Friends in England or in the North but corresponded with them by Letters and every such Letter is made by this clause a Forfeiture of Estate They had intercepted and search'd every Packet that went or came the later part of this time and kept vast Heaps of Letters which were of no Consequence at all to the Government we wondered what the meaning of their doing so should be but by this Parliament we came to understand it for now these Letters were produced as Evidences in the House of Commons against those that appear'd in behalf of their absent Friends or oppos'd the attainting of such Protestants as they had some kindness for and they were
further reserv'd to prove a Correspondence against the few Estated Men that were in the Kingdom Lastly It was the end of Sept. 1688. before we heard any thing of the Prince of Orange's design to make a Descent into England and yet to have been in England or Scotland any time in the Month before or to have corresponded with any there is made Forfeiture of Estate by the Letter of this Statute 4. Least the Children and Descendents of the Protestants thus attainted who had Estates before 1641. should come in and claim them after the Death of the attainted Persons by virtue of Settlements made on valuable Considerations and upon Marriages all such Remainders and Reversions are cut off for there is an express Exception to all Remainders on such as are commonly call'd Plantation-lands and likewise to such Lands c. as are held by Grants from the Crown or upon Grants by Commissioners upon defective Titles It were too tedious to explain these several kinds of Tenures it is sufficient to let the Reader know that they comprehend all those Estates which were acquir'd by Protestants before the year 1641. Thus then the case stood with the Protestants if they purchased or acquired their Estates since the year 1641. out of any of the Lands then forfeited they were to lose them whether Guilty or Innocent by the Act of Repeal if their Estates were such as belong'd to Protestants before 1641. and consequently were what we call Old Interest then to have been in England or Scotland or to have corresponded with any of their Friends there or in the North since August 1. 1688. was a Forfeiture of Estate and a Bar for their Remainders for ever tho the Heirs had done nothing to divest themselves of the Estates derived to them by legal Settlements on valuable Considerations And here the Partiality of this Parliament is visible for there is a saving in the Act for all such Remainders as they thought might relate to any Papist whereas all the Remainders in which they did imagine Protestants could be concern'd are bar'd 5. There is indeed a promise of reprizing Purchasers in the Act of Repeal which was put in to qualifie the manifest Injustice of it and to satisfie the Clamors of several amongst themselves who were to lose their Estates by it as having purchased new interested Land But least any Protestant who staid in the Kingdom should hope for Benefit by this Clause or be repriz'd for the Lands he had purchased perhaps from a Papist they contrive a Clause in the latter end of the Act Whereby the King is enabled to gratifie Meriting Persons and to order the Commissioners to set forth Reprizals and likewise to appoint and ascertain where and what Lands should be set out to them By which the Protestants were excluded from all hopes of Reprizals for to be sure where any of them put in for a piece of Land there would never want a Meriting Papist to put in for the same and when it was left intirely to K. James which he would prefer of those two let the World judge what hope any Protestant could have of a Reprizal Thus when Sir Thomas Newcomen put in Proposals for a Custodiam in order to a Reprizal Mr. Robert Longfield a Convert and Clerk of the Quit-rents and Absentees Goods is said to have put his own Name to Sir Thomas's Proposal and to have got the Custodiam for himself 6. Lastly Some might think that tho near 3000 Protestants were attainted and the Estates of all the rest in a manner vested in the King yet this was only done in terrorem and that K. James never meant to take the Forfeiture To this I answer That it was not left in his power to pardon any that was attainted or whose Estate was vested in him by this Act this was if we believe his Majesty more than he knew when he pass'd it and was one reason why the Act of Attainder was made so great a Secret that no Copy could be gotten of it by any Protestant till the Easter after it was pass'd and then it was gotten by a meer accident We had from the beginning labor'd to get it and offer'd largely for a Copy but could not by any means prevail Chancellor Fitton keeping the Rolls lock'd up in his Closet till at last a Gentleman procur'd it by a Stratagem which was thus Sir Thomas Southwell had been condemned for High-Treason against King James amongst other Gentlemen at Gallway in March 1688. and attainted in the Act of Attainder also he continued a Prisoner till my Lord Seaforth became acquainted with him my Lord undertook to reconcile him to the King and to get his Pardon K. James promis'd it on the Earl's Application and order was given to draw up a Warrant for it The Gentleman I mentioned being a Lawyer and an Acquaintance of Sir Thomas's was employ'd to draw it up he immediately apprehended this to be a good opportunity to get a Copy of the Act of Attainder which he had labor'd for in vain before and which was kept from us by so much Injustice He told the Earl therefore and Sir Thomas what was the real Truth that he could not draw up an effectual Pardon except he saw the Act that attainted him Hereupon the Earl obtain'd an express order from the King to have a Copy deliver'd to him Thus I believe was the only Copy taken of it after it was inrolled it was taken for the use of a Papist and was lent to the Earl who was permitted to shew it to his Lawyer and accordingly left it with him only for one day who immediately imploy'd several Persons to Copy it and the Copy was sent by the first Opportunity into England The List of the Names of those that were attainted had been obtained the January before with difficulty the Commissioners in the Custom-house who seiz'd Absentees Goods and set their Estates could not do their Work without such a List and that which was Printed in England with some of the Acts of our Irish Parliament was coppied from thence but the Act it self could not then be procured and therefore was not Printed with them When the Lawyer had drawn up the Warrant for Sir Thomas's Pardon with a full Non obstante to the Act of Attainder the Earl brought it to the Attorney General Sir Richard Nagle to have a Fiant drawn the Attorney read it and with Indignation threw it aside the Earl began to expostulate with him for using the King's Warrant at that rate The Attorney told him That the King did not know what he had done that he had attempted to do a thing that was not in his power to do that if the Earl understood our Laws or had seen the Act of Attainder he would be satisfied that the King could not dispense with it My Lord answered That he understood Sense and Reason and that he was not a Stranger to the Act of Attainder Sir Richard would
not believe him till he shewed the Copy which much surpriz'd Sir Richard he began to enquire how his Lordship came by it and intimated that the Keepers of the Rolls were Treacherous in letting any one see it much more in letting a Copy of it go abroad His Lordship with good reason express'd his Admiration that an Act of Parliament should be made a Secret and the Laws upon the Observation of which the Lives and Fortunes of so many Men depended should be conceal'd with so much care from them At last the Attorny told him That he himself would draw up a Warrant for Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon that should do his Business and get the King to Sign it But the Earl refused to accept his offer unless his Lawyer might first peruse it which being granted the Lawyer upon perusal found it to be such as would not hold in Law and intended only to delude him The Earl made new Application to King James and Sir Richard being sent for the King ask'd him why he did not prepare a Fiant for Sir Thomas Southwell's Pardon according to the Warrant sent to him He answered That his Majesty could not grant such a Pardon That his Majesty was only a Trustee for Forfeited Estates and could not Dispense with the Act that by an express Clause in it all Pardons that should be granted were declar'd void The King in some Passion told him That he hoped they did not intend to retrench his Prerogative Sir Richard replied That his Majesty had read the Act before he pass'd it The King answered He had betray'd him that he depended on him for drawing the Act and if he had drawn it so that there was no room for Dispensing and Pardoning he had been false to him or words to that effect Thus the Matter ended and Sir Thomas went into Scotland with my Lord Seaforth without being able to obtain his Pardon for Estate or Life the Act voiding any Pardon granted to any attainted by it after Nov. 1. 1689. or not enrolled before the last day of that Month. 18. And now I doubt not but the Reader from this Story which is literally true will observe first the Juggling of the Popish Lawyers with King James and will pity a Prince who gave himself up to such False and Double-dealing Counsellors when an Act of Parliament is made against a Papist then it is no less than Treason to question the King 's Pardoning and Dispensing Power but when an Act bears hard on a Protestant and the King has a mind to ease him then the King has no power to Dispense he cannot grant a Pardon tho he earnestly desire it From whence we may see that the Dispensing Power was only set up to shelter Papists from the Law and ruin Protestants and that Papists in their Hearts are as much against it as Protestants 2. We may observe what fair Justice was design'd for Protestants a Law was made to turn near 3000 out of their Estates and to take away their Lives if they did not come in against a certain day and yet the Law that subjected them to this Penalty was made a Secret and they not suffer'd to know one word of it till the time allow'd them to come in was past at least three Months but there was an Intrigue in this they knew they had a Party in England who were to face down the World that there were no such Acts made a Party that were to represent it as a Sham and Contrivance of King James's Enemies to make him Odious and the great Argument they were to urge to prove it must be to alledge Where is the Act Why doth it not appear If there were any such Act would not the People that came so often from Ireland and tell such Frightful Stories have brought it with them This is the part the Favourers of King James were to act in England and Scotland and this is the reason the Act was so long kept Secret 3. We may observe the Folly of those Men who were attainted in this Act themselves and yet Flatter themselves with the hopes of living Happily and enjoying their Estates nay and getting Preferment under K. James when restor'd to his Kingdoms these Men do not consider that this Act would be restor'd together with him and that then it is not in his power to do this for them that if they expect any such thing they must be oblig'd to an Irish Popish Parliament for it and he is much a Stranger to Ireland that knows not what Mercy an English-man and a Protestant is to exspect from them especially when they can give him nothing but what is taken from one of themselves Till therefore the Papists of Ireland become so good natur'd as to give away by their own voluntary act their Estates of which they were in actual Possession to Protestants it is the greatest Folly in the World for any Protestant to think of enjoying any Estate in Ireland 4. For 't is observable that the Protestants Estates were not only given away by this Act of Attainder but the Papists were likewise in Possession of them by the following means The Act of Repeal was to be executed by Commissioners appointed by the King who were to determine the Claims of the Proprietors or Heirs to the Proprietors of the respective Estates October 22. 1641. and give Injunctions to the Sheriff to put them in Possession In the mean time the Protestants were to keep their Possessions till the First of May 1690. and to pay Rent to the Popish Proprietors The same Commissioners were to set out Reprizals to reprizable Persons But notwithstanding this no such Commissioners ever sate the Protestants were generally outed and the Papists possess'd both of their old Estates and likewise of the Estates of Protestants they compass'd this by several Stratagems 19. Wherever the Protestants had set their Lands to Papist Tenants those Tenants forsook their Protestant Landlords and became Tenants to the pretended Popish Proprietors Several Protestants complained in Chancery of this as contrary to the Act which allowed them to keep Possession till May 1690. which not being yet come nor any Commissioners being yet appointed to execute the Act they mov'd for an Injunction to quite their Possessions but the Chancellor answer'd That this did not concern Landlords that set their Lands but only such as occupied Farms themselves and that the Parliament had granted that indulgence to them only that they might have time to dispose of their Stocks which not being their Case who had Tenants they must go to Common Law and try their Titles by this means most of the old Popish Proprietors got into their Estates Nay they not only outed the Landlords of their Estates but even the Protestant Tenants of their Leases made in consideration of a valuable reserv'd Rent though this was positively against the intent of the Act which confirm'd such Leases and only gave the reserved Rent to the restor'd Proprietor 2.
Women big with Child nor old decrepit Creatures some Women in Labour some that were just brought to Bed were driven amongst the rest the very Papist Officers that executed the thing confest that it was the most dismal sight they had ever seen and that the cries of the poor People seem'd to be still in their Ears They owned that they gathered above 4000. others say 7000. and that they kept many of them without Meat or Drink for a whole Week that several hundreds dyed in the Place before they were dismist and many more on the way as they went home again to their Houses nor were they better when they came there for the stragling Soldiers Raparies and Pilferers that follow'd the Army had left them neither Meat Drink Houshold-Stuff nor Cattel but had taken away all in their absence so that the generality of them afterwards perish'd for want and many were knockt on the head by the Soldiers I need not trouble the Reader with the success of this cruel and foolish Stratagem it was the same which any thinking Man would have expected it confirm'd the besieg'd in their Resolutions never to yield to such barbarous People and it made them set up Gallows and threaten to hang all the Prisoners they had in their hands if their Friends were not immediately dismist with which the Besiegers being startled and finding that it did not answer their design to keep them still under the Walls did at last comply after they had kept them there three days without Meat this was the security Men had of their Lives by King James's Protections the news of this Order came to Dublin before it was executed and the Bishop of Meath went immediately to King James to see if he could prevail with him to prevent such a barbarous proceeding His Majesty very calmly told the Bishop That he had heard of it before and that he had sent Orders to stop it that General Rosen was a Forreigner and us'd to such Proceedings as were strange to us though common in other places and that if he had been his own Subject he would have call'd him to account for it Yet he continued him still in his Employment 'T was he burnt the Country about Derry when he was forced to raise the Siege and lâ—â—t after the French Custom the Gentlemens Houses and Villages that lay in his way towards Dublin in Ashes It was commonly said that he and Mámmo who was kill'd before Derry were the Persons employ'd to Dragoon the Protestants of Languedock and that committed so many Barbarities on those poor People If so it is not strange that they should commit the like on the Protestants of Ireland but it is strange that King James should employ such Men and not at all punish such monstrous violation of Faith as well as of Humanity and yet expect that we should depend on him for our Protection His Protections were in every Place alike insignificant many Protestants lost the value of Three many of Four and some of 10 m. Pounds Sterling notwithstanding their repeated Protections and their approv'd and peaceable demeaning themselves of which Captain Barton in the County of Monaghan was a signal Example he had a Protection for his House at Carrick Mac Ross and Arms and had left his Servants in his House to preserve it and his Goods he himself staying in Dublin as a Hostage to the Government that they might not suspect him to have any design to withdraw to the North or join with such Protestants as were in Arms there yet in his absence a Party of Colonel Mac Mahon's Regiment about February 1688. came and demanded the House the Servants shew'd their Protection and told him who commanded the Soldiers that they had Orders from the Government to keep the House the Commander assur'd them that he would not disturb them and that he only design'd to lodge some of his Men in it to secure it more effectually for the King and the Owner upon which promise the Servants let him and his Soldiers into the House they no sooner had obtain'd entrance but they fell a plundring destroying and defacing and in a few hours by ruining his Improvements and robbing his Goods Stock and Furniture they damnified him to near the value of 10 m. Pounds He complain'd of this false and injurious dealing to the Government but could never obtain any redress or procure the Actors of it to be brought to any Account or Punishment instead of obtaining any thing of that nature they added new Injuries to their former and at last burnt his House to the Ground And here it will not be amiss by the way to give some further Instances of their violation of Articles as well as of Protections About Thirty Soldiers January 1688. deserted from Dublin and endeavour'd to make their escape to Inniskilling they were pursued by one Captain Nugent with a Party of Horse and overtaken near Navan within Twenty Miles of Dublin they put themselves in a posture to fight and were ready to fire at him but he by fair Promises and good Words perswaded them to Capitulate and at last upon Articles to yield He Covenanted with them that they should be safe and free and should suffer no other injury but the loss of their Arms notwithstanding which as soon as they gave up their Arms he stript and pinion'd them and with much interest they escaped present death this Mercy was due to the circumstances of the time which obliged the Government to reserve them in Jail till a more proper season though in a condition more grievous than if they had been hang'd immediately The Fort of Culmore near Derry yielded on Articles to King James by which the Gentlemen that surrendred it were to be indemnified and liberty allow'd them either to live secure and quietly in the Kingdom or else go to any other place where they thought fit but notwithstanding these Articles they were were disarm'd and stript and several of them seiz'd and put into Prison nay attainted in their pretended Act of Parliament The Garrison of Londonderry after the Forces which came under Colonel Cuningham and Colonel Richards to succour it had resolved to return for England sent one Captain White to King James to receive Proposals from him it being the Opinion of many of those that remain'd in the Town that they must surrender it the Conditions were not difficult to concert in the mean time it was agreed as a Preliminary Article that the Army should not march within Four Miles of the Town but before the Terms could be adjusted or any answer be return'd from the City the King himself marched his Army towards it and was in view almost as soon as the Commissioners that came with the Proposals This being against his Engagement and an absolute breach of the Preliminary Article already agreed on put a stop to the Treaty and contributed to the Resolution of the Besieged who durst never trust any Articles after
but by the legal course of Juries But King James and his Parliament intended to do the work of Protestants speedily and effectually and not to wait the slow methods of proceeding at the Common Law They resolv'd therefore on a Bill of Attainder and in order to it every Member of the House of Commons return'd the Names of such Protestant Gentlemen as liv'd near him or in the County or Burrough for which he serv'd and if he was a stranger to it he sent into the County or Place for information they were in great haste and many escaped them on the other hand some that were actually in King James's Service and fighting for him at Derry of which Cornet Edmund Keating Nephew to my Lord Chief Justice Keating was one were return'd as absent and attainted in the Act. When they had made a Collection of Names they cast them into several Forms and attainted them under several Qualifications and accordingly allow'd them time to come in and put themselves on Tryal the Qualifications and Numbers were as follow 1. Persons Attainted of Rebellion who had time given them till till the Tenth of August to surrender themselves and be tryed provided they were in the Kingdom and amenable to the Law at the time of making the Act otherwise were absolutely Attainted One Archbishop One Duke Fourteen Earls Seventeen Viscounts and one Viscountess Two Bishops Twelve Barons Twenty six Baronets Twenty two Knights Fifty six Clergymen Eleven hundred fifty three Esquires Gentlemen c. 2. Persons who were absentees before the Fifth of Novem. 1688 not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First of September 1689. One Lord. Seven Knights Eight Clergymen Sixty five Esquires Gentlemen c. 3. Persons who were Absentees before the Fifth of November 1688. not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First day of October 1689. One Archbishop One Earl One Viscount Five Bishops Seven Baronets Eight Knights Nineteen Clergymen Four hunder'd thirteen Esquires Gentlemen c. 4. Persons usually resident in England who are to signifie their Loyalty in case the King goes there the First of October 1689. and on His Majesties Certificate to the Chief Governour here they to be discharged otherwise to stand attainted One Earl Fifteen Viscounts and Lords Fourteen Knights Four hunder'd ninety two Esquires Gentlemen c. 5. Absentees by reason of sickness and noneage on proving their Loyalty before the last day of the first Term after their return to be acquitted and restor'd in the mean time their Estates Real and Personal are vested in His Majesty One Earl Seven Countesses One Viscountess Thirteen Ladies One Baronet Fifty nine Gentlemen and Gentlewomen 6. They vest all Lands c. belonging to Minors Ladies Gentlewomen in the King till they return and then upon Proof of their Loyalty and Faithfulness to King James they are allow'd to sue for their Estates before the Commissioners for executing the Acts of Repeal and Attainder if sitting or in the High Court of Chancery or Court of Exchequer and upon a Decree obtain'd for them there the Sheriffs are to put them in possession of so much as by the Decree of one of those Courts shall be adjudged them The Clauses in the Act are so many and so considerable that it never having been printed intire I thought it convenient to put it into the Appendix Perhaps it was never equall'd in any Nation since the time of the Proscription in Rome and not then neither for here is more than half as many Condemned in the small Kingdom of Ireland as was at that time proscribed in the greatest part of the then known World yet that was esteemed an unparallel'd Cruelty When Sir Richard Nagle Speaker of the House of Commons presented the Bill to King James for his Royal Assent he told him that many were attainted in that Act by the House of Commons upon such Evidence as fully satisfied the House the rest of them were attainted he said upon common Fame A Speech so very brutish that I can hardly perswade my self that I shall gain credit to the Relation but it is certainly true the Houses of Lords and Commons of their pretended Parliament are Witnesses of it and let the World judge what security Protestants could have of their Lives when so considerable a Lawyer as Sir Richard Nagle declares in so solemn an occasion and King James with his Parliament approves that common Fame is a sufficient Evidence to deprive without hearing so many of the Gentry Nobility and Clergy of their Lives and Fortunes without possibility of pardon and not not only cut off them but their Children and Posterity likewise By a particular Clause from advantages of which the former Laws of the Kingdom would not have deprived them though their Fathers had been found guilty of the worst of Treasons in particular Tryals 7. I shall only add a few Observations on this Act and leave the Reader to make others as he shall find occasion 1. Then this Act leaves no room for the King to pardon after the last day of November 1689. if the Pardon be not Enroll'd before that time the Act declares it absolutely void and null 2. The Act was conceal'd and no Protestant for any Money permitted to see it much less take a Copy of it till the time limited for Pardons was past at least Four Months So that the State of the Persons here attainted is desperate and irrecoverable except an Irish Popish Parliament will relieve them for King James took care to put it out of the power of any English Parliament as well as out of his own Power to help them by consenting to another Act of this pretended Parliament Intituled An Act declaring that the Parliaments of England cannot bind Ireland and against Writs of Errors and Repeals out of Ireland into England 3. It is observable with what hast and confusion this Act was drawn up and past perhaps no man ever heard of such a crude imperfect thing so ill digested and compos'd past on the World for a Law We find the same Person brought in under different Qualifications in one Place he is expresly allow'd till the First of October to come and submit to Tryalâ— and yet in another Place he is attainted if he do not come in by the First of September many are attainted by wrong Names many have their Christian Names left out and many whose Names and Sirnames are both put in are not distinguished by any Character whereby they may be known from others of the same Names 4. Many considerable Persons are left out which certainly had been put in if they could have gotten their Names which is a further proof of their hast and confusion in passing the Bill It is observable the Provost Fellowâ— and Scholars of the Colledge by Dublin are all omitted the Reason was
assistance rather more than on the Roman Catholicks now they knew very well that Murther is so hateful a thing that if they once fell a Massacring it would shock many of their Friends in England and Scotland from whom they expected great matters and therefore they thought it their interest to be as tender of Lives as they could and even the Priests when they encouraged them to Rob their Protestant Neighbours charg'd them not to kill them assuring them that every thing else would be forgiven them 3. The Protestants were extreamly cautious not to give the least offence they walked so warily and prudently that it was hardly possible to find any occasion against them and they were so true to one another and conversed so little with any of King James's Party that it was as difficult to fix any thing on them or to get any Information against them though several designs were laid against them and several false Witnesses produc'd as has been shewn yet their Stories still destroyed themselves by their Improbabilities inconsistency and the notorious infamy of the Witnesses 4. We had no experiment of what would have been done with the attainted Absentees for none of them run the hazard of a Tryal but we are sure no good could have been done them for they could neither have been pardoned for Estate nor Life and the best they could have expected was to have been sent to some other Kingdom as Sir Thomas Southwell was sent to Scotland for there could have been no living for them in Ireland 5. When any Protestant found himself obnoxious to the Government or but fancyed they had any thing to object against him he got out of the Kingdom or made his escape to the North as well as he could and in the mean time absconded many escaped hanging by these means which otherwise in all probability had been executed Lastly It was so much the Interest of King James in his Circumstances to have been kind to the Protestanâ—s of Ireland that we might rather have expected to have been courted than ill used by him the whole support and maintenance of his Army in Ireland depended on them they clothed fed armed and quartered them which they could not avoid doing with any safety to themselves or indeed possibility of living and the Officers of the Army were so sensible of this that when it was propos'd to turn all the Protestants out of the City of Dublin one of them answered that whenever they were turned out the Army must go with them for they could not be furnished with what they wanted by others And as it was King James's Interest to use them well upon the account of their being necessary to him in Ireland so his Affairs in England and Scotland did more particularly require it and he was forced to employ his Emissaries there to give it out that he did so Sir Daniel Mac Daniel who came out of the Isles of Scotland to Dublin in Winter 1689. and several Gentlemen of the Highlands with him declared that their Ministers in the Pulpit had assured them that the Protestants in Ireland lived under King James in the greatest freedom quiet and security both as to their Properties and Religion and that if their Countrymen knew the truth of the matter as they then found it here they would never fight one stroak for him and they seemed to stand amazed at what they saw and could hardly believe their own Eyes It is certain that King James had the like Instruments in England as I have noted before who forced down the World in Coffee-Houses and publick places that the Protestants in Ireland lived easie and happy under his Government however this shews how much it was really his Interest to have given his Protestant Subjects here no just cause of complaint and that it must proceed from a strange eagerness to destroy them that King James and his Party ventured in their Circumstances to go so far in it as they did their own imminent danger disswaded them from severity and their Interest manifestly obliged them to mildness and if notwithstanding these they condemned near Three thousand of the most Eminent Gentlemen Citizens Clergymen and Nobility of the Kingdom to death and loss of Estates we may easily guess what they would have done when their fear and interest were removed and they left to the swing of their own natural Inclinations and the tendency of their Principles Whosoever considers all Circumstances will conclude that no less was designed by them than the execution of the third Chapter of the Lateran Council the utter extirpation of the Hereticks of these Kingdoms SECT XIV Ninthly Shewing King James's Methods for destroying the Protestant Religion 1. THE design against the Lives and Fortunes of the Protestants is so apparent from the execution thereof especially by the Acts of the late pretended Parliament that they themselves can hardly deny it nay some were apt to glory in it and to let us know that it was not a late design taken up since the revolt of England as they call it from King James they thought fit to settle on the Duke of Tirconnel above 20 m. Pounds per Annum in value out of the Estates of some Protestant Gentlemen attainted by them as aforesaid in consideration of his signal Service of Twenty Years which he spent in contriving this Work and bringing it to pass as one of their most eminent Members exprest it in his Speech in Parliament and the particular Act which vests this Estate in him shews 2. But it may be thought that King James was more tender in the matter of Religion and that he who gloried so much in his resolution to settle Liberty of Conscience wherever he had Power as he told his pretended Parliament and set forth almost in every Proclamation would never have made any open Invasion on the Consciences of his Protestant Subjects But they found by experience that a Papist whatever he professes is but an ill Guardian of Liberty of Conscience and that the same Religion that obliged the King of Spain to set up an Inquisition could not long endure the King of England to maintain Liberty If indeed King James had prevailed with Italy or Spain to have tolerated the open exercise of the Protestant Religion it had been I believe a convincing Argument to England to have granted Roman Catholicks Liberty in these Dominions but whilst the Inquisition is kept up to the height in those Countries and worse than an Inquisition in France against the publick Edicts and Laws of the Kingdom and against the solemn Oath and Faith of the King it is too gross to go about to perswade us that we might expect a free exercise of our Religion any other way than the Protestants enjoy it in France that is under the Discipline of Dragoons after the Papists had gotten the Arms the Offices the Estates and Courts of Judicature into their Hands 3. The Protestant Religion and
and 't is like more are vacant since It is true the Church has power to nominate Bishops without the consent of the Civil Magistrate but then they must not expect the Temporalities which are the Gifts or Grants of Kings and such Bishops and Clergy must intirely depend on the voluntary Contributions of their People for their maintenance and on their voluntary submission for their Juisdiction And here the Protestant Clergy had the greatest reason in the world to complain of King James to set him on the Throne the Clergy disobliged many of their People and he in requital deprived them of all other Worldly Support or Power besides what must depend on the free choice of those very People whom for his sake they had not only disobliged but likewise help'd to bring under many Inconveniencies SECT XVI 2. King James took away the maintenance of the present Protestant Clergy 1. BUT King James did not only endeavour to hinder the Education and Succession of the Protestant Clergy but he likewise took away all their present maintenance Immediately upon his coming to the Crown their Popish Parishioners began to deny the payment of Book-moneies which is a considerable part of the Ecclesiastical Revenue of Ireland a great part of the Tithes of Ireland are impropriate in some Places the whole Tythes in many Two third Parts and in most the one half and there is little left for the Vicar that serves the Cure except it be the Third part of the Tythes or the small Fees due out of Burials Marriages or Easter Offerings these Dues are call'd commonly Book-moneys and though very inconsiderable in themselves yet make a great part and in some Places the whole of what falls to the Vicar's portion against these the Popish Judges declar'd in their Circuits and by their encouragement most People and the Papists universally deny'd to pay them 2. The Priests began to declare that the Tythes belong'd to them and forbad their People to pay them to the Protestant Clergy with this the People complied willingly and for Two years before the late Revolution in England hardly any Tythes were recovered by the Clergy or if any were recovered it was with so much difficulty and cost that they turn'd to very little account 3. They past an Act in their pretended Parliament whereby they took away all Tythes that were payable by Papists and gave them to their own Popish Priests and allow'd them to bring an Action for them at the Common Law to make the recovery of them more easie and yet denyed this to the Protestant Clergy alleadging that they allow'd them still their old means of recovering their Tythes and therefore did them no injury But this was as good as nothing for they had so weaken'd the Ecclesiastical Power and Jurisdiction that it was incapable of compelling the People to obedience and it being necessary to sue out a Writ de excommunicato capiendo in order to force such as were refractory the Popish Chancellor either directly refused to grant the Writ or else laid so many impediments and delays in the way that it cost double the Value of the Tythes sued for to take it out 4. Though they rendered the Protestant Clergy uncapable of enjoying the Tythes of Roman Catholicks yet the Popish Clergy were made capable of enjoying the Protestant Tythes The Case then was thus if a Protestant had a Bishoprick Dignity or other Living by the new Act he must not demand any Tythes or Ecclesiastical Dues from any Roman Catholick and as soon as his Preferment became void by his death cession or absence a Popish Bishop c. was put into the Place and by their Act there needed no more to oblige all Men To repute take and deem a Man to be a Roman Catholick Bishop or Dean of any Place than the King 's signifying him to be so under his Privy Signet and Sign Manual a Power that the Protestants how much soever they magnified the King's Authority never trusted any King with nor other Mortal man whatsoever But as soon as any one became thus Entitled to a Bishoprick c. immediately all the Tythes as well of Protestants as of Papists became due to him with all the Glebes and Ecclesiastical Dues and for the recovery of them he had an Action at Common Law 5. Notwithstanding the Glebes and Protestants Tythes were not given to the Popish Clergy during the incumbency of the present Protestant Incumbents yet the Popish Priests by violence entred on the Glebes where there were any pretending that the King had nothing to do with them and that neither he or his Parliament could hinder the Church of her Rights and this Pretence was so far countenanced that no endeavours whatsoever could get any of these Priests out when once he had gotten possession The Truth is hardly one Parish in ten in the Provinces of Leinster Munster or Connaught have any Glebe left them for either they were never endowed or if they had been at any time endowed with Glebes the many Confusions and new Dispositions of Lands have made them to be forgotten or swallowed up in the Hands of some powerful Parishoners The pretence therefore of the Parliament that they had been kind to the Protestant Clergy in leaving them the Glebes was a meer piece of Hypocrisie since they knew that generally Parishes had no Glebes and that where they had Glebes the Priests would make a shift to get into possession of them without being given to them by the Parliament 6. The same may be said of their leaving some of the Tythes belonging to Protestants for the present to their own Clergy They had so robb'd and plundered the Protestants of the Country that few liv'd or had any thing Tithable in it being forced for their own safety to flee to the Towns and leave their Farms wast if any had Tythes they might pay them if they pleas'd or let it alone for they had left the Protestant Clergy as I shew'd before no way of recovering their Dues Many times the Priests came with a Company of the next quarter'd Dragoons and took the Tythes away by force and this past for a Possession of the Livings and the Protestant Ministers must bring their Leases of Ejectment if they would recover their Possessions or pretend any more to Tythes in those Livings There is a Custom in Ireland whereby some Farmers do agree with their Neighbours to plow their Lands for them on Condition that they afford them a certain quantity of Corn suppose an Half one Third or one Fourth after it is reaped Now Protestants that had Farms in the Country being in no capacity to plow them after their Horses were taken away and their Houses robb'd agreed with their Popish Neighbours to plow their Lands for them according to the Custom of the Country this was enough to Entitle Priests to the Tythes of Lands so plowed and accordingly they seiz'd upon them by force though both the Land
and Corn belong'd to Protestants by these and other such Contrivances from the year 1686. till King James's Power was put to an end by the Victory at the Boyn hardly any Protestant enjoy'd any Tythes in the Country all which was represented to the Government but to no purpose 7. In Corporate Towns and Cities there was a peculiar Provision made for Ministers by Act of Parliament in King Charles the Second's time by which Act the Houses in those Places were to be valued by Commissioners at a moderate value and the Lord Lieutenant or chief Governour for the time being did assign a certain Proportion for the Ministers maintenance not greater than the Twentieth part of the yearly value return'd by the Commissioners That therefore the City Protestant Clergy might not be in a better condition than those in the Country an Act was past in their pretended Parliament to take away this altogether the Clergy of Dublin desir'd to be heard concerning this Act at the Bar of the House of Lords before it past and their Council were admitted to speak to it who shew'd the unreasonableness and unjustice of it so evidently and insisted so boldly on King James's Promise to the Protestant Clergy at his first arrival in this Kingdom when he gave them the greatest assurances of maintaining them in their Rights and Priviledges and further bid them if aggriev'd in any thing to make their Complaints immediately to him and engaged to see them redrest that he seemed to be satisfied and the House of Lords with him yet the design to ruin them was so fixt that without offering any thing by way of Answer to the Reasons urged against it the Act past and thereby left the Clergy of the Cities and Corporate Towns without any pretence to a maintenance except they could get it from the voluntary Contributions of their People nay so malicious were they against the Protestant Clergy that they cut off the Arrears due to them as well as the growing Rent having left no means to recover them as appear'd upon Tryal at the Council-board afterward when some of the Clergy petitioned for relief therein 8. Upon the Plantation of Ulster 1625. there was a Table of Tythes agreed on by the King and Council and the Planters to whom the Grants were made by the King obliged to pay Tythes according to that Table the pretended Parliament took away this Table also for no other Reason that we could learn but because most of the Inhabitants of Ulster were Protestants and consequently the Protestant Clergy would pretend to them 9. The Livings of Ireland were valued by Commissions in Henry the Eight and Queen Elizabeths time and paid First Fruits and Twentieth Parts according to that valuation other Livings were held in Farm from the Crown and paid yearly a considerable reserved Rent commonly call'd Crown Rents others appertain'd to the Lord Lieutenant and other Officers of State and paid a certain rate of Corn for their use commonly call'd Port Corn. Now all these Payments were exacted from the Protestant Clergy notwithstanding the greatest part of their Tythes were taken from them The remaining part where any remained was seiz'd in many Places by the Commissioners of the Revenue and a Custodiam granted of it for the King's use for the payment of the Duties which accru'd out of the whole and not one Farthing allow'd for the Incumbent or the Curate nay in some Places they seiz'd the Incumbents Person and laid him in Jail till he paid these Duties though at the same time they had seiz'd his Livings and found that they were not sufficient to answer what they exacted and because the Clerk of the First Fruits Leiutenant Colonel Roger Moore being a Protestant himself would not be severe with the Clergy and seize their Livings and Persons to force them to pay what he knew they were not in a capacity to do they found pretence to seize his Person and sent him with Three Files of Musquetiers Prisoner to the Castle of Dublin where he and two Gentlemen more lay in a cold nasty Garret for some Months By these Contrivances the few Benefices yet in the hands of the Protestants instead of a support became a burthen to them and they were forced to cast themselves for a maintenance on the kindness of their People who were themselves undone and beggar'd SECT XVII 3. King James took away the Jurisdiction of the Church from Protestants 1. IT is impossible any society should subsist without a power of rewarding and punishing its Members now Christ left no other power to his Church but what is purely Spiritual nor can the Governours of the Church any other way punish their Refractory Subjects but by refusing them the Benefits of their society the Administration of the Word and Sacraments and the other Spiritual Offices annexed by Christ to the Ministerial Function But Kings and Estates have become Nursing Fathers to the Church and lent their Temporal power to second her Spiritual Censures The Jurisdiction therefore of the Clergy so far as it has any Temporal effect on the Bodies or Estates of Men is intirely derived from the Favour of States and Princes and acknowledged to be so in the Oath of Supremacy However this is now become a right of the Clergy by ancient Laws through all Christendom and to take it away after so long continuance must needs be a great blow to Religion and of worse Consequence than if the Church had never possessed it yet this was actually done by King James to the Protestant Clergy and is a plain sign that he intended to destroy their Religion when he depriv'd them of their support 2. For first he past an Act of Parliament whereby he exempted all that dissented from our Chruch from the Jurisdiction thereof and a Man needed no more to free him from all punishment for his Misdemeanors though only cognizable and punishable in the Ecclesiastical Courts than to profess himself a Dissenter or that it was against his Conscience to submit to the Jurisdiction of our Church nay at the first the Act was so drawn and past the House of Commons that no Protestant Bishop could pretend to any Jurisdiction even over his own Clergy but that and several other passages in the Commons Bills were so little pleasing to some who understood the King's Interest that Sir Edward Herbert was employed by King James to amend the Act for the House of Lords which he did in the form it is now in nothing of the Commons Bill being left in it but the word Whereas tho after all it effectually destroyed the Jurisdiction of the Church 3. But second in most places there was no Protestant Bishop left and consequently the Popish Bishop was to succeed to the Jurisdiction they being by another Act invested in Bishopricks as soon as they could procure King Jame's Certificate under his privy Signet that they were Archbishops or Bishops all incapacities by reason of their religion by any Statute
or Law whatsoever being taken off There were already vacant in Ireland one Archbishoprick and three Bishopricks they had Attainted Two of the surviving Archbishops and Seven Bishops so that they had already the Jurisdiction of ¾ of the Kingdom by a Law of their own making secured into the Hands of Papists and the rest were quickly to follow 4. But Third where any shadow of Jurisdiction remain'd with the Protestant Clergy they rendered it insignificant by encouraging the most Obstinate and Perverse Sectaries and by shewing them Favour according as they were most opposite and refractory to all Ecclesiastical Discipline and paying their Dues to the Clergy this may be suppos'd one reason of their peculiar Fondness of Quakers and that it was upon this account chiefly they made them Burgesses or Aldermen in their new Corporations and reckoned them as most useful Tools to pull down the Discipline of the Church tho their Tythes were not given away to the Popish Priests yet there was no way left for the Protestant Clergy to recover them they being exempted from their Jurisdiction and from the very beginning of King James's Reign they so ordered the matter that Quakers were generally exempted from paying Tythes which at last became a more sensible loss to the Protestant Clergy because these were the only People that call'd themselves Protestants who had any thing left them out of which Tythes were due 5. 'T was on the same account that lewd and debauch't Converts were encouraged amongst them and a Man needed no more to escape the Censures and punishments due to his Crimes but to profess himself reconcil'd upon which all proceedings against him must immediately cease Thus many lewd Women turn'd Converts and continued their Wickedness without fear of the Ecclesiastical Judg. 6. If at any time a Bishop went about to correct a Scandalous Clergy-man the Kings Courts immediately interpos'd and granted prohibitions tho the matter did not bear one They knew it must put the Bishop to much pains and costs to have it removed and they were in hopes to weary him out before he could get a Consultation and so zealous were the Popish Lawyers to protect a Scandalous Minister against his Bishop that they would of their own accord gratis plead his Cause they thought it Fee enough to weaken the Jurisdiction of a Protestant Bishop and to do a mischief to our Religion by keeping in a wicked scandalous Clergy-man to be a reproach to it One Mr. Ross was prosecuted by his Bishop for very leud and notorious Crimes but the King's Judges interpos'd and Serjeant Dillon then Prime Serjeant pleaded his Cause gratis against the Bishop of Kilmore who prosecuted him If any Clergy-man turn'd Papist as we have reason to thank God that very few did whatever his Motives of Conversion were he was sure to keep his Livings by a Dispensation and to be exempted from the Power of his Bishop 7. King James by an order under his Privy Signet took on him to appoint Chancellors to exercise jurisdiction over Protestants Thus he appointed one Gordon who called himself Bishop of Galloway in Scotland to be Chancellor in the Diocess of Dublin this Gordon was a very ignorant lewd Man and a profest Papist yet he took on him by Vertue of King James's Mandate to exercise Ecelesiastical Jurisdiction over the Protestants of the Diocess to grant Licenses for Marriages Administrations of Wills and to Cite and Excommunicate whom he pleas'd But the Clergy refus'd to submit to him or to denounce his Excommunications which obliged him to let that part of his Jurisdiction fall but as to the other part that concern'd Wills he made his advantage of it he cited the Widow or Relation of any deceased Person and if they refused to appear he granted Administrations to some of his own Creatures and they came by force and took away the Goods of the Defunct It is incredible what wicked brutish things he with a parcel of ill Men he got to act with him did on this pretence and how he oppress'd and squeez'd the Widows and Orphans the poor People not being strong enough to oppose him and the Crew he employed for force was all the Right he could pretend it being notorious that in the vacancy of the Archbishoprick or in his absence when he cannot have intercourse with his Diocess the Jurisdiction devolveth to the Dean and Chapter as Guardians of the Spiritualities and they notwithstanding the difficulty of the times and danger they were in chose the Right Reverend the Bishop of Meath to administer the Jurisdiction which he did with all the meekness modesty and diligence that is peculiar to him though he could not hinder the forementioned Gordons Encroachments as to Administrations of Wills and Testaments In short King James by Vertue of his Supremacy claim'd a despotick Power over the Church and pretended that he might do what he pleas'd as to matter of Jurisdiction tho his Ecclesiastical Supremacy no more entitled him to encroach on the Liberties and Priviledges of the Church than his Civil entitled him to dispose of the Civil Rights of the Subjects of his Kingdoms He had indeed taken away the Oath of Supremacy by an Act of his pretended Parliament but yet he would not disown the Power vested in him by it tho the Papists would have had him renounce it expresly but he answered that he did not claim any Ecclesiastical Authority over his Roman Catholick Subjects nor pretended to be Supream in their Church in his Dominions but only over the Protestants the Mystery of which was plainly this he foresaw that the Ecclesiastical Authority which is settled by the Laws and trusted in the Crown as he could abuse it might be a means to destroy the Protestant Religion and to hinder the exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline and therefore was resolved not to part with it not considering that such a manifest and designed abuse of a Trust in direct opposition to and destruction of the end for which it was granted to him was a provoking Temptation to his People on the first opportunity that offered to think of transferring it to some other Person that would administer it with more faithfulness according to the design for which it was granted 8. I might add as a Fifth means of destroying the Protestant Religion and slackening Discipline the universal Corruption of Manners that was encouraged at Court I do not charge King James with this in his own Person nor will I insinuate that he design'd it though he took no care to redress it but it lookt like a design in some and whether design'd or no it serv'd the Ends of Popery more than easily can be imagined and opened a wide Door for it That Kingdom that is very corrupt in Morals and debaucht is in a very fair way to embrace that Perswasion and generally their Proselites were such as had renounced Christianity in their Practice before they renounced the Principles thereof as taught in the
Reformed Churches and many Roman Catholicks declar'd that they would rather have had us profess no Religion at all than the Protestant In short whether it was from the loosness of the Principles of their Religion or from a design to gain on Protestants Impiety Prophaness and Libertinism were highly encouraged and favoured and it was observable that very few came with King James into Ireland that were remarkable for any strictness or severity of Life but rather on the other hand they were generally signal for their viciousness and looseness of their Morals Sir Thomas Hacket confess'd that in the whole year 1688. wherein he was Mayor of Dublin there was not one Protestant brought before him for Theâ—â— and hardly one for any other immorality whereas he was crouded with Popish Criminals of all sorts The Perjuries in the Courts the Robberies in the Country the lewd Practices in the Stews the Oaths Blasphemies and Curses in the Armies and Streets the drinking of Confusions and Damnations in the Taverns were all of them generally the acts of Papists or of those who own'd themselves ready to become such if that Party continued uppermost But more peculiarly they were remarkable for their Swearing and Blaspheming and Prophanation of the Lord's Day if they had any signal Ball or Entertainment to make any Journey or weighty Business to begin they commonly chose that day for it and lookt on it as a kind of conquest over a Protestant and a step to his Conversion if they could engage him to prophane it with them This universal viciousness made Discipline impossible and whatever Protestants were infected with it were intirely lost to the Church and their Religion for the stress of Salvation according to the Principles of the Reformed Religion depends on Virtue and Holiness of Life without which neither sorrow for Sin nor Devotion will do a Man any Service whereas he that hears Mass daily in the Roman Church kneels often before a Crucifix and believes firmly that the Roman Church is the Catholick and that all out of her Communion are damned makes not the least doubt of Salvation though he be guilty of habitual Swearing Drunkenness and many other Vices and the observation of this Indulgence gained them most of those Proselites that went over to them of the Lewd Women and Corrupted Gentry and many amongst themselves had so great a sense of this advantage that it made them very favourable to debauchery and openly profess that they had a much better opinion of the lewdest Persons that dyed in their own Communion than of the strictest and most devout Protestant and they would often laugh at our scrupling a Sin and our constancy at Prayers since as they would assure us with many Oaths we must only be damned the deeper for our diligence and they could not endure to find us go about to punish Vice in our own Members since said they it is to no purpose to trouble your selves about Vice or Virtue that are out of the Church and will all be damned SECT XVIII 4. King James and his Party in order to destroy the Protestant Religion took away the Protestants Churches and hindred their Religious Assemblies 1. TOwards the beginning of these Troubles the Papists boasted much of their kindness to the Protestant Clergy in leaving them their Churches They thought us very unreasonable to complain of our being robb'd or plunder'd or of the loss of our Estates whilst our Churches were left us and they would not own that they had done any injury to our Ministers whilst they had not turn'd them out of those This was urged upon all Occasions as an unanswerable Argument that King James intended in earnest to preserve inviolably that Liberty of Conscience he had promis'd but this was as all their other Promises a meer pretence the Priests told us from the beginning that they would have our Churches and that they would have Mass in Christ Church the chief Cathedral in Dublin in a very little time we knew well enough that this was intended whatever King James and his Ministers averr'd to the contrary for the same Act of Parliament that they had past to make their Priests and Bishops capable of Preferments and Benefices did also give them a Legal Title to the Churches belonging to those Preferments as they who drew the Act very well knew in the mean time their Affairs were not in such a forward Posture as to encourage them to seize on those Churches to which they could pretend no right tho some had been seized before the Act passed 2. But immediately upon the passing of the Act Duke Schonberg's landing alarm'd them and they were in so great fear of him that they rather thought of running into Munster or leaving the Kingdom than of possessing Churches And therefore they contented themselves with their former Methods for some time which was to let the Rabble break into them and deface them with barbarous and contumelious Circumstances breaking the Windows pulling up the Seats and throwing down the Pulpit Communion-Table and Rails and stealing what was portable out of them An instance of this sort and a remarkable Accident upon it of undoubted credit I have put in the Appendix In some Churches in the Diocess of Dublin they hung up a black Sheep in the Pulpit and put some part of the Bible before it In some places the Creaghs a sort of wild Irish that chose to fly out of the North at Duke Schonberg's landing rather than stay to give an account of the Robberies and Insolencies that they had committed there turn'd the Protestants Churches into lodging places defacing and burning whatever was combustible in them 3. And in Dublin the Government ordered the Churches several times to be seiz'd First the Earl of Tyrconnel fill'd them with Soldiers February 24. 1688. in order to receive the Arms of Protestants and they were kept some for a longer some for a shorter time upon this pretence Then they ordered them to be seiz'd anew September 6. 1689. pretending that the Protestants had hid their Arms in them and I doubt not but that they had Affidavits as they pretended to this purpose sufficient to induce them to search but not to justifie their committing such rudeness and barbarity as they did in them for the Soldiers not only broke open the Monuments and Graves but likewise the Coffins of the dead and tumbled out the dead Bodies and so left them expos'd till they were pleased to let the Protestants come into the Churcheâ— again to bury them though after all they found no Arms nor indeed were there any hid Thus far they proceeded whilst their fear was upon them resolving since they could not hopo to enjoy them themselves that they would make them as useless as they could to Protestants But when they found that Duke Schonberg stopt at Dundalk and they understood the State of his Army the Priests took Courage and in the Months of October and November they
though the Protestants concerned sollicited it with the utmost eagerness and diligence even to the hazard of their Lives yet they could never procure the King and Councils Order for the restitution of their Church to be executed or obeyed and so they continued out of it till His present Majesties success restor'd them and their fellow Protestants to their Churches as well as to their other just Rights 12. Now here we had a full demonstration what the Liberty of Conscience would come to with which King James thought to have amused Protestants and of which he boasted so unmeasurably if once Popery had gotten the upper hand He and his Parliament might have made Acts for it if they pleas'd but we see here that the Clergy would have told them that they medled with what did not concern them and that they had no power to make Acts about Religious Matters or dispose of the Rights of Holy Church and we see from this Experiment who would have been obeyed We found here upon tryal that when King James would have kept his word to us it was not in his power to do it and that his frequently repeated Promises and his Act of Parliament for Liberty of Conscience could not prevent the demolishing defacing or seizing Nine Churches in Ten through the Kingdom and discovered to us That the Act for Liberty of Conscience was only design'd to destroy the Establish'd Church and not that Protestants should have the Benefit of it 13. Having taken away our Churches and publick Places of meeting the next thing was to hinder our Religious Assemblies It is observable that the Act of their pretended Parliament for Liberty of Conscience promises full and free exercise of their respective Religions to all that profess Christianity within the Kingdom without any molestation loss or penalty whatsoever but assigns no punishment to such as shall disturb any in their Religious Exercises and there was good reason for that omission for by this means they had left their Officers and Soldiers at liberty to disturb the Religious Assemblies of Protestants without fear of being call'd to any account 14. By the Act an open free and uninterrupted access was to be left into every Assembly and they commonly had their Emissaries in every Church to see if they could find any thing to object against the Preacher But the Ministers did not fear any thing could be objected even by malice on this Account and therefore when they found they were not like to make much of this they let it fall and the Officers and Soldiers came into the Churches in time of Divine Service or in time of Sermons and made a noise sometimes threatning the Ministers sometimes cursing sometimes swearing and sometimes affronting or assaulting Women and picking occasions of quarrels with the Men and comitting many disorders it vex'd and grieved them to see the Churches full contrary to their expectation that neither their Liberty of Conscience nor multiplying their Mass-houses nor their driving away several thousands of Protestants into England had in the least emptied them that their Liberty of Conscience instead of dividing had rather united Protestants and that the zeal and frequency of Devotion amongst those that remained supplyed the absence of those that were gone and crowded the Churches rather more than formerly it grieved them much to see those things and they on all occasions vented their spleen against the Assemblies of Protestants 15. In the Country where Churches were taken from the Protestants they met in private Houses and where their Ministers were gone and their maintenance seiz'd others undertook the Cures either gratis or were maintain'd by the voluntary Contributions of the People So that there appear'd no probability that Protestantism would be destroy'd without violence The Papists saw this and therefore watched an opportunity to begin it On the Sixth of Septem 1689. upon pretence of a Case of Pistols and a Sword found in some out part of Christ Church in Dublin they lockt it up for a Fortnight and suffered no Service to be in it On the Twenty seventh of October they took it to themselves and hindred Protestants to officiate any more in it On the Thirteenth of September on pretence of some Ships seen in the Bay of Dublin they forbad all Protestants to go to Church or assemble in any Place for Divine Service July 13. 1689. there issued out a Proclamation forbidding Protestants to go out of their Parishes one design of this was to hinder their Assemblies at Religious Duties for in Ireland generally Two or Three Parishes have but one Church and consequently by this one half were confined from the Service of God through the Kingdom June 1690. Colonel Lutterel Governour of Dublin issued his Order forbidding more than Five Protestants to meet together on pain of Death he was askt whether this was designed to hinder meeting at Churches it was answered that it was design'd to hinder their meeting there as well as in other places and in execution of this all the Churches were shut up and all Religious Assemblies through the Kingdom forbidden under pain of Death and we were assured that if King James had return'd Victorious from the Boyn it was resolved that they should never have been opened any more for us and the same excuse would have served for his permitting this that serv'd him the former year for not restoring the Churches taken away in his absence at the former Camp even that he must not disoblige his Roman Catholick Clergy Thus God gave them opportunity to shew what they intended against our Religion even to take away all our Churches and hinder all our Religious Assemblies and when they had brought their Liberty of Conscience to this and we had been obliged upon pain of Death to forbear all publick Worship for a Fortnight then he sent us deliverancâ— by means of his present Majesties Victory at the Boyn which restor'd us the Liberty of worshiping God together as well as the use of our Churches SECT XIX 5. The violences used by King James's Party to make Converts and to discourage the Protestant Ministers 1. BUT all these methods of ruining the Protestant Religion seem'd tedious to the Priests and therefore they could not be prevail'd with to abstain from violence wherever they had a fair opportunity to use it they applyed it with all diligence Several Protestant Women were married to Papists many of these used unmerciful Severities to their Wives and endeavoured by hardships and unkindness to weary the poor Women out of their Religion some stript them of their Clothes kept them some days without Meat or Drink beat them grievously and at last when they could not prevail turn'd them out of their Houses and refus'd to let them live with them Some sold off all that they had turn'd it into Money and left their Wives and Children to beg for no other Reason but because they would not forsake their Religion And this carriage was
things be considered 't will rather seem a wonder that so many got off than that some staid behind 3. Secondly as to the Gentlemen though some of them had plentiful estates and fortunes yet they had but little ready money 't is not thought prudent in Ireland where money is at 10 per Cent. for any one to keep much Cash by him and perhaps he that hath 1000 l. per annum clear hath often not 100 l. in Cash Now some Gentlemen that had considerable families and little money thought it unreasonable for them to leave their plentiful Estates and go into England to beg or starve and the very thoughts of either was more terrible to them than death And therefore they chose rather to venture all with their Estates Others were tied by such particular obligations that it was impossible for them to stir without the greatest damage to their Concerns and inhumanity to their Relations 4. Others thought it necessary to stay meerly for a Tryal that they might not be said to have thrown themselves out of all before they were forced and that they might see how far King James would proceed in his design of ruining Protestants and settling Popery 5. Others had either Relations by Kindred or some private interest or obligation on some leading Papists and fancied by their staying they might be able to save something for themselves and Tenants others tho they had no such interest or particular obligations yet their Families and influence in their Countreys had made them respected even by their Enemies and they hoped by their prudence and management to obtain better quarters for their poor People that depended on them whom they could not find in their hearts to leave destitute of all shelter and conduct and it must be acknowledged that though these could not do as much good as they might reasonably have expected yet they did a great deal and it must be owned as a singular providence of God that some such Gentlemen staid for they used all their authority interest and credit to serve the poor and notwithstanding the malice and power of their enemies they did them many good offices They directed them what to do and how to behave themselves in their applications for relief when oppressed they managed and sollicited their Petitions they took all opportunities to remonstrate to King James the grievances and oppressions of the poor people they took the most favourable instances and managed them in the best manner to make him sensible they took advantage of the little feuds that were between the Courtiers and made their Piques useful to procure redress to such Protestants as had been signally injured by the opposite Party and sometimes by address and other times by meer importunities and bold representations of the barbarousness and inhumanity of the Proceedings against Protestants they shamed the Government into a better Temper sometimes procuring some moderation sometimes redress of exorbitant Grievances and at other times did prevent most signal Mischief design'd against us at least by gaining time which was a great conveniency to us 6. These Gentlemen that staid were useful not only by employing their Credit their Friends and Interest with the Government but they farther did contribute to the preserving and supporting of a great many poor and imprisoned People that otherwise would have starved near Five hundered Prisoners were supported by the Charity of Dublin and every thing put into such a method that amongst the numerous poor ruined Protestants not one was lost or starved for want of Meat or Clothes that we could hear of which we must look on as an extraordinary Providence and renders all those inexcusable who changed their Religion on pretence that otherwise they must have starved an excuse they did not offer then and which being false ought not to be pretended much less allow'd now 7. We found our selves in many straits how to behave our selves under some difficulties that fell on us about Fees for Imprisonment concealing of Arms or Absentees Goods and matters of Oaths either to the Government or on private Occasions the Gentlemen and Persons of Credit that staid advis'd the poor People in all these Cases and kept them in such a steady unanimous and regular Course that no advantage could be taken against them and yet they avoided all swearing or betraying themselves or Friends and whereas there are several Dissenters in Dublin the Matter was carried with so much Prudence that we lived in perfect Amity Peace and Charity together and all contributed and assisted one another towards their common safety Dr. Dopping Bishop of Meath and several other Persons of note signaliz'd themselves upon these occasions and behaved themselves with so much Prudence Industry Resolution and Tenderness to the Afflicted that they always will be lookt on by those who staid in Dublin as peculiar Instruments of their preservation 8. Thirdly As to those Protestants who had Employments and staid on account of them it was considered and debated by the most Prudent and Judicious Protestants of Dublin whether they should continue to act in them and they universally judg'd it advisable that every Protestant who could either get or keep any Civil Employment by fair and honest Means should do it most of the Civil Offices were held by Patent and either the Patentees or their Deputies were on the Place and executed them Now for these to have gone away was to have given them up voluntarily into the Hands of Papists and to entitle King James to the disposal of them without any imputation of Injustice We therefore thought all such as had any Employment or Civil Office oblig'd to stay in their Employments till removed by force and when they were removed by Act of Parliament that voided their Offices and new Officers were appointed it was still judged convenient that the former Deputies should act in them and if the new Patentees should refuse to employ them as Deputies they should nevertheless endeavour to stay in them as Clerks 1. Because we were in hopes of recovering them in a short time by the assistance of Their present Majesties and in the mean time we knew not what havock and spoil might be made of Records and Books by Popish Deputies whereas if the Protestants kept in the Offices they might preserve them or at least be Witnesses of the injury that should be done them and this Contrivance had the effect design'd the Papists were so much strangers to the Offices that they were forc'd to depend on Protestant Clerks or Deputies and these kept their Masters in all the ignorance they could and either put out of the way or would not find such Records or Papers that they supposed were design'd to be destroyed insomuch that very little injury was done to the Offices the very Outlawryes of the Rebels and Murtherers in 1641. being preserv'd though ordered by their pretended Parliament to be destroy'd and 500 l. Fine impos'd on any Officer that should conceal any
this Minister that he frequently both in his Proclamations and Acts of Parliament ascribes the saving of Ireland to him and assigned him above the value of 20 m. Pounds per Annum to support his new Title of Duke out of the forfeited Estates of Protestants most of them Condemned unheard on publick Fame only This Person therefore was the true Enemy of King James he drove his Master out of his Kingdoms he destroyed him by his pernicious Councils and the Kingdom of Ireland by his exorbitant and illegal Management and therefore he and such other wicked Councellors and Ministers are only answerable for all the Mischiefs that have sollow'd and it is much more reasonable the destruction should fall on them who were the Authors than on the Protestants against whom they design'd it APPENDIX AN ACT For the Attainder of divers Rebels and for preserving the Interest of Loyal Subjects HUMBLY beseech your Majesty the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That whereas a most horrid Invasion was made by your unnatural Enemy the Prince of Orange invited thereunto and assisted by many of your Majesty's rebellious and trayterous Subjects of your Majesty's Dominions and such their inviting and assisting made manifest by their perfidious deserting your Majesty's Service in which by your many Princely Obligations besides their natural Duties they were bounden and having likewise to obtain their wicked ends raised and levied open Rebellion and War in several places in this Kingdom and entered into Associations and met in Conventions in order to call in and set up the said Prince of Orange as well in Ulster and Connaught as in the other Provinces of Munster and Lienster To quell which your Sacred Majesty's late Deputy in this Kingdom Richard then Earl and now Duke of Tyrconnel before your Majesty's happy Arrival in this Kingdom and your Sacred Majesty since your Arrival here have been necessitated to raise an Army to your Majesty's great Charge and Expence And though the said Rebels and Traitors after their having the impudence to declare for the Prince and Princess of Orange against your Sacred Majesty were with all mildness and humanity called in to their Allegiance by Proclamations and Promises of Pardon for their past Offences and Protection for the future And though some of the said Proclamations assured Pardon to all such as should submit themselves and that no Persons were excepted in the last Proclamation besides very few not exceeding Ten in number and few or none of any note came in in obedience thereto and that very many of the Persons who came in upon Protections and took the Oath of Allegiance to your Majesty were afterwards found amongst the Rebels in open Arms and Hostility when taken Prisoners or killed such Protections being found with them So villanous were they by adding Perjury to their former Crimes That it may be Enacted and be it Enacted by your most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same that the Persons hereafter named being Persons who have notoriously joined in the said Rebellion and Invasion and some of which are upon Indictments condemned some executed for High Treason and the rest ran away or abscond or are now in the actual Service of the Prince of Orange against your Majesty and others kill'd in open Rebellion viz. Francis Marsh Lord Archbishop of Dublin James Butler Duke of Ormond Richard Boyle Earl of Cork Cary Dillon Earl of Roscomon William Earl of Strafford Edward Brabazon Earl of Meath John Earl of Mulgrave Vaughan Earl of Carberry William O Bryan Earl of Inchiquin Charles Coote Earl of Mountrath Henry Moor Earl of Drogheda Charles Talbot Earl of Waterford and Wexford Hugh Montgomery Earl of Mountalexander Richard Earl of Ranelagh Sidney Earl of Leicester Villers Viscount Grandison James Annesly Viscount Valentia and Earl of Anglesey George Viscount Castleton Sâ—udamore Viscount Sâ—udamore of Sligoe Luâ—bly Viscount Luâ—bly of Waterford Wenman Viscount Wenman of Tuam Buckley Viscount Buckley of Cashel Francis Boyle Viscount Shannon John Skevington Viscount Mâ—ssareene Cholmundy Viscount Cholmundy of Kells Richard Boyle Viscount Dungarvâ—n alias Lord Clifford Maurice Berkeley Viscount Fitz-Harding of â—eerehaven William Caulfield Viscount Charlemont Morrough Boyle Viscount Blessington James Lane Viscount Lanesborough Daâ—ney Viscount Down William Stewart Viscount Mount joy Adam Loftus Lord Lisburn Ezekiel Hopkins Lord Bishop of Derry William Sheridan Lord Bishop of Killmore William Digby Lord Digby of Geashell Henry Lord Blany of Monoghan Henry Lord Herbert of Castle-Island Sherrard Lord Sherrard of Leytrim Lord Wâ—rton Robert King Lord Baron of Kingston Richard Coote Lord Baron of Coloony Charles Petty Lord Shelburne Henry O Bryan commonly called Lord Ibrickan Robert Dillon commonly called Lord Kilkenny-West William O Bryan commonly called Lord O Bryan Son to the Earl of Inchiquin Robert Lord Lucas Sir Arthur Royden of Moyra Baronet Sir Arthur Cole of Newland Baronet Sir Robert Reading of Brareil Baronet Sir William Temple Baronet late Master of the Rolls Sir Francis Blundell of Edenderry Baronet Sir Laurence Parsons of Bi r Baronet Sir Richard Reynells of Dublin Baronet Sir Christopher Wandesford of Castle Comber Baronet Sir Thomas Southwell of Castlematres Baronet Sir Simon Eaton of Dunmoylen Baronet Sir Emanuel Moore of Ross Baronet Sir Robert Southwell of Kinsale Baronet Sir John Osborne of Baronet Sir Robert Staples of Lissane Baronet Sir James Caldwell of Bellick Baronet Sir John Humes of Castle-Humes Baronet Sir Francis Hamilton of Castle-Hamilton Baronet Sir Arthur Longford of Summer-Hill Baronet Sir William Francklin of Belfast Baronet Sir Oliver St. George of Headford Baronet Sir Robert King of Rockingham Baronet Sir William Gâ—re of Mannâ—r-Hamilton Baronet Sir William Courtney of New-Castle Baronet Sir William Tichburn of Bewly Baronet Sir Samuel Barnadiston Baronet Sir Robert Cottrill of New-town Knight Sir Joshua Allen of Dublin Knight Sir Matthew Bridges of the same Knight Sir Phillips Coote of Killester Knight Sir John Temple of Palmerstown Knight Sir Charles Meredith of Green-Hills Knight Sir Richard Ryves of Dublin Knight Sir Richard Stevens late of Dublin Knight Sir John Edgeworth of Lissane Knight Sir Robert Clayton Knight Sir Richard Buckley of Dunlavan Baronet Sir Henry Fane of Loghgurr Knight Sir Robert Holmes of Ardagh Knight Sir Richard Hull of Leamcon Knight Sir Matthew Dean of Cork Knight Sir Henry Ingoldesby of Dangen Knight Sir John Topham Knight Sir Francis Brewster of Brewsterfield Knight Sir Albert Cunningham of Mount-Charles Knight Sir Tristrum Beresford of Ballykelly Baronet Sir John Magill of Gill-Hall Knight Sir Nicholas Atcheson of Mullaghbrack Knight Sir George St. George of Dummore Knight Thomas Coote of the City of Dublin Esq Richard Foster Esq William Worth Esq lately one of the Barons of the Exchequer John Eaton Esq Counsellor at Law Lieutenant Joseph Stopford Ensign Thomas Stanly Captain Oliver Long Captain Thomas Flower Lieutenant Buckridge Lieutenant
one thousand six hundred eighty nine be produced to your chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom and enrolled in your Majesties High Court of Chancery the same shall be a sufficient Discharge and Acquittal to such of the Persons last before-named and every of them respectively whose Loyalty and Fidelity your Majesty will be pleased to certify in manner as afore-said And be it further enacted That in the mean time and until such Return and Acquittal all the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments within this Kingdom belonging to all and every Absentee and Absentees or other Person to be attainted as aforesaid shall be and are hereby vested in your Majesties your Heirs and Successors as from the first Day of August last past And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all and every such Person and Persons as by any the foregoing Clauses is are or shall be respectively attainted shall as from the first Day of August one thousand six hundred eighty eight forfeit unto your Majesty your Heirs and Successors all such Mannors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and all Right Title-Service Chiefery Use Trust Condition Fee Rent-Charge Right of Redemption of Mortgages Right of Entries Right of Action or any other Interest of what nature or kind soever either in Law or Equity of in or unto any Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within this Kingdom belonging or appertaining to such Person or Persons so as aforesaid attainted or to be attainted in his or their own Right or to any other in Trust for him or them on the said first Day of August one thousand six hundred eighty eight or at any time since and all the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments so as aforesaid forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors hereby are and shall be vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors whether such Person or Persons were seized thereof in Fee absolute or conditional or in Tayl or for Life or Lives and that freed and freely discharged off and from all Estates Tayl and for Life and from all Reversions and Remainders for Life for Years or in Fee absolute or conditional or in Tayl or to any Person or Persons whatsoever such Remainder as by one Act or Statute of this present Parliament intituled An Act for repealing the Acts of Settlement an Explanation Resolution of Doubts and all Grants Patents and Certificates pursuant to them or any of them or by this present Act are saved and preserved always excepted and fore-prized Provided always that the Nocency or Forfeiture of any Tenant in Dower Tenant by the Courtesy Jointress for Life or other Tenant for Life or Lives in actual Possession shall not extend to bar forfeit make void or discharge any Reversion or Reversions vested in any Person or Persons not ingaged in the Usurpation or Rebellion aforesaid such Reversion and Reversions being immediately depending or expectant upon the particular Estate of such Tenant in Dower Tenant by the Courtesy Joyntress for Life or other Tenant for Life or Lives any thing in the said Act of Repeal or in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always and be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid that nothing in this present Act contained shall any way extend or be construed to extend to forfeit or vest in your Majesties your Heirs or Successors any Remainder or Remainders for valuable Considerations limited or settled by any Settlement or Conveyance made for such valuable Considerations either of Marriage or Marriage-Portion or other valuable Consideration whatsoever upon any Estate for Life or Lives to any Person or Persons not concerned in the Usurpation or Rebellion aforesaid such Remainder or Remainders as are limited or settled by any Conveyance wherein there is any Power for revoking and altering all or any the Use or Uses therein limited and also such Remainder and Remainders as are limited upon any Settlement or Conveyance of any Lands Tenements and Hereditaments commonly called Plantation-Lands and all Lands Tenements and Hereditaments held or enjoyed under such Grants from the Crown or Grants upon the Commission or Commissions of Grace for Remedy of defective Titles either in the Reign of King James the first or King Charles the first in which several Grants respectively there are Provisoes or Covenants for raising or keeping any number of Men or Arms for the King's Majesty against Rebels and Enemies or for raising of Men for his Majesties Service for Expedition of War always excepted and foreprized All which Remainders limited by such Conveyances wherein there is a Power of Revocation for so much of the Lands Uses and Estates therein limited as the said Power doth or shall extend unto and all such Remainders as are derived or limited for or under such Interest made of Plantation-Lands or other Lands held as aforesaid under such Grants from the Crown and all and every other Remainder and Remainders Reversion and Reversions not herein mentioned to be saved and preserved shall by the Authority of this present Parliament be deemed construed and adjudged void debarred and discharged to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever against your Majesty your Heirs and Successors and your and their Grantees or Assignees and the said Lands Tenements and Hereditamens belonging to such Rebels as aforesaid shall be vested in your Majesty your Heirs and Successors freed and discharged of the said Remainder and Remainders and every of them And to the end the Reversions and Remainders saved and preserved by this Act may appear with all convenient Speed Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the respective Persons intituled to such Remainders and Reversions do within sixty Days next after the first sitting of the Commissioners for executing the said Act of Repeal and this present Act exhibit their Claims before the said Commissioners and make out their Titles to such Remainder or Remainders so as to procure their Adjudication and Certificate for the same or the Adjudication and Certificate of some three or more of them And further That all Remainders for which such Adjucations and Certificates shall not be procured at or before One hundred and twenty Days after the first sitting of the said Commissioners shall be void and for ever barred and excluded any thing in this Act or other Matter to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding All which Lands Tenements and Hereditaments mentioned as aforesaid to be forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty by any the Clauses aforesaid are hereby declared to be so forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty without any Office or Inquisition thereof found or to be found and the same to be to the Uses Intents and Purposes in the said Act of Repeal and in this present Act mentioned and expressed And whereas several Persons hereafter named viz. Lyonel Earl of Orrery Mrs. ..... Trapps Ann Vicecountess Dowager of Dungannon Robert Boyl Esq Catherine Woodcock Alice Countess Dowager of Drogheda Alice Countess Dowager of Mountroth Isabella Countess
first sitting of the said Commissioners and procure the Adjucation of them or any three or more of them thereupon within One hundred and twenty Days after the said first sitting of the said Commissioners And whereas by one or more Office or Offices in the Time of the Earl of Strafford's Government in this Kingdom in the Reign of King Charles the First of ever blessed Memory All or a great part of the Lands Tenements and Hereditaments in the Province of Conaught and Counties of Clare Limerick and Tipperary were vested in his Majesty And by the Acts of Settlement and Explanation the said Office and Offices are declared to be Null and Void since which time the said Acts have been by the said Act of Repeal repealed and thereby some Prejudice might arise or accrue to the Proprietors concerned in them Lands if not prevented Be it therefore Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the said Office and Offices and every of them commonly called the Grand Office and the Title thereby found or endeavoured to be made out or set up from the time of the finding or taking thereof was and is hereby declared to be Null and Void to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever Provided that nothing therein contained shall any way extend or be construed to extend to charge any Person or Persons who hath bona Fide paid any Rents or Arrears of Rent that have been due and payable out of any Lands hereby vested in your Majesty or to charge any Steward or Receiver that received any such Rents or Arrears of Rents if he bona Fide paid the same but that he and they shall be hereby discharged for so much as he or they so bona Fide paid against your Majesty your Heirs and Successors Provided always and it is hereby Enacted That every Person not being a forfeiting Person within the true intent and meaning of the said former Act or of this present Act and who before the seventh Day of May One thousand six hundred eighty nine had any Statute Staple or Recognizance for paiment of Money or any Mortgage Rent-Charge Portion Trust or other Incumbrance either in Law or Equity or any Judgment before the Two and twentieth Day of May One thousand six hundred eighty nine for paiment of Money which might charge any of the Estates Lands Tenements or Hereditaments so as aforesaid forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty shall and may have the benefit of the said Statutes Staples Judgments Recognizances Mortgages Rent-Charge Portions Trust and other Incumbrances out of the Estate or Estates which should be liable thereunto in case the said former Act or this present Act had never been made Provided always that the Person and Persons who had such Statutes Staples Judgments Recognizances or other Trusts or Incumberances do claim the same before the Commissioners for the Execution of the said former Act within two months after the first sitting of the said Commissioners and procure their Adjucation thereof within such reasonable Time as the said Commissioners shall appoint for determining the same And to the end that such Person and Persons as shall have any of the said Lands Tenements or Hereditaments granted unto him as aforesaid may know the clear Value of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments so to be granted unto him above all Incumbrances and may injoy the same against all Statute-Staples Judgments Recognizances Mortgages Rent-Charges and other Incumbrances not claimed-and adjudged as aforesaid Be it therefore further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all such Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as shall be forfeited unto and vested in your Majesty and granted by Letters Pattents pursuant to the said former Act or this present Act shall be and are hereby freed acquitted and discharged of and from all Estates Charges and Incumbrances whatsoever other than what shall be claimed and adjudged as aforesaid And whereas by one private Act of Parliament intituled An Act for securing of several Lands Tenements and Hereditaments to George Duke of Albemarle which Act was pass'd in the Reign of King Charles the Second some Lands Tenements and Hereditaments in this Kingdom which on the two and twentieth Day of October one thousand six hundred forty one belonged to some ancient Proprietor or Proprietors who were dispossessed thereof by the late usurped Powers were secured and assured unto the said George Duke of Albemarle by means whereof the ancient Proprietors of the said Lands may be barred and deprived of their ancient Estates unless the said Act be repealed though such ancient Proprietor or Proprietors be as justly intituled to Restitution as other ancient Proprietors who were dispossessed by the said Usurper and barred by the late Acts of Settlement and Explanation Be it therefore enacted That the said Act for securing of several Lands Tenements and Hereditaments to George Duke of Albemarle be and is hereby repealed to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever And that the Proprietors of the said Lands and their Heirs and Assignes be restored to their said ancient Estates in the same manner with the said other ancient Proprietors their Heirs and Assignes And whereas several ancient Proprietors whose Estates were seized and vested in Persons deriving a Title under the said Acts of Settlement or Explanation have in some time after the passing of the said Acts purchased their own ancient Estates or part thereof from the Persons who held the same under the said Acts as aforesaid which old Proprietors would now be restored to their said ancient Estates if they had not purchased the same And for as much as the said ancient Proprietors or their Heirs should receive no Benefit of the said Act of Repeal should they not be reprized for the Money paid by them for their said ancient Estates Be it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and every the ancient Proprietor or Proprietors or their Heirs who have laid out any Sum or Sums of Money for the Purchase of their own ancient Estates or any part thereof as aforesaid shall receive out of the common Stock of Reprizals a sufficient Recompence and Satisfaction for the Money laid out or paid by him or them for the Purchase of their said ancient Estate at the Rate of ten Years Purchase any Clause Act or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And for the Prevention of all unnecessary Delays and unjust Charges which can or may happen to the Subjects of this Realm before their full and final Settlement Be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That where the Commissioners for Execution of the said Act of Repeal or any three or more of them shall give any Certificate under his and their Hands and Seals to any Person or Persons Bodies Politick or Corporate in order to the passing of any Letters Patents according to the said Act and shall likewise return a Duplicate of such Certificate into his Majesties Court of Exchequer at Dublin to be there enrolled and the Person and Persons
were Masters of Nor was it a difficult Matter for them so to do the Consternation being so great and so suddain that even the Officers of the Port either out of Commiseration to the departing Crowd of Women and Children or being amaz'd at the suddainness of the Fright neglected to do their Duty whereby this City and the Adjacent Parts are almost drained dry as to Cash and Plate which is manifest from Guineas being sold at 12 d. per piece over and above the usual Rate On the other Hand the Roman Catholicks were very many of them under equal Fears and indeed all of them except the Army who by their Calling are exempt from or at least from owning it pretend equal Dread from the Protestants who as they alledg'd far exceeded them in the Northern Parts and were extraordinarily well Arm'd and Hors'd but their greatest Apprehensions arise from a constant and uncontradicted Assurance which Private Letters by every Pacquet brought hither that the Duke of Ormond with a considerable Army and many experienc'd Officers was to Land forthwith in Munster And in this Condition now stands this poor Kingdom the Contending Parties being equally afraid or at least pretending to be so of each other which cannot but beget great Anxiety and Sorrow in the Mind of every good Man who hath the least Concern for his King or his Country In the interim the Lord Deputy intrusted by his Majesty with the Government of this Kingdom and keeping it entire in its Obedience to all his Commands doth daily grant Commissions to raise and procure Arms and Ammunition for great Numbers of Men In doing whereof considering the great Trust reposed in him no Man of Honour or moral Honesty can truly blame him But at the same time he takes all Opportunities both Private and Publick to declare That whenever his Majesty shall signifie his Royal Will and Pleasure for disbanding the Army that now is or hereafter shall be raised upon the Commissions now issuing or shall give direction for any other Alteration in the Government he will without one Day 's hesitation himself and those of his Relations and other Dependents in the Army whom you know to be very Numerous give an exact Obedience And if any should be so Fool-hardy as to scruple or make the least delay of doing so they shall in a few Days be taught and compelled to do their Duty I must likewise tell you That in this Conjuncture of Affairs the Thieves and Robbers are not only become more Numerous but likewise much more Insolent and instead of small Thefts do now drive away by Force whole Herds and sometimes when overtaken deny to restore the Prey This in many Places and especially in the North-west is done by the Cottiers and Idlers in the Country but father'd generally on the Army of which I have now an Instance before me from Ballenglass All this I know you have had repeated to you from divers Hands however I thought my self obliged in the Station which I hold to give you this summary Account of our present Condition which God knows is very bad and in all humane probability if we take not up more Charity than as yet we have for each other will receive sharp Corrosives and bitter Potions to bring us even to the hopes of living though in great Penury and Want Nor can we expect in Case that any Resistance shall be made by the Roman Catholicks here that we shall see any End thereof until the Buildings Plantations and other Improvements of Thirty Years Expence and Industry be utterly wasted and the Kingdom brought to the last degree of Poverty and Confusion and from the most improved and improving Spot of Ground in Europe as you saw it Six Years since become a meer Acheldama and upon the matter totally desart For Armies when once raised must be maintained by the Publick or will maintain themselves Nor can Military Discipline be expected where the Soldier hath not his Wages and whether that can be had out of the publick Treasury here I referr to you who have weighed the Revenue of the Kingdom when at the best even to a Drachm But after all this I am confident and assured That the Government of England will and must at length take place here against all Opposition whatsoever It hath cost England too much Blood and Treasure to be parted with but if it should come to a Contest of that kind the Victors I fear will have little to bragg of and will find in the Conclusion nothing but Ruins and Rubbish not to be repaired in another Age. Nor will the People thereafter reckon of any Security or Stability in this Kingdom so as to apply themselves to the repair of them but expecting such periodical Earthquakes here will provide themselves of Retreats in England and Scotland as many have of late and daily do Your Patience is I fear by this at an End when you begin to enquire with your self To what purpose it is that I have given you all this Trouble I must confess your Enquiry is not without Reason but however to you whose Friendship I have always found and valued my self much on it I do without difficulty declare what hath induced me hereunto The wonderful Alterations which a Month's Time hath produced in England in regard to the Protestant Religion and the Universality of it the little Blood that hath been spilt in so great a Change the few Acts of Hostility and little disquiet which has as yet appear'd has almost perswaded me That this Unfortunate Kingdom may by the Interposition of moderate Men be restored to the same Estate of Religion and Property that it rejoyced in Seven Years since with an addition of further Security for the preservation of both if more be requisite considering the many Acts of Parliament still in Force in this Kingdom It cannot be imagined Sir but there are very many who having either lost their Estates upon the Forfeitures of 1641. or by their Profuseness and Prodigality spent what they were restored to would willingly see the Kingdom once more in Confusion and Blood designing by Licentiousness and Rapine to supply their Extravagancies There want not on the other Hand some who conceive That the Court of Claims has contrary to the Settlement taken from them their Possessions without Reprisals and very many who being put by their Employments and Commands wish for a Time to expostulate with those who are possessed of them But all these in my humble Opinion ought to give way to the publick Quiet and Settlement of a whole Nation ready to fall into Ruine I am verily perswaded That with a little good Management the generality of the Roman Catholicks and indeed of the whole Kingdom would be very glad to be put into the same Condition in all respects as they were Six Years since and desire no more than an Assurance it should not be made worse And if there be Faith to be found in Man
Fitzgerald Esquires Bur. Trim. Captain Nicholas Cusack Walter Nangle Esquire Bur. of Navan Christoph. Cusack of Corballis Esquires Christ. Cusack of Ratholdran Esquires Bur. Athboy John Trinder Esquires Robert Longfield Esquires Duleek Kells Com. Monoghan Bryan Mac Mahon Esquires 9 th July 1689 Hugh Mac Mahon Esquires 9 th July 1689 Town of Monoghan Com. Fermanagh Enniskillen Queens County Sir Patrick Trant Knight Edmond Morris Esq Bur. Maryborough Peirce Bryan Esquires Thady Fitz Patrick Esquires Bur. Ballinkill Sir Gregory Bourne Baronet Oliver Grace Esquire Port Arlington Sir Henry Bond Baronet Sir Thomas Hacket Knight Com. Roscommon Charles Kelly Esquire John Bourk Bur. Roscommon John Dilton Esquires John Kelly Esquires Bur. Boyle John King Captain Terence Mac Dermot Alder. 6th May 1689. Tulske Com. Sligoe Henry Crofton Esquires Oliver O Gara Esquires Bur. Sligoe Terence Mac Donogh Esquires 8th May 1689. James French Esquires 8th May 1689. Com. Tipperary Nicholas Purcell of Loghmore Esquires James Butler of Grangebeg Esquires City of Cashell Dennis Kearney Aldermen James Hacket Aldermen Bur. Clonmell Nicholas White Aldermen John Bray Aldermen Bur. Fethard Sir John Everard Baronet James Tobin of Fethard Esq Bur. Thurles Bur. Tipperary Com. Tyrone Coll. Gordon O Neile Esquires Lewis Doe of Dungannon Esquires Bur. Dungannon Arthur O Neil of Ballygawly Esquires Patr. Donenlly of Dungannon Esquires Bur. Strabane Christopher Nugent of Dublin Esquire Dan. O Donelly of the same Gent. 8th May 89. Clogher Augher Com. Waterford John Power Esquires Math. Hore Esquires Bur. Dungarvan John Hore Esquires 7th May 89. Martin Hore Esquires 7th May 89. City of Waterford John Porter Esquires Nicholas Fitzgerald Esquires Bur. Lismore Tallow Com. Wexford Walter Butler of Munfine Patrick Colclogh of Moulnirry Bur. Wexford William Talbot Esquire Francis Rooth Merchant Bur. New Rosse Luke Dormer Esquires Richard Butler Esquires Bur. Bannow Francis Plowden Esq Commis of the Revenue Dr. Alexius Stafford Bur. Newborough Abraham Strange of Tobberduff Esq Richard Daley of Kilcorky Gent. Bur. Eniscorthy James Devereux of Carrigmenan Esquires Dudley Colclough of Mougâ—ery Esquires Arther Waddington Esq by a new Election Bur. Taghmon George Hore of Polhore Esquires Walter Hore of Harpers-town Esquires Bur. Cloghmyne Edward Sherlock of Dublin Esquire Nicholas White of New Rosse Merchant Bur. Arklow Fytherd Coll. James Porter Capt. Nicholas Stafford Com. Wicklow Richard Butler Esquires William Talbot Esquires Bur. Caryesfort Hugh Byrne Esquire Peice Archbold Esq Upon whose default of Appearance Barth Polewheele Bur. Wicklow Francis Toole Esquires Thomas Byrne Esquires Bur. Blesington James Eustace Esq Maurice Eustace Gent. Baltinglass Com. Westmeath The Honorable Coll. William Nugent The Honorable Coll. Henry Dillon Bur. and Mannor of Mullingar Garret Dillon Esq Prime Sergeant Edmond Nugent of Garlans-town Esq Bur. Athlone Edmond Malone of Ballynehown Esq Edmond Malone Esq Councellor at Law Bur. Kilbeggan Bryan Geoghegan of Donore Esquires Charles Geoghenan of Syenan Esquires Bur. Fore John Nugent of Donore Esq Christoph. Nugent of Dardis town Esq Com. Londonderry City Londonderry Bur. Colerane Bur. Lamavudy No. 22. An Address to King James in Behalf of the Purchasers under the Act of Settlement by Judge Keating THis humble Representation made unto your Sacred Majesty is in the Behalf of many Thousands of your Majesties dutiful and obedient Subjects of all Degrees Sexes and Ages The Design and Intention of it is to prevent the Ruine and Desolation which a Bill now under Consideration in order to be made a Law will bring upon them and their Families in case your Majesty doth not interpose and by your Moderation and Justice protect them so far as the known Laws of the Kingdom and Equity and good Conscience will warrant and require It is in the Behalf of Purchasers who for great and valuable Considerations have acquired Lands and Tenements in this Kingdon by laying out not only their Portions and Provisions made for them by their Parents but also the whole Product of all their own Industry and the Labour of their Youth together with what could be saved by a frugal Management in order to make some certain Provision for Old Age and their Families in Purchasing Lands and Tenements under the Security of divers Acts of Parliament Publick Declarations from the late King And all these accompanied with a Possession of Twenty five Years Divine Providence hath appointed us our Dwelling in an Island and consequently we must Trade or live in Penury and at the mercy of our Neighbours This necessitates a Transmutation of Possessions by Purchase from one hand to another of Mortgaging and Pledging Lands for great and Considerable Sums of Money by charging them with Judgments and indeed gives Name to one of the greatest Securities made use of in this Kingdom Statutes Merchant and of the Staple and very many especially Widows and Orphans have their whose Estates and Portions secured by Mortgages Bond of the Staple and Judgments Where or when shall a Man Purchase in this Kingdom Under what Title or on what Security shall he lay out his Money or secure the Portions he designs for his Children If he may not do it under divers Acts of Parliament the solemn and reiterated Declarations of his Prince and a quiet and uncontroverted Possession of Twenty Years together And this is the Case of thousands of Families who are Purchasers under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation It were a hard task to justifie those Acts in every Particular contained in them I will not undertake it but if it be consider'd that from 23. October 1641. until 29. May 1660. the time of his Majesties Restauration the Kingdom was upon the matter in one continued Storm That the alterations of Possessions was so universal and Properties so blended and mixt by Allotments and Dispositions made by the then Usurping Powers It may be well concluded that they must be somewhat more then Men that could or can frame a Law to take in every particular Case though it should have swoln to many Volumes and Laws which are to be of such universal Consequence as this was are to have a Regard to the Generality of a Kingdom or People though possibly some particular Person may have some hardship in his private Concern But if we may judge by general Laws by the produce and effect of them and at the same time have a Prospect to the Estate and Condition of this Kingdom from 1640. and as far backwards as you please until the time of his late Majesties happy Restauration and at the same time take into Consideration what the Kingdom became in few years after the Commission for the Execution of those Acts were at an end the Buildings and other Improvements the Trade and Commerce the vast Heads of Cattel and Flocks of Sheep equal to those of England together with great Sums of money brought over by our Fellow-Subjects of England who came to Purchase and Plant in this Kingdom The Manufactures set on foot in divers parts whereby the meanest Inhabitants were
Legislative Power should be made use of to void this Mans Estate who perhaps was never in this Kingdom until after these Acts were Enacted and became Laws it will be the like Case with all Persons who upon the Marriage of their Children and considerable Marriage Portions paid and receiv'd have procured Settlements for Jointured Portions and Remainders for their Children and Grand Children And all these are to be laid aside without any Consideration of Law or Equity in the Case of the Purchasers or any misdemeanor or offence committed by them Whereby vast Numbers of your Majesties dutiful Subjects the present Proprietors and their Lessees and in very many Cases Widows Orphans Merchants and Traders will be at one stroke outed and removed from the possessions of their Lands and Improvements which in many places are more in value than the Township whereon they are made This with submission without some fraud decelt or default of the Purchaser never was and it is hoped never will be done by a People or Nation professing Christianity Nor is it for the Honour Welfare or Advantage of the King or Kingdom to have it so done What will strangers and our fellow-subjects of England and Scotland say We sold our Estates in England transported us and our Families into Ireland to purchase improve and plant there We acquired Lands under as secure Titles as Acts of Parliament the greatest known Security could make them Our Conveyances both by Deeds and matters of Record are allowed good firm and unquestionable by any Law in force at the time of the Purchase We have had the possession 10 12 or 15 years and are grown old upon them We have clearly drawn our Effects from England and settled here not doubting but our Posterity may be so likewise We have purchased Annuities and Rent Charges out of Lands under the same Securities And now the Old Proprietors though many of them had Satisfaction in Connaught would fain have a new Law to dispossess us of our Estates and Improvements made as aforesaid It will not be believed that the chief of those who drew on this Design should in Parliament and elsewhere which ought to consist of the gravest wisest and wealthiest Free-holders of the Kingdom for such the Law presumes them make a noise with that good and wholsome advice Caveat emptor in this Case or can think that Caveat is proper here The Purchaser ought to be wary of any Flaw in the Title at the time of the Purchase made and purchases at his peril if any such there be But who is that Purchaser that must beware of a Law to be made 20 30 or 40 years after his Purchase or to destroy his Security for Money lent or Settlement upon Marriage this is not a desect in the Title but under favour is a President which no humane foresight can prevent and if once introduced no Purchaser could ever be safe the worst of Lotteries affording a securer way of dealing than Ireland would Can it be your Majesties Honour or Advantage to have thousands of Families ruined by such a Proceeding as this is What will become of our Credit and consequently of our Trade abroad Where will be the Reputation and publick Faith and Security of the Kingdom when Foreign Merchants shall know from their Correspondents here that they cannot comply with their Engagements to them their Estates Houses and Improvements both in Countrey and City which they had acquired for great and valuable Consideration and within the Securities of the Laws are taken from them by a Law made yesterday in case this Bill should pass So that in Effect we are not only contriving to break and ruine our own Trades and Merchants at home but even those in Foreign parts which will infallibly destroy your Majesties Revenue and sink that of every Subject Surely these Particulars and the Consequences of them are worth more then two or three days consideration which is as much as this Bill could have since the Parliament was not open'd till the 7th of this Month The very Report of what is designed by this Bill hath already from the most improved and improving Spot of Earth in Europe From stately Herds and Flocks From plenty of Money at 7 or 8 per Cent. whereby Trade and Industry were encouraged and all upon the Security of those Acts of Parliament From great and convenient Buildings newly erected in Cities and other Corporations to that degree that even the City of Dublin is ruined The passing of these Acts and the securities and quiet promised from them inlarged double what it was That the Shipping in divers Ports were 5 or 6 times more than ever was known before to the vast increase of your Majesties Revenue reduced to the saddest and most disconsolate condition of any Kingdom or Countrey in Europe Infinite numbers of the Inhabitants having transported themselves and Families with what remained unfixed in Purchases and Improvements and was portable of their Estates into other Kingdoms that very many of the Buildings both new and old in this City and in the very Heart and Trading Part of it are uninhabited and waste It is grievous to see as you pass through the City the Houses and Shops shut up The Herds and Flocks in the Countrey are utterly destroyed So that of necessity the Tenant must break throw up his Lease leave the Key under the Door and the Lands become waste and from hence will necessarily follow that the Farm-houses and Improvements must go to decay and Beef Tallow Hides Wooll and Butter from whence arise the Wealth of the Countrey will fail us What is become of the frequent Declarations made by the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl now Duke of Tyrconnel of your Majesties fix'd Resolutions never to lay aside the Acts of Settlement and Explanation Why did the Judges in their several Circuits declare in all places where they sate unto the Countries there assembled that your Majesty was resolved to preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation and that they were appointed by the then Chief Governour here to declare the same unto them from whence they took confidence to proceed in their Purchases and Improvements and with submission be it spoken if this Bill pass are deluded Shall Patents on the Commission of Grace signify nothing The Great Seal of England tells them they may proceed upon the publick Faith and here again they become Purchasers paying considerable Fines to the King to whom Rents were reserved where none were due before and many places the Rent increased as in case of Fairs and Markets granted together with the Lands on them Patents of Liberties of Free Warren and to enclose and empale for Park surely some consideration ought to be had of those whose money was paid on this account It would be farther considered That your Majesty before your access to the Crown had passed several Lands and Tenements in this Kingdom in Certificate and Patent pursuant to these Acts of
Settlement and that you made Leases of them on which many and great Improvements have been made It is likewise true that your Majesty sold and exchanged some small proportions of the same Lands and received in Money Twelve Years Purchase some of which your Majesty conveyed by Fines and other assurances in Law and though your Majesty may if it seem meet unto you part with all that Estate yet it is humbly conceived it ought to be with reservation to the Lessees and those few Purchasers as it was done by Mary Queen of England who though zealous in the highest degree to the Religion she professed and that she restored such part of Lands belonging unto Monasteries as remained in her hands undisposed did nevertheless permit the Grantees and Purchasers quietly and peaceably to retain such part of them as they were possessed of by Grant or Purchase and which for ought appearing is enjoyed by them and those deriving under them to this day though she came to the Crown within few years after Passing the Act for Dissolving Monasteries For if no consideration be had of them your Majesty gives away the Term of Years and Improvements from your Lessees and the Land from him to whom your Majesty sold it without restoring the Purchase mony than which no case can be harder and without your Roy-Assent neither of these can be done For the Objections commonly made against the Acts of Settlement and Explanation which are usually that many Innocents were never heard and that there was not time sufficient for hearing of them but how this should affect those who purchased after the Acts passed and Certificates and Letters Patents passed on them is not demonstrable from any Rule of Law or Equity The person designing to Purchase inquires whether the Title of the Land or Tenement to be Sold be good in Law and Equity and being assured in that he forbears further Inquiry being assured that never any Purchaser in Possession having Law and Equity on his side was dispossessed by any person whatsoever upon ground of Equity and the Purchaser here hath the Law with him by the Acts of Settlement and the Equity by the payment of his Money It is to be wished that if Widows Orphans or any other persons have fallen under hardship by the general settlement of the Kingdom that some way may be devised to make them reparation but the way prescribed by this Bill is to Rob the Innocent Purchasers Creditors and Orphans of their Estates to do it contrary to the Publick Faith Laws of the Land and Precept of Holy Writ which forbids doing of Evil that good may come thereof It s manifest by what has been said that if this Bill proceed as is now contrived that all the Protestants in the Kingdom are undoubtedly and without reserve ruined since the Rapparees that is the Armed multitude have taken away all their moveable Estates and this Design is to take away all the Lands and Tenements purchased by them The thriving Catholicks who were Purchasers as most of the Province of Connaught are are likewise to be turned out of their Estates and Possessions and their own and the improvements of those who hold under them utterly lost As to the Politick part which these great Statesmen who drive on this Bill make mention of that will be worthy of consideration It s said that this will unite your Majesties Subjects in this Kingdom That is too gross to pass since the first mentioning thereof hath it not made a division and a breach betwixt them nay where there was none before and doth it not grow daily wider It was never heard that Accommodation between parties that were all in contest could stand unless the terms were continued for if what was given to one of the Parties be taken away it makes the whole Award void and of none effect and admitting the Old Proprietor had right it is not enough except he have it against the Purchaser And if the Design be what is pretended to restore this Kingdom to the Peace and Plenty which it flourished in some years since to unite your Majesties Subjects whereby they may be enabled according to their Duty and Allegiance to restore your Majesty to the exercise of your Royal Dignity in all your Kingdoms this can never be effected except all pretenders recede in some degree from the full of their pretensions for the accommodation of the whole and the publick quiet and safety Would it not be an unreasonable thing in a Cargo where divers Merchants are concerned and have Goods and Merchandizes in a Storm to throw out by consent the Goods of any one Merchant though in the bottom of the Hold and hardest to come by for the safety of all concerned without satisfaction given him by a contribution from those who had the advantage of it or if it could be done or had time for it were it not much more just that the loss should be equally divided amongst them by throwing out a just proportion from all concerned than to single out one part of the people and by their ruine to advance the other This is not in my judgment the readiest way of uniting them Sufferance to make one step more and Quaere Whether the Catholick Purchasers now to be turned out of Possession will join heartily with those that enter upon them Farewel Trade and Commerce where Acts of Parliament shall be made to destroy securities that were good when made Farewell all Improvements in Ireland where no man shall ever know what Estate he hath if the foundation of the general settlement should now be overturned I cannot foresee what the consequences may be of having it published and made known in your Majesties other Kingdoms and Dominions and elsewhere where the Protestant Religion is professed that such a Proposal as this in relation to such of your Protestant Subjects as have made no defection hath been prepared for your Majesties Consideration in order to be passed into a Law and this when they were secure of the Laws of the Land not so much as Common Equity to question the Title by which they held That nevertheless use should be made of the Legislative power to Enact a new Law after so many assurances given them to the contrary and after so many years quiet possession to turn them out of their Estates altogether It is much to be feared that those who first advised this method of Proceedings have considered their own particular advantage and that of their Friends and Relations without the least thoughts of your Majesties Service for surely this can never be thought so nor the way to settle this Kingdom whereby it may be serviceable to your Majesty nor can it be imagined but that men thus despoiled will as often as Parliaments shall be called make application for Redress and Repeal as in the Case of the Spencers to Repeal a Repeal and they and their Posterity will be always solliciting your Majesty and your
or to a Field of mine that lies convenient for him I tell him that I have no mind to part with them He offers me Money for them I tell him that I will not sell them He tires me out with Importunities and at length I consent to part with them in exchange for some other things as good as they But I tell him withall that I my self will be Judge whether they are so or not since it is at his importunity and to please him that I part with them And besides that I am resolv'd to be possessed of the Equivolent at the same time that I part with my own there being no reason why I should dance attendance after him and wait his leisure for my Reprizal My Lords If these be the true Conditions of Reprizals as I presume they are I am confident that not one of them is like to be observed in the intended Reprizals not the first of them For by the Petitions that have been before your Lordships and by an additional Clause in your Lordships Alterations wherein you have saved all Remainders expectant on Estates for Lives most of the Reprizable Persons must Part with an Inheritance to them and their Heirs and get only in Lieu of it an Estate for Life which will determine with the Life of the forfeiting Persons So here is not Equal Value Worth and Purchase Not the Second For the Parties themselves are not made the Judges but the Commissioners And I dare say that if they were made the Judges there is not one of them that are to be turn'd out that will part with their present Possessions or that judge the Reprizal to bear any proportion with the Estates they are to quit Not the Third For by the Commons Bill they are to be turn'd out immediatly and wait for a Reprizal afterwards and all the Favour they can obtain from your Lordships is only to have a competent time for their removal which may be long or short as the Commissioners please but out they must go at the discretion of the Commissioners and wait their leisure for a Reprizal This is the first Objection against this Bill The next is that it is not for the Publick Good either for the King or the Kingdom or the People in it It is not for the good of the King who is the Vital Head of this great Body and that whether we respect his Majesties Honour or his Profit It is not for his Majesties Honour to consent to the Ruining of so many Innocent Loyal Persons as must unavoidably perish if this Bill doth pass It is not for his Honour to rescind those just Acts of his Royal Father and Brother the Act for Adventurers passed in England and the Declaration and Acts of Settlement and Explanation which if I am not misinform'd were five years upon the Anvil and at last not pass'd till all Parties were fully heard It is not for his Majesties Honour to break his word with his People nor violate so many repeated Promises as he hath made that he would not Consent to the Repeal of them And as it is not for his Honour so it is not for his Profit or Advantage it will neither preserve him in the Kingdom that he enjoys nor restore him to those that he has unhappily lost His Profit in this Kingdom must arise out of a Constant Payment of his Revenue both Ordinary and Extraordinary And who is able to pay His Revenue or support the Dignity of his Crown if this Bill passeth into a Law The Protestants are not able the Rapparees have Plundered them of all their Substance and here is a Bill to take away their Estates and consequently they will have nothing left to pay the Publick Taxes of the Nation And as for the Romanists they will be in as ill a Condition as the Protestants The Old Proprietor comes Poor and Hungry into his Estate and can pay nothing till his Tenants raise it and the present Possessor loseth the Benefit of his Purchases and Improvements and who then is able to supply the Necessities of His Majesty Besides this in many parts of the Kingdom the Land is hardly able to pay the Kings Quit-Rent by reason of the Universal Depredations that Reign every where and can it be imagin'd but that things will grow far worse when the ablest Catholick Merchants and the most Wealthy Purchasers of that Communion are ruin'd and undone And as it is not for the Kings Profit in this Kingdom so it is to the utter Ruine of his Interest in the Kingdoms that he has lost Will the Protestants in England and Scotland join heartily in restoring him to his Crown when they understand how their Brethren here are used No My Lords They will rather bend and unite all their Forces to hinder his Restitution when they consider that the mischief is like to come home to their own Doors and that what is a doing here is but a Model of what they must suffer if he be restored Will they trust his Word in England when he breaks it in Ireland or rely on his Promises to them when he doth not keep them to his Subjects here This my Lords will abate their Affections for him and gain him more Enemies there than he can have Friends here It is not for the good of the Kingdom and that if we consider it in reference to Trade Wealth Improvements Husbandry It will ruine the Kingdom in point of Trade Divine Providence hath placed us in an Island where we must Trade or want many conveniences of Life and can we expect that the Trade of this Nation will increase in our hands when we find it sunk so low by the removal of the Protestant Merchants effects out of the Kingdom and for those Catholick Merchants that carry it on in some measure can we believe that they will be able to carry it on when we are ruining their Stocks by taking away their Estates and Improvements from them Nay we shall not only ruine our own Traders at home but break their Correspondents abroad whose effects are in their hands We have passed a Bill in this House for the Inviting Strangers to Settle and Trade among us but it is worth considering whether the Course we are now taking will not hinder the Nation of the intended benefit of that Bill for if Foreign Merchants come among us what Security have they but the Publick Faith of the Nation and it is not probable that Strangers will rely upon it when they observe that it is so ill kept towards our own people If Trade decays the Wealth of the Nation must perish with it for they live and die together Wealth cannot subsist without Trade or without security for Debt And who will ever lend Money or Purchase or Improve in this Kingdom after this when the Money that hath been lent and the Purchases made from Persons deriving their Estates under two Acts of Parliament many years
By the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Kildare and one of His MAJESTIES most Honourable Privy Council Note The Copy of the First Order for Garrisoning the House of Ballisannan could not be gotten WHereas I have been informed That Ballysannan now belonging to Mr. Annesley was a House of Strength and therefore fit to have a Garrison and now being convinc'd of the contrary These are therefore in His Majesties Name to require you forthwith to remove your Men to their former Garrison out of the said House Given under my Hand this First day of April 1690. Charles White For Captain Patrick Nugent or the Officer in Chief Commanding the Troop at Kildare SIR THIS is to let you understand that I am Authoriz'd to give the Proprietor possession of the Lands of Ballysannan c. according to the Act of Parliament and that you may not be surpriz'd therein I give you this Notice from Sir Your Loving Friend and Servant Charles White Naas the 8th of April 1690. For John Annesly Esquire or in his Absence to Francis Annesly Esq These Second Order for Ballysannan WHereas Luke Fitzgerald Esquire has proved himself before me to be the Ancient Proprietor of the Town and Lands of Ballysannan and that his Ancestors were Posses'd of their Mansion-house there in the Year 1641. I do therefore in pursuance of His Majesties Orders unto me appoint the under-named Persons to give possession of the Mansion-house there to Luke Fitzgerald Esquire And for so doing this shall be your Warrant Given under my Hand and Seal this 6th day of May 1690. Charles White I do hereby appoint Captain Walter Archbold or Captain John Dillon of Athy to give possession of the Mansion-house of Ballysannan to Luke Fitzgerald Esquire An Account of Absentees Goods and how they were imbezelled THE beginning of March 1688. or before several Persons Officers of the Army who were impowered or pretended to be impowered by my Lord Deputy seized on the Goods of Absentees in most Counties of the Kingdom except the City of Dublin May 7th 1689. A Warrant comes to the Commissioners of His Majesties Revenue under His Majesties Privy Signet and Sign Manual dated April 29th 1689. to impower the Commissioners of the Revenue to call all such Persons to Account that had seiz'd any Goods or Chattels of Absentees May 9th 1689. The Commissioners of the Revenue issued out Instructions to several Persons in the respective Counties pursuant to His Majesties said Warrant As to the Country it must be observed That betwixt the 1st of March 1688. being the Time of seizing by the Officers of the Army and 9th of May 1689. when the Commissioners were impowered a great part of the Goods of Absentees were stolen or disposed The Officers that seiz'd were at the Camp at Denry and if any Accounts were return'd by them to the Lord Deputy the same never came to the Commissioners though they often endeavoured with the Secretary to find any such Accounts The Commissioners of the Revenue thereupon sollicited a Bill to pass in Parliament to vest the Goods of all Absentees in the King with some fitting Power to the Commissioners of the Revenue for the more easie and expeditious bringing all Persons to Account that had formerly seiz'd But this met with much delay and alterations At last the Bill pass'd the 18th of July 1689. and the Scope of it amounts to no more than to vest in His Majesty the Goods of such Persons only as are declared Forfeiting Persons by the Act of Attainder or Persons absent who abet or assist the Prince of Orange with exception of Minors and some Proviso's by the Act of Attainder most had time to return till the First of September and the general Clause of all Persons that have aided or abetted the Prince of Orange does not intitle the King without an Office found that such Persons did aid or abet and this requiring Proof and a Great Charge there did not appear sufficient profit to arise to answer the Charge Upon the whole Matter this Bill seemed rather to lessen the Zeal of those employed to seize Absentees Goods than otherwise when they consider'd that upon debate in Parliament it was denyed to pass a Law that should indemnifie them for more than half their Seizures even in the City of Dublin half the Persons whose Goods were there seized not being named in the Bill of Attainder However Aug. 9th 1689. The Commissioners of the Revenue having appointed four Provincial Surveyors gave them Instructions that the Surveyor General and the Collectors should dispose of the Stocks of Absentees whereby it appears that instead of neglecting that Matter of the Goods of Absentees they seemed rather to have given Order for the disposal of them before they were forfeited Septemb. 14th 1689. The Commissioners finding no satisfactory Returns from the Commissioners employed by them most of the Commissioners being in the Army or neglecting the Matter or applying the Goods to their own Use they superseded those Commissioners and lest the whole Matter to their Collectors which if done at first some profit might have redounded to His Majesty 2. The Goods of Absentees in the City of Dublin were not ordered by the Lord Deputy to be seized but the people observing what was done in the Country and there being free Transportation for England in March the Custom-house-Key became like a Fair and the most of Absentees Goods were then sent for England scarce any thing valuable was then left unless by the Carelesness of the persons employed by the Absentees The said 9th of August 1689. the Commissioners impowered several persons to seize the Goods of Absentees in the City of Dublin with like directions as the Lord Deputy gave formerly in other Counties viz. To inventory and take security for the forth-coming of these Goods and not to strip the Houses or hinder Trade for many Brewers Ale-sellers and other Handy-Crafts and Traders though absent yet had left behind them Servants Friends and sometimes their Wives to manage their Trade and to have strip't those Houses had but added to the Number of Wast Houses and lessened His Majesties Revenue some Ale-houses not having the Value of Forty Shillings of Absentees Goods draw three or four Barrels of Drink per Week besides their Quartering of Souldiers which has cost the Inhabitants more generally by far than the Goods could be sold for these Times And this Matter ought at present to be well considered for though now the Goods are vested in the King by Law and the best of them is to be made for the King's advantage yet Rotten Hangings will sell only to those that have the House No. 25. Albavilles Instructions to the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer Gentlemen THE many Robberies Oppressions and Outrages committed through all parts of the Kingdom to the utter Ruine thereof and to the great Scandal of the Government as well is of Christianity forces his Majesty to a great resentment against those that prove
Encouragers and Abettors of them by an unpardonable neglect in the Execution of his Royal Orders And whereas the Issuing out Commissions of Oyer and Terminer in all the Counties of the Kingdom which was done some Months ago was judged by his Majesty with the Advice of his Privy Council the most Efficacious means to prevent and quash such horrid Disorders I. You are Ordered by his Majesty on sight hereof to let Me his Principal Secretary of State know what you can alledge to justifie your selves from the Imputation of having strangely Neglected all this time the Execution of your Commission which proves the chiefest Cause of this general Desolation of the Country II. You are Commanded by his Majesty to proceed without the least delay to the Execution of your Commission and send to me for his Majesties information a Weekly Account of your Proceedings III. That you Adjourn from one Week to another and at farthest not above a Fortnight IV. That you proceed with all Just Severity against such of the Justices of the Peace as have Bayled contrary to Law Malefactors And against all such as favour in any manner Robbers and Thieves V. That you proceed against all persons whatsoever who have given or will give any Obstruction to the Execution of your Commission And if they prove Officers of the Army or Absent so as you do not think fit to proceed against them that you forthwith send me an Account thereof VI. That you proceed with all Rigour against all persons found Guilty of Counterfeiting the Kings Coyn. VII And lastly That you Order all men to fall upon publick Robbers who have no regard of their Duty towards GOD their King or Country destitute of all sense of humanity and consider them but as wild beasts who live upon Prey and Rapine This is Gentlemen what I have at present in Command from his Majesty to send to you to which I will adde this Advertisement That you cannot light upon better Measures to Allay the KINGS just Resentment of your former Neglects the occasion of a world of Mischief then by a speedy and vigorous Execution of your Commission Let the present general cryes of the people for Justice and the present general Oppression under which the Country groans move you to have a Compassion of it and to raise in you such a publick spirit as may Save it from this inundation of Miseries that break in upon it by a Neglect of his Majesties Orders and by a general relaxation of all Civil and Military Laws Consider that our Enemies leaving us to our selves as they do conclude we shall prove greater Enemies to one another than they can be to us and that we will destroy the Country and enslave our selves more than they are able to do What Inhumanities are daily committed against one another gives but too much ground to the truth of what our Enemies conclude of us I had almost forgot a special Command of his Majesty that is That you will consider the Liberty of Conscience granted by Act of Parliament and to punish the Infringers of that Law who by an indiscreet and inconsiderable Zeal usurp his Majesties Prerogative not reflecting how much his Majesties and the Nations interest and not only the Religion of the Nation but the Catholick Religion in all the parts of Christendom is involved in a Religious Execution of that Liberty of Conscience Dublin-Castle Jan. 2. 1689. I am Gentlemen Your most humble Servant Marquis D Albaville To the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer for the County of Dublin or to any or either of them to be Communicated to the rest To the Lord Chief Justice Nugent No. 26. A Copy of a Petition of the Minister of Wexford for his Church and the Order thereupon To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Alex r. Allen of Wexford Clerk Most humbly Sheweth THAT your Petitioner being Minister of the Parish Church of St. Iberius in the Town of Wexford hath therein for several Years past daily celebrated Divine Service and exercised all other Offices of his Function with Piety to GOD and constant Loyalty to your Majesty Yet Your Petitioner on the 25th of October last was Dispossessed of his said Church contrary to the late Act of Liberty of Conscience by Edward Wiseman Esq Mayor of Wexford who a few dayes after did not only by the Rabble introduced by him brake down and demolish all the Pewes and Altar of the said Church but did seize and unjustly deny your Petitioners Vestmonts Church Book and other Ornaments thereof to the great prejudice of your Petitioner and his Parishoners although your Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects have several Chappels fit for the free Exercise of their Religion both within and without the Walls of the said Town and whereunto several Protestant Inhabitants have given liberal Contribution Your Petitioner further sheweth That he the said Edward Wiseman as Magistrate of the Town of Wexford is obliged as usually it hath been by Act of Vestry to encourage and provide for the relief of distressed Orphans and other poor of the said Town of Wexford yet uncharitably refuseth to interpose his Authority in the behalf of such poor whereby they must inevitably perish if not speedily Relieved May it therefore please Your Majesty to Restore your Petitioner to his Parish Church which was never Forfeited by Absence or otherwise And that the said Edward Wiseman may be obliged to Repair it and leave it in the same condition he found it and that such care may be taken for Relief of distressed Orphans and other Poor from Famine as is usual And Your Petitioner shall ever pray c. At the Court in Dublin-Castle Jan. 28th 1690. Present the KING 's most Excellent Majesty in Council WHEREAS His Majesty is Informed upon Oath That Edw. Wiseman late Mayor of the Town of Wexford did Illegally seize upon the Parish Church of St. Iberius in the said Town of Wexford broke down the Pews and Altar of the said Church and detained the Vestmonts Church-Books and other Ornaments thereunto belonging His Majesty was Graciously pleased to Order Mr. Nicholas Stafford present Mayor of the said Town of Wexford forthwith to cause the said Church and Goods to be Restored to Alex r. Allen Minister of the said Parish in the same condition they were in when Seiz'd upon by the said Edward Wiseman Hugh Reily No. 27. Mr. Prowd Minister of Trim his Account of the Remarkable Accident that hapned upon Plundring the Church of Trim. SIR THIS will give you an Account of an eminent Instance of Gods Vengeance shewn on one John Keating a Church Rapparee who in the very act of Plundring and Breaking of our Church was struck with a sudden Madness in which he continued for the space of Three Weeks and that day three weeks he was struck Mad dyed in a sad and miserable Condition The manner of it was thus This Keating was a Souldier in the Lord of Kinmares
Romish Priests and Monks Writen by the Author of the former Book Entituled The Frauds of Romish Priests and Monks set forth in Eight Letters L. Annaei Flori Rerum Romanarum Epitome cum Interpretatione Notis in usum Serenissimi Delphini unà cum Indicibus copiosissimis oppidò necessariis Compendium Graecum Novi Testamenti continens ex 7959 versiculis totius Novi Testamenti tantum versiculos 1900 non tamen integros in quibus omnes universi Novi Test. voces unà cum Versione Latina inveniuntur Auctore Iohanne Leusden Editio quinta in qua non tantum Themata Graeca Voces derivatae exprimuntur sed etiam Tempora Verborum adduntur Tandem ne aliquid ubicunque desideretur in hac Novissima Editione Londinensi cuilibet Voci aut Compositae aut Derivatae Radix adjicitur propria in Tyronum gratiam De Presbyteratu Dissertatio Quadripartita Presbyteratûs sacri Origines naturam Titulum Officia Ordines ab ipsis Mundi primordiis usquè ad Catholicae Ecclesiae consummatum plantationem complectens in qua Hierarchiae Episcopalis Jus Divinum immutabile ex Auctoritate scripturarum Canonicè expositarum Ecclesiasticae Traditionis suffragiis brevitèr quidem sed luculentèr asseriter Authore Samuele Hill Diaeceseôs Bathoniensis Wellensis Presbytero Londini Typis S. Roycroft L. L. Oriental Typographi Regis Impensis R. Clavel in Coemeterio D. Pauli MDCXCI Sometime since Published for R. Clavel FOrms of Private Devotion for every day in the Week in a Method agreeable to the Liturgy with Occasional Prayers and an Office for the Holy Communion and for the Time of Sickness A Scholastical History of the Primitive and General Use of Lyturgies in the Christian Church together with an Answer to David Clarkson's late Discourse concerning Liturgies Roman Forgeries in the Councils during the first Four Centuries together with an Appendix concerning the Forgeries and Errors in the Annals of Baronius Ait idem Barclaius amitti regnum si Rex vere hostili animo in totius populi exitium feratur quod concedo confistere enim simul non possunt voluntas imparandi voluntas perdendi quare qui se hostem populi totius prositetur is eo ipso abdicat regnum Sed vix videtur id accidere posse in rege mentis compote qui uni populo imperet quod si pluribus populis imperet accidere potest ut unius populi in gratiam alterum vult preditum Idcirco enim frater carissime copiosum corpus est Sacerdotum concordiae mutuae glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum ut siquis eâ— collegio nostro Haeresim facere gregem Christi lacerare vastare tentaverit subveniant caeteri quasi pastores utiles misericordes qui oves dominicas in gregem colligant Cypri Ep. 67. Pamelii Socrates lib. 2. c. 22. Acts of the late pretended Irish Parliament C. 3. Pro defensione fidei prestant juramentum quod de terris suae jurisdictioni Subjectis universos haereticos ab ecclesia denotatos bona fide pro viribus exterminare studebunt Conc. Later IV. cap. 3. Concil Constantiens Sess. 45. Bull. Mart. De erroribus Johan Wickleff Declaration for Liberty of Conscience in Scotland See Appendix 28. Henry 8. cap. 13. 2. Elizab cap. 1. 10. Henry 7. cap. 13. Lord Clarendon's Speech at giving up the Sword to the Earl of Tirconnel and the Abstract of the Revenue for 1685. Appendix N. 5. 6. By what Interest and for what Design he came to be employed and at last to be made Deputy will appear from the Copy of a Letter found amongst Bishop Tyrrel's Papers his Secretary 'T is in the Appendix N. 3. Vide Ch. 2. Sect. 6. N. 2. Felix ô Neal was removed in 1689. and made a Collonel Sanders de oblig conscien praelect 9. 12. 19. Ubi tam gravis premit necessitas ut vir pius prudens non possit dubitare legislatorem ipsum si praesens esset legit sibi gratiam relaxationem concessurum liceat subditis communis utilitatis quae suprema lex est omnium legum finis rationem habere magis quam legum particulaâ—â—â—m Salus populi suprema Lex The Equity of which Maxim as it leaveth in the Law-giver a power of dispensing with the Law as he shall see it expedient to the publick Good so it leaveth in the Subject a Liberty upon just Occasions to do otherwise than the Law requires Dr. Sanderson's Judgment concerning Submission to Usurpers pag. 17. Edit Lond. 1678. Appendix N. 10. N. 7. See the Appendix for the List of Privy-Counsellors N. 9. a See Appendix N o 14. Appendix N o 14. Appendix N o 11. See Appendix Appendix See Appendix N o 15. Appendix N o 18. See the First Proclamation by the Earl of Tyrconnel Feb. 21. 1686. WHereas a late Proclamation issued forth by the Lord Lieutenant and Council of this Kingdom in December last for the Suppressing of Tories Robbers and their Harbourers in these Words following Whereas there have been of late many Burglaries and Robberies committed in several parts of this Kingdom to the ruin of some of his Majesties good Subjects and to the great disquiet of many others and it is found by experience that his Majesties Mercy that hath been heretofore extended to some Persons that have been attainted of such Crimes hath been an encouragement to others to commit the like c. Which Proclamation hath not yet met with the full effect c. See Appendix N o. 25. 'T was an ancient Law of England some say as Old as King Alfred That no King should change his Mony nor impair nor inhanse nor make any Mony but of Silver without the Assent of the Lords and all the Commons See Power of Parliaments asserted by Sir Robert Atkins p. 17. And Lord Cook Exposition of Stat. Artic super Chart. Cap. 2â— 2 Iâ—st 577. Chap. II. Sect. 4. See the Copy of a Letter to King James and Malony's Letter in the Appendix N. 4. 17. How is it possible a Parliament should be Free in all its Circumstances whilst an Enemy is in the Kingdom Append. N. 21. Appendix N. 24. See Appendix N. 23. Appendix N. 22. See the Articles in the Appendix n. 1â— See Appendix n. 28. See Dr. Walkers Siege of Derry See Appendix N. 31. See Appendix See Appendix N. 3 4. 17. 12 Eliz. Chap. 1st See the Appendix Molony's Scheme in his Letter N. 17. See the Proceedings of the Parliament of Paris upon the Pope's Bull Printed at London 1688. P. 5. Appendix N. 27. See the Petition in the Appendix N. 26. See Appendix N. 31. See Appendix N. 30. See Appendix N. 29. 1. It is unjust Reprizals It is not for the publick good Not for the King 's good It ruins the Kingdom It ruins the People in it It destroys the Publick Faith Inconvenient in point of time Loco Sigill '