[the undertakers]; besides which Oghie O'Hanlon's rebellion left there many a mischievous knave unpardoned, whom I have now (at the instance of the undertakers) taken in and given them his Majesty's pardon, and I pray God it may make them honest. [2].

I have given express command herein generally, and if I can learn out any particular person, who hath so forgotten himself, and abused the service, I will follow his Majesty's directions precisely.

[3].

I think Sir James Douglas can acquaint him what they are; for here they that should inform him will not tell him.

[4].

The British undertakers do still retain the natives, all directions and proclamations notwithstanding, of which I have by former letters acquainted the Lords, and expect further directions and new warrant to remove them, if that be the King's pleasure.

[5].

There never was any such man pardoned, but some (as I have been told), have broken prison before they were brought to their arraignment, and therefore to prevent the like I have required to have them hanged by martial law, and have given a commission for that purpose.

Tyrone, and comprised in the parish of Aghaloo. It was once densely covered with wood. "Ohanlon's [Orier] is for the most parte without wood," says Bagenall; but Chichester correctly states that "the lower part of Orier" was wooded, which it certainly was, in his time. "Oneylan,' says Bagenall, is likewise a woode lande betwene Ardmache and Clancann." Thus, the statement about woods, in Chichester's note, is amply borne out by Sir Henry Bagenall's Description, and might be further confirmed by other early authorities. See Ulster Journal of Archaology, vol., ii. pp. 149-152. Brantry, in Tyrone, we may safely infer was a favourite haunt of the unhappy outcasts known as woodkerne. About five miles southwest of Dungannon, and three miles east of Carnteel, in the bosom of an almost perfect amphitheatre, surrounded

there, to aid the undertakers to the uttermost of their power, in defence of their lands and goods.

And because it has been rumoured that some of the servitors there are willing enough to see the undertakers thus discouraged, that they may relinquish their plantation imperfect and quit the country, if he [Chichester] should find any of them to offend in this manner, he is to discharge them of all their commands and entertainment, and hold them incapable of any future preferment. And because the servitors have the special privilege that they may have the natives to inhabit their lands, they ought the more carefully to keep them from being offensive to the undertakers by thefts and robberies. And therefore thinks it fit, if any of them [the woodkerne] shall be apprehended and convicted of such capital offence, that justice be severely executed upon them by his [Chichester's] command, without any pardon.

by vast hills to the east, south, and west, and within the last 80 years, having a dense wood cresting the north, lies the Friary Lough,' shaped like a rose leaf. To the west stretch the hills of Carrowcashel; to the east is a high hill called Stoney-Batter, running precipitately to the lough, covered with boulders of freestone and immense tracts of furze; while southward is Gort-Hill, terraced to the top, and crowned with an earthen fort. This is the highest hill in the district, and on a clear day a circuit of forty miles, including Lough Neagh, the mountains of Donegal and Derry, with large sweeps of the coun⚫ ties of Down, Armagh, and Fermanagh, can be traversed by the naked eye. See a Note by J. W. Hanna, Esq., on the fly-leaf of a Translation of O'Mellan's Journal of the Wars of 1641.

[6].

The benefit of tracks is afforded to all, which gives more than the true value; but the British undertakers are careless in keeping of their goods, and being lost, do seldom or never follow the track, but seek restitution out of the whole county, or sundry baronies, according to their own valuation; and it has been proved unto me that one of them lost a horse or gelding, on which he demanded 157., but offered to sell him for 57. before he was stolen ; and, if restitution be made after that manner, they would not care to be robbed every day.

[7].

The Lord Chancellor has order to put some of

(273). Last winter.-From this passage in the King's letter, and the admissions of the deputy in his accompanying remarks, it is evident there had been serious raids from the woods during the winter of 1610. Of this fact we have a curious confirmation in a pamphlet printed in that year, and known as Blennerhassett's Direction for the Plantation in Ulster. In reference to the doings of woodkerne, and other interesting denizens of the woods, the writer gives the following illustration :-"Sir Toby Caulfield's people [in county Armagh] are driven every night to lay up all his cattle, as it were inward, and do he and his what they can, the wolfe and the woodkerne, within caliver shot of his fort [Charlemount], have oftentimes a share." In Adair's True Narrative, there is also the following general but interesting reference to the same matter:-"The wolf and woodkern were greatest enemies to the first planters, but the long rested land did yield to the labourers such plentiful increase, that many followed these first essayers. (See Reid's History of the Presbyterian Church, vol. i., p. 80; Killen's edition of Adair's Narrative, p. 9). The plentiful crops reaped during the first years of the settlement, together with the facilities enjoyed by the Scotch in coming across the Channel to visit their friends, and make their marketings, "took quite away," says the author of the Montgomery Manuscripts, "the evil report of wolves and woodkerns which envyers of planters' industry had raised and brought upon our plantations.' (See 2nd edition, p. 60). But the stealths complained of in the King's letter were not confined to woodkern only, for the benefit of tracks,' as Chichester expresses it, could only be enjoyed by the settlers when the thieves happened to dwell in neighbouring houses, and not in the woods. The nature of this old but rather uncertain mode of seeking remedies against robbers is explained in Payne's Briefe Description of Ireland, made in 1589, as follows :-"And if any of the said kine be stolne, the owners doe track which way they

And further, as it has always been difficult in that country to find out the offenders in theft, through secret conveyances and combinations to conceal them, he [the King] thinks it fit, according to an order which has been long in use and practice there, that if, after stealth from any of the undertakers, the goods may be found, or by tracks may be proved to have come into the hands of any of the natives, or of the servitors, that then either the stolen goods, or the true value of them, should be restored to the undertaker, and that restitution according to this order be made to the petitioners for stealths committed upon them last winter (273).

And as he [the King] presumes that the

were driven from their ground for the law is there, if you tracke any stolne goodes into any man's land, he must tracke them from him, or answere them within forty days, soe where the tracke ceaseth the goodes must be answered." (Sce A. Smith's edition, p. 8). The settlers could not, and in several instances would not, see the 'benefit of tracks,' for they were able, in another fashion mentioned by Chichester, to secure a more certain, and at the same time, a much more liberal remedy. The memorial to the King, on the occasion above mentioned, had been forwarded by Henry Acheson, one of the most extensive and energetic undertakers in Armagh (see p. 284), and by him the King's letter, in reply, was received, and forwarded to Chichester. The following account of a tragedy enacted by woodkerne about this time, in the county of Down, is preserved by the author of the Montgomery Manuscripts :-"This John [Montgomery, cousin-german of the first Viscount Ards], had the Towneland of Gransheogh, in Donaghadee parish, given him in fee-farm, at a small chief rent, by the said Viscount, when he was Sir Hugh Montgomery. The said John was murdered in his house there; which was broken into and rifled in the night, by the Irish woodkernes (we now call such Robbers, if on foot, Torys, if on horseback, Rapparees), his son, Hugh, left as dead, of his many wounds by their skeins; but he crawled out when the Irish were gone with their plunder, and was by the neighbourhood found in a bush; for they had taken the alarm from some one servant that had escaped, while the father and the son, in their shirts, were fighting with swords against the Irish and their half pikes. They murdered the said John's wife also, and the rest of the servants." (See Montgomery Manuscripts, new edition, p. 357). This Hugh Montgomery, who so narrowly escaped with his life, is represented at the present day by Hugh Montgomery, Esq., of Greyabbey, county Down.

them into the commission.

[8].

There was 140l. applotted upon the county of Armagh towards restitution of goods stolen, which the British undertakers refused, albeit the innocent as well as the offender was charged therewith, whereupon the officers forbore to levy it, as well by order from me as the judges of assize, upon the previous complaint of the country, praying to be eased of such unlawful taxations, and to hang the offenders (274).

[9].

It shall be proclaimed together with the remove of the natives, if I may receive order therein.

undertakers will be very active in the inquiry and prosecution of thieves and robbers, he holds it fit that such of them as are sufficient to the execution of the place should be put into the commission of the peace.

He [Chichester] is also to authorise the justices of assize to examine any order made by virtue of any commission in prejudice of any of the undertakers And, for as much as the King is informed that many of the tenants of the undertakers, by reason of the great spoils which have been done upon them, are ready to forsake the country, he authorises him [Chichester] to publish a proclamation, both declaring his royal care to have the estates of the undertakers preserved in peace, and the strict command laid upon the servitors in their behalf, with such further assurance as he [Chichester] shall think fit, whereby

[10].

I humbly thank his Majesty for his good opinion of me, and I will carefully put in execution what I am directed and shall otherwise think fitting.

(274). Hang the offenders.-This bloody code was carried out with a vengeance' to reassure and encourage the startled settlers. Cattle-lifting was, indeed, the principal, almost the only offence then to be dealt with in Ulster. The following, among other records, remain from the Spring Assizes, held at Armagh, on the 8th of March, 1613-14- -"Brian O'Mullen and William Drumallen stole a cow worth 4., the property of Richard Hanley. Guilty. To be executed.-Hugh O'Creggan, of Creena, yeoman, on the 9th of February, 1612-13, at Drumullen, stole a grey mare, worth 67. 6s. 8d., the property of Richard Hanley, yeoman. Guilty. To be executed.Laghlin McDonnell O'Hanlon, of Carrickelaghan, yeo

And therefore lets him know that he has not given him those directions, as if he conceived that he had slackened the reins of his government there, but only to strengthen his [Chichester's] authority, and to quicken the endeavours of some subordinate ministers, who, perchance, neglect the duties of their places. Westminster, 11 March, 1611"-12.

man, on the 10th December, 1614, stole three cows, value 20s. each. Guilty. To be executed.-Art McGillechree and Gillese McKerney, of Mollenbracke, yeomen, on the 3rd January, 1613-14, stole a black 'gelldinge' worth 4., belonging to Patrick Granton, of Dromfergus. Guilty. To be executed." (See Ulster Journal of Archaology, vol. ii., pp. 27, 28). These culprits were hanged immediately after sentence had been pronounced upon them, the custom then being to put halters round their necks in the dock, and lead them along the principal streets or thoroughfares of the town to the place of execution.

(1). O'Mullanes.-This sept, from an early time, was influential in O'Cahan's country, but had fallen into comparative decay at the commencement of the seventeenth century. A few of the less respectable members had taken the side of the Government in the war against Hugh O'Neill, but only one is specially mentioned as having been worthy of reward as a servitor. This was Captain Dennis O'Mullan, who retained the command of one of the forts in Ulster at the head of thirty men, until the time of his death in 1608. Chichester's account of his journey to the north, in 1605, contains the following reference to this native officer:-"Upon the recommendation of Sir Henry Docwra of the good services of Dennis O'Mullan, in spying and guiding upon sundry services in the time of the late rebellion, they [the deputy and commissioners] have persuaded the Earl of Tirone and O'Cahane to pass unto him in freehold forever, one town of land [or townland] in the place where he was born, without payment of any other rent, duties, or customs, but 12d. per annum to the chief lord." This O'Mullan, whose land was considered (among his kinsmen) only as the reward of treachery and baseness, could hardly have hoped long to enjoy his good fortune, or even his life, on the outbreak of O'Dogherty's revolt. He, and one of his brothers, were among the first victims, being slain by a party of Shane Carragh O'Cahan's men, with whom was a brother of the O'Mullans. The two murdered brothers were Dennis and Shane, and Donagh, or Donnell, the third brother, was one of the several rebel leaders afterwards pardoned and sent to Sweden. A friar of this family or sept reconciled the quarrel between O'Neill and O'Cahan, at Dungannon. A Hugh Duff O'Mullan was one of the witnesses against Sir Donnell O'Cahan; and

in 1615 several persons of this name gave evidence about the intended revolt in Ulster of that year.

(2). Magilliganes.-The Magilliganes were then the scattered families of a once numerous and influential tribe, whom McFirbis notices in his enumeration of the descendants of Oilioll, son of Eoghan Breadach, as the Ui-Giollain, or Giollagain. "The parish of Tamlaghtard was called Ard McGillygan in the sixteenth century, from the family who were the hereditary tenants of the twelve quarters of church land which were in it. In later times the Ard has been dropped, so that this parish appearing on the Ordnance Map as Magilligan will prove a lasting memorial of the family." (See Colton's Visitation, edited by Dr. Reeves, p. 39). None of the family appear to have distinguished themselves on either side during the struggles between the English and the natives of Ulster in the sixteenth century. Possessing the church lands in the parish, the leaders of the sept were probably 'scholars,' or persons devoted to the study and administration of the Brehon laws. The parish bearing their tribe-name of Magilligan extends from the summit of Benyevenagh and the mouth of the iver Roe northward to the east side of the entrance of Lough Foyle, and thence four miles in a south-eastward direction along the Atlantic. The Magilligans were hardly known at the commencement of the seventeenth century, from the cause, no doubt, already mentioned. Only one Donough Magilligan is named in the State Papers relating to that period, as having been a deputy from Sir Niall Garve O'Donnell to Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, during the revolt of the latter.

(3). McCloskies.-"A branch of O'Kanes took the name of MacBloscaidh (now McClosky) from Bloscadh O'Kane, who lived in the 12th century." (Irish Topo