as that they promised to give way to the undertakers, if the sheriff, by warrant from his Lordship and the commissioners, put them in possession. Whereupon, his Lordship and the commissioners signed a warrant to the sheriff to give possession to one Taylor, an English undertaker, who was then arrived and present in the camp, which warrant was executed without resistance (63), and thereupon distribution being made to the better sort of natives, of several portions of land in the baronies assigned to them, they not unwillingly accepted of several tickets containing the quantities of land allotted to every particular person.

"The eyes of all the inhabitants of Ulster were turned upon this county of Cavan, and therefore when they saw the difficulty of the business overcome here, their minds were the better prepared to submit themselves to the course prescribed by his Majesty for the plantation. So that in the next two counties of Fermanagh and Tyrconnell (64), (though the countries were never

entirely resumed, nor vested in the Crown as Tyrone was, but only surrendered and re-granted to the chief lords, who forfeited their estates by their several attainders), there was no man that pretended any title against the Crown, and there were very few who seemed unsatisfied with their portions assigned unto them (65), only Connor Roe McGuyre, who has an entire barony, and the best barony in Fermanagh, allotted unto him (because in the first year of his Majesty's reign, when the settling of that province was not so verily intended as now it is, the State made him a promise. of three baronies in the county), seemed ill contented with his allotment; yet he did not oppose the Sheriff, when he gave possession to the undertakers of lands whereof himself was then possessed; but affirmed he would forthwith pass into England, and there become a suitor for better conditions (66). But when we came to Tyrone and Ardmagh, where we expected least contradiction, because the best of the natives there had not any colour or shadow of title to any land in those countries, the same being clearly and wholly come to the Crown by the attainder of Tyrone and others; yet divers of Tyrone's horsemen, namely the O'Quins and Hagans, because they had good stock of cattle, the commissioners distributed portions of land, such as the scope assigned to the natives of that county afforded, refused to accept the same from his Majesty; yielding this reason of their refusal that they would rather choose to be tenants at will to the

lands assigned for corporate towns and free schools. The said servitors and natives to have and to hold the said portions to them and their heirs forever, free from all rents, beaves, cutting, &c. [only the two widow ladies above-named were free from rents], on observing the articles and conditions of plantation.

All the

inhabitants of the precincts of Lyffer, Portlagh, and Boylagh, and of the 4,000 acres assigned to the College (except the inhabitants of the town of Ballashannon and Lyffer, tenants of bishops', abbey, and termon lands) or other the King's patentees, whose grants are now in force (if any be) who are to produce their letters patent, do prepare themselves clearly to avoid [cease to occupy] their several possessions within the said precincts of Lyffer, Portlogh, and Boylagh, and the lands assigned the college, and leave the same to the English and Scottish undertakers, and to the said college, to whom the King has granted the same. And if they [the natives] will attend us to receive their new proportions and allotments, they shall have the same assigned in such convenient time as they may thereupon begin their planting and ploughing for the next season; and receive several particulars of the quarters by name, in the precincts of Doe and Fawnett, whereupon every person shall be placed, to the end they may pass the same by letters patent and possess the same accordingly."

(65). Assigned unto them.-The inhabitants of Fermanagh had been long distinguished for the placidity of their characters, of which Davys himself was aware (see P. III), and, even under the the aggravating circumstances now described, they appear to have avoided any special exhibition of temper. Only four years previously, he and his employers professed the tenderest care over the interests of these inhabitants of Fermanagh. The native chiefs, however, were then to be dealt with, and nothing could exceed the apparent anxiety of the planters to pro

tect the humbler freeholders in their rightful claims. In 1606, Davys, after a visit to Fermanagh, wrote to Salisbury at great length, stating, among other matters, that "forasmuch as the greatest part of the inhabitants of that country did claim to be freeholders of their several possessions, who, surviving the late rebellion, had never been attainted, but having received his Majesty's pardon, stood upright in law, so as we could not clearly intitle the Crown to their lands, except it were in point of conquest, a title which the State here hath not at any time taken hold of for the King against the Irish, which upon the conquest were not dispossessed of their lands, but were permitted to die, seized thereof in the King's allegiance." Indeed, the only parties, besides the Maguire chiefs, whom the deputy and his associates were then [1606] inclined to depress, were those described by Davys in the following terms :-"Concerning the free lands of the third kind, viz., such lands as are possessed by the Irish officers of this country [Fermanagh], viz., chroniclers, galloglasses, and rimers; the entire quantity of it [the free land] laid together, as it is scattered in several baronies, doth well nigh make two ballibetaghs, and no more; which land in respect of the persons that merit no respect, but rather discountenance from the State, for they are enemies to the English Government, may perhaps be thought meet to be added to the demesne lands of the chief Lords." See Historical Tracts, pp. 243, 257.

(66). Better conditions.-We know not whether Connor Roe ever undertook such an excursion as Davys here indicates, but we shall see that he was obliged to be content with even much less than a barony. He was another illustration of the disappointed people who had early joined the English, and were at last thrown aside with very scant rewards for their services.

servitors or others who had competent quantities of land to receive them, than to be freeholders to his Majesty of such small parcels, for which they should be compelled to serve in juries, and spend double the yearly value thereof at assizes and sessions (67); wherein he, for his part, easily believes them, for all the Irish (the chief lords excepted), desire naturally to be followers, and cannot live without a master, and for the most part they love every master alike, so he be present to protect and defend them. And, therefore, he is of opinion that, if they were once settled under the bishops (see pp. 206-209) or others who may receive Irish tenants, they would follow them as willingly, and rest as well contented under their wings, as young pheasants do under the wings of a home hen, though she be not their natural mother; and though the transplantation be distasteful to them (as all changes and innovations are at first unpleasant), yet they [the commissioners, or rather Davys, as their exponent], hope that when they are once seated in their new habitations, they will like the new soil, as well as prove better themselves, like some trees which bear but harsh and sour fruit in the place where they naturally grow, but being transplanted and removed, like the ground better, and yield pleasanter and sweeter fruit than they did before (68). Thus much concerning the natives. Touching the servitors-though the last year, none but my Lord Audelay (see pp. 79, 135, 136) would undertake any land according to the articles published in print, yet now there were so many competitors for the land assigned to servitors, that it was not possible for the commissioners to give contentment to all; and therefore many of them returned home unsatisfied. Such as have portions allotted to them are men of merit and ability, and for the most part such as have set up their rest in Ulster. For the rest, who returned without portions, my Lord Deputy has given them some hope that they may be provided for, either by placing them upon the lands granted to the city of London,

(67). Assizes and sessions. These O'Quins and O'Hagans had been steady adherents of the Earl of Tyrone, and could not, so easily as some others, bring themselves to accept the new order of things then introduced. They had followed their creaghting, though not to the neglect of their crops; and consulted their Brehons without much exciting the jealousies of sheriffs in Tyrone and Armagh. From the time of O'Neill's surrender in 1602, until his flight, with O'Donnell, in 1607, these septs had evidently been among the leading cultivators of the soil, especially in Tyrone. At the latter crisis they appear to have been bewildered for a time by the "flight,' but continued their agricultural pursuits. Sir Thomas Phillips, on first hearing of that event, made an excursion from Coleraine, along the wooded ways of Loughinshollin, as far as Dungannon. In a letter to Salisbury, dated Sept. 22, 1607, he refers to this journey, and expresses his surprise on witnessing the improved condition of that district even during the short interval above-mentioned. "Thought good," says he, "for securing of the people to go from Coleraine as far as Dungannon, and going through the country the people met him, and were all amazed and ready to forsake their houses. Gave them the best counsel he could, which they promised to take, but there is no trust in them. The Lord Deputy has since sent them a proclamation which could not but satisfy them, if they were good subjects; they now begin to grow rich, so that for the most part during peace they increase very fast in

cattle, and this year they have great plenty of corn. Has passed through the fastest country in Tirone, where he did not expect to have seen so much corn.” In 1610, these O'Quins and O'Hagans had lots of cattle, a fact which induced the commissioners to offer a few of them small patches of freehold, but the small freeholders were expected, as jurors, to do the work of the Government at assizes and sessions, and these clansmen neither liked the trouble, nor the expense, nor the policy thus required from them; they therefore declined the proffered gift. Davys egregiously misrepresented them when he affirmed that they were indifferent as to what master they would serve. These septs were only too sensitive on this very point for their own interests, preferring to take their chance as tenants-at-will rather than place themselves under any obligations to do the work of the dominant party.

(68). Did before.-Davys was evidently proud of this figure of speech, for he introduces it again in his second letter to Salisbury, which was written only a few weeks after. In that second letter he informs Salisbury that he had told the Irish of Ulster that the King, in ordering their removal from their houses and lands, thus "imitated the skilful husbandman, who doth remove his fruit trees, not with a purpose to extirpate and destroy them, bet that they may bring better and sweeter fruit after the transplantation.”—Historical Tracts, p. 284.

in the Glinnes of Tyrone, or upon the Bishops' lands, at easy rents, or by some other means which may arise before the plantation be accomplished. Touching the British undertakers, the greatest number of them are come over, and have presented themselves to the commissioners, and have received warrants for their possession and for timber (69), and are now providing materials for their buildings against the next spring."

VII.

Among the various warrants issued by the deputy at that crisis in Ulster, one was intended to mitigate a very serious evil or grievance inflicted on the natives by the hasty and oppressive legislation which had suddenly abolished their ancient usages and laws. This grievance presented itself in such a palpable form that the new legislators were unable to ignore it. It so happened that several heads of Irish septs or families to whom the commissioners had granted 'proportions,' were wholly destitute of the cattle required to stock their lands, whilst the humblest members of their septs who got no lands, not even the smallest patches of freehold, had cattle in their possession which they could not feed, and which, therefore, they were daily driving off to distant places for sale. How was this? The question is not difficult to explain, but the English appear to have known little or nothing of the cause until the emergency actually forced itself upon their attention. Although Irish chiefs and the heads of creaghts (70) had the superintendence of the lands belonging to their several tribes or clans, their personal property invariably consisted of cattle, which they hired out, on conditions strictly defined in their Brehon laws, to such members of the clans as had few or often no cattle of their own, for the purposes of farming or tillage. This arrangement, known as Commyns,

(69). For timber.-The following is the form of the Warrant for Timber issued in each county by the deputy and commissioners :-"We will and require you, according to a former general warrant to you directed, to assign and mark out unto undertaker of the small portion of in the precinct of in the county of or to his assigns, the number of two hundred good oaks of several sizes, and of growth sufficient to make timber for building upon the small proportion, growing either within that county, or else upon any the escheated lands in the province of Ulster, lying nearest unto the premises, and most convenient to be carried and transported thither by land or by water at the election of the patentee, there to be expended in structures or buildings according to the covenants in that behalf; and for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at the camp near Dunganon the 3rd of September, 1610. Addressed to the commissioners generally appointed for the assignation of timber to the undertakers of the escheated lands in Ulster."

(70). Heads of creaghts.—The person designated as head of a creaght, in the Irish State Papers of the seventeenth century, was known to the Brehon laws as a Bo-Aire, literally a 'cow-nobleman,' from the circumstance of his having raised himself to a certain rank by his wealth, which consisted in the accumulation of great numbers of cattle. The Bo-Aire, from being originally a peasant, and acquainted with peasant wants and ways, generally became

more popular than the legitimate chief of the sept himself, and was often better able to place his cattle with such clansmen, and on such terms, as secured for him not only safer but more remunerative investments. Thus, it happened then as now, and as it ever will, that the accumulation of wealth was the certain path to nobility of rank in ancient Ireland, if not immediately for the accumulator, at least for some of his posterity. Even the distinction of chieftainship was thus frequently won. "Whilst the Brehon laws," says Sir Henry Maine, “suggest that the possession of personal wealth is a condition of the maintenance of chieftainship, they show, with much distinctness, that through the acquisition of such wealth the road was always open to chieftainship. We are not altogether without knowledge that in some European societies the humble freeman might be raised by wealth to the position which afterwards became modern nobility. One fact, among the very few which are tolerably well ascertained, respecting the specific origin of particular modern aristocracies is, that a portion of the Danish nobility were originally peasants; and there are in the early English laws some traces of a process by which a Ceorl might become a Thane. These might be facts standing by themselves, and undoubtedly there is strong reason to suspect that the commencements of aristocracy were multifold; but the Brehon Tracts point out in several places, with legal minuteness, the mode in which a peasant freeman in ancient Ireland could become a chief." Early History of Institutions, p. 135.

was of mutual advantage, for whilst the want of capital or cows was the difficulty with the clansmen, want of pasturage for his herds was the difficulty with the chief. But whilst the native owners of cattle had thus their flocks hired out at interest, the break up or abolition of the whole system suddenly came, preventing both the owners and receivers from making good their contracts, by robbing the one class of their cows and the other of their lands. The clansmen, however, in some cases from necessity, and occasionally from dishonesty, took advantage of their chieftain's misfortunes, retaining possession of the cows, to which they had no just claim, on the plea that the owners had not fulfilled their contract, although it was generally impossible for them to do so.

Under these circumstances, the deputy and commissioners of plantation issued the following 'Warrant for Comynes,' from their camp near 'Lamavady,' on the 28th of August, 1610:"Whereas divers complaints have been exhibited to us by inhabitants of the county of T[irone] for restitution of goods and chattels heretofore given and taken by way of Comynes, and the Irish thereupon depending, from which they have been heretofore by law and proclamations sufficiently inhibited as unlawful and inconvenient : Forasmuch as upon these new alterations of estates, transmigration of tenants, and straightening of possessions, we foresee the matter of comynes is like to come to general question, and hath in it many colours of right and equity, if not for performance of all the conditions mutually agreed on between the parties, yet for restitution of the goods and chattels so given, and of a great part of the increase thereof withal; since the reason and causes of that custom (71) must henceforth cease of necessity, we have thought good for remedy and redress to refer the same to your special considerations, hereby requiring and authorising you to hear and determine of all and every such causes and complaints which shall from henceforth be brought before you, considering and well weighing with yourselves that the best part of the estates and livelihoods of many poor gentlemen, who have hitherto been owners of lands or heads of creats, must henceforth

(71). Of that custom.-Chichester and the commissioners no doubt regarded the Irish custom of giving and taking "by way of comynes" as an especially inconvenient and absurd transaction; but this custom, as practised at an early period throughout European countries generally, was one of the sources of feudalism itself, which became afterwards so widely adopted, and in the spirit of which so many would yet delight to live. This 'way of Comynes,' as the State Paper above expressed it, is known in European history as the practice of Commendation by which a man placed himself under the personal care of a powerful lord, but without surrendering either his status or estate. This custom, so mysterious in its origin, is supposed to be now better understood since the publication of the Brehon laws. "I do not wish," says Sir Henry S. Maine, "to generalise unduly from the new information furnished by the Brehon law, but there has been a suspicion (I cannot call it more), among learned men that Celtic usages would throw some light on Commendation, and at any rate, amid the dearth of our materials, any addition to them from an authentic source is of value. The land of the tribe, whether cultivated or waste, belongs to the tribe, and that is true, whether the tribe be a joint family of kinsmen, or a larger and more artificial assemblage. Every considerable tribe [or clan], and almost every

smaller body of men contained in it, is under a chief, whether he be one of the many tribal rulers whom the Irish records call kings, or whether he be one of those heads of joint-families whom the Anglo-Irish lawyers, at a later date, called Capita Cognationum. He is the military leader of his tribesmen, and probably, in that capacity, he has acquired great wealth in cattle. It has somehow become of great importance to him to place out portions of his herds among the tribesmen, and they on their part find themselves, through stress of circumstances, in pressing need of cattle. Thus the chiefs appear in the Brehon law as perpetually 'giving stock' and the tribesmen as receiving it. The remarkable thing is, that out of this practice grew, not only the familiar incidents of owner. ship, such as the right to rent and the liability to pay it, together with some other incidents less pleasantly familiar to the student of Irish history, but, above and besides these, nearly all the well-known incidents of feudal tenure. It is by taking stock that the free Irish tribesman becomes the Ceil or Kyle, the vassal or man of his chief, owing him not only rent but service and homage. The exac effects of commendation are thus produced, and the interesting circumstance is, that they are produced from a simple and intelligible motive." Early History of Insti tutions, pp. 156-158.