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Arthur Magennis; to Donagh McSwine Banagh; to Raynall McSourlah McConnell, lord of Downelis [Sir Randal Macdonnell of Dunluce], who as he [the informant] says, married a third daughter of Tyrone, as the two first (29); and to Connor O'Reagh [Roe] McGuire of Fermanagh." There was nothing, to be sure, very remarkable in the fact that the aged exile should write at times to the husbands of his daughters, or to his cousin, Connor Roe Maguire; but when taken in connection with information supplied to the Bishop of Limerick by a young fellow named Donnough O'Towell, it appears to have become irresistible as evidence of immediate invasion. The bishop's story is, that O'Towell told him he had heard Teig O'Holohan say to Thomas Fitzedmund, a fair-spoken friar, that "there were three great armies preparing in Italy and Spain, one whereof is for England, another for Scotland, and the third for Ireland. After this he [O'Towell] delivered the name of one David Crafforde, Scottishman, whose father, Owen Crafforde, and his mother, likewise, dwell both in Downygall. This Crafforde was servant and butler to the late Earl of Tyrconnell, when he left Ireland and went over into France, and so forward; which said David Crafford landed awhile since, about the 29th of April last, at Killybeg, in the north, and the same night he landed he lay in the house of one Owen McGettighan, in the county of Downygall. From thence, they passed to Fermanagh, in Maguire's country; and the morning after came to Brian McMahon's house, who married one of Tyrone's daughters, and then to Arthroe McEnys's [Sir Arthur Magennis'] house, who likewise married another of Tyrone's daughters. Sure he is that he came from the Earl of Tyrone, to warn all noblemen, gentlemen, and others that wish well to Tyrone, and would hold and stand for the Catholic religion, to be in readiness. His knowledge of all this came by a sister's son of David Crafforde's, who is a friar in this company. This confession being thus made, he took a book and protested of himself that it was true in every point; or else wished he might be hanged if it proved not so."

There is no doubt that, had Tyrone, or any Irish leader in his name, then unfurled the banner

(29). The two first.- The Earl of Tyrone had at least eight sons-in-law, who were well known and even distinguished in their generation. These were Lord Mountgarret, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Sir Arthur Magennis, Sir Brian McMahon, Sir Randal Macdonnell, Sir Henry Oge O'Neill, Sir Hugh Maguire, and Sir Donnell Ballagh O'Cahan. Lady Mountgarret was the eldest of the eight sisters, her Christian name being Margaret; Lady Mary married Sir Rosse McMahon, and afterwards Sir Brian McMahon, who was much older than she, and who is described in 1608 as "grown to be every day heavy with surfeit;" Lady Sarah, married to Magennis, is spoken of in 1603, by the well-known Sir Josias Bodley, as "a truly beautiful woman;" Lady Ellis, or Alice, was married to Sir Randal Macdonnell, about the year 1604; Lady Maguire died probably before her husband, as we hear nothing of her after his death, although her son is mentioned; of the lady of Sir Henry Oge O'Neill, we have met with no record; Lady O'Cahan's sorrows are too well known, but we have not been able to ascertain her Christian name. Until the calendaring of the Carew MSS. it was not known that Hugh Roe O'Donnell was a son-in-law of Tyrone. The following letter from the earl, however, places the fact beyond

dispute:"I have written unto your Lordship before your last return from Flanders, declaring unto you that O'Donnell's son, called Hugh O'Donnell, who hath married my daughter, is kept as a prisoner in the castle of Dublin, and desire your honour to be a mean not only for the enlargement of him upon such security as my letters sent then unto the council there did specify, but also that I might enjoy such governments and other maintenance as I had before my going hither. As I hear nothing of the success of my petitions, I again crave your especial favour. If anything be reported of me there otherwise than well, be a mean to suspend judg ment of me until I come thither myself or send my agent. "Ever since I brought over your letters to the now Lord Deputy on my behalf, I have not been favoured, but rather crossly dealt withal. I beseech your Lordship, lest that this letter might breed me any prejudice (if it were openly known), that your Honour break [tear] the same presently when you have read the same in Dublin." (Carew MSS., 1575-1588, p. 461.) The above is the substance of a communication addressed by the Earl of Tyrone to the Earl of Leicester, on the 24th of February, 1588.

of revolt in Ulster, the 'swordmen' and other able-bodied natives, would have joined him to a man. Even irrespective of their lingering love of the "lost cause," they were generally disgusted to hear of the scraps of their own soil which were to be doled out amongst them,—and in other dreary places, too, at a distance from their native districts. Their sentiments, indeed, are truly enough described in the following extract of a letter from Sir Toby Caulfield to Chichester, written in the month of June, 1610 :-" Reports his ill success in the prosecution of woodkerne. There is no hope of the people since the news of the plantation, divulged by Sir Tirlagh McHenry [O'Neill, of the Fewes] and the rest lately arrived from England, that it will shortly be many of their cases to be woodkerne out of necessity, no other means being left them to keep a being in this world, than to live as long as they can by scrambling. They have a report that an ambassador, newly arrived in England from Spain, is treating for the pardoning of the earl and restoration to his lands, which being refused, a war will ensue. They also hope that, the summer being spent, before the commissioners [for the removal of the natives] come down, so great cruelty will not he offered as to remove them from their houses upon the edge of winter, and in the very season when they are to supply themselves in making their harvest. And they think that, by the next spring, if ever Tyrone can or will come, he will wait for no longer time, since delays and further deferring cannot be less prejudice to him than the utter ruin and extirpation of his dearest friends. They hold discourse among themselves, that if this course [their expulsion from their houses and lands] had been taken with them in war time, it had had some colour of justice; but they having been pardoned and their lands given them [in 1603], and having lived under law ever since, and being ready to submit themselves to mercy for any offence they can be charged with since their pardoning, they conclude it to be the greatest cruelty that was ever inflicted on any people. Takes leave to assure him [Chichester] there is not a more discontented people in Christendom."

But there remained a fourth very obvious 'reason' for patience on the part of the British undertakers, arising from the fact that the commissioners of plantation had a varied and prodigious work to get through, after a fashion at least, during the summer of 1609. For this reason, especially, therefore, they warned the undertakers, even although they might be able to take out their patents in the summer of 1609, to remain in their own countries until the following spring. Their coming sooner would only impede the work of the commissioners, and entail expenses-perhaps something worse upon themselves. "If," say the commissioners, "the undertakers shall repair thither this summer [1609], they will be forced to attend the execution [await the completion of the commissioners' labours] which cannot be done before Michaelmas at the soonest, the same being to be sped in six counties; so that they [the undertakers] will not only spend their stock by lingering all the summer in a country where is neither lodging nor provision for them, but may also by contrary weather be compelled to spend a great part of the winter time in that kingdom, by which they may be disappointed of the next summer's preparation. Whereas, now [1609] all things will be so made in readiness against next spring, that the undertakers may, in the beginning of the season, enter into and sit down, every man in his proportion, and have the summer before them for preparation of building and other supplies."

W

CHAPTER V.-THE COMMISSIONERS OF PLANTATION at Work.

I.

E have already mentioned the move of the commissioners, with their attendant military force, from Dublin to Dundalk, on the 31st of July, 1609, and also the preparations that had been previously made for their comfort on the northern journey (see p. 124). One of themselves, (1) fortunately, took the trouble of noting down the dates of their moving from place to place, and some other incidents connected with that memorable sojourn in Ulster. The heading of his notes is too pretentious, however, and calculated to excite higher hopes than readers are likely to realise. His paper is styled A Relation of the Proceedings of the Lord Deputy and the rest in Ireland, from 31 July to 30 September, when the camp was discharged. This title implies very much more than the scribe has performed; but we are grateful in a case of. this kind even for small mercies, and his notes, although meagre, will be interesting by the way.

The commissioners, according to this 'Relation,' remained two days in Dundalk, and during that time were employed, principally, in arranging their subsequent course of procedure. "In every county," we are told, "they were to summon the assizes, wereunto all people of any worth used to resort; of whom they were to swear some for the grand jury; others chosen of every barony for a jury of survey or inquiry what ecclesiastical lands, tenements, or hereditaments the clergy had in every parish within each county, and by what title; what lands and tenements belonged to the King's Majesty; and other articles prescribed from his Majesty. And, also, they agreed to select out of every barony men that were able to nominate, meere, and bound every parish, balliboe, or ballybetagh; and these were to attend Sir Josias Bodley (2) and the surveyor (3), who were to make card [chart or map] of every country." Thus, in addition to the regular

(1). Of themselves.-This was Sir Humphrey Winche, who was chief baron of the exchequer, but had then recently succeeded Sir James Ley as chief justice. Chichester, writing to Salisbury, in Dec., 1608, says—“ Sir Humphrey Winch, chief baron of the exchequer here, has been informed from thence that Sir James Ley, the chief justice, is to be preferred to some place there, and to return no more hither. Perceives by him [Winche] that he better affects the place of chief justice than this of the exchequer. He is a learned and upright gentleman. Is of opinion that a more fit man can hardly be sent from thence; if there be any such exchange, a man well experienced in the course of the exchequer there should succeed him, for his carriage in that court must bring [greater] profit to his Majesty than any [chosen] in this kingdom.'

(2). Bodley.-Sir Josias Bodley, so well known in Ulster at the period referred to as a builder and mender of forts, an architect and engineer, was the fifth and youngest son of John Bodley, gent., and brother of that Sir Thomas Bodley whose name will be ever memorable as the founder of the library at Oxford known as the U

Bodleian. After the defeat of the English at the Blackwater, on the 10th of August, 1598, a reinforcement was sent to Ireland of more than 1,000 men, who had been drawn home from the Low Countries, and were placed under the command of Sir Samuel Bagenal as colonel, with nine captains, Bodley being second on the list. He distinguished himself as an active and intelligent officer, but did not prosper in worldly matters so well as many who were much less deserving. Robert, the second Devereux Earl of Essex, had strenuously recommended Sir Thomas Bodley, the eldest brother, to be secretary, instead of Robert Cecil, who, as Earl of Salisbury, was prime minister of James I., and who, as such, had the conferring of patents of the forfeited lands in Ulster on Sir Josias Bodley's brother officers; but no good things in the scramble fell in his way. Bodley afterwards complained of unfair treatment, in several letters addressed to Sir Michael Hicks, Salisbury's secretary. See Ulster Journal of Archæology, vol. ii., pp. 97, 98.

(3). The surveyor.-The surveyor-general at this time was William Parsons, who came to Ireland as a penniless adventurer, and, unlike Sir Josias Bodley, soon enriched himself on the spoils then so abundantly provided by

routine of holding an assize in each county, there were certain other duties of a much more laborious nature. Of these, the first and most important was, to hold an inquisition in each of the six counties, for the purpose of distinguishing more correctly than had been done by the former commission, between the crown and ecclesiastical lands. "The commissioners," according to their own account published in the month of May, "may this summer proceed to make a more exact survey than the former was, wherein they may supply the omissions, assure the quantities, divide and plot the proportions, and make a model ready for casting the lots. By reason of the monastery lands, termon lands, bishops' lands, and church lands, which lie intermixed with the escheated lands, the casting out of the proportions will become very difficult." Another, and certainly a not less important labour was to arrive at something approaching to, if not altogether an accurate, admeasurement of the lands. The great precincts or baronies were to be truly described in separate maps or charts-a work which was to be done, not only by viewing every barony or precinct in succession, but by information gathered from the intelligent inhabitants in each district, verified by personal observation and experiment. This part of the commissioners' labours was expected to be so exactly performed, that the name and situation of every ballyboe, tate, quarter, and poll, would be preserved and expressed; and not only so, but the name of every lake, river, brook, wood, bog, fort, and any other landmark throughout the entire region the commissioners were then to traverse.

Preliminaries being thus satisfactorily arranged, the commissioners came northward from Dundalk at the head of a formidable army, commencing their march on the morning of the third of August. The weather, strangely enough at that season, was stormy, and the North, no doubt, looked characteristically 'black.' The day was so wet, or as the chronicler expresses it, so 'foul,' that the party were obliged to pitch their camp "in the midst of the Fewes,"-a rather indefinite description of their place of encampment. "The next morning," we are told, "they rose and passed through the rest of the Fewes, a long march, and pitched their tents within four miles of Armagh.”

At an earlier period, military expeditions coming northward invariably took the road leading from Dundalk through the level district of Cooley [the ancient Cuailgne], to Carlingford,

confiscation. In 1602, he succeeded Sir Geoffry Fenton as surveyor-general of Ireland; and in 1620, on presenting to the King surveys of escheated estates, he received the honour of knighthood, and was created a baronet in the same year. He obtained large grants of land in the counties of Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Cavan, Cork, Tipperary, Limerick, and Fermanagh. Sir Edward Brabazon, an honest outspoken privy councillor in Ireland, writing to Salisbury, in March, 1610, says :- -“The general surveyor [Parsons], now in England with the Treasurer, has raised his fortunes from nothing to great estate; he is sometimes the escheator's deputy, and thereby cheateth well for himself and his friends. About three years past he procured his pardon, and at this moment he has his fiant signed for another pardon." Parsons had been guilty of acts in his offices of surveyor and deputy escheator which might at some time have thoroughly compromised him, but for the protection

afforded by these pardons. "The Humble Remonstrance of the Northern Catholics of Ireland now [1641] in arms" contains the following passage in reference to this man's deeds :-"The said Sir William Parsons hath been a mean to supplant out of their ancient possessions and inheritances many of the inhabitants of this realm upon old feigned titles of three hundred years past, and he thereupon procured the disposing of their lands by way of plantation; but he having the survey and measuring thereof, did most partially and corruptly survey the same, making [representing]_the_best_land waste and unprofitable in his survey, and in the admeasurement did reduce more than the half of these plantations to fractions under an hundred acres, being of far greater measure; of which fractions the natives, antient possessors thereof, were wholly defeated, and your Majesty not answered thereout any rent or other consideration, but the same wholly disposed of by the said Parsons for his private lucre.'

and thence along the southern shore of the lough to Newry. The coast, from the head of Dundalk bay, is nearly all a sandy beach, left dry over a breadth of between one and two miles, and forming the edge or rim of a slowly sloping expanse of inland country. The upper or inland road from Dundalk northward, lay along the Fews mountains, 'a long march,' for the ancient territory of the Fews [now comprised in the two modern baronies of the same name], was seventeen miles in length. This mountain road was considered a dangerous one for English troops, as the adjoining woods afforded the amplest cover to the native Irish enemy. But the danger had been removed at the time of this journey in 1609, and principally by the energy of Mountjoy, who caused large fragments of the woods to be hewn down during the war with O'Neill, and a fort to be built at the celebrated Moyry Pass, then known as the gate to Ulster. The railway now runs exactly along the line of Chichester's march from Dundalk, and the remains of this fort still crown the hill, at a little distance westward from the line. The encampment of the commissioners, on the night of the 3rd of August, was, no doubt, at or near this fort which commanded Moyry pass. The next day's march lay through the remaining part of the Fews, and was broken probably by a brief halt at Fort-Norris. Thence the cavalcade could see at some distance eastward, the outlines at least of those extensive earthworks thrown up originally for the protection of Hugh O'Neill's army, and still retaining the name of Tyrone's Ditches. These vestiges are in the parish of Ballymore, barony of Lower Orior, between Acton and Poyntz-pass, and in a part of the country extremely well fortified by nature.

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The halt near Armagh, on the evening of Thursday, the 4th, was made for a special purpose, which delayed their progress longer, no doubt, than was expected. The chief justice states that they "there rested the Friday and Saturday, which they spent in hearing the claims of the lord primate, the surveyors setting in certainty the limits of some land. They passed the Thursday [Sunday] in observing many particulars from the inhabitants of the country, who gathered to the camp as they passed. On Monday, the 7th of August, they came to Armagh; there they began the assizes, proceeding according to their former resolutions [at Dundalk], and ended on Saturday following." The real work of the commission, therefore, was begun on Monday, the 8th, at Armagh, the members of each section devoting themselves to their special labours during the week. The assize work in Armagh, and throughout the other counties was very light in 1609, and contrasted remarkably with the state of affairs at the same time in 1608. So few and trifling, indeed, were the duties of lawyers and judges on this occasion, that Davys, in writing to Salisbury at the conclusion of their peregrinations, informed the latter that there had not been so profound a peace as then prevailed in Ulster, since the time of the conquest,-meaning since the invasions of Ireland by the English in the twelfth century. The work of the commissioners was thus, in one department at least, greatly abridged; so that, by the time the lands of the county were divided into precincts, measured, and laid off in proportions, the assize business was over, and the inquisition as to the portions belonging respectively to the Crown and the Church completed. They divided the county for plantation purposes into five great precincts, or rather they adopted the five baronial divisions as so many precincts, one of which named Toughranny [now Tyrany], was not available for

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