TO THE HONORABLE SOCIETY

OF THE

GOVERNOR AND ASSISTANTS OF LONDON,

OF THE

New Plantation in Ulster,

WITHIN THE REALM OF IRELAND.

We of your select Committee, whose names are hereunto subscribed, to whom, by a Poesolution of your Court of the 13th day of October last, it was referred to examine and compare an Abridgment of your Society's Pecords, Journals, and other Documents, and to prepare the same for publication, for the use of the present and future Members of this Society, Do Certify, that we have employed ourselves with unwearied diligence in furtherance of the objects committed to our care; and

now

you

the

have great satisfaction in presenting to result of our labours in the following sheets, which we have entitled "A concise View of the Origin, Consti= tution, and Proceedings of the Honorable Society of the Governor and Assistants of London, of the new Plantation in Volster, within the Realm of Ireland, commonly called the Irish Society;" wherein

you

will

as we

observe we have found it convenient to follow the Chro= nological order, in detailing such of your proceedings judged would afford useful information to the Members. To which we have added an Appendix of such documents at large (particularly translations of the original Charters of Incorporation of this Society, of the City of Londonderry, and of the Town of "Coleraine) as we conceived it would be desirable that the Members should have always before them, as evi= dence tending to support the Society's rights, titles, and patronage, whether of a seigniorial, territorial, eccle= siastical, or parliamentary nature, and as holding their possessions, privileges, rights, and immunities, in the Province of Ulster, immediately from and under the Crown, and in as full and ample a manner, to all intents and purposes, as the Crown itself heretofore held and enjoyed the same; and we have also added two Inquisitions, relating to the Fisheries and the Church Patronage of the Society, which we consider to be of the highest importance.

All which we humbly and respectfully submit to the consideration of your Honorable Court, hoping it will be accepted as a token of our zeal to accomplish your desires to be furnished with a Manual for the of the present and future Members of the Trish

use

Society; and we rejoice, that within our time of service our humble labours in this work are thus brought to a

close.

And here we beg permission, as an act of common justice, to add, that its thus speedy completion has been greatly accelerated by the most ardent zeal and able assistance of our worthy and justly respected Secretary, Robert Slade, Esq.; and by the more laborious, but not less essential services of the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Schultes, whose unremitting assiduity and love of research, led to the unravelling the great confusion into which your most valuable Records had fallen by lapse of time, and afforded a clue by which to decipher those parts defaced and mutilated by the Fire which raged at Guildhall in the year 1786.

a

And it is with additional pleasure we have seen a Pecsolution of your Court, which promises to provide not only against recurrence of a similar accident by Fire, but which will enable the Society to have for their own exclusive concerns, a building suitable to their dignity and importance.

IRISH CHAMBER, Guildhall,

19th January, 1822.

J. F. VANDERCOM,

TREASURER,

THOMAS SAUNDERS

EDWARD JAMES BOND.