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Counsel, &c., gave judgment that the letters patent to the Society for the city and county of Londonderry, and the enrolment thereof, should be revoked, cancelled, and made void, and the said city and county seized into the King's hands.

This decree was enrolled in the Petty Bag Office, but the enrolment of the charter was never fully vacated.

In conformity with the aforesaid judgment, orders were given for the city of Londonderry being seized into the King's hands.

A commission was afterwards issued by the Crown, directed to the said Bishop of Derry, and others, for the purpose of entering into contract for leases with the tenants on the plantation in Ulster; and, in pursuance of this commission, the commissioners purported to make grants and demises of the manors, lands, and possessions, belonging as well to the twelve chief Companies as to the Society.

1641. On the return of King Charles from Scotland, he was invited to dinner in the Guildhall of the City of London, and he there made a public declaration that he was much troubled at the judgment that had been given for taking away his father's grant to the Society; and his Majesty promised the City that the judgment should be reversed, and gave his commands for restoring to the Society and Companies such of their possessions as they had been deprived of; but the rebellion breaking out, on October 22, his Majesty's intentions were not fulfilled.

26th August.-The Mayor, Commonalty, and Citizens of London, on behalf of themselves and the Companies, and divers having lands and tenements in Londonderry, exhibited their petition to Parliament, and it was voted and resolved in Parliament, that the sentence pronounced by the Star Chamber was unlawful and unjust; that the citizens of London, and all those against whom the judgment was so given in the scire facias should be discharged of that judgment; and that both the citizens of London, and those of the new plantation, and all undertenants, and all those put out of possession, should be restored to the same estate which they were in before the said sentence in the Star Chamber.

THE FIRST SIEGE OF DERRY.

During the progress of the rebellion, a plot was formed for the capture of Londonderry, but it miscarried. There were at that time twenty pieces of artillery in Londonderry, which the Society had many years before provided for the due safety of the place. The City of London sent four ships to Londonderry, with all kinds of provisions, clothing, and accoutrements for several companies of foot, and abundance of ammunition. The twelve chief Companies sent each two pieces of ordnance; and it was considered that the assistance which was thus given by the City of London was the principal means of preserving the City of Londonderry from the fury of the rebels who besieged it. The people then entered into a mutual league for the

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defence of the city. "They repaired the gates and ramparts, and sent intelligence of their situation to the King in Scotland, and to the Corporation of London, who sent them several pieces of ordnance."*

In 1649 Londonderry sustained another siege by the Royalist troops, Sir Charles Coote commanding the garrison. The siege lasted for four months, and the city was relieved by Owen Roe O'Neill, and in the following year the whole of Ulster was reduced by the Parliamentary army.

After the termination of this rebellion, the City of London sent over commissioners to settle affairs at Londonderry, and other places; the Companies made new leases of their proportions where leases were expired, and received their rents where leases were still subsisting; and the Society's commissioners renewed all the leases in Londonderry and Coleraine, and at both places left the commons and wastes as before, for general accommodation and advantage.

1654.-A general survey was taken of the lands in Londonderry, called the civil survey, which was afterwards lodged in the Surveyor-General's office in Dublin.

29th August.-The Privy Council made an order advising the restoration of all such rights as the Society had been deprived of.

1656. 24th March.-The Society owed the full recovery of its privileges, rights, and properties, to Oliver

* History of the Presbyterians in Ireland, by the Rev. Dr. Reid.

Cromwell, and he granted letters patent, by which he confirmed the Society as originally ordained, with the same rights as enjoyed under the charter of James the First. This charter was duly enrolled in England and Ireland.

1658. August.-The Society about this time made new conveyances to the twelve chief Companies, confirming to them their respective proportions of land in Ulster.

Upon the restoration of King Charles the Second, the City of London petitioned the Crown for a reversal of the judgment given against their first letters patent as promised by King Charles the First; but as the proceedings necessary to be adopted in this respect, it was considered, would be tedious, the King proposed to grant a new charter to confirm to the Society all the possessions and rights granted to them by their charter of 1613; and on the 10th of April, 1662, letters patent confirming the charter of James the First, were granted, containing with very little alteration, all the clauses of that charter.

Conveyances were afterwards made by the Society to the Companies, confirming the grants as already made to them.

Having thus traced the circumstances under which the Society was established, and the manner in which it was constituted, it may be interesting to refer to some of the events which have since happened connected with the plantation, and some of the transactions of the Society.

MEMORANDA OF PRINCIPAL EVENTS.

1668. April.-In this year great part of the city of Londonderry was destroyed by fire, and was afterwards rebuilt by the Society.

15th September.-The Society required from the corporation of Londonderry a certificate, under seal, of their bye-laws, for confirmation by the Society, agreeably to the provisions of the charter; and expressed their unwillingness to receive any communications purporting to be the acts of the Common Council of Londonderry, unless they were under the seal of that corporation; to which the Council assented on the 13th of June, 1684.

1676. 9th June.-A dividend was ordered to be made to the twelve Companies, and the Treasurer was directed to receive the rents due from several of the Companies in respect to their manors.

1684. April.-The King confirmed the Society's charter.

1685. During this year there was a great decay of trade in Londonderry. The corporation complained that the government of the place was too expensive for the magistrates to sustain, and they supplicated the Society for abatement of rent; and the Society promised them assistance.

Ironworks were erected on the plantation, to the great destruction of the woods.

The chief Companies were written to by the Society, to introduce clauses into their tenants' leases, to prevent destruction of timber.

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