Lecture Seven (part 1) Wednesday 2nd March
The Cromwellian Confiscations
In this lecture we are going to look at a period of just over 35 years beginning at the end of the 1641 to 1652 war and ending with the death of Charles II on 6th February 1685. This 35 years can be divided into two quite distinct periods, known to history as:
1650-1659 – The Interregnum or Cromwellian period.
1660-1685 –The Restoration period.
Collectively these were the most turbulent periods in the history of Ireland and were known as the period of the Cromwellian Confiscations and Restoration land settlement.
Why was it so turbulent?
The ‘British’ revolution of the seventeenth century and the French revolution of the eighteenth century, often regarded as social revolutions, failed to transform the structures of landholding of those countries. This was not the case in seventeenth-century Ireland, however, which saw a revolution of immense proportions, unmatched before or since, in the ownership of property.
Karl Bottigheimer appositely contrasted these revolutions when he said that ‘in the history of Europe political revolutions are commonplace; cultural and social revolutions are somewhat less abundant; but revolutions in the ownership of property are exceedingly rare’. This revolution in land tenure constituted a watershed in Ireland’s history; it brought the end of one social, political and cultural order, and was the beginning of another.
The outward form of Old English and Gaelic Irish society had not been altered to any substantial degree by the settlement implanted in the earlier part of the century. Between 1641 and 1700, however, it collapsed - its mainstays, the families of ancient lineage, torn from their roots and in many cases scattered abroad; their land given over to mainly English and Scottish planters.
Attempts to tabulate the land settlement were begun by Sir William Petty, as a contemporary to the proceedings and one responsible for surveying the land of Ireland between 1655 and 1657. In 1691 he hypothesized that the Catholics emerged from the revolutionary period with less than a third of the ‘good land of Ireland’. Petty remained the accepted authority, statistically speaking, until early last century, when W.F.T. Butler suggested that Catholics retained only one seventh of Ireland’s profitable land (1,110,000 acres). Writing in the 1950s, J.G. Simms challenged Butler’s findings and concluded that the Protestants’ share of Irish land increased from the 41 per cent they held in 1641 to a massive 78 per cent by 1688.
As we will see none of these were correct as my own study of the land settlement has come up with an actual figure based on a database analysis of the land settlement records.
Studies like these, however, tend to overemphasize the sectarian nature of the land transfer and pay little attention to the social and economic consequences of this upheaval on Irish society. They fail to recognize that, as well as Catholics, many non-Catholics (such as the north-west Ulster settlers) were, for various reasons, in danger of losing their land during this period.
Raymond Gillespie drew attention to the danger of identifying religious affiliation as the salient characteristic for explaining these tenurial upheavals emphasizing instead the ability of families to adopt survivalist strategies in determining their fate. My studies shows that the Cromwellian confiscations and Restoration land settlements may not have been the causes of massive land tenurial change in Ireland; rather it would seem that a person’s ability, or inability, to adopt certain survivalist strategies was a more important factor in determining whether estates were lost, gained, enhanced or recovered during this period.
Throughout this 35 years it is important to keep in mind the following questions;
Who gained most from it - the Protestants who lived in Ireland before 1641; the soldiers and adventurers who came to Ireland as a consequence of the civil wars of the 1640s; or predatory speculators (who might have come from either group) who took advantage of the unsettled situation to acquire vast estates.
Who lost most from it – was loss of land based on ethnicity or religion; how much land did Catholics loose; what happened the landless Catholics.
Period 1 Interregnum or Cromwellian Ireland
As we have seen from the previous lecture, Cromwell came to Ireland to put down the royalist resistance that had emerged there in support of the exiled King Charles II, and also to defeat the remaining rebels who had originally risen in October 1641.He was only here for a short time and when he left in 26 May 1650 the war was still not over.
The victories he had won were made that much easier by the numerous divisions that had arisen among the forces he was sent to Ireland to defeat. There were divisions between English and Irish; royalist and republican; between Catholic and Protestant; between Protestant and Protestant; and between Catholic and Catholic.
These divisions, particularly between the Catholics was one of the main reasons that the war continued until 1642 – there was nobody in command of the Catholics who could negotiate a settlement to the conflict.
The end to the conflict came in 1652 when catholic forces surrendered Limerick which they had been garrisoning and its remaining forces surrendered in Leinster and were allowed, under their articles of surrender to transport all their men to Spain.
With the completion of the conquest the country virtually lay at the mercy of the Cromwellians.
Rev Patrick Corish metaphorically likened the country to ‘a blank sheet on which the English commonwealth could write what it wished on it’.
The first thing the Cromwellians done was to set up a form of government for Ireland. At the apex of this government was to be Commissioners of the Parliament for the Affairs of Ireland (4 in number). These promptly divided the country into 6 administrative districts or precincts as they became known, each of which was to have its own commissioner to carry out all the orders of Parliament.
The first thing that was done was that an Act for the settling of Ireland was passed on 12 August 1652. The entire substance of the Cromwellian Confiscations were based on this act and its preamble stated;
‘To the end therefore that the people of that nation may know that it is not the intention of the parliament to extirpate that whole nation, but that mercy and pardon, both as to life and estate, may be extended to the husbandmen, plowmen, labourers, artificers, and others of the inferior sort, in manner as is hereafter declared, they submitting themselves to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, and living peacefully and obediently under the government’.
Whereas it seemed that the government announced its intentions to treat the ‘inferior’ sort differently to the others (the distinction they were intending was those who either held or did not hold land).
The Act went on to declare five categories of people as being exempt from pardon for life or estate;
(1) All who before the first generally assembly at Kilkenny had abetted the rebellion, murders or massacres.
(2) All priests, particularly Jesuits, who had been involved in any way in the rebellion.
(3) 105 named magnates (mainly the leaders of the confederation or the royalists).
(4) All people who had been guilty of the murder of civilians.
(5) Any persons who refused to lay down arms within 28 days of this Act.
For these 5 classes of persons was reserved the punishment of loosing their lives and estates but as we shall see, it was only the loss of their estates that the government was interested in.
In these clauses of the Act, it is clear that the intention was to have included in them, as many of the Catholic and Royalist landowners as was possible. In the event that any Catholic landholder should not be comprehended in the above clauses there were further ones included to catch these in the net.
In these other clauses;
(6) Any who had held command in the armies against parliament and who were not comprehended in any of the former qualification clauses were to be banished from Ireland but their wives or children were to be assigned one third of their forfeited estate wherever parliament might determine.
(7) All others who had fought against Parliament were also to forfeit their estates in return for one third the size of their original estate in a place to be determined by Parliament.
(8) Those who could not show that they had always adopted a ‘constant good affection’ to parliament were to receive two thirds the original size of their estates, again in a place to be decided by parliament.
(9) Those who could not show they had exhibited ‘good affection’ towards parliament were to remain on their original estates less one fifth.
If one were to take the wording of the clauses in this Act literally, especially the first 5 clauses, it would appear that many thousands of Catholics and royalist Protestants were under a sentence of death, not to mention the confiscation of all their estates. However, history has shown us that whereas the confiscation of the estates went ahead the sentences of death were, more often than not, never carried out.
It would appear that the main aim of this Act for Settling Ireland was the confiscation of the estates of the Catholics and the Protestant Royalists. It was worded to establish the guilt of those who had something to confiscate; those who did not, such as the inferior sort, were told they had nothing to fear.
Why did the government want or need to confiscate so much Irish land?
There were two reasons;
(1) Because of the Adventures Act of 1642, which had been enacted for people to loan (adventure) money to Parliament which was supposed to have been used to suppress the rebellion of 1641. The security for these loans was that those who gave the money in this way (who became known as Adventurers) were to receive compensation in Irish land.
(2) In 1647 Parliament, who was short of money, enacted an ordinance whereby officers and men who served in Ireland, were to receive land instead of their arrears of pay.
This was the legislation then that was the way in which Catholics and Protestant Royalists were to be gotten off their lands to make way for the settlement of the Adventurers and Soldiers in lieu of the monies owed to them.
What the government next had to do was to carry our the tenets of this act and to actually get the people off the land. With this end in mind instructions were forwarded to the commissioners for each of the precincts as follows;
'You are authorised and required either by proclamation or otherwise as you shall think fit, to publish and declare that (for the better security of all those parts of Ireland which are now intended to be planted with English and Protestants, and to the end that all persons in Ireland who have a right to Articles of Surrender or to any favour and mercy held forth by any of the qualifications in the Act of Parliament entitled, An Act for Settling Ireland’, may enjoy the benefits intended unto them). It is thought and resolved that all any every persons aforesaid shall before the first day of May, which shall be in the year 1654, remove and transplant themselves into the Province of Connacht and the county of Clare…there to inhabit and abide, and shall have set forth unto them, such proportions of land, and for such estates or terms, and under such conditions, reservations, and covenants as shall be answerable in value unto so much of his and their estates as by such articles of qualifications respectively he or they were to enjoy, in such place and manner as you, or such as should be authorised by you shall appoint and direct; and that whatsoever person or persons aforesaid shall, after the said first day of May 1654, be found inhabiting or remaining in nay part of the provinces of Leinster, Munster or Ulster (except in the said county of Clare) or, without a pass from you or any of you, or under the hand of such person or persons as shall be authorised by you to that purpose, travelling in any of the said provinces he and they shall be reputed as spies and enemies and shall for the same offence suffer death'.
So these were the instructions whereby all those landowners who were encompassed in the various clauses of the Act allowing for a portion of the original size of their estates to be granted them, were to transplant themselves to Connacht where they would be given the portions as the Act mandated.
The reason that the province of Connacht was chosen for the transplanting Irish was not because it had the poorest quality of land, as later nationalist historians would have us believe (Ulster held that distinction) but rather because it was seen by the Cromwellians as the best place where the Catholics could be held in some form of confinement. Surrounded either by the sea to the west or the Shannon to the east, it was ideal for this purpose.
It must be said at this time that the Protestant Royalists, particularly those of the Laggan Army, who were to transplant to a place in Tipperary were eventually allowed to remain on their estates once they had paid what was known as a Composition Fine to the government.
From then on, transplantation was made specific to the Catholic landowners who were comprehended in the clauses of the Act for Settling Ireland.
To facilitate the transplantation Commissioners were appointed to sit at the town of Loughrea in Galway to dole out the land to the transplanting Catholics but before the Catholics got to Loughrea they had to appear firstly before a local court in their respective precincts and, if they passed this court they then had to appear before a special court that sat at Athlone. This was called a Court of claims and qualifications and it specifically looked into the past political proclivities of the would be transplanters to determine the qualification per the Act for Settling Ireland into which the respective would be transplanters would fall into. It was extremely difficult to get past this court as it looked closely into each and every case. It also had in its possession, the depositions and the records of the confederation of Kilkenny. Collectively these became known as the Black Books of Athlone as they were used as evidence to disqualify any and all who had taken a part in the rebellion. If would be transplanters names appeared in either the depositions or confederate records then they were not entitled to receive any land as part compensation for the confiscation of their estates.
Once this was determined, the Commissioners from the respective precincts would issue what amounted to a passport to the transplanters which gave particulars of the persons themselves, any person who was going to accompanying them to Connacht and full details of all the livestock that they were taking with them. Once they had this ‘passport’ they could then go to Loughrea where the commissioners there would allocate them the amount of land they were due by virtue of the Act for Settling Ireland.
A person would have to appear before a local court to show they were entitled to some lands in Connacht as per the Act for Settling Ireland. Then they had to go to the Court at Athlone. It was extremely hard to pass this court due to all the records they had to consult for evidence against the would be transplanters. If they got through this court they then had to go back to their local precinct to obtain a passport from the precinct Commissioners. Then and only then could they proceed to Loughrea where they would be given a parcel of land somewhere in Connacht or Clare.
The very size of the intended project and the amount of ‘red tape’ that had to be surmounted, it is not surprising that the project quickly became unworkable. No matter that all of Connacht was to be set aside for transplanting Catholics some of it (county Sligo and all lands a mile in width in from the Atlantic) were withdrawn from the scheme as the government needed Sligo as extra land for the large number of soldiers who were to be granted land and the lands within the Mile Line were given over to soldiers as a means to prevent intercourse between the transplanters and overseas.
Petitions also began pouring in requesting permission for a dispensation from transplanting.
There were so many of these and so many people not transplanting that the government was forced to bring out an Act for the attainder of rebels in Ireland which mandated that all transplantable persons who refuse to transplant and who were caught east of the Shannon after September 1656, were to be executed on the spot. These intentions are what became known as the policy of To Hell or to Connacht; Catholic landowners had the choice of going to Hell (execution) if caught east of the Shannon or they could transplant themselves to Connacht.
A great debate came about based on Vincent Gookin who wanted the catholics to be allowed to stay on as tenants all over Ireland.
He was opposed by Colonel Richard Lawrence
Gookin’s ideas were eventually accepted especially when it became clear that the soldiers and adventurers who were granted lands, needed tenants to work the land.
This was one half of the government intentions. It was designed to get Catholic landowners off the land to make way for a new scheme of plantation of the Adventurers and Soldiers in satisfaction of the money they had adventured or were owed for their military service. In relation to the original Adventurers Act the land in Ireland was originally valued as follows.
1,000 acres in Ulster was worth £200 or 4 shillings per acre
1,000 acres in Leinster was worth £600 or 12 shillings per acre
1,000 acres in Munster was worth £450 or 8 shillings per acre
1,000 acres in Connacht was worth £300 or 6 shillings per acre
Whereas there were 1,360 Adventurers in the original scheme, subsequent ordinances admitting the army to the scheme saw another 35,000 people added to the scheme and all of these had to be satisfied out of the lands in Ireland.
The vast number of people to be satisfied ensured that if the original land valuation rates were adhered to that there would not be enough land to go around.
Before land could be allocated to these people however, the government needed to know how much land they had to plant. To facilitate this they commissioned a series of three land surveys.
(1) The Gross Survey (based on approximations)
(2) The Civil Survey (based on inquisitions)
(3) The Down Survey (based on actual admeasurements and mapping).
The conclusion was an elaborate scheme whereby the counties of Ireland were set aside to satisfy various groups with a total of ten counties to be equally divided among the Adventurers and Soldiers.
Adventurers land grants
The Adventurers, the majority of whom were not military men, were to divide a total of ten counties between them and they were to take part in a lottery first with the soldiers to see which of the baronies within the ten counties they were going to get. Once that was ascertained they took part in a further lottery that decided where their individual parcels of land was going to be.
The Allocation of the Adventurer’s debt
County Debt allocated Acres necessary
Waterford 20,000 44,444
Limerick 30,000 66,666
Tipperary 60,000 133,332
Meath 55,000 91,666
Westmeath 70,000 116,666
King’s County 40,000 66,666
Queen’s County 40,000 66,666
Antrim 15,000 75,000
Down 15,000 75,000
Armagh 15,000 75,000
Soldiers disbandment
It would seem then that the Adventurers had an easy time of it in getting lands allocated to them and setting down on them. The same cannot be said for the soldiers. There was to be a much more complicated settlement due, in the main, to the large number of them who had to be satisfied and because the army was divided into four different groups each of which wanted to be disbanded before the others.
The date they arrived in Ireland, whether they had been in Ireland before the outbreak of the rebellion or the length of service these soldiers had determined which group they were with. The 5th June 1649 (the day Cromwell began his march to reduce Ireland) was used as a date to identify these groups.
(1) The soldiers who came to Ireland with Cromwell. (2nd disbandment)
(2) Those soldiers who had arrears of pay for service in England before coming to Ireland. (3rd to disband).
(3) Those soldiers who had arrears of pay owing to them for service in Ireland before June 1649 (many of these would be the settlers who supported the parliament in Ireland). (1st to disband).
(4) The Protestant Army of Munster (disbandment never took place)
The setting down of the military on confiscated land was affected in three main disbandment beginning in September 1655, while the second and third took place in July and September of 1656.
Before each soldier could disband they had to receive a debenture which stated their arrears owed to them and the amount of land that was to be allocated to them in satisfaction of those arrears. They got these debentures from a board that was set up in Dublin who was able to consult various muster rolls to determine if the amount of service each soldier claimed for was correct. The following is a sample of a debenture given to Captain Thomas Hunt. For his stated service he was to receive £714. 17s 6d.
Similar to the Adventurers the soldiers had to take part in a series of lotteries to determine where they were going to be granted land. To begin with a representative of each of the regiments took part in a lottery to determine in which county and then which barony within each county the regiment was to be disbanded in.
Once this was determined each regiment went to their allotted area where a final lottery was to take place to determine where the individual officers and soldiers were to receive their allotments. At this stage they were to deliver up their debenture in return for a certificate which indicated the amount of arrears as stated on the debenture and the amount of acres that were to be granted in satisfaction of these arrears.
Because these certificates became the land title for these soldiers they are extremely rare but I managed to find one belonging to a captain James Garstin who was to receive land in the barony of Ardee, county Louth. Garstin, who delivered up two debentures was to receive 197 acres 2 roods for his arrears of £237.4s.
Conclusions of the Cromwellian period.
This then was the method by which the Catholic landowners were to be gotten off their land to be replaced by 1,533 Adventurers and over 35,000 soldiers.
The government adopted three main approaches to not only clear the land of the Catholic landowners but also to get rid of the many Catholic soldiers who were still in Ireland.
The 3 methods used were:
(1) The transporting of over 30,000 Catholic soldiers to the continent.
(2) The transporting of Catholic women and children (widows and orphans) to the West Indies (origins of the Black Irish of Jamaica).
(3) Transplantation of the catholic landowners to Connacht.
The first two groups had little choice in the matter as they were merely rounded up and shipped overseas. The women and children that were sent to the West Indies caused some concern at the time because whereas only widows and orphans were supposed to be rounded up, the people rounding them up were not too particular whom they got as they were getting paid for each and every person they picked up for transportation to the West Indies.
The transplanters were often very slow to leave their land. Dispensations were granted allowing them to stay east of the Shannon for a certain time but through time they were eventually allowed to stay and became tenants and/or land agents to the new landowners. Many of them were aided in this by the Protestant settlers who had been in Ireland from before the rebellion as they knew that they needed these people to become tenants on
their estates as there was very little likelihood that ordinary tenants would come from England.
How successful was the Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland?
The government’s intention was to settle a very large amount of people (Adventurers and soldiers) on small to medium-size holdings but what happened was that a small amount of people were settled on large to very large size estates. How did this happen?
This happened because a market for the sale of land debentures grew whereby people with money (mainly pre 1641 Protestant Settlers or Army Officers) were in a position to purchase the debenture mainly from the solider who was only too happy to get some money in his pocket so that he could return to England. In many cases, due to the low pay of the common soldier, their total pay arrears would not have got them much land in Ireland. Consequently they sold up and moved back to England.
The politics of the period can be summarised in that there were three main groups in Protestant Ireland competing for power. On the one side were the Protestants who had been domiciled in Ireland prior to the outbreak of war in 1641. On the other side were a group called Radicals – all military people (mainly officers) who had come to Ireland with Cromwell. In the middle was the Cromwellian government party.
It was the interactions between these groups that was the driving force behind all the settlement policies in Ireland.
Whereas initially the Radicals in support of the Cromwellian party got their way especially in the implementation of the draconian land confiscations and settlement. However, through time the centre Cromwellian party realised that they would have to get closer to the Ancient Protestants. When this happened the latter were to begin their rise to power to emerge in the 1660s as the Protestant Ascendancy.
The Cromwellian Settlement was not completed when, in 1659 many officers began to make approaches to the exiled Charles II for his restoration. Not wanting Ireland to be the first to welcome the king back, some of the government in England also took steps to bring the King back and he was indeed restored in 1660, a period which ushered in new ?
hope for the Catholics of Ireland who had lost their land.