William Francis Thomas Butler

“ And it must be admitted that the Protestants, rebels though they had been, had some powerful arguments to use. They had recalled the King without, as far as was publicly known, demanding from him any conditions. They could point out that the interests of England seemed to demand that the Irish should be kept permanently in the powerless state to which Cromwell had reduced them. And they could point out that the Irish in defending the royal cause were urged not so much by loyalty as by self-interest. ”

“ Above all we must date from this period the destruction of the smaller men who had formed a veritable peasant proprietary west of the Shannon, and in some other Irish districts such as the Cork barony of Carbery. With them vanished too almost all the smaller gentry, owners of from two to five hundred acres, who abounded in the Anglo-Norman districts such as Kilkenny, South Wexford and South Tipperary.
Of the great men, too, though some such as Ormond, Clancarthy and Clanrickard actually increased their revenues, numbers were completely ruined. ”

“ Of the Ensignmen the lucky few whose lands had never been set out to an adventurer or soldier recovered; many perished of want in London or fell victims of the plague. Others received small pensions from the Crown, or took service at Tangier. Fortunate were those who recovered so much of Irish land as would afford them a grave.
↑ For the general history of the period Carte's Ormond gives on the whole the fullest account. Prendergast's Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution has many instructive details. Bagwell gives a very inadequate account of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. ”

“ The unheard innocents and those who claimed the articles of peace obtained no redress. Some may have repurchased their former lands; others became tenants of what they had formerly owned, thus starting the class of "middlemen"; the bolder spirits took service with foreign states, or as Tories harassed the new settlers. The weaker starved or sank into the condition of peasants. In some cases the former tenants supported, for a time at least, their old landlords, paying a double rent, or giving them free quarters according to the old Irish custom in their houses. ”

“ Ormond in preparing the new draft did not think it proper to insert a clause for the relief of the unheard innocents: he proposed that the Lord Lieutenant and the Irish Council should have power to declare persons innocent and to restore them; acting, however, strictly in conformity with the conditions laid down in the Act of Settlement. ”

“ But the Cromwellians in possession, equally protected by the King's declaration, held on to what they had got. Only in those few cases where no soldier or adventurer was in possession did these "letterees," as they were called, obtain any benefit from the King's letters.
To carry out the Declaration thirty-six commissioners were named. They began their work in March 1661. They were all in possession of lands taken from the Irish; hence they can hardly have inspired the latter with much confidence. They seem to have done little or nothing to carry out the King's intentions ”

“ Those who had followed the King into exile on the Continent were enabled to return. The landowners who had been confined to the west of the Shannon were now permitted to reside without restriction anywhere within the island. A large number of dispossessed landowners obtained letters from the King ordering the immediate restoration of their estates; and in some cases, where these estates had not actually been set out to any Cromwellian soldier or adventurer, they obtained possession ”

“ If we suppose that 2000 transplanted Irish received lands from Cromwell, probably an excessive estimate, we must remember that many of these came under one or other of the "nocent" classes, but had the benefit of their articles of surrender. Most of the lords and gentry of Leinster were in this category. None of them therefore could have claimed "innocence." Two hundred is a very low estimate of their numbers. ↑ Finch says: "There were several times when the Commissioners wanted causes, and could not prevail with men to bring on their claims." ”

“ But if we can trust a statement of the Irish agents there were still in or about 1664, 156,000 acres due to persons who had obtained decrees for lands in Connaught under Cromwell, but who had got none. [63] Probably many, if not most, of these persons never got any satisfaction, so that Petty's figure must be substantially reduced here.
Then it is quite impossible to believe that something over 500 innocents got back 1,200,000 Irish acres, nearly one-sixth of all the profitable land in the island, and working out at over 4000 English acres a head. ”

“ Carte expatiates at considerable length on the want of prudence on the part of the Irish in presenting their claims, and contrasts it with the skill with which their opponents managed their business. [13]
These opponents too had all the advantages that money confers. From twenty to thirty thousand pounds was judiciously laid out in bribes in England: the impoverished Catholics could not employ this weapon.
The great Catholic lords such as Muskerry, Clanrickard and Antrim, who were in close touch with the King and secure of restitution gave no help. ”

“ Those who recovered their estates were in general the great men, magnates such as the Marquis of Antrim, the Earls of Clancarthy and Clanrickard, the lords of the Pale, or else the citizens of the five loyal towns. The lesser men were deprived of everything.
In the barony of Carbery there were about 400 landowners in 1641; the Books of Survey and Distribution show that scarcely ten of them held any land after the Restoration. In Kerry there had been over 540 Catholic landowners ”

“ From a parliament thus composed the Irish had little to hope. But in conformity with Poyning's Law the Act in its main features was to be settled in London by the Privy Council; and here the Irish hoped to obtain a favourable hearing
Unfortunately for them if justice was on their side, force was on the side of their opponents. It soon became plain that one or the other interest must be sacrificed; the question was who? The Catholics pleaded solemn treaties, the plighted word of two Kings, their eminent services and sufferings. The Protestants were armed; they held all the garrisons ”

“ And forasmuch as the rapines, depredations and massacres committed by the said Irish and popish rebels and enemies are not only well known to this present parliament, but are notorious to the whole world; and lastly, for that the said rebels, since their throwing off your royal Father's and your Majestie's government, are become subdued and conquered enemies, and have justly forfeited all their rights, titles and estates in this kingdom ”

“ To his credit it would seem that Charles took advantage of this clause to restore a very large number of townsmen, although his efforts in this respect were thwarted as far as possible by the Dublin authorities.
The Books of Survey and Distribution show that the chief of the old inhabitants of Cork and Kinsale recovered the lands which they had held in and round the liberties of these towns. But the grant to the Earl of Leicester shows that the poorer citizens of Cork, at any rate, lost their houses within the walls. It is doubtful if they ever got reprisals elsewhere. ”

“ But sometimes restoration was but nominal. Lord Massereene kept his grip on Daniel O'Neill's estate until the latter's death. He clung to Sir Henry O'Neill's lands until 1666, and only relinquished them in return for ample compensation in Dublin and Louth. The Connaught innocents could not recover their lands until such transplanted persons as had obtained possession of them had been first reprised. According to the Irish agents 47,000 acres were still in 1664—5 withheld from innocents for this cause. ”

“ By the Act of Settlement these inhabitants had first to obtain decrees of Innocence before restoration. Many of them never recovered their property, though their loyalty was unquestioned. ↑ Carte: letter from Charles II. to Ormond re proceedings of the House of Commons with regard to the trials of innocents in 1663.
There were difficulties in the way of the Commissioners, as the King's Declaration had not the force of law. But they took care to distribute lands amongst themselves and their friends as reprisals in case they might have to restore any of the Irish. ”

“ But Clause CCVII. granted to Lord Muskerry all forfeited lands in Muskerry not in possession of Adventurers or soldiers, and as most of the proprietors held from his father the Earl of Clancarthy the forfeitures fell to him not to the Crown. Similarly in Barrymore the Earl of Barrymore, who was a Protestant, owned most of the barony. So the provision for the dispossessed townspeople can have been of little benefit to them. ”

“ Sir William Petty perhaps gives the best summing up of the whole:—"But upon the playing of this game or match upon so great odds, the English won and have (among and besides other pretences) a gamester's right at least to their estates."
Let us sum up the final effects of these two Acts. In 1641 there were, at the lowest estimate, eight thousand Roman Catholic landowners in Ireland. Of these all except twenty-six were deprived of their property by Cromwell. ”

“ This body took the Bill into consideration in November, 1663, and allowed a hearing to the agents of all the various interests. If the draft before them had any clauses in favour of innocents or article men such clauses were soon dropped. They were absolutely against the Protestant interest. And they were not looked on with favour by the chief men of the Catholic party, mostly in the class of "nominees," restorable therefore only after the Cromwellian possessor should be reprised, and outside the category of innocents. Innocents were to be restored before reprisal ”

“ In addition some few Ensignmen got back, and also a few letterees, i.e., those who obtained royal letters before the passing of the Act of Settlement and found no one in possession of their lands. ↑ Of the two thousand 750 got less than 100 acres, and of these 110 got less than 20 (Bonn) . Possibly many of these had been only tenants or leaseholders in 1641. ↑ Petty estimates the Protestant purchases in Connaught at only 80,000 Irish acres. ↑ Petty believed that the area of Ireland was about ten and a half millions of Irish acres or about seventeen million English acres. ”

“ He estimates these at three-fourths of the whole, i.e., at fifteen million English acres: the Catholics therefore held over ten millions of good land, and a proportionate share of the "unprofitable" lands. [61]
Of the total forfeited area 700,000 Irish acres were set out to transplanted persons under Cromwell and 40,000 left to the twenty-six who had manifested constant good affection to the Parliament. Then at the Restoration the innocents got back nearly 1,200,000 acres, letterees and nominees 60,000 ”

“ Some of them were in the list of the thirty-eight nominees, others were named among; the Ensignmen: some were to be restored before the Cromwellian in possession was reprised, others after. ↑ The chief exception was Owen Roe O'Neill with his followers, who had violently opposed the peace. But before his death he had come to terms with Ormond in Oct. 1649. ↑ Transplanted persons were not to be removed to make way for innocents until they had first got a reprise: Clause XXVIII. of Declaration. ”

“ The Abercorn estates, for instance, do not seem to be included. And the Commissioners complain that since no inquiries into forfeitures were held in Connaught until 1695 many persons really guilty were acquitted by juries composed of persons within the articles of Limerick. ↑ These figures are from "Forfeiting Proprietors Listed" in Hart's Irish Landed Gentry when Cromwell came to Ireland; the list is signed Christopher Gough and dates from 1657. ”

“ Domville refers to the new Bill as early as Nov. 1662, that is, if the document is correctly dated in the Cal. St. Papa. "An Explanatory Bill has lately gone from here for lightening some dark places in the Act of Settlement," p. 627. ↑ Cal. St. Paps., 1663-65, p. 3. He speaks of "the Act of Explanation lately remitted" having an unlimited time for judging innocents. ↑ Carte, Vol. II., p. 298. ↑ Carte gives two reasonable schemes, one by Eustace, the other by Lord Montgomery, but says he cannot find that the Irish agents ever favoured them. ”