William Francis Thomas Butler

“ Tyrconnell was not the man to cope with this emergency; in any case the means at his disposal were insufficient; the rebellion grew in strength; and before long the authority of James was defied over a large portion of the province.
Then in February the English proclaimed William and Mary as sovereigns. The greater portion of the Irish Protestants openly or secretly acquiesced in this; but some Protestants and all the Catholics still clung to the cause of James.
The loss of Great Britain did not involve the loss of Ireland. ”

“ To sum up this question we may conclude that the disputed clause was agreed on by both sides in the original draft of the articles; that its omission from the copy actually signed was purely accidental; that neither the Lords Justices nor William desired to take any advantage of this omission; that yielding to the clamour of the colonists the clause was omitted from the Act of Parliament purporting to confirm the articles of Limerick; and that the number of persons affected by this omission cannot have been very great. ”

“ But, when one comes to examine the various printed accounts one finds that there is scarcely any set of transactions in our whole history as to which it is so difficult to arrive at the exact facts. I have endeavoured to set out these facts as accurately as possible, yet there are many points which still appear to me obscure. ”

“ One would expect that apart from persons who through infancy, physical disabilities, or absence could not be considered guilty of rebellion, and apart from those few persons, if there were any such, who saved their estates by a timely submission, the persons outlawed by this procedure would have included all Catholic landowners in Ireland. ”

“ Thus the real area of the lands belonging to persons indicted and outlawed may well have been 1,150,000 Irish acres of profitable land, an amount which would allow an ample margin for the area adjudged to "innocents" as well as for the area restored by the King, or by the Articles of Limerick. ”

“ He speaks of the persons whose claims were allowed as "innocents," and several writers following him have taken these innocents to be the same as the persons comprehended within the Articles of Galway and Limerick. He further states that to these "innocents" the Court of Claims awarded 655 denominations of land with a total area of 97,853 Irish Plantation acres, and 1,965 denominations with no area specified. By a sum in simple proportion he then arrives at the result that 391,412 Irish acres were "restored" to these innocents. ”

“ So, too, would seem to be his charge against Talbot and the leading men of the Irish that they had at the time of the passing of the Act made no real effort on behalf of the unheard innocents, since as nomineees it was to their interest not to diminish the limited amount of land available for reprisals; for their own restoration depended on their being enough reprisals left after restoration of innocents to allow of compensation to the Cromwellians actually in possession of their, the nominees, estates. ”

“ There are some Catholics in the list, such as the children of Lord Kenmare who were minors, and other Catholics who had been pardoned by the King or were comprehended in the Articles. By far the greater number of the names however are those of Protestants. It would seem, therefore, that this list is really one of the claims to various interests in the forfeited estates which were allowed by the Court, and it is very probable that the figure of 391,412 acres given by Hardinge as the area awarded to these persons is altogether too high. ”

“ The whole public law of the period looked on James as the lawful sovereign, William as an usurper, his partisans as rebels. ↑ A "List of the Nobility of Ireland in 1688" printed at the end of the pamphlet "The State of the Papist and Protestant Proprieties" gives only twenty-one Catholic peers, among them Baltimore, Castlemaine, Baresford (sic.) and Bronkart. It gives Clancarthy and Clare among the Protestants; also Howth, Kerry, Kingston and Kinsale. Omitted are Limerick, Louth, Trimleston, Netterville, Dunsany, Dunboyne, Mountgarret, and several others. ”

“ About twelve hundred and eighty persons were attainted as having actually perished in the rebellion or having notoriously joined in the said rebellion and invasion, unless before the 10th of August, 1689, they returned and stood their trial. Then about 450 persons who had absented themselves from the kingdom since or shortly before November 5th, 1688, were attainted unless they returned before September 1st. ”

“ Payzant in transcribing the fair copy which was actually signed left out the italicised words and all such as are under their protection in these counties. The mistake was discovered the next day, before the actual surrender had taken place, and Sir Theobald Butler drew Clarke's attention to it. ”

“ He devotes the greater part of two paragraphs to a denunciation of the injustice to persons who had sunk money in the purchase or improvement of forfeited estates. ↑ It was also provided that the money paid for bona fide purchases of transplanted estates was to be paid over to the Crown by the ancient proprietor, and was to be used to increase the fund for reprisals. ↑ The lists as given by King, Harris and the pamphlet published in 1690 differ widely. Davis treats of the whole question very fully. Murray does not attempt to decide the true number. ”