The Londoners’ plantation.
Destruction of the forests.
Whatever other objects he may have had in view, profit to the Exchequer was always sought by Wentworth. In the case of the Londoners’ plantation the mere money consideration was greater, and the political advantage much less, than in the case of the Connaught proprietors. Sir Thomas Phillips had almost ruined himself in his contest with the great corporation, who had certainly done much, but who could easily be shown not to have done all that they promised. Londonderry and Coleraine had been secured against attack, but the number of houses was less than at first agreed upon, and in the country it was found much easier to take rent from the native occupiers than to bring over the full number of English settlers. Commercial corporations who become possessed of political power are always tempted to pay too much regard to present profit, and the Irish Society of London acted to some extent as the East India Company did in later times. In the Bann alone more than sixty tons of salmon were sometimes taken in one day, and this was much more lucrative than the slow process of settling English farmers upon the land. It was also much more convenient to convert the vast woods into ready money than to preserve them for local use, and their destruction was rapid. In 1803 the county of Londonderry, which had once contained the great forest of Glenconkein, was officially reported to be ‘perhaps the worst wooded in the King’s dominions.’ Wentworth saw his opportunity, and determined to exact his pound of flesh from the Londoners in Ulster, since they were unwilling to pay arbitrary taxes at home. A side blow might be dealt to Presbyterianism at the same time. Proceedings in the Star Chamber against the Corporation of London had resulted in the summer of 1631 in a Royal Commission to collect evidence in Ireland, and special attention was ordered to be given to the representations of Phillips. The cause dragged on for three years, and early in 1634 Wentworth wrote to Coke to advise that in any case the grant of the customs of Londonderry and Coleraine, for which the grantees paid no rent, should be resumed by the Crown, as unfit to be held by any subject, and especially by a body which owed the King 1,800l. ‘It is,’ he said, ‘my humble suit, that at least you take that feather from them again, as not fit to be worn in the round cap of a citizen of London.’[221]
A fine of 30,000l. refused,
and one of 70,000l. imposed.
Wentworth wished to confiscate the London plantation.
The Londoners offered to compromise their case by paying a fine of 30,000l., but this was refused. After a hearing which lasted seventeen days, judgment was given in the Star Chamber at the end of February 1635, when a fine of 70,000l. was imposed and the charter declared forfeited. The actual sum levied seems to have been 12,000l., which was handed over to the Queen. ‘The King,’ said Wentworth’s correspondent Garrard, ‘now hath good store of land in Ireland.’ ‘The Londoners,’ said another gossip, the letter-writer Howell, ‘have not been so forward in collecting the ship-money, since they have been taught to sing heigh-down derry, and many of them will not pay till after imprisonment, that it may stand upon record they were forced to it. The assessments have been wonderfully unequal and unproportionable, which is very ill taken, it being conceived they did it on purpose to raise clamour through the city.’ In the following May an order was given in the Star Chamber to levy the fine in London, and to sequester the estates in Ireland. Bramhall, who had a dispute of his own about some of the lands, was appointed chief receiver, and the appointment was not likely to be a sinecure in his hands. Wentworth declared himself ready to carry out the forfeiture in the most drastic way. ‘Would your Majesty,’ he wrote, ‘be pleased to reserve it entire to yourself, it might prove a fit part of an appanage for our young master the Duke of York. It may be made a seigniory not altogether unworthy his Highness; and for so good purpose I should labour night and day, and think all I could do little.’ James’s experiences in connection with Londonderry were fated to be of a much less agreeable kind. The hostility of the Londoners had much to say to both Charles and Wentworth losing their heads.[222]
FOOTNOTES:
[215] A faulty commission was issued in April 1633, but the corrected version which was acted upon is calendared at June 29, 1634. The commissioners besides Wentworth were Lord Chancellor Loftus, Cork, Parsons, Chief Justice Lowther, Wandesford, Radcliffe, and the Barons of the Exchequer; Sir C. Coote and Mainwaring were added later. A fresh commission, dated September 1, 1638, is in Rymer’s Fœdera, xx. 263. Irish Statutes, 10 Car. I. cap. 3. Wentworth to the King, December 9, 1636, Strafford Letters, ii. 41. In February 1640-1 the Irish House of Lords asked ‘whether it stood with the integrity of the judge to take 4s. per £ out of all increases to His Majesty upon compositions of defective bills, by avoiding such patents as the same judge condemns in an extra-judicial way’ (Nalson, ii. 575).
[216] Wentworth to Coke, December 16, 1634; to Laud, March 10, 1634-5; Commissioners of plantation to Coke, August 25, 1635; Wentworth’s notes on the Irish revenue, July 6, 1636, Strafford Letters. Details as to Edough are in Prendergast’s Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution, part iii. chap. i.