Besides the great transplantation of Roman Catholics to Connaught, Fleetwood and the sectaries contemplated the removal of Presbyterian Royalists from Down and Antrim, whose proximity to the Scotch Highlands was thought dangerous. Five commissioners, of whom Doctor Henry Jones and Colonel Venables were two, were sent to Carrickfergus to tender the Engagement of 1650, which bound men to support a government without King or House of Lords. There were then but seven Presbyterian ministers in the district, one of them being Patrick Adair, whose narrative we possess. The commissioners sent parties of soldiers, one of which seized all Adair’s papers indiscriminately, ‘there being none among sixteen soldiers and a sergeant who could read.’ The most important papers were restored to Adair by a maidservant, who stole them when the sergeant was asleep. None of the seven clergymen would take the Engagement, and they had much support among the people. The expulsion of the Long Parliament delayed, but did not stop, the proceedings, and the Commissioners issued a proclamation against 260 persons, including Lord Clandeboye and Lord Montgomery of Ards, whom they proposed to transplant to Kilkenny, Tipperary, and the sea coast of Waterford. They were to receive the full value of the estates which they lost, with a liberal price for way-going crops, and their ministers might accompany them and receive salaries, provided they were peaceable-minded and not scandalous. Sir Robert Adair and other leading Presbyterians were sent to Tipperary, but the whole scheme came to nothing, ‘for Oliver, coming to the supreme order of affairs, used other methods and took other measures than the rabble Rump Parliament. He did not force any engagement or promise upon people contrary to their conscience; knowing that forced obligations of that kind will bind no man.’ Orders for this transplantation were given, but nothing was actually done.[278]
FOOTNOTES:
[257] Irish Commissioners to Council of State, January 8, 1651-2, Portland Papers, i. 622, and Ludlow, i. 497. In the former the river ‘which goes to Youghal’ is called the More, i.e. the Avonmore or Blackwater, not the Nore, as printed in the latter. Statements by Adventurers’ Committee in Portland Papers, i. 639, April 5, 1652, and ib. 649, May 14; Irish officers to Parliament, May 5, signed by Ludlow and eighteen others. See Prendergast, pp. 83 sqq. Dr. Jones had a vested interest in the 1641 depositions, Parliament having given him the sole right to print and reprint his abstract up to March 21, 1641-2, Somers Tracts, v. 573. He had a fresh commission to take evidence after that date, and doubtless the document which caused such horror at Kilkenny in 1652 contained much additional matter.
[258] Act for the settling of Ireland, August 12, 1652, in Scobell, ii. 197, reprinted in Contemp. Hist. iii. 341, and (with date misprinted and omission of names in clause 3) in Gardiner’s Constitutional Documents, 2nd. ed. p. 394.
[259] Life of Colonel Hutchinson; Ludlow, i. 318; Cromwell’s commission to Fleetwood as commander-in-chief, July 10, 1652, in Thurloe, i. 212; instructions to Commissioners, August 24, in Parliamentary History, xx. 92; Representation of officers in Ireland against Mr. Weaver, February 18, 1652-3, in Portland Papers, i. 671.
[260] Declaration of April 22, 1653, in Parliamentary History, xx.; Commissioners in Ireland to Lenthall, December 3, 1652, January 15, 1652-3, and to the new Speaker, July 20, and their proclamation of April 29, all printed in appx. to Ludlow, vol. i.
[261] Parliamentary History, xx. 152-183; Cromwell’s opening speech on July 4, 1653, is the first in Carlyle; Ludlow, i. 358.
[262] Order of Council of State, June 1, Commission and Instructions ‘from the keepers of the liberty of England by authority of Parliament,’ June 22, in Scobell, 1653, chap. 12.
[263] Further instructions of July 2, 1653, in Scobell, chap. 12. The letter of the Commissioners dated July 22, was written before the receipt of this, Ludlow, i. 539. Lawrence’s Answer to Gookin, p. 6. Order in Council, March 19, 1654-5, Irish R.O., A/26.
[264] Declaration dated Dublin, October 14, 1653, signed by Fleetwood, Ludlow, Corbet, and Jones, reprinted in English Historical Review, xiv. 710, from what is believed to be a unique copy at Kilkenny.