It looks a little absurd when some Smith or Brown of an English county, or a Menzies or a Montgomery from Scotland, is enjoined so seriously that he must never take the name of The Fox, or The Great O’Carroll.
We must turn now to the religious ideals of the Plantation, and we all know King James was nothing if not religious. I shall try to approach the subject with a dispassioned candour, and speak as an Irishman who loves his country, and as a churchman who longs to see the day when the Protestant Church in Ireland shall become converted to Irish ideas in politics. That Church has been given ecclesiastical Home Rule, and has made full use of its privileges, for it treats theological matters in a way quite independent of English churchmanship. May we not hope for the day when politically it shall cease to allow itself to be dragged at the tail of one English political party? In the Plantation it was intended that the church by the State established should have an endowment in every place; the idea being that in every 1,000 acres sixty should be reserved for the support of the clergyman. And an additional endowment was given by the lands and the patronage of parishes handed over to Trinity College, Dublin. It was, doubtless, hoped that a settled and established Protestant ministry would lead the people all to turn over in time to that faith. And in the meantime, Government was prepared to do all it could by fears and bribery to lead the people in the way it was wished they should go. For a native squire or peasant to conform was the passport to get a miserable patch of land. Lord Coursye was given a pension of £100 a year for good service, and it was continued and increased to £150 to his eldest son because he had become a Protestant. In another case, Sir James Dillon was made Lord Dillon and Baron of Kilkenny because his eldest son had conformed.[[46]] Yet with all these brilliant prospects before them, the people did not flock in their thousands around the preachers of the Established Church. The reason of this was that there was practically no Protestant church in Ulster. It existed only on paper; it was a regular Army Corps. The ecclesiastical buildings were ruinous and desolate; the clergy, where such existed, were the offscourings of the English church, men of depraved life, or so ignorant that they could hardly perform their duties properly. From the bishops down, pluralities were the common and recognized thing; occasionally even we see a man actually holding an English living and a lot of Irish ones at the same time; thus the same man was Archdeacon of Dublin, Treasurer of Cashel Cathedral, Vicar of Galballydrome and Leighlin Macvoge, and Rector of Battersea in Surrey.[[47]] John Todd, who seems to have been even below the average of the Irish clergy of that time, as we shall see presently, is found on his appointment as Bishop of Down in 1610 writing to Norton to ask him to intercede with Salisbury that he may not lose his right to the mastership of the Savoy. Even men of high character like Archbishop Usher themselves benefited by these abuses. The fines of the recusants—i.e., the Catholics—were to go to pious purposes like the building of Protestant churches, or were impounded by the Archbishop of Armagh for charity, and no account given. The Ulster bishops were mostly ignorant and greedy Scotchmen, for ever quarrelling with all the other planters about their church possessions, and not always getting the best of the quarrels either. This is what we read in one place in the Patent Rolls: “King’s Letter to the Lord Deputy to confirm Andrew Moneypenny in the Archdeaconry of Connor by putting in force all the orders made by Lord Viscount Grandison against Nicholas Todd, a tailor by profession, an unlearned man, placed in that situation by his unworthy brother John Todd, late Bishop of Down and Connor, and deprived of said dignity for notorious causes, both of insufficiency of learning and corruption in manners.” Chichester as usual impresses us as seeing into these abuses in a clearer and more sensible way than the rest of the Castle set of that time. We find him writing to the Lord Justice and Davies about religion, when he says all is confused and out of order, as if it were in a wilderness where neither Christianity nor religion was ever heard of. He says, “the Bishops claim too much land and have too little.” He wishes the king would make a new allotment, as if in a new Plantation in America. The state of Munster was even worse, owing to the rapacity of the notorious Miler Magrath, who bled immense numbers of parishes for his children. In Mullognony or Newchapel, County Tipperary, (where I was rector from 1895 to 1898) Miler’s son Terence had got the profits of the prebend from the nominal incumbent, who was in such a wretched state that in 1607 Terence Magrath had to give him a cloak to present himself before the Commission that enquired into the abuses. The undertakers, not, I suppose, seeing that the Established Church was making much way, with its grasping Bishops and ruined churches, and absentee ministers, opposed the episcopal claims with all the ardour of Wee Free Kirkmen appealing to the House of Lords, and in a great many cases imported Presbyterian ministers from Scotland. So we can see that even if the native element had been willing to conform, there was practically no established religion for them to join. James began to recognise this when too late in the day, and there is an amusing State Paper in which we see a patent plan of his, that young natives should be caught up, and educated in Trinity College Dublin, to work as Protestant clergymen among the natives, and then if any livings of small value should become vacant, they should be appointed to them.
It was twenty-seven years since a Parliament had been held in Dublin, and when the Ulster Plantation was finished it was decided to convene one in 1613. The histories mostly say that it was called to give legal sanction to the Plantation; if so, it was a case of a late locking of the stable door. It seems more likely that the object, if any, of the Parliament was for the dominant English party to triumph over the fallen natives, and to pass Bills of a further intolerant character. We can see in its constitution, but in a more pronounced form than they would have dared to show in England, symptoms of the abuses and the arbitrary acts which culminated in the total overthrow of the Stuart dynasty. We shall follow the usual order of that period, to execute first, and judge afterwards; so first we shall look into the Parliament and its doings, and then take a brief survey of the subsequent enquiries into its constitution.
It was a most disorderly scene, especially in its earliest stage. Each party had hoped for a majority, but the numbers were slightly in favour of the English party. These latter proposed Davies as Speaker in the Lower House; whereupon Sir James Gough, Sir Christopher Nugent, and William Talbot, late Recorder of Dublin, proposed Sir John Everard, late a judge of the Queen’s Bench, but displaced by King James on account of his religion. The affirmative (the supporters of Davies) went out to be numbered; the negative, as was the custom then, remaining behind. But instead of letting themselves be numbered, the Irish party proceeded as if they were the whole house, chose Everard, and put him in the chair. The Englishmen, coming in and finding they numbered 125 in a house of 226, knew they had a majority, and put Davies on Everard’s lap. The English then began to remove Everard, by pulling at his legs, while the Irish held him in his place by the collar, Davies still sitting on his knees. Sir John Everard was old and infirm; he was got out of his place with only slight injuries to his leg, whereupon the Irish members withdrew altogether from the house. Then the Catholic lords wrote to the king, and the Irish commoners wrote to the Privy Council of England, both complaining of the business about the Speakership, and the legality of the new boroughs, the members of the Lower House also asking to be excused from attending. To the Lords’ complaints answer was made that the Commons’ business did not concern them, to which they replied that though not in the Lower House, they made yet but one body and one Parliament. Then the Lord Deputy commanded the Irish commoners to attend to pass the Act of recognition of the King’s Title; upon which they sent him a petition recognizing the King’s Title, but utterly refusing to sit in the house, unless their Speaker Everard was approved, and the new burgesses rejected. The Lords now acted similarly, and as the Irish element was strong in Dublin, Parliament was adjourned to the 27th of July, 1614.[[48]]
Looking at the matter from the standpoint of mere legality, we are obliged to acknowledge that the Irish party were in the wrong more than once in these transactions. When they had been left together for the purpose simply of being numbered, they chose to ignore the other party, and would not let themselves be counted, but proceeded forcibly to put Everard in the chair. Then, of course, the Lords were interfering in a way that would not be allowed nowadays, when they declined to go on till the matters in the Commons had been settled. And finally, if there were any illegalities in the new boroughs (and there were many, as we shall see), the correct thing, of course was for Parliament first to meet, and then for any errors in the returns to be dealt with. But we need not blame the Irish party for these little blunders. There had not been a meeting of Parliament for a generation, and they went there in a high state of tension and exasperation, first at the confiscations, and then at the conduct of the returning officers.
On the return of the Parliament, there was a controversy about the precedence of the Lord of Slane over the Lord of Kerry; this being ended, Parliament passed ten Acts: An Act of recognition of the King and his action in Ulster, stating with delicate irony, that James had established his government in the hearts of his people. One removing benefit of clergy in certain cases. Repeals of old Acts against admitting and associating with Scots, and against having commerce with the Irish enemies. An Act of General Pardon. An Attainder of Tyrone, Tyrconnell, Sir Cahir O’Dogherty and others. And a subsidy. Sir R. Cox, who was a violent Protestant, tells us, that on Chichester’s being summoned to England, “Irish affairs were so well managed by the Lord Deputy, that the King was fully convinced of the seditious designs of the Irish.”
When the recusant lords appealed to the king, his reply was insolent and silly; it was intended to drive them into further opposition. It is not worth quoting. He admits that two returns were proved false, and he foreshadowed the future failures of the Stuart race by such violent words as these, written to the noblemen: “You that are of contrary religion must not look to be the only law-makers. You that are but half-subjects should have but half privilege; you that have an eye to me one way and to the Pope another way.”
Now let us turn to the Commission and its findings.[[49]] They were directed not only to inquire into the disputes about the elections, but to find out if any of the elected members could not speak English, and to find out whether there were any combinations or conspiracies not to elect Protestants, and to see if any Jesuits or priests had any meddling in such matters. They also were directed to see if any general assessments and levies of money were made without authority, and to report if the priests and Jesuits were responsible; also to report generally on abuses in Ireland; and on the prospects of a Plantation in Wexford. The names of the Commissioners were, Lord Chichester, Sir Humphrey Winche, Sir Charles Cornwallis, Sir Roger Wilbraham, and George Calvert. They found that: In Armagh an Irish freeholder and candidate was kept out by an armed man at the door, upon which he, Henry McShane O’Neale, withdrew with most of the Irish freeholders. That in Cavan, Captain Fleming, an Irish freeholder, had appealed to the sheriff for an adjournment of nominations, and had been given hopes of one, but, the sheriff not adjourning, the Irish were not represented at the election. In the King’s County, the Irish candidates, one of whom could not speak English, had the greater number of names on their nomination paper, yet the under-sheriff returned the two English candidates. In this case two whose names were written down for the Irish candidates, disavowed their signatures, and another confessed to having put his name on the list after the election was done, and Sir Terence O’Dempsey gave his vote by proxy. In Limerick it was questioned whether the English or Irish candidates had the greater number of freeholder votes; the sheriff did not take the obvious course of numbering the freeholders, but returned the Englishmen. He denied that it was his duty to number the polls. In Fermanagh, neither of the Irish candidates responded to the Commissioners’ invitation to be present, for good reasons: one could not speak English, and the other “indicted for treason, broke prison, and hath betaken himself to the woods.” They found that at this election Captain Gower did not pull Brian McGuire’s beard from his face, but only shook him by the beard. In Roscommon the Irish candidates’ witnesses seem to have been rejected, because of their “speaking only the Irish language, and being men of mean condition, as they seemed to us.” In passing we may mention that two of Sir John Everard’s supporters in Parliament could only speak Irish. In Dublin, the Mayor being absent, the recusants duly elected two aldermen at the County Court; later the Mayor proclaimed an election at Hoggin, when two English candidates were nominated by the Mayor. To see which had a majority, he made the parties divide, and then, without counting the polls, he declared the Englishmen, his nominees, elected. In Trim there were two elections, as there did not seem to be any proper authority for fixing a date. In Kildare borough, the sovereign returned two, whom the Commission declared to be not elected, deciding that the Irish candidates were returned. In Wicklow there was a confusion between the reputed portriff and the deputy-constable about the proper date, and finally two English candidates were returned. In Cavan, the sovereign and inhabitants held an election, without waiting for the sheriff’s permission, and declared two natives elected. The Ulster men all resented the intrusion of the sheriffs upon them.[[50]] Then the sheriff directed his warrant to the sovereign, and another election was held. The greater number voted for the natives, yet the sovereign declared the English candidates returned, though they had fewer voices. The Commission here says: “At this election Sir Oliver Lambert with a little walking-stick, did strike one George Brady, one of the inhabitants, for using towards him some rude behaviour, and giving him some unfitting speeches; and upon view by us, it did not appear to us, that his head had been broken.”
They found there was a general combination against electing Protestants; the reason being, the natives believed laws would be propounded concerning religion and for banishment of priests. They found that the Roman Catholic knights of the shire and burgesses levied contributions to pay for sending their agents for their appeal to England. And the moneys obtained by the priests seem to have been dues of the most ordinary kind. In fact, the dragging in of the priests and Jesuits, first suggested in James’s commands to the Commission, proved to be a perfect mare’s nest. They found that two burgesses were returned from Clogher, which had never sent members before, and had no charter to do so. The Commission then went on to describe the disorderly scene at the meeting of Parliament. It appeared that several of the new corporations had no right to return members, their charters bearing date after the Commission for the holding of the Parliament, and some after the summons to the Parliament.
After that, they go into the general grievances of the country. Juries will not present recusants. “The small number, less sufficiency, and little residence of the ministers. The want and defect of churches, either wholly ruined, or so out of repair as to be unfit for the service of God.” Remedy, to enforce the laws of conformity, and to do away with idle and scandalous ministers. The soldiers extort; officers take money not to cess; the provost-marshal’s men extort. The people are afraid to make complaint for fear of worse impositions. The extortion of clerks and multiplying of new offices. The clearing out of Wexford for a new plantation; some old freeholders restored to their land or portion, but with some of the English party holding it in trust for them; while 390 freeholders, and 14,500 other people “may be removed at the will of the patentees, notwithstanding few are yet removed.” For this plantation a jury was appointed and found “ignoramus” to the King’s title. They were bound over to appear again, and then eleven agreed to find for the title; but five, who refused, were committed to prison, and censured in the Castle Chamber. After that come figures about the Wexford Plantation and the rent reserved, which was £5 per 1,000 acres for the English, and £6 6s. 8d. for the natives.