The charges brought against the Londoners were as follows:—
“1st, Unduly and deceitfully obtaining the letters patent, ‘under pretence of a due observance of the articles’; 2nd, Obtaining more land than it was the King’s intention to grant (97,000 acres of fertile land, instead of 27,000), the rents mentioned being ‘one hundred and ninety-three pounds, eight shillings and fourpence, and no more;’ 3rd, The neglecting to plant with English and inland Scots, and illegally many of the ‘mere Irish’ (names being given) in possession of the lands; 4th, Rack-renting of an atrocious type. ‘Their Agents ... do still continue the natives upon the said Plantation, and paid the Fines imposed upon them, according to the said Proclamation, for not departing from the British undertaken Lands, because they would give greater Rents for the said Lands than the British were able to live upon, and did prefer the Irish before the English, because they pretended they were more serviceable unto them, by which means, and by their excessive raising the rents from forty shillings and fifty shillings a balliboe, unto ten pounds, twelve pounds, and twenty pounds and thirty pounds a balliboe, the English were and are much disheartened, and the natives do far exceed the British, etc.;’ 5th, Spoliation of the Plantation and fraud on the Crown by cutting down the woods for merchandise instead of for Plantation purposes to the extent of one million oaks, two thousand elms, and two hundred thousand ash trees, of the value of £550,666 13s. 4d.” (pp. 21 and 22).
The King, however, accepted a fine of £12,000 with the surrender of all the grants.
Three years later the sentence of the Court was set aside by the House of Commons with the following resolutions:—
“Resolved that it is the opinion of this House that the Citizens of London were solicited and pressed to the Undertaking of the Plantation of Londonderry.
Resolved, that the Copy attested by Mr. Goad’s Hand is a true Copy of the Sentence given in the Star-Chamber against the Mayor and Commonalty of the City of London, and of the new plantation of Ulster in the Kingdom of Ireland.
Resolved, That the Order made in the Court of Star-Chamber, dated the eighth of March, in the eighth of Charles, is unlawful, both for the Matter, Persons, and Time therein prefixed.
Resolved, That this House is of Opinion that the King was not deceived in the grant which he made unto the Society of Governors and Assistants of London of the new Plantation of Ulster in the Kingdom of Ireland, in particular; nor in creating a new Corporation, called the Society of the Governors and Assistants of London of the new Plantation of Ulster in the Kingdom of Ireland.
Resolved, That this House is of Opinion that the King did not by that patent grant more Land than was by him intended to be granted, nor was he therein deceived.
That it doth not appear by sufficient Proof that the Citizens of London were tied to perform the printed Articles, and consequently not bound to plant with English and Scots, nor restrained from planting with Natives.
By the seven-and-twenty Articles, the City was to build two hundred Houses in Derry, and an hundred at Coleraine by the first Day of November 1611. Admitting that the Houses were not built, nor the Castle of Culmore repaired, by the time prefixed; yet this is no Crime, nor Cause for giving Damages, in regard the City had not that Patent until the nine-and-twentieth of March 1613.
That there is no Proof that the Governor, etc., of the new Plantation, or any of their Companies, did make any Lease unto any Popish Recusant, nor of any Decay of Religion there by default of the Planters.
There is no Proof of any Default in the Planters for not making a sufficient Number of Freeholders, nor any Articles that do tie them thereunto.
That there is no proof that the City of London, or the Governor of the new Plantations, have felled any trees in the Woods called Glancankin and Kellytrough, contrary to their covenant.
That the not conveying of Glebe Lands to the several Incumbents of the several Parish Churches, in regard their did enjoy the Lands, is no Crime punishable, nor cause of Seizure of their Lands.
That the Breach of Covenant (if any such were) is no sufficient Cause to forfeit the Lands.
That the Breach of Covenant is no Crime, but triable in ordinary Courts of Justice.
That the Court of Star-Chamber, while it stood as a Court, had no Power to examine Freehold nor Inheritance; nor had any Power to examine or determine Breach of Covenant or Trust.
That the Sentence upon these Corporations aggregate, no particular Person being guilty, it is against Law.
That in all the Proofs of this Cause there doth not appear Matter sufficient to convince the City of London of any Crime.
That, upon the whole Matter, the Sentence of the Star-Chamber was unlawful and unjust.
That this Composition and Agreement made with the City upon these Terms in the Time of Extremity ought not to bind the City.
That the Opinion of the House is, That they think fit, that both the Citizens of London, and those of the new Plantation, and all Under-Tenants, and all those put out of Possession by the Sequestration, or King’s Commissioners, shall be restored to the same State they were in before the Sentence in the Star-Chamber.
That the Citizens of London, and all they against whom the Judgement is given in the Scire Facias, shall be discharged of that Judgement.”
In 1650 Oliver Cromwell made a new grant of the estates to the City. In 1662 a great charter was granted by Charles II. This charter restored the Irish Society, with the same powers of management as had been granted in 1613 with all the former conditions and reservations. The management of these lands by a Committee in London, quite ignorant of the place and the people, and wholly dependent upon reports of their servants, presented difficulties and dangers which, to us, are obvious. But it was an age for creating companies and enterprises all governed by Committees from London, and some of them so well governed, that the plan seemed feasible and convenient for all companies. Ireland, however, was a more difficult country than Hudson’s Bay or East India.
The election of members of the Irish Society after this new charter became practically the appointment on the Board of representatives of the Companies concerned. There were two permanent and official members, the Governor of the Society and the Recorder of London; the other twenty-four were appointed by the Corporation. The Society became, therefore, quite naturally, the servant of the Companies, the responsibilities of the trust were forgotten or neglected, and the custom arose of dividing among the Companies whatever surplus remained after the management expenses had been paid.
The management of the estates by the Irish Society is a chapter which belongs rather to the history of Ulster than to that of London. The case against the Society is simply that, instead of exercising a trust for the benefit of the estates, they acted as landlords for the benefit of the Companies.