till about two months before the first breaking out of the last Rebellion it being very ill taken that then they were adjourned And this they have since aggravated as a high Crime against the Lords Justices and as one of the chief moving causes to the taking up of Arms generally throughout the Kingdome But to let these things pass how finely soever these proceedings were carried on and being covered over with pretences of Zeal and publick affection passed then currant without any manner of suspition yet now the eyes of all men are open and they are fully resolved that all these passages The fair but pernicious pretences of the Irish fully discovered by their Rebellion An. 1641. together with the other high contestations in Parliament not to have the newly raised Irish Army disbanded the importunate solicitation of their Agents in England to have the old Army in Ireland cashiered and the Kingdom left to be defended by the Trained Bands of their own Nation As likewise the Commissions procured by several of the most eminent Commanders afterwards in Rebellion for the raising men to carry into Spain were all parts of the Plot Prologues to the ensuing Tragedy Preparatives such as had been long laid to bring on the sodain execution of that most bloudy design all at one and the same time throughout the Kingdom Now for the Jesuits Priests The means used by the Priests and Jesuits to stir up the people to Rebel Fryars all the rest of their Viperous Fraternity belonging to their Holy Orders who as I said had a main part to Act and did not fail with great assiduity and diligence to discharge the same They lost no time but most dexterously applyed themselves in all parts of the Countrey to lay other such dangerous impressions in the minds as well of the meaner sort as of the chief Gentlemen as might make them ready to take fire upon the first occasion And when this Plot was so surely as they thought laid as it could not well faile and the day once perfixed for Execution they did in their publick Devotions long before recommend by their Prayers the good success of a great Design much tending to the prosperity of the Kingdome and the advancement of the Catholick Cause And for the facilitating of the work and stirring up of the people with greater animosity and cruelty to put it on at the time perfixed they loudly in all places declaimed against the Protestants telling the people that they were Hereticks and not to be suffered any longer to live among them that it was no more sin to kill an English-man than to kill a dog and that it was a most mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them Then also they represented with much acrimony the several courses taken by the Parliament in England for suppressing of the Romish Religion in all parts of of the Kingdom and utter extirpation of all Professors of it They told the people that in England they had caused the Queens Priest to be hanged before her own face and that they held her Majesty in her own person under a most severe discipline That the same cruel Laws against Popery were ordered to be put suddenly in execution in Ireland and a design secretly laid for bringing and seizing upon all the principal Noble-men and Gentlemen in Ireland upon November 23. next ensuing and so to make a general Massacre of all that would not desert their Religion and presently become Protestants And now also did they take occasion to revive their inveterate hatred and antient animosities against the English Nation The Irish revive their antient animosities against the English whom they represented to themselves as hard Masters under whose Government how pleasant comfortable and advantageous so ever it was they would have the world believe they had endured a most miserable Captivity and Envassalage They looked with much envy upon their prosperity considering all the Land they possessed though a great part bought at high rates of the Natives as their own proper Inheritance They grudged at the great multitudes of their fair English Cattel at their goodly Houses though built by their own industry at their own charges at the large improvements they made of their Estates by their own travels and careful endeavours They spake with much scorne and contempt of such as brought little with them into Ireland and having there planted themselves in a little time contracted great Fortunes They were much troubled especially in the Irish Countries to see the English live handsomly and to have every thing with much decency about them while they lay nastily buried as it were in mire and filthiness the ordinary sort of people commonly bringing their Cattle into their own stinking Creates or Cabins and there naturally delighting to lie amongst them These malignant considerations made them with an envious eye impatiently to look upon all the British lately gone over in that Kingdome Nothing less than a general extirpation would now serve their turn they must have restitution of all the Lands to the proper Natives whom they took to be the ancient Proprietors and only true owners most unjustly despoiled by the English whom they held to have made undue acquisitions of all the Land they possessed by gift from the Crown upon attainder of any of their Ancestors And so impetuous were the desires of the Natives to draw the whole Government of the Kingdom into their own hands The Ends proposed by the first plotters of the Rebellion to enjoy the publick profession of their Religion as well as disburthen the Countrey of all the British Inhabitants seated therein as they made the whole body of the State to be universally disliked represented the several Members as persons altogether corrupt and ill affected pretended the ill humours and distempers in the Kingdome to be grown into that height as required Cauteries deep incisions and indeed nothing able to work so great a cure but an universal Rebellion This was certainly the Disease as appears by all the Symptoms and the joynt concurrence in opinion of all the great Physicians that held themselves wise enough to propose remedies and prescribe fit applications to so desparate a Malady And thus we see those persons who by the advantage of their Education and duty of Profession should have been the great lights to direct the footsteps of the unwary and giddy-headed multitude to walk steddily in the right path of Obedience and Loyalty to their Prince and of Love and Charity towards their Neighbours by a notorious abuse of the same did wilfully mislead them to ruine and destruction The Establishment of the Army in Ireland An. 1669. Come we now to take a view of the standing Army in Ireland according to the Establishment made in the year 1669. which did then consist of thirty Troops of Horse including the Life-Guard and sixty Foot Companies besides the Regiments of Guards in which were twelve Companies
THE PRESENT STATE OF Ireland TOGETHER With some Remarques Upon the Antient State thereof Likewise a Description of the Chief Towns With a MAP of the Kingdome LONDON Printed by M. D. for Chr. Wilkinson at the Black-Boy in Fleet-Street and T. Burrell at the Golden-Ball under St. Dunstans Church 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER MVch cannot be expected upon a Subject of this Nature from a private Person and one who was seconded with few other helps to accomplish his desires herein than to consult his own thoughts and a mall number of Books that lay by him However the Reader may be well assured there is nothing offered here to his consideration in relation to the Present or Antient State of Ireland as far as the Subject would possibly admit of the same but what is back'd with good Authority and faithfully related by the Author according to the best information he could obtain As for other matters here Essayed by way of conjecture the Author well hopes this mean attempt will shortly administer a fit occasion for a more knowing Person and abler Pen to render the World more ample satisfction touching the Publick Affairs and State of that Kingdome wherein it may seem strange how that this our Age affords many Treatises entituled The present State of Enngland France Italy Holland Venice Muscovy c. yet not any thing of that Nature since his Majesties happy Restauration hath been hitherto presented to publick view in relation to the State of Ireland though it be one of the chiefest Members of the British Empire as if either there were no such thing in Nature Or at least that the Affairs thereof afforded not any thing worthy of Note whereas indeed the continued infelicity of that unhappy Kingdome till of late might alone besides many other remarkes made mention of in this ensuing Treatise justly breed some curiosity in any knowing person to take into his consideration what were the true causes why that Realm whereof our Kings of England have born the Title of Sovereign Lords for the space of four hundred and odd years a period of time wherein divers great Monarchies have risen from Barbarism to Civility and fallen again to Ruine was not in all that space of time throughly subdued reduced to the obedience of the Crown of England although there hath been almost a continual War between the English and the Irish and why the manners of the meer Irish were so little altered till King James his Reign since the days of King Henry the Second as appeareth by the description made by Giraldus Cambrensis who lived and wrote in that time although there hath been since that time so many English Colonies planted in Ireland as that if the people had been numbred by the Poll such as were descended of English race would have been found more in number than the antient Natives To give therefore a brief account of the true causes of those disorders as also of the exquisite remedies applyed by the late Settlement of Ireland in order to a perfect Reformation of the same is one of the chief ends and design of this discourse wherein if it gives the Reader any competent satisfaction the Author will deem himself thereby well rewarded for his pains THE CONTENTS OF THE First Part. THat Ireland is supposed to be first Inhabited by the Britains page 1. That it was first Invaded by the Saxon Monarchs p. 3. Next by the Northern Nations about the year 830. of Danes Swedes and Normans all passing under the Names of Norwegians p. ib. And last of all by the English in K. Henry the Seconds time p. 4. That the Conquest of Ireland by the English ever since Henry the Seconds time till now of late was imperfect by reason of two great Defects the first whereof consisted in faint prosecution of the War and the next in in the loosness of the Civil Government p. 6. Of the faint prosecution of the War and the causes of it p. ib. That notwithstanding many obstructions yet the first English Adventurers during the first forty years gained many large proportions of Land in the Provinces of Leinster Munster Connaght and Ulster p. 8. That the English being for a long time necessitated to maintain a bordering War with the Irish wholy at the charge of the English Planters the English Plantations in Ireland began thereupon to decay p. 9 10 11. That Morrice Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond was the first began that wicked Extortion of Coine Livery and Pay in K. Edward the Seconds time which soon after proved the utter ruine of all the English Colonies in Ireland except those few within the Pale which Interest of the English could never be put in a way of recovery again till about the beginning of Queen Eâ—izabeths Reign p. 12 13. That by reason of the said Earl of Desmond and divers other Grandees of the first English Conquerors getting vast Estates from the English Colonies in Ireland by those horrible oppressioins of Coin and Livery c. many of the English fled into England and the rest in a small tract of time so much degenerated into Irish manners as that they hated the very name of the English and took upon them Irish Nick-names p. 14 15. That those great English Lords the better to maintain their said unlawful Acquisitions became thereupon Arch Enemies both to the Government and the Laws of England refusing to appear at Parliaments and no way observing the Dictates and Command of the Chief Governors of that Realm p. 16 17. That by these means and by reason of the English Nobility and Gentry passing afterwards out of Ireland into England to be engaged in the Civil-Wars between York and Lancaster wherein most of them perished the Irish became victorious over all the English except those within the Pale without bloud or sweat p. 17 18. That it was a great hindrance to the full Conquest of Ireland that the first English Conquerors did not equally communicate the English Laws to the Irish as well as to English Planters ib. That by means thereof the English Conquerors maintained perpetual Enmity and War with the Irish for their own private ends and advantages to the distruction of the Country p. 19. That this was contrary to the practice of the Roman State who never refused to communicate their Laws to the rude and barbarous people they conquered p. 20. And to the practice of William the Conqueror who Governed both Normands and the English under one Law p. 21. And against the prudent course Edward the First observed in the reducing of Wales p. ib. That the next Error in the Civil pollicy was the over great proportions of Land with great Royalties and Liberties granted to the first English Adventurers in Ireland which occasioned many notorious inconveniencies p. 22. The reason why such vast proportions of Land were given to the first Adventurers in Ireland p. 30. The manner how Ireland was divided among the English Conquerors in
p. 90. A Character of all Ireland and how far it differs from England in Aire and Commodities c. p. 93 94. Of the Money of Ireland p. 96. Of its Buildings p. 101. Of its Inhabitants and Laws p. 105. And of its Religion p. 111. Of the Manners of the Irish Antient and Modern p. 120. How lovingly the Irish lived of late times in Neighbourhood with the English till October 23. An. 1641. And how strangly they altered upon the sudden from more than ordinary good Offices of Kindness to extream Barbarisme and cruelty towards their said English Neighbuors and the rest of the Protestant British Planters in Ireland with the manner motives and causes of the same p. 123 c. Of the number of the Inhabitants of Ireland p. 145. Of the Irish Language p. 147. Of their Stature p. 150. Of their Dyet p. 151. Of their Attire p. 152 Of their Recreations p. 153. Of the Irish Names p. ibid. Of their Sir names p. 154. Of the Government of Ireland p. 156 A Catalogue of the Lord Lieutenants Deputies Lord Justices p. 158 The Title of the Kings of England altered from Lords of Ireland to King p. 17â— The Titles of the Crown of England to every part of Ireland and to the whole divers ways As to Lynster p. 171. To Meath p. 172. To Munster p. ibiâ— To Ulster and Connaght p. 173 Of the several Claims of the Crowâ— of England to the Land of Ireland p. 174 Of the Revenue of Ireland p. 183 A Table for Reducing Plantation-Acres p. 186. Of the Strength of Ireland and how it principally consists by its dependency on the Crown of England p. 196. By what ways and means the English since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign and a little before did again extend their Power and Interest in Ireland beyond the narrow Limits of the English Pale p. ibid. Of the great advantages that will accrue in the future to the English by their late vast Acquisitions in Ireland the better to enable them thereby to breed up their Children for the service of that Kingdom both in Church and State p. 205. How that the Popish Irish Lawyers and Divines did of late times abuse the advantage they had by their good Education to the ruine of their own Country p. 206. Of how many Troops of Horse and Companies of Foot the present Standing Army in Ireland consists p. 217. Of the Militia in Ireland p. 218. How that henceforth there will be no-more need of Trayning up the Irish together with the English in the Feats of Arms which of late times proved very destructive to the English Interest in Ireland p. ibid. Of Electing Parliament men p. 221. A List of what places Return Parliament-men p. 223. Nobility Subsidy p. 227. Subsidies of the several Bishopricks p. 231. Provincial Subsidies p. 233. Salaries belonging to several Courts of Judicature c. p. 236. Military Payments p. 239. Provincial Officers c. p. 240. Creation-Money p. 243. Perpetuities and Temporary Payments p. 245 247. Pensions and Annuities p. 246. THE CONTENT OF THE Third Part. TO the Reader p. 24â— That it much imports the futurâ— security of the Protestant British Planters to be for the most part if not whoâ— possess'd by way of habitation of thâ— chief Cities and strong Towns of Ireland which was sufficiently evidence by the examples of the Cities of Dublin Limrick and Gallaway upon the firâ—â— breaking out of the last Rebellion in Ireland begun the 23d of October Annâ— 1641. p. 249 The Characters of some of the chieâ— Towns and Cities of Ireland wherebâ— is discovered how conveniently they arâ— situated as they lie in the respectivâ— Provinces in reference to Trade and Strength both forreign and domestick How they increased and flourished during the last forty years Peace And what probability there is of their future flourishing state and condition with many other things remarkable in relation thereunto p. 255. In the Province of Munster Of Waterford p. ibid. Of Kingsale p. 257. Of Corke p. 258. Of Youghall p. ibid. Of Limrick p. 259. Of Clonmell p. 260. In the Province of Connaght Of Gallaway p. 261. Of Sleygoe p. 263. Of James-Town p. 265. Of Athlone p. 266. In the Province of Vlster Of Carlingford Dundalk p. 267. Of Cnockfergus p. ibid. Of London-derry p. 268. In the Province of Lynster Of Wexford p. 269 Of Kilkenny p. 270 Of Ross p. ibid Of Carlough p. 271. Of Tredagh p. 272. Of Dublin p. ibid. IRLANDIA THE Present State OF IRELAND TO pass by the story how Caesaria Ireland supposed to be first Inhabited by the Britains Noah's Neece inhabited IRELAND before the Flood and how three hundred years after the Flood it was subdued by one Bartholanus a Scythian who overcame here I know not what Giants with other such stuffe wholly resting on the Testimony of the Irish Chronicles which are thought to relish too much of the Fable and not altogether to rely upon that opinion grounded on very probable Circumstances that this Island was first Inhabited by the mixt Nations of Spaniards Gaules Africans or Gothes coming out of Spain and by the Britains out of Britain the Irish being observed to partake of tho Customes and Manners of each of these People but it seems most likely that the first Inhabitants thereof came wholly out of Britain Britain being the nighest unto it and thereby affording the conveniency of a more speedy Waftage thither and the antient Customes Laws Language and Dispositions of these People being not much unlike the Britains though they were accounted far more Barbarous and Savage by most antient Writers than those of Britain are said to be at the first discovery having never been made so happy as to come under the power of the Romans the Great Masters of Civility and good Letters in the West of Europe by means whereof their Actions and Affairs were buried in Oblivion The Ancient Inhabitants of this Island being thus conceived to be Originally Britains Ireland first Invaded by the Saxon Monarch and the Scots found to inhabit here about the fall of the Roman Empire the first Onset it received by way of Invasion was by the Saxon Monarchs who casting their Eyes upon it made themselves Masters of Dublin and some other places but could not long possess the same as being hardly able to defend their own against that People The next that undertook the Conquest thereof being about Anno 830. Next by the Northern Nations all passing under the Names of Danes Swedes Normans were the Northern Nations of Danes Swedes and Normans all passing in the Chronicles of those times under the Name of Norwegians who first scouring along the Sea-coasts by way of Pyracy and afterwards finding the weakness of the Island being divided amongst many petit and inconsiderable Princes made an absolute Conquest of it under the Conduct of one Turgesius whom they Elected for their King but were soon rooted out by
the policy of the King of Meth the only Irish Prince then in favour with the Tyrant These Northern Nations were the first that brought the Irish acquainted with Traffick and Commerce and with building of Castles and Fortresses only upon the Sea-coasts having hitherto known no other defence but Woods Boggs or Stoakes And last of all by the English in K. Henry 2ds reign An. 1172. After this the Roytelets or petty Princes enjoying their former Dominions till the year 1172. in which Dermot Mac Morogh King of Lynster having forced the Wife of Maurice O Rorke King of Meth was driven by him out of his Kingdome who applying himself to Henry the Second of England for succor received Aid under the leading of Richard de Clare Sir-named Strongbow Earle of Pembroke to be restored to his Kingdom by whose good success and the rest of the Adventurers upon the Arrival of Henry the Second in Ireland his very Presence without drawing his Sword prevailed so far as that all the petty Kings or great Lords within Lynster Connaght and Munster submitted themselves unto him promising to pay him Tribute and acknowledging him their chief and Soveraign Lord But as the Conquest was but slight and superficial so the Irish Submissions were but weak and fickle assurances to hold in Obedience so considerable a Kingdom for no sooner were the Kings of Englands backs turned but the Irish returned to their former Rebellions and the Kings of England had here no more power or profit than the great ones of the Country were pleased to give them for they governed their People by the Brehon Law they made their own Magistrates and Officers pardoned and punished all Malefactors within their several Countries made War and Peace one with the other without controulment and this they did not only during the Reign of King Henry the Second but also in the times succeeding even until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which Conquest became thus imperfect by reason of two great Defects first in the faint prosecution of the War and next in the loosness of the Civil Government The Conquest of Ireland by the English imperfect till of late by reason of two defects viz. first faint Prosecution of the War the Causes of it As touching the carriage of Martial Affairs from the seventeenth year of King Henry the Second at what time the first overture was made for the Conquest of Ireland until the nine and thirtieth year of Queen Elizabeth when that Royal Army was sent over to suppress the the Rebellion of Tyrone which in the end made an universal and absolute Conquest of all the Irishry It is very evident that the English either raised here or sent hither from time to time out of England were alwaies too weak to Subdue and Master so many Warlike Nations or Septs of the Irish as did possess this Island and besides their weakness they were ill paid and worse Governed And if at any time there arrived out of England an Army of competent strength and power it did rather terrifie than break or subdue this People being ever broken and dissolved by some one accident and impediment or other before the perfection of the Conquest of it as namely Henry the Second by the Rebellion of his Sons King John Henry the Third and Edward the Second by the Barrons Wars Edward the First by his Wars in Wales and Scotland Edward the Third and Henry the Fift by the Wars of France Richard the Second Henry the Fourth Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth by Domestick contention for the Crown of England it self Richard the Third not worth mentioning as having never got the quiet possession of England but was cast out by Henry the Seventh within two years and an half after his Usurpation And Henry the Seventh himself though he made the happy Union of the two Houses of York and Lancaster yet for more than half the space of his Reign there were walking Spirits of the House of York which he could not conjure down without the expence of some Bloud and Treasure Henry the Eighth was diverted by his two Expeditions into France at the first and latter part of his Reign and in the middle thereof wholly taken up with the troubles created to him by the great alteration of Ecclesiastical Affairs And lastly the Infancy of King Edward and the Coverture of Queen Mary which were both not-abilities in Law did likewise in fact disable them to accomplish the Conquest of Ireland so that all the Kings of England coming thus far short as to the perfecting of the true Conquest of Ireland let us examine what other impediments were given thereunto in point of Martial Affairs by the Adventurers themselves that first undertook the Conquest of this Kingdom upon their own account That the first English Adventurers had good success in Ireland during the first forty years It doth appear that for the space of about forty years after the first landing of the English in Ireland till the seventeenth year of King John during all which time there was no Army transmitted out of England to finish the Conquest of Ireland that the Adventurers and Colonies already planted there proceeded with so much good success as they gained very large portions of ground in every Province As namely the Earl of Strongbow by his Marriage with the Daughter of Mac Morrogh in Lynster the Laâ—ies in Meth the Giraldines and other Adventurers in Munster the Andeleyes Gernons Clintons Russels and other Voluntaries of Sir John de Courcies retinue in Vlster and the Bourkes planted by William Fitz-Adelme in Connaght The English Colonies being thus dispersed through all the Provinces of Ireland were necessitated But being necessitated for a long time to maintain a bordering War against the Irish at the charge of the English Planters from the twelfth year of King John till the six and thirtieth year of King Edward the Third being about an hundred and fifty years to maintain a continual bordering War between them and the Irish without receiving during all that time any supply either of Men or Money out of England to manage the same So that all the chief Governours of the Realm and the English Lords who had gotten such great Possessions and Royalties as that they presumed to make War and Peace at their pleasure without the least advice or direction from the State being forced to levy all their Forces within the Land who being ill Paid and worse Governed it so came to pass the publick Revenues of Ireland being then inconsiderable to sustain such a charge that as well the Ordinary Forces which stood continually as the extraordinary which were levied by the chief Governour upon Journeys and general Hostings were for the most part laid upon the poor Subjects descended of English race which burden was in some measure tollerable during the Reign of King Henry the Third and Edward the First but afterwards became insupportable in the time of King
great loss whether it turned to the benefit of the Queen or no is not known But to the Treasurers and Paymasters without doubt it brought in good gain whose avarice which is a diligent searcher of hidden gains may seem to have devised it The Money now generally used in Ireland there being little of English because prohibited to be transported thither beyond the summe of five pounds as I take it for the better encouragement of Trade between both Kingdoms is most of all Spanish Coyn to wit pieces of Eight at 4 s. 6 d. the piece consisting of Plate pieces Mexico and old Peru with half and quarter pieces The new Perues whereof there was a good quantity being not long since called in and by reason they were thought to be abused and falsified converted into Plate to the great benefit of some in Dublin and the no small loss at that time of a great many people in Ireland A piece of old English Gold is hardly to be seen in Ireland except what is closely kept in private hands though there was a great proportion thereof before the late Wars which commonly passed from hand to hand in ordinary Payments There is a small quantity of Brass Coyn that is used there for the conveniency of change I have already hinted Buildings how that the Irish by reason of their Barbarous Laws and Customs did never build any Houses of Brick or Stone some few poor Religious Houses excepted before the Reign of King Henry the Second which seems as manifest as strange by the entertainment of the said King received at their chief City of Dublin Anno 1172. who was unavoidably necessitated for meer accommodation finding there no fit place for his reception to set up a long house made of smoothed Wattles after the manner of the Country wherein he pompously entertained the greâ—t Irish Lords and Princes at Christmas All their Forts Castles Stately Buildings and other Edifices were afterwards Erected by the English except as I said some of the Maritine Towns which were built by the Ostmanni or Easterlings who antiently came and Inhabited Ireland The Buildings of Ireland much improved by the last forty years Peace During the last forty years peace in Ireland there were many lovely Houses built through most part of that Kingdom by the English Nobility and Gentry with delicate improvements in Orchards Gardens and Inclosures correspondent thereunto There was also at the same time by way of imitation the like good indeavours of making handsome Improvements and Buildings by the better sort of Irish both in Towns and Country But the fair Dwellings of the English were so badly handled by the Irish in the heat of the War that scarce any part of them except the main Walls escaped from fireing upon which being generally made of Massy Stone the English have rebuilt and are building besides a great number upon new foundations many fair Structures But that which has been hitherto The Nasty Irish Cabbins a great blemish to Ireland and I doubt will ever hereafter be a blemish to the flourishing state of Ireland in point of Building is the great number of Nasty-Smoaky-Cabbins every where made up of Wattles without any Chimnies wherein the poorer sort of Irish do well which cannot be altogether ascribed to their meer poverty and antient custom but rather much more to the uncertainty of the tenure whereby they hold the same being Tenants only but from May to May that so they may more easily quit their Station and try their fortunes else where for an other year though many times to as little effect in case they find themselves over-much opprest by their Landlords Their Parish Churches were generally as meanly built in Ireland as their practice was in Religion but now that the Country comes to be inhabited by a more civil and better Principled people it may be justly hoped and likewise expected that there will be by degrees a Reformation in this particular as well as in other matters of less moment since the handsome building and adorning of Churches do conduce much to draw the rude people to the the reverencing and frequenting thereof CHAP. II. Of the Inhabitants their Laws Religion and Manners Of their Number Language Stature Dyet Attire Recreations Names and Sir-names I have already declared how it is most probable that the first Inhabitants of this Island came hither out of Britain Inhabitants and Laws now called England and Wales And therefore shall proceed to give some farther Account touching the Laws of this Realm both Ancient and Modern The Brehon Law by which the Irish governed themselves was a Rule of Right unwritten but delivered by Tradition from one to another in which often times there appeared great shew of Equity in determining the Right between party and party but in many things repugning quite both to Gods Law and Mans The partiality and impiety of the Brehon Irish Law As for example in the case of Murder the Brehon that is their Judge would compound between the Murderer and the Friends of the party Murdered which Prosecuted the Action that the Malefactor should give unto them or to the Child or Wife of him that is slain a recompence which they called an Eriach By which vile Law of theirs many Murders amongst them were made up and smothered And this Judge being as he was called the Lords Brehon adjudged for the most part a better share unto this Lord that is the Lord of the Soil or the head of that Sept and also unto himself for his judgment a greater portion then unto the Plaintiffs or parties grieved Sir Edward Poynings the best Reformer of the Laws of Ireland He that gave the fairest beginning to the Reformation of the Laws of Ireland of any till his time was Sir Edward Poynings Lord Deputy of Ireland in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh who finding in that Realm nothing but a common misery took the best course he possibly could to establish there a well governed Common-wealth and to that end he held a Parliament no less famous than that of Kilkenny and more available for the Reformation of the whole Kingdom For whereas all wise men did ever concur in opinion that the readiest way to Reform Ireland was to settle a form of Civil Government there conformable to that of England To bring this to pass Sir Edward Poynings did pass an Act whereby all the Statutes made in England before that time were enacted established and made of force in Ireland Neither did he only respect the time past but provided also for the time to come For he caused an other Law to be made that no Act should be propounded in any Parliament of Ireland but such as should be first Transmitted into England and approved by the King and Council there as good and expedient for that Land and so returned back again under the Great Seal of England This Act though it seem Prima facie to restrain
bear unto the English Nation seemed now to be quite deposited and buried in a firm conglutination of their affection and National Obligations passed between them The two Nations had now lived together forty years in peace with great security and comfort which had in a manner consolidated them into one Body knit and compacted together with all those Bonds and Ligatures of Friendship Alliance and Consanguinity as might make up a constant and perpetual Union betwixt them Their inter Marriages were frequent Gossipred Fostering relations of much dearness among the Irish together with all others of tenancy neighbourhood and service interchangably passed amongst them Nay they had made as it were a kind of mutual transmigration into each others manners many English being strangely degenerated into Irish affections and customs and many Irish especially of the better sort having taken up the English Language Apparel and decent manner of living in their private houses And so great an advantage did they find by the English Commerce and Cohabitation in the profits and high improvements of their Lands and native commodities so incomparably beyond what they ever formerly enjoyed or could expect to raise by their own proper industry as Sir Philemon O Neal and many others of the prime Leaders in the last Rebellion had not long before turned their Irish tenants off their Lands while they took on English who were able to give them much greater rents and more certainly pay the same A matter that was much taken notice of and esteemed by many as most highly conducing to the security of the English interests and Plantation amongst them But behold a fatal day approaching when least expected wherein this great League of friendship was broken This great League of friendship betwixt the English and the Irish dissolved by the breaking out of the Rebellion Octob. 23. 1641. when least suspected A fatal day I must confess to the English but much more fatal to the Irish in that they destroyed thereby not only themselves but the greatest part of their posterity I say when least expected because that the Irish Army raised for the invasion of the Kingdom of Scotland being peaceably disbanded their Arms and Munition by the singular care of the Lords Justices and Councel brought into his Majestes stores within the City of Dublin there was no manner of warlike preparations no relicks of any kind of disorders proceeding from the late Levies nor indeed any noise of War remaining within those coasts Now while in this great calm the Brittish continued in a most deep security under the assurance of the blessed peace of that Land while all things were carried on with great temper and moderation in the present Government and all men sate pleasantly enjoying the comfortable fruits of their own labours without the least thoughts or apprehension of either tumults or other troubles the differences between his Majesty K. Charles the First and his Subjects of Scotland being about that time fairly composed and setled There brake out upon the 23d of October 1641. a most desperate and formidable Rebellion an universal defection and general Revolt whereiâ— not onely all the meer Irish but almost all the old English that adhered to the Church of Rome werâ— totally involved Whereupon all bonds and ties of faith and friendship being broken Whereupon unexpressable cruelties were practised by the Irish against the English in Ireland the Irish Landlords by the instigation of their Popish Priests made a prey of their English tenants Irish tenants and servants a sacrifice of their English Landlords and Masters one Neighbour cruelly murdered by another Nay the Irish children in the very beginning fell to strip and kill English children all other relations were quite cancelled and laid aside and it was now esteemed a most meritorious work in any of them that could by any means or ways whatsoever bring an English man to the Slaughter A work not difficult to be compassed as things then stood The intermixing of the English among the Irish a main cause of their sudden destruction For they living promiscuously amongst the British in all parts having from their Priests received the Watch-word both for time and place rose up as it were actuated by one and the same spirit in all places in those Countries where it first began in the Province of Vlster at one and the same point of time and so in a moment fell upon them murdering some stripping or expelling others out of their habitations This bred such a general terrour and astonishment amongst the English as they knew not what to think much less what to do or which way to turn themselves Their servants were killed as they were plowing in the fields Husbands cut in pieces in the presence of their Wives their Childrens brains dashed out before their faces others had all their Goods and Cattle seized and carried away their Houses burnt their habitations laid waste and all as it were at an instant before they could suspect the Irish for their enemies or any ways imagine that they had it in their hearts or in their power to offer so great violence or do such mischief unto them The rage of the Irish grew to that height of malice as to hate the very English Language and their Cattle Nay they grew at last to that height of Malice that some of the Irish would not endure the very sound of the English Language but would have penalties inflicted upon them that spake English and all the English names of places changed into the old Irish denominations Others professed that they would not leave an English man or woman alive in the Kingdom but that all should be gone no not so much as an English Beast or any of the breed of them in many places killing English Cows and Sheep meerly because they were English and in some places cutting off their legs or taking out a piece out of their buttocks and so let them remain still alive in torture We shall find in the Roman story All bands of friendship and humanity violated in this great contest betwixt the Irish and the English during the several cruel contestations betwixt Marius and Scilla when their factious followers filled the whole City of Rome with streams of blood strange and most incomparable passages of friendships one exposing himself to all manner of dangers for the preservation of his friend of a contrary faction servants willingly sacrificing themselves to save the lives of their beloved Masters But here on the contrary what open violation of all bands of humanity and friendship no contracts no promises observed quarter given in the most solemn manner with the greatest Oathes and severest execrations under hand and Seal suddenly broken The Irish Landlords making a prey of their English Tenants the Irish Servants betraying their English Masters and every one esteeming any Act wherein they could declare their hatred and malice most against any of the Brittsh Nation as
gallant and truly meritorious The Irish unanimously agreed to root the English out of Ireland It is not to be denyed but that the first and most bloudy executions were made in the Prevince of Vlster and there they continued longest to execute their rage and cruelty yet must it be acknowledged that all the other three Provinces did concur with them as it were with one common consent to destroy and pluck up by the roots all the British planted throughout the Kingdom And for this purpose they went on not only murdering stripping and driving out all of them Men Women and Children but they laid wast their Habitations burnt their evidences defaced in many places all the Monuments of Civility and Devotion the Courts and places of the English Government Nay as some of themselves exprest it they resolved not to leave them either Name or Posterity in Ireland Having thus far briefly rendered an account touching matter of fact That the Irish can pretend no grievances as motives to the last Rebellion An. 164â— transacted in this most bloudy Rebellion I shall in the next place take an occasion to enquire whether this desperate resolution of the Irish proceeded from the sense of some grievous oppressions imposed upon by their English Governours or rather meerly from an impetuous desire they had to draw the whole Government of the Kingdom of Ireland into their own hands Upon due consideration whereof I cannot find they had the least cause to complain of oppression for his late Majesties Indulgence was so great towards his Subjects of Ireland as that in the year 1640. upon their complaints and a general Remonstrance sent over unto him from both Houses of Parliament then sitting at Dublin by a Committee of four Temporal Lords of the Upper House and twelve Members of the House of Commons with instructions to represent the heavy pressures they had for some time suffered under the Government of the Earl of Strafford He took these Grievances into his Royal Consideration descended so far to their satisfaction as that he heard them himself and made present Provisions for their redress And upon the decease of Mr. Wandsford Master of the Rolls in Ireland and then Lord Deputy there under the said Earl of Strafford who still continued Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom though then accused of High Treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London by the Parliament of England His Majesty sent a Commission of Government to the Lord Dillon of Kilkenny West and Sir William Parsons Knight and Baronet Master of the Wards in Ireland yet soon after finding the choice of the Lord Dillon to be much disgusted by the Committee he did at their Motion cause the said Commission to be Cancell'd and with their consent and approbation placed the Government upon Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlace Knight Master of the Ordinance both esteemed persons of great Integrity and the Master of Wards by reason of his very long continued imployment in the State his particular knowledge of the Kingdom much valued and well beloved amongst the People They took the Sword upon the ninth of February 1640. And in the first place they aplyed themselves with all gentle lenitives to mollifie the sharp humours raised by the rigid passages in the former Government They declared themselves against all such proceedings lately used as they found any ways varying from the Common Law They gave all due encouragement to the Parliament then sitting to endeavour the reasonable ease and contentment of the people freely ascenting to all such Acts as really tended to a Legal Reformation They betook themselves wholly to the advice of the Councel and caused all matters as well of the Crown as Popular Interest to be handled in his Majesties Courts of Justice no way admitting the late exorbitancies so bitterly decryed in Parliament of Paper-Petitions or Bills in Civil Causes to be brought before them at the Councel-board or before any other by their Authority They by his Majesties gracious directions gave way to the Parliament to abate the Subsidies there given in the Earl of Straffords time and then in Collection from forty thousand pounds each Subsidy to twelve thousand pounds a piece so low did they think fit to reduce them And they were farther content because they saw his Majesty most absolutely resolved to give the Irish Agents full satisfaction to draw up two Acts to be passed in the Parliament most impetuously desired by the Natives The one was the Act of Limitations which unquestionably settled all Estates of Land in the Kingdom quietly enjoyed without claim or interruption for the space of sixty years immediately preceding The other was for the relinquishment of the right and title which his Majesty had to the four Counties in Connaght legally found for him by several Inquisitions taken in them and ready to be disposed upon a due Survey to British undertakers as also to some Territories of good extant in Mounster and the County of Clare upon the same title Thus was the present Government most sweetly tempered and carryed on with great lenity and moderation the Lords Justices and Councel wholly departing from the rigour of former courses did gently unbend themselves into a happy and just compliance with the seasonable desires of the people And his Majesty that he might farther testify his own settled resolution for the continuation thereof with the same tender hand over them having first given full satisfaction in all things to the said Committee of Parliament still attending their dispatch did about the latter end of May 1641. declare Kobert Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant General of the Kingdom of Ireland He was Heir to Sir Philip Sidney his Unckle as well as to Sir Henry Sidney his Grandfather who with great Honour and much Integrity long continued Chief Governour of Ireland during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and being a person of excellent Abilities by Nature great Acquisitions from his own private Industry and publick Imployment abroad of exceeding great Temper and Moderation was never engaged in any publick pressures of the Common-wealth and therefore most likely to prove a just and gentle Governour most pleasing and acceptable to the people The Romish Catholicks privately enjoyed the exercise of their Religion through all Ireland Moreover the Romish Catholicks privately enjoyed the free exercise of their Religion throughout the whole Kingdom according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome They had by the over great indulgence of the late Governours their Titular Arch-bishops Bishops Vicars general Provincial Consistories Deans Abbots Priors Nuns who all lived freely though somewhat covertly among them and without controul exercised a voluntary jurisdiction over them they had their Priests Jesuits and Fryars who were of late years exceedingly multiplyed and in great numbers returned out of Spain Italy and other forreign parts where the Children of the Natives of Ireland that way devoted were sent usually to receive their Education And these without
Sixthly That onely the ancient Nobility of the Kingdome should stand and of them such as should refuse to conform to the Romish Religion to be removed and others put in their room howsoever the then present Earl of Kildare was to be excluded and another established in his place Seventhly All Plantation Lands to be recalled and the antient proprietors to be reinvested in their former estates with the limitations in their Covenant expressed That they had not formerly sold their interests on valuable considerations Eighthly That the respective Countries of the Kingdom should be sub-divided and certain Bounds or Barronies assigned to the chief Septs and others of the Nobility who were to be answerable for the Government thereof And that a standing Army might be still in being the respective Governors being to keep a certain number of men to be ready at all risings out as they term'd it They also being to build and maintain certain Fortresses in places most convenient within their Precincts And that these Governours should be of absolute power only responsible to the Parliament Lastly for maintaining a correspondency with other Nations and for securing the Coasts that also they might be rendered considerable unto others a Navy of a certain number of Ships was to be maintained That to this end five Houses were to be appointed one in each Province accounting Meath for one of them That to those houses should be allotted an annual pension of certain thousands of pounds to be made up of part of the Lands appropriate to Abbeys And a farther Contribution to be raised in the respective Provinces to that end That these Houses were to be assigned to a certain Order of Knights answerable to that of Malta who were to be Sea-men And to Maintain this Fleet that all Prizes were to be apportioned some part for a Common Bank the rest to be divided to which purpose the felling of Woods serviceable for this use was to be forbidden The house for this purpose to be assigned to the Province of Leinster was Kilmainham or rather Houth the Lord of Howith being otherwise to be accommodated provided he joyn with them that place being esteemed most convenient in respect of scituation which they had small grounds to hope for The Transplantation justified by reason of the late barbarous carriage of the Irish towards the English The serious consideration of this strange behaviour of the Irish towards the English hath given them just cause to place a wall of seperation between them and such dangerous Neighbours by whose barbarous carriage and inhumanity there were since the Rebellion first brake out unto the time of the cessation made Sept. 15. 1643. which was not full two years after three hundred thousand British and Protestants cruelly murthered in cold bloud destroyed some other way or expelled out of their habitations according to the strictest conjecture and computation of those who seemed best to understand the numbers of English planted in Ireland besides those few which perished in the heat of fight during the War The losses sustained by the British Planters in the space of 2. years from Oct. 23. 1641. amounted to 635375 l. And upon an enquiry made in Ireland An. 1641. of their losses sustained in their Estates Fortunes and Livelyhoods by Spoil and Robbery from the 23. of October 1641. till the 8. of March following by estimation they amounted to six hundred thirty five thousand three hundred seventy five pounds And if a right information could have been taken as I supposed would have amounted to neer five hundred times as much It hath been said of late by some Number of Inhabitants that the people of England are quadrubled within four hundred years as doubling every two hundred years How true this may be in relation to England I know not but I am perswaded that this observation may be more properly applyed to Ireland which has been within these four hundred years mightily improved by clearing of grounds from a Wilderness and thereby consequently giving way for the enlargment of peoples Habitations Ireland being reported to be generally overgrown with Woods in Giraldus Cambrensis his time Though Ireland was very populous before the last War and is computed to be half as big as England yet I dare not say that it contained half as many people as England did because above one fourth part of Ireland is taken up with unprofitable Boggs Lakes and barren Mountains and for that the Towns Cities of England are far greater and more numerous in proportion than those of Ireland in so much as that the City of London it self may be thought to contain more people than one half of the Kingdom of Ireland in the best of times But whether Ireland did in its prime contain two millions of people or what more I will not take upon me to determin but do submit the decision of so doubtful a matter to more knowing persons together with the enquiry whither in time to come when Ireland shall be fully inhabited it may be thought though mixedly the English may inhabit the proportion of about one Province and an half of it though most numerous in the Provinces of Mounster and Leinster The Irish the like proportion of one Province and an half more though most numerous in the Province of Connnaght And the Scots inhabiting the proportion of a fourth part of Ireland but more numerous in the Province of Vlster than in any other The Irish tongue is sharp and sententious Their Language offereth great occasion to quick Apothegms and proper allusions wherefore their common Jesters Bards and Rymers are said to delight passingly those that conceive the grace and propriety of the tongue But the true Irish indeed differeth so much from that they they commonly speak that scarce one amongst five score can either write read or understand it Therefore it is prescribed among certain their Poetes and other Students of Antiquity The Italian Spanish and French Tongues are compounded of the Latine The German high and low Country Saxon Scotland and English have great affinity North-Wales South-Wales Cornwall and Little Britain in France as Cambrensis and Sir John Price have learnedly discoursed but the Irish except the Redshanks and the Scottish of the High-lands have affinity with no Tongue as I can learn more then with the British Language Many reasons there are to induce one to be of this opinion first of all according to the first command the Celtick Tongue was of force in all these Northern parts Bodinus writeth that the British and Celtick Language was all one Pausanius the Greecian maketh mention how the Celts in their Language called a Horse Marc and three Horses Trimarc the which the Welchman useth to this day with a guttural alteration Margh and Treemargh Also Camden the learned Antiquary of this our Age is of this opinion remembring the Story of Gurguntius and the infinite number of British Words in use among the Irish the which
the Liberty of the Subjects of Ireland yet was it made at the Prayer of the Commons upon just and important cause For the Governors of that Realm especially such as were of that Country Birth Poynings Act made at the request of the Commons of Ireland had laid many opprssions upon the Commons And amongst the rest they had imposed Laws upon them not tending to the general good but to serve private turns and to strengthen their particular factions This moved them to refer all Laws that were to be past in Ireland to be considered corrected and allowed first by the State of England which had alwaies been tender and careful of the good of this people and had long since made them a Civil Rich and Happy Nation if their own Lords and Governors there had not sent bad intelligence into England Besides this he took special Order that the Summons of Parliament should go into all the Shires of Ireland and not to the four Shires onely within the English Pale for out of that little Precinct there were no Lords Knights or Burgesses Summoned to the Parliament neither did the Kings Writ run in any other part of the Kingdom and for that cause specially he caused all the Acts of Parliament lately before holden by the Viscount of Gormanston to be repealed and made void On these foundations they have raised many superstructures both of Law and Government enacted in their own Parliaments summoned by the Lord Deputy at the Kings appointment Amongst many inconveniences which have been observed in the Laws of England in relation to the Government of Ireland whereof a reformation was wisht this was a main one That when any of the Irish intended to go into Rebellion Entailing of Lands supported the Rebellions in Ireland they would convey away all their Lands and Lordships to Feoffees in trust whereby they reserved to themselves but a State for term of life which being determined by the sword or by the halter their Lands straight came to their heirs and the Crown of England defrauded of the intent of the Law which laid that grievous punishment upon Traytors to forfeit all their Lands to the Prince to the end that men might the rather be terrified from committing treasons for many which would little esteem of their own lives yet for remorse of their Wives and Children would be with-held from that heinous crime This appeared plainly in the late Earl of Desmond For before his breaking forth into open Rebellion he had conveyed secretly all his Lands to Feoffees of trust in hope to have cut off her Majesty from the Escheat of his Lands which inconvenience though well enough avoided at that time by an Act of Parliament obtained with much difficulty which by cutting off and frustrating all such conveyances as had at any time by the space of twelve years before his Rebellion been made within the compass whereof the fraudulent Feoffment and many the like of others his accomplices and fellow traytors were contained gave all his Lands to the Queen yet were it not an endless trouble supposing such Acts were easily brought to pass that no Traitor or Fellon should be attainted but a Parliament must be called for bringing of his Lands to the Crown which the Law giveth it Although since the time of St. Patrick Anno 430 Christianity was never extinct in Ireland Religion yet the Government being hailed into contrary factions the Nobility lawless the multitude wilful it came to pass that Religion waxed with the temporal common sort cold and feeble untill the Conquest by King Henry the Second did settle it The Honourable state of Marriage they much abused either in contracts unlawful meetings the Levitical and Canonical degrees of prohibition or in divorcements at pleasure or in omitting Sacramental solemnities or in retaining either Concubines or Harlots for Wives yea where the Clergy were faint they could be content to Marry for a year and a day of probation and at the years end to return her home upon any light quarrels if the Gentlewomans friends were weak and unable to avenge the injury Never was there heard of so many dispensations for Marriage as those men show I pray God grant they were all authentick and builded upon sufficient warrant The Disorders of the Church of Ireland about the latter end of Q. Elizabeths Reign and the causes of it About the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign the Church of Ireland was infested not onely with gross Symony greedy covetousness fleshly incontinency careless sloath and generally a disordered life in the common Clergy-men But besides all these had their particular enormities for all the Irish Priests which then enjoyed the Church-livings were in a manner meer Lay-men saving that they had taken holy Orders but otherwise they did go and live like Lay-men follow all kind of Husbandry and other worldly affairs as other Irish men did They neither read Scriptures nor preach to the People nor administer Communion but Baptism they did for they Christened then after the Popish fashion onely they took the Tithes and Offerings and gathered what fruit else they might of their Livings the which they converted as badly and some of them they said paid as due Tributes and Shares of their Livings to their Bishops I mean those which were Irish as they received them duly Which shameful abuses the English Governours could not redress because they knew not the parties so offending for the Irish Bishops had their Clergy in such aw and subjection under them that they durst not complain of them so as they might do to them what they pleased for they knowing their own unworthiness and incapacity and that they were still removeable at their Bishops will yielded to what pleased him and he took what he listed yea and some of them whose Diocesses were in remote parts somewhat out of the Worlds eye did not at all bestow the Benefices which were in their own donation upon any but kept them in their own hands and did set their own Servants and horse-boys to take up the Tithes and Fruits of them with the which some of them purchased great Lands and built fair Castles upon the same Of which abuse if any question were moved they had a very seemly colour and excuse that they had no worthy Ministers to bestow them upon but kept them so unbestowed for any such sufficient person as should be offered unto them To meet with this mischief there was a Statute enacted in Ireland which seems to have been grounded upon a good meaning That whatsoever English-man of good conversation and sufficiency should be brought to any of the Bishops and nominated unto any Living within their Diocess that were presently void that he should without any contradiction be admitted thereunto before any Irish which good Law though it had been well observed and that none of the Bishops had transgressed the same yet it wrought no Reformation thereof for many defects First there