From the Commissioners’ letter of April 22, 1653, quoted above, it is evident that the Bill for satisfaction of Adventurers and soldiers was before the Long Parliament for some time. The changes consequent upon its expulsion caused further delay, and it was not till just before Michaelmas that the action of the Lord General and Council was legalised, so far as any legal force could attach to the new Parliament’s sanction. The Act confirmed what had been done, and further empowered the Commissioners to shorten proceedings by transplanting the Irish at once, ‘although their claims be not first determined or their qualifications distinguished,’ and to give them lands in occupation ‘proportionable to the estate by them claimed or competent to such stock as each of the said persons shall have.’ Adventurers and soldiers receiving lands were relieved for five years from the payment of quit-rents imposed by the Act of 1642, and taxation for the same period was not to exceed one-fourth of the annual value. When the Commissioners in Ireland received the Act with its final directions they published a declaration for enforcing it. All who took part in or abetted ‘the rebellions, murders, or massacres’ during the first year, all who at any time were in actual arms as rebels, and all who had any land entitling them to compensation by the Act of Settlement, were to remove across the Shannon by May 1, 1654. Protestants who had not joined the rebels before the first cessation on September 15, 1643, were excepted, and so was any woman who married an English Protestant before December 2, 1650, on condition of openly renouncing Popery. All persons not excepted, or without special licence, found east of the Shannon after the appointed day were to be treated as hostile spies, ‘tried by martial law, and suffer death.’ All transplantable persons were to report themselves to the commissioners of revenue in the precinct where they lived, giving the names of their families, particulars as to tenants and others who would accompany them voluntarily, with their ages, colour and height, and an account of the cattle and tillage ‘for which they pay contribution in the places from whence they remove.’ After satisfying themselves that the information was true, the Commissioners were to issue certificates, and regulations were made as to how these documents might be converted into land in Connaught or Clare.[264]

Whatever may be the exact meaning of this declaration, or however it may be reconciled with the Acts of Settlement and of Satisfaction, it soon became quite clear that the transplantation could not be effected by May 1, 1654. As a matter of fact the procedure was applied only to landowners and their families, and to such tenants as might choose to go with them. A few did go early in the day, but the vast majority clung to their homes. Licences to remain were freely granted to the aged and infirm and to those who could show that they had befriended the English. Even in cases where the service was too slight to deserve permanent exemption, Colonel Lawrence assures us that indulgence was shown for considerable periods, ‘that a cup of cold water might not go unrequited.’ The time was extended generally, first to December, so that seed time and harvest might be included, and afterwards to March 1655, the doomed proprietors remaining on their old property as tenants at will to the State. When March arrived most of the work was still to be done, for the officers and soldiers ‘and other faithful Protestants’ of Leinster, petitioned the Irish Government to execute the ‘further instructions’ of July 2, 1653, and to transplant ‘all the Irish into Connaught excepting males of fourteen years of age and females of twelve.’ The first reason was lest the settlers should become idolaters from intermarriage with the natives, many who came over in Queen Elizabeth’s time having thus fallen away and been concerned in the late murders and massacres. Among many Old Testament texts the petitioners gave precedence to the verses of Ezra, where the Israelites were forbidden to take Gentile wives, ‘that they might be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to their children for ever.’ If this principle was neglected even the Parliamentary soldiers might join with the natives to attack the colonists, having first learned the vices that reigned in the land, such as swearing, drunkenness, dissembling, and deceiving. The second argument was ‘grounded on the law of nature, which teacheth self-preservation.’ Experience showed that the priests would go to any lengths to advance their Church, and that the people would follow them, and Edmund Campion the Jesuit is quoted as to the perfidiousness of the Irish. The great thing was to get rid of the Tories out of three provinces, and thus encourage honest men to come from England and strengthen those who were already committed to Ireland. As things actually stood the English were confined to garrisons and forced to fold their cattle, while the Irish occupied the best land, keeping their flocks and herds in the fields by day and night. When it was a question of paying taxes they hid their stock in the woods, ‘which the English cannot do, who by that means will be liable to bear a greater proportion of contribution than the Irish.’[265]

Cromwell became Protector in December 1653, and Fleetwood was one of the Council of State. Ludlow takes credit to himself for delaying the assent of Ireland, but Oliver was nevertheless proclaimed on January 30, the Secretary’s name only appearing. The other Commissioners effaced their signatures when Ludlow refused to add his, and they seem to have disliked the change. Ludlow rested his case upon the engagement of January 1650, which he and his colleagues had taken to support ‘the Commonwealth of England as it is now established without a King or House of Lords.’ Afterwards he refused to have any share in the civil government, while retaining his military command; and this was attributed by Henry Cromwell and others to his love for pay and allowances. There is nevertheless a real distinction between acting as a minister and serving one’s country as a soldier, even under a usurped government. The Anabaptist party, who were hostile to the Protectorate, showed signs of adopting the discontented general as their leader. Cromwell sent over his son Henry to report, and he remained about a month in Ireland, being received with as much honour as if he were indeed a prince. He found Jones as well as Ludlow discontented, but made rather light of their opposition, which indeed came to nothing, William Kiffin and others advising their Baptist friends to accept the new government. Henry nevertheless suggested that Fleetwood was not a satisfactory representative, and advised his father to replace him by Desborough, at least for a time. We have no means of knowing what passed between father and son after the latter’s return, but the result was to soften the effect of the transplantation policy. Vincent Gookin was in England, and if he was consulted, as is at least probable, his influence would have worked in that direction. Fleetwood became Lord Deputy in August 1654, when the term of the Commissioners came to an end. Ludlow and Jones were not reappointed to the Irish Council, and the latter went to England, but Corbet was retained, and others were sent over. Among the latter were Colonel Robert Hammond of Isle of Wight celebrity; Richard Pepys and William Steele, eminent lawyers; Robert Goodwin, who had been over twelve years before; and Colonel Matthew Tomlinson, who had been appointed one of Charles I.’s judges, but had declined to act.[266]

A perfectly regular statute provided that the Long Parliament should not be dissolved without its own consent, and the usurping House of Commons, which had killed the King and abolished the monarchy and House of Lords, was thus able to make some pretence of legality. In the Parliament elected under the Instrument of Government thirty members were assigned to Ireland, and Cromwell left it to those on the spot to decide whether elections were possible in the state of the country. Fleetwood, Jones, and Corbet replied that several counties were waste and others very unsettled, and that they did not see how the business was to be done. The writs were, however, sent over, and Ludlow persuaded them that even the shadow of representation would be better than nothing. He says the influence of the clergy secured a few results not pleasing to the Government; but all the chief officers were chosen, Broghill being returned for the county of Cork, and Gookin, whose interests also lay there, for Bandon and Kinsale. Henry Cromwell was chosen for Cambridge University, and Fleetwood both for Oxfordshire and for Marlborough. The new Parliament met on Cromwell’s lucky September 3, but before that day he had given Fleetwood and his Council power to ‘dispense with the orders and instructions made and given by the late Parliament or Council of State for the transplantation of the Irish,’ and also with the penalties upon those who neglected or refused to go. A clause to the same effect had been rejected when the Act of Satisfaction was passed twelve months before.[267]

The dispensing power remained with the Irish Government, who exercised it; but Fleetwood was not inclined to make indulgence a matter of course, and the military party were always pressing him in the direction of severity. On November 30, 1654, a declaration was issued repeating the order in the Act of Settlement for the transplantation of landed proprietors, of those in arms against the Commonwealth since October 21, 1641, and of those who aided the rebellion during the first year of the war. They were ordered to be gone with their wives and families by March 1 following, or to incur the penalties already declared. How far Oliver was influenced by Vincent Gookin must be a matter of conjecture, but he certainly liked him, and the latter would scarcely have appeared in print against the Protector’s known wishes. At the very beginning of 1655 Gookin published a pamphlet against general transplantation, and sent a copy to every member of Parliament. He was impressed with the idea that the Irish generally might be converted to Protestantism, and that this was much more likely if they were left intermixed with the English. The country had been conquered, and there were garrisons everywhere, but no ministers, ‘as if our business in Ireland was only to set up our own interest and not Christ’s.’ Another difficulty lay in the divisions among Protestants, who were so bitter against each other that ‘the Papist sees not where to fix if he should come to us.’ If the Irish remained among the English they would ‘enjoy the labours of godly able ministers, the encouragement of Protestant professors, and the catechisings of private Christians,’ all which influences would be wanting if they were crowded together beyond the Shannon. It is hardly worth while to inquire what might have happened if there had been no Restoration, but Gookin declares that the priests had ‘universally departed’ as well as the most dangerous of the soldiers, and it is possible for people with a great deal of imagination to argue that Ireland might have become Protestant if they had all been kept out for ever. What really prevented the transplantation from being fully carried out was the impossibility of cultivating the land without the help of the natives, who might be spared under the first clause of the Act of Settlement. The Irish, says Gookin, lived on the roots and fruits of their ‘gardens,’ that is mainly on potatoes, and sold their corn to the English to pay the taxes. The country, moreover, was not generally suited to corn, on account of the uncertain climate and the amount of labour required, and if the Irish all left no contribution could be made out of lands east of the Shannon. The women, too, were for the most part able to spin and weave flax and wool, and there were plenty of masons ‘more handy and ready in building ordinary houses and much more prudent in supplying the defects of instruments and materials than English artificers.’ Gookin reckoned that a capital of 1500l. or 2000l. would be required for each thousand Irish acres, and that it would be impossible to bring over English labour in sufficient quantity. The Irish might refuse to go into Connaught—indeed, many had already done so, saying that their position was hopeless and that they might as well face ruin where they were as travel to look for it. And he adds, ‘there is one thing more which wise men will consider, and that is, the impossibility of this transplanting ... can it be imagined that a whole nation will drive like geese at the wagging of a hat upon a stick?’[268]

Whatever may be the etymology of the name Tory, it was officially applied in 1647 to masterless men living a life of brigandage and preying upon all who had anything to lose. No doubt it was in popular use before that date. Gookin says the English dreaded the Tories ‘more than armies, and woods and bogs than camps,’ and he believed that transplantation would make matters worse. The Irish proprietors would be unable to support their followers beyond Shannon, the river would be no barrier, and they would become Tories against their will. They had already been forced into such courses by the intolerable taxation necessary to support the Parliament’s army, and by the violence and oppression of some soldiers which often went unpunished. Most of the really active rebels were dead or exiled, and it was unwise as well as unjust to assume universal guilt. The Irish nation, indeed, ‘were generally engaged in the rebellion, either through ignorance of the design and apprehending they acted by the King’s commission and for his and God’s service; or through infirmity, partly fearing their priests’ threats, partly their landlords’ frowns, partly the violence of others, of the English who at the beginning reckoned an Irishman and a rebel tantamount, and on that score forced many into war (who desired peace) with the Irish in arms, who accounted and declared all enemies that joined not (at least seemingly) with them, and proceeded with more severity against dissenting natives than English.’

A month after its publication, Gookin’s pamphlet was denounced by Fleetwood as a ‘very strange scandalous book,’ and Colonel Lawrence, ‘at the request of several persons in eminent place in Ireland,’ undertook to refute it. He was able to show that former settlements had succeeded only where the colonists were placed near one another, ‘as for instance the barony of Ards, in the county of Down and province of Ulster, which being entirely planted by British people did preserve themselves by keeping guards upon their frontiers when all the country besides was totally ruined.’ He gives many horrible details of the rebellion, ‘wherein neither age nor sex were spared.... English cattle and houses were destroyed for their being of an English kind, and all this without the least provocation, yet this bloody inhuman act with all its aggravations were espoused by this people as a national quarrel and a war waged thereupon’; but admits that some of the Irish gentry ‘(whose kindness I hope either hath been or will be rewarded both by God and man)’ did really help the English, so that a few escaped like Job’s messengers to bring the bad news. Lawrence points out that in all official declarations only landed proprietors and men in arms were marked for transplantation, and that nothing further was intended, but he maintains that it was quite possible to extend it greatly without danger. Gookin’s rejoinder is dedicated to Fleetwood, whom he praises for his kindness to all, whereby the necessary hardships were much diminished. He shows how very few exceptions there would be among the Irish if the declaration of October 14, 1653, were strictly acted upon, acknowledges the authorship of the first pamphlet, and maintains his position. ‘Let no poor sufferer by the Irish betray his reason or religion to his passion here, to think no evils can be too great to be brought on the Irish. It was their being cruel makes us hate them so much: to punish them do not run into their sin, lest God punish thee. Do not think that he that writes this and the Case of Transplantation pleads for them, but thy cause; ‘tis safe and profitable for thee that some be removed, not all. This Colonel Lawrence says shall be done and this I desired might be done: where is my offence against authority more than his, my love to the Irish more than his, or my care of thee less than his?’ After all there is not much difference between the two writers. That the English did not think Gookin’s ideas hostile to the settlement may be inferred from their electing him to Parliament, and proposing to pay his expenses there, an offer which he refused.[269]

There can be little doubt that the sufferings of the Waldenses reacted upon Ireland, the rather that many Irish refugees were concerned in the massacres. At the end of 1653 it was reported that Irish troops had passed the mountains from Spain and appeared at Nîmes, where there was a strong body of Protestants. The priests secured them a good reception, though they boasted that they would ‘tear in pieces and crucify quick’ any Protestants they found there. Some of them were induced to settle and take wives ‘so that they may in a manner in this town augment and renew the race of that execrable and murdering nation.’ Two months later another detachment were refused admission to Nîmes because some of them boasted that they had massacred the English in Ireland, and they went on to Piedmont. Later on it was said that the Waldensian valleys were to be given up to the Irish. It is not therefore surprising that the officers in Ireland, with Fleetwood at their head, should have expressed their horror at the proceedings in Piedmont, and cautioned the Protector against too great leniency in Ireland. ‘Let the blood of Ireland be fresh in your view, and their treachery cry aloud in your ears, that the frequent solicitations with which you are encompassed may not slack your hand to an unsafe pity of those whose principles in all ages carry them forth to such brutish and inhuman practices, which consist not with human society; and let not such be left untransplanted here, or unminded in England, whose continuance among us do palpably hazard the very being of Protestant interest in these nations.’ And Cromwell himself told the Dutch Ambassador that the example of Ireland was fresh in his memory, where above 200,000 had been massacred. So strong was the feeling in Ireland that the officers contributed a fortnight’s pay and the soldiers a week’s pay for the relief of the persecuted mountaineers. A large sum was also subscribed privately.[270]

The process of transplantation went on slowly, and was never carried to its extreme lengths, for very few would have escaped if the Act of Settlement had been carried out to the letter. But vast numbers did remove during the year 1654, and it would probably be difficult to exaggerate the hardships they underwent. In some cases at least whole districts were depopulated, for it was officially reported that ‘no inhabitant of the Irish nation that knows the country’ was left in the barony of Eliogarty in Tipperary, which contains the town of Thurles, and orders were given for the return of four families, who might live near their old homes and assist the surveyors. Those who crossed the Shannon were provided with land in a temporary way, and two commissions were appointed to consider claims with a view to more permanent arrangements. In October 1653 the transplanted were ordered to go to Galway and inform the commissioners of revenue there as to their families and the nature of their claims. Afterwards these commissioners sat at Loughrea, and it became their duty to distribute land in accordance with the findings of another commission at Athlone. The latter were appointed on December 28, 1654, as the ‘Court of Claims and Qualifications of the Irish,’ and were generally known as the Athlone commissioners. Their business was to find under which qualification or degree of guilt each Irish claimant fell, and to give him lands proportionate to those which he had enjoyed east of the Shannon. The Loughrea commissioners used the maps and registers made for Strafford’s intended plantation in Connaught and in the northern half of Tipperary. For the rest of Ireland it was necessary to make a new survey. Meanwhile transplantation proceeded very slowly, and in March 1656 there were 1000 men under restraint who had borne arms during the rebellion, but refused to cross the Shannon.[271]

Benjamin Worsley, who had been a surgeon or apothecary in Strafford’s army, came over again in 1652, and was appointed Surveyor-General. He had been an unsuccessful projector and according to Petty had tried his hand at universal medicine, gold-making, saltpetre sowing, and other ‘mountain-bellied conceptions which ended only in abortive mice,’ he and his friend Sankey being stigmatised as a ‘multiloquial pair of monti-parturists.’ He began to make a survey, at which he expected to be employed for many years, but Petty soon began to criticise his proceedings and to suggest that he could do the work a great deal better in as many months. Despatch was of the essence of the business, for both adventurers and soldiers were clamouring for possession of the promised lands. Petty had come over at the same time as Worsley, and the Irish Government very soon found that he was a man of extraordinary ability and very likely to carry anything he undertook to a successful issue. Ireton made him Physician-General to the army, and he claimed to have so reformed the drug department as to get rid of all abuses and at the same time save the State 500l. a year. Worsley’s plan was to survey the forfeited lands without any regard to the established divisions into baronies, parishes, and town lands, or to the physical features of the country. He was to be paid only for the profitable lands, and thus there was a constant tendency to include worthless tracts. Moreover the subdivision would still have to be done either at a great charge to the State or at the expense of the grantees. In the latter case no authentic record would remain, and there would be no unity of action. Nobody was satisfied at the prospect, and Petty declared that Worsley’s great object ‘was so to frame committees of conceited, sciolous persons, intermixing some of credit and bulk amongst them, as whereby he might screen himself in case of miscarriage.’ He made proposals of his own, and the rival schemes were submitted to the judgment of a committee consisting of Sir Hardress Waller, Colonels Lawrence and Hewson, and nine others, including Petty and Worsley.[272]

Petty’s plan was approved, though Worsley worked hard against him, and had at first the help of Sir Charles Coote and some other officers. Afterwards Coote and Reynolds were added to the committee, and the final result was a complete victory for Petty. Worsley remained Surveyor-General, and it was with him that his rival contracted to do the work. Petty engaged to make in thirteen months a general map of twenty-two counties, ascertaining and defining the bounds of baronies so that there should be no future doubt. He undertook within the same counties accurately to set out all forfeited lands as well as all Crown lands and the property of bishops, deans, and chapters, ‘or any other officer belonging to that hierarchy,’ showing their quality and physical character, and all civil subdivisions. He was to receive 7l. 2s. 4d. for every thousand acres of forfeited profitable land that shall be admeasured and actually sent out to ‘the soldiery by him,’ and 3l. for every thousand acres of unprofitable land. One of the conditions made by Petty was that those whom he employed in the survey should be protected from Tories, and this was no superfluous precaution. Eight surveyors were actually captured near Timolin in Kildare, carried off to the Wicklow mountains, and there murdered. In spite of such drawbacks the survey was completed, or very nearly so, within the specified time, and the distribution of land to the disbanded soldiers went on in the meantime. Henry Cromwell visited Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford in September and October 1655, and reported that good progress had been made in the work.[273]

Petty claimed to have made lineal measurements to the extent of more than five times the earth’s circumference. The forfeited lands were indicated to him by what was called the Civil Survey, which was merely a register of forfeited lands made independently by commissioners and for the most part before the old proprietors had actually departed. This made the measuring business dangerous as well as troublesome, and Petty employed soldiers ‘such as were able to endure travail, ill lodging and diet, as also heats and colds, being also men of activity that could leap hedge and ditch, and could also ruffle with the several rude persons in the country, from whom they might expect often to be crossed and opposed.’ He had no difficulty in finding men who, ‘having been bred to trades, could write and read sufficiently for the purpose.’ The more delicate instruments were obtained from the best London makers, and skilled artificers were found to make the rest. The soldiers had received debentures for their arrears, and the idea was to set them down by regiments and companies alongside of the Adventurers. But it soon became evident that the amount of forfeited land was insufficient to meet the liabilities of the State. Land had to be distributed on account, and debentures, including many fabricated ones, were bought and sold. Very few old soldiers cared to settle down upon small farms, and there were always speculative officers found to buy up the claims of their men and so carve out estates for themselves, Irish tenants and labourers being accepted because the hoped for English immigration did not take place. The Act of Satisfaction forbade officers to buy the privates’ debentures, but a class of brokers sprang up and the traffic continued till the Restoration. Great numbers were sold before any distribution of land had been attempted. Petty himself tells us that debentures were freely and openly sold at four or five shillings in the pound, and that a pound so laid out purchased on an average two acres of land. Later on there was a regulation against selling at less than eight shillings in the pound, but of course this was easily evaded. As a transfer of property from Irish to English hands the Cromwellian settlement had some measure of success, but as a scheme of colonisation it totally failed.[274]

It was at first supposed that the ten counties originally named in the Act of Satisfaction would provide for both soldiers and adventurers, but this soon had to be altered, and in the end distribution was made to the soldiers in twenty-four counties out of thirty-two. Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, and Clare were given to the transplanted Irish, and Louth was set aside for the Adventurers. Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork were retained by the Government, but about half the latter was afterwards given up to disbanded soldiers. Nevertheless all arrears were not paid in full, and some never received more than about twelve shillings in the pound. Petty’s detailed survey did not extend to the Adventurers’ portions, and their committee at Grocers’ Hall made separate arrangements which led to a good deal of confusion. Petty was called in to disentangle the knot, and he and Worsley were commissioned in September 1656 to measure the forfeited lands hitherto omitted. The Adventurers, though numerous, were far fewer than the soldiers, and they gave less trouble. Most of them probably had no idea of settling in Ireland, and only wanted something to sell or let on lease. Some debentures were given out to soldiers or their representatives as late as the summer of 1658, and perhaps later. Many no doubt were thoroughly dissatisfied with what they got, but working arrangements had been made and Clarendon’s testimony is conclusive as to the general feeling of security among the English inhabitants. ‘Ireland,’ he says, ‘was the great capital out of which all debts were paid, all services rewarded, and all acts of bounty performed.’ Buildings, enclosures, and plantations were everywhere made, private purchases concluded ‘at very valuable rates, and jointures made upon marriages, and all other conveyances and settlements executed, as in a kingdom at peace within itself, and where no doubt could be made of the validity of titles. And yet in all this quiet there were very few persons pleased or contented.’[275]

It was originally meant to give all the forfeited lands in Connaught and Clare to the transplanted, reserving the towns and garrisons with some space about them and a strip four miles wide all along the coast. In the end Sligo and Leitrim were withdrawn, and the coast reserve was narrowed to one mile. The amount of land was insufficient, and there must have been great hardship, for the Government had no machinery for giving quiet possession if there was any opposition from neighbouring proprietors or rival claimants. It was a tradition of Irish government to apprehend a Spanish invasion, and it was for that reason that a belt of English settlers round the coast was contemplated, but nothing seems to have come of it. Innisbofin was, however, strengthened and garrisoned, and the Papist inhabitants ordered to leave the town of Galway, where it was proposed to plant a colony from Gloucester as a reward for its resistance to Charles I., and from Liverpool to compensate it for losses during the war. But the inhabitants of those towns were not tempted any more than those of Bristol had been in the case of Waterford. ‘Poor Galway,’ wrote a clergyman in 1657, ‘sitteth in the dust and no eye pitieth her. Her merchants were princes and great among the nations, but now the city which was full of people is solitary and very desolate.’ There was talk, but only talk, of introducing a colony of Protestant Dutch. The old citizens were to receive full value for their property and the settlers to give ten years’ purchase. As the latter did not come, probably the compensation was not paid, and so the people lingered on or returned after a brief absence. In November 1655 Henry Cromwell reported that all the Irish had been cleared out of Galway, yet as late as August 1659, after he had left Ireland, a fresh order was made to expel ‘all the Irish Papists.’ The old trade with Spain, which had been interrupted by the long war, did not return, and Galway never recovered its old prosperity. In 1650 a householder had welcomed Lady Fanshawe ‘to this desolate city, where you now see the street grown over with grass, once the finest little city in the world’; and so it remained for years.[276]

By the ordinance of July 14, 1643, with a view to encourage merchants, Galway, with 10,000 acres of land round it, had been offered for a price of 7500l. and a rent of 520l., but the town did not come into the power of Parliament for many years, and nothing was done. Similar offers with the same result were made in the cases of Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford. As the towns were gradually won, frequent orders were given for the expulsion of the old inhabitants who adhered to Rome, and who came within the scope of the Act of Settlement. But here, as in the country, it was found impossible really to carry out the clearance effectually. Artificers and workmen could not be done without, since none came from England, and many of them remained, though no doubt the houses of a better class were left empty. When Inchiquin expelled the Roman Catholics from Cork in 1644, three thousand houses were without tenants, and as many in Youghal. The soldiers who were short of fuel warmed themselves with everything that would burn, and Ormonde about the same time had to forbid the practice in Dublin on pain of death. In March 1657 it is clear that the work of depopulation had not been done, for an order was then made ‘that all Popish Recusants, as well proprietors as others, whose habitation is in any port-towns, walled towns, or garrisons,’ who had not professed Protestantism before the cessation of 1643 and ever since, should remove with their families at least two miles from any such place. In 1650 some ministers and others in New England proposed to colonise, being tempted by the offer of houses and land at Wexford at one-tenth of their value before the war. Thousands were ready to come if encouraged, being ‘exiles through the tyranny of episcopacy for no other offence but professing that truth, which (through mercy), is now acknowledged.’ This apparently came to nothing. Those English who were attracted to Irish towns by the prospect of getting houses rent-free, were often without capital, and in no condition to establish a flourishing commerce. But all the Protestant settlers were not of this class, for Charles II.’s declaration in 1660 set forth that they had made improvements at their own charge, ‘and brought trade and manufacture into that our kingdom, and by their settlement there do not a little contribute to the peace and settlement of that country.’ In any case much of the work was probably done by the old inhabitants, for if they had not remained in considerable numbers, priests and friars would not daily have risked their lives in Irish towns.[277]

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]

CHAPTER XXXVIII

HENRY CROMWELL, 1655-1659