To complete the uprooting of the Ulster chiefs, an onslaught on Sir Randal MacDonnell was undertaken. The persecution of the other chieftains might be palliated by the plea of political necessity; but, with the passing of Elizabeth, no such excuse in MacDonnell’s case existed. He, like O’Cahan, had been induced by Chichester to forsake O’Neill in 1602, and the surrender at Mellifont was largely brought about by this desertion. His loyalty to James I. as a Scottish noble was undoubted, but for full seven years he was pursued by the malice of the Deputy, who thwarted the King’s wishes in his regard, to feed a personal grudge and win private profit. This vendetta ended in Chichester’s occupying the judgment seat to decide the title to Sir Randal’s fishery, after he had secretly grabbed it for himself.

MacDonnell’s Patent was the first issued by James on becoming King of Ireland in 1603. It was a favour shown to Randal as the Scoto-Irish Lord of the Isles, and the brother-in-law of Hugh O’Neill. It confirmed to him 333,907 acres in Antrim—an enormous estate—but reserved to the Crown three-fourths of the tidal fishery of the Bann. This grant (dated 6th July, 1603) was distasteful to the hungry Captains avid for spoil, and cavil was raised against it from the outset.

To meet opposition, Sir Randal obtained a second King’s Letter, instructing Deputy Cary to issue an amended Patent. Cary was slow in his obedience, and was recalled before complying. Chichester, on succeeding him, ignored the royal order altogether. He had forged for himself a life-estate in the Bann and Lough Neagh, by “amplifying” his Patents, and astutely worked to prevent recognition being given to the title of any legitimate owner. Delay drove MacDonnell to apply for a third King’s Letter, and James I. signed this in April, 1606. Chichester’s hand was thereby forced; but—nimble in resource—he dispatched Hamilton to London to crave permission to stay the Patent. He wrote to Cecil in June, 1606: “Sir Randal MacDonnell is neither faithful nor obedient ... as Mr. Hamilton can at large inform you.”

The pair who had fraudulently conveyed to themselves the entire Bann (tidal and non-tidal) with Lough Neagh, on the 14th February and 3rd March, 1606, now battled fiercely to block the making of a genuine grant to Randal. They failed, however, for, such was the King’s liking towards his Scoto-Irish liegeman, that MacDonnell, who travelled to London to checkmate the intrigue, returned triumphant with the royal warrant. The baffled Deputy was compelled to issue the amended Patent in July, 1606. Still he was not to be baulked, and cast about for a new expedient to undo the King’s will. Hot foot, he set on Hamilton to bring a suit before himself in the Privy Council, and allege a prior title in the Bann to that of Sir Randal. In this litigation the validity of the fishery grant was disputed; and Davies was enlisted to assail the Patent on that point. A trio such as Chichester, Hamilton, and Davies was not easy to match; and in legal jousting they easily outpointed the Lord of the Isles.

Bringing on the case in Randal’s absence, the Deputy, who had previously acted as judge in the trial of O’Cahan v. O’Neill, where his own claim to the Bann underlay the action, bettered that shameful precedent. Judicially weighing Hamilton’s “rights,” but without hearing the other side, he decided that MacDonnell’s “fourth” of the Bann should be put in sequestration “pending a suit at law”; and he appointed his henchman, Captain Phillips, Receiver over the profits. MacDonnell was then in London, and only learnt of the sequestration on reaching Ireland. Straightway upon his return he sent this protest to Cecil:—

“Upon my arrival I found myself dispossessed of the fourth part of the fishery of the Bann, which his Majesty was pleased to grant me by Patent, being the best stay of my living. This was wrought by means of one Mr. James Hamilton, who, searching and prying curiously into my Patent (as he doth into many other men’s estates), seeks to take advantage upon words and other sly causes, thereby to void my interest and to pass it to himself, upon other men’s grants, which he hath purchased.”

He added that Hamilton was abetted by Captain Phillips, who had been his own tenant of the fishing; and that they had laid two informations against him in the Star Chamber. He, therefore, begged Cecil to write to the Deputy “not to be a partial judge betwixt me and those that take my fishing from me.” Little did he know that Hamilton was only a stalking-horse for the Deputy, who, two months before, had taken a conveyance of his fishery.

Chichester, in a letter to Cecil of the 12th September, 1606, tried to blunt Randal’s complaint by slandering his victim anew. “There is not a more cankered and malicious person than Sir Randal MacDonnell, who from a beggar is made great, and yet rests unthankful.” His report, during O’Neill’s rebellion in 1601, belied the story of the “thankless beggar made great,” for Sir Arthur then certified that “Randal and O’Cahan are two of the richest and strongest adherents of Tyrone.” MacDonnell’s Patent merely gave him what his ancestors had held through several reigns, and, on an appeal to the King, the sequestration was quashed.

The Deputy, however, returned to the attack. On the 2nd April, 1607, he procured a King’s Letter reciting:—“Sir Randal’s followers having riotously asserted his right to the fourth part of the fishing of the Bann, and having by surprise obtained King’s Letters dissolving the sequestration of said fishings made by the Deputy and Council pending a suit at law, the sequestration is to be re-imposed until the suit at law be determined.” This missive arrived in Dublin just as O’Cahan’s petition against O’Neill was being heard in the Castle Chamber. Taught by the treatment meted out to his brother-in-law, MacDonnell realised that, if he submitted himself to this tribunal, he was lost. Being not only an Irish, but a Scottish chieftain, he wielded influence at Court which the Earl of Tyrone could not command, and was less afraid to trust himself there. So he faced for London a third time, and again urged and won his suit before the King. A warrant from his Majesty announced his victory on the 22nd August, 1607, and commanded Chichester “to dissolve the sequestration of the Bann and to take order that Sir Randal MacDonnell should enjoy his portion of it.”

The decision would have worked a complete overthrow of the Star Chamberers but for an unexpected turn in affairs. In September, 1607, the Flight of the Earls startled the kingdom and threw supreme power into Chichester’s hands. The event was revolutionary, and the confiscation of Ulster was its consequence.

With the knowledge that a Plantation was resolved on, the Deputy, on the 13th January, 1608, raised anew the question of Sir Randal’s “fourth.” He coolly referred to it in a letter to Cecil as “the case in controversy between Sir Randal MacDonnell and Mr. James Hamilton, concerning the fourth part of the fishery of the Bann, sometime debated before me, and order thereupon made by myself and the Council.” He went on to announce that he had “caused the King’s learned counsel here to draw the case according to the records,” and was sending it to London for the information of the Privy Council.

This admission that he had acted as judge in the action might seem to show candour, but no one then was aware that MacDonnell’s fishery had been conveyed to him. The Deputy’s adjudication in Hamilton’s favour was the counterpart of his decision in O’Cahan v. O’Neill; yet, so obscure were his devices, that the fact that he was personally interested in the suit lay hidden for three centuries. The Attorney and Solicitor-General, who “drew the case according to the records,” knew the truth, but suppressed it. So, the Privy Council, unaware of the guilty secret, allowed the sequestration to be re-imposed for the third time, to the despair of Randal, who hastened to London in June, 1608. This time he met with failure there, for Chichester was now all-powerful. His journey, however, so much upset the Deputy that, to baffle MacDonnell beyond hope of recovery, he resorted to a desperate shift. It took the shape of transferring his fishery to a stranger; by which device it was hoped to raise an insurmountable obstacle in his path. To give solemnity to the stratagem, Chichester, by an act of State, gave it validity in the King’s name. On the 1st July, 1608, while MacDonnell was making his way to the steps of the Throne his “fourth” was conferred by Patent (with much other gear) on “our dear Arthur Bassett of Dublin.”

Here indeed was legerdemain. James Hamilton we know; Thomas Irelande we know; Auditor Ware we know; John Wakeman we know; John King we know; Carew and Cary we know; but who was this new ensign of the brigand troupe? He appeared in the lists with vizor down, and was previously unknown to fame. The stranger, however, was no less a person than Chichester’s nephew—fresh landed a year before from Devonshire.

The manufacture for him of a Patent purporting to affectionately embody the royal wishes was a masterstroke.