Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution, 1660-1690

Preface

. -8S8- — Ormonde likens the Restoration to the resurrection, " when God, beyond our hope (he says), took us all from banishment, dispersion, and out of the lowest and most comfortless degree of despair, and restored us to our country, to our fortune, and to our friends."1 How ever true this statement might be for himself and his family it left the great body of his countrymen deprived of their lands, who by the Peace of '48, con tracted by himself by the authority of King Charles L, and adopted and confirmed by Charles II,, were to be pardoned and restored. A good deal of the secret history of this transaction not mentioned by Carte, though he had all the docu ments before him, is now disclosed. For Carte wrote a eulogy of Ormonde. But Ormonde confesses that Ireland was sold to the Cromwellians, on the ground, no doubt, that thus only could the King and the royalists be restored.

" If others can (says Ormonde), I cannot forget our many years wandering abroad, and what we promised 1 To the Countess of Clancarty on the Earl of Clancarty's death. Dated Moore Park, this 5th of August, 1665. Carte's Life of Ormonde, III. 122. Preface. IV to get home, and if not to break those promises be to want resolution and vigour, I am glad I am without them."1 But this confession left him liable to the charge of neglecting the interests of those that fought in his army under his own command in Ireland in 1649 and 1650, and in Spain, France, and Flanders, under the Kind's Ensigns for seven years from 1652 to 1659, called Ensignmen, as well as those named specially for restoration by the King for reasons known to him self, called Nominees or Mero JVIotu men — who were to be pardoned and restored by the articles of the Peaces of 1646 and 1648.

A work on the Restoration Settlement of Ireland is of more importance even than the Cromwellian Settle ment ; and there are more abundant materials for its elucidation. But the history of Ireland is distasteful to the English public. By the King's Declaration for the Settlement of Ireland of 30th November, 1660, there was an ela borate scheme produced making provision for all classes of the Irish, some for restoration, as the Inno cents, some for deprivation as the Nuncio-tists and the rejecters of the Peaces of 1646 and 1648. But all except Innocents were only to be restored after reprisals found for the Cromwellians in possession. 1 Ormonde to his nephew James Hamilton, ancestor of the Abercorn family. November 21st, 1663. C P. xlix. 162. Preface. V And as there were no reprisals forthcoming there could be no restoration The King's Declaration of 30th November, 1660, made when the Cromwellians did not know their strength, deals in very different terms with the Irish than at the end of two years when the Act of Settlement was passed.

In the Declaration the King and his subjects are restored to each other with wonderful circumstances of affection and confidence.1 But the Act of Settlement which confirms the Declaration meets the reader with a preamble magnifying the Rebellion and Massacre, and glorifying the victory of the King's English Protestant subjects as a victory and conquest over Irish rebels and enemies, so that their liberties and lands were wholly at His Majesty's disposal.2 The conduct of the Thirty-six Commissioners for executing the King's Declaration of Settlement having discredited the Declaration by their partiality, a new Court under five English Commissioners was opened, limited to one year, for hearing claims of Innocence to the number of over 8,000. But after sitting and hear ing one-sixth of the claimants during seven months, the previous five months being occupied in framing rules and waiting for the printing of the Act, the Court of Innocents was closed on the 21st of August, 1 King's Declaration of 30th November, 1660.

Clause I. • Preamble to Act of Settlement, passed 27th September, 1662. b Preface. VI 1663, and remained so till January, 1666, when a new Court of Claims was opened for Protestants or English only (unless a few Irish Proviso-men), with a limit of three years to hear Adventurers, Soldiers, and Proviso men. The details ofthe Act of Settlement is a subject of vast complexity ; and still wants an historian. With out elucidation it leaves the history of Ireland a riddle. The Restoration Settlement of Ireland might well be described as a Tragedy in three acts. The King's Declaration of 30th November 1660, might be described as the first act. Here all is fair and hope ful. Then comes the Act of Settlement of 27th Sep tember, 1662, treating the Irish as conquered enemies, with their lands at the disposal of the conquerors.

But the rights of Innocents were still acknowledged, and the binding force of the Peace and other eno-ao-e ments. Last, at the end of more than three years, comes the Act of Explanation, shutting the door of hope on all Innocents unheard — on the Article-men or those claiming the conditions of the Peace of 1648 on the Ensign-men and the Nominees. The following lines from a poem addressed to the Duke of Ormonde, under the title of a Naval Allegory, by the Registrar of the Irish Court of Admiralty, on his fourth Lieutenancy of Ireland in 1677, may give some idea of the many interests involved in the Acts of Set tlement and Explanation. After some lines concernino- Preface. VII Ormonde's earlier Lieutenancies, he compares his career to the course of a ship " Amidst a thousand rocks. There lay a sand Of souldiers' interest (some in command, Some out).

There a dangerous shelfe Of vext Adventurers and men of pelfe. Here a strange tide of Innocents sett in, Which spoiled the fishing, Nocents were so thin. There Connaught purchasers and transplantee3, Meeting a thousand sort of bold grantees Made a ground sea. Here came a hazy fog Of dark provisos which the Act did clog. There arose clouds of several sorts of men (Whose names I can't remember one in ten) Ensigne — Mero motu — Men reprizable — Nominees — and such as never yet were able To set their foot on land. Tims we all though late Came to an anchor in Certificate ; When having stayed a tide, at length we went All safe ashore in Letters called Pattent. Some of the fleet stayed in the bay Decree, Some hall'd in the open road of Letteree."1 At a time when nothing less than a new Settlement of Landed Property in Ireland is contemplated by some, it may be instructive to review some of the miseries involved in the Settlement at the Restoration.

It is to be hoped that what is here detailed, may make * C P. lxix. 553. Preface. VIII those pause who have embraced in their minds any such ruinous resolutions. The Cromwellian Settlement, confirmed to a great extent by the Acts of Settlement, left the country convulsed by the social revolution it effected, and is responsible in a great degree for its present condition. The Old English, foreign by race but of the same religion as the Irish, and called by some the Later or Newer Irish, the Butlers, Plunkets, Fitzgeralds, and others, were all swept into Connaught with the Old Irish, and there perished for the most part, and thus the connecting link between the two races on the soil of Ireland was destroyed. In the place of these later Irish another race of the same religion has grown up and become landed proprietors through thrift, and is likely to supply the lost link.

But if they too are to be swept away and a new settlement of landed property attempted, Ireland will be in the condition of always settling but never settled. Mr. Gladstone attempted by an heroic effort to settle Ireland on the Ulster principle of the three F's, Fixity of Tenure, Fair Rents, and Free Sale. But his measures seem only to have unsettled Ireland, and headstrong men are urging on another social revolution, with the view of driving out of the island the only class accustomed to government. If they ground their argument on the Cromwellian Settlement, it is an event of over two hundred years' antiquity, and the common fate of Europe in the dark ages, that of Ire- Preface. IX land in the time of Cromwell being no different from the rest only in being the latest. It must be always remembered that the present landlords of Ireland had no hand in the Cromwellian Conquest — that they rely on the public faith of the Kingdom expressed in various Acts of the Legislature — that Englishmen have given their daughters to Irishmen in reliance on that settlement of property, that Millions of money have been lent upon it, and that to undo it now would be a gross breach of faith, and cause Ireland to remain unsettled perhaps for ages. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Part I. Chapter

I. Pag» The Duke of Ormonde on the unsettled state of Ireland at the Restoration . ..... 1 The Cromwellians fear King Charles the Second's favour to the Irish . . .... . .2 Estates of Irish Royalists, Protestant as well as Catholic, in the hands of Cromwellian grandees ... 4 Lord Broghill has Blarney Castle . . . .ib. Sir Charles Coote, Tyrellan, the Marquis of Clanricarde's . 5 Sir Theophilus Jones has Lucan ..... 6 Dr. Henry Jones, Lynch's Knock, now Summer Hill, near Trim ib. Henry Cromwell, Portumna Castle and Deer Park . . 7 Commissary General Reynolds, Carrick Castle and Deer Park & John Blackwell, Kilcash. ...... ib. Miles Corbett, Malahide Castle . . . . .ib. Colonel Axtell, Ballyragget, Lord Mountgarret's . . ib. Solicitor General Reynolds surrenders Carrick ... .ib. Recovery of Kilcash for Colonel Richard Butler . . 0 The Regicides' lands given to the Duke of York . . ib.

Oliver Cromwell's debenture lands in Ratoath and Dunboyne baronies, County of Meath ..... 10 How disposed of by Act of Settlement . . . .ib. Henry Cromwell's debenture lands secured to him . . 11 He assigns his Tipperary lands to the Earls of Cork and Arran ib. Oliver Cromwell's Meath lands granted to Sir William Russell, Royalist ....... 12 The Irish Officers rally to the King's Ensigns in Spain and France and Flanders . . . . .13

Chapter II

The Convention of February, 1660 . . . .15 Sir Charles Coote's message to the King in Flanders . . ib. The King's Letter to Gen. Monck from Breda of 14th April, 1660 ib- Secures the Adventurers and Soldiers their lands . . 16 Sir Maurice Eustace shocked at this iniquity . . .ib. The court of 36 Commissioners for executing the King's Declaration of 30th November, 1660 . • . .ib. Contents. XII Pag« The Court of Claims under the Act of Settlement, of 27th September, 1662 • • • • .17 The Four Classes of Restorable Irish, Innocents, Ensignmen, Article-men, Nominees ..... 18 The Dowager Viscountess Ikerrin . • ■ 19 The Dowager Lady Dunboyne of Kiltinan • ib- The Instructions for executing the Declaration of 30th November, 1660, with eleven bars to Innocence . • .20 Thomas Wyse of Dungarvan, son of a lunatic . 21 David Howlin, a lunatic ... ib.

John Lattin, of Morristown, a lunatic with lucid intervals . 22 Stephen Lattin, his son . . • • • ■ ib- Postponed and disappointed Innocents . . . .ib. Luke Sedgrave of Killeglan, Co. Meath . . . .23 John Cheevers of Grangefort, Co. Carlow . . .ib. Sir Patrick Barnewall ...... 24 Elizabeth, widow of Captain Henry Rochfort, granddaughter of General Thomas Preston, first Viscount Tara . . 25 The King's holograph letter about Lord Tara's hospitality at Bruges ........ ib- Elizabeth Rochfort, his granddaughter, a widow, bespeaks the King's pity for the babe in her womb . . .27 Lord Massereene's anger of the Cromwellians at the decrees of Innocence ....... ib. Colonel Edward Warren's ...... 28 Sergeant Beverley's . . . . . .ib. Violence to the servants of the Marchioness Dowager of Clanrickarde ....... ib. ,, of to Lady Susan Taaffe . . . .29 „ of Dr. Petty's agents to Patrick Moore of Downstown. ib.

Services of P. Moore (grandfather) to the King . . 30, 32 Sir Audley Mervyn's Puckan Speech, as Speaker of the Commons ... . . . .32 The Protestant plot and projected rebellion of Cromwellians in 1663 ... . . . .33 The Court of Irish Innocents closed 21st August, 1663, after sitting only seven months . . . . .34 The final Court of Claims opened on the 4th January, 1666, to administer the Act of Explanation . . .ib. A Court for English and Protestants only, unless a few Catholics or Irish Proviso-men ..... -u Over seven thousand Claimants of Innocence left unheard . 34 Cries of widows with children . j0 List of Petitioners' names .... Contents. xiii Page Orrery on the unheard Claimants of Innocence . . .35 Case of Joan Archer of Corbettsto wn unheard, with her daughter wandering as poor pilgrims . . . . .35, 36 The Ensignmen entitled by treaty made with the French Envoy at Kilkenny in 1646 to obey their own King's orders . 38 Cardinal Mazarin, to put difficulties in their way, sends many regiments to Italy ...... 39 Poverty and hard fate of the Ensignmen in London . . 40 Their loyalty makes them quit the French service at the King's order in 1678 ....... 42 Case of Dermot and Owen M'Carthy, Ensignmen . • 43 William Fleming, Lord Slane ..... 44 Major John Neale ...... ib.

Daniel O'Sullivan More ...... 45 Donogh M'Fineen (O'Sullivan) . . . • .ib. Charles, Roger, and Francis Farrell . .46 Lord Castleconnell .... .48 Colonel Charles MacCarthy Reagh . . ■ .51 Lewis Dempsey, Lord Clanmalier, Article-man . . 52 Walter Tuite of Cullanmore, West Meath, a Nominee . • 54

Part II. Chapter

I. Origin of the Tories ...... 57 Called by Chichester " The White Moors "... ib. The five Septs of Leix transplanted to Munster. . . ib. To demonstrate the ability of the English to effect the Ulster plantation ....... ib. Some sent to the King of Poland . . . .58 Lord Deputy St. John (1619) would give 10,000 tories to any foreign prince ...... ib. The Wexford plantation produces many . . . .ib. These plantations lead up to the Cromwellian Settlement . 59 BroghilPs gloomy presages of the Restoration Settlement . ib. For 30 years after the Restoration Ulster disturbed by tories 60 Ormonde describes the population of Ulster as the worst Papists and the worst Protestants in Ireland • . ib. Primate Plunket (1670) framed rules in a Synod against the tories ........ 61 The repeal of the Act of Settlement in James the Second's parliament the cause of the Penal Laws . . .ib.

Statement of Chief Justice Lord Annaly to that effect in 1771 Contents. Pag» Effect of the Discovery Act (8th of Queen Anne) in animating the Penal Laws ...... 62 The dispossessed " cosher " on their former tenants . . 63 Daniel O'Keeffe of Dromagh Castle on the Blackwater, and Mary O'Kelly 64 Presentments (1713) at the Assizes for the Royalties and Liberty of Tipperary of tories on their keeping . . 67 Ballad about tory hunting . . 68 The descendant of the old proprietor wandering with his title deeds in a pocket-handkerchief . . . .ib. A Letter under Charles the Second's Privy Seal preserved by a Longford peasant in cotton wool . . . .ib.

CHAPTER II. THE LEINSTER TORIES.

Sir Charles Coote, 2nd Earl of Mountrath . 70 The Countess Dowager claims Gormanstosl Castle . . ib. And to be reprised for Tyrellan, and other Clanricarde lands . 71 The 2nd Earl's contest with his Stepmother . . .ib. With Captain Edward Herbert, for Sir Jasper Herbert's Estate in King's County ...... 72 With the Costigans . . . . . .ib. Lord Mountrath's Schedule of lands in Queen's and King's Counties, with names of the old proprietors and of the Cromwellians he purchased from . . . . 74, n. Lewis Lord Clanmalier's lands given to the Earl of Arlington ib. The Earl forms the King's County lands into the Manor of Charlestown, and the Queen's County lands into that of Portarlington ...... 75 Tories on Lord Arlington's lands . . . .76 „ at Leighlin Bridge .... .ib. „ at St. Margaret's, County Dublin . . .ib.

Martin Connor, the Great tory ..... 77 Special Commission to Sir Jerome Alexander, Justice of K.B., to try tories, and his special inclination to hang them . ib.

Chapter III. Munsteh Tories

Lord Orrery on the tories ... 78 „ wishes they were sent to serve in Portugal . ib- Tipperary and Waterford tories . ~9 Kerry tories ... ■ h Colonel Power, the tory . . ib" Contents. XV

Chapter IV. Connaught Tories

Page Mayo and Leitrim tories . . . . . .81 The Connaught transplanters of the same religion as the old proprietors ....... ib. The transplanted Talbots, Cheeverses, Fitzgeralds, and Bellews found families in Connaught . . . .ib. Jamestown built as another Derry for the Leitrim planters . 82 The Duke of Ormonde's measures against the Connaught tories ....... 83 Father Brady's saying about the Duke . . . .ib. Otway, Bishop of Killalla, has a tory beheaded in his courtyard ib. Colonel Dudley (or Dualtagh) Costello, head of the Connaught tories ........ 84 His history . . . . .ib. His Letter of defiance to Lord Dillon of Costello . . 86 He burns two baronies ...... 88 Orrery furnishes Lord Kingston, President of Connaught, with a Munster spy ...... ib. Lord Kingston thought from his appearance it mattered not whether the spy killed Costello or Costello him . . 89 Costello slain ....... 90

Chapter V. The Ulster Tories

The rebellion of 1641 breaks out in Ulster by reason of the plantation . . . . . . .91 The Ulster men Nuncio-tists ..... ib. Royalist reasons for maintaining the plantation . . 92 Primate Plunket's pity for the Ulster gentry . . .ib. They become tenants of scraps of their former estates under Presbyterians ...... 93 Many Ulster gentlemen turn tories . . • .ib- Hatred of the tories to the Primate . . • .ib. And of some Franciscan Friars . . • • ib- The Great tory, Fleming, and the Primate's intervention for him with Capel, Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant . . 94 Levies by the Ulster tories . . . • .95 Viscount Charlemont to inquire into their levies . - 96 Some of the New English ordered to answer for their dealings with tories ..... .ib. Contents. XVI p*e« Ulster the most disturbed province from 1660 to 1698 • • 98 Only three of the Native Gentry restored • • . ib.,n. Sir George Acheson on the Ulster tories • • .99 Tories employed to kill one another .... 100 Viscount Charlemont deals with some of the O'Neills to drive out the Ulster tories ....-• 101 He pays Head Money for tories' heads . . • .ib- Lieutenant Mulmurry O'Hossa paid for two heads . . 104 Brings another dripping with gore to the bench of Fermanagh Justices at Enniskillen ..... 105 The Duke of Ormonde against the plan of allowing tories to abjure the realm . . . . . .106 Captain W- Hamilton a Scanderbeg to the Ulster tories . 107 How poor Will, came to his end . . . . .108 A tory at Downpatrick kills the hangman . . .ib.

Redmond O'Hanlon, the tory of the Fews mountains . . 109 Vain attempts to take him . . . . .110 Bishop Jones's plot against Primate Plunket . . .112 The Bishop attempts to engage O'Hanlon in his plot . . ib. Redmond O'Hanlon scorns his design . . . .ib. Two hundred pounds set on Redmond's head . . .115 Bishop Jones gets Lynch's Knock (now Summer Hill, Lord Langford's seat) from Cromwell .... H6 Primate Plunket's execution ..... H8 Deborah Annesley and her husband's treaty with Redmond's family 119 Redmond slain by treachery ... . 121 The author's visit to Anna-gle-Million .... 123 Popularly supposed to be Redmond O'Hanlon's cave . . ib. Leonidas's tomb in the Morea taken by the peasantry for a Greek tory'3 tomb ...... 125

PART IIL

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Chapter I

History of the Three Brennans, tories of the County of Kilkenny .126 Their arrest in Chester, in November, 1683 . -v, And prison breach ... ' The Brennans of Edough, now Castlecomer . ib The O'Brennans allied in early times by intermarriage with the Fitzpatncks (afterwards Earls of Upper Ossory) Contents. XVII Sir Christopher Wandesford, Secretary to the Earl of Strafford, buys Sigginstown (or Jigginstown), near Naas . .129 But yields it up to Strafford, and takes Edough, or Castlecomer instead ...... ib. The Brennans employ Lords Mountgarret aud Maltravers to solicit their suit at Whitehall . 130 Strafford imprisons one hundred heads of families of Brennans at Dublin Castle ..... . 131 This one of the charges in his impeachment . . . 133 By this Wandesforde's conscience is awakened . . .ib.

He dies broken-hearted 3rd December, 1640 . . .ib. Provides by his Will a trust for the compensation of the Brennans of Edough ...... 134 Castlecomer besieged by the Irish in 1641 . . .ib. Surrenders on terms not kept by the English . . . 135 The Brennans (22 of them) in 1686, obtain a Decree in Chancery on foot of Sir Christopher's Will . . . 136 Proceedings of Sir Christopher's grandson to get rid of the Decree ....... 137 Names of the Brennans, plaintiffs .... ib., n. The Three Brennans rob £18,000 in three years . .138 They sail to Wales from Ringsend .... 140 Are recognised and imprisoned at Chester . . .ib. They break out of jail ...... 141 In 1685 rob Kilkenny Castle . . . . .143 Are taken into protection and pay to put down other tories . 145

Chapter II

The " Wrestling Doctor " and " The Milesian Magazine " . 165 Dr. John Brenan, " The Wrestling or Turpentine Doctor " . ib. Prince of Iveagh and King of all the Wrestlers of all Ireland . ib. Addresses the Duchess of Richmond, wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as an equal . . . . .ib. Cures patients at the Lying-in Hospital by turpentine of childbed fever ....... 146 Mock trial before Judge Norbury for infringing the rights of Dr. Hopkins ....... ib. Birth and history of Dr. Brenan . . . . .147 Loses the family property in Carlow Castle and the Castle hill through Robert Cornwall, attorney . . .ib. Dr. Brenan's Magazine opposes Watty Cox's Union (or United Irish) Star 149 Sides with the Anti-Veto party in politics . . .ib. Contents. XVIII Page The Catholic Committee and Irish politics in 1812 . . ib.

The " Milesian Magazine " supports the Duke of Richmond, Lord Lieutenant ..•••• -15" And Wellesley Pole, Chief Secretary . • • .ib. Ridicule of the Major's petition and of the Catholic Committee in " Barny, Barny, buck or doe " ■ • -ib. Wellesley Pole's letter against the Catholic Committee charging them with breach of the Convention Act . . . 155 The Committee offended at the Duke's appointments of John Gifford and Dr. P. Duigenan . . . .ib. Dr. Brenan's and the Duke's athletics free them from all but Talk' Hill talk 156 Rev. Dr. Milner, of Winchester and the Veto . . .157 Dr. Brenan's ballad against the Veto .... 158 Bishop Coppinger of Cloyne, in 1798 .... ib., n. Daniel O'Connell (Counsellor Round-about, the Kerry Atticus) 159 His reported death in a duel . . . . .ib. His Harold's Cross Speech ..... 160 Portrait of O'Connell in Dr. Brenan's review of the Irish Bar . 161

Chapter III

Dr. Brenan and the Dublin doctors . 165 Dr. Clement Archer and Kill Coachee, son of Burn Chapel Whaley ....... ib. The Whaley family . . . . . .166 Edward Whaley the Regicide dies a fugitive in America . 166 Henry Whaley, his brother, an adventurer for lands in Ireland, turns Royalist ••••.. ib. Moves the recall of the King in the Convention of February, 1660 167 Loses lands worth £20,000, by Clanrickarde's restoration . ib. Recommended by Parliament at its dissolution in 1666 to Ormonde's care ...... jK His only son, John Whaley, marries Susanna, daughter of King Charles the Second's Dry Nurse . . . .ib. Stories of Buck Whaley ...... igg History of Burn Chapel Whaley . . . . .ib. ,, Kill Coachee Whatey . . . . -ib Prince Hohenlohe's miracles . . . . 17,7 Mrs. Corbally, of Ranelagh Convent . . . .171 Dr. Brenan's Lines on Prince Hohenlohe . . .ib Trial of Father Gilmore for wearing a Protestant clerical hat . 173 Epigram on Loyal Sam. Coates, of Beresford's yeomanry corps Contents. XIX

Dr- Brenan's Society for the conversion of Attorneys • . 188