Conditions of the Ulster Plantation
II. CONDITIONS.
These “conditions ” refer to such Servitors in Ireland as were undertakers in the “Ulster Plantation,” and had the power to inhabit their portions with “meer Irish” Tenants:
1. “They (the servitors) shall have estates in Fee-Farm.”
2. “They shall yield a yearly Rent to his Majesty, of Eight Pounds, English, for every Proportion of a thousand Acres, and so rateably for the greater Proportions, which is after the Rate of Ten Shillings for sixty English Acres, or thereabouts, which they shall inhabit with ‘meer Irish’ Tenants; but they shall pay only five pounds six shillings and eight pence for every Proportion of a thousand Acres, which they shall inhabit with English or Scottish Tenants, as aforesaid; and so rateably for the other Proportions. And they shall pay us Rent for the first two years.”
3. “They shall hold their Portions by the same Tenures as the former Undertakers respectively.”
4. “They shall build their Castles, Houses, and Bawnes, and inhabit their Lands within two years, and have a competent store of Arms in readiness, as the former Undertakers.”[16]
5. “They shall have power to create Manors and Tenures, as the former Undertakers.”
6. “They shall make certain Estates (or Leases) to the Tenants, and reserve certain Rents, and forbear Irish Exactions, as the former Undertakers.”
7. “They shall take the Oath of Supremacy, and be conformable in religion, as the former Undertakers.”
8. “They shall not alien their Portions, or any part thereof, to the ‘meer Irish,’ or to any such person or persons as will not take the Oath as the said Undertakers are to take, as aforesaid; and to that end a Proviso shall be inserted in their Letters Patent.”
9. “They shall have Power or Liberty to transport, or bring in Commodities, as the former Undertakers.”
Notes
[16] Former Undertakers: At an early stage in the Plantation movement, the Council in London forwarded the following list of Servitors who were considered as suitable persons to become undertakers, commencing with the Deputy (Chichester) himself:—“The Lord Deputy, Lord Audley, Mr. Treasurer (Sir Thomas Ridgeway), Mr. Marshal (Sir Robert Wingfield), Master of the Ordnance (Sir Oliver St. John), Sir Oliver Lambert, Mr. Attorney-General of Ireland (Sir John Davys), Sir Foulke Conway, Sir Henry Folliott, Sir Edward Blaney, Sir Toby Caulfield, Sir Richard Hansard, Sir Francis Roe, Sir Francis Rushe, Sir Thomas Phillips, Sir James Perrott, Sir Thomas Chichester, Sir Josias Bodley, Sir Richard Graham, Sir Thomas Coach, Sir Thomas Williams, Sir Edward Fettiplace, Sir Ralph Bingley, Sir William Taaffe, Sir George Graham his sons, Mr. Surveyor of Ireland (William Parsons); Captains Bourchier, Cooke, Stewart, Crawford, Hope, Atherton, John Vaughan, Trevellian, Brooke, Doddington, Richard Bingley, Gabriel Throgmorton, Francis Annesley, Cole, John Ridgeway, Eline (Ellis), John Leigh, and his brother Dan. Leigh, Anthony Smyth, Trevor, Atkinson, Fleming, Meeres, Pikeman, Southwoth, Lockford, Baker, Hen. Vaughan, Hart, Gore, Larken, Neilson, Edney, Harrison, Higgins, Henry Moy, Hugh Culme, Archie Moore; Lieutenants Cowell, Brian, Ackland, Devereux, Bagnall (son to Sir Samuel Bagnall), Browne, Parkins (Perkins), Atkins, Nicholas Doubdeny.”
Several of the Servitors here named failed in getting lands as undertakers in Ireland, being thought ineligible by the Lord Deputy; others of them did not covet the responsibilities which, as undertakers, they would have incurred.