Belfast in the 1640s

Prior to the civil war in 1641, the town had attained a considerable degree of commercial importance, and was the residence of many merchants and men of note; but the inhabitants, being chiefly Presbyterians, suffered severely for refusing to conform to the Established Church; many of them left the kingdom, and those who remained embraced the parliamentarian interest. The immediate local effect of this rebellion was the suspension of all improvements, but the town was saved from assault by the defeat of the rebels near Lisburn; and, while the insurgents were overpowering nearly all the surrounding country, Belfast was maintained in security by the judicious arrangements of Sir Arthur Tyringham, who, according to the records of the corporation, cleared the water-courses, opened the sluices, erected a draw-bridge, and mustered the inhabitants in military array. In 1643 Charles I. appointed Colonel Chichester governor of the castle, and granted £1000 for the better fortification of the town, which, while the people of the surrounding country were joining the Scottish covenanters, alone retained its firm adherence to the royal interest. The royalists in Ulster, anticipating an order from the parliament for a forcible imposition of the Scottish covenant, assembled here to deliberate upon the answer to be returned to General Monroe, commander of the Scottish forces in Ireland, when required to submit to that demand; but the latter, being treacherously informed of their purpose, and favoured by the darkness of the night, marched to Belfast with 2000 men, surprised the town, and compelled them to retire to Lisburn.

The inhabitants were now reduced to the greatest distress; Colonel Hume, who was made governor of the castle for the parliament, imposed upon them heavy and grievous taxes, and the most daring of the Irish insurgents were constantly harassing them from without. After the decapitation of Charles I., the presbytery of this place, having strongly expressed their abhorrence of that atrocity, were reproachfully answered by the poet Milton; and the Scottish forces of Ulster having, in common with the covenanters of their native country, embraced the royal cause, the garrison kept possession of it for the king. But General Monk, in 1648, seized their commander, General Monroe, whom he sent prisoner to England, and having assaulted Belfast, soon reduced it under the control of the parliament, who appointed Colonel Maxwell governor. In 1649, the town was taken by a manoeuvre of Lord Montgomery; but Cromwell, on his arrival in Ireland, despatched Colonel Venables, after the massacre of Drogheda, to reduce it, in which enterprise he succeeded.