Scheme of Land Confiscation
Above : Picture Of Sir William Petty
After her long struggle Ireland was absolutely exhausted. Of her population of millions, over 600,000 had perished by the sword or by famine. Few cattle remained of the once great herds, few sheep of the splendid flocks. The famishing people, especially the old and feeble, died in great numbers. Of the soldiers of the defeated armies, many went abroad and enlisted in Continental services. Numbers of young people, boys and girls, were seized by order of the Government, and shipped off to the West Indies or to the English colonies in North America, where they were sold as slaves.
It was judged, the country being in this condition, that an opportunity exceptionally favourable was afforded for attempting a Plantation on a very large scale, and in fact settling the Irish question once and for all, so that it might never again arise to trouble the English Government.
When, in 1641, a greatly exaggerated account of the Irish rebellion and massacre had reached England, a number of private gentlemen had banded themselves together and offered to advance money to the Parliament for the raising, equipment and maintenance of a special army to subdue the rebels. Of the Irish lands to be confiscated after-wards, each of them should receive a share, in proportion to the amount which he had contributed to the undertaking. Thus, a subscription of £300 would secure the subscriber 1,000 Irish acres in Ulster ; while the same amount of Munster land would cost £450.
By the time that the war was over, there was another and more extensive class to take a share of the spoils. An army of mo re than 30,000 men, who had served in the Irish campaigns, and to whom arrears of pay were due, remained for the Parliament to settle with. It appeared to Cromwell and the other Parliamentary leaders that, if the soldiers were paid in land rather than in coin, and settled on the confiscated estates as Planters, much would be gained. Instead of dangerous vagabonds they would have useful farmers, who would be the founders of sober, industrious Protestant families, and whose sons would be ready to take the field, should the Popish rebels again attempt a disturbance.
The pay due to soldiers amounted to about ij millions sterling ; while the value of the subscriptions of the ” Gentlemen Adventurers ” was some £360,000. The quantity of Irish land to be confiscated would necessarily be large, and the scheme, as originally planned, was a vast one. The Irish inhabitants of the other three provinces were to be driven across the Shannon into Connacht, and assigned there a few acres of poor land.
Meanwhile, the rich plains of Munster, Leinster and Ulster should be divided amongst the adventurers and soldiers. Only land set down as ” arable ” was to be counted ; bogs, mountains and the like were to be assigned, without extra payment, to those on whose estates they bordered. A very small rent, a few pence only per acre, was reserved to the Crown.In order to facilitate the distribution of the land, Sir William Petty, an English physician of scientific tastes, was employed to prepare a survey. The greater part of the work, known, because the results were taken down and illustrated by maps, as ” the Down Survey,” is still extant.
Above: Picture of the Admiration of Sir William Petty