Above: The Plantation of Ulster

We shall now go back a few years. Tlie Catholics still clung to the hope that their religion would be restored. But they found their mistake when king James, in 1605, caused the two penal Acts of supremacy and uniformity to be revived.

By the Act of supremacy no Catholic, without taking the oath of supremacy, could hold any office under government, could practise as a lawyer, act as a magistrate, be appointed judge, or take possession of an estate to be held from the king. By the act of uniformity any Catholic might be brought up and fined if he absented himself from Protestant worship on a Sunday; and many of the leading citizens of Dublin were at this time actually lined or imprisoned. The Roman Catholics who refused to attend Protestant worship were called ” Recusants.”

But except in or near Dublin, it was impossible to carry out these laws, for the people were nearly all Catholics. And even in Dublin the law, for the same reason, could not be enforced to any extent; and numbers of Catholic magistrates, lawyers, and government officers, were permitted to discharge their duties unmolested.

Though tlie two earls of Tyrone and Tir-connell had committed no treasonable or unlawful act, yet nearly all the fertile land of six counties:- Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, Fermanagh, and Cavan-amounting to 511,465* acres-was confiscated to the crown and given to settlers : Sir Arthur Chichester had the management of this Plantation, which was commenced in 1608.

The ” lots ” were of three sizes-2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres. The planters were of three classes- First: English and Scotch undertakers, who got the 2,000 acre lots, and who were required to people them with English and Scotch tenants-no Irish-and to build a castle and a bawn (a large walled enclosure near the castle). Second: “servitors,”-i.e.., those who had served the crown in Ireland-all to be Protestants. These got the 1,500 acre lots; they might take English, Scotch, or Irish tenants, all to be Protestants; and they should build a strong house and a bawn. The 1,000 acre lots might be taken by English, Scotch, or Irish planters, who might be either Protestants or Catholics, and the Catholics were not required to take tlie oath of supremacy.

Vast tracts were given to London companies of merchants or tradesmen, and to certain high officials. Chichester had for his share the whole of Inmshowen, Sir Cahir O’Doherty’s territory. Large tracts were granted for religious and educational purposes, all Protestant: Trinity College, Dublin, got 9,600 acres.