Ireland History

Meanwhile, a Commission had been appointed to consider the question of the proposed Ulster Plantation. As was to be expected, they found that the lands of six counties—Tyrone, Armagh, Coleraine (Derry), Donegal, Fermanagh and Cavan—were justly forfeit to the Crown. This great area was not, however, to be entirely cleared of its Irish inhabitants. According to a report made in 1611, the amount of land confiscated was 503,458 acres But as only land considered arable was reckoned, and as frauds and false descriptions were frequent, it is quite impossible to say what acreage this really represented.

The error which had been made in the Munster Plantation, of giving to individuals huge estates, which they could neither cultivate themselves nor find a sufficiency of suitable tenants to occupy, was here to be avoided. The land was divided into lots of 2,000, 1,500 and 1,000 acres, and these lots were to be assigned to be occupied to persons of three classes. The Undertakers, on whom most of the largest lots were bestowed, were ordinary colonists, either English or Scotch. They were not permitted to take Irish tenants.

The news of the flight of O’Neill and O’Donnell caused, throughout the greater part of Ulster, the utmost consternation. Abandoned like sheep without their shepherds, the clansmen of Tfr Owen and Tfrconnell knew not what fate might befall them. The English Government, fearing lest, in their despair, they might resort to desperate courses, endeavoured to allay their anxiety. A Proclamation was issued by the King, in which he declared that he would take into his own hands the possessions of the fugitive earls, and would protect the rights of all those who had held estates under them. At this very time a scheme for an extensive Plantation had been laid before James by Chichester.

In 1608, a singularly rash and ill-advised insurrection gave an excuse for extending still further the projected confiscations. Its leader was the young Sir Cahir O’Doherty, chief of Inishowen. He quarrelled on some private matter with Sir George Paulet, Governor of Derry, and, in the course of the dispute, Paulet struck him in the face. Vowing vengeance, Sir Cahir withdrew. Niall Garff was afterwards said to have encouraged the misguided youth to his ruin, and young O’Hanlon and some others certainly promised assistance.