History of the Down Survey (Petty 1851)/Notes
NOTES.
NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
Pages 1-3.
THE history of the Down Survey is the history of the most remarkable work of a very distinguished man, and forms an essential portion of his biography. It is also the closing act of one and the opening of another eventful chapter in the local history of Ireland, and this account of it by the author contains many authentic papers not before printed. They exhibit the obstructions and difficulties which beset the work in its progress, and the ingenuity, perseverance, and ability, with which they were overcome. Such are the lights and shadows of every great work.
The survey itself is well known, but a personal narrative of the author must always command an interest peculiar to itself. Sir William, then Dr. Petty, came to Ireland in 1652, as Physician to the Forces, and to the household and family of the Lieut.-General, and his reason for undertaking a labour so remote from the ordinary pursuits, and even from the usual studies of his profession, as a general survey of the country, may naturally be sought for.
In the "Reflections upon some Persons and Things in Ireland" he anticipates this question, and states that he "thought the whole work would have been over (as on my part it was) in about two years' time, so as to have proved rather an unbending than a breaking of that bow, wherein I aimed at natural knowledges." And, "that the measuring of as much land-line, by the chain and needle, as would have near four times begirt the whole earth in its greatest circle, and to have such an admeasurement remain upon record, and that to have performed such a service (being useful to all mankind) for a victorious army, the first that ever totally subdued Ireland, would have been as great an honour as any other atchievement I could make in so much time; and the rather, because I should thereby convince many worthy persons, that what they were told to be above seven years' work, might (to their great accomodation) be dispatched in one; and that the same noble army might not be abused by an absurd and insignificant way of surveying, then carrying on by Mr. Worsley." And again, "I thought that, besides the ordinary reward agreed me, I should have received monumental thanks; not considering that too great merit is more often paid with envy than with condign rewards." And that, "by attempting new difficulties, to have stretched my own capacities and intellect; the which (like leather on a last) is not only formed and fashioned, but much extended by such employments." And, "I hoped hereby to enlarge my trade of experiments from bodies to minds, from the motions of the one to the manners of the other; thereby to have understood passions as well as fermentations, and consequently to have been as pleasant a companion to my ingenious friends as if such an intermission from physic had never been; for you see, Sir, how by this means I have gotten the occasion of practising upon my own morals, that is, to learn how, with silence and smiles, to elude the sharpest provocations, and without troublesome menstruums to digest the roughest injuries that ever a poor man was crammed with."
In the first page of our history he shows, that he was far from inactive in the duties of his professional office (which in his will he states that he continued to hold till June, 1659); that he was able to introduce valuable economic reforms into that department, and to follow also the private practice of his profession, for which he states in the Reflections that he "forbore to take fees, for fear they might be intended to bias my actings in my other trusts and capacities."
In this account of Dr. Petty's first connexion with the survey, it is not necessary to follow the acrimony with which he comments upon the undertakings or performances of his predecessors; but the faults to which he adverts, and which he proposed to remedy, were, that the payment was excessive, that there was no mode of examining the work, and no security for its correctness.
If, as would appear by the context and by what follows, the survey consisted merely in measuring the outline and giving the content of the several estates which were returned by the civil survey as forfeited, and that the payment was made in proportion to the area, while only the perimeter was measured, it is obvious the payment would increase in a much higher ratio than the labour, and the greater the necessity for examination and test, the more difficult they would become. It would also appear, that the survey of unprofitable land, not being required by the Act, was not paid for. This, doubtless, exposed the surveyors to the temptation of increasing their estimate of the quantity of profitable land. It will be seen that Dr. Petty was paid also by content, i. e. per 1000 acres, and that, though he was paid for the unprofitable land also, it was at a lower rate. This would present the same temptation in a smaller degree, but the different nature of the survey, and of his payments to his surveyors, will be seen to afford a sufficient preventive. The delivery to the claimants of their land by mere estimated subdivisions, would have been uncertain and unsatisfactory, and there can be no doubt that a survey made according to these intentions, would have been very imperfect, even for its own purposes, and, containing no topographical information of a general nature, would have been useless as a map.
CHAPTER II.
Pages 3-15.
The report of the Committee of Survey, dated 11th May, 1654 (pp. 4, 5, and 6), shows the basis on which Mr. Worsley was then working, and defines the course he had to follow. It provides, in three preliminary recommendations, for ascertaining the lands to be surveyed, and defines in six articles the kind of survey required; by which it is clear that a survey by estates is what the Committee considered necessary, no territorial boundaries being required; and that barren land was not to be surveyed unless lying within profitable land, and then only for the sake of being excluded from it, such land, whether so situate or beyond the mearing of the estate, having to be "cast in." A seventh clause fixes the payment at forty-five shillings per 1000 acres, for all land surveyed according to these instructions. The two remaining clauses (which are incorrectly numbered in the manuscript), defer the survey of Church and Crown lands, and lands not forfeited, as also of lands claimed by English proprietors, or in controversy.
It does not appear that Mr. Worsley was the author of these instructions, or responsible for their imperfections, further than that he may have been an individual (perhaps ex officio) member of the Committee. They appear to have replaced a still more imperfect system on which he had been working, viz., merely measuring the surrounds of whole baronies, for which the payment was by the thousand acres also. Of this earlier work, the Grosse Survey, only a few fragments remain, and they are confined to the terriers or lists of lands, with brief descriptions. The maps, if any were completed, are wholly lost. And even for the imperfection of that work it would be harsh altogether to condemn Mr. Worsley, who was guided by the original ordinance, and probably acted under the orders of persons desirous only of haste, and regardless of the quality of work produced, though so largely interested in it. Such is commonly the case, and it required the commanding mind and determined energy of a man like Petty to frame a better system, and afterwards to carry it out, as will be amply seen by the subsequent narrative of his own proceedings, frequently, however, leading him to regret he had ever embarked in the work at all.
In the report from the Committee of the 24th September, 1654, at pages 8 and 9, we have the Doctor's objections as urged by himself, and his offer to remove them by a more perfect work. The opening paragraph of this offer contains the substance of the whole improvement in a few words. To survey mere barony boundaries, as was first designed in 1653, or estate boundaries only, as subsequently recommended by the committee of May, 1654, was obviously insufficient for the purpose. The barony was too large a space to be subdivided with any accuracy, except by subsequent survey, and the old estate boundaries were not to be adhered to in the ultimate partition, the whole unforfeited land being the space to be subdivided. Dr. Petty's proposition solved the difficulty at once, by the simple means of surveying all known territorial boundaries, all the natural divisions of the country, whether rivers, woods, bogs, or other; in fact, to make a general map of the forfeited lands in the three provinces, and by that to set out such auxiliary lines and limits as should enable the ultimate subdivisions to be made without additional surveying. That he might not appear to supplant the former surveyors, or deprive them of their reward, he consented to pay them for all they had done, so far as he could make use of the same, and to execute the whole work for £30,000, or £6 per 1000 acres, thus appearing to estimate the probable amount of forfeited land at five millions of acres.
The boldness with which he undertook to bind himself, by pecuniary responsibility, to perform this immense work in thirteen months, may well have startled, "gravelled," as he calls it, all opponents. It would have been the extreme of rashness in an ordinary man, but was doubtless justified by that self-dependence and confidence which such a man as Dr. Petty well might feel in himself and his own powers. He had discovered the great principle of division of labour. The mind was yet young, which in later life produced the Political Arithmetic, Political Anatomy, and other works of the like nature, making him almost the founder of what we now call political economy.
In a manuscript called a "Briefe Account of the most materiall Passages relatinge to the Survey, managed by Dr. Petty in Ireland, Ann. 1655 and 1656," preserved among the papers of the Down Survey, in the Record Branch of the Office of the Paymaster of Civil Services in Dublin, and printed with the preface to this volume, he details his arrangements. It is extremely curious, and deserves careful perusal. It was the good fortune of the editor, nearly 200 years later, to see similar foresight and arrangements exercised on a far larger scale in another survey of Ireland, by one who possessed many of the qualities which distinguished Sir William Petty, and who also succeeded in carrying his great work to a successful close, under circumstances and obstructions, many of which bear a striking analogy to those which this history will show to have attended the Down Survey. This may give the narrative a peculiar value to those who are conversant with the more modern survey, but it will show to all, the importance, nay, necessity, of clearly scanning a work as a whole before entering upon it, and that similar circumstances will perhaps, in all ages, produce similar measures, though each be perfectly independent of the other.
The remainder of this chapter exhibits great jealousy, or perhaps, it may be charitably hoped, extreme caution, on the part of Mr. Worsley, to which is attributed a reference of the subject to another Committee, which, however, ended satisfactorily, as its report fully confirmed that of the former, in recommending the adoption of the Doctor's proposals. Dr. Petty's remarks, here as elsewhere, in regard to the surveyor-general, must be read with a knowledge that Mr. Worsley afterwards joined with the Doctor's great enemy, Sir Jerome Sankey, and that this history was not written till after the close of the litigation between them, which may be supposed to have embittered all his recollection of Mr. Worsley's earlier measures. The objections being "clandestinely made;" the nomination of friends of Worsley's to the second committee; the "business of Carricke," and other personalties, of the 11th page, bear marks of anger which would have been better omitted. They, however, show the difficulties which beset the work from its very commencement, and are perhaps necessary as a prelude to much which is to follow. The difficulties indeed were only such as most men who dare to move in advance of their contemporaries, or their day, are sure to experience. The Doctor's proposals, however, were ultimately accepted, and the committee of officers embodied them into six articles, which they recommended to be made and concluded. They also stated, that the old surveys have appeared on examination to be of very little use to the Doctor's undertaking, and therefore ought to be paid for either by the State or the purchaser, and consent that one penny per acre be paid for that purpose by the army, in addition to the "£3 per thousand formerly proposed." There is some obscurity in this, unless it was a payment formerly proposed to have been made to Mr. Worsley for the estate survey, of which there is no mention, or that the Doctor made another offer in accordance with the Act, which will be adverted to in the notes to the next chapter, nor is any light here thrown on it by the context.
Dr. Petty 's offer was £6 per 1000 acres. The payment of £3, with one penny an acre from the army, or £4 3s. 4d., per 1000, making up £7 3s. 4d. per 1000 acres, was the payment afterwards recommended, and finally contracted for, with the Doctor, in regard to the forfeited profitable lands. The Church and Crown lands subsequently thrown in, from which there was no such contribution, were to be surveyed for £3 the 1000, as were also the unprofitable lands. A set of barony and county maps, for which he was to receive £1000, was also to be made, the more full details of which several works will be subsequently found in the articles of agreement.
The order "By the Commissioners," &c. &c., at page 7, is only a repetition of the order in page 4, but it recalls attention to the circumstances, and is printed because it occurs in all the manuscripts.
"Chergeticall," page 7, line 20, is the same in all the copies; no meaning has been discovered for it. In the King's Inns copy there is a pencil note, suggesting that "energetical" may be the word intended.
The word "ingeniously," page 7, line 22, is "ingenuously" in the Lansdowne manuscript.
The obscurity of the paragraphs relating to payment, in page 15, is increased by the want of a comma after the word "proposed," in line 11.
CHAPTER III.
Pages 16-18.
In this chapter Doctor Petty again meets the objections of Mr. Worsley, and answers them, as it would appear, before the council.
Among other things he speaks of the survey of Connaught during the government of Lord Strafford, which survey has been known by his Lordship's name, and will be again adverted to hereafter. The paragraph in page 16, indicates the mode in which it was paid for, and it is to be remarked that he speaks of Connaught having been, at the time of its survey, "a well-planted and accommodated countrey." This, however, was probably only for the sake of contrast with the state of that in which he was to work, which had been so recently the theatre of a desolating civil war, and was from that cause, perhaps, more especially "overgrown with rushes, shrub-wood, bog, and other impediments."
The rate at which the Strafford Survey was paid for is not now known, but in regard to the payment "allowed by the Act" for the present work, it is set down by the " Instructions" appended to the Act, at £3 per thousand acres to the surveyor, with a salary of £400 a year to the surveyor-general.
"The adventurers give much higher rates." It is not known what the adventurers paid at this time, but much, if not all their work, was afterwards performed by Petty and Worsley, and the subsequent acts of settlement and explanation condemn the adventurers' surveys altogether, while admitting the Down Survey as conclusive evidence.
Of the offer made by Dr. Petty to survey the Church and Crown lands for £2600, there is no other record.
The Doctor also, at the instance of his opponents, is urged to "discover" to the council the manner in which he intends to execute his extraordinary proposal, for such, no doubt, it was, and he does so with the proviso that his security be lessened if it be found satisfactory. He then explains the division of labour, which will be found more fully developed in the "Brief Accompt" already referred to. His instruments were, for the most part, manufactured under his own direction. He employed artists in the office, computers for calculations,—and upon the field-work, "it being a matter of great drudgery to wade through boggs and water, climb rocks, fare and lodge hard," &c., he "would instruct foot souldiers, to whom such hardships were familiar." This was a notable violation of precedent, and was afterwards dwelt upon.
CHAPTER IV.
Pages 18-30.
Fresh obstructions continued to arise, "even," he says, "as my wiser friends had forewarned me." Among others, the former surveyors presented a remonstrance, on which Dr. Petty was again summoned to the council-chamber, and required to answer it. After which the Surveyor-General, who he calls here the "Generall of the Surveyors," again appears to lead the host in opposition, when once more the Doctor is called before the council to answer the charge of intending to employ soldiers to measure "their owne and officers lands," which "would be scandalouse." This objection was easily satisfied. They were to be surveyors, not distributors, and could not know to whom any land would fall; and as their work would not be protracted by themselves, but by other persons in the office, they would only be answerable for the correctness of their measurements, which would be subject to independent test, and such assistants could be readily obtained in any numbers without waiting for others. He then very reasonably claims the right, as he is responsible for the work, to choose his own hands for performing it. Next it was objected that he was about to employ papists; to which he replied, that it was no more dangerous to have the measurer a papist than the man who pointed out the boundaries (the meresman), who, for the most part, must be so.
Then the Provost of Trinity College prohibited his employing the scholars of the College. After which, as a climax, Mr. Worsley proposed, that all surveyors to be employed should be examined, in the first instance, by him, and that all the office parties should be paid by the State, "to remove their dependence on the Doctor." These propositions would have been fatal to his due authority, and he accordingly met them boldly, by denying the competency of Mr. Worsley to examine the surveyors; by proposing, if the former surveyors were to be examiners, he should himself be allowed to examine those surveyors before the council; and, by remarking that if soldiers were not proper to be employed in the survey, neither were their officers (which Mr. Worsley's superior assistants were) proper judges of the surveyors.
This appears to have satisfied the council, who accordingly order, that it be referred to the Attorney-General, the Commissioner-General of Revenue, and the Surveyor-General, to consider of the articles prepared and agreed upon between the council of officers and the Doctor, and to draw up a legal contract.
On the 11th December, "after a solemn seeking of God, performed by Colonel Thomlinson," the articles of agreement, nineteen in number, were completed; and, on the 25th December, 1654, ratified by the remarkable signature, among others, of Miles Corbet, who then resided at Malahide, that ancient castle and lands having been granted to him, and, till the Restoration, diverted from an unbroken descent in the ancient line of the Talbots, who, with the exception of that brief interval, have held it from the time of the Normans to the present day. On the same day, the 11th December, on which the articles were agreed to, it was resolved, at a council of war held at Corke House (which stood near the Castle Gate, the name being still retained in that part of the street called Cork Hill), that the army should contribute the penny an acre before adverted to, of which one-third was to be paid forthwith, the remainder after the survey should be completed, and possession given.
The articles, it will be seen, are in conformity with the Doctor's proposals, and the recommendation of the committee. They enjoin a survey of all forfeited lands in the ten half-counties mentioned in the Act of the 26th of September, 1653, for the satisfaction of the adventurers and soldiers, viz.: Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, the King's and Queen's Counties, Meath, Westmeath, Down, Antrim; and Armagh; also within the counties of Wexford, Wicklow, Kilkenny, Kerry, Longford, Cork, Kildare, Tyrone, Londonderry, and Donegal, "which shall be set out as satisfaction for the arreares" of the soldiers; also, "all forfeited, not yet disposed of or set out" in Dublin, Carlow, and the remaining part of Cork; and of all Church lands and Crown lands.
In explanation of these clauses it is necessary to mention, by reference to the Act before quoted, that at the breaking-out of the rebellion in 1641, an Act of the Parliament of Charles I. (17 Car. I.) declared the lands of the rebels forfeited, and called for contributions in money from all persons willing to assist in quelling the rebellion, such contributions to be secured on the lands forfeited, at a certain rate, viz.:
1000 acres in Leinster for £600.
„Munster for £450.
„Ulster for £200.
In redemption of this, after the rebellion was finally quelled, the Council of State, on the 1st of June, 1633, appointed a commission, which was to sit at Grocer's Hall in London for this purpose, as related to the money so advanced by the "adventurers;" and another on the 22nd of the same month, to the Lord Fleetwood and others, to sit in Dublin for the same purpose, as related to the army, which was also to be paid its arrears in lands. Of the latter there were various classes of claimants: those who had served since 1649; those who had also served before that time; those who had been already disbanded and settled on lands; the widows, maimed and wounded soldiers, and some others. For these purposes, by the Act of 26th of September, 1653, the forfeited lands in the ten counties first-named were set apart: one moiety for the adventurers, the other for the soldiers. If these proved insufficient, the county of Louth, with the exception of one barony (Ardee), was to be included; also the land bordering the coast in Connaught, beginning from Sligo, within four miles of the sea and the western bank of the Shannon;—the "transplanted" persons, who, from the other provinces, were removed into Connaught, being excluded from that belt, and confined to the interior;—and finally, if these proved insufficient, all other forfeited lands were to be made available for these and the various other "publique" debts, with certain precautions and reservations. This, with the addition of the Church and Crown lands, and subsequently the adventurers' moiety of the forfeited lands, led to the long list of counties embraced in the Down Survey, which ultimately extended over the greater part of twenty-nine counties.
All these, when profitable, were to be surveyed, showing the lowest denominations known in the several counties, as plough lands, townlands, &c. When unprofitable, less rigour was exacted, and by a subsequent article the Doctor was to survey and protract separately the bounds of all the baronies within the before-mentioned counties: "That perfect and exact maps may be had for publique use of each of the baronyes or countyes aforesaid." These conditions were doubly useful. The townland boundaries were then, as now, generally the boundaries of properties, therefore of forfeitures, and frequently of grants; by which separate measurements for those purposes were rendered unnecessary, and the whole furnished material for a general map.
The articles are also rigid and exact as to the delivery of plots and field-books, and define the amount of security and mode of payment, all in accordance with Dr. Petty's propositions and previous agreements.
CHAPTER V.
Pages 31-42.
The articles being duly ratified, Mr. Worsley discontinued the former surveys, and discharged the persons employed upon them. Dr. Petty completed his securities, and warrants were issued:
- 1st. For men to show the meres.
2nd. For abstracts or lists of the lands to be surveyed.
3rd. For access to such records or surveys as might be of use.
4th. To appoint a committee of officers to consider how the said work might be begun, and proceeded upon, as to the final subdivision.
The second of these was obviously the first to be executed in order of time. The warrant of the council on the subject is dated 20th December, even before the articles were formally ratified. The commissioners of civil survey were appointed under the commission from the council of state of June, 1653, confirmed by the Act of 26th September following, for the purpose of ascertaining what lands were forfeited, and what extent of land in each case, with a view to the transplantation into Connaught, and the setting out of the forfeited lands among the adventurers and soldiers.
The duties of these commissioners, and the classes of claimants called adventurers, soldiers, officers, &c., are so clearly described by Mr. Hardiman, in the Appendix to the Fifteenth Report of the Record Commission, that it is only necessary to refer to that able paper for full elucidation.[1]
In the recommendation of the committee under which Mr. Worsley had begun to act (see page 4), it was recommended, that the surveyors should ascertain the forfeitures themselves, by aid of juries, in the several counties. It is probable that, at that time, the commission of civil survey was but little advanced, and it will be seen that the delay and uncertainty with which the preliminary information was furnished to Dr. Petty, operated prejudicially to his labours. The time for completing the survey ought, therefore, in strictness, to have dated, in each locality, from the delivery to Dr. Petty, of the lists, or terriers of lands to be surveyed. As this delay was not foreseen, and therefore not provided for in the articles of agreement, he was exposed to difficulties he had no adequate means of meeting. In order to a clear understanding of the civil survey, and gross surrounds, which were to be executed under the original commission, an example of the instructions issued to the persons employed in them is given in the Appendix.
The next warrant, the execution of which was necessary, was, to provide persons to show on the ground the meres and bounds of the lands contained in the return of the civil survey. These persons ought, if possible, to have been nominated by the civil survey commissioners, for the mutual security of the Commonwealth and of Dr. Petty, that the lands surveyed were those described by the Commissioners. This may have been impracticable, and the surveyors, by delegation from the Doctor, were accordingly authorized, by an order of the Lord Deputy and Council, dated 20th of December, 1654 (which occurs also at p. 39, dated 12th of April, 1655), to "cause fitt and able persons" to show them the metes and bounds. This power is given in the same order with that which enables them to take carriages and horses, and to obtain billets or lodgings, paying at rates to be fixed by the commander-in-chief of the district. It will be remembered that many of the surveyors were soldiers, and these powers will be found to correspond with those of the Mutiny Acts of the time, which are retained to the present day, but with the important difference of the civil magistrate being now the arbiter, instead of the local military authority. It may be remarked, that, taking into account the relative value of money at that time and at present, the wages were extremely good.
The third authority, viz., for access to records and papers, is contained in the same warrant as the direction to the commissioners of the civil survey, and was easy of execution.
The fourth, the appointment of a committee of officers, is perhaps the most important of all. Dr. Petty may probably be considered as in reality speaking through them. Their report is not dated till the 25th of December, the day on which the articles were ratified, and it is directed to the points on which difficulties were to be apprehended, viz., first, as already adverted to, the ascertaining what lands were to be surveyed, on which subject the order in council had already issued, enjoining the lists and abstracts to be furnished with all convenient speed. In this recommendation a definite period of thirty days is named, and the approvals of the court of claims and of the Surveyor-General are interposed, to insure correctness. In the order of the 20th the lists were included with other records. They are here looked upon as a distinct and guaranteed authority for the survey. This would fix on the Surveyor-General any delay which might occur on points beyond Dr. Petty's control, or, by making him cognizant of it, prevent his pleading it afterwards as breach of contract on the Doctor's part.
While Dr. Petty saw this difficulty, he was also alive to one still greater, viz., the subdivision among the soldiers of the lands after they were surveyed, to which the remaining recommendations are directed, and there can be little doubt that it would have been better to have viewed it from the first as a separate operation. This, probably, the impatience of the governing power, which was virtually the army itself, would not allow; and in these recommendations, accordingly, we find provisions, which, if fulfilled, would remove the difficulty, or if not fulfilled, would remove all blame from Dr. Petty. In fact, the Doctor's contract was to survey, to map, first, the total and detail of the lands forfeited, which could not be done till they were pointed out to him, and then the portion of each individual, which could not be done till their claims were ascertained; and it will be seen that nearly all his difficulties and heart-burnings arose on these points. The survey itself was rendered comparatively easy by his foresight and arrangements, and it was an operation peculiarly suited to his analytical turn of mind, and methodical habits. The stern determination by which he controlled all under him, and the force of will and energy to which all around him gave way, were, however, severely taxed in the progress of the work, more especially on these latter points.
On the instructions given to Dr. Petty by Mr. Worsley, the Doctor makes no comment. They appear, however, to be very carefully considered and drawn up, and do not justify the low estimate of that officer's abilities, to which the general tenor of the narrative would lead us. They indeed do not exceed what Dr. Petty had offered and undertaken, but they are methodical, concise, and well arranged, and provide for a very complete and sufficient work; showing that the Surveyor-General knew perfectly well what the survey ought to be, however short of such a mark his own operations, undertaken on the recommendations of the Committee of 1653, would have been, and still more, the earlier operation superseded by those recommendations.
Nothing is more to be admired throughout this narrative than the entire frankness and unreserve with which Dr. Petty places on record the full particulars of every transaction which has been deemed questionable. We have an instance of this in the present chapter, in regard to Sir Hardress Waller. Sir Hardress was an officer of high rank and great influence. This was all to be exerted on the Doctor's behalf, and although he states that Mr. Waller, the son, was never in reality employed, it is clear, from the agreement of the 18th of December, pp. 33, 34, that in fact a portion of the survey was to be given over to Sir Hardress, who, paying one-sixth of the expense, was to have one-sixth of the profit. This partnership of a high public officer with his own contractor, at least in a contract made on his own recommendation, would not be tolerated in our days, but at that time it may have been viewed differently by public opinion. Even then, indeed, we find Dr. Petty, in his closing paragraph, states that this arrangement was never carried out by Sir Hardress, that he might not "give any occasion of men's thinking, he would patronize him in anything not justifiable."
CHAPTER VI.
Pages 42-46.
While the arrangements which ought to have been preliminary, were yet under discussion, Dr. Petty began the survey of some of the forfeited lands near Dublin, doubtless with the view of training his assistants under his own eye. This led to the discovery of a new difficulty not provided for in the contract, viz., that many of the spaces to be surveyed were less than forty acres, which by his contract he was not strictly bound to do. It might indeed have been inferred, that such insulated spaces were in equity included in the third and fourth articles; but on this point, as usual, he differed with the Surveyor-General, and it was thought better to appoint a committee of officers to determine, "any question, difficulty, difference, or controversy, which might arise, to obstruct or retard the progress" of the work; which in this case decided, that if the small parcels upon which the controversy arose were measured, the distinction into forty acres should be dispensed with. To which was added, in regard to the delay which had taken place, "that the thirteen months should date from the 1st of February instead of the 11th December;" with another decision relating to the repayment of advanced moneys. These modifications were favourable to the Doctor, but they were only reasonable.
Throughout even this comparatively unimportant transaction, there is a tone of banter and of triumph towards Mr. Worsley, which one cannot but regret. He speaks of Worsley finding himself "overseen" in making the contract as to "this point;" of his having of mere joke led Mr. Worsley to recommend to the committee an arrangement by which he (Worsley) should himself become the "examinator-general" with a salary, with a totally new agreement for the work, in which of course he was not serious, and which he describes as lost only by a jocular remark. He appears in this, as throughout the narrative, to have felt so strongly his immeasurable superiority to those about him, that he used them, and boasts of using them, as mere tools; always, however, to accomplish a good end. This bearing doubtless gave offence, and raised him many enemies who eagerly watched for the opportunity of the small revenge of opposition, and, smaller still, of detraction. There was much, however, of good humour, to use a common word, fun, in many of his remarks, which show another side of his character, vehement and energetic, but still borne onward and upward by temperament. Spurning at obstructions, and never doubting his powers and ability to conquer, he made enemies, and neglected them.
CHAPTER VII.
Pages 46-53.
We now come to the definite point of the instructions drawn up by Dr. Petty for the guidance of his surveyors. They are in accordance with his offer, his contract, and his own instructions from Mr. Worsley, and very concisely and clearly expressed, distinguishing the field duties from those to be performed in the office, as explained by him to the council (see p. 17).
It will be seen that they relate chiefly to the distinctions to be observed, and the magnitude of spaces to be surveyed or estimated, of forfeited and unforfeited, profitable and unprofitable lands, as they lay interspersed among each other respectively, with directions for correctly ascertaining the boundaries; but they do not describe or enjoin any particular mode of surveying. He appears to have adopted the mode, common at that time, of merely traversing by bearings and distances, with a compass and chain, and protracting on sheets of paper, divided into squares of known dimensions, from the summation of which the area was obtained, instead of computing the area from the field-books themselves. By this means the correctness of the result was limited to the correctness of the protraction, instead of being deduced directly from the ground, with the protraction interposed merely as a test.
In his explanation to the Council, indeed, at p. 17, he takes credit for "exterminating the use of triangles and intermixt multiplication in the casting up of the superficial content, having thereby much facilitated the whole processe of surveying." This is not very clear, as there is no other reason to suppose the former surveys were performed by the mode we should now call content-surveying, and it probably refers only to another mode of calculating the areas from the protraction.
Dr. Petty's merit in this respect consisted, not in devising a new mode of surveying, but in availing himself of the means and men he found about him, and organizing a system by which large numbers, "the ministry of about 1000 hands," see p. 295, could be simultaneously employed in different branches of one great survey, instead of separate parties or persons, each completing every branch of a number of small surveys.
The Doctor appears subsequently to have seen the danger of relying on work performed by the needle, as in his Political Anatomy, written some years later, he writes: "The admeasurement of land in Ireland hath hitherto been performed with a circumferencer, with a needle of three two-thirds long, as the most convenient proportion, but twill be henceforth better done by the help of some old geometrical theorems, joyned with the new property of a circle demonstrated by Dr. R. Wood."
Dr. Wood was Master of St. Paul's School in London, and the author of some papers in the early Transactions of the Royal Society, but it is not known what particular property of the circle is here referred to as demonstrated by him.
It is worthy of notice, that about the date at which the Down Survey was performed, there was but little magnetic variation in Ireland. The needle, by computation, pointed due north in Dublin in 1657. This would not afford any peculiar facility for the survey, but might tend to prevent error, both in the field-work and protraction, by careless hands.
In the Record Branch of the Paymaster of Civil Services' Office, there is a book, supposed to be one of the original field-books, and Dr. Petty in his will enumerates original maps and books as among the muniments preserved with his papers. It will not fail to be noticed that in the latter part of these instructions, the Doctor looked beyond the map of forfeitures, and contemplated a more general application of the knowledge to be obtained in a general survey. He had not yet begun to dwell on the studies which afterwards led him to political economy, nor, perhaps, to contemplate the descriptive memoirs which he afterwards began to collect, but the breadth and depth of highways and rivers, their falls and islands, the circumstances of navigable rivers and harbours, course of channel, place of sands and shelves, are all collateral, indeed additional, to the immediate objects of the survey, and indicate a mind aiming at much which was beyond. He alludes to these additions at page 123, where he states that "observing some omissions in his contract, on the states behalfe, he gave out instructions to the respective instruments acting under him, as he humbly conceives, far more large and comprehensive than those contained in his owne contract."
He long afterwards clung to the hope of making a general map. In 1665 we find him petitioning the King for "assistance to finish the Map of Ireland," and in his Political Anatomy (page 341, Dublin Edition), he writes that, "at his own charge, besides those maps of every parish, which by his agreement he delivered into the Surveyor-General's office, he hath caused maps to be made of every barony or hundred, as also of every county, engraven on copper, and the like of every province, and of the whole kingdom."
The "other instructions," page 48, which relate chiefly to the office work, are equally clear and judicious, and some of their particulars are worthy of remark. The first is susceptible of illustration, a few of the rough plots remaining still, with the other Records, in the Paymaster of Civil Services' Office. They are on sheets of squared paper, graduated at the edges for protraction, obviously printed from engraved copper-plates, bearing date mdcliiii, and the name H. Sutton, well known to all who are familiar with the instruments and mathematical works of that time. The barony maps being on such a scale as shall keep them on a single sheet of paper, is similar to the practice of the recent Ordnance Survey, in which the County Index Maps were, in like manner, made on such scales as should bring each within a single sheet, for the obvious reason that if they were on such an uniform scale as should make any of them extend over more than one sheet, an index to the index would become neessary, and if the scale of the largest county were adopted for all, the smaller counties would be insignificantly small.
The precaution in the fourth section, of having the check-work performed by people who were paid by the day, was most judicious, and is the only safe way in which contract or task-work can be effectually proved or tested. It will be seen hereafter, also, to have been adopted by Mr. Worsley in examining the survey as a whole, before the work was finally received by the State. The separate survey and protraction of common boundaries, enjoined by the sixth section, was a palpable and simple check, one indeed at which surveyors are very apt to repine, but which it is never safe to abandon for any clamour for saving of time. The precautions of the seventh section are all efficient and good. The eighth section provides that the meresmen should, as far as possible, be those employed by the Civil Survey Commissioners. If it had been practicable, this should have been imperative, and they should have been appointed on the part of the Commissioners, as before adverted to. It is easy, however, to see that other difficulties might have arisen from that course, and this instruction probably meets the antagonist evils as well as was practicable. Generally, in regard to all, nay, to each and every of them, it is not beside the subject to say that there is not one of these precautions which was not found indispensable on the similar work of the Ordnance Survey, and it is even more remarkable that clear directions on the same points were laid down also in the similar instructions prepared by the able director of that work. Colonel, now General Colby, who, it is needless to say, had never seen or heard of the archives and documents we are now consulting and printing. Many of the instructions of Dr. Petty and Colonel Colby might be printed in parallel columns, so remarkably have the same circumstances produced the same results, from minds very similar in some respects to each other.
The paragraph at the bottom of the fifty-second, and top of the fifty-third page, refers to a separate survey of the adventurers' lands, thus alluded to in the "Reflections." "Moreover, never was better security taken by oaths and bonds, nor ever more prudential cautions used in any former survey, insomuch that nothing could be added even by (more nice than wise), Mr. Worsley himself, in the following survey of the adventurers; nor were any artists admitted by him to work upon that subsequent undertaking, but such as had been formerly employed on mine." This work was performed jointly by Mr. Worsley and Dr. Petty, for which the order will be found in the Appendix. It is alluded to again at pp. 127 and 136.
In this chapter, at page 47, line 7, "forced" is "forfeited," in the Lansdowne Manuscript.
CHAPTER VIII.
Pages 54-62.
This Chapter contains an official report on the Strafford Survey of the county of Tipperary, which may, perhaps, be taken as an example of the much larger portion of that work, which extended over the whole province of Connaught; and it possesses a peculiar value, as, from the almost total destruction of the maps and documents of that survey, by fire, in 1711, it is the only account of any importance which remains.
The survey would appear to have been made with great care, and to have been by far the most valuable work of that nature which had then been performed in Ireland. On that account the destruction of the maps and books was a serious loss, as, in consequence of Connaught having been originally excepted from Dr. Petty's work, it was the only detailed survey existing of that province.
It has indeed been doubted whether the Strafford maps of the county of Galway were ever made, or at least completed, and but few surveys in that county were afterwards made by Dr. Petty. It will be observed that none are noticed in this Report, and, except the surveys of towns, no notice now remains of any among the few fragments saved from the fire, and preserved among the valuable records in the Paymaster of Civil Services' Office. It will be recollected, also, with what difficulty, and at how late a period, Lord Strafford succeeded in his effort to establish the "Title for the King" in that county. There are, however, estate maps in the possession of several families still residing there, which are traditionally believed to be duplicates of Strafford's maps, and Dr. Petty appears to have found sufficient materials for his small county map, subsequently engraved. Among the many curious volumes in the depository above referred to, is one of the Barony-Books of Tipperary, described by Worsley in this Report, page 55, identified, by bearing the same figures and certificates, with its original "parchment" cover still remaining.
It had been agreed that the Doctor was to make use of this survey of Tipperary, so far as it should prove available; and the order of Council, of 14th May, directed that the documents relating to the baronies which were to be set out for the satisfaction of the army, should be given over to him. To the commissioners' order of the 22nd of the same month, therefore, at page 54, we owe the report here given of the whole county.
The books of reference appear to have been complete, and properly vouched; and the maps to have consisted of parishes surveyed, in outline, by townlands, condensed into barony maps, and these again into a county map. They do not appear to have contained any topographical information of a general nature, but to have shown the situation and quantity of arable, pasture, and meadow, while they are, nevertheless, stated to have been deficient in information as to the relative value which different parts of the wholly waste or unprofitable, bore to the good and profitable land. This latter objection may be thought somewhat hypercritical. It required, in fact, the word "improvable."
In regard to the names of baronies, in page 55, it is to be observed, that some of them are not now recognized as baronies; Kilnelonger being included in Kilnemanagh, and Mulrian in Owney and Arra, which at present form but one barony instead of two, as here given. Mulrian, indeed, in the curious original volume above mentioned, is even there called "Owney Mulrian."
It may not be out of place here to quote a clause of an ordinance of the Protector's Council, of the 16th June, 1654, in regard to the names of baronies in the Down Survey and Distribution:
"And be it further ordained and established by the authority aforesaid, that all and every city and county, or county and city, city and liberties, town and county, half-barony, territory, franchise, liberty, parish, town, place, or land which is returned among the baronies, or for, or as a barony, (on the abstract of the surveys or estimate, made concerning the ten counties appointed for the said soldiers and adventurers), shall, as to the division, subdivision, and enjoyment thereof among the said soldiers and adventurers, and every of them respectively concerned, be deemed and taken to be as the same are returned in the survey, although the same then were not a barony, or were in another county, or were a county franchise, or liberty of itself; and that all counties, baronies, and places returned or certified in or by miswritten or wrong names, shall be enjoyed by those whose lots are or shall be on such counties, baronies, or places, as if they had been returned or certified by their true and proper names."
Among the valuable records in the custody of Sir William Betham, there is a memorandum of an order from the King (Charles II.), stating that the "barbarous and uncouth names of places" in Ireland, much retard the reformation of the country, and directing the Lord Lieutenant and Council to change such names into others more suitable to the English tongue, annexing the ancient names in every grant so altered. This appears to have been subsequently embodied in the Act of Explanation, of which it forms the last clause.
Few persons will now be found to regret that the change of names thus authorized and ordered, was not generally carried into effect; but in reference to the subject it may not be out of place to refer to the orthography of the names engraved on the maps of the Ordnance Survey, for which the different spellings and alias names of every townland were collected from all accessible documents, some (where the names were ancient) of very great antiquity; and finally, local inquiry and examination were made by an Irish scholar on the spot, to render the name ultimately adopted as nearly as possible consistent with the ancient orthography. This information being all classified and arranged in proper descriptive books, forms a large collection of documents, which, being preserved with the records of the Survey, may be at any time referred to or published; and as there is scarcely any more fertile source of confusion than uncertainty of nomenclature, it may be hoped that, as the boundaries of the Ordnance Survey are recognised by several Acts of Parliament, the names now engraved on the authorized maps of that Survey may also become generally adopted in all legal and authentic papers.
To return, however, to the Strafford survey of Tipperary. On receiving the maps and books, Dr. Petty, with characteristic caution, weighed the expediency of availing himself of them, or discarding them altogether. There will be little doubt among persons conversant with such subjects that it would have been far easier and more satisfactory to have surveyed the lands anew than endeavour to amend and make the old documents available. Such appears to have been Mr. Worsley's conviction when the case was his own. Dr. Petty, however, ultimately resolved to make use of them, and appears to have adopted a very judicious course for testing and amending what was sent to him. As the process was different from his ordinary mode of proceeding, he employed a more highly qualified person, and nothing can be more clear than his instructions to Dr. Raggett. The comparison of the old mearings, with those ascertained by the civil survey and with the ground itself; adding the buildings and detail, more especially as to profitable and unprofitable land; stating any deterioration or difference which had occurred since the original survey was made, and finally, delineating the new work on the back of the old plans, so that what was old and what was new, and the differences between them, might be easily seen and compared; on the review of which, the Doctor estimates his gain, by the use of the old work, at only £100. The maps now remaining are not the original Strafford maps amended, but the fair copies made from them at the time. They bear the signature, Patrick Raggett, and are in tolerable preservation, so far as they escaped the fire of 1711.
CHAPTER IX.
Pages 63-80.
This chapter exhibits a beginning of the troubles which thenceforward beset Dr. Petty in the distribution of the lands, an operation which, as before adverted to, would, so far as he was personally concerned, have been far more satisfactorily performed by a separate authority from that charged with the survey. Still there can be no doubt Dr. Petty was eminently qualified for both, and it may be doubted if any other machinery could so easily have been framed.
While the survey was proceeding, the committee of officers appointed in the previous December (pp. 40, 41) was also endeavouring to ascertain the debt and credit, i. e. the sums due to the army, and the extent of land which was available for their satisfaction; and it appeared that, according to the extent estimated by the civil survey, the moiety of the ten counties would only satisfy twelve shillings and sixpence in the pound. Trusting, however, that it would ultimately prove equivalent to two-thirds, they petition accordingly that it be set out to them forthwith, leaving the remaining third to be settled afterwards. The council appear to have acted with great fairness, as well as great prudence. It ordered the two-third satisfaction to be made, and consented even that the accruing rents should be set aside for the benefit of the army, enjoining, however, in conformity with the directions of the Act, that the regiments should be "set down" continuously, and not scattered over the country, each beginning where the lands of the former ceased; the several regiments, troops, and companies, drawing lots as to where their portions should respectively fall. So extraordinary and systematic a partition of a country has no analogy, even in the planting of a modern colony, and perhaps it is not profane to remark here, in reference to the importance of a map for such a division, that a French writer on the subject of maps in the Memorial Topographique et Militaire, thinks there are indications of such a document in the partition of the Holy Land, by Joshua. The council also, very properly, had care of the claims of the soldiers formerly disbanded, and others, in conformity with the Act, requiring consideration and report on those subjects. Subsequently, owing to the rapid progress made by Dr. Petty in the survey, it speedily appeared by his "Downe admeasurement" that the forfeited lands were more extensive than the civil estimate had made them. Accordingly, the committee request that the whole debt be satisfied to them at once, for which they give six very simple reasons, the sixth alone being important, viz., their undertaking to pay in money any troops or companies who may be "shutt out." This does not appear to have been assented to. It would have been a mere scramble, but every effort was made to complete the survey as rapidly as possible.
The committee, while continuing to sit, appear to have propounded several resolutions not relating solely to this subject, but having for their object a larger scope of improvement for their general good when settled, among others, several relating to trade, and the intimate union of Ireland with the Commonwealth of England, on which the Lord Deputy appears to have come himself to the committee and announced a "speedy reducement of the army." This might have seemed to indicate displeasure, and probably at their proceedings, but for the last resolution of those which follow, which, though it is not clear, may be read as what would now be called a vote of thanks to him. The resolutions indicate much foresight as to indemnity, clearness of title, &c., and the closing paragraph of page 75 is not without analogy to the more modern fashion of disencumbering estates.
Finally, however, they separate, constituting a smaller body of officers to act for them, with full authority on all the points embraced in their resolutions.
Amid this tumult of claims and divisions it is refreshing to read the appeal of the Lord Deputy on behalf of the poor Waldenses: "meeting in the Castle hall with severall officers of the army, they together did resolve" to subscribe, "some a month's pay, others three weeks, and some one week's pay." It affords a glimpse at the outer world, in the midst of a narrative devoted to a single object, and that object, one which, however important and however curious, cannot even at this day be dwelt upon without constant pain. Nor are the widows and maimed and impotent soldiers forgotten by them, though in a later paper their claims will be seen at the end of the list instead of the beginning.
There appears some confusion of dates in this chapter. In the sixth line, "the beginning of May" refers to the order of the 11th of that month in the following page; and the report, called "the 9th of the same month," is not given. The "18th of December last," in the sixth and seventh lines of p. 64, should be the 11th of December last, printed at p. 30. It is similarly misquoted at p. 157, in the same order of council there reprinted, making it possible indeed that the date at p. 30 is the incorrect one. There can be no doubt, however, that the resolution is the same, whatever the date may be.
At p. 66, line 6, the word "summ" is "same" in the Lansdowne manuscript.
CHAPTER X.
Pages 80-102.
Dr. Petty is now urged forward; every one anxious to assist, who before had thwarted him; but another cry arises as soon as the parties begin to see their settlements, finding, probably, the country a wilderness. Desolation and war had "made a desert and called it peace." They think waste land has been erroneously returned as profitable, for which, of course, "the Doctor" is to blame. His answers are perfectly satisfactory: the gain would have been comparatively inconsiderable, and to no one but himself, who had no means of doing the wrong; the distinction being made by the local surveyor, not in Dublin. To this he adverts in his "Reflections": "Can any man say I ever altered the returns made unto me? changed profitable into unprofitable lands? altered any field-books, expunged any observation? chopped or changed in the least"? And again, "I contracted with my surveyors, by that most impartial, just, and never before thought of way, of the mile in length, and not by the thousand acres of superficial extent." Nor were the surveyors paid more for measurements in one class of land than in another. The average proportion between profitable and unprofitable land, which he gives as seven to one, appears indeed excessive when compared with the proportion between "arable" and "uncultivated" in the tables of the census of 1841, p. 453, which give about five and a half to one in Leinster, two to one in Munster, two to one in Ulster; but unprofitable and uncultivated are by no means synonymous terms, as much of the latter is profitable for pasture. This complaint was the same which the Doctor had made against the former survey; and it would perhaps have been more satisfactory to all parties if the Doctor's original offer of a gross sum for the whole had been accepted. The man must be very sceptical who can retain any doubt on these complaints after reading the first three pages of this chapter.
The complaint appears to have been more especially pressed in regard to the county of Kerry, which was doubtless doubly desolate, having suffered severely by the earlier Desmond wars. The Doctor's return of 400,000 profitable acres in that county may not have been too great. In 1841 it is stated to have contained 414,000, arable, and in the Land Improvement Commissioners' Digest, p. 585, 400,000 more is said to be improvable, but the "pathetical, though plain, narrative of Lewis Smith," who surveyed it, shows the almost impossibility of distinguishing the classes of land in the state they then were. So that we may fairly attribute the difficulties of distributing that county to the causes stated by Dr. Petty, rather than to any defect in the survey.
On the whole, after all the disputes on this subject, and those between the committees of the several provinces in regard to their allotments, the Lord Deputy and council, on the 20th of May, 1656, directed that the army should appoint trustees for the purpose of the distribution, in conformity with an ordinance of the Protector's council of the 2nd of September, 1654, which was accordingly done, and Dr. Petty was named as one of them. The order of the Lord Deputy and council, of the 20th of May, 1656, further enjoined that the survey "within the provinces already admeasured by Dr. Petty, be adopted by the army, according to the contents of the survey returned by the said Doctor."
The survey, therefore, was pronounced sufficient, and Dr. Petty, so far from being personally objectionable to the army, was, at their own recommendation, nominated one of their trustees for subdivision and allotment.
There is in this, as in former chapters, some confusion in the dates of documents, and some of those quoted or referred to, are not given. But in all these cases, the missing papers are either recapitulated in those which refer or reply to them, or are so obvious from the context as to leave no ultimate obscurity.
At p. 81, "when as" should be "whereas," At p. 86, line 5, a resolution of the council, dated 9th of May, 1656, and in line 30, a paper of the same date, signed by Sir H. Waller, are referred to. These are not given; but at p. 91, fourth line from the bottom, the former is again mentioned, and by reference to the commission from the council, referred to in the last line of the same page, the substance of both the papers of the 9th of the same month will be found recapitulated.
The resolve of the general council of the 6th of April, 1654, referred to at p. 89, fourteenth line from the bottom, is not given. At p. 91, the words, "see page 70, 71," probably refer to pages in some copy of the Act of the 26th of September, 1653, not now known. The sixteenth and seventeenth pages of the resolves of the general council and of the agents of the province of Munster probably relate to pages of certain council-books of the committee of officers. A few of these curious books are extant, and preserved in the Paymaster of Civil Services' Office.
At p. 100, line 9, the words "wee could ten or twenty acres to be worth one" are so written in the MSS. Some word is probably omitted.
CHAPTER XI.
Pages 103-156.
In the month of March, 1656, thirteen months after its commencement, dated from 1st February, 1655 (see p. 46), Dr. Petty, having completed the survey, "soe far as concernes my engagement," made application to the Council, as to what examination of the work, and what certificate, were considered necessary before payment was made to him, for which he felt obliged to press, that he might close with, and discharge his surveyors and assistants; for the consideration of which the council, on the 10th of March, appointed a committee, which met on the 11th, to deliberate. Colonel Thomlinson, a member of council, in the chair; after which, on the same day, the committee was re-appointed, with the omission of Colonel Hewson, Colonel Sankey, Colonel Lawrence, and Mr. Worsley; but on the 13th, Mr. Worsley was directed to attend ex officio, and on the 17th the committee reported favourably of the work, having examined, vivâ voce, several of the persons employed, and inspected their field-books, plots, &c. This report is curious, as detailing the mode of proceeding, and the various checks devised by Dr. Petty. It forms, in fact, a pendant to the "Briefe Accompt." On the I5th (? 18th), however, an order issued to Mr. Worsley, to examine and cast up the several plots and books, and "see that the same be duly perfected and returned according to the articles of agreement and contract, or otherwise to state and present the defects of the survey to this board."
This Mr. Worsley undertook to perform in three months. It occupied, however, till the 18th of August, when he presented a report alleging various deficiencies. Dr. Petty replied in great detail, and it must be admitted satisfactorily, indeed triumphantly, for whatever blemishes or shortcomings might be detected in so great a work, performed with such extraordinary rapidity, over so great an extent of country at the same time, there can be no doubt that, on the whole, it exceeded the articles of agreement, and that the delay which will be seen to have taken place in the payment, was vexatious and unjust. Obstructions were probably anticipated from the first committee. It obviously made no progress, and the fact of Colonel Thomlinson, who was not a member of the committee, being in the chair, as a member of council, "as well for the Doctor's credit as for the State's advantage," makes it probable that the exclusion of Colonel Sankey and others, and the attendance of Mr. Worsley at the second committee only as Surveyor-General, was the result of this apprehension. It led, on the contrary, as is usually the case, to yet further delay, from which, however, Dr. Petty emerged more fully at last, as all the objections produced no effect upon the council, and gave rise to the very satisfactory replies of the Doctor, after which he again addressed the council, urging his claim to an early settlement, stating the circumstances under which he entered upon the work, and the difficulties he had to encounter: by want of abstracts of the lands to be surveyed, and, by their imperfection, preventing his distributing his force to the best advantage. The Church and Crown lands having been added afterwards, at a lower rate, though charged with the same amount of repayment from him to the former surveyors; the difficulty of identifying them; the abstracts having been supplied piecemeal, thus obliging him to send parties backwards and forwards; as hard as if the "master of a shipp, who had contracted to export one hundred tun of goods," were "bound to make a hundred voyages to performe it;" sometimes robbed by his workmen, without time to wait for redress; the want of meresmen and guards, from the rapid "transplantation," and the sending away of the troops to England and Scotland; the peculiar wetness of the season, especially at the beginning of the work, when he was urged to expedition, and when the men, being inexperienced, became discouraged, and this at the same time as the dispute about the forty acre parcels, adverted to in the sixth chapter. In several cases he had done more than he was required, and given more detail. He had encountered peculiar difficulties in the county of Dublin: delayed by the urgency of the soldiers with his surveyors, sometimes to survey one lot, sometimes another. He had surveyed Carlow and Kildare without the aid of the civil survey at all; had received his advance payments in base Spanish money; had lost much time from the subdivision not having been, as intended, contemporaneous with the survey. He also pleads the low scale of remuneration on which he had undertaken the work, more especially to the State, more than half being paid by the army at his own instance; represents having to pay the old surveyors, a great hardship, as their operation ought rather to have been considered an unsuccessful experiment on the part of the State, and borne as a public loss. He only asks the same consideration he has always given to those under him.
This was followed, as was no more than just, by an immediate order of the council, dated 7th November, 1656, referring to their order of 15th May, and Mr. Worsley's report, but making no comment upon it, and directing the persons who had been employed by Mr. Worsley in making the examination, to attend the board with a "perfect and particular accompt of the contents of the several baronyes which the said Doctor hath admeasured," for the consideration of the council.
While this was in preparation, the Doctor, at the instance of the council, condensed his applications into the following heads: —
- That his survey be accepted;
That his securities be released by March next;
That he be paid before the lands are finally given out to the army;
That his accounts be not delayed for the final subdivision; and
Claiming remission of a considerable part of the repayment to the old surveyors;
- That his survey be accepted;
each of which he supported by good and sufficient reasons in detail.
The first was granted on the 16th of May. The second had been referred to the Attorney-General. The council, by order of the 12th November, 1656, referred the third and fourth to the auditors of the Exchequer, and the last to a committee, to consider and report upon.
The Doctor then prayed that his payment be not delayed on account of this latter question, but that the deduction to be made for repayments, may stand over till his final settlement for counties subsequently surveyed, and for the Church and glebe lands, which prayer was also referred to a committee for inquiry, that the same may be respited, and the account pass as desired, which was accordingly ordered on the 24th of November, 1656.
By this time the persons ordered on the 7th of November to "attend the board with a perfect and particular accompt of the contents of the several baronyes," had completed their return, which, on the 27th of November, was sworn before "Miles Corbett," on which the auditors of the Exchequer finally reported a sum of £3784 15s. 4½d. due to Dr. Petty, in addition to the sum of £13,057 17s. 3d. already paid, which the council approved on the 28th of November.
This general account being passed, the survey of Limerick, Carlow, and Wicklow, subsequently surveyed, were submitted to the same examination and scrutiny, and passed to the auditors of the Exchequer in reference to the repayments to the old surveyors, which were to be charged against the payment of £1533 8s. 6d. for those counties, on a due balance of which accounts it was reported by the auditors, that the Doctor had to repay to the State the sum of £422 10s., which the council remitted, on consideration of the circumstances stated by him, still retaining the right to claim it if found necessary, by subsequent deduction on any other account.
It is to be observed, that the tables in this chapter, at pp. 137, &c., were incorrect in all the manuscripts, but as there was no certainty whether the errors were in the totals or in the details, it was resolved to print them as they were, rather than attempt any corrections. Subsequently, however, a contemporary entry has been found among the books of the late Surveyor-General's office, now preserved in the office of the Paymaster of Civil Services, and in this case therefore it has been thought desirable to depart from the rule of making no corrections which were not in one or other of the manuscripts, and the tables in question are corrected from the authentic document.
By these tables, and the summary in the text which follows them, it will be seen that the sums thus passed as due to Dr. Petty, were £16,842 12s. 7½d., and £1533 8s. 6d., and £156 7s. 3d., making in all £18,532 8s. 4½d., for the detail survey of 3,521,181a. 2r. 29p., under the several heads of profitable, unprofitable, church, and other lands, including also £1000 for the separate set of barony maps. Out of this sum was deducted £1533 8s. 6d. for the old surveyors, and he had to pay his own surveyors, and all other expenses of the survey. He appears to have received the whole in money, except the deduction for the old surveyors, and £614 8s. 9d., which could not be collected from the army, and was afterwards commuted in land; the details of which will be found in the twelfth and fifteenth chapters.
This was the whole amount of surveying and payment included in Dr. Petty's contract of the 11th of December, 1654. For the adventurers' survey and other surveys performed jointly by himself and Mr. Worsley, under the order of the 3rd of September, 1656, given in the Appendix, he appears to have been merely paid a small sum for superintendence. The extent of these surveys is not stated, but they could not have contained on the whole less than a million and a half of acres.
The opening paragraph of this chapter, is one of many places in which the Doctor speaks both in the first and third person. In this instance, the narrative approaches to the epistolary style in which the "Reflections" are written, and it is indeed probable, as conjectured by Mr. Weale, that much of it was communicated in that form, either to Sir Robert Southwell or Sir Richard Cox, from the latter of whom, there is preserved in the manuscript volume already quoted, in the possession of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, the original draft of a letter to Sir Robert Southwell, dated the 15th of June, 1687, containing very judicious remarks on another of Sir William's works, the Political Anatomy of Ireland, from which their habitual correspondence, and the high estimation in which Sir William Petty was held by those learned men, may be seen.
At p. 104, fourth line from foot, for petitioners, read petitioner.
At p. 132, fifth line from foot, for proportion, read proposition.
CHAPTER XII.
Pages 157-166.
These pages are chiefly occupied with the times and manner in which the several payments were made to Dr. Petty, as well by the State, on its own part, as on the part of the army, of the penny an acre, agreed to by the committee of officers, on the 11th December, 1654. This latter, as well as the former, appears to have been advanced to him by the State, and deducted from the accruing pay of the soldiers and officers, and if the original intention of settling the men upon their lands, regiment by regiment, concurrently with the survey, could have been carried out, the payment would have been easily closed. But in two years, at such a period, it may well be supposed, frequent changes would take place among the troops, some being moved to England and elsewhere, and many irregularly set down as they were disbanded, or dispersed here and there, in some cases before the survey was complete. Accordingly, in February, 1657, there remained due to Dr. Petty £614 8s. 9d., which could not be raised from the army then in pay, and for this amount two modes of paying him were proposed, either to remit an equal amount of the repayment to be made by him for the old surveyors, or allow him to collect the sum himself from the soldiers and settled men, from whom it was due, with some addition for his trouble. The latter would obviously be a difficult process, but there was a considerable sum due on that account by the same parties to the State, which the State despaired of collecting, and this debt it was proposed to make over to him to collect for his own benefit, in compensation for the labour of collecting the £614 8s. 9d., increasing that sum to £3181 14s. 3d. To this the Doctor agreed, finding probably that money was scarce in the coffers of the State. He took, in fact, an addition to a bad debt, in lieu of payment of the debt itself. But it will be seen that he afterwards turned it to good account, having been paid in great part in land; and several years afterwards, subsequently to the Restoration, we shall find him petitioning the King on the same subject, in regard to the adventurers' lands, and in connexion with the completion of the maps; when, in 1666, a clause was inserted in the Act of Explanation, giving him powers of levying this penny an acre by seizure and distraint on the lands from which it was still considered due.
Dr. Petty certainly possessed the faculty of turning disadvantages to account, of which this is an example. It was forced upon him partly by his having to pay the old surveyors, instead of the expense of their operations being charged to the public as a failure of the State, or of the State officers, who employed them before Dr. Petty's work began; and partly by the mixed system of payment by the State and by the army, instead of wholly by the former, as one general contract. To this form it came at last, being recognised as a debt due from the land, whether before or after the soldiers were settled on it. (See also notes on chapter XV).
In this chapter, again, at page 157, the order of the committee of officers is referred to as 18th, instead of 11th December, 1654, but in the following page the date is correct.
CHAPTER XIII.
Pages 166-184.
This chapter is wholly occupied with the giving back of the Doctor's contract, on the expiration of a twelvemonth from the close of his work, his application for which had been referred to the Attorney-General, on the 23rd of February, 1657, who, on the 13th of April following, recommended that it should be given back, and the sureties released. The council, however, ordered that it should be deferred till one year, from the 1st of October, last past. To this the Doctor presented a strong remonstrance, without date, but which from the context appears to have been between May and July. His first application was grounded on the year having elapsed, during which, by his agreement, complaints were to be received. He now pleads that, if such be not admitted, there is no other date which can reasonably be fixed, as any such date must have reference to the allotment and distribution of the lands, not to the survey itself, which was completed in the prescribed time, and that such allotment in no way depended on him, he having been always ready to perform his part in it, as will have been seen by the former chapters. He alludes to the jealousy with which he had been viewed; to the absence of complaints against his own conduct of the work, or that of the "unruly multitude of instruments" he had been forced to employ. He represents that he will be less able to serve with advantage in his present arduous duty of distribution, if he appear under their lordships' displeasure, and finally adds, if such be thought necessary, that when his present bonds are released, he is ready to give further security for what may still be required of him, provided reasonable consideration be given him for such extra assurance. This remonstrance was supported by a petition to the same effect from the officers, agents, and others, and the demand was so reasonable and just that it could not but be granted. Accordingly, it was so ordered by the council, under date the 17th of June, and on the 24th of June the Doctor delivered into the Exchequer "all books, with the respective mapps, well drawne and adorned, being duly engrossed, bound up, and distinguished, placed in a noble depository of carved worke." On the 18th of December following he was, by an order in council of that date, "fully discharged." This "noble depository" would have been a curious relic, but it cannot now be found, having no doubt shared the destruction of the many more valuable matters, in the fire of 1711, at the Surveyor-General's office. That office is understood to have been near the old Custom-house on Essex-quay, in a building called "The Elephant," possibly from having before been an inn or shop with that sign. (Whitelaw and Walsh).
At page 179, the words "In June" ought to open a new paragraph, the petition closing and the narrative being resumed.
At page 181, thirteen lines from foot, "secluded" ought to be "excluded."
CHAPTER XIV.
Pages 184-211.
We now open a new page in the history of Dr. Petty. The great work of the "Downe admeasurement" being completed, the survey was to be applied systematically to the purpose for which it had been made. This purpose, indeed, had already been to some extent accomplished, but in a manner so irregular that it led to much subsequent confusion, and leaves no doubt it would have been effected more satisfactorily, if it had been possible either to defer the whole operation till the preliminary labours of the survey were complete, or wholly to have done it, pari passu, with that work, as originally intended; which latter, indeed, was clearly impracticable as a final settlement, though it would have caused less irregularity than the mode which, on the urgency of the parties, was adopted; because the whole lands and the whole survey were really the co-equal units, not any one county or barony with any one regiment or troop.
It was indeed fortunate that, even at this eleventh hour, the great abilities and knowledge of Dr. Petty were available; and the arrangements detailed in this chapter show the characteristics of his peculiar mind, and faculty of order.
The second paragraph of the chapter exhibits in a few words the general view which, with a master's eye, he took of the whole operation, as well that which was done, as what remained to be done. The whole forfeited land set aside for the army, was destined to pay the whole army debt at certain values, specified by the Act (as given in the notes to chapter V.), and it was necessary the whole should be cast or recast in one crucible, that all might share alike. Accordingly, setting aside the enhanced rates at which the debt of the former settled parties had been redeemed, their prayer for additional compensation, and the remonstrance of the army against it, he appears to have computed the claims of the whole army as if one uniform distribution had been made, and then considered each as having received or being about to receive such or such a "quota pars," in order to make up the deficient, and pare down the redundant, to the same rate in the pound on their respective claims.
In this there were of course many practical difficulties. The early settlements had been made irregularly, and no "accompt of what was then done ever did appeare as a light unto what was further to be done;" others had been satisfied to their full allowance, who, nevertheless, left "many scraps of baronies, the which were imperfectly sett downe." The court of claims had been sitting and adjudicating. Commissioners for stating new debentures, and for making compositions, "were at this time all and every of them acting respectively." The committee of six officers, appointed on the 20th of May, 1656 (see p. 85), had failed also to compose the differences arising among the officers.
Such was "the ragged condition the affaire was in by reason of the preceding irregular, and indeed somewhat obscure, actings, anno 1653 and 1655, and other uncertainties of debt and credit, as also of the clashing interests," when Dr. Petty 's new labours began.
He first restored the whole army, by calculation, to the state it was in 1654, when they cast their lots; then ascertained what lands were disposable, in pursuance of all Acts of Parliament and ensuing orders of council, separating those, which for any cause it was necessary to reserve, from the remainder which were disposable, obtaining the immediate authority of the council on doubtful points, and the concurrence of the army by adjustments among themselves, when such would afford satisfaction and facility.
The several steps of all these proceedings are fully and methodically related in the paper addressed to the council, pp. 191–5, in three great heads,—the debt, the credit, and the books of account.
Somewhat later, proceeding with the concurrence of the army, expressed through its agents, the commissioners submit certain doubts to the council on the 23rd of January, 1657, in three heads,—as to preference in setting out the few remaining lands, as to setting out the dubious lands, and as to the letters of possession to be given with the lands,—in which paper, among other things, they state that "there are not now neer lands enough left to satisfy all that appeares, much less all that may," praying "orders as to Kildare, hoping for a just account of such as received lands in 1653," and calculating upon a surplusage of the adventurers' lands in Louth, of which a moiety, it will be remembered, was set aside with their moiety of the "ten counties," towards the satisfaction of their claim of £360,000, which it will be necessary again to advert to, and to which reference is also made at p. 68, where the committee of officers pray that their share of Louth may be set out to them at once, rather than wait till the ten counties were adjusted between them and the adventurers. The queries are answered at length in three orders of the council, dated the 4th of February, and 6th and 9th of April; the latter containing a form of conveyance.
The adjustment and equalization of rates and values, referred to in this and other chapters, are succinctly described by Dr. Petty in his Political Anatomy (p. 341, Dublin edition): "Now as to the value of these lands, they were, anno 1642, rated to and by the adventurers as followeth, viz.: in Leinster at 12s. an acre, in Munster, 9s., in Connaught at 6s., and in Ulster at 4s., and to pay one farthing per acre quitt rent to the King out of each shilling's worth of land so rated, viz.; 3d. or 12 farthings for one acre in Leinster, rated at 12s.; 2¼d. an acre for lands in Munster, rated at 9s., &c. Wood, bog, and mountain, to be cast in over and above."
"Afterwards the soldiers, who were to have the satisfaction of their arrears at the same rate, not being willing to cast lots upon such desperate hazards, did, anno 1653, equalize counties within each province, viz., took some in Leinster at £1 2s. per acre, some at £1, &c., and those who were satisfied anno 1655, and afterwards did equalize, not only counties, but baronies also, valuing some baronies in Leinster at £1 4s. per acre, and some but at 6s., and others at all rates between these two extremes. But so as, notwithstanding all the said differences, the whole province should be given and taken at 12s. per acre, according to the then law, and the inequality remaining after this equalization was to be corrected by a lot." With the orders of council last quoted, Dr. Petty for the present closes his account of the distribution,—a work so great that, as he says at the beginning of this chapter, "to doe the same perfectly would require a treatise by itselfe;" but of which the outline and general arrangements may be gathered from what he has here left us, although the details and actual operation may well be seen to be "one hundred times bigger and more difficult than in this orderly description it will probably be conceived to be." In truth it is difficult to imagine a work more full of perplexity and uncertainty than to locate 32,000 officers, soldiers, and followers, with adventurers, settlers, and creditors of every kind and class, having different and uncertain claims on lands of different and uncertain value, in detached parcels sprinkled over two-thirds of the surface of Ireland. Nor, as he subsequently experienced, a task more thankless in the eyes of the contemporary million. It was for his comfort that he obtained and kept the good opinion of those who were unprejudiced and impartial.
During this period, however, Dr. Petty had received various grants of lands himself, in satisfaction of his debts and claims, for which he found little chance of obtaining payment in money. The details of these transactions are given in the following chapter, but it appears to have produced much angry remark, and to have increased the jealousy with which he was already viewed. The Doctor's description of his position, in the last pages of this chapter, is at once so humorous, and in many respects so true, that, while it will awaken the sympathy of all who can appreciate the difficulties he had to encounter, and the jealousy and misrepresentation from which he suffered, it is at the same time cheering as exhibiting the firm heart and buoyant spirit which carried him through them all.
At p. 184, " 17th of July" should be " 7th of July."
At p. 188, "roots and perches" should be "roods and perches."
At p. 189, " 6thly" is manifestly "7thly;" but so in MS.
At p. 192, "sett out in the barony of Carey" should be "not sett out," &c.
At p. 186 reference is made to two resolutions of general councils, viz.: of November, 1653, and April, 1654, which are stated to be "extant in print," but of which no copy has been discovered. In this, however, as in many other cases throughout the work, where papers referred to are not given in the narrative, the substance is easily collected either by the reference to them, the context, or the comments to which they give rise.
At p. 195, the same word, "overseen," applied to Mr. Worsley in p. 44, occurs. In this case it obviously means "overlooked." The meaning is probably the same in the former case, but the phrase is less intelligible.
CHAPTER XV.
Pages 211-227.
At the close of the last chapter Dr. Petty states the necessity of his going to London, to confer with the commissioners there sitting on the claims of the adventurers, but postpones the narrative of that journey till he should first detail the circumstances which led him to become the possessor of lands in Ireland. He states that surprise was commonly expressed at his not investing his money in the country in which he had gained it, and that his not doing so was attributed to erroneous motives, rather than the real one, which was the desire to keep himself "free and clear from all kind of partiality and injustice," and that, being desirous of "being really a benefactor to the same land whereon God had already blessed his endeavours," he began to think of buying debentures, which being "both scarce and deere," led him to propose another mode, and, finding as much profitable land yet undisposed of as would entitle him to "neer £3000," at the one penny per acre he was to have for the survey of it from the army, forming a portion of the uncollected debts made over to him in lieu of the £614 8s. 9d., due on other accounts, by order of the council, on the 11th February, 1656 (page 163), and conceiving that in equity the money was rather due from the land than from "individui vagi," petitioned the council to be satisfied in land for the otherwise bad debt of one penny per acre, to be allowed to expend £1000 in debentures, to redeem lands mortgaged for more than their value, and to choose the lands he should so possess, which the council, by order of the 6th March, authorized.
Of these, the first was certainly a great improvement on the hopeless penny an acre. The second required the sanction of the council, by the Act which prohibited all surveyors or others employed in carrying it out, from themselves purchasing debentures, but allowed public debts to be discharged in lands; and, the third was an exception from the usual system, which, however, he states in the Reflections, had been frequently granted to others.
Yet none of them can be considered inequitable, nor, as he afterwards states, injurious to any party.
These concessions made, the Doctor proceeds with his usual energy to have them carried out, with the utmost care in every detail. The commissioners of distribution accordingly investigate the extent of his claim on account of unpaid pence, which they find amount to £3181 14s., for which, with the £1000 added by himself, they set out to him 9665a. 1r. 6p., profitable lands, with a proportion of unprofitable, in the places chosen by him, conveying the whole nominally for the £1000, on condition that he remit to the army the payment of the £3181 14s., thus making a legal title; and binding him in security of £3000 to certain conditions, which should guard both the Commonwealth and army against any contingent or future injury thereby.
As to the Commonwealth, it was conceived that the odd roods and perches gained by the public in the distribution, with consent of the army (see page 189), and the advantage to the public of the equalization of rates, described in the last chapter, would prove an equivalent for the land thus conveyed; and Dr. Petty bound himself, if such should not prove to be the case, to buy up and bring in debentures, that is, cancel debt to the amount of the difference.
As to the army, if any soldiers should pay in their pennies, he was, in like manner, to bring in debentures to the amount.
Having so far closed this claim, he proceeded to the authority for redeeming mortgages, and, in like manner, to obtain a legal title, it was necessary the lands redeemed should be conveyed as the satisfaction for debentures, for which he obtained authority by an order of the council of 20th May, which, at the same time, however, limits the extent of land so to be redeemed, to 2000 acres in Munster and Leinster, and 1000 in Ulster. Accordingly, the commissioners set out to him those quantities of land, for the nominal price of a debenture, he having redeemed it from mortgage, as permitted, at his own expense.
Again, despairing of obtaining any sufficient recompense in money for his service as commissioner of distribution, "having observed the treasury so low," he applied to the council for payment in land, which they "cheerfully and unanimously" granted, allowing him to purchase £2000 worth of debentures, and permitting him, as before, to select the lands he should receive in satisfaction of them.
The commissioners, in execution of this, set out to Dr. Petty the following lands chosen by him, viz., in the liberties of Limerick, 1653a. 1r.; in the county of Kerry and Parish of Tuosist, 3559a. Or. 31p.; in the county of Meath, near Duleek, 555a. 18r.; and in the same locality, another lot of 250 acres.
The lands thus acquired by Dr. Petty would seem on the whole to amount to nearly 19,000 acres of profitable land, and he closes the chapter by saying he "yett wants satisfaction for above £3000, to make up what was intended him by the above concessions of authority."
This may have reference to the first lands set out, viz., those in satisfaction of the soldier's pence, amounting to £3181 14s. 3d., which, as he elsewhere says, he only "held in pawne," having given security to the amount of £3000 to restore them, or an equivalent if it should become necessary; as no other debt appears to remain unsatisfied, or it may refer to the more exact computation of his claims, given in the seventeenth chapter, which will be adverted to hereafter in the notes on that chapter.
CHAPTER XVI.
Pages 227-257.
This chapter describes the proceedings of Dr. Petty with the committee sitting at Grocers' Hall, for which purpose he was sent to London with letters from the Lord Deputy and council. He found on his arrival much prejudice created against him by an anonymous libel, which had been addressed to the members of the committee, but he removed their unfavourable impressions, and obtained their concurrence in the views he had been sent to lay before them, which appear to have been principally, that the allotments of lands which they had made to adventurers, should be subjected to revision; and that the Doctor's survey of their lands, which was similar to that on which the allotments of the army had been made, should be adopted for those of the adventurers also. This was agreed to after much discussion, and a proposal drawn up for the appointment of a mixed committee, but which, on further consideration, was abandoned by the committee of Goldsmiths' Hall themselves, and an application addressed by them to the Lord Deputy and council, requesting that the whole revision and adjustment be left to Dr. Petty alone. To this, however, a minority objected, and while each party was occupied in supporting its views of the acts and ordinances, and the proceedings which had taken place thereon, the Doctor was summoned back to Ireland by the council to meet certain charges exhibited against him during his absence.
This chapter again refers to the survey of the adventurers' moiety made by Dr. Petty and the Surveyor-General; see pp. 236, 246, 247, more especially; but there is no record of the manner in which it was originally paid for, either to the Doctor or to Mr. Worsley; and there is no statement of the allowance proposed in the latter page having been carried out, the probable profit of which the Doctor appears to have estimated at £2000. See p. 263.
In his will, indeed, as printed, he states that £60 was paid him for directing the after survey of the adventurers' lands, a sum so wholly inconsiderable that it is probably a mistake for some other figure.
At p. 220, last line, " all" should be "allsoe."
At p. 222, thirteenth line from foot, the words "it was" are omitted between " order" and " among," and the comma should be after "provided" instead of before it.
At p. 241, tenth line from foot, the words "the subsequent denomination" ought to be omitted.
Note.—Since writing the above the Editor has been able to refer to a duplicate of the will, among the valuable manuscripts in the possession of Messrs. Hodges and Smith, in which the sum is given in words as "six hundred pounds." Even this is a small sum for so great a work, and makes it probable that the operation did not extend to a survey of the whole moiety reserved for the adventurers, but was merely a revision or completion of some doubtful or defective parts. This duplicate will, bears autograph corrections by Sir William, and the signature appears to be original. It was among the Southwell manuscripts.
CHAPTER XVII.
Pages 257—289.
This chapter opens with Dr. Petty's suspicion, that the death of the Protector, and the design to injure his family and all dependent on them, was now added to the other causes of acrimony against himself, he being then Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, Henry Cromwell, as well as to the council.
The immediate complaint was conveyed in an anonymous letter, which fell into the hands of the Lord Lieutenant, who, desirous of giving Dr. Petty an opportunity of vindicating himself, by bringing the ceaseless complaints against him into a tangible form, made the subject known to the body of officers then in Dublin, some of whom it appears were ill-disposed already towards Dr. Petty; and in compliance with a petition signed by the principal officers, among whom were Sir H. Waller and Sir Charles Coote (which confirms Dr. Petty's opinion that this proceeding was not viewed in an unfriendly spirit by many of the officers), a committee of seven was appointed. This was composed, however, of persons strongly opposed to him. He describes them humorously while he gives their names. Their first demand was merely for the formation of a general book of the distributions, which was ordered by the council on the 24th of January, 1659, but subsequently dropped, as Dr. Petty believes, in consequence of his election to a seat in the Parliament then about to sit, the supposed object of this book being to obtain its confirmation in gross for their own exclusive interests, which he might be able as an English member to prevent, as it was apprehended the Irish members might not be allowed to sit. Dr. Petty, however, not choosing to trust altogether for reason and justice to a "Parliament like to be very factiouse," thought it desirable to state in writing what land he already held, and what claims he considered still to be his due; which he did, addressing it as a claim called an "Humble Address and Demand," to his colleagues in the commission for distribution, by whom it was laid before the council, and at Dr. Petty's instance referred to the seven officers who formed the committee. This, it must be admitted, indicates every desire on Dr. Petty's part to meet and even to invite the fullest inquiry. With perfect fearlessness he carries the war into the enemies' country; and, while his antagonists are disputing his present possessions, he meets them by preferring a claim for more.
It may be argued, however, that this was only intended to lead their attention away from the real question, but if such were the object, it failed, as the dissentient officers in their remonstrance, afterwards fell back on the original ground in nine distinct charges, and it led to a very explicit statement from Dr. Petty, as will shortly be seen.
He accompanied the address and demand with a paper, of which no copy is given, but which we may assume on examination to have been found correct, as the report drawn up in consequence, was in accordance with the Doctor's wishes.
Neither the demand nor the report are easily understood. In the report mention is made of a Mrs. Carey (who for the first time appears in the anonymous letter which led to the inquiry), on whose behalf a joint claim is set forth; and at the close of the report it is stated that no satisfaction appears to have been made to Dr. Petty for his service in the employment of setting out lands, whereas the permission to purchase debentures, in the fourteenth chapter, page 223, though only "untill they would do for him what might answer the end aforementioned," viz., full payment for those services, was itself no inconsiderable boon.
The majority of the seven signed the report, but three objected, and were ordered by the council to put their objections in writing, which was enforced, after another application from Dr. Petty, that a "full and fair tryal" be accorded him.
At length the dissentients delivered their objections, in nine distinct articles, to which Dr. Petty replied in full detail. First, showing that their articles do not bear upon the subjects of the report which they objected to, and are, therefore, not such as they were called on to draw up, and were required to present. But they were in fact nine distinct charges, and he answered each of them in the most ample and complete manner, with a seriousness and exactness proportioned to the importance of the subject, accompanying the whole with a schedule setting forth the several statements, more especially in relation to the third article, as exact matter of account.
In regard to the figures in this schedule, and to these calculations, the Doctor might well apprehend they "would be to strangers troublesome and obscure;" and they certainly are not less so at this day, complicated with the price of debentures at different periods, the "enhanced and depressed" rates of lands, and the "quota pars," besides introducing subjects not elsewhere adverted to, as Mrs. Carey, the lots of regiments in Kerry, and others. Yet few would probably have been found to dissent from the six inferences he draws, or come to any other conclusion than, as he expresses it in his fourth, "that the way of his satisfaction was neither contrary to law or equity, only it was singular and extraordinary," "that he did not choose that way, but was forced on it," and that from these circumstances it was peculiarly liable to jealousy.
It may, perhaps, be regretted that he should have dealt in lands at all, while he was himself a commissioner for distributing them. Such would now be the feeling of a public officer, and such was his own feeling, having long "forbore out of tenderness to deale in land or debentures, till the whole army was satisfied." But it does not appear that he sought the office, and it would have been unreasonable that he should on that account have altogether abstained from purchasing land, or from obtaining that mode of payment, when it seemed possible even that means might fail, from the number of unknown claims of other kinds which were coming in; so many, that he states it was doubtful whether there would be enough land to satisfy them all. And it is to be remembered, that although the Act prohibited all persons employed in connexion with it, from dealing in land without the special consent of the council, it allowed public salaries and public debts to be paid wholly or in part in land, and that such was the general practice. The names of his immediate coadjutors, Gookin, King, Symner, Worsley, nay, every name which appears in this history, appears also in the books of distribution as a possessor of land. His having forborne so long, appears the only peculiarity in that respect, except, indeed, the peculiar knowledge and ability which he brought to bear upon the subject, when once he had entered upon it.
It is clear, however, from the fifteenth chapter, and from this, that he had actually invested £7469, either his own or admittedly due to him, viz., £3181, army debt, and £1000, debentures therewith (p. 217), £1263 in redemption of mortgages (pp. 223—288), and £2025 for labours of distribution, for which 18,482 acres had been set out to him at the usual rates (pp. 225—227). The additional sum, stated to be "above £3000," at page 227, and £3139 here (which are probably the same), arising from comparing what he had, with what he might have had if his employment had not precluded him from dealing in the ordinary way, does not appear to have been then satisfied. There can be no doubt he considered it fairly due, especially in the absence of specific remuneration for his employment as commissioner of distribution, nor any that his extraordinary labours were not on the whole over-requited, compared with many around him, as it can scarcely be doubted that but for his survey and subsequent operations, the lands would not have been surveyed or set out before the Restoration. But neither is it to be wondered at, that to persons not conversant with the circumstances, nor acquainted with the peculiarities of his case, it might have appeared extreme and irregular. For example, the £3181 was indemnified fully in land, but it appeared to represent only £614 of real debt, and the 9665 acres given in requital for the £3181 and £1000 debentures, would seem conveyed for the £1000 only; the 3000 acres of redeemed land, also, would appear conveyed for half-a-crown, yet in both cases the full amount was paid, and the smaller sums merely satisfied the technicalities of title.
We are not even now in possession of all the circumstances. Dr. Petty writes with his mind full and clear upon his subject, but presupposes much knowledge in his reader, then common, but now lost. The soldiers' pence would seem to have been fully satisfied by the 9665 acres, and the right subsequently given by the Act of Settlement on that account, related only to the adventurers' lands, yet that Act recognises his former services as a commissioner of distribution being still unrequited. The boldness with which he defended his acquisitions may be inferred from the successful issue of a suit on his part against even the Duke of Ormond, mentioned by Carte, vol. II. p. 393, and all this could not have taken place after the Restoration, if there had been doubt of the former probity and correctness of his conduct, or ground for the charges or articles of impeachment.
To the personal character of Dr. Petty, this chapter is among the most important in the history. It belongs, indeed, rather to that subject, than to the history of the survey, yet it would be improper even here to pass it without these few remarks. And it is fortunate that the proceedings in Dublin led him to place even these facts on record, as subsequent events crowded on too rapidly to allow any judicial conclusion to be come to, for his exculpation and satisfaction. He earnestly desired that all proceedings on the subject "may be published in print," very properly remarking, page 279, that "without this, these proceedings, which may bee a ruine to your petitioner, will be but sport to his adversaryes, allthough they miscarry, they staking nothing to your petitioners whole estate and reputation."
Thus far all was in a fair course of being brought to issue in Ireland, where all parties could be made cognizant of the circumstances, and Dr. Petty 's exculpation or the reverse would probably have been complete, but suddenly the venue was changed to London, by charges exhibited in Parliament by Sir Jerome Sankey, which Dr. Petty, himself a member of the House, was summoned to take his seat, in order to answer.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Pages 289—307.
On the 26th of March, 1659, Dr. Petty, when all was ready for his long-desired trial in Dublin, was called to London by the Speaker's order of the 26th of March, 1659, having been furnished with a copy of the articles presented against him by Sir Jerome Sankey.
The only definite charge was, that, contrary to the Act, he had "made it his trade to purchase debentures," he "being then the chief surveyor;" the others, though of serious import, were general, requiring minute evidence to support them, such as a committee in our own day would inquire into.
Dr. Petty took his seat on the 19th, and answered on the 21st of April, in a maiden speech, reported, it is true, by himself, but temperate, and quite consistent with the facts and circumstances which the preceding narrative will make all readers acquainted with. Sir Jerome's reply is characterized by the ludicrous vehemence and anger which the Doctor always describes as his peculiarity; but it must be remembered we have not his own report of it, and the dissolution of the Parliament prevented any further proceedings.
The attack was renewed by Sir Jerome in the Long Parliament, which re-assembled in May, his adversaries hoping, as the Doctor believed, to deprive him of the "benefit of the Act of Indempnity then passing;" and on this occasion it assumes the formidable designation of "articles of high misdemeanour, frauds," &c., which are expressed at great length.
On which it is "ordered by the Parliament that they be referred to the Commissioners for managing the government in Ireland," and the said Commissioners were "fully authorized to hear and determine the same."
This reference to the authorities in Ireland, would have restored matters to the state they were in before, but political events crowded rapidly on, and in the "Reflections," where copious answers to the several articles are given, the Doctor informs us that "Sir Jerome keeps off my trial in Ireland, never so much as delivering the articles and the Parliament's order of reference unto the referees appointed, yet sends me false alarms to discompose my affaires and negociations in England, and threatened upon the army's owning the northern brigade's proposals, promoted by himself, but distasted by the Parliament, to give me no quarter," &c.
We know from the history of the period that Sir Jerome took a prominent part in the proceedings of the army, during the short interval it assumed high power at the close of 1659. In the Parliamentary History, vol. xxii., p. 3, his name appears first of twelve who sign the circular letters constituting and calling together the committee of safety. And in De Larrey's Histoire d'Angleterre, vol. iv. p. 375, we find him commanding the Irish Brigade in Lambert's army in the north of England. Sir Charles Coote, who appears to have been always friendly to Dr. Petty, sided with the Parliament and Monke. The Restoration and the Act of Settlement speedily followed, and we hear no more of the impeachment or misdemeanours, which, if the memory of them had not been preserved by Dr. Petty himself, would probably have been long since forgotten altogether.
Not so the survey, which will always remain one of the most remarkable undertakings of which we have any record. We are not to estimate its merits as a topographical work, by the precision which has been attained in modern times, nor test it by comparison with modern surveys, but with those which had gone before, and which it immediately replaced, as well as the circumstances under which it was executed, and the short time in which the whole operation was performed.
Before the time of Petty, except the material compiled into the early maps of Ireland by Boazio, Ortelius, Norden, Blaeu, and others, the only detailed surveys of any magnitude were those of the King's and Queen's Counties, about 1630; the county of Londonderry, by Raven; and the Strafford Survey. Worsley was carrying on the surveys for grants and forfeitures, which have been sufficiently adverted to already as "grosse surrounds;" but it remained for Dr. Petty, to originate the idea of connecting the separate operations, into a general survey of the three provinces which were not comprised in the Strafford Survey. His great step was making territorial and natural boundaries the main objects, instead of estate boundaries alone; because the former were permanent and enduring, the latter in their nature fluctuating, and destined to change by the very purpose for which the survey itself was made.
The insertion which he enjoined of prominent buildings and objects, the heights of remarkable mountains, the more general information in regard to harbours, roads, and communications, were the result of the general, and, it is not too much to say, enlarged views he took of the work before him. The division of labour, first between office and field-work, and then between operative and directing ability; the forethought, apparent even in the minutest particulars, mark Dr. Petty as possessing the faculty which would probably have commanded success in any undertaking or career to which he had devoted himself.
That he should have ventured upon one so remote from anything to which his attention had previously been directed, may be taken as great boldness on his part, but it enhances our surprise at the success of the work. It would be no easy task in our own day, to accomplish in thirteen months, even a traverse survey in outline, of 5,000,000 acres in small divisions, and it was immeasurably greater then. But then, as now, the difficulties of the director of such an operation did not lie in the work itself. They arose from the obstructions thrown around him, by ignorance on the one hand and jealousy on the other; without any power possessing sufficient knowledge, strength, and general control, to afford protection and support. Enmity is always more active than friendship, and the few who feel or fancy themselves injured, are far more clamorous, and more heard, than the many who are honestly served and satisfied.
The true appeal is to the quiet force of public opinion, as time moves on, and anger gradually subsides; and from that tribunal the award has long been favourable to the work of Dr. Petty. It stands to this day, with the accompanying books of distribution, the legal record of the title on which half the land of Ireland is held; and for the purpose to which it was and is applied, it remains sufficient. To the rapidity with which it was executed, the adventurers and soldiers are indebted for the Act of Satisfaction having been carried out. At the rate of progress of the former surveys, the distribution could not have been completed before the Restoration, when the lands would have been deemed indeed forfeited to the King, and their former proprietors deprived, but the distribution would probably have been very different. Some years afterwards, Sir William combined his maps, and engraved a county series, in the frontispiece to which, it may be observed, is the only portrait of him known to exist. This engraving is mentioned by Walpole, but the original picture is lost. For a general map of Ireland he felt the want, either of triangulation, or of latitudes and longitudes, to connect the counties and smaller divisions, and it was the end of the next century, before such a map, worthy to be so called, was constructed by Dr. Beaufort.
The more modern labours of the Ordnance Survey are too familiar to render any notice of them here necessary, if it were not wholly out of place to speak of them in detail, and the time is, perhaps, not come for doing so with advantage. They were very similar in many respects, as well of difficulties and obstructions, as in the modes of meeting them, to the work we have been considering, after a lapse of two hundred years; but they had their origin in peace, and for their object the improvement of the country, and the adjustment of its local burthens, instead of war, confiscation, and allotment.
The volume closes, indeed abruptly, at the period of greatest importance to Dr. Petty; but the facts and statements of both parties are set forth, and at the close of the "Reflections" so often quoted, he writes, "that although Sir Hierome and Mr. Worsley have calumniated me with most monstrous imputations, and have possessed many with a belief of them, yet no man to the present day ever taxed me with the least to my face; the which if any person shall think it worth his pains to do hereafter, I shall willingly give a meeting to hear him, or to prove any of the particulars to which I have alluded in this discourse. And I desire all now in power, especially such who, as I had, have the dispensing of benefits to multitudes, by way of antidote to themselves, to procure a fair hearing of Sir Hierome's articles, as also of my services and sufferings in Ireland, that I or my adversaries may be repaired or punished according to our respective demerits; I desire the same also from the curious in general, viz., that they would examine whether there must be fire, that is guilt, where there hath been so much smoak of calumny, for my enemies do not hate my work, but envy my wages. They labour to confirm the one, and yet to destroy my claim of the other. I suffer, not because I sin, but because I would not sin, and serve particular interests.
" ' Non mihi culpa nocuit, sed invidia.' "
It is possible no conclusion more satisfactory might, in the heat of that time, have been arrived at. Dr. Petty probably intended to continue the narrative in more detail in regard to his arrangements for the distribution of lands, as intimated in the fourteenth chapter, but it is not known that he ever did so. His Political Anatomy of Ireland, and other works, however, contain the results of the thought and calculations to which he was led by these duties, and his public life did not terminate with the Commonwealth. Immediately after the Restoration his knowledge and ability were again useful, and he was one of the commissioners for carrying out the instructions of the Act of Settlement. By the 101st clause of that Act his property was confirmed to him, as held on the 7th of May, 1659. By several clauses the survey was recognised as the authentic document of reference for the purpose of settlement and claims, the Act not allowing dissatisfied parties to call for other surveys, unless errors of more than one-tenth were discovered in it.
In the Act of Explanation, again, by the 55th clause, his titles were confirmed; and his claim to the unpaid penny an acre on certain adventurers' lands, was recognised by the 100th clause, with powers for its enforcement, "for his better encouragement to finish the maps and description of this Kingdom."
His petitions to the King in 1661, 1664, and 1666, on these points, as well as for remuneration for his former services as a commissioner of distribution, are among the valuable papers in the charge of Sir William Betham, in the Record Tower of Dublin Castle. Of the description of Ireland, it is to be presumed the various topographical memoirs which he collected from time to time were to form parts; and the survey gave him immense facilities for collecting exact information. The effort to extend the maps to a real survey, by this collection and publication of memoirs in connexion with it, had also its analogy in the Ordnance Survey, in which also the effort failed. Governments, like men, are apt to measure the value of a thing by its cost, instead of its results, by what produces it, instead of by what it will produce,—"will bring" (less wise in that respect than Sir Hudibras!) Many may dissent from the views taken in the Political Anatomy, but none will deny of what value it would be to us, if the local state and circumstances of every district at that time, had been placed on record. Dr. Petty saw clearly that a map alone is not a survey, though it is the indispensable basis of such a work, O'Flaherty's Description of West Connaught, recently edited for our Society by our learned colleague, Mr. Hardiman, has preserved for posterity the effort of Dr. Petty in this direction; while the Memoir of Templemore, and the numerous historical papers collected and preserved in the Office of the Ordnance Survey, will remain to show that similar efforts were made in connexion with the more modern work; and the Geology of Londonderry, with the Museum of Natural History, evince the extension of the subject to those branches of science which at the date of the former survey were unknown or in their infancy.
In 1660, while the Long Parliament was still sitting, we find Dr. Petty's name occur, not answering malicious charges in that assembly, but in Pepys' Diary, on the evening of the 10th March, "at the coffee-house with a great confluence of gentlemen, where admirable discourse till nine at night." Here is probably a germ of the Royal Society, of which the Doctor was an early and distinguished member. The notice stands, with the usual grotesqueness of Pepys' motley narrative, in the midst of political turmoil.
In April, 1661, Dr. Petty was knighted at Whitehall, and about the same time purchased a house in London, where he thenceforward resided frequently. The diaries of Pepys and Evelyn contain frequent mention of his name, and among other things of his double ship, which was navigated to the Thames in 1663; when, again Pepys,—"at the Coffee-house, where I met with Sir George Ascue and Sir William Petty, who in discourse is, methinks, one of the most rational men that ever I heard speak with a tongue, having all his notions most distinct and clear."
Being now free from "surveys and distributions, and other disobliging trinkets" (see Reflections, p. 11), he was at leisure to devote himself to liberal and useful arts, and to enjoy the society in which he took pleasure, and in which he was appreciated, as well in London as in Dublin.
His life was yet spared for more than twenty years, and he cultivated knowledge, promoting and leading learned societies, while he also carried out active measures for the improvement of his property and his tenantry in Ireland, in accordance with his wish "to be really a benefactor to the same land whereon God had already blessed his labours."
The history of the Down Survey is but one chapter in the life of Sir William Petty, but, with his many subsequent works and papers, some still unpublished, it places him among the most remarkable and distinguished men of that stirring age. His enemies are forgotten, and he has passed away, but his works live after him.
- ↑ See the online version of the report by Hardiman. (Wikisource ed.)