They opened their court on September 20th, 1662; but did not begin to hear claims until January 13th, 1663. The preceding months appear to have been spent in settling their procedure and in other formal matters.
This delay had fatal results for the Irish. The "Instructions" embodied in the Act of Settlement had specified certain dates before which the various restorable and reprisable classes were to have their claims satisfied. As the Act, though passed in May, did not obtain the Royal Assent until September, the dates first specified could not be adhered to, and they were extended. These clauses were inserted apparently to secure the speedy restoration of the interested parties.[1] But, as interpreted by the lawyers, they proved the undoing of most of them. Innocents for instance were to have their claims heard and determined before August 21st, 1663—twelve lunar months after the opening of the Court; and when that date was reached the Court held that they had no power to hear any further claims.
Five precious months of the twelve had been wasted, and there were thousands waiting to be heard.
Rigorous conditions had been laid down which it was hoped would make it impossible for the vast majority of Catholics to obtain restoration as "innocents." For instance the condition that to have enjoyed an estate in the rebel's quarters was a bar to innocence would have excluded Lady Thurles, Ormond's mother, whose devotion to the
- ↑ See the statement quoted later on: it is in Cal. St. Paps., 1669—70, and addenda.
