II. of more than thirteen hundred at the outside.[1] This would lead to the apparently absurd result that there were fewer Irish Catholic landowners after the execution of the two Acts than there had been under Cromwell. The explanation would seem to be that among the two thousand who are said to have received assignments from Cromwell w^est of the Shannon there were first a certain number who did not receive assignments in feesimple, second some whose allotments were so small as not to have been worth notice in 1677, third some who never actually got possession of the lands assigned to them, and finally that a very large number of the poorer transplantees sold their lands at once to Protestant purchasers.[2] These Protestant purchasers were evidently uneasy about their rights, as special promises were asked for from the King by some of them, and clauses to protect them were introduced into the Acts. It is to be noted that the Books of Survey and Distribution show that in 1666 a large amount of land in Clare was held by the new interest, a fact that can only be explained by purchase or by fraud.[3] It is also possible that in the case of the landowners west of the Shannon who had got from the Cromwellian authorities assignments on what had been their own property in 1641 no new
- ↑ The two Acts provided for the effectual restoration of about 100 individuals by name mostly after reprisals. In addition some few Ensignmen got back, and also a few letterees, i.e., those who obtained royal letters before the passing of the Act of Settlement and found no one in possession of their lands.
- ↑ Of the two thousand 750 got less than 100 acres, and of these 110 got less than 20 (Bonn). Possibly many of these had been only tenants or leaseholders in 1641.
- ↑ Petty estimates the Protestant purchases in Connaught at only 80,000 Irish acres.
