But we are told, on the authority of the Commission of 1699 that in many places, notably in the west of Ireland, juries, often composed of adherents of James who had been secured in their estates by the Articles of Limerick, refused to convict persons whose support of the fallen monarch was notorious.[1] As it was, however, the Commissioners of Irish Forfeitures reported in 1699 that 3,921 persons in Ireland as well as 57 who resided in England had been attainted and outlawed, and that these persons between them owned over one million and sixty thousand Irish Plantation acres.[2]
But these figures raise difficulties. We have seen that, as a result of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, the total number of Catholic landowners in Ireland restored or confirmed under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation can hardly have exceeded thirteen hundred. So that it is not possible that the 3,921 persons outlawed, even if, as is certain, some Protestants were among them, were all landowners. In the number were probably included many younger sons and other relatives of landowners, holding no landed property, merchants, members of the learned professions and so forth. For example, D'Alton mentions that the lists of those attainted con-
- ↑ They say that no enquiries into the forfeitures were held west of the Shannon until 1695.
- ↑ Nos. (12) and (14) of the Report of the Commission. It seems plain that their figures all through refer only to "profitable" land. No. (76) of the Report adds between 70,000 and 80,000 acres to the forfeited area.There were no forfeitures in Derry, Donegal, Tyrone or Leitrim, which would show that no Catholics recovered lands there at the Restoration, except the Abercorn family, the head of which had been pardoned by William in 1692.
