Under the provisions of the articles of Galway and Limerick, as finally ratified by the Irish Parliament, 1,283 Catholic proprietors retained their estates estimated to amount to 233,106 Irish acres. It would seem, too, that between the surrender and the Act of 1697 a certain number of the Irish were allowed the advantage of the disputed clause.[1] In addition sixty-five leading men, with between them 74,733 plantation acres were pardoned and restored by William, It is not necessary for our purpose to follow in detail the dealings with the forfeited lands. Most of them were disposed of by William to his favourites, many of them, such as Bentinck, Ginkell and Ruvigny, foreigners. The personal estate of King James, his share of the spoil under the Act of Settlement, was given to William's former mistress, the Countess of Orkney.[2] There grants provoked indignation in England, and the English Parliament set up a commission to enquire into the Irish forfeitures. Their report, presented in 1699, led to the English Act of Resumption in 1700 which revoked all William's grants except five, and directed that all forfeited estates should be vested in thirteen trustees and sold by them by public auction.
Before these transactions an Outlawry Bill had been introduced in 1697 into the Irish Parliament. This Bill contained a clause taking away the estates of all adherents of James who had been killed in "rebellion" or had died in foreign service, even if their estates had not up to then been
