stringent inquiry into concealed forfeitures.[1] It also set up a court before which all persons claiming any interest in the estates actually forfeited, were to appear and present their claims. Of 3,150 claims sent in, 373 were allowed. Much confusion has been caused by the way in which Hardinge has represented this matter in an article in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. He speaks of the persons whose claims were allowed as "innocents," and several writers following him have taken these innocents to be the same as the persons comprehended within the Articles of Galway and Limerick. He further states that to these "innocents" the Court of Claims awarded 655 denominations of land with a total area of 97,853 Irish Plantation acres, and 1,965 denominations with no area specified. By a sum in simple proportion he then arrives at the result that 391,412 Irish acres were "restored" to these innocents. As 640,460 Irish acres were actually sold, besides 402 denominations whose areas are not stated, he thinks that 716,374 Irish acres were ultimately forfeited, which with the 391,412 acres "restored to innocents" and the 307,839 retained by the persons comprehended in Articles or pardoned by William would make up a total of 1,415,625 acres, an amount entirely at variance with the statement of the Commissioners in 1699.
But when we look at the list of "innocents" which he prints we find among them notorious partisans of William such as the Duke of Ormond,
- ↑ The Commissioners had reported that there were manypersons not yet indicted for rebellion, and many concealments.
