The result of the whole investigation had been that over two hundred natives had been declared to be entitled to freeholds, although the Commissioners had arbitrarily cut out all who showed right to a smaller quantity of land than two "taths."[1]
By a mere accident the patents to these freeholders had never been made out. The same applied to Cavan, in which county Davies in 1606 had expressly admitted the existence of freeholders, although he has given us no details as to numbers.
Now, with absolute disregard to consistency or justice, all former findings and promises were ignored. On the pretext that the Irish customs of inheritance could not be reduced to agreement with the Common Law of England, the same Sir John Davies in 1610 declared that all the natives of these two counties were only tenants at will of the lords; and so, as the lords^ had been attainted, the whole of the two counties had fallen to the Crown.
Again, in 1610, we find the same Sir John Davies, who in 1606 had declared that not the chiefs but the clansmen were the owners, and who had laboured to persuade the natives of Cavan that their finding that O'Reilly had been seised of the whole country "in dominio suo ut de feodo et de
- ↑ In Fermanagh there were seven "baronies" (probably Irish Cantreds) each of which had 7½ Ballybetaghs of chargeable lands, besides free lands, i.e., lands free from Maguire's rents and contributions. The Ballybetaghs had 16 Taths. In Monaghan the Tath or Tate had about 60 English acres, but Davies says that in Fermanagh the measure was far larger. He estimates Monaghan at 100 Ballybetaghs, containing in all 86,000 acres. The real area is:—Monaghan, 320,000 English acres; Fermanagh, 457,000 English acres. Each barony gave Maguire 42 cows.
