Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/48

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
26
LIFE OF SIR WILLIAM PETTY
chap. ii

of ten counties, which were to be divided equally by them with the soldiers, as it was considered that peaceable possession would be thereby secured to the civilian owners, viz.: Waterford, Limerick, Tipperary, Meath, West Meath, King's County, Queen's County, Antrim, Down, Armagh, and on the whole county of Louth as an additional security. The arrears of the soldiers were charged on the forfeited lands in the remaining halves of the above counties, and in the counties of Deny, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Kerry.

The Government reserved to themselves all the walled towns, all the Crown and Church lands, the tithes, and the forfeited lands in the four counties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow, and Cork for distribution among distinguished supporters of the Parliamentary cause, and to satisfy public debts. The adventurers were to be satisfied next, and then the army. Of the adventurers' debt, 11,000l. was charged on Munster, 205,000l. on Leinster, and 45,000l. on Ulster; and it was settled that on July 20, 1653, a lottery was to be held in Grocers' Hall, London, the lots to decide first in which province each adventurer was to have his allotment, and then in which of the ten counties it was to fall. The lots were not to exceed, in Westmeath, 70,000l.; in Tipperary, 60,000l.; in Meath, 55,000l.; in King's and Queen's Counties, 40,000l. each; in Limerick, 30,000l.; in Waterford, 20,000l.; in Antrim, Down, and Armagh, 15,000l. each.

Connaught had originally been reserved in its entirety for the Irish owners, but subsequently Sligo and part of Mayo and Leitrim were taken away from the Irish and allotted to a part of the army which had fought in England in the recent campaign, and was still unpaid. When these transactions were concluded, the proportion of land forfeited in Connaught was found to exceed that in the remaining provinces of Ireland.[1] Donegal, Leitrim, Longford, and Wicklow were given to the garrisons of the Munster cities, which, before 1049, had served the King, and, after the defeat and the departure of the Marquis of Ormonde, had passed from the Royal to the Parliamentary

  1. Hardinge, p. 34.