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Anatomising Irish rebellion: the Cromwellian delinquency commissions, the books of discrimination and the 1641 depositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

John Cunningham
John Cunningham*
Affiliation:
Trinity College Dublin / University of Exeter
*
*Department of History, Trinity College, Dublin; Department of History, University of Exeter, [email protected]
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Abstract

The recent digitisation of the 1641 depositions has opened up that large and controversial collection of manuscripts to renewed study. The significance of a substantial section of that archive generated in 1653–4 by the work of the Cromwellian delinquency commissions has hitherto been poorly understood. This article sheds new light on the workings of the commissions and on the ways in which the ‘delinquency depositions’ that they collected helped to shape the implementation of the Cromwellian and Restoration land settlements in Ireland. It also compares the Irish delinquency proceedings to the approach adopted by the Long Parliament in its dealings with royalists in England in the 1640s. In analysing the actual content of the depositions, the article focuses particular attention on County Wexford. The surviving delinquency depositions enable in-depth exploration of many facets of the 1641 rebellion and its aftermath in that region.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 157 , May 2016 , pp. 22 - 42
Copyright
© Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 

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References

1 Gibney, John, The shadow of a year: the 1641 rebellion in Irish history and memory (Madison, Wis., 2013)Google Scholar; Clarke, Aidan, ‘The “1641 massacres”’ in Jane Ohlmeyer and Micheál Ó Siochrú (eds), Ireland: 1641: contexts and reactions (Manchester, 2013), pp 37–49Google Scholar. The 1641 depositions (T.C.D., MSS 809–41) are available at http://www.1641.tcd.ie. Publication by the Irish Manuscripts Commission is ongoing.

2 Wells, Jennifer, ‘English law, Irish trials and the Cromwellian quest for legitimacy and power in the 1650s’ in Past & Present, no. 227 (2015), pp 77–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 On the background to the land settlement, see Cunningham, John, Conquest and land in Ireland: the transplantation to Connacht, 1649–1680 (Woodbridge, 2011), pp 11–47Google Scholar.

4 Firth, C. H. and Rait, R. S. (eds), Acts and ordinances of the interregnum (3 vols, London, 1911)Google Scholar, i, 106–17; Habakkuk, H. J., ‘Landowners and the civil war’ in Econ. Hist. Rev., second series, xviii (1965), pp 130–151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Cunningham, Conquest and land, pp 17–30.

6 Ibid., pp 39–44.

7 Ibid., pp 48–73.

8 For this organisation, see Siochrú, Micheál Ó, Confederate Ireland, 1642–1649: a constitutional and political analysis (Dublin, 1999)Google Scholar.

9 Dunlop, Robert (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth (2 vols, Manchester, 1913), ii, 378–379Google Scholar.

10 ‘1641 depositions’ (http://1641.tcd.ie/index.php) (1 Oct. 2014). The figure of 1,260 was arrived at following analysis of those depositions that postdate the establishment of the delinquency commissions.

11 H.M.C., Eighth report (London, 1881), appendix, section 3, pp 572b–576b; Clarke, Aidan, ‘The 1641 depositions’ in Peter Fox (ed.), Treasures of the Library, Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin, 1986), pp 116–118Google Scholar; ‘Main Categories’ (1641.tcd.ie/using-categories.php.) (1 Oct. 2014); Clarke, ‘The “1641 massacres”’, p. 43. The fresh understanding of this material, greatly enabled by the recent digitisation of the depositions, is well conveyed in Clarke, Aidan, ‘Introduction’ in idem (ed.), The 1641 depositions: volume vii, Wexford (I.M.C., forthcoming)Google Scholar. I am grateful to Professor Clarke for allowing me to see this piece in advance of publication.

12 Lenihan, Padraig, Confederate Catholics at war, 1642–49 (Cork, 2001), pp 38–44Google Scholar; Murphy, Elaine, ‘Siege of Duncannon Fort in 1641 and 1642’ in Eamon Darcy, Annaleigh Margey and Elaine Murphy (eds), The 1641 depositions and the Irish rebellion (London, 2012), pp 143–154Google Scholar; McHugh, Jason, ‘“For our owne defence”: Catholic insurrection in Wexford, 1641–2’ in Brian Mac Cuarta (ed.), Reshaping Ireland, 1550–1700: colonization and its consequences (Dublin, 2011), pp 214–240Google Scholar.

13 Hickson, Mary (ed.), Ireland in the seventeenth century: or, the Irish massacres of 1641–2 (2 vols, London, 1884)Google Scholar, ii, 148; Gardiner, Samuel, ‘The transplantation to Connaught’ in E.H.R., xiv (1899), pp 717CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 723; Bonn, Moritz, Die Englische Kolonisation in Irland (2 vols, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1906), ii, 38–39Google Scholar; Cunningham, Conquest and land, p. 82.

14 This will complement existing work on Wexford in, for example, Murphy, ‘Siege of Duncannon Fort’, pp 143–54, and McHugh, ‘Catholic insurrection in Wexford’, pp 214–40.

15 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 378–9.

16 Prendergast, John, The Cromwellian settlement of Ireland (2nd ed., London, 1870), pp 157–158Google Scholar.

17 The two counties are Wexford (T.C.D. MSS 818–19) and Cork (T.C.D. MSS 826–8).

18 The ten counties for which delinquency depositions can be either directly or indirectly identified are Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Limerick, Roscommon, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford.

19 Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland (henceforth D.K.P.R.I.), Fourteenth report (London, 1882), pp 38–9.

20 Tallon, Geraldine (ed.), Court of claims: submissions and evidence, 1663 (I.M.C., Dublin, 2006), p. 554Google Scholar.

21 D.K.P.R.I., Fourteenth report, pp 22–52.

22 Idem, Twentieth report (Dublin, 1888), pp 25–6; Gilbert, John, A history of Dublin (3 vols, Dublin, 1854–9) ii, 150Google Scholar.

23 O’Sullivan, William, ‘John Madden’s manuscripts’ in Vincent Kinane and Anne Walsh (eds), Essays on the history of Trinity College Library, Dublin (Dublin, 2000), pp 104–110Google Scholar.

24 Gilbert, John (ed.), A Jacobite narrative of the war in Ireland, 1688–1691 (Dublin, 1892), p. 250Google Scholar.

25 O’Sullivan, ‘John Madden’s manuscripts’, pp 104–10.

26 See, from County Tipperary, the examination of John Walsh, 14 Feb. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 830, ff 249r–50v). The County Limerick examination of George Saunders, 31 Aug. 1656, appears to relate to delinquency proceedings in Limerick City around that time (T.C.D., MS 829, ff 431r–2v).

27 Wexford depositions (T.C.D., MSS 818–19).

28 Clare and Limerick depositions (T.C.D., MS 829, ff 110r–13v, 387r–430v).

29 O’Sullivan, ‘John Madden’s manuscripts’, p. 109.

30 Most of these are in three volumes of the Cork depositions (T.C.D., MSS 826–8).

31 List of delinquency commissioners, Dec. 1653 (N.L.I., MS 11959, pp 349–51).

32 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 380.

33 See, for example, the delinquency depositions for Cork in T.C.D., MS 827.

34 List of delinquency commissioners, Dec. 1653 (N.L.I., MS 11959, pp 349–51); Wexford depositions (T.C.D., MSS 818–19).

35 Firth, Charles, The regimental history of Cromwell’s army (2 vols, Oxford, 1940), ii, 582–583Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., i, 348; ii, 418, 582–3; abstract of an army muster, 28 Sept. 1657 (B.L., Add. MS (Petty) 72,877, ff 72r–74v); Prendergast, Cromwellian settlement, pp 158, 309–10; Clarke, Aidan, Prelude to Restoration in Ireland: the end of the Commonwealth, 1659–1660 (Cambridge, 1999), pp 209–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar; references to petitions and other Cromwellian documents (St Peter’s College Wexford, Hore MS 60, pp 319, 348, 353–4, 872–4: microfilm, N.L.I., p. 4024); Gaul, Liam, Johnstown Castle: a history (Dublin, 2014)Google Scholar, chap. 2.

37 Nott, H. E. (ed.), The deposition books of Bristol, 1650–1654 (Bristol Record Society, xiii, Bristol, 1948), pp 77Google Scholar, 100; examinations of Richard Neale, 27 and 28 Feb. 1654 (T.C.D. MS 819, ff 36r–v, 282r–3v, and 286r–v).

38 Simington, Robert (ed.), The Civil Survey, A.D. 1654–1656, ix: County of Wexford (I.M.C., Dublin, 1953), p. xivGoogle Scholar; Hardinge, William, ‘On circumstances attending the outbreak of the civil war in Ireland’ in R.I.A. Trans., xxiv (1873), p. 410Google Scholar.

39 Swan, Joseph, ‘The justices of the peace for the county of Wexford’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., fifth series, iv (1894), p. 67Google Scholar.

40 ‘Sadleir (Sopwell Hall)’, (http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=3279) (accessed 13 Dec. 2014).

41 Examination of William Stafford, 18 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, ff 177r–8v).

42 Ibid.; examinations of David Devereux and Richard Shorthall, 16 Jan. 1654 (ibid., ff 179r–81v).

43 Examinations of Morris Neale and Henry Roach, 27 Feb. 1654 (ibid., ff 35r–6v).

44 Wexford Depositions (T.C.D., MSS 818–19, passim).

45 Clarke, Aidan, ‘The commission for the despoiled subject, 1641–7’ in Mac Cuarta (ed.), Reshaping Ireland, p. 242Google Scholar; Cunningham, John, ‘1641 and the shaping of Cromwellian Ireland’, in Darcy, Margey and Murphy (eds), The 1641 depositions and the Irish rebellion, pp 155–168Google Scholar.

46 Deposition of Robert Maxwell, 22 Aug. 1642 (T.C.D., MS 809, ff 5r–12v); Clarke, ‘The “1641 massacres”’, pp 41–2.

47 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 400.

48 Little, Patrick, ‘Coote, Charles, first earl of Mountrath (c.1610–1661)’, in Oxford D.N.BGoogle Scholar.

49 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 471.

50 Extracts from delinquency proceedings in the precinct of Athlone, 1653–4 (King’s Inns Library, Prendergast MS 1, pp 686–712).

51 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 567.

52 Ibid., 525, 558; MacLysaght, Edward, ‘Commonwealth state accounts, 1650–1656’ in Anal. Hib., no. 15 (1944), p. 276Google Scholar.

53 Copies of Examinations of Hugh McGanly and Capt. Richard St George, Jan. 1654, (King’s Inns Library, Prendergast MS 1, pp 707–9, 711–12); D.K.P.R.I., Fourteenth report, pp 38–9; copies of examinations of Hugh O Birne and Brandon Mc Brannon, 7 July 1655 (N.L.I., Lane Papers, MS 8642/4).

54 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 589–90. For a Limerick deposition from 1656, see examination of George Saunders, 31 Aug. 1656 (T.C.D. MS 829, ff 431r–2v).

55 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 378–9.

56 Clarke, ‘The 1641 depositions’, p. 113.

57 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 378–9.

58 Firth and Rait (eds), Acts and ordinances, i, 106–17.

59 Cunningham, Conquest and land, pp 40–4.

60 See, for example, the series of Wexford delinquency depositions in T.C.D., MS 818, ff 224r–329v.

61 See, for example, ibid., ff 264r–v and 279r–v. In County Wexford, responses to the seventh interrogatory were less frequently recorded after 18 Jan. 1654. See T.C.D., MSS 818–19.

62 Examination of David Devereux, 16 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, f. 275r–v).

63 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 401–2.

64 Ibid.; the Athlone delinquency commissioners to the commissioners of parliament, 13 Dec. 1653 (King’s Inns Library, Prendergast MS 1, p. 689).

65 See T.C.D., MS 827, passim. In the precinct of Cork, receipt of the government’s instruction to expedite proceedings was noted at ibid., f. 42r.

66 Wexford depositions (T.C.D., MSS 818–19). The summary statistics presented in the following paragraphs are based on analysis of these manuscripts.

67 Examination of Phillip O Cassey, 7 Feb. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 37v).

68 See, for example, examination of John Connick, 9 Feb. 1654 (ibid., f. 38r–v).

69 See, for example, examinations of Robert Browne, 8 Feb. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, ff 184r and 293v).

70 These are preserved in ibid., ff 24r–192v.

71 Dorothy Billings, Margaret Hitchins and Ursula Row.

72 Examination of Margaret Hitchins, 14 Mar. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, ff 297v–8r.).

73 Deposition of Sir Walsingham Cooke, 5 Jan. 1642 (ibid., ff 82r–3v).

74 Examination of Margaret Hitchins, 14 Mar. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 164v).

75 Examination of William Oulton, 14 Mar. 1654 (ibid, f. 253r–v).

76 Examination of John Bond, 13 Jan. 1654 (ibid., f. 22r–v).

77 See, for example, examinations of Jonas Rushworth, 16 and 28 Feb. 1654 (ibid., ff 98r–9v and 304r–v).

78 For a discussion of issues around conversion, see McHugh, ‘Catholic insurrection in Wexford’, pp 236–8.

79 Examination of William Penrust, 28 Feb. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 41r).

80 Examination of Ralph Waddington, 31 Mar. 1654 (ibid., ff 168v–9v); examination of William Stafford, 4 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, 269r–70v).

81 H.M.C., The manuscripts of the duke of Portland (London, 1891), i, 403.

82 Examination of William Stafford, 29 Dec. 1653 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 300r–v).

83 Examination of Richard Whitty, 6 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, f. 238v).

84 See, for example, examination of Ursula Row, 11 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D. MS 819, ff 79r–80v).

85 Examinations of William Stafford, 26 Dec. 1653 and 18 Jan. 1654 (ibid., ff 226r–7v, and MS 818, ff 202r–3v, 279r).

86 Examination of William Stafford, 18 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, f. 279r).

87 Examination of William Stafford, 28 Dec. 1653 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 240r–v).

88 Examination of Nicholas Stafford, 26 Dec. 1653 (T.C.D., MS 818, ff 204r–205r).

89 On this point, see McHugh, ‘Catholic insurrection in Wexford’, pp 214–40.

90 Examination of Richard Shorthall, 2 Mar. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, f. 88v).

91 Examinations of Richard Shorthall, 1 Mar. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 818, ff 317r–v and 320r–v).

92 Examination of Richard Shorthall, 16 Jan. 1654 (ibid., ff 312r–13v).

93 Wexford Depositions (T.C.D., MSS 818–19, passim).

94 Ibid. On general assembly attendance, see Ó Siochrú, Confederate Ireland, pp 251–60.

95 Gardiner, ‘Transplantation’, pp 723–6.

96 For a discussion of this point, see Cunningham, ‘1641 and the shaping of Cromwellian Ireland’, pp 155–68.

97 Gardiner, ‘Transplantation’, pp 723–6.

98 Cunningham, Conquest and land, pp 76–9.

99 Ibid., pp 82–6.

100 On the fire of 1711, see the contemporary report by Dr Richard Stone printed in Cal. S.P. Ire., 1603–6, p. lxxxii.

101 Cunningham, Conquest and land, pp 82–6. For the use at Athlone of depositions from the 1640s, see Prendergast, John and Russell, Charles (eds), The Carte manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: a report (London, 1871), pp 147–151Google Scholar and Prendergast, Cromwellian settlement, pp 156–7. For an index to some of the 1641 depositions, see T.C.D., MS 841. For an index to several books of Catholic Confederate records, see T.N.A., P.R.O. SP 63/287/196.

102 Dunlop (ed.), Ireland under the Commonwealth, ii, 469–71, 558.

103 Warrant by the duke of Ormond, for granting to Sir Allan Brodrick the use of certain rooms over the Council Chamber, 11 Sept. 1662 (Bodl., Carte MS 163, f. 21v).

104 Arnold, Laurence, The Restoration land settlement in County Dublin, 1660–1688 (Dublin, 1993), pp 37–70Google Scholar.

105 Ibid., p. 71.

106 The various types of evidence used in individual cases can be traced in Tallon (ed.), Court of claims.

107 Arnold, Restoration land settlement, p. 71.

108 Mervyn, Audley, The speech of Sir Audley Mervyn, Knight; his majesties prime serjeant at law, and speaker of the house of commons in Ireland (Dublin, 1663), pp 3–4Google Scholar, 13, 16.

109 Mercurius Hibernicus, no. 10, 17–24 Mar. 1663, p. 73.

110 Tallon (ed.), Court of claims, p. 46.

111 Ibid., passim. See, for example, case nos 147, 188, 245, 458 and 553.

112 Ibid.

113 Cunningham, Conquest and land, pp 119–27.

114 Sir Daniel O’Neill to Ormond, c. 21 Aug. 1663 (Bodl., Carte MS 159, f. 67v.); Nicholas Bolton to Ormond, c. 23 Feb. 1664 (ibid., ff 201v–202r).

115 For those outlawed, see Robert Simington and MacLellan, John, ‘Oireachtas Library list of outlaws, 1641–1647’ in Anal. Hib., no. 23 (1966), pp 319–367Google Scholar.

116 Simms, J. G., The Williamite confiscation in Ireland, 1690–1703 (London, 1956), pp 30–44Google Scholar.

117 See Whelan, Kevin, ‘A list of those from County Wexford implicated in the 1641 rebellion’ in The Past: the organ of the Uí Chinsealaigh Society, xvii (1990), pp 24–54Google Scholar. I am grateful to Dr Jason McHugh for assistance in locating a manuscript copy of this list (St Peter’s College Wexford, Hore MS 4 (unbound), pp 58–70: microfilm, N.L.I., p. 4024).

118 D.K.P.R.I., Seventeenth report (Dublin, 1885), pp 13–19Google Scholar.

119 The king to Ormond, 13 Oct. 1662 (Bodl., Carte MS 43, f. 21).

120 Letters patent for Daniel O’Neill, 13 Nov. 1663 (N.A.I., Lodge MS 7, pp 116–17).

121 Inquisitionum in officio rotolorum cancellariæ Hiberniæ asservatarum, repertorium (2 vols, London, 1826–9), i, 3–Car. II.

122 Ibid.

123 Ibid. On Wadding and this particular episode, see examinations of Robert Browne, 30 Jan. 1654 (T.C.D., MS 819, ff 59v and 141r–2v).

124 Bottigheimer, Karl, English money and Irish land: the ‘adventurers’ in the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland (Oxford, 1971), p. 117Google Scholar. I wish to acknowledge financial support received from the Irish Research Council, which enabled me to commence work on this article. I am grateful to Professor Aidan Clarke for prompting and encouraging this research, and to Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Ms Jennifer Wells, the anonymous referees and the editor for their helpful comments on the text.