Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T15:49:26.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The origins and development of an Ulster urban network, 1600-41

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Raymond Gillespie
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Historians of any pre-industrial society, such as early seventeenth-century Ireland, must devote the bulk of their energies to the study of the rural world. Rural society, however, cannot be studied in isolation without a serious distortion of the reality of the social structure, since the urban element, although subsidiary, was nevertheless an important feature of pre-industrial society. There are, however, considerable problems in studying urban history in early modern Ulster since the sources can only be described as meagre. The basic sources used by many English early modern urban historians, the corporation records, are missing for all but a few Ulster towns. Only Belfast and Carrickfergus have corporation books for the pre-1641 period. The dearth of other important sources, such as freemen's rolls, means that areas of human activity such as the occupational structure of Ulster towns cannot be demonstrated with the accuracy that English early modern historians have been able to attain. Nor will it be possible to chart the detail of the day-to-day administrative or political structures of towns. Topics such as local elections, the minutiae of poor relief, and law and order must remain relatively shadowy This is not to argue that the history of the Ulster town cannot be written. The work of R. J. Hunter has demonstrated that it is possible by using fragments of central government and local records not only to reconstruct the administrative context of the establishment of towns but also to discover the social, economic, and political structures of individual towns. Ulster towns are among the better documented principal towns in Ireland for the early modern period. The interest of central government in the development of the plantation produced a number of surveys which shed considerable light on urban development. Indeed two of the principal towns in Ulster, Coleraine and Derry, are well documented because of the disputes which surrounded the activities of their developers, the Irish Society, and a rival planter, Sir Thomas Phillips. Ulster also provides an important case study in urbanisation since it contained an older pre-seventeenth-century urban network which was expanded and developed as part of both the informal colonisation and the more formal plantation scheme in Ulster. It is the aim of this paper to examine the development of this new urban network.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 93 , May 1984 , pp. 15 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Spenser, View, ed. Renwick, W L. (Oxford, 1970), p. 165 Google Scholar; for similar views see Davies, Discovery, pp 283–4.

2 For the role of towns as centres of supply during the war, see State of Ireland, (Apr.) 1597 and 5 Nov. 1597 (Cal. Carew MSS, 1589–1600, pp 216,271); Victualling roll of the army, 1601–3 (P.R.O.I., M2441, ff 6, 8, 20–1, 22, 34, 56).

3 Hill, George, An historical account of the plantation in Ulster (Belfast, 1877), p. 88 Google Scholar. For the planning of towns in the plantation scheme, see Hunter, R. J., ‘Towns in the Ulster plantation’ in Studia Hib., xi (1971), pp 40–56 Google Scholar.

4 Jope, E. M. (ed.), An archaeological survey of County Down (Belfast, 1966), pp 391–2, 405, 411, 430, 435Google Scholar; Cal pat. rolls Ire., Eliz., p. 123; Nicholas Bagenal to lord deputy, 9 June 1549 (P.R:O., S.P 61/2/39). For Cavan town in the sixteenth century, see Hunter, , ‘Towns’, p. 68 Google Scholar. For merchants in sixteenth-century Ulster, see John Smyth to Burleigh, 18 July 1573 (P.R.O., S.P. 63/42/86).

5 Mullin, T H., Coleraine in by-gone centuries (Belfast, 1976), pp 25–9Google Scholar; Moody, . Londonderry plantation, pp 55, 58Google Scholar; Hunter, R. J., ‘Sir William Cole and plantation Enniskillen, 1607–41’ in Clogher Record, ix, no. 3 (1978), p. 337 Google Scholar.

6 The Raven maps of the Londonderry plantation, c. 1622 (P.R.O.N.I., T510) demonstrate this well; Jope, E. M., ‘Moyry, Charlemont, Castleraw and Richhill: fortification to architecture in the north of Ireland, 1570–1700’ in U.J.A., 3rd ser., xxiii (1960), pp 97–123 Google Scholar.

7 A note of the arms in Ireland, 1640 (Sheffield City Library, Wentworth Wodehouse Muniments, Strafford Letterbook 1, f. 36).

8 Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Chas I, p. 452.

9 For this process, see Hunter, ‘Towns’, pp 48–54; for towns as legal and administrative centres, see Hunter, R. J., ‘Ulster plantation towns, 1609–41’ in Harkness, David and O'Dowd, Mary (eds), The town in Ireland: Historical Studies XIII (Belfast, 1981), pp 64–5 Google Scholar.

10 Hunter, R. J., ‘An Ulster plantation town: Virginia’ in Breifne, iv, no. 13 (1970), pp 48–51 Google Scholar.

11 Court leet roll of the manor of Armagh, 1625–8 (P.R.O.N.I., T475); P.R.O.I., Ferguson MSS, ix, p. 82.

12 Rental of the Bagenal estate, 1575 (Bodl., University College MSS, 103, f. 142); Prenuptial agreement between Arthur Chichester and Mary Digby, Dec. 1630 (P.R.O.N.I., D389/4; T712/5); Chart, D. A. (ed.), Londonderry and the London companies (Belfast, 1928), pp 128–9Google Scholar.

13 Hunter, ‘Towns’, pp 58–60. Examples of building leases from other towns are in P.R.O.N.I., T811/3; D929/F2/3/15; National Library of Wales, Cross of Shaw Hill MSS, Deed no. 174; P.R.O.I., D4859. The Irish Society was condemned for not using the building lease to develop Derry and Coleraine (Londonderry and the London companies, p. 26).

14 For this process on a wider scale, see O'Flanagan, Patrick, ‘Settlement development and trading in Ireland, 1600–1800: a preliminary investigation’ in Devine, T. M. and Dickson, David (eds), Ireland and Scotland, 1600–1850 (Edinburgh, 1983), p. 147 Google Scholar.

15 John Hamilton to Sir James Hamilton, 10 May 1621 (P.R.O.N.I., D1071B/B/1, p. 28).

16 Moody, T. W and Simms, J. G. (eds), The bishopric of Deny and the Irish Society of London, i (I.M.C., Dublin, 1968), p. 86 Google Scholar.

17 Robinson, Philip, ‘British settlement in County Tyrone, 1610–1666’ in Irish Economic and Social History, v (1978), p. 10 Google Scholar. The point is more fully developed in Philip Robinson, ‘The plantation of County Tyrone in the seventeenth century’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University of Belfast, 1974).

18 Raymond Gillespie, ‘East Ulster in the early seventeenth century: a colonial economy and society’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 1982), pp 23–4.

19 Londonderry and the London companies, pp 13, 16, 91, 93, 95; Map of Carrickfergus, n.d. temp. Eliz. (P.R.O., M.P.F 98).

20 Shuckburgh, E. S. (ed.), Two biographies of William Bedell (Cambridge, 1902), p. 57 Google Scholar

21 Customs receipts, 1624–32 (Sheffield City Library, Wentworth Wodehouse Muniments, Strafford Letterbook 24/25, no. 174); Customs receipts, 1601–7 (B.L., Lansdowne MS 156, f. 314); Victor Treadwell, ‘Irish financial administrative reform under James I’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University of Belfast, 1960), Tables A-C; Hunter, , ‘Ulster plantation towns’, p. 80 Google Scholar; Londonderry and the London companies, pp 57. 104.

22 Carrickfergus corporation book (P.R.O.N.I., T707, ff 54–61, 62–3).

23 Hunter, , ‘Towns’ pp 46, 50–51Google Scholar.

24 Gillespie, , ‘East Ulster’, pp 168, 182Google Scholar.

25 Londonderry and the London companies, pp 13, 41, 55.

26 McCaffrey, W T, Exeter, 1540–1640 (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), pp 58–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoskins, W. G., ‘An Elizabethan provincial town: Leicester’ in Plumb, J. H. (ed.), Studies in social history (London, 1955), p. 10 Google Scholar.

27 Young, R. M., (ed.), The town book of the corporation of Belfast (Belfast, 1892), pp 73–4Google Scholar; Strain, R. M., Belfast and its charitable society (Oxford, 1961), pp 5–9 Google Scholar.

28 For examples of the three-mile market area, see Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 232, grant to Sir William Cole; Moody, , Londonderry plantation, pp 126, 139Google Scholar; Woodward, Donald, ‘The Anglo-Irish livestock trade of the seventeenth century’ in I.H.S., xviii, no. 72 (Sept. 1973), pp 489–523 Google Scholar; Hunter, R. J., ‘The English undertakers in the plantation of Ulster’ in Breifne, iv, no. 16 (1973), p. 496 Google Scholar; Hunter, , ‘Towns’, pp 51–2Google Scholar.

29 Moody, Londonderry plantation, ch. xii. For advice given to a Londonderry settler as to where a town should be located on his lands, see Hill, , Plantation, p. 443 Google Scholar.

30 List of inhabitants of Coleraine, 1628 (P.R.O.N.I., D572/21/101, p. 59); Rentals of Coleraine and Derry, 1639–40 (P.R.O.N.I., T.724); Londonderry and the London companies, pp 53, 108;Bishopric of Derry, pp 155–9; Hunter, , ‘Enniskillen’, p. 347 Google Scholar. In 1641 it was alleged that allowing tradesmen in towns to buy land outside was the reason for urban decline in Ireland (Report on London(derry) plantation, (May) 1641, Cal. S.P Ire., 1633–47. p. 295).

31 Benn, George, A history ofthe town of Belfast (2nd ed., Belfast, 1877), p. 80 Google Scholar; Hunter, , ‘Enniskillen’, pp 344–5Google Scholar.

32 Royal visitation, 1634 (T.C.D., MS 550, p. 175); Augher remained a small town throughout the plantation ( Hill, , Plantation, p. 540 Google Scholar; Report of 1622 commission, B.L., Add. MS 4756, f. lllv).

33 King to Chichester,7 Aug. 1614 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1611–14, pp 497–8). OnCavan, see Hunter, , ‘Towns’, pp 71–2Google Scholar. One case of landlord control over the urban administration can be seen in Strabane, County Tyrone, when the provost refused to arrest Roman Catholics in the landlord's house (Bp of Derry to lord chancellor, 21 Dec. 1629, Cal. S.P. Ire., 1625–32, pp 510–11).

34 Gillespie, Raymond, ‘Urban oligarchies and popular protest in the early seventeenth century two Ulster examples’ in Retrospect (1982), pp 54–7Google Scholar.

35 Carrickfergus corporation book (P.R.O.N.I., T707).

36 Young, Town book, pp 43–4. Violence appears to have been less common in English towns (McCaffrey, Exeter, p. 231).

37 Court leet roll of the manor of Armagh, 1625–8 (P.R.O.N.I., T475).

38 ‘Certain considerations regarding a park or parks’, 7 Feb. 1630 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1625–32, pp 515–16); Hunter, R. J. (ed.), The plantation in Ulster in Strabane barony (Coleraine, 1982), pp 34–5Google Scholar.

39 Gillespie, , ‘East Ulster’, pp 175–6Google Scholar. For Coleraine, see Mullin, , Coleraine, p. 67 Google Scholar.

40 1641 depositions, Co. Down (T.C.D., MS 837, f. 18). For Barr and other examples, see Gillespie, ‘East Ulster’, p. 172.

41 Gillespie, ‘East Ulster’, pp 175–6. For Derry, see Hunter, , ‘Ulster plantation towns’, pp 76–7Google Scholar.

42 Young, , Town book, p. 8 Google Scholar.

43 For the distribution of tokens, see Seaby, Peter, Coins and tokens of Ireland (London, 1970), pp 34–5Google Scholar.

44 Will of Robert Boyd, cooper, of Carrickfergus, May 1642 (P.R.O.N.I.,T828/4)for example.

45 For examples of bills of exchange, see Young, , Town book, pp 29, 33–4, 57–8Google Scholar.

46 Gillespie, , ‘East Ulster’, pp 75–6Google Scholar.

47 Young, , Town book, pp 246–50Google Scholar; Clark, Peter and Slack, Paul, English towns in transition (Oxford, 1976), p. 5 Google Scholar; Hunter, , ‘Ulster plantation towns’, p. 76 Google Scholar.

48 Adair, Patrick, 4 true narrative of the rise and progress of the presbyterian church in Ireland, ed. Killen, W D. (Belfast, 1866), p. 168 Google Scholar.

49 Young, , Town book, pp 146–50Google Scholar.

50 Monck s survey of the customs, 1637 (B.L., Had. MS 2138, f. 169v); Gilbert, Contemp. hist., i, 419, 575. Newry also attracted a considerable number of gentry as a result of the assizes held there. Many of these gentry left when the assize was moved in 1628 leaving the town ‘much impoverished’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Chas I, pp 415, 558).

51 Notes on the customs house of Carrickfergus, n.d. (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1647–60, p. 336).

52 Ulster port books, 1612–14 (Leeds City Library, TN/PO 7/1/1–4). Imports of wine were higher into gentry dominated towns than into the smaller Ulster port towns (Wine imports to Ireland, c. 1640, Syon House, Northumberland, MSS Y.II.26, N.L.I., microfilm pos. 3482/7).

53 Young, , Town book, pp 246–50Google Scholar; Hunter, , ‘Ulster plantation towns’, pp 67–8Google Scholar.

54 Hunter, , ‘Towns’, pp 57–66 Google Scholar; Rentals of see lands of Armagh, 1615–20 (P.R.O.N.I., T529/1).

55 Gillespie, ‘East Ulster’, pp 183–6; Monck's survey of the customs, 1637 (B.L., Harl. MS 2138, f. 176); customs sources above, n. 21.

56 Certificate of William Brownlow for Lurgan to royal commissioners, 1622 (Manchester papers, location now unknown; seen in N.L.I., microfilm pos. 6034).

57 Hunter (ed.), The plantation in Ulster in Strabane barony, ch. iv; Hunter, , ‘Ulster plantation towns’, pp 72–4.Google Scholar

58 For examples of settlers holding land in the surrounding countryside, see Robinson, Philip, ‘Urbanization in north-west Ulster, 1609–70’ in Ir Geography, xv(1982), pp 41–9Google Scholar: Moody, , Londonderry plantation, p. 317 Google Scholar.

59 Reps, J. W, Tidewater towns: city planning in colonial Virginia and Maryland (Williamsburgh, 1972), pp 46–7Google Scholar.

60 Bridenbaugh, Carl, Cities in the wilderness (Oxford, 1971), p. 6, n. 5Google Scholar. For more detailed figures on Boston, see Rutman, D. B., Winthrop's Boston: portrait of a puritan town (Chapel Hill, 1965), pp 37, 57, 180–81Google Scholar.

61 Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, pp 222–6Google Scholar.

62 Ibid., pp 141–64.

63 Ibid., pp 123–30,217–19; Bridenbaugh, Cities, pp 68–71, 81–4, 136–7; Haskins, G. L., Law and authority in early Massachusetts (New York, 1962)Google Scholar.

64 Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, p. 87.Google Scholar Significantly, relatively few ‘luxury’ goods appear to have been imported into Boston in its early years ( Bailyn, Bernard, The New England merchants in the early seventeenth century (New York, 1964), p. 61 Google Scholar).

65 Cited in Daniels, B. C., The Connecticut town: growth and development, 1635–1790 (Connecticut, 1979), p. 11 Google Scholar.

66 Bailyn, , New England merchants, pp 38, 96–7. 103Google Scholar; Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, pp 42–3, 47, 72–5Google Scholar. A minority of merchants did not want office ( Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, pp 252–4Google Scholar).

67 Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, pp 63–6Google Scholar.

68 Ibid., ch. iv: Bridenbaugh, Cities, pp 26–8, 30. There was a decline of interest in landholding among the second generation of settlers as the economic base became more securely rooted in trade ( Rutman, , Winthrop's Boston, p. 195 Google Scholar).

69 Bridenbaugh, , Cities, pp 37, 45–6Google Scholar.

70 This paragraph is based on Lockridge, K. A., A New England town: the first hundred years (New York, 1970)Google Scholar.

71 For example, Daniels, The Connecticut town: Powell, S. C., Puritan village: the formation of a New England town (Middleton, 1963)Google Scholar; Daniels, B. C., ‘Connecticut villages become mature towns: the complexity of local institutions’ in William and Mary Quarterly, xxxiv (1977), pp 83–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lockridge, K. A. and Kreider, Alan, ‘The evolution of Massachusetts town government, 1640–1740’ in ibid., xxiii (1966), pp 549–74Google Scholar; Bissell, C A., ‘From one generation to another: mobility in early seventeenth-century Windsor, Connecticut’ in ibid., xxxi (1974), pp 79–110 Google Scholar; Haller, William, The Puritan frontier town planting in New England colonial development, 1630–1660 (New York, 1951)Google Scholar. On the whole question of social cohesion, see Breen, T H. and Foster, Stephen, ‘The puritan achievement: a study of social cohesion in seventeenth-century Massachusetts’ in Jn. Amer. Hist., lx (1973), pp 5–22 Google Scholar.

72 Demos, John, ‘Notes on life in Plymouth colony’ in William and Mary Quarterly, xxii (1965), pp 215–7Google Scholar.