1 Dunlop, Robert, ‘The plantation of Leix and Offaly, 1556-1622’ in E.H.R., vi (1891), pp 61–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar; MacCarthy-Morrogh, Michael, The Munster plantation: English migration to southern Ireland, 1583-1641 (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar; Moody, T.W., The Londonderry plantation, 1609-41 (Belfast, 1939)Google Scholar; Robinson, Philip, The plantation of Ulster: British settlement in an Irish landscape, 1600-1670 (Dublin, 1984)Google Scholar; Treadwell, Victor, Buckingham and Ireland, 1616-1628: a study in Anglo-Irish politics (Dublin, 1998), pp 139-46Google Scholar; Domhnall Mac an Ghallóglaigh, ‘Leitrim 1600-1641’ in Breifne, iv, no. 14 (1971), pp 225-54Google Scholar. Developments in Leitrim are included in Cuarta, Brian Mac, ‘Newcomers in the Irish midlands, 1540-1641’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Galway, 1980)Google Scholar.

2 On Brian O’Rourke see Casway, Jerrold, ‘The last lords of Leitrim: the sons of Sir Teigue O’Rourke’ in Breifne, vii, no. 26 (1988), pp 556-74Google Scholar. On the broader story of the O’Rourke lordship see Gallogly, Domhnall, ‘Brian of the Ramparts O’Rourke (1566-91)’ in Breifne, ii, no. 5 (1962), pp 50–79Google Scholar; idem (Dõmhnall Mac an Ghallóglaigh), ‘Brian Oge O’Rourke and the Nine Years War’ in Breifne, ii, no. 6 (1963), pp 171-203; Morgan, Hiram, ‘Extradition and treason-trial of a Gaelic lord: the case of Brian O’Rourke [1566-91]’ in Ir. Jurist, xxii (1987), pp 285–301Google Scholar; outline of the case of Brian O’Rourke, c. 1641 (T.C.D., MS 672, ff 171-2).

3 James I to Lord Deputy Chichester, 12 Apr. 1615 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1615-25, pp 35-6); Chichester about to go to midlands, 12 July 1615 (ibid., p. 84); inquisition to royal title to Leitrim, 1615 (Lambeth Palace Library, Carew MS 617, ff 99, 101-4). Already in the early 1590s Lord Gormanston was claiming the country of Munterolis [Muinter Eolais] against the O’Rourke lord, based on an ancient deed in Gormanston’s possession (Gormanston to Burghley, 24 Sept. 1592 (P.R.O., SP 63/166/64)). In taking the great office of Leitrim [1615] ‘good use was made of that title [based on a claim that this territory had been granted to one Nangle shortly after the Anglo-Norman conquest] to suppress the claims and right pretended by the natives’ (Lord Deputy Grandison and council to privy council, 8 Aug. 1621 (ibid., SP 63/236/18)). Grandison recommended that, in return for waiving their claim, Lord Gormanston and John Rochford be granted the reversion of Lady O’Rourke’s grant (1,600 arable acres in Dromahair), and in 1631 a patent was issued accordingly (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Chas I, p. 588).

4 Chichester’s survey noted in ‘Opinion on territories lately escheated’, c. 1618 (H.M.C., Buccleuch & Queensberry, i, 75-7)Google Scholar.

5 ‘He [heir of O’Rourke] and his brother to be sent for into England in the mean time’ (‘Notes on Longford, Leitrim, O’Carroll’s land’, 28 May 1616 (B.L., Lansdowne MS 156, f. 10)); lord keeper to Sir William Jones, [June] 1617 (Cal. S. P. Ire., 1615-25, p. 167).

6 In contrast, Sir John MacCoghlan, lord of Delvin MacCoghlan, led a vigorous rearguard action against the plantation. As a punishment, the proportion of land to be given to undertakers in the smaller territories was increased from a quarter to a third. The lord deputy attributed the degree of submission in the planted areas to the presence or absence of a local chieftain at the time of plantation: see Grandison to the council, c. 1621 (B.L., Harl. MS 3292, ff 36-9).

7 For an example of such lobbying from Delvin MacCoghlan see Cuarta, Brian Mac (ed.), ‘Mathew De Renzy’s letters on Irish affairs, 1613-1620’ in Anal. Hib., no. 34 (1987), 107-82Google Scholar.

8 Lord Deputy St John’s project for the plantation of Longford, Aug. 1618 (Cal. Carew MSS, 1603-24, pp 367-70). He was concerned to have as undertakers ‘such servitors remaining in this kingdom as have well served in the wars, and have had no land at all given unto them’.

9 On the Wexford plantation scheme see ‘The lord deputy’s project for the plantation in Wexford’, 6 Aug. 1614 (Cal. S.P. Ire.. 1611-14, pp 492-1); orders to be observed in the plantation of Wexford, Aug. 1614 (Cal. Carew MSS, 1603-24, pp 299-302); Lord Deputy Chichester’s project for the plantation of Wexford, Feb. 1616 (ibid., pp 321-4); Lord Deputy St John and council to lords, 6 Dec. 1620 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1615-25, pp 303-6); Aidan Clarke with Edwards, R. Dudley, ‘Pacification, plantation, and the Catholic question, 1603-23’ in Moody, T. W., Martin, F.X. and Byrne, F. J. (eds), A new history of Ireland, iii: Early modern Ireland, 1534-1691 (Oxford, 1976) p. 219Google Scholar.

10 The terms of the undertakers’ leases to tenants were dropped, as was the exclusion of those who were undertakers under previous plantations. The Leitrim plantation conditions are given in full in Desid. cur. Hib., ii, 52-77, and in Cuarta, Brian Mac (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers, 1620-22’ in Breifne, ix, no. 35 (1999), pp 116-27Google Scholar; royal instructions for the plantation of Longford and Ely O’Carroll, 8 Aug. 1619 (B.L., Add. MS 36775, ff 195-7) (with Blundell’s name attached); conditions in leases under Longford plantation, Apr. 1620 (Hickson, Mary, Ireland in the seventeenth century (2 vols, London, 1884), ii, 291-2)Google Scholar; commissioners’ report on Longford-Ely plantation, 1618 (Cal. Carew MSS, 1603-24, pp 378-80). The 1620 instructions were drafted by Sir Francis Blundell: see his paper on Irish plantations, c. 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, ON 8540). On Longford see Gillespie, Raymond, ‘A question of survival: the O’Farrells and Longford in the seventeenth century’ in Gillespie, Raymond and Moran, Gerard (eds), Longford: essays in county history (Dublin, 1991), pp 13–29Google Scholar.

11 For some, this was reward for progress in becoming anglicised. For example, John Reynolds belonged to a native Leitrim family who were successfully anglicising themselves in the early seventeenth century; his son, Humphrey, was auditor of the wards commission and court and was married to a daughter of Auditor General Sir James Ware senior. See Meehan, Joseph, ‘Notes on the Mac Rannals of Leitrim and their country’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., 5th ser., xv (1905), pp 139-51Google Scholar. Delvin and his mother had earlier conformed to the established church (Mac Cuarta, ‘Newcomers’, p. 122).

12 Buckingham’s acquisition of 6,500 acres in Dromahair was cloaked in a series of murky transactions in the years 1620-27 (Treadwell, Buckingham & Ireland, pp 145-6).

13 For the earlier plantation schemes see the plantation conditions summarised in the 1622 survey (B.L., Add. MS 4756, ff 88-9 (Munster), ff 97-100 (Ulster)).The 1622 commission papers are currently being edited by Victor Treadwell for the Irish Manuscripts Commission. A succinct analysis of the roles envisaged for different grantees in Ulster is given in Moody, T. W., ‘The treatment of the native population under the scheme for the plantation in Ulster’ in I.H.S., i, no. 1 (Mar. 1938), pp 59–63Google Scholar.

14 Those with less than 100 acres after all deductions (200 acres under the 1619 scheme).

15 ‘Royal instructions for the plantation of Leitrim’, 1620, nos 10-11 (Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, p. 120).

16 Ibid., no.27(p.l22).

17 Leases were to be for the contemporary English norm of three lives or twenty-one years; tenants were to build their houses in clusters, with a chimney, and were to lay out a garden and an orchard; enclosure of land, on the model of the advanced agricultural areas of England, was required, in that each tenant of 60 acres was to enclose ten acres with a bank.

18 1622 survey, Ulster plantation, ‘Articles concerning the Irish natives’ (B.L., Add. MS 4756, f. 98).

19 However, these stricter Longford-Ely conditions (for undertakers) were brought into line with those of the Leitrim plantation by an act of state in April 1622 (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 540); cf. conditions in leases under Longford plantation, Apr. 1620 (Hickson, , Ireland in the seventeenth century, ii, 291-2Google Scholar). On leases and enclosure in early seventeenth-century England see Stone, Lawrence, The crisis of the aristocracy, 1558-1641 (Oxford, 1965), pp 312-24Google Scholar; Thirsk, Joan (ed.), The agrarian history of England and Wales, iv: 1500-1640 (Cambridge, 1967), ch. 4 and pp 684-94Google Scholar. The stipulation regarding the planting of hemp arose from royal concern at the excessive cost of importing a commodity so necessary for the navy (James I to Lord Deputy St John, 31 Jan. 1619 (B.L., Add. MS 4756, f. 137)).

20 ‘Royal instructions for the plantation of Leitrim’, 1620, no. 38 (Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, p. 124).

21 Ibid., no.6(p.ll8).

22 1622 survey, Ulster plantation, ‘Articles concerning the English and Scottish undertakers’ (B.L., Add. MS 4756, f f 97-8).

23 Ibid., ‘Articles of instructions to ... commissioners’ (f. 99).

24 In capite tenures were financially more beneficial to the crown. The 1622 commission was very critical of the failure to insist on in capite tenures in general. See Ranger, Terence, ‘Richard Boyle and the making of an Irish fortune, 1588-1614’ in I.H.S., x, no. 39 (Mar. 1957), pp 257-97Google Scholar, on the various land tenures at this time.

25 Loeber, Rolf, ‘A gateway to Connacht: the building of the fortified town of Jamestown, County Leitrim, in the era of plantation’ in Ir. Sword, xv (1983), pp 149-52Google Scholar. Lord Wilmot, president of Connacht, considered the building of this walled town a needless expense, noting the existence of a fort within a mile of the site, and advocating that the money so saved be used for the relief of distressed soldiers (Wilmot to Cranfield, June 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, ON 8449)); ‘Royal instructions for the plantation of Leitrim’, 1620, no. 12 (Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, p. 120).

26 Norton to Cranfield, 10 Dec.1621 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 85).

27 This relaxation suited the Leitrim undertaker Sir William Parsons, who already held two proportions in County Tyrone and one under the Wexford plantation; his brother Fenton, also a Leitrim undertaker, was living on one of the Tyrone proportions in 1622: see B.L., Add. MS 4756, ff 112, 113, 123.

28 On the backgrounds of the grantees see Mac Cuarta, ‘Newcomers’, ch. 3.

29 Sir Francis Blundell, ‘On plantations’, to the lord treasurer, c. 1622 (B.L., Harl. MS 3292, ff 43-4; Centre for Kentish Studies, ON 8540). Courtier influence in the selection of midland undertakers is indicated by Lord Balfour’s nomination of several poor men under the Longford plantation.

30 Paper on Jamestown, after 1622 (Bodl., MS Carte 30, f. 66).

31 Sir Dudley Digges to Buckingham, 19 Apr. 1622 (ibid., f. 117).

32 Norton to Cranfield, 10 Dec. 1621 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 85). Norton was a stern critic of the avarice exemplified in the midland plantations, referring to ‘the partialities, corruptions and abuses’ which the commissioners’ viewing of the plantations would expose: see Norton to Cranfield, 3 June 1622 (ibid.).

33 Sir Francis Blundell (d. 1625), M.P., 1613-15; Sir Ralph Winwood’s clerk, 1614-17; king’s secretary for Irish affairs, 1618-22; undertaker in the plantations of Wexford, Longford and Leitrim; member of 1622 commission. See Treadwell, Buckingham & Ireland, p. 423.

34 ‘And stranger it seems, that there should be fresh assays when there are so many plantations yet unsettled and imperfect’ (Sir Dudley Norton to Cranfield, 10 Dec. 1621 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 85)); Opinion on territories lately escheated’, c. 1618 (H.M., C., Buccleuch & Queensberry, i, 76Google Scholar). Buckingham himself gained the proportions allocated to two Scottish courtiers, Robert and James Maxwell, totalling 6,500 acres, centred in Dromahair, while Sir Edward Villiers’s son acquired an estate which included Jamestown (Treadwell, Buckingham & Ireland, pp 138-46). In response to the flood of natives’ complaints from the planted areas, Parsons felt obliged to write a paper defending the plantations: ‘Reasons for the plantations in Ireland’, 16 May 1622 (B.L., Harl. MS 3292, ff 26-31). The Maxwell agents had set their lands at about £400 p.a., though Sir William Parsons thought this could be improved, ‘when it shalbe really taken into the care of your lordship’s servants here’ (Parsons to Buckingham, 6 Nov. 1623 (Bodl., MS Carte 30, f. 149)).

35 The state of the plantations was part of the remit of the 1622 commission into various aspects of state revenue and expense in Ireland: see 1622 commission journal, 21 May, 20 July 1622 (Exeter College, Oxford, MS 95, ff 34, 64). Wilmot was assigned to view the midland plantations because of the proximity to Athlone, his base, and Norton and Blundell were to assist him: see Sir Dudley Digges to Cranfield, 22 July 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 53).

36 Proclamation, 24 Aug. 1622 (Steele, R. R. (ed.), Tudor and Stuart proclamations, 1485-1714 (2 vols, Oxford, 1910), ii, no. 239Google Scholar); Domhnall Mac an Ghallóglaigh, ‘Sir Frederick Hamilton’ in Breifne, iii, no. 9 (1966), pp 55–99Google Scholar. By this stage Grandison had conveyed part of his proportion to Sir Charles Coote (T.C.D., MS 672, f. 154), but this estate was earmarked for Sir Edward Villiers’s son, and Coote was merely a trustee (Treadwell, Buckingham & Ireland, p. 144).

37 Reflecting the expansionism of the Pale nobility, in 1631 Nicholas Preston, Viscount Gormanston, together with John Rochford, acquired Lady O’Rourke’s lands, in which she retained a life interest (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Chas I, p. 588). In 1633 Mary Ny Gwire arranged to have a chalice made for the friars of Donegal (Gallchobhair, Pádraig Ó, ‘A missing Maguire chalice [1633]’ in Clogher Rec, i, no. 3 (1955)Google Scholar, frontispiece). In 1641 Lady O’Rourke (who had married David Bourke) owned over 2,400 profitable acres in Dromahair barony, and Elizabeth Glanchy, together with her son Rosse Geoghegan, owned over 4,400 acres in Rossclogher barony, presumably having acquired the interests of her co-grantees (petitions to lord deputy from planted areas, 1633-4 (B.L., Harl. MS 4297, f. 147); Down Survey, County Leitrim (R.I.A.)).

38 In Monaghan partible inheritance among sept members led to the fragmentation of holdings: see Duffy, P. J., ‘The territorial organization of Gaelic landownership and its transformation in County Monaghan, 1591-1640’ in Ir. Geography, xiv (1981), pp 1–26Google Scholar, where he also notes the trend for freeholders to become leaseholders.

39 Leitrim plantation complaints, May 1622 (T.C.D., MS 672, f. 154, printed in Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, pp 138-9); petitions to lord deputy from planted areas, 1633-4(B.L., Harl. MS 4297, ff 118-72) (I am indebted to Raymond Gillespie for this reference). A decrease in the number of freeholders has been noted in Monaghan and Longford for this period: see Duffy, ‘Territorial organization of Gaelic landownership’; Gillespie, ‘A question of survival’, p. 26.

40 Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, p. 138. Charles Reynolds acquired the plantation grants of five freeholders, totalling 5 cartrons plus 360 acres (petitions to lord deputy from planted areas, 1633-4 (B.L., Harl. MS 4297, ff 138, 140-42)). Gillahursa O’Dwiggannan took £10 from his kinsman Toghall O’Dwyganan to procure a patent for Toghall’s 7½ quarters, but Gillahursa obtained a patent of this land for himself (ibid., f. 156).

41 Hadsor was a London-based lawyer of Pale background. See Treadwell, Victor, ‘Richard Hadsor and the authorship of “Advertisements for Ireland”, 1622/3’ in I.H.S., xxx, no. 119 (May 1997), pp 305-36Google Scholar; Joseph McLaughlin, ‘Richard Hadsor’s “Discourse” on the Irish state, 1604’, ibid., pp 337-53; 1622 commission journal, 10 May 1622 (Exeter College, Oxford, MS 95, f. 29).

42 Commissioners to [lords of council], 10 May 1622 (Exeter College, Oxford, MS 95, f. 29); commissioners to [lords of council], 22 June 1622 (ibid., ff 52-3).

43 Lord Deputy Grandison was against publicising the commission’s terms of reference, and this only happened a few days after his departure: see Sir William Jones and Sir Dudley Digges to Cranfield, 29 Apr. 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 75). ‘The people... expecting to hear why his majesty sent commissioners, and marvelling that the cause was kept from their knowledge’ (Sir Dudley Norton to Cranfield, 8 May 1622 (ibid., U269/I/Hi 85)); see also Norton to Cranfield 3, 14 June 1622 (ibid.); commissioners to [lords of council], 22 June 1622 (Exeter College, Oxford, MS 95, ff 52-3).

44 Sir Nathaniel Rich estimated that ‘a man must have by the office 136 acres or else by the Instructions he is not to have a freehold’ (Rich’s notes, 24 May 1622 (N.L.I., MS 8014 (iii), no. 16)). The earl of Westmeath complained to the 1622 commission of the lack of freeholders in the midland plantations, pointing to the harm done thereby to the working of local government (Rich’s notes, 1 July 1622 (ibid., (v), no. 8)).

45 Rich’s notes, 21 June 1622 (ibid., (iv), no. 11). Lady O’Rourke, Sir Teige’s widow, complained that the lands assigned her under the king’s instructions were not allocated her, and that ‘very unprofitable’ lands were given her instead (Rich’s notes, 15 June 1622 (ibid., no. 9)). Deliberate obfuscation is further suggested by the fact that Lord Deputy Grandison’s papers, including plantation papers, in the care of his secretary, Stockdale, were not available to the 1622 commissioners: see Sir Dudley Norton to Cranfield, c. 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 85).

46 Irish commissioners to English privy council, 22 June 1622 (Centre for Kentish Studies, ON 8461);Hadsor to Cranfield,29 Aug. 1622 (ibid., U269/I/Hi 65); quotation from ‘A declaration of abuses in the plantation of his majesty’s late escheated lands in Ireland’, c. 1622 (ibid., ON 7524). Sir Dudley Digges substantiated these allegations, noting that the surveyors went by estimation and not by measure, ‘and to encourage the planters now very bountiful 2, 3 perhaps 4000 acres went for one’ (Digges to Cranfield, 8 May 1622 (ibid., U269/I/Hi 53)).

47 ‘A declaration of abuses in the plantation of his majesty’s late escheated lands in Ireland’, c. 1622 (ibid., ON 7524).

48 The MacRannalls, chief family of Muinter Eolais, south Leitrim, adopted the anglicised form Reynolds; John Reynolds and his brother William (M.P. for Leitrim in 1613) were each granted over 700 acres as natives; John’s three sons also received grants as natives: Charles got 796 acres, Humphrey 112, and Thomas 249. The Henry Reynolds who was given 600 acres as an undertaker may have been a relation. See B.L., Add. MS 4756, ff 129-30; Meehan, ‘Notes on the Mac Rannals of Leitrim’, pp 139-51. John Reynolds, high sheriff of County Leitrim, 1613-20, was succeeded by his son Humphrey, 1620-24: see Meehan, Joseph (ed.), ‘Catalogue of the high sheriffs of the County of Leitrim, 1605-1800’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., 5th ser. xviii (1908), pp 382-8Google Scholar; O’Connell, Philip (ed.), ‘Some Co. Leitrim wills’ in Breifne, i, no. 3 (1960), pp 225-41Google Scholar. Humphrey Reynolds was engaged to pay the admeasurement money for himself and eleven other grantees (chancery recognisance, 1629 (B.L., Add. MS 19841, f. 153)).

49 ‘Complaints of nobility and gentry of Ireland’, 1622 commission journal, 29 May 1622 (Exeter College, Oxford, MS 95, ff 42-3); commissioners to [lords of council], 22 June 1622 (ibid., f.52v).

50 ‘Complahrts of nobility and gentry of Ireland’, 29 May 1622 (ibid., ff 42-3).

51 Commissioners to [lords of council], 22 June 1622 (ibid., f. 53).

52 Orders concerning plantations, 25 June 1622 (ibid., f. 55).

53 Cahell Grane McHughe to lord deputy, 20 Jan. 1633[/4] (B.L., Harl. MS 4297, f. 141).

54 Lord Deputy Falkland and council to English privy council, 1 Oct. 1622 (Bodl., MS Carte 30, f. 131). Parsons himself indirectly recognised the considerable losses suffered by the Irish under the plantation, marvelling that they, not taking advantage of a moratorium on the passing of grants, ‘have not.. . joined themselves in one open cry to disturb his majesty for relief (Parsons to Buckingham, 6 Nov. 1623 (Bodl., MS Carte 30, f. 149)).

55 Mac Cuarta, ‘Newcomers’, pp 119-22. By 1617 the settler Walter Harrison was living in what had been the Franciscan abbey of Crievelea, County Leitrim; he had part of the ruined roof of the abbey covered with thatch at his expense and was charging fees for burials there (Jennings, Brendan (ed.), ‘Brussels MS 3947: Donatus Moneyus, De provincia Hiberniae S. Francisci’ in Anal. Hib., no. 6 (1934), p. 49Google Scholar). Under the plantation he was granted a total of 773 acres (573 as a native, 200 as an undertaker) (Mac Cuarta (ed.), ‘Leitrim plantation papers’, pp 131-2).

56 In 1612 Henry Crofton (d. 1643) acquired the priory of Mohill from Sir Thomas Ashe, and in 1617-19 he bought or otherwise acquired lands from local natives in six transactions (Crofton deeds (N.A.I., D 10263a, D 10264a, D 10265a-f). These acquisitions of the 1610s he passed on a patent of 1621, creating the manor of Mohill (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 518). He was granted 600 acres as an undertaker (B.L., Add. MS 4756, f. 129). His achievement in becoming a substantial landowner was reflected in his long tenure of the post of high sheriff for County Leitrim, 1624-39: see Meehan (ed.), ‘High sheriffs of County Leitrim’, pp 382-8. Married to Ursula Moore, sister of the first Viscount Moore, he was the fourth son of John Crofton, Irish escheator general 1575-97: see Crofton, Henry, Crofton memoirs (York, 1911), pp 46-7Google Scholar,55-61,290,318-26 (which details Crofton’s land disputes in the 1620s and 1630s).

57 On Crofton’s acquisition of natives’ plantation grants see Crofton deeds: Phelim McCormuck McGrannell (possibly a plantation grant), by purchase (N.A.I., D 10267a); Kedagh McLysagh O’Farrell (ibid., D 10267b-c); Ire McEdmond McGranell (ibid., D 10753); ‘Articles indented between Henry Crofton... and Ire McEdmonde McGranill’ (ibid., D 10268); Owen McMelaghlin McGranell (ibid., D 10266, D 10267, D 10270). In 1627 Crofton paid Morogh MacCormucke Oge O’Hislenan £35 for his father’s plantation grant of 140 arable acres (ibid., D 10272; Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, p. 518).

58 Trends in the midlands planter community 1622-41 are discussed in Mac Cuarta, ‘Newcomers’, ch. 4. Detailed lists of some planter landholdings are given in Cal. chancery inquisitions, County Leitrim (N.A.I., RC 4/14).

59 Sir Francis Hamilton and Thomas Abercromby (both Scots with family ties in Ulster) lived on their estates, as did brothers William and Robert Parke (Robert’s estate was allegedly worth £1,000 p.a. before the rebellion): see The information of Sir Frederick Hamilton ([London], 1645), pp 7, 12Google Scholar; Down Survey, baronies of Rossclogher and Dromahair, County Leitrim (R.I.A.); Mac an Ghallóglaigh, ‘Sir Frederick Hamilton’, pp 55-99. (The Fermanagh planter Sir John Dunbar was Abercromby’s father-in-law.)

60 Sir Frederick Hamilton had increased his holding from 1,500 profitable acres in 1622 to over 8,000 acres in 1641. On mortgages: Robert Parke held 953 acres from Conor O’Rourke, Sir Charles Coote 490 acres from Teige McNowa, and in Mohill barony Thomas Loyd held a total of 775 acres from three natives, in addition to his own lands of 274 acres (Down Survey, County Leitrim (R.I.A.)).

61 Teige O’Connor Sligo to Sir Frederick Hamilton, 15 Mar. 1641 [/2] (Another abstract of several letters from Ireland (London, 1643), p. 52Google Scholar); The information of Sir Frederick Hamilton, p. 78.

62 List of Viscount Grandison’s company, Sept. 1630 (P.R.O., SP 46/91/207-8); The information of Sir Frederick Hamilton, pp 6, 73.

63 Petition of Sir George St George, 18 Sept. 1633 (B.L., Had. MS 4297, f. 131).

64 Boate, Gerard, Ireland’s naturall history (London, 1652), pp 129-30Google Scholar, 135-7; Another abstract of several letters from Ireland, p. 16. An annotated list of pre-1641 Leitrim ironworks is given in McCracken, Eileen, ‘Charcoal-burning iron works in the 17th and 18th centuries in Ireland’ in U.J.A., 3rd ser., xxviii (1965), pp 123-38Google Scholar.

65 Another abstract of several letters from Ireland, pp 21, 24; Sir Frederick Hamilton had over 400 cows in 1641, and ‘above an hundred [cattle], most of them Scotch and English cows’ were retaken from the Irish in one raid (ibid., pp 21, 27); deposition of Thomas Lewis, 7 Jan. 1642[/3] (T.C.D., MS 831, f. 3); Domhnall Mac an Ghallóglaigh, ‘1641 rebellion in Leitrim’ in Breifne, ii, no. 8 (1966), pp 441-54Google Scholar.

66 Depositions of James Stevenson (Apr. 1643) and Ann Reade (12 July 1643) (T.C.D., MS 831, ff 6, 12). An example of the close domestic relations between native and settler is the fact that Walter Harrison’s foster-father was Cormick MacRobert MacTernon (The information of Sir Frederick Hamilton, p. 83).

67 Parsons to Buckingham, 6 Nov. 1623 (Bodl., MS Carte 30, ff 149-50). Parsons was promoting plantations in Ossory and Ranelagh at this time, while the plantation of Connacht was being broached (Parsons to Buckingham, 20 Aug.1624 (ibid., f. 166)). Parsons reiterated the view that the Irish were ‘convinced of the good consequence and fair carriage’ of the plantations (Parsons to Buckingham, 14 June 1624 (ibid., f. 163)).

68 Sir Dudley Norton noted the fear which the plantation policy engendered: ‘Generally, men are filled with fear and sadness, because they say they know not what to call their own, when 2, 3 nay 400 years possession will not serve their turn’ (Norton to Cranfield, 10 Dec. 1621 (Centre for Kentish Studies, U269/I/Hi 85)). One advocate of a Leitrim plantation was responding to official scepticism concerning the royal title (Opinion on territories lately escheated’, c. 1618 (H.M.C., Buccleuch & Queensberry, i, 75-7)).

69 Petition of Brian O’Rourke to the king (ibid., U269/I/Hi 162).

70 Blundell, ‘On plantations’, c. 1622 (B.L., Harl. MS 3292, ff 40-45).

I am grateful to Dr Victor Treadwell for generously commenting on an earlier version of this paper.