THE ULSTER PLANTATION FROM A.D.1608 TO 1620
SOME of the Irish Chiefs having adhered to the famous Hugh Ó Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in the war against Queen Elizabeth, six entire counties in Ulster--namely,
1. Armagh
2. Tyrone
3. Coleraine
4. Donegal
5. Fermanagh
6. Cavan
-all containing about 3,798,000 statute acres, were confiscated. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, in the reign of King James the First, these territories were transferred to some English, but mostly Scottish, settlers, denominated "Undertakers," 2 and "Planters:" hence the project was called the Plantation of Ulster. It should be observed, however, that four baronies of those five escheated counties were reserved for the "Londoners' Plantation," namely, Loughinsholin, which had previously belonged to the county Tyrone; whilst the other three baronies constituted the old county of Coleraine, or the ancient and celebrated Irish territory of Oireacht-Ui- Cathain (or "The Clan of the O'Cahans"). These several fragments, with a sl portion of the county of Donegal, including the island on which the city of Derry stands, and a sl portion of the county of Antrim adjoining Coleraine, were united to form the present county of Londonderry; and were handed over to the following named twelve London Companies for plantation:
1. Mercers. 7. Clothworkers. 2. Grocers (in part). 8. Merchant Tailors 3. Drapers. 9. Haberdashers. 4. Fishmongers. 10. Saltors. 5. Goldsmiths. 11. Ironmongers. 6. Skinners. 12. Vintners.
"The broadlands," writes Hill (at p.60 of his 'Plantation of Ulster') "thus quietly abandoned to the planters by the flight of the northern Earls (of Tyrone and Tyrconnell) were soon to receive vast additions. These additions included Cavan--the 'country' of the O'Reillys; Fermanagh--the 'country' of the Maguires; Coleraine--the 'country' of the O'Cahans; the barony of Inishowen, which had belonged to Sir Cahir O'Dogherty; the estates of Sir Niall Garve O'Donnell, stretching from Lifford westward along the two banks of the Finn, and including the beautiful Lough Esk; the territory of Clogher, which belonged to Sir Cormac Ó Neill, brother to the Earl of Tyrone; and last, though not least in fertility or picturesque beauty, the 'country' of Orior, reaching from Armagh to the vicinity of Dundalk, and owned by the gallant old Sir Oghie O'Hanlon."
In a letter to the Earl of Salisbury, on the 5th of August, 1608, Sir John Davys writes: "The dispositions whereof (the six counties above mentioned) by plantation of colonies is a matter of great consideration, which it is not easy to lay down a good and sure project. There have been sundry plantations in this kingdom (of Ireland), whereof the first plantation of the English Pale (in the reign of Henry II.) was the best; and the last plantation of the Undertakers in Munster was the worst.
3 The plantation in Ulster, on the sea coast, by Sir John Courcy, the Lacyes, and the Bourkes (De Burgos); the plantation in Connaught, by the Burkes and Geraldines (the Fitzgeralds); in Thomond, by Sir Thomas de Clare; in Munster, by the Geraldines, Butlers, Barrys, Roches, and other English families, are in part rooted4 out by the Irish; and such as remain are much degenerated: which will happen to this plantation within a few years if the number of civil persons to be planted do not exceed the number of the natives, who will quickly overgrow them, as weeds overgrow the good corn."