United Kingdom legislation
Act of Settlement 1662
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Long title
| An act for the better execution of His Majesty's gracious declaration for the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland, and the satisfaction of the several interests of adventurers, soldiers, and other his subjects there.
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Citation
| 14 & 15 Chas. 2 Sess. 4. c. 2 (I)
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Repealed
| 1829
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Repealed by
| Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829
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The
Act of Settlement 1662
(14 & 15 Chas. 2 Sess. 4. c. 2 (I)) was passed by the
Irish Parliament
in Dublin. It was a partial reversal of the
Cromwellian
Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
, which punished Irish Catholics and Royalists for fighting against the
English Parliament
in the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
by the wholesale confiscation of their lands and property. The Act describes itself
An act for the better execution of
His Majesty's
gracious declaration for the Settlement of his
Kingdom of Ireland
, and the satisfaction of the several interests of adventurers,
[a]
soldiers, and other his subjects there.
Background
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When the
Rump Parliament
in London passed the
Act of Settlement 1652
after the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
, its purpose was two-fold. First, it was to provide for
summary execution
of the leaders and supporters of the
Irish Rebellion of 1641
. Second, it was to confiscate sufficient land in Ireland as was necessary to repay the loans advanced by the
City of London
under the
Adventurers' Acts
of the 1640s to pay for the war, and to reward the soldiers who had engaged in the war, almost all of whom sold on their interests to third parties. By 1652 the policy was achieved by the confiscation of almost all Catholic-owned land in Ireland, something that also served to punish Irish Catholics for their rebellion and war against Parliament.
The Act of 1652 said (paragraphs VI, VII VIII) that anyone who fought against the parliament in Ireland during the
civil wars
would lose some lands.
- If they surrendered within the time allowed, they would be pardoned for their life, but lose up to two-thirds of their estates.
- If they didn't surrender within the time allowed, they could stand to lose all their lands and even their lives.
- If they were "of the Popish religion" and had not taken any part in the wars, they would still lose a third of their lands unless they had actually fought for the parliament.
In practice, Protestant Royalists in Ireland could avoid confiscation by paying fines, while Catholics could not. Although some Parliamentarians talked about deporting all of the Irish to Connacht, in fact, they only ever got around to the land-owning class. The 1652 Act ordered that all confiscated lands east of the
Shannon
(
Ulster
,
Leinster
and
Munster
) be cleared and the inhabitants transplant themselves to the west (to
Connacht
and
County Clare
), to be replaced by English
Puritans
(who were later to be known as
Dissenters
). As a result of this Settlement, Irish Catholic landholding fell from 60% before the
Irish Confederate Wars
to 8?9% during the Cromwellian Commonwealth (mostly in Connacht).
A number of formerly Catholic landowners also saved their land by converting to
the state religion
.
Act of Settlement 1662
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On the
Irish Restoration
of the Monarchy, those (notably the
Duke of Ormonde
) who had taken the
Royalist
side pleaded with the
King
for the injustices to be undone. Accordingly, the
Parliament of Ireland
(in Dublin) passed a new
Act of Settlement 1662
which ordered that the Cromwellian settlers give up a portion of their allotted land to "Old English" and "innocent Catholics", as would be determined by Commissioners.
However, the Irish Parliament was still Protestant only, until the session of 1666, as Catholics had been barred from voting or standing for election under the Commonwealth. As a result, the Parliament amended the Act of Settlement 1652 so that land could be returned to "innocent Catholics" – that is ones who had been Royalists in the civil wars and had not carried out massacres of English Protestants – but only on the condition that the Cromwellian settlers be compensated with an equal amount of land elsewhere in Ireland. Since there was simply not enough land available for this to work, only the richer or grander Catholic landowners recovered their estates under this act. These included the
Viscount Dillon
,
Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty
,
Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin
, Luke, the heir of
Christopher Plunket, 2nd Earl of Fingall
and
Edmund
, the heir of
Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret
.
[1]
A further complication arose as the buyers of confiscated land in 1652?59 were third parties who expected that their purchases for cash were legal and were protected by
privity of contract
. This act was passed on 30 May 1662.
[2]
Also in 1662 the Irish version of the
Tenures Abolition Act 1660
was enacted, that formally ended
Feudalism
in Ireland.
Act of Explanation 1665
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United Kingdom legislation
Act of Explanation 1665
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Long title
| An Act for the Explaning of some Doubts, Arising upon an Act Intituled, "An Act for the better Execution of His Majesty's Gracious Declaration, for the Settlement of His Kingdom of Ireland, and Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers Soldiers and other His Subjects;" and for making some Alterations of, and Additions unto the said Act, for the more Speedy and Effectual Settlement of the said Kingdom.
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Citation
| 17 & 18 Chas. 2. c. 2 (I)
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Territorial extent
| Kingdom of Ireland
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A Court of Claims, headed by Sir
Richard Raynsford
, was set up to investigate who was eligible for recovery of their lands. Unfortunately, the Commissioners found that too many Catholics were "innocent" and a further
Act of Explanation 1665
(17 & 18 Chas. 2. c. 2 (I)) was needed to find a workable solution. The Act of Explanation stated that Cromwellian settlers (with some named exceptions) had to give up one-third of the lands they had received after 1652 to compensate innocent Catholics.
This was a very complicated process, as most of the new owners had bought their land from the Cromwellian grantees, and so numerous contracts had to be unwound. Many of these buyers were not settlers but people who had already been living in Ireland before 1641.
By this measure, what has been described as a "favoured minority" of Irish Catholics ? mostly
Old English
Royalists ? recovered all or most of their pre-war estates. Examples of this include Ormonde and his relatives, and supporters like
Richard Bellings
or
Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim
. The people who had been militant
Irish Confederates
during the wars ? who had rejected an alliance with the English Royalists, or sought better terms from
Charles I
in return for an alliance ? got little or nothing from the settlement. Many of them regarded it as a betrayal by the Stuart monarchy, which they all had fought for at some point in the Civil Wars. The Catholic poet
Daibhi O Bruadair
concluded that the Restoration was "Purgatory" for Irish Catholics, while the former Confederate and Catholic Bishop
Nicholas French
wrote a pamphlet about
Charles II
titled,
The Unkind Deserter of Loyal men and true Friends
.
In 1600, Catholics had owned 90 per cent of land in Ireland, by 1641, this was 41 per cent (the fall due largely to the rise of the
Plantation of Ulster
) but by the time of the accession of James II in 1685, after the
Cromwellian Settlement
, the proportion of Irish land owned by Catholics had fallen to 22 per cent; after the restrictive
Treaty of Limerick
(1691), that number had been reduced to 14 per cent, and by 1800, after more restrictive anti-Catholic
Penal Laws
, the number fell further to just 5 per cent.
[4]
[5]
However, many of the 95% in 1800 had been Catholic and changed religion to keep their lands, such as the
Barons of Dunsany
.
Many Protestants in Ireland felt that the Restoration Settlements were far too lenient towards those Irish Catholics who had rebelled against the sovereignty of King Charles in 1641 and had been justly punished for it by the loss of their property and power. They had bought their new properties at market rates, competing against other bidders, and expected that
privity of contract
would apply as usual. As in England and Scotland, the Irish Restoration of 1660 had occurred without bloodshed because of their approval.
Professor Ohlmeyer
has found (2012) that the matter of religion was not as important as one's rank in the 1660s. Richer and grander families tended to be supported by King Charles, regardless of religion. Some Protestant landed families were crypto-Catholics. Other grantees included the King's brother
James, Duke of York
, who was awarded 130,000 acres in Ireland and became a Catholic. The final awards of land were not concluded by King Charles until about 1670.
[6]
Effect on the Williamite Settlement
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As neither "side" was happy with the outcome, and as the Irish gentry remained divided, the next conflict engendered much more radical proposals by each side. In 1689 James II's
Patriot Parliament
approved an Act of
Attainder
in which 2,000 (some say 3,000) of the newer landowners would be dispossessed without compensation. The Cromwellian Settlement of 1652 was repealed and all lands taken after the 1641 Rebellion would revert to the heirs of the former owners. The supporters of
William III
and
Mary II
, who won the war, proposed to indict over 3,900 of their enemies and confiscate their property, and in the ensuing "Williamite Settlement" over 2,000 lost their property to the "Commissioners of Forfeitures" which was sold on in the 1690s.
[7]
Notes
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- ^
Entrepreneurs, Merchant Adventurers ? this refers to the
Adventurers' Act 1640
passed by the English Parliament in 1642, which decreed that loans given to the Parliamentarians during the Civil Wars could be recouped by the creditors receiving land confiscated from those Irish Catholics who rebelled or remained neutral in the 1640s.
- ^
Webb, Alfred John (1878).
A Compendium of Irish Biography: comprising sketches of distinguished Irishmen, and of eminent persons connected with Ireland by office or by their writings
. Dublin: M.H. Gill & Son. pp. 64, 149?150, 303, 366, 439.
- ^
House of Lords 1779
, p. 305, left column, bottom: "30th of May, 1662. ... that the Act intitled an Act for the better Execution of his Majesty's gracious Declaration for the Settlement of this kingdom of Ireland, and Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers, Soldiers and other his Subjects there, shall pass as a Law."
- ^
Edwards, Ruth Dudley; Hourican, Bridget (2004).
An Atlas of Irish History
. Routledge. p. 159.
- ^
Mann, Michael (2005).
The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 520?552.
- ^
Ohlmeyer J. (2012)
Making Ireland English: the Irish aristocracy in the seventeenth century
. New Haven: Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0300118346
- ^
Commissioners of Forfeitures Report, December 1699
[
full citation needed
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References
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Further reading
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- McGee, Thomas D'Arcy.
A Popular History of Ireland: From the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics.
Gutenberg Project
, Book X Chapter 1 (also available in web form
[1]
)
- Act of Settlement 1662 and Act of Explanation 1665
– The
Corpus of Electronic Texts
at
University College Cork
: "His Majesty's gracious declaration for the settlement of his kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the several interests of adventurers, soldiers, and other his subjects there".
- Parliament Ireland (1794).
Statutes Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland ... from the Third Year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310 [to the Fortieth Year of George III, A.D. 1800, Inclusive] ...: 3 Edward II, 1310-14 & 15 Charles II, 1662
. George Grierson. pp.
327
?330,
338
?364.
- "An Act of most joyful Recognition of his Majestie's undoubted Title to the Crown of Ireland", pp.
327
?330 (1660, C 2 13)
- "His Majestie's gracious Declaration of the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland and Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventures, Souldiers and other his Subjects there", Whitehall. 30 November 1660 pp.
334
?364
- "An Act for the better Execution of His Majesties gracious Deceleration for the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland, and Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventures, Souldiers and other his Subjects there", pp.
338
?364, (1662 C 2 14 and 15)
- Irish Parliament (1794). "
An Act for the explaining of some Doubts arising upon an Act initiated
, An Act for the better Execution of his Majestie's gracious Declaration for the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland, and Satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers, Soldiers and other his Subjects there, and
for making some Alterations of and Additions unto the said Act, for the mere speedy and effectual Settlement of the said Kingdom
(1665)".
Statutes Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland: 1665?1712
. Vol. II. George Grierson. pp.
1
?137.
- Simms, J. G.
Jacobite Ireland 1685?91
. Norfolk: University of Toronto Press, 1969.
- Siochru, Michael O.
Confederate Ireland 1642?49
. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999.
- Ua Clerigh, Arthur (1907).
"Act of Settlement (Irish)l"
. In
Herbermann, Charles George
(ed.).
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 1 (Special ed.). New York:
The Encyclopedia Press
. pp. 112?113.
OCLC
1157968788
.
}