HISTORY OF BANDON

CHAPTER IX

[Pages 176-190]  THE COUNTRY A DESERT - WOLVES ARE NUMEROUS - THE FORFEITURES - WHAT IT COST TO SUPPRESS THE REBELLION - NOT A SINGLE TENEMENT SEIZED IN BANDON - MANY OF CROMWELL'S TROOPERS SELL THEIR GRANTS FOR A TRIFLE - HELL OR CONNAUGHT - HOW CROMWELL QUIETED THE COUNTRY - WHAT HIS COMMISSIONERS THOUGHT OF THE PRIESTS -CROMWELL'S SON, HENRY, ORDERS LANDS, VALUED AT £200 PER ANNUM, TO BE CONFERRED ON THE BANDON CORPORATION -CHARLES THE SECOND DEPRIVES THEM OF SOME OF THEIR GRANTS.

    And now the mighty wave, which had rolled with a devastation sweep from one end of Ireland to the other, had subsided into a tiny ripple.  The troubled waters-which had long tossed a reddened spray on their angry surface-were again pellucid; and one may see peace and prosperity-tranquilly awaiting the signal to come up-lying on the silver sands below.  But the country was a vast ruin.  A traveller might journey thirty miles along the public roads and not see a human face.  When Cromwell's troopers were on the line of march, they used to wonder when they saw smoke arise from a chimney, or saw a light at night.  Wolves roamed about unmolested; their hereditary enemy-man-was absent; and the wolf-dog,*  whose deep bay often rang along the wooded hill-side, or who had often kept faithful watch and ward at the Irish chieftain's castle-gate, had accompanied him, or his sons, to a distant land.

                *  Such was the number of wolf-dogs taken away by the Irish officers on their quitting this country for Spain and other places, that the tide-waiters at the different ports received peremptory instructions to seize on all dogs who were about to leave with their masters, and send them to the public huntsman of the district, in order, if possible, the diminish the daily increasing number of wolves.

    The few persons that were occasionally to be met with in the rural parts were wandering orphans, whose fathers had embarked for Poland or Spain,*  and whose mothers had died of hunger; or were miserable old people, who would quarrel over a putrid carcase raked from a stagnant pool; and some of whom were seen to eat human flesh, cut from the corpse of a fellow-creature, that lay broiling on the fire before them.
    Such was the destruction of life, of property, and of everything that tends to make a nation great an prosperous, that it was thought a great portion of the kingdom must necessarily remain a waste for many years to come; whilst others were of opinion it would take ages to restore some of it to the high state of cultivation it had attained to before the war.
    The fences were broken down; houses were levelled to the ground; drains, that had carried off the superfluous moisture, where choked; the ditches were filled with briars and rushes, and the meadows with weeds; the dock and the thistle flourished in fields where-in happier days-the wheat shook its golden plume.   The wild duck rose lazily from what had once been an ornamental lake; and the flower-garden, where the blooming rose commingled its delicate perfume with the rich fragrance of the honey-suckle, and the savoury aroma of the thyme, was now the home of crawling creatures who trailed their slimy bodies through the rank grass, and of noxious animals, who burrowed holes in the ground, and fed on carrion.  Silence was everywhere, and it remained unbroken-save when the raven croaked as it soared into the sky; but the lively twitter of the birds, the buzzing hum of the bee, and the low of cattle, were absent.  The latter were nearly all destroyed.

                    *  Colonel Christopher Mayo obtained permission for raise, by beat of drum, three thousand Irish soldiers for the service of the King of Spain.  Don Ricardo White shipped no less than seven thousand, in detachments, from Waterford, Kinsale, Bantry, and Limerick, for the same prince.  Colonel Edward Dwyer commanded three thousand five hundred foot in the pay of the Prince de Conde. and Lord Muskerry took five thousand of them to Poland.  Between 1651 and 1654, thirty-four thousand Irish soldiers embarked for foreign ports; and it is computed that about forty thousand left altogether.  The regiments, headed by their pipers, marched to the different shipping ports; the hills, as they marched along, perhaps, echoing the mournful strains of::-

                        ''Ha til, ha til, ha til, ha til, mi tulidh.''
                        ''We return, we return no more.''                    *  See Comwellian Settlement of Ireland.- Prendergast.  

     In a letter from the commissioners for Ireland to the English council, they state that ''the stock of cattle in this country are almost all spent, so that four parts in five of the best and most fertile lands in Ireland lie waste and uninhabited.'' 
    To remedy this evil, cows and sheep were imported from Wales; and so anxious were the authorities to foster their increase, that it even required a license to kill a lamb.*
    Those who were the cause of all this ruin and waste, paid the penalty of their misdeeds.  Numbers of them had fallen in the field, with arms in their hands.  Numbers of them perished in a famine of their own creating; and others were crowding the sea-ports, on their way to distant shores.
    As nearly all the Irish gentry, and the greater portion of the old English residents, both within and without the Pale, had united against British rule, the forfeitures were immense.  It was found, upon a careful survey, that there were in Ireland, of forfeited lands, 4,758,657 plantation acres;†  of these, there were given:-

                                                                                                                                                              Acres
                To the adventurers‡ ..............................................................................................................396,054
                To the officers and soldiers.................................................................................................1,442.839
                To the officers that served his Majesty against rebels in Ireland prior to 1649..........................278,041
                The Duke of York, as regicides lands.....................................................................................111,015
                To Protestants, on provisions by Acts of Settlement and Explanation..................................... .383,975
                To the bishops, for their augmentations....................................................................................118,041
                Reserved to his Majesty as undisposed of, being set out to adventurers.....................................14,006
                Left of coarse lands undisposed of-title of which is doubtful......................................................73,578  
                Restored to innocent Papists..................................................................................................965,270
                Restored to them by special provisions in Acts of Settlement and Explanation..........................408,083
                Set out to them upon their transplantations to Connaught and Clare.........................................667,755
                                                                                                                                                          4,758,657   

                *  ''Upon the petition of Mrs. Alice Bulkeley (widow), and consideration had of her old age and weakness of body, it is thought fit, and ordered, that she be, and she is, hereby permitted and licensed to kill and dress so much lamb as shall be necessary for her own use and eating,-not exceeding three lambs for this whole year,-notwithstanding any declaration of the said commissioners of Parliament to the contrary.-Dublin, March 17th, 1652.'' -Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.
                †  A plantation acre consists on one hundred and sixty perches, each perch containing twenty-one feet.
                ‡  The adventurers were those who had advanced several sums of money on the credit of the Act of 17th (Charles the First), for the encouragement of adventurers, whereby it was, amongst other things, enacted:-That such rights, titles, interests, &c., as the rebels in Ireland, or any of them, had, on the 23rd of October, 1641, when the rebellion broke out, or afterwards should have, in any lands or other hereditaments, shall be forfeited to his Majesty; and should be deemed adjudged, vested, and taken to be in the actual and real possession of the said King, his heirs and successors, without any office or Inquisition thereof to be found.  And for reducing the rebels, and distributing their lands amongst such persons as should advance money and become ''adventurers'' in the reduction, two and a-half million of acres were to be assigned and allotted in the following proportion, viz.:- Each adventurer of £200 was to have a thousand acres in Ulster; of £300, a thousand acres in Connaught; of £450, a thousand acres in Munster; and of £600, a thousand acres in Leinster (English measure).  Each acre was to pay a yearly quit rent to the crown, as follows:- In Ulster, a penny an acre; Connaught, three-halfpence; Munster, twopence-farthing; Leinster, threepence.  And every adventurer who, within three months after the allotment, that shall possess, in Leinster, a thousand acres; in Munster, fifteen hundred; in Connaught, two thousand; and in Ulster, three thousand, was to have power to erect a manor, with a Court Baron and Court Leet, and all other privileges belonging to a manor, deodands, fugitive's goods, &c.

    From this it will be seen that nearly half of the forfeited estates were restored to their former owners; and the rest, -namely, 2,717,549 acres,-valued averagely, good and bad as they were, at a shilling an acre (their full value in those days), gives a yearly income of £135,877 9s. 0d.  Computing the cost of subduing the rebellion at £22,191,258-Borlaces's estimate* -it will be perceived that the lands retained by the government cost them over one hundred and sixty year's purchase.
    Now, when we remember that the ordinary rate of purchase for lands was but ten years, there is no one can accuse the authorities of either cupidity or unnecessary severity.
    The forfeitures in the county of Cork amounted to 98,000 acres; exceeding those of every other county in Ireland-save Cavan, where they amounted to 163,000 acres.
    In our own immediate neighbourhood they were most inconsiderable.  In the parish of Ballymodan, in which lies the southern portion of the town, the only lands escheated were:- Classafree and Ballinlough, belonging to Daniel McCarthy-More; Lissefooke, owned by Daniel Coppinger; Knockamortela, by Daniel McOwen Carthy; and six gneeves of West Tulle-Eland, the property of Charles McCarthy-Reagh; and in Kilbrogan-the parish containing the northern portion of Bandon-there was not a seizure made of a single foot of ground.
    The loyalty and -we mad add -the devotion of the ''ancient and loyal borough'' to the English interest was more conspicuous than that of any other town in the whole kingdom-save, perhaps, a few in Ulster.
    Tenements and messuages were wrested from the rebels in Dublin -the very seat of government itself; in Galway, in Limerick, and in Waterford; and, in the very county in which we live, there was not a town of note-but one-that did not contain many rebellious subjects.

                *  This amount is made up of specie sent over from England, deficiencies in customs and excise, money expended in raising armies, purchases, of provisions, clothing, arms, loss of rents, &c., independent altogether of the losses caused by the destruction of houses, orchards, corn, cattle, improvements, household stuffs, &c., &c., and the loss of life, which was enormous. -See Borlace.

    Several premises and houses were taken from disaffected people in the city of Cork; in Baise Street, and near the Clock-gate, in Youghal; every house in Cloyne; and in the very town adjoining us-our next neighbour, in fact-there were houses in Cork Street and outside the Cork-gate, in the Market Place and outside Nicholas'-gate, in High Fisher Street and in Low Fisher Street, -in truth, Kinsale was almost entirely bereft of its old proprietors, by reason of its active partizanship with the disloyal.
    We have said that every town of note in this county contained many rebellious subjects, but one-that one was Bandon.  There was not a rebel lived within the walls*  on either side of the river that flowed through the centre of the old borough; or that was the owner of a street in it, or of a lane, or of a house, or even of a pig-stye.  And although the population was large-larger even a dozen years before the rebellion broke out than it is a t the present day-there is not on record the name of a single individual, descended from any of the plantees, charged, with showing sympathy to, much more co-operating with, those who would exterminate their kith or kin.
    The town was free from forfeitures, but not the county.  In the adjacent parish of Innoshannon:- Knockawroe, Drounkeene, and Curranure, belonging to Daniel McCarthy-More; Ballymountaine the property of Charles McCarthy-Reagh; Coolmorine, Farrencarrigg, Raghnaroughly, Knockmullane, Cloherane, and Controverty, of Patrick Roche, of Poulnalonge (Shippool Castle), Killinecallen and Annaghmore, of John Long. of Mount-Long, high-sheriff of the county in 1641; Cornitrishane and Rincurran, of Phillip Barry Oge; Dunkerine, of Robert Oge; Curraghboy bog, of Phillip Barry.  In the parish of Rathelaren:- The lands of Ballycatten, Clonderine, Burren, Ardacrow, Rathclaren, Clonduffe, Shanakiel, Garrenffreene, part of the estate of McCarthy-Reagh, Ffinen McDermod, and Daniel McCormac Carthy; Grtnahorna and Garrangroorig, belonging to James Coppinger; Maulmane, to Daniel McOwen Carthy' Kmnocknamartela to Owen McFfinen Carthy; Gloreene and Lisheeneleigh, to Florence McCarthy.  In Desert:- Maulbrack, belonging to Donogh Oge Murphy; and the lands belonging to Joan Regan, McFfinen Carthy, James Roche, McCarthy-Reagh, Dermod O'Mahowne, Collohan McKnoghan Carthy, Murrough McShechy, &c.

                    *  There was a Dr. Desmond, John Splaine (who is described as a Frenchman), and Teige McCarthy; these were deposed against as being rebels, or having uttered rebellious sentiments; but they had fled almost before the rebellion began, and could not be caught.  The lived in the suburbs, as no Irish or Roman Catholics were permitted to reside inside the walls.

        1653-  When peace was firmly established, the army was no longer necessary, and the disbanding of the regiments began.  The surveys of all the escheated lands being finished, the district which had fallen to the lot of a regiment was marked out.  Commissioners, who were appointed for the purpose of carrying out the allotting there, attended on a certain day,*  and there, in the presence of the officers and men, the drawing was proceed with.  As each lot was drawn, it was opened and read aloud, in the hearing of all present.  It was then filed, and its contents duly recorded.  They then drew another lot, and so on, until all were completed;†  after which they crossed over into the lands of the regiment whose lands began at the boundaries of the former, and so on.
    The plan of setting down each regiment by itself, and not mixing them up together, had many advantages.  The officers and men one another-an esprit de corps bound them together.  A comrade would be more likely to assist a comrade than a man he never saw before; and should their services be again sought for, the whole regiment could take up arms, and march at a moment's notice.
    The officers and several of the men seemed to have taken to their new mode of life well enough; but the majority of the latter did not value their grants.  It may have been that they were reluctant to undertake the labour which their farms required, or were unable or unwilling to supply the capital necessary to purchase cattle or build a house; or they may have preferred returning to England.  Be that as it may, the did not care about them.

                *  See Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.
                †  If the allottees could not agree among themselves about their various allotments, they used to box for them (i.e. - resort to the lottery-box).  It is from this circumstance the term boxing is derived- a term now applied only to those who settle their disputes not with the box, but with the fist.  In the Cromwellian Settlements of Ireland is an extant from an order, which states:- ''Or of the discovered forfeitures may be set out at unequal rates, whether there shall be a free and open boxing for them indifferently, as whereby one that has received his clear satisfaction in Munster may box for the dubious lands of Ulster.''

    One heedless fellow is said to have staked an estate worth, at the present day, over a thousand per annum, upon the turn up of a card; and his comrade is reported to have parted with the adjoining estate to the winner for five jacobuses and a white horse.  Of another, it is told that he disposed of his grants for a broad sword and a silver tobacco stopper;*  and a body of horse soldiers are alleged to have actually handed over the entire of their allotments, to the captain of their troop, for a barrel of ale.
    Although, in the eyes of several of the new comers, those estates were scarcely worth anything, it was with great reluctance the old proprietors parted with them.  Crossing the Shannon, and setting down in the wilds of Connaught,†  was nearly as bad as death itself.

                *  Vide Crofton Croker's South of Ireland.  Cromwell's troopers but tempted purchasers in every direction  In the neighbouring barony of Muskerry, one Thomas Crooke assigned to John Bayly, his heirs, &c., the lands of Castlemore, 234a. 3r.8p., and Cloghduffe, 240a., subject to an annual crown rent of £7 4s. 3d., for the sum of fifty pounds.  [Ed. a=acres r=rods p=perch]
                †  It is stated that in one immense district, containing thirteen hundred ploughlands, there were only forty that were inhabited.  Even the castles that were in the country were either blown up by gunpowder or demolished.  It appears, by the petition of Edmund Dogherty, mason, that he was paid by the Loughrea commissioners at the rate of fifty shillings each for demolishing thirteen castles. -Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.

    It was in the banqueting hall of yon dismantled castle that the forefathers of the late owner used to entertain the great head of their house, and his princely retinue, with almost regal pomp.  It was from that window, which looks towards the west, that its late possessor had oft, in his boyish days, watched the setting sun flush the neighbouring plains with a blended colouring of crimson and gold.  It was through that great gate his fathers rode out to the foray and the chase; and it was through those portals that they were borne, one by one, accompanied by a long line of sorrowing clansmen, to their graves. 
    They knew that they must abide the chances of war-especially of war began by themselves; and now that they were vanquished, at an enormous outlay of blood and treasure, they could not reasonably expect to escape the consequences of their own avowed and deliberate acts.  Nevertheless, they clung to the old sod with the tenacity irreconcilable with the recklessness which with they periled it.  Although instructions were given that they should be settled upon lands nearly as possible resembling those that they lately held, yet they could not endure the thought of transplanting, and they inundated the commissioners with applications to be left stay behind.
    Margaret Barnwall had long been troubled with a shaking palsy; Mary Archer had an aged father who would be suddenly brought to his grave, wanting his accustomed accommodation; Lady Margaret Atkinson was of great age; Elinor Butler was a widow, and had a helpless family; the Dowager Lady Lowth was of great age and impotency; John, Lord Baron Power, of Curraghmore, for the twenty years past was distracted and destitute of all judgment; Lord Viscount Ikerrin had great weakness and infirmity of body.  Others sought to the left off upon the grounds that they had performed important services for the government, and were reluctant to go toConnaught least their lives should be endangered on that account.  Robert Plunkett had given information against several prisoners now in the Marshalsea, and, therefore, he was afraid to risk his safety in Connaught.  This was a very common excuse.  Major Cavanagh and his brother, according to their own account, where most inoffensive to the English;  Mrs. White used to entertain English officers at her house; Mary Butler gave information of an ambushment of the Irish to cut off the English, &c., &c.*
    Many, as we have said, begged to be allowed to remain at the English side of the Shannon, but others stubbornly refused to stir a foot.  This was not to be borne.  The commissioners were determined to let the Irish see they were in earnest.  Accordingly, a court-martial sat in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; and amongst others brought before them was Mr. Edward Hethrington, of Kilnemanagh.  Hethrington was accused of a breach of the Declaration Order of the 30th of November, and for disobedience to several commands to transplant.  He was found guilty and hanged; and least there should be any mistake about what he was hanged for, a placard on his breast, and another on his back, plainly informed the public it was "for not transplanting." †
    It fared ill enough with those who did transplant, and thereby preferred the alternative of Connaught to hell.  Upon their arrival in Connaught, some sold their assignments for a trifle, and endeavoured to make their escape.  Their altered circumstances had such an affect upon others that they lost their reason.  Others, in despair, killed themselves; and more, leaving allotments and all behind them, fled in horror to Spain.‡

                *  Vide Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.
                †  Ibid.
                ‡  See The wail of the Irish Catholics, or the groans of the whole clergy and people of Ireland, in which is set forth an epitome of the cruelties practiced upon the Catholics of Ireland by the Godless English, under the arch-tyrant, Cromwell, the upsurper and destroyer of the three realms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, by Friar Maurice Morison. 

    As a a great many of the male population in the kingdom, who had survived the great rebellion, had either joined the armies of foreign States or were forced into exile, the number of women remaining behind were vastly in excess of the men.  In order to save the former from immortality, and, at the same time, afford them an opportunity of earning their bread, it was ordered:-"That Irishwomen, as being too numerous now,-and, therefore, exposed to prostitution,-be sold to merchants, and transported to Virginia, New England, Jamaica, or other countries, where they made support themselves by their labour."  Many of them were accordingly sent over; and so acceptable where they to the sugar-planters, that Cromwell wrote to the Major-General of the forces in Ireland to try and secure no less then a thousand young Irishwomen for Jamaica alone.
    It was no difficult matter, at this time, to procure plenty of females to whom employment would be advantageous in many respects, as there were crowds of young widows and deserted wives wandering about in the neighbourhood of cities and towns, without any visible means of living.  Boys and girls were also in request, but the women were preferred, provided "they were marriageable, and not passed breeding." *
    By getting rid of the surplus population, the commissioners expected to get rid of those who would be likely to prove a source of annoyance to the plantees in Ireland; and, by the same stroke of policy, hoped to place them where they could effectually assist the planters in America.
    With this intent, they sent over agents to England, and contracted with various parties for a supply of labour for the Transatlantic colonies.  They agreed with Messrs. Sellick and Leader, of Bristol, to furnish them with two hundred and fifty women of the Irish nation, between the ages twelve and forty-five, and three hundred men between twelve years old and fifty, to be taken to New England.†  They agreed with Messrs. North and Johnson to deliver them all the wanderers-men and women-and such other Irish, within the precincts of the governors of Carlow, Kilkenny, Clonmel, Wexford, Ross, and Waterford, as could not prove they had a settled course of industry,-all children in the hospitals and workhouses, and all prisoners,-to be transported by them to the West Indies.

                *  Cromwell Settlement of Ireland.
                †  These were to be shipped at Kinsale, and to be procured in the country within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford, and Wexford.  Lord Broghill thought the county of Cork could supply them all.  Accordingly, orders were issued for the county to be searched for the requisite number of wanderers and persons who had no ostensible means of livelihood.  When seized, they were to be taken to Kinsale. 

    Henry Cromwell, in reply to a letter from Mr. Secretary Thurloe, stated that from one thousand five hundred to two thousand boys, from twelve to fourteen years of age, could be supplied; adding, "we could well spare them; and who knows but it might be a means to make them Englishmen -I mean Christians."  In fact, such was the number of people sent to the West Indies by the commissioners, that-so late as the beginning of the present century-traces of them were to be found there; and in one place in particular-the Island of Mountserrat-the Irish tongue was a common means of communication.*
    Although Ireland was cleared of a great deal of her old inhabitants, she was not deprived of them all.  Neither was it the intention of the Parliament that she should, as appears by the Act for the Settling of Ireland, in which they declared that "it was not their intention to extirpate the whole nation."
    Many of those who refused to cross to the Irish side o the Shannon took to Torying.  Although they were well aware of the penalty attached to being caught, nevertheless, those outlaws were both daring and desperate.  They used to "run out" from the mountains, plunder and murder the new settlers, within hail of the English garrisons, and then retreat to their almost inaccessible hiding-places.
    Cromwell resorted to severe measures to suppress these marauders.  When Symonds and his two sons-who had been faithful soldiers of his-had settled close to the garrison of Timolin, the Tories attacked them in the open day, and barbarously murdered one of the sons, he issued peremptory orders to send all the Irish inhabitants of the town of Timolin, and all those dwelling in the neighbourhood-without even one exception-straight to Connaught.
    One would think this wholesale punishment would be sufficient to quiet a country-for a generation or two at the least; but it was not so.  Soon after another murder was committed at Lockagh, in the same county; and Cromwell became more rigorous still.  All the Irish on the townland were seized, and tried by a court-martial.  Four of them were hanged for the murder, or-what appeared to him just as bad-not exerting themselves to prevent it; and the rest, amounting to thirty-seven, including two priests, were transported in one batch to the sugar plantations of Barbadoes.
    Murder, however, was not the main object of the Tories.  They may kill a hundred Englishmen, and still be without a  meal of victuals.  It was the Englishmen's sheep, their oxen, and their cattle, that they wanted, and they pounced upon these with the rapacity of ravening wolves.
    To follow the marauders to their bogs and wilds would be an act of foolhardiness, which would, probably, cost the pursuers their lives; therefore, some other means must be found to stay those desperados.  When the Tories*  drove away a lot of the settler's cattle, the value of them was demanded from those of their kindred who lived under English protection; and, if not paid, it was levied off their goods and chattels.  Should the authorities, however, not be able to identify the spoilers, or should the relatives of the spoilers be too poor to pay, then the amount was assessed upon all the Irish in the barony where the murder, or robbery, or outrage, was committed.  Nor was it always confined even to them.  The Irish, through whose baronies the Tories passed and repassed on their predatory excursions, were also forced to contribute, unless it was proved that they strenuously opposed the marauders; or should, by following them with hue and cry, or by giving notice to the next garrison, prove that they were in earnest.
    The Irish priesthood were always looked upon with suspicion by Cromwell.  "It had now been manifest, form many years' experience," said the commissioners of the Parliament , "that Popish priests held it to be their duty to estrange the minds and affections of the people from the authority and government of the English Commonwealth."

                *  The plundering propensities of these daring desparadoes are still held here in felonious remembrance.  Should the cat run off with a kidney or a mutton chop intended fro breakfast, one may expect to see the cook give chase; an should she not be able to catch her, the chances are that she will avenge herself upon the feline miscreant by calling her a ''Tory.''

    During the rebellion, whenever the ardour of the Irish began to flag, their clerical leaders were sure to stir it up a new.  They were amongst the first to take up arms, and amongst the last to lay them down.  The authorities were well aware of this; and of the great influence they possessed over their flocks, and and how they used it.  Consequently, when ever any of the rebellious forces sought to make terms with the Parliamentarians, the latter -whoever else they might stipulate to show mercy to -invariably accepted the priests.  As high as twenty pounds was offered for the discovery of some of their hiding-places, and it was often death to give them the night's lodging.  When they were caught, they were generally delivered over to some person who would pay the reward offered for their apprehension, and undertake -at the same time-to send them to some country at peace with the Commonwealth.*
    But it was found many of them made their way back again.  To prevent this, the commissioners began transporting them to Barbadoes, in order "to prevent them returning to their own and the people's destruction."  Notwithstanding that Ireland must have been a most uncomfortable place for Romish ecclesiastics to live it at this time, yet they were most unwilling to leave it.  Several-who were prisoners at Carrickfergus-offered to become Protestants, if they were permitted to remain behind.  Rather than quit the kingdom, Father Neterville preferred the ghastly companionship of the dead -for whole year-in his father's tomb.  Father Forde lay hid among the rushes and tall grass of an immense bog, where he celebrated mass, and imparted a rudimentary instruction, to the few people who contrived to escape the quick eye of the Cromwellians, and visit him in his unwholesome den.  In spite of all the precautions used, said Father Quin,† no wild beast was ever hunted with more fury, nor tracked with more pertinacity-through the mountains, woods, and bogs-than the priest.

                *  See Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland.
                †  Vide Canbrenisis Eversus. annotated by Dr. O'Kelly.  Father Quin was an eye-witness of the events which he describes.  See State and Condition of the Catholics of Ireland, from the year 1652 to 1656, by Father Quin, of the Society of Jesus.  

    When the commissioners were rewarding those who had fought manfully in the great struggle from which the country had just emerged, they did not forget Bandon.  In a letter from the Lord-Deputy (Henry Cromwell) and Council-dated February 15, 1657 -to the Surveyor-General of Lands, they direct him to prepare forthwith a particular of lands of the yearly value of two hundred pounds sterling; and that a patent may be granted for the same, provided they (i.e. the corporation) given a general release of all of what is due to them from his Highness.  In compliance with these instructions, the following lands were bestowed on the town:-

    No.
    1.        The lands of Rine and Lackyduffe, containing 365 acres, formerly the property of Daniel Carty,* I.P. (Irish Papists).
    2.        Tughidullane and Ballintemple, containing 201 acres, formerly the property of Garret Arundell,* I.P.
    3.        Dorrey, containing 106 acres, formerly the property of Dermod Cullinane,* I.P.
    4.        West Croony and East Bally-mac-William, formerly the property of Dermod Carthy,* I.P.
    5.        Bally-mac-Redmond, containing 88 acres, formerly the property of Teige MacShane Crowly,* I.P.
    6.        Richardstown, alias Richfordstown, formerly the property of John Oge Shea, I.P.
    7.        Concanmore and Ballyuargan, containing 201 acres, formerly the property of Andrew Arudell and Edmond O'Shea, I.P.
    8.        Ballinglannig and Attery, formerly the property of Charles McDaniel Carty,* I.P.
    9.        Cardonbeg, formerly the property of Owen McDermot Carty.*
    10.      Curryleigh, containing 194 acres, formerly the property of James Firz-Edmond Barrett.*
    11.      Chirryheghy, containing 200 acres, formerly the property of James Coppinger and of Richard Hale Coppinger.*
    12.      [Illegible], formerly the property of Nicholas and James Goldlyinoge.*
    13.      Killnocehsheny, containing 141 acres, West Ballneady, 162 acres, barony Barrett's, formerly the property of Daniel McCarthy.*
    14.      Pallice,† containing 68 acres, Barony Barryroe, formerly the property of Daniel, I.P. and William O'Shea, I.P.
    15.      Lislee, containing 322 acres, formerly the property of William Barry,* I.P.
    16.      Agha, containing 422 acres, formerly the property of William Barry,* I.P.
    17.      Kilbarry,‡ one ploughland and a half, barony Muskerry, formerly the property of Lord Muskerry.*
    18.      Cooleduffe, barony West Muskerry, formerly the property of Lord Muskerry.*
    19.      Pollericke, one ploughland, barony Muskerry, formerly the property of Lord Muskerry.*

                *  Those marked thus were indicted for treason at the great sessions held at Youghal, on the 2nd of August, 1642, before Lord Cork and his sons; and were subsequently outlawed in the King's Bench.
                †  The lands of Pallice, Lislee, and Agha, were leased for a term of twenty-one years from the 21st November, 1658, to Edward Yeemans.
                ‡  Claugh-mac-Cow was let on behalf of the corporation, by Samuel Browne, Esq., provost (he was also a captain and an attorney), to Teige Oge, Bantry, Moyle Murry McNeale, and the rest of the tenants on the lands, for half-a-crown and acre.-Date, 1657.  This ploughland, together with Currybihagh, Kilbarry, Cooleduffe, and Pollericke, were not of the lands given to the town to secure it £200 per annum; they were in addition to those given for that purpose.  Currybihagh contained 240 acres.  Previous owner-Lord Muskerry-was subject to rent of £10 yearly to the Government.  The patent is dated April 21st, 1657.  It sets forth that it was ''An agreement between the commissioners, for the settling of lands, houses, &c., belonging to his Highness and the Commonwealth, and Samuel Browne, Esq., provost of Bandon, on the other, about the lands of Currybihagh; one ploughland set unto him for the use of the corporation, consisting of 240 acres,-formerly belonging to Lord Muskerry,-lying in the barony of Muskerry, for the sum of ten pounds per annum.''

    The portion of Lord Muskerry's estate, which was conferred on the Bandonians, was subject to an annual rent of £22 10s., which became due on the first of May, and was received by the high-sheriff of the county-''By virtue of authority of assistance directed to him out of the Court of Exchequer.''
    When Lord Muskerry was restored to his blood and honours by Charles the Second, he was also restored to the greater portion of his estates; and, amongst the rest, to the five ploughlands last mentioned.  The Bandon burgesses complained sadly of this; and they declared that by reason of their poverty-caused by taking away that which they had well-earned-they were unable to wage law with Lord Barrymore,*  a nobleman of whom they justly complained that he had endeavoured to deprive them of lands bestowed on them by patent.   
    Lord Orrery, who always stood by them, now exerted himself again on their behalf; and with such success, that he obtained an order from his Majesty to the Chief Governor of Ireland, to set out some lands to the Bandon corporation in lieu of those that were restored to the Earl of Clancarthy.  The corporation wrote a warm letter of thanks to Lord Orrery on this occasion in which they refer to ''his lordship's many noble favours,'' and well they might.  Notwithstanding that they were entitled to compensation for the lands taken from them, yet they were too much tainted with Cromwellianism to be in favour with the Stuarts.  Although-as we have just seen-Charles did write to the Lord Lieutenant to reprise them, the latter never did so.
    Several of Cromwell's troopers settled in and about the neighbourhood of Bandon, where many of their descendants are to be found at the present day, and possessed, too, of many of the characteristics of their famous forefathers.  Colony after colony of Englishmen have come over to this country from time to time, but we have had no body of settlers possessed of such hostility, to the native Irish as the Parliamentary soldiery.

                *  Lord Barrymore endeavoured to deprive them of the lands of Rine and Lackyduffe, but Lord Orrery decided in favour of the corporation.  Nevertheless, Barrymore took possession again; and when Captain Freke entered by force as tenant of the corporation, and repossessed himself of the lands, Lord Barrymore had him indicted and tried for it at the Bandon Quarter Sessions.

    This may have arisen from their having witnessed the wholesale destruction of property effected by them, and the slaughter of the thousands of people-the vast portion of whom they could never accuse of doing them any harm-which they accomplished by the various means previously described.  From whatever cause it has arisen-it has existed, and exists still.