The distribution of the estates
forfeited in consequence of the Rebellion of 1641, was primarily based on the Act passed in the English Parliament in the
17th year of Charles I. (1642). The occasion of the Act was the want of money by the English Parliament for the
purpose of carrying out its military operations in the suppression of the Rebellion. It proceeded to raise this money, by
way of loan, by offering two and a half million acres of the forfeited land as security: - Each person who adventured £200
to receive one thousand acres in Ulster; for £300, one thousand acres in Connaught; for £450, one thousand acres in Munster;
and for £600, one thousand acres in Leinster. The Act further declared that the rights, titles, or interests which the rebels
had in the land of Ireland on the 23rd October, 1641, were forfeited and deemed the actual and real possession of the King.
When the rebellion was subdued
in 1652 the Commonwealth Parliament was presented with a huge list of arrears of pay due to the army. And so another Act was
passed on the 27th
of September, 1653, which provided for the satisfaction
of this debt also, out of the forfeited estates. This debt, as a matter of fact, was mounting up to an enormous extent, and
it was decided to pay the soldiers back in land – this to be done prior to the settlement of adventurers' claims.
The scheme under which the distribution
of the land was to take place was another subject of the Act. Commissioners were appointed for the purpose of carrying out
its direction. They were to have a survey made of the forfeited lands, and to appoint a court for receiving and hearing claims.
Of the earlier surveys made under
this Act the Civil Survey was the more important. Its purpose was the discovery and description of the forfeited lands. From
these discoveries and descriptions comprising the Civil Survey, lists were made, and these subsequently supplied the surveyors
who admeasured and mapped the lands. This admeasurement and mapping is known as the Down Survey.
The survey of what might be called
the military counties was placed in the hands of Doctor William Petty. Petty came to Ireland as a physician to the Parliamentarian army. He was not only a physician but a great mathematician,
and he undertook the work on the discovery of inaccuracies in a previous geometrical survey. In his agreement (dated 11th
December, 1655) with Benjamin Worsley, the General Surveyor, on behalf of the Commonwealth, Petty contracted to protract and
lay down the several parcels of land, with their qualities, areas, metes, and bounds, in baronies, and to return perfect and
exact maps for public use of each barony and county. This survey was completed in about thirteen months, and the distribution
of the lands to the officers and soldiers was completed about the autumn of 1656.
A similar course was adopted as
regards the satisfaction of the adventurers, except that the survey of lands to be set out to them was not entrusted to Petty
alone. Dissatisfaction with Petty's work had been expressed by the military claimants, and a joint survey was directed to
be made by Benjamin Worsley and William Petty.
This dual appointment of Benjamin
Worsley and Doctor Petty to survey the residue of the forfeited lands explained very largely the reason this survey was called
the Down Survey, and not, as might be imagined, Petty's survey, or Petty and Worsley's survey.
Doctor Petty, it has been seen,
was contractor only for the officers' and soldiers' portion, while the adventurers' part was under joint management. A name,
therefore, common to both surveys was taken which, at the same time, expressed the method of the survey, namely, "laying down"
from the field books on paper the measurement of the lands in area and form. From the expressions "laying down" the Down Survey
took its title, which was perhaps, all things considered, the most appropriate and expedient. Moreover it not only described
the survey itself but distinguished it from the earlier estimate surveys which were made by inquisition and not by chain and
scale.
Abstracts from the Civil and Down
Surveys were then made, divided into counties and bound up in large volumes. These volumes were called Distribution Books,
and from them the list of forfeiture is taken.
In the first column the names of
the persons who were the owners of the land in 1641, and who forfeited, are given; the second, the land in their possession;
in the third, the names of the adventurers, officers, soldiers, Innocent Papists, and others whose services were rewarded
by grants of land; and in the fourth, the acreage of the land granted.
The appearance of the same person
in many cases, in the first and third columns, is explained by their having taken out either a Decree of Innocence or by their
holding mortgages or charges on the land. The patents granting the lands to the new owners were made subject to these charges.
Those who claimed their innocence
of having taken any part in the rebellion appeared before the Court of Claims, proved their innocence, and produced witnesses
and documents to show their title to the lands they occupied. If the court was satisfied it made a Decree confirming the title
of the claimants as it existed before the breaking out of the rebellion.
It will be remembered that under
an Ordinance of 1652, all persons of the Catholic Religion who had not manifested their constant good affection to the Commonwealth
were forfeit one-third of their estates, and to be assigned lands to the value of the other two-thirds where the Commonwealth
should appoint. Acting under the Ordinance of 1653 already referred to, Commissioners held Courts at Athlone to determine
the qualifications of the Catholics, and made their Decrees accordingly. At Loughrea another set of Commissioners set out
the transplantation in Connaught and Clare on the basis of these Decrees.
In conclusion, it may be stated
that the soldiers and adventurers were confirmed in their estates by the Acts of Settlement and Explanation of which the Down
Survey was the basis. These Acts, together with the "resolution of the doubts by the Lord Lieutenant and Council upon the
Act of Settlement and Explanation" formed the code under which the restoration settlement was carried to a conclusion.
