Irish History Synopsis:the Cromwell era 1649-1658

The Cromwell era 1649-1658 pg 1

When Oliver Cromwell had been made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by unanimous vote of theEnglish Puritan Parliament on March 28, 1649 and Commander in Chief of English forces he proceeded to Bristol to gather his forces and finaly departed from Penbroke Wales on July 10, 1649 with 12,000 Levellers.

After a 2 day journey with sea sickness he arrived in Dublin with 35 ships followed by his son in law Ireton with 77 ships making a totla of 112 English ships on Dublin Quay.

After making a Proclimation against swearing and drunkeness and another forbidding his soldiers to 'abuse, rob and pillage or execute cruelity apon the country people' he departed for the field with an army of 10,000 picked men leaving the city in the control of Theo Jones.

Arriving at Drogheda the English cannon opened fire on September 9,1649. When the fort commander Ashton refused submission Cromwell bombarded the town and steeple of St Marys church
When a break was made by Cromwell he ordered his men to put to the sword the defenders killing 2,000 men. One hundred men took refuge in the steeple of St Peters church refusing to surrender.Cromwell set the tower afire and smothered them.
Those left surrendered most half starved.These were killed, solders and officers on the grounds they had fired 'fatal' shots'.Those left were shipped to Barbados in theWest Indies.

Cromwell than proceeded to scourge the entire population of Drogheda some 3000 with women and children on 11tha nd 12th of September.
These soldiers under Cromwell had entered his service with understanding that their wages would be paid with Irish lands taking the place of native proprietors. This gave them incentive to annialate the descendants and heirs of the rebel royalists who might have a claim on the lands they were forcebly confiscating.
Cromwell than proceeded to scourge all Ireland. Wexford, New Ross,Carrick on Suir, Kilkenny. Cork, Kinsale and Yougal declared for the Parliament and were spared. Limerick and Connact were conquered by Coote in 1651. Galway surrendered to Coote in May 1652.
One by one the southern chiefs surrendered.the last defiance by Castle Cloughoughter in Derry where Owen Roe O Neill had died on 6 November 1649..
As the Parliamentary Commissioners began theri reign they elected a High Court of Justice to try those who had taken part in the prodistant massacares of 1641. Only about 200 were found and tried most having died in the war or left Ireland.

Sir Phelim who had not left Ireland as were his terms but had hidden in Tyrone was captured at Coal Island.
He was taken and tried in Dublin for high treason and murder. He was condemned to death and was hung drawn and quartered. One Quarter hung at Lisburn; one quarter hung at Dundalk; one quarter at Drogheda; the forth quarter with the head at Dublin.
His companion and secretary Turlogh Groome O Quinn was later hung his head hung on the west gate of Carrickfurgus Castle.
The war was declared officially over by Commissioner Fleetwood on 26 September 1653.

Cromwell 1649-1658 pg 2

The country of Ireland was wasted. Desease and plague reigned .Famine was constant.
Whole counties lay waste and deserted with neither man nor beast nor bird. Mountjoys methods of distroying all the crops to subdue the Irish.

The Commissioners and Colonel Jones advised that no peace could last without removing priests, sept heads and men with arms out of the land. Many starved along the roads or were killed by wolves.
TheBlack Plague raged killing as many.
Wolves increased to such an extent that a bounty was laid on them, 5 lbs for a dog and 10 lbs for a bitch. Irish wolf hounds were not allowed to be taken out of the country. Tide waiters stood at the ports to seize any hounds for the public huntsmen.
The Puritans additionally wanted to eliminate Priests. A Price on their heads as well as for Fryers Monks and Nuns. Harboring a priest or religious required forfiet of any lands and life. Some were able to escape to Spain with retiring soldiers.They needed passports to leave.They were all officiallly declared , without trial, guilty of High treason and those who helped them were felons.
Any pretext to clear the country of its natives was seized;


Descendants of rebels and
those with no visible means of support were transported.

Bands of outlaws roamed the bogs and dence forests as Tories.
Thousands of priests, captured children and young girls wer sold to slavery for Jamica and Barbados, known than as the tobacco islands. These were sold to the planters for a number of years [indentured]
The outlaws were identified and prices set on ther heads 40 s for a common one, 5 lbs for a lord.
3/4ths of the pre war cattle stock had been wiped out.Cattle had to be imported from Wales for breeeding stock.
4//5 of the land lay waste.
Waste land was let to officers for 5 years for a reasonable rent provided they till sow and manue the land.

Ireland was now a 'blank sheet of paper on which the English Commonwealth might write the characters they pleased' [Froude]

The debt of the war being enourmous was paid by lands grants known as the Cromwellian Settlement the Act of Settlement having been passed by the Parliament on 12 August 1652.

When in 1641 the Act for the Speedy and Effecive Reducing of the Rebels in His Majestys Kingdom of Ireland had been made Debit bonds were issued pledging the land in payment.
600 acres for 200 lbs for Ulster land
1000 acres for 300 lbs for Connact lands
1000 acres for 400 lbs for Munster lands
1000 acres for 600 lbs for Leinster lands.

Bonds for 10,000,000 were issued direcly to the serving soldiers in lieu of their pay.

A survey of Ireland was established under Sir William Petty.
A Court of Claims was established to distribute the shares.
The Parliament confiscated 5 million acres including church lands {RC], native lands owned by them before the rebellion and college lands.
This confiscation was distributed among the Cromwellian soldiers and Adventurers who had bought some of the debit bonds.

700,000 acres of the 2/3ds of Ireland confication in Clare and Connact for 1,200,000 innocnent papists.
the acts allowed all royalists and religious no pardon in life or estate
all royalist officers were banished and forfieted of 2/3 of property, 1/3 returned for the care of their wife and children.
those not in arms but sympathizers lost 1/3 of land and recieved 2/3 west of the Shannon
Inferior sort not possessed of land over 10 lbs husbandmen and laborors were issued a pardon but transported west of the Shannon.

1 million acres were assigned to the Adventurers some counties were taken for the assignments however the Adventures did not like the deal cut for them and objected receiving finally, 10 counties and by dividing lots in those counties their portion of the land These counties were boroughed
The Adventures also won an entitlement to lands next the Cromwellian soldiers holdings feeling they needed protection.

5 counties of Connact were reserved for the 'home of the Irish race' and Prodistants in those couties were granted lands east of the Shannon. The 'mere irish' were born and were not allowed to settle witin ten miles of the Shannon river on its west shore.
The Cromwell soldiers lands were given them by authority not their own chosing.
Regiments were kept together settled regiment by regiment, troop by troop ,company by company in the lands they had conquered.

Ireland was the capital that paid all the debts.

Attainted relations of the rebles being a threat to redeem the land were transported to the American Colonies.

Cromwells son Henry became Lord Protector in 1654.
On Setember 3 1658 Oliver Cromwell died and his son Richard was proclamed the new Protector of Ireland.

On May 8, 1660 Charles 2 was proclaimed king of England at Westminster at the age of 30. He had been in exile since age 21.
This ended the control of the puritan Parlimant however the king upheld the actsof the Cromwellian era.
In 1662 Charles ratified the Act of Uniformity making all subject to one religion that of the king declaring all other worship unlawful.

James Butler, Duke of Ormond was reinstated as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
An act of the Irish Parliament delcared in April that all confiscations were held ligitimate growing out of the insurection, exluding forever, without trial 3000 old proprietors.


sourse:The History of Ulster, Ramsey Colles Gresham Publishing Coy 1919

Judi Donnelly
Copyright August 1 2007



The prodistants held 4/5 of Ireland.