Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
Encyclopedia
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland imposed penalties including death and land confiscation against participants and bystanders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...

 and subsequent unrest.

Background

The act was passed on 12 August 1652 by the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....

 of England, who had taken power after the Second English Civil War
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...

 and had agreed to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...

. The conquest was deemed necessary as Royalist supporters of Charles II of England
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 had allied themselves with the Confederation of Kilkenny (the confederation formed by Irish Catholics during the Irish Confederate Wars
Irish Confederate Wars
This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....

) and so was a threat to the newly formed English Commonwealth. The Rump Parliament had a large independent Dissenter membership who strongly empathised with the plight of the Protestant settler community in Ireland, who had suffered greatly at the start of the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...

 and whose suffering had been exaggerated by Protestant propaganda, so the act was also a retribution against Irish Catholics who had participated in the initial stages of the war.

Also money to pay for the wars had been raised under the 1642 Adventurers Act
Adventurers Act
The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland".-The main Act:...

, which paid creditors with land forfeited by the 1641 rebels. These and other creditors had mostly resold their property interests to local landowners who wanted these recent property transfers reconfirmed by an overriding Act, for the avoidance of doubt.

Preamble

Ten named leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland, together with anyone
who had participated in the Irish Rebellion’s early stages and who had killed an Englishman other than in battle, lost their lives and estates.
* James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

  • James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven
    James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven
    James Tuchet, 3rd Earl of Castlehaven was the son of Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and his first wife, Elizabeth Barnham...

  • Ulick Bourke Earl of Clanricarde
    Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde
    Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde , was an Irish nobleman and figure in English Civil War....

    ,
  • Christopher Plunkett, 2nd Earl of Fingall
    Christopher Plunkett, 2nd Earl of Fingall
    Christopher Plunkett, 2nd Earl of Fingall Married to Mabel daughter of Nicholas, 1st Viscount Barnewall.Christopher Plunkett was a Confederate cavalry commander during the 1641 Rebellion and present at the siege of Drogheda, outlawed in County Meath on 17 November 1641...

    ,
  • James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon
    James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon
    James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon was one of the ten named in Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 as leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland. He was a Protestant nobleman, married to Elizabeth Wentworth, one of the sisters of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. Wentworth Dillon was...

    ,
  • Richard Nugent Earl of Westmeath
    Earl of Westmeath
    Earl of Westmeath is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1621 for Richard Nugent, Baron Delvin. During the Tudor era the loyalty of the Nugent family was often in question, and Richard's father, the sixth baron, died in prison while awaiting trial for treason...

    ,
  • Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin
    Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin
    Murrough McDermod O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin and 6th Baron Inchiquin , was known as Murchadh na dTóiteán ....

    ,
  • Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry
    Donagh MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry
    Donagh [Donough] MacCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancarty, 2nd Viscount Muskerry was an Irish noble. He married Ellen Butler , who was the sister of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde). The Earl served as a Munster general during the Irish Confederate Wars...

    ,
  • Theobald Taaffe 1st Earl of Carlingford,
  • Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret
    Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret
    Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret was the son of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond and Lady Margaret Fitzgerald. He married his first cousin Eleanor Butler, daughter of Theobald Butler of Polestown, the illegitimate brother of the 8th Earl of Ormond...

    .


The Act made a distinction between the rebels of 1641 – who were deemed unlawful combatant
Unlawful combatant
An unlawful combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a civilian who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war. An unlawful combatant may be detained or prosecuted under the domestic law of the detaining state for such action.The Geneva Conventions apply in wars...

s – as against those who had fought in the regular armies of Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...

, who were treated as legitimate combatants provided that they had surrendered before the end of 1652. The 1641 rebels and the above mentioned Royalist leaders were not included in the pardon given to soldiers who had surrendered: they were to be executed when captured. Roman Catholic clergy were also excluded from the pardon, as the Cromwellians held them responsible by fomenting the 1641 Rebellion.

The remaining leaders of the Irish army lost two-thirds of their estates. To have been merely a bystander was itself a crime, and anyone who had resided in Ireland any time from 1 October 1649, to 1 March 1650 and had not "manifested their constant good affection to the interest of the Commonwealth of England" lost one-third of their land. The Commissioners in Ireland had power to give them, in lieu thereof, other (poorer) lands in Connacht
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...

 or Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...

 in proportion of value and were authorised "to transplant such persons from the respective places of their usual habitation or residence, into such other places within that nation, as shall be judged most consistent with public safety."

This was interpreted by the English Parliamentarian authorities in Ireland who ordered all Irish land owners to leave for those lands before 1 May 1654 or be executed. However, in practice, most Catholic landowners stayed on their land as tenants and the numbers of those either transplanted or executed was small.

Protestant Royalists, on the other hand, could avoid land confiscations if they had surrendered by May 1650 and had paid fines to the Parliamentarian government. The Commonwealth initially had harsh plans to remove the formerly-Scottish Presbyterians from north east Ulster – as they had fought with the Royalists in he latter stages of the war. However this was reversed in 1654, and it was ruled that the plantation would apply to Catholics only.

In Irish popular memory of the Cromwellian Plantation, the Commonwealth is said to have declared that the Irish must go, "to Hell or to Connacht", west of the River Shannon. However according to historian Padraig Lenihan, "The Cromwellians did not proclaim 'To Hell or to Connacht'. Connacht was chosen as a native reservation not because the land was poor, The Commonwealth rated Connacht above Ulster in this respect". Lenihan suggests that Co. Clare was chosen instead for security reasons – to keep Catholic landowners penned between the sea and the river Shannon. Another persistent myth is that all Irish Catholics were to be forcibly removed to Connacht, but in fact the majority of the population remained at home, being needed as servants and tenant farmers by the new ruling class.

Some Irish prisoners were forcibly sent on ships to the West Indies where they became indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...

s on sugar cane plantations belonging to British colonialists. One of the best known islands the Irish flocked to when their period of indenture came to an end was Montserrat
Montserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...

.

Plantation

In the next of the Plantations of Ireland
Plantations of Ireland
Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were the confiscation of land by the English crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from England and the Scottish Lowlands....

, the confiscated land was granted to the "Adventurers". The new owners were known as "planters". The Adventurers were financiers who had loaned the Parliament £10 million in 1642, specifically to reverse the 1641 rebellion, and the Act was signed into law by Charles I just before the start of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...

 (see Adventurers Act
Adventurers Act
The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland".-The main Act:...

). Many of Ireland’s pre-war Protestant inhabitants also took advantage of the confiscation of Catholic-owned land to increase their own holdings, buying land off the Adventurers. In addition, smaller grants of land were given to 12,000 veterans of the New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...

 who had served in Ireland, much of which was also resold. Decisions on confiscations and awards were based on mapping and data in the Down Survey
Down Survey
The Down Survey, also known as the Civil Survey, refers to the mapping of Ireland carried out by William Petty, English scientist in 1655 and 1656....

 made in 1655-56.

Confirmation

In June 1657, the Act of Settlement 1657
Act of Settlement 1657
The Act of Settlement 1657 was an Act of the Cromwellian Parliament for the Assuring, Confirming and Settling of lands and estates in Ireland. The Act received its Third Reading on June 8, 1657 and received the assent of the Lord Protector the following day...

 "for the Assuring, Confirming and Settling of lands and estates in Ireland" ratified previous decrees, judgments, grants and instructions made or given by the various officers and councils in applying the 1652 Act.

Mitigation

All Ordinances and Acts of Parliament passed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum were considered void after the English Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 as they had not received Royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...

.

In 1662, an Act of Settlement 1662
Act of Settlement 1662
The Act of Settlement 1662 passed by the Irish Parliament in Dublin. It was a partial reversal of the Cromwellian Act of Settlement 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...

(after the Restoration) aimed to reduce its effect on Protestant and "innocent Catholics." This Act returned some lands to prominent Irish Royalists, but left most of the land confiscated from Irish Catholics in Protestant hands. This was similar to the post-Restoration situation in England, where Church and Royal lands were returned by Act of Parliament, but other confiscated Royalist lands could only be regained through civil litigation.
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