THE  PLANTATION  OF  IRELAND   1610 - 1630

The Plantation was the settlement
of land previously seized, by people
who would be loyal to the English Crown.
The persons who received land were called
` Undertakers` because they had to undertake
certain conditions, including building a
house and `bawn` - a fortified house,
and to settle the land with a minimum
number of people of the Protestant faith
who  could  become  militia  in  time  of  troubles.
The Plantation period that involved
settlement  by  Scots was 1610 to about 1630

The principle of " Planting"
peoples on seized land started  with Henry VIII `s
accession to the throne of Ireland in 1541
and it was under his policy of `Surrender and Regrant`
of lands that  the Irish princes received English titles -
O`Neill became Earl of Tyrone; O`Brien Earl of Thomond;
Macwilliam Burke of Galway
Earl of Clanrickard. Under Edward VI
a more aggressive policy  led to seizure of  lands in reprisal
for insurrection and in 1556 under
Queen Mary a plantation scheme for most of Leix
and Offaly was declared with the counties
being renamed Queens County and Kings County.
The policy of seizure and grant to English
landlords continued under Elizabeth I

The Scottish migration to Ireland
was initiated by the granting of land to
two Scottish familes - Hugh Montgomery Sixth Laird of Braidstone, Ayr, and Sir  James Hamilton from Lanark who were private adventurers before the formal Plantation scheme commenced There was much wheeling and dealing after the first allottments were made in 1603
but by 1606 the situation was resolved
and settlement began in earnest in County Down
and Co. Antrim.The  first  known  Orrs -
James  and  his  wife  Janet  McClement
came  to  Ballyblack, Co Down  in 1607.

In 1607 tenants began to settle church lands
and Proclamations in Glasgow, Ayr, Irvine,
Greenock and other south western parts of Scotland,
especially around Braidstone, declared
leased land on easy terms.This drew numbers of
Scots to Donegal and Londonderry. On 4.9.1607
The Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel
with 30 relatives and 60  friends and
followers fled into exile.  These included Maquire,
owner of  half  Fermanagh, It
was decided that their  lands  and all the lands
of Shane O'Neill were forfeit .
As a result large portions of  Tyrone Donegal, Coleraine, Armagh, Cavan and Fermanagh became available for plantation. On 29.9.1607  The Privy Council approved Plantation of those lands.

The books  mentioned (below)  explain the
Plantation in much greater detail but they
do not give any information about the settlers themselves,
only lists of the `undertakers` and the
land allotted to them. It is a reasonable assumption that the
undertaker will have recruited settlers probably
from his own estates and the surrounding countryside. .

 " The Plantation of  Ulster " by Philip Robinson. Pub. Gill & McMillan Ltd
1984. and by St Martins Press in USA 1984.  ISBN  0-901905-62-3  (Paperback)

"The Scottish Migration to
Ulster in the Reign of James I " by M Perceval
Maxwell. Pub Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd
(1973) ISBN  0-902-905-44-5 (Paperback).