The idea for the Ulster plantation came from Sir Arthur Chichester who served as the Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1605 to 1616. Chichester had commanded crown troops in Ulster during the Nine Years War and had ruthlessly engaged in a scorched earth campaign against the Irish with the intent of starving them. Following the war, he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland. He viewed Irish Catholicism as a major threat to the Crown and during his administration there was widespread persecution of Catholics, including the execution of two bishops.
Sir Arthur Chichester is shown above.
Chichester felt that plantation would result in better cultivation of the land as new settlers from England or Scotland would know more about modern farming techniques than would the Irish. In addition, bringing in settlers from England and Scotland would make Ireland more civilized as they would be Protestants rather than Catholics.
Chichester’s plan also called for land to be given to men who had loyally served in the English army (servitors). Since these men would be loyal to the British, they would be useful in defending the plantations from possible Irish rebels.
In 1608, parliament decreed that all lands which had previously belonged to the Irish earls were property of the Crown. While this set the stage for the plantations, the lands had to be surveyed before they could be distributed. Unfortunately, the first survey was so badly done that it had to be redone. The cartographers (mapmakers) were not exactly welcomed by the Irish and had to carry out their surveying work under the protection of armed guards.
By 1610, a set of detailed maps was sent to London so that the process of plantation could begin. The land for the plantations was in six counties: Tyrone, Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Derry.
The process of creating the Ulster plantation began with the English and Scottish undertakers who would be responsible for the land. The undertakers (wealthy English colonists who “undertook” the task of importing tenants) had three years during which time they were to build a stone house with a fortified yard and to get 24 able-bodied men from England or Scotland to plant on each of the 1,000 acres that they owned.
There were two basic groups that got involved as undertakers: (1) London Livery companies (12 companies which formed The Honourable Irish Society) who viewed the plantation scheme as a potential investment, and (2) Scottish nobles who had been encouraged by King James to get involved. James had been King of the Scots before becoming King of England and he wanted to reward his subjects in Scotland with land in Ulster. In this way, he could show them that they were not being ignored.
Once they had been granted their land, one of the first tasks of each undertaker was to clear the Irish population from the land. There was to be segregation between the new settlers and the Irish to ensure the purity of the settlers. Segregation would also provide the settlers with a feeling of safety and would prevent the integration of the settlers and the Irish.
The undertakers soon found that recruiting people to farm in Ireland was a difficult task. It was well known that Ireland was a wild, dangerous, and unsettled place. There were also many stories about how the Irish made it a dangerous place for non-Irish. In order to entice people to sign up for the Ulster plantations, authorities published books to promote the scheme.
The Scottish undertakers were the most successful in obtaining settlers for Ulster. It has been estimated that the ratio of Scottish to English settlers in the Ulster plantation was five or six to one. The settlers who came from Scotland were primarily Presbyterians and had strong beliefs in the process of the Reformation.
The London Livery companies were also involved in the Virginia Plantation, so many of the English Protestant settlers opted to go to Virginia or New England instead of Ireland.
Originally, just over half a million acres was allotted for plantation: half of the land was to go to settlers from England and Scotland; one-quarter was to go to the Protestant Church of Ireland; and one-quarter to the servitors (former soldiers) and the Irish. The Irish were to be segregated near garrisons and Protestant Churches. Everyone was to pay rent after five years: the undertaker had to pay £5 and six shillings for every 1,000 acres; servitors £8; and the Irish had to pay £10 and 13 shillings.
The plantation scheme didn’t work as well as planned. With a lack of tenants from England and Scotland, many of the undertakers had to rent part of their lands to the Irish. Still, the influx of settlers managed to change the demographics of Ireland and its geography. The settlement of Derry, for example, was successful and Londonderry was incorporated in 1613 and by 1616 the town had 215 stone-built houses within its walls.
The wall in Londonderry as it exists today is shown above.
The estimated Irish population in 1600 was about 750,000. By the 1630s, the Plantation had brought in an estimated 80,000 English and Scots settlers. Professor Michael Montgomery reports:
“Demographic patterns established by Plantation settlements ensured that there were two often three, cultural traditions in contact in much of the province.”
Since many of the settlers did not speak Gaelic, the settlers also brought language change to the area. Language change is, however, not one-way. According to Michael Montgomery:
“Both Ulster-Scots and Mid-Ulster English were profoundly affected by Irish Gaelic, borrowing a good deal of vocabulary and some grammatical constructions.”
With regard to religion, the Plantation of Ulster brought together two major Protestant sects—Anglican and Presbyterian—and Roman Catholicism. King James and his advisors viewed Protestantism as superior to Catholicism and had intended that the Protestants in the Plantation would serve as examples to the “backward” Irish Catholics.
The plan to convert the Irish Catholics to Protestantism is generally considered a failure. The Irish tended to be monolingual Gaelic speakers while the Protestant ministers who sought to convert them were monolingual English speakers. While it is estimated that about 10% of the ministers learned enough Gaelic to be considered at least moderately fluent, conversion tended to be rare. Gaelic speaking Irish were considered British if they converted to Protestantism.
While the basic idea of the Plantation was to displace the Irish and segregate them, this generally did not happen. During the Nine Years War, about 300 Irish landowners had joined with the English and were subsequently rewarded with land grants. Many Irish also became Plantation tenants when the undertakers were unable to fill their quotas from England and Scotland.
With regard to land ownership, by 1641, 3 million of the 3.5 million acres in the area were owned by Protestants. Professor Edmund Curtis, in his 1936 A History of Ireland, summarizes the Ulster Plantation:
“The apparent success of the Ulster Plantation inspired others, and the view prevailed in the Government that colonies everywhere were necessary to secure a loyal population which would provide juries and other officers, elect the right sort of members of parliament, support the State Church and introduce the English language, methods of land-tenure, agriculture and so on, and through whom trade and industry, the towns, and consequently the King’s revenues, would steadily increase. From 1610 to the beginning of Charles I’s reign various Plantations were carried out.”