out was 717,076 Irish acres or 1,162,544 English acres. It is signed by Thomas Eliot, Deputy Surveyor General; and therefore may be supposed to be a fairly accurate statement of what lands were adjudged to the transplanted Irish.
The number of names is somewhat short of 2000; and the amount of land assigned to individuals varies from 11,574 acres allotted to the Earl of Westmeath, and 8,919 to Sir R. Blake, to 2 acres assigned to Catherine Quirke of Galway, and 4 to Mary ny Connor alias Neilan, and Honora, Kathleen and Amy Neilan, daughters of Eichard Neilan of Clare.
We cannot be sure how many of these 2000 persons received estates in fee-simple. Some may only have got leases under other transplanted persons; others were possibly only settled as tenants at will. But if we consider that at least 1,023 landowners were moved from Munster and Leinster and that the number of those falling into various categories entitled to lands was very small in Ulster, and for reasons of which we have already spoken, very large in Connaught, we may suppose that the greater number of these 2000 persons who received lands in Connaught got them, or rather were intended to get them, in fee-simple.[1] There are, however, difficulties in this view, which I shall mention in the next chapter.
The interesting questions next arise as to what
- ↑ It would appear that many claimants never received allotments. Of the names in the two lists a very large number are from Connaught.A great difficulty is caused by the fact that only 580 grants to transplanted persons were made between 1675 and 1677 when their position was finally regularised; but see the next chapter.
