In the early years of the seventeenth century the Company was largely occupied with the acquisition and settlement of its Irish estates in the County of Londonderry. Proposals for the colonisation of large districts in the North of Ireland were issued by the Crown in 1608, and the response made by the public proving inadequate for the purposes in view, application was made to the City of London, which resulted in the City undertaking the plantation of the County of Londonderry. This was effected through the instrumentality of a new Corporation composed of Aldermen and members of the Common Council, to which was given the name of “The Irish Society.” Of this Society the first Governor was Alderman Sir William Cokayne, Lord Mayor in 1619, and Master of the Company in 1609 and two later years. He was also President of St. Thomas’ Hospital, and was son of the donor of the Cokayne cups. The first Deputy-Governor was also a Skinner, William Towreson, or Towerson, who was Master in 1616. The _modus operandi_ was that the county (exclusive of the towns of Derry and Coleraine, and the ferries and fisheries) was divided into twelve portions, equalised as far as practicable, and that these were appropriated by lot among the twelve great Companies. With two exceptions, each of the twelve had associated with it some of the minor Companies, who contributed certain proportions of the necessary funds, so that each of the twelve, with its associated Companies, provided one-twelfth of the total expense. The Skinners’ estate, constituting the Manor of Pellipar, was shared by them with the Stationers, the White-Bakers, and the Girdlers, the Skinners’ share being somewhat larger than those of the other three combined. In 1876, the Skinners’ Company bought out the Stationers and Bakers, leaving the Girdlers their sole co-owners, the latter owning rather more than eleven per cent, of the undivided estate, and the remainder belonging to the Skinners’ Company. For many years the estate was let to middlemen on successive leases for three lives, but in 1872 this system came to an end, and the estate was managed directly by the Skinners’ Company. It has recently been disposed of under the Irish Land Acts. In the seventeenth century, the Company became possessed of a considerable estate in Clerkenwell, known as “Clarke’s Close,” under the will, dated in 1630, of John Meredith. They also award another University Exhibition under the will of Edward Lewis, dated in 1673. Under the will of Lewis Newbury, dated in 1683, the Company’s almshouses for women were erected at Mile End. These, as well as the Judd almshouses for men at St. Helen’s, have recently been replaced by new and more commodious buildings at Palmer’s Green: to which all inscriptions and other objects of interest at the old almshouses have been carefully removed.