The process of transplantation went on slowly, and was never carried to its extreme lengths, for very few would have escaped if the Act of Settlement had been carried out to the letter. But vast numbers did remove during the year 1654, and it would probably be difficult to exaggerate the hardships they underwent. In some cases at least whole districts were depopulated, for it was officially reported that 'no inhabitant of the Irish nation that knows the country' was left in the barony of Eliogarty in Tipperary, which contains the town of Thurles, and orders were given for the return of four families, who might live near their old homes and assist the surveyors. Those who crossed the Shannon were provided with land in a temporary way, and two commissions were appointed to consider claims with a view to more permanent arrangements. In October 1653 the transplanted were ordered to go to Galway and inform the commissioners of revenue there as to their families and the nature of their claims. Afterwards these commissioners sat at Loughrea, and it became their duty to distribute land in accordance with the findings of another commission at Athlone. The latter were appointed on December 28, 1654, as the 'Court of Claims and Qualifications of the Irish,' and were generally known as the Athlone commissioners. Their business was to find under which qualification or degree of guilt each Irish claimant fell, and to give him lands proportionate to those which he had enjoyed east of the Shannon. The Loughrea commissioners used the maps and registers made for Strafford's intended plantation in Connaught and in the northern half of Tipperary. For the rest of Ireland it was necessary to make a new survey. Meanwhile transplantation proceeded very slowly, and in March 1656 there were 1000 men under restraint who had borne arms during the rebellion, but refused to cross the Shannon.[271] [Sidenote: A fresh survey. Benjamin Worsley.] [Sidenote: William Petty.] [Sidenote: Petty's proposals accepted.]