The ingenuity of Davies helped to distend beyond all honest limits the grants allotted to Chichester, who coveted properties too unique and vast to be openly proposed for his reward. Sir Arthur’s Castle at Carrickfergus lay neighbourly to Lough Neagh, and on this great prize, with its outlet, the fishful Bann, he had set his heart. To crave such guerdon for his services would have been in vain. It was not the King’s to bestow, and never had been seized or claimed by the Crown. With official connivance he might lay hands on it, but his power in the State was limited. James I. had chosen him with Sir Henry Docwra and Sir William Godolphin as a partaker in the Government during Devonshire’s absence; but he shared a divided authority, and had to beware of jealousy or exposure. Lough Neagh lay outside the territory of every native chieftain, while the Bann belonged to notables whose rights could not lightly be trespassed on. In 1542 the Lough was fixed as the Eastern boundary of Tyrone in the Patent of Henry VIII. to Con O’Neill after Con’s acceptance, at Greenwich, of English allegiance. When that Patent was renewed by James I. to Hugh O’Neill in 1603, the same landmarks were maintained. On the opposite side dwelt the Claneboy O’Neills; but, beyond their shore-fishings and those of the monks, they laid no claim to it. Their Patent of 30th March, 1587, is confined to County Down, and makes no mention of Lough Neagh. Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Thomas Smith a Charter to conquer East Ulster in 1571, but the Lough was not included in his grant. The limits of tribal ownership were at all times acutely studied; and to interfere with them without provocation or legal excuse, once peace was established, would arouse angry protests and appeals to the Throne. It was plain, moreover, that, whether English Law or Brehon Law prevailed, there was no one against whom a forfeiture could be enforced for Lough Neagh as a whole.