Hamilton, being a stranger, needed a backer in the North, and one having local knowledge. For this service Captain Phillips was well fitted, and his price had to be paid. At the outset the Deputy provided for it by stripping the Crown of stray escheats from the monks. Then, on the 20th July, 1605, he issued to Hamilton, under the Thomas Irelande Letter, a Patent for the Abbey of Coleraine, with the monastery fishing in the Bann. Along with this went much other spoil, lay and ecclesiastical, such as the Manor of Moygare, in Meath, with several rectories, tithes and manors in Kildare, Queen’s County, Down, and Antrim. The rent reserved to the Crown for this was only £54 1s. 1d., and Cecil was advised that Hamilton, on the 23rd September, 1605, had transferred to Captain Phillips the Abbey of Coleraine with the fishery. So splendid a gift was no small handsel from one who was himself entitled to receive only “the value of £100 a year.” It was intended as a “retainer” to Phillips to blood him for an intended attack on Sir Randal. Though the tap of the “Half-Moon” had poured much wealth into Hamilton’s maw it left his thirst unslaked, and the exhausted warrant to John Wakeman, which had lain fallow for over a year, was next prepared for action. To employ it, the co-operation of Sir Richard Cooke, the Secretary of State, was needed, as, by a “power of attorney” from Wakeman in 1604, Cooke was entrusted to “sue out” grants under it on Devonshire’s behalf. Chichester feared to make use of Cooke. He wished for a more pliable nominee, who would consent to deceive the Lord Lieutenant as well as the King. Whether Wakeman agreed to this, or whether his name was abused, is uncertain; but an altered “power of attorney,” dated the 21st October, 1605, was put forth, purporting to have been executed by Wakeman, in which Mr. James Ware, Auditor for “martial causes,” figures instead of Cooke. No honest reason for such a change (inside a year) can be imagined; and by this means the Auditor, whose office was intended to check corruption, was enlisted for the corrupt obtainment of grants. Before availing of Ware’s help, the Deputy issued to Hamilton, on the 5th November, 1605, a Patent for Sir Con O’Neill’s estate—two thirds of which was afterwards reconveyed to Montgomery and its true owner. In this (as part of the process of mystification) was included a grant of “the whole fishing of the River Lagan,” which Chichester had snatched for himself in his Patents of 1603-4. He gave it to Hamilton only by way of conferring valid title to it on a stranger, intending subsequently to secure a transfer to himself. Thus one branch of the 1603-4 illegality was vested with seemly raiment.