The great fraud of UlsterHealy, T. M. (Timothy Michael)
History
The great fraud of Ulster
Healy, T. M. (Timothy Michael)
Ireland -- History -- 17th century; Ulster (Northern Ireland and Ireland) -- History
“From Scotland came many, and from England not a few, yet all of them
generally the scum of both nations; who, from debt or breaking and
fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, came hither, hoping to be
without fear of man’s justice, in a land where there was nothing,
or but little as yet, of the fear of God. And in a few years there
flocked such a multitude of people from Scotland that these northern
counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry, etc., were in a good measure
planted, which had been waste before. Yet most of the people were
all void of godliness, who seemed rather to flee from God to this
enterprise than to follow their own mercy.... Thus on all hands
atheism increased, and disregard of God; iniquity abounded, with
contention, fighting, murder, adultery, etc., as among people who,
as they had nothing within them to overawe them, so their ministers’
example was worse than nothing.... For their carriage made them to
be abhorred at home in their native land, insomuch that going for
Ireland was looked on as a miserable mark of a deplorable person.
Yea, it was turned into a proverb; and one of the worst expressions
of disdain that could be invented was to tell a man that Ireland
would be his hinder end.”
Professor Reid, the historian of the Irish Presbyterian Church,
paints the same picture:—“Ulster was now occupied by settlers, who
were willing enough to receive and respect ministers when sent, but
who were far from being generally characterised by a desire for
enjoying religious ordinances. On the contrary, a great number of
those who accompanied the original proprietors, and who occupied
their lands, were openly profane and immoral in their conduct, and
were generally inattentive to the sacred institutions of the Gospel.”
A third minister, the Reverend Mr. Blair, writes:—“The most part
were such as either poverty, scandalous lives, or, at the best,
adventurous seeking of better accommodation, had forced thither,
so that the security and thriving of religion was little seen to
by those adventurers; and the preachers were generally of the same
complexion with the people.”
The Londoners sent a respectable contingent to County Derry; and
Chichester’s antipathy to them can only be connected with his
designs on the fisheries and his hope to break down the Plantation.
Constant complaint of his henchman, Captain Phillips, was made by
the Corporation, who, doubtless, represented their grievances to
the King. They left on record a protest against the antagonism of
Phillips, who was but a stirring-stick of mischief for the Deputy.
Commentators on the sudden “disburthenment” of that powerful satrap
have groped in the dark for an explanation. There can now be little
doubt that it was provoked by the remonstrances of the Corporation.
His lordship’s hostility to them sprang from the wish to upset their
enterprise in order to fasten a hold on Lough Neagh and the Bann.
CHAPTER XV.
A SCOTCH “DISCOVERER.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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