Ireland Under the Tudors, Volume 3 — Chapter 40 Government of Perott 1583 to 1584 Part 2

[Sidenote: Difficulties of the survey.

] Far more important than the perennial but limited trouble with the Scots, was the question of surveying and resettling the attainted lands in Munster.

In June 1584, a commission for the purpose was directed to Vice-Treasurer Wallop, Sir Valentine Browne a man of long experience in English revenue business, Surveyor-General Alford, and auditors Jenyson and Peyton.

Their survey began early in September, and they did not return till the end of November, having found a great part of the province waste; and Kerry in particular seemed impossible to re-people except by importation from England.

Sir Valentine Browne, who was an elderly man, was active and zealous, but he found the work very hard.

'He hath,' says his colleague the Vice-Treasurer, 'been sundry times bogged, yet hath gone better through with it than might be imagined so corpulent a man of his years would have been able.'

Rivers and mountains had to be crossed, and provisions could hardly be procured at any point between Limerick and Dingle.

One hundred persons fed at the Commissioners' table, who had to supply it on credit.

Wallop was struck by the great fertility of the land, and estimated that the Queen would have a new revenue of 6,000_l.

_ within three years.

But the difficulty in making an accurate survey was very great.

It was supposed that land worth more than 1,000_l.

_ a year had escheated in parts of Tipperary, outside of Ormonde's jurisdiction; but what he had once claimed no one dared to inhabit in spite of him.

The Earl's palatinate was originally a matter of grace and favour, but he tried to extend it to the whole county, and it seemed doubtful whether any subject ought to be so great.

The difficulty of arriving at the truth proved even more serious than Wallop at first supposed.

Many months passed without anything being decided, and in the meantime Munster was in the utmost misery.

Vice-President Norris could not prevent his starving soldiers from running after his brother into Flanders, and the towns, which truly pleaded poverty, could neither be forced nor persuaded to support them.

[120] [Sidenote: Scots in Ulster.

] Ormonde, who was in a hurry to get to London, deferred his journey that he might accompany Perrott to Ulster.

The young Earl of Thomond, who had been educated in England, and who lived to be called 'the great Earl,' was glad to take part in the expedition.

His great object was to have the county of Clare acknowledged as part of Munster, and freed from the jurisdiction of the Connaught government; and in this he ultimately succeeded.

Clanricarde also gave his services, and so did Lord President Norris.

Perrott had 2,000 trained men with him, besides Irish allies, and he thought they would all be necessary.

It had been his intention to govern plausibly, and 'to look through his fingers at Ulster as a fit receptacle for all the savage beasts of the land;' but the Scots were said to be 4,000, and there were the usual reports about Spanish ships.

Norris, who had a cooler head than Perrott, afterwards said that he thought the Scots were bent 'only on their customary fetching of meat.'

They took 3,000 cows from Tyrconnell, but their numbers were larger than usual.

Macleans, as well as MacDonnells, were engaged, and the whole movement had probably more to do with Hebridean politics than with any intention of hurting Queen Elizabeth.

The Scots disappeared as quickly as they had come, and when Perrott reached Newry, he found that no foeman worthy of his steel awaited him.

He resolved, however, to go on, and to show that Ulster was within his reach.

[121] [Sidenote: The Scots clans,] [Sidenote: and the Ulster Irish.

] Secretary Davison was in Scotland at this time, and he ridiculed Perrott's fear of Scottish invasion.

The obscure politics of Isla and Cantire were not well understood even at Edinburgh, and the Englishman's judgment may have been warped by the contempt which he certainly felt for Arran.

The whole thing, he said, had been greatly exaggerated.

But, notwithstanding his opinion and that of Norris, it seems clear that the uneasiness among the western clans had something to say to the fall of Gowrie, and to Arran's short-lived triumph.

The islanders would hardly move for king or regent, unless they saw some advantage to themselves.

Some of them at least were paid by cattle taken from the O'Donnells, and all were willing to make interest at court if it could be done cheaply.

Perrott's ships just failed in intercepting the Scots at Lough Foyle, and he could only speak from report.

'Yet truly,' he maintained, 'although they ran away thus cowardly, howsoever Mr. Davison was abused by his intelligence, they were in number little fewer, their training and furniture no worse, and their purpose no better, than I wrote.'

Tirlogh Luineach was not minded to oppose Perrott, and he came to him at Newry without pardon or protection.

The old chief's adhesion proved of little value, for, like other Irish leaders before and since, 'the better subject he became, the weaker he waxed, and the less regarded of his followers.'

In fact he required help against his own people.

But O'Cahan and the crafty Baron of Dungannon also came in, and Perrott proceeded to invest Dunluce Castle.

[122] [Sidenote: Slight connection of the western clans with Edinburgh.

] [Sidenote: Perrott takes Dunluce.

] The legal government of Scotland accepted no responsibility for the raids of Macleans and MacDonnells in Ulster.

Formerly attempts to retaliate on the Hebrides had not been successful, though Perrott wished to repeat them; but James and Elizabeth were at peace, and the Queen was quite justified in treating the intruders as filibusters.

Whether or not they were partly moved by Catholic intriguers in Mary Stuart's interest really mattered very little, for they could not influence seriously the fate of creeds or kingdoms.

But they were a constant source of expense, and the officer who dealt them a crushing blow would deserve well of his sovereign.

This honour was, however, denied to Perrott, and reserved for Bingham.

The Scot who commanded the garrison of Dunluce declared that he held the castle for the King of Scots' use, and would defend it to the last.

He can, however, have had no valid commission.

The position of this place was at once its strength and its weakness.

Situated on a precipitous rock rising out of a stormy sea, and connected with the mainland by a narrow ledge, it was almost unapproachable by any enemy.

On the other hand it could scarcely be relieved, and it was impossible for the garrison to escape.

The fire of three pieces converging on the small castle soon made it untenable, and the forty men whom it contained surrendered at discretion on the second or third day.

[123] [Sidenote: Claims of the MacDonnells.

] The MacDonnells had always rested their Irish claims upon their relationship to the extinct Bissetts.

The extent of the lands once held by that family was very uncertain; but Sorley Boy never ceased his efforts to get rid of the MacQuillins, who had long held the Route, and upon whom the garrison of Coleraine habitually depended for provisions.

Lady Agnes O'Neill, on the other hand, had the Campbell instinct for annexation, and endeavoured to set up her own son Donnell Gorme Macdonnell against his uncle.

As the elder brother's son he had perhaps the better legal right; but Sorley was supported by the clan.

Tirlogh Luineach was under his wife's influence, but had enough to do to hold his own against Shane O'Neill's sons, and against the Baron of Dungannon.

Norris said Tirlogh could do nothing without the Queen's help; but even he seems to have been persuaded by Lady Agnes that Sorley's followers resented his tyranny, and were ready to leave him.

After the loss of Dunluce Sorley went to Scotland for help, and Perrott agreed that Donnell Gorme should have a grant of the Bissetts' lands in consideration of reasonable service.

Donnell, on his part, undertook to entertain none but Irish-born Scots, to book the men of his country and be responsible for them, and to serve against his uncle or any other foreign Scot.

MacQuillin made a contract for victualling Coleraine, and O'Donnell, whose wife was Donnell Gorme's sister, made a treaty with Tirlogh Luineach, who agreed to maintain 300 English soldiers and to perform other services.

Magennis and the Clandeboye O'Neills also made terms, and Perrott, finding no enemy in the field, returned to Dublin.

[124] [Sidenote: Perrott, Ormonde, and Norris lift 50,000 cows.

] [Sidenote: The forest of Glenconkein.

] The war being at an end for want of an enemy, Perrott thought that Scottish raids could best be prevented by clearing the country of cattle.

Norris and Ormonde entered Glenconkein, now the south-western portion of Londonderry, but then considered part of Tyrone, and 50,000 cattle were collected in what was then an almost impenetrable stronghold.

Twenty-five years later Sir John Davies described Chichester's march though the district, 'where the wild inhabitants wondered as much to see the King's Deputy as the ghosts in Virgil wondered to see Æneas alive in hell.'

The woods were then said to be among the best in Ireland, and to be as extensive as the New Forest;

but they had been wastefully treated, and it was feared that they would soon be exhausted.

So completely was the work of destruction carried out that a report written in 1803 declared the county of Londonderry to be the worst wooded in the King's dominions.

In the sixteenth century a considerable population inhabited Glenconkein, who tilled such portions as were fit for tillage, and who looked upon the O'Neills as their superior lords.

As had been the case in Kerry, fires marked the course of Ormonde's march.

Norris took much the same view of the Ulster problem as Sidney had done.

Permanent garrisons must be maintained, and this would be the cheapest way in the long run.

'Ireland,' he said, 'is not to be brought to obedience but by force; and albeit that some governments have been performed with fewer men, yet have these times served for nothing but to give breath for a further trouble, and then the country ruled by entreaty and not by commandment.'

[125] [Sidenote: Perrott proposes to dissolve St. Patrick's,] [Sidenote: and to endow a university.

] Among the private instructions given to Perrott by the Privy Council was one directing him to consider 'how St. Patrick's in Dublin, and the revenue belonging to the same, might be made to serve, as had been theretofore intended,' for the erection of a college.

This old plan of Archbishop Browne's had been revived in 1564, and again abandoned in deference to the remonstrances of the threatened foundation; but it was very much to Perrott's liking, and he adopted it with additions.

The dean, Thomas Jones, had just been promoted to the see of Meath, and a principal obstacle had thus been removed.

The Courts of Justice were at this time held in the Castle over the powder magazine, but the lawyers had also claims upon the house of Black Friars, on the left bank of the Liffey, where the Four Courts now stand.

Ormonde and others had conflicting interests, but the Judges and Bar petitioned that they might be otherwise compensated, and that the law might be permanently lodged by the riverside.

This was the plan favoured by the late Lords Justices, but Secretary Fenton, with whom Perrott agreed, cast eyes on the Friars as a convenient landing-place, and wished to turn it into a Government victualling-store.

The Lord Deputy's idea was to combine the two schemes; to let the judges sit in St. Patrick's church, to convert the residence of the chapter into inns of court, and to found a university with the revenues.

The two cathedrals, he urged, were too near together to be both useful, and St. Patrick's was 'held in more superstitious veneration' than the one named after Christ.

He thought 2,000_l.

_ might suffice for the erection of two colleges, and the surplus, which he estimated at about 700_l.

_, could go to eke out the revenue of Christ Church.

'For the conversion of the whole church of St. Patrick,' he told Burghley, 'whatsoever shall or can be said to the contrary, it proceedeth from particular covetous humour without regard to the general good.

I could name the sink if I listed whereinto the whole profit falleth under the colour of maintenance of a few bad singers.'

A reformer who begins in this way, though he be a king and not merely a viceroy, very seldom succeeds in effecting reforms.

[126] [Sidenote: Loftus and Jones are too fond of money.

] Adam Loftus was fond of money.

He begged so unblushingly for himself and his relations, that the chapter of Christ Church, on granting one of his requests, made him promise, before them all, not to ask for anything more.

Even this promise he afterwards tried to evade.

He was accused of jobbing away the revenues of St. Patrick's, and the late dean, who was married to his sister-in-law, earned a very bad name for wasting the substance of his deanery first, and afterwards of his bishopric.

One extant deed in particular bears Swift's indignant endorsement, made in 1714, as 'a lease of Coolmine, made by that rascal Dean Jones, and the knaves, or fools, his chapter, to one John Allen for eighty-one years, to commence from the expiration of a lease of eighty years made in 1583; so that there was a lease of 161 years of 253 acres in Tassagard parish, within three miles of Dublin, for 2_l.

_ per annum...

now worth 150_l.

_, and, so near Dublin, could not then be worth less than 50_l.

_ How the lease was surrendered, I cannot yet tell.'

[Sidenote: St. Patrick's rescued;]

[Sidenote: though Loftus liked a university in the abstract.

] [Sidenote: Archbishop Bancroft.

] Loftus was accused of being interested in many such leases, and it was said that in defending St. Patrick's he was really defending his own pocket.

He had been dean himself, too, and very possibly he was not anxious for the inquisition which must have taken place had the cathedral been dissolved.

On the other hand, the Archbishop could give good reason why Perrott's plan should not take effect.

St. Patrick's, he said, was the only place in Ireland where a learned man, and especially a learned Englishman, 'could, without imminent danger, thrust his head.'

There were twenty-six dignitaries, some of them very slightly endowed, and of these fifteen were university graduates.

With the exception of one bishop, there were no good preachers in Ireland but those furnished by St. Patrick's, and amongst them were Dean Jones, Thompson, the treasurer, Conway, the chancellor, and Henry Ussher, the archdeacon, who lived to be Archbishop of Armagh.

Of three bishops who could preach, two had been promoted out of St. Patrick's, and Christ Church neither had done nor could do anything in that way.

He was ready to give what help he could towards the establishment of a university, but a university could not be maintained long if there were no benefices to bestow upon fellows.

The prebends did not depend upon temporalities, but were all attached to parishes.

Kildare was patron of two, but the others were in the Archbishop's gift, and they were all opposed to Perrott's scheme.

Loftus himself was ready to resign rather than leave himself 'a perpetual blot and infamy' to his successor, for having consented to the destruction of his cathedral.

Archdeacon Ussher was sent to England, and Loftus also employed Richard Bancroft, one of the prebendaries, to plead the cause of St. Patrick's at Court.

Bancroft became Archbishop of Canterbury, and gained lasting fame for his services in connection with the authorised version of the Bible, but appears to have resided very little in Dublin, though he held his preferment there for at least thirty years.

[127] [Sidenote: The scheme makes Perrott and Loftus enemies.

] Whatever may be thought of Loftus's character, his arguments on this occasion were good, and Burghley felt them to be unanswerable.

The thing could not be done, he said, without the consent of the prebendaries, and he asked Perrott how he would like to have his own salary diverted to some other use.

Preaching was necessary as well as teaching, and there was no greater abuse in the Church of England than the transfer of livings to abbeys and colleges.

Tithes had been instituted for the service of parishes, and he would never do evil that good might come.

Perrott answered that the idea had not been originated by him, and that his instructions from the Privy Council, signed by Burghley himself with many others, would have warranted him in proceeding far more roughly than he had done.

Where he seems really to have done wrong was in not showing this order of the Privy Council to Loftus, and in letting him suppose that he was acting of his own motion.

Even after Burghley had given his opinion, he was unwilling to give up the scheme, and the Archbishop begged for a letter signed by the Queen herself.

This was granted, and the royal missive was read to Perrott in the presence of Waterhouse and Sir Lucas Dillon.

Even then the Lord Deputy was not silenced, and the result was bitter hostility between the Queen's representative and the Chancellor Archbishop, who should have been his chief adviser.

[128] [Sidenote: Three hundred executions in Munster.

] While Norris was absent in the North, Sir William Stanley governed Munster, and improved the occasion by 300 executions.

'This,' he said, 'doth terrify them so that a man now may travel the whole country, and none to molest him.'

The Lord President on his return declared the country was waste and depopulate.

Even malefactors were scarce, and there was no chance of resettling the province but by importing people.

[Sidenote: State of Connaught.

] [Sidenote: Forty-eight executions in Leinster.

] [Sidenote: Feagh MacHugh a prosecutor of thieves.

] In Connaught Bingham complained that he was denied means to maintain the strict government necessary for a people who were not naturally inclined to civility.

He hoped nevertheless to increase the revenue in time.

From Leinster alone was there anything like a good report.

The Master of the Rolls went circuit, and 48 prisoners out of 181 were executed on verdicts found by their own clansmen.

Among them were two landowners of the Kavanaghs, who had regularly preyed upon the Barrow navigation, and whose property near Leighlin thus escheated to the Crown.

White settled some dispute between chiefs and sheriffs, and visited Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne at Ballinacor, 'where law never approached.'

Nor was the reconciliation with the notable partisan altogether hollow.

About three months afterwards, fifty head of cattle were lifted in the Pale, and 'carried with a pipe to the mountain.'

Feagh MacHugh followed, brought back the cows, and sent three of the reivers' heads to Perrott.

The piper and another were sent alive, and speedily hanged, and O'Byrne declared his willingness to send his own son, who had been implicated in the robbery.

'Your lordship,' said Perrott, 'perhaps will marvel to hear that Feagh is such a prosecutor of theft, and will think it a great change that the O'Connors are ready to do good service; and the O'Mores, having put in pledges, do live without doing harm.

In Munster only one of the Burkes is abroad in Aherlow woods with a 20 or 30 swords.'

[129] [Sidenote: State of Ulster.

] [Sidenote: Perrott addresses the Parliament of England.

] [Sidenote: The Queen spares both money and thanks.

] Exhaustion or despair had for a time quieted East, South, and West, but the North was still unsubdued, and Perrott felt that only permanent garrisons could secure it.

He asked for 600 men, 25 to be levied in each of the 24 handiest counties of England and Wales.

In common years the Queen had hitherto spent 30,000_l.

_ or 40,000_l.

_ a year over and above the Irish revenue, and the average expense was considerably more.

If he might have 50,000_l.

_ for three years only, he would at the end of them hand over Ireland provided with a trained garrison of 2,000 foot and 400 horse, with seven walled towns of a mile in circumference, with seven bridges, and with seven castles; and the whole country might then be governed infinitely better and more cheaply than it had ever been before.

He went so far as to write a letter to the English Parliament, addressing it as 'most high and noble assembly.'

The malice of the Pope was urged, and also the certainty that foreign princes would again attempt Ireland, and make it a noisome neighbour to England.

'Choke up the sink at once,' he exclaimed, 'make one charge of all, conceiving you do but lend so much upon large interest.'

But even Perrott was not rash enough to address Parliament without Elizabeth's leave, and the despatch was forwarded through Walsingham, who consulted Burghley and promptly suppressed it.

The Queen, they said, would certainly resent anyone but herself moving Parliament.

She had now resolved to help the Dutch, and was the more determined to spare treasure in Ireland.

No real danger was to be apprehended from the Scots, about whom she meant to deal roundly with King James.

But Perrott was thanked for his services, and some minor requests were granted.

A few weeks later, fearing perhaps lest he should be puffed up, she wrote with her own hand as follows:--'Let us have no more such rash, unadvised journeys without good ground as your last journey in the North.

We marvel that you hanged not such saucy an advertiser as he that made you believe so great a company was coming.

I know you do nothing but with a good intention for my service, but yet take better heed ere you use us so again.'

He could only reiterate, what seems to have been the fact, that thousands of Scots had really landed, and had run away before he could reach them.

[130] FOOTNOTES:

[107] Birch's _Memoirs_, i. 27; Ormonde to Burghley, Jan.

26, 1584;

Lords Justices to Ormonde, Dec.

31, 1583. [108] Second examination of Christopher Barnewall, Aug.

12, 1583. [109] The text is taken from the official correspondence, Lords Justices to Robert Beale, Oct.

8, 1583; to Walsingham, Oct.

20, Dec.

10, March 7 and 8, 1584, April 14, and July 9; Walsingham to the Lords Justices, April 28, 1584. It appears from the Catholic accounts that combustibles were poured into the boots.

That of the Jesuit Holing, who died in 1599, may be taken as contemporary; it is printed in _Spicilegium Ossoriense_, i. 87. 'Tormenta nova illi parantur;

nam ejus pedibus atroces hæreticorum ministri ocreas, butiro, oleo, et sale oppletas, ac--quod longe crudelius fuit--crudo ex corio conditas subjecerunt; postea, vero, catenis simul et compedibus alligatum, aperto in loco, nempe in medio castri--ubi spectaculum mundo, hominibus, et angelis--ubi ab omnibus videri potuit, lento igne apposuerunt, illicque detinuerunt, donec ipso corio consumpto, butiro, oleo, et sale ferventibus, ossa non cute pro carne tecta verum etiam omnino munda fuerint relicta....

Postea in ergastulum et obscurissimum carcerem reducitur, et post sex menses tanquam traditor et reus criminis læsæ majestatis, ab iniquo judice ad mortem condemnatus est. Ad extremum, post inaudita tormenta et carceris molestias, albescente cælo, ne forte tumultus fieret in populo qui ejus exemplo, doctrina, et constantia permotus ad ejus defensionem perveniret, ignorantibus civibus patibulo suspensus martyrium consummavit Dublinii circa annum 1585, mense Maio.'

Other accounts, which agree in essentials, are collected in Brady's _Episcopal Succession_, ii.

11, 599. The Valicellian MS. there quoted, says a withen rope was used to protract his agony; but Bacon tells us that this kind of halter was generally used in Ireland, and that a rebel objected to any other.

[110] Ormonde to the Privy Council and to Burghley, Jan.

11, 1584, with enclosures; Wallop to Walsingham, Jan.

21. [111] John Browne to Hatton and Walsingham, Nov.

19, 1583; Clanricarde to the Privy Council, Jan.

31, 1584; Lords Justices to the Privy Council, March 28, 1584; Wallop to Leicester, Jan.

26, 1581, in Wright's _Elizabeth_.

The _Four Masters_ bear out Browne's statement as to John Burke's popularity; see also a damaged paper calendared under Nov.

1583 (No. 99).

The Earl's pardon passed the Irish Council, June 28, 1584. Lady Mary married O'Rourke.

'That honest woman,' Bingham wrote some years later, 'is deceased in childbirth' (to Gardiner, June 10, 1589).

[112] Lords Justices to the Privy Council, Sept.

12, 1583. Fenton to Leicester and Warwick, Sept.

13, in _Carew_; Hooker.

This is one of the last, if not the very last trial by combat in the British Islands.

Lord Reay's case, in 1631, is in Howell's _State Trials_, vol. iii.

, with a minute account of the ridiculous ceremonies proper to such a mode of trial; but in that case the fight did not actually take place.

[113] Reasons of Brian MacGilpatrick O'Connor &c. (translated out of Irish), Oct.

15, 1583. The brothers seem to have subsided, or as some would say risen, into farmers.

[114] The memorial of the Privy Council and the Queen's instructions are both printed in _Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica_; see also Perrott's _Life_, and Ormonde to Burghley, March 13, 1584. Perrott landed at Dalkey, June 9, and was sworn in by Loftus in St. Patrick's on the 21st.

[115] Ormonde to Burghley, March 13, 1584 (from Carrick); docquet of letter, April 4; Ormonde to Burghley, May 19 (from Abermorles); June 4, (from Carew).

[116] Order for a hosting, June 22, 1584; Wallop to Walsingham, July 9;

Fenton to Walsingham, July 10. [117] Henry Sheffield to Burghley, July 12, 1584; Memorial for Mr. Edward Norris, Aug.

6; Bingham to Burghley, Aug.

7. [118] William Johnes to Walsingham, July 14, 1584. [119] Perrott's Memorial for Mr. Edward Norris, Aug.

6, 1584. [120] Wallop to Burghley, Sept.

17, 1584; to Walsingham, Oct.

14 and Dec.

4; Sir V. Browne to Burghley and Walsingham, Oct.

18; to Walsingham, Dec.

11; Waterhouse to Walsingham, Nov.

28; Lord Thomond to Burghley, July 14, 1585; Vice-President Norris to Perrott, Dec.

30, 1585. [121] Fenton to Burghley, Aug.

19, 1584; Perrott to the Privy Council, Aug.

21; Bingham to Walsingham, Aug.

30; John Norris to Burghley, Oct.

16. [122] Walsingham to Hunsdon, Aug.

24, 1584, in Wright's _Elizabeth_;

Privy Council to Perrott, Aug.

31; Perrott to Privy Council, Sept.

15. [123] Perrott to Privy Council, Sept.

15 and 17. [124] Norris to Burghley, Oct.

16, 1584. The various agreements are in _Carew_, from Sept.

18 to Oct.

7. Perrott returned to Dublin within a few days of the latter date.

On the 20th he sent Walsingham 'Holy Columkill's cross, a god of great veneration with Sorley Boy and all Ulster....

When you have made some sacrifice to him, according to the disposition you bear to idolatry, you may, if you please, bestow him upon my good Lady Walsingham or my Lady Sidney, to wear as a jewel of weight and bigness, and not of price and goodness, upon some solemn feast or triumph day at the Court.'

[125] Norris to Burghley, Oct.

16, 1584. See also (in Russell and Prendergast's Calendar) Sir John Davies to Salisbury, July 1, 1607, and Aug.

5, 1608, and the second conference about the Plantation, Jan.

12, 1610; and J. C.

Beresford's report in the _Concise View of the Irish Society_, p. ccxxii.

In the Irish _Archæological Journal_, vol. i.

p. 477, Ormonde's contemporary panegyrist, who is an unconscious satirist, says: Twice he set Glenconkein on fire, This wealthy and tender-hearted chieftain;

He left no herds around Lough Neagh, This seer so provident and bountiful.

According to O'Donovan (_Four Masters_, 1526) Glenconkein originally composed the parishes of Ballinascreen, Desertmartin, and Kilcronaghan.

[126] Sir J. Cusack to Cecil, Feb.

2, 1564; Memorial for Perrott in _Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica_; Fenton to Burghley, Jan.

31, 1584;

Petition to the Judges, Feb.

16; Perrott to Walsingham, Aug.

21; and to Burghley, Oct.

22. [127] Loftus to Walsingham, Oct.

4, 1584; and March 21, 1585;

to Burghley, March 18, 1585; Petition of the prebendaries (with enclosures), Dec.

1584. See also Ware's _Bishops_, arts.

'Jones' and 'Loftus,' and Cotton's _Fasti_.

Writing to Burghley, Jan 10, 1585, Loftus says the only great abuse was the non-residence of prebendaries, some of them by her Majesty's express command, and he proposes to remedy this by calling on them to reside, or resign.

Bancroft was one of these privileged absentees.

For Swift's remark see Monck Mason's _Hist.

of St. Patrick's_, book ii.

chap.

iii.

sec.

8, where another disgraceful lease made by Jones is also mentioned.

Loftus was an accomplice in this later case.

[128] Burghley to Perrott, Nov.

6, 1584; Loftus to Burghley, June 7 and 11, 1585. Writing to Burghley on the previous 10th of Jan.

, Loftus says Fenton had dealt earnestly for the overthrow of St. Patrick's. 'After all,' says Monck Mason, 'the opposition made by Loftus must be considered as quite reasonable.

Had the scheme taken effect there would scarcely have remained a single benefice in the gift of the Archbishop;

the Crown presented to all the dignities in the other cathedral, and the Chapter to all the prebends.'

--_Hist.

of St. Patrick's_, book i. ch. 14. [129] Stanley to Walsingham, Sept.

17, 1584; Norris to Burghley, Nov.

20; Sir N. White to Perrott, Sept.

16; Bingham to Walsingham, Nov.

24 and Dec.

21; and to Burghley, Dec.

24; Perrott to Burghley, Dec.

4. [130] Perrott to the Privy Council, Oct.

25, 1584; to Walsingham (enclosing that to the High Court of Parliament), Jan.

17, 1585; to the Queen, April 1; Walsingham to Perrott, Feb.

1; the Queen to Perrott, April 14. Perrott's proposed towns were Athlone, Coleraine, Sligo, Mayo, Dingle, Lifford, and Newry; bridges at Coleraine, Lifford, Ballyshannon, Dundalk, the Munster Black Water, the Feale, and Kells in Clandeboye; castles at Ballyshannon, Meelick, Castle Martin in the Route, at Gallen in King's County, Kilcommon in Wicklow, and on both the Blackwaters.

CHAPTER XLI. GOVERNMENT OF PERROTT, 1585-1588.