Historical account of the Macdonnells of Antrim

SECOND EARL AND FIRST MARQUIS OF ANTRIM.
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Disputes arising, principally among the officers and soldiers, respecting the great differences
in quality of the lands assigned to them, it was found that no general survey, such as had already
been made, without actual admeasurement, would be sufficient to allay discontent, and meet the
difficulties of the case. Hence the celebrated Down Survey (65) of forfeited lands in Ireland. In
reference to this survey, there is the following passage in Prendergast's Cromwellian Settlement of
Ireland,^, 204, 205 : — "The officers of the armynext agreed with the government to join them in con-
tracting with Dr. William Petty, (66) Physician to the Forces, to make accurate maps of the forfeited
lands belonging respectively to the government and to the army, in the three several provinces of Lein-
ster, Munster, and Ulster. Connaught was assigned to the Irish, and good maps of most of the lands
in that province had been made about fifteen years before, by order of Lord Strafford, when he
intended the English plantation there, by which maps the government were enabled to set down the
(65) Down Survey. — The Down Survey was so called
simply to mark its distinction from other preceding sur-
veys, its topographic details being all laid doiun by ad-
measurement on maps. This is well expressed in a
letter from Mr. Weale, in which he says — ■" Childish as
the etymon has always sounded in my ears, I am obliged
to admit that the survey obtained its name solely from the
continued repetition of the expressions, by the survey laid
down, laid down by admeasurements, in contradistinction
to Worsley's Surveys ; the word down being so written as
often as it occurs in the MS. It must be admitted that
the name would have equally applied to the Stafford
Survey, which, it is now clear, was also laid down on
maps, but for the sake of contrasting Dr. Petty's work
by some distinctive cognomen, with the Civil and Gross
Surveys. It may also be observed that the name is still
used in Ireland among the county surveyors of the old
school for any survey laid down on a map, as distin-
guished from a mere list of areas, which they also, call a
survey." (Petty's Hisloty of the Down Survey. Edited
by T. A. Larcom ; Preface, pp. vii. , viii. ) " This title,
applied to the mapped surveys of the Commonwealth
period, is not inappropriate. Petty could not expect
them to be called after his own name, as he was but a
contractor for about one-half the area (the soldiers' por-
tion) of forfeited lands, the residue being, by an order of
the Lord Lieutenant and Council, placed under the joint
management of the Surveyor-General, Worsley, and
Petty. A generic name, therefore, common to both sets
of maps, was necessary, and that name was borrowed
from the expression that conveys to the mind the opera-
tion by which the measurements of the lands in area and
form were transferred to paper from the field-books, and
that expression was ' laying down.' The name was ap-
plied to the maps by the Lord Lieutenant and Privy
Council so early as 1658, and it has been adopted by the
Acts of Settlement and Explanation, and officially re-
tained ever since." Transactions of Royal Irish Academy,
vol. xxiv., Antiquities, p. 21.
(66) Dr. William Petty. — This fortunate physician was
born in 1623, and had accumulated a vast fortune when
only thirty- six years of age ; not, however, by his pro-
fession, but by his talented superintendence of the sur-
vey of the soldiers' portion of the forfeited lands in
Ireland. His coming to this country is thus explained by
himself : — " William Petty, Doctor in Physicke, whilst
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he was Professor of Anatomy in Oxford, and one of the
readers of Gresham College, was advised to goe into
Ireland in the year 1652, when the war there was near
ended, and many endeavours used to regulate, replant,
and reduce that country to its former flourishing condi-
tion, as a place most wanting such contrivances as tended
to the above-mentioned ends, and for which the said Dr.
had formerly gained some reputation in the world. Major-
Generall Lambert being at that time designed for the
government of Ireland, and a favourer of ingeniouse and
usefull arts, was pleased to entertain the said Dr. uppon
that expedition ; but his Lordship being diverted, and
Lieutenant-Generall Ffleetwood appointed to go in his
stead, the said Dr., having fixed his thoughts uppon that
designe for Ireland, found acceptance with the Lord
Ffleetwood alsoe, in the quality of physician to the
Army, the said Lieutenant- Generall's person, and family."
(See Petty's History of the Down Survey. Edited by
Larcom, p. 1.) Petty, however, soon set about his really
intended object — the survey for the soldiers of the lands
about to be distributed amongst them. In seven years
from the time of his arrival, he had gathered as much of
the forfeited lands to himself as yielded a yearly revenue
of ^6,000 — a pretty ample provision, considering the
value of money at that period. He had picked up
choice portions of land in many localities, but from one
point on Mangerton mountain, in the county of Kerry, he
could see 50,000 of his own acres. He gained enor-
mously, also, by buying up at low rates the Government
debentures, given to the common soldiers until the lands
could be got divided amongst them. The soldiers,
generally speaking, were anxious to return to their
families and occupations in England ; and, on being dis-
banded, made haste to get some ready cash for their
debentures, and depart from the Irish shores. A law
was enacted to forbid the purchase of these debentures
at less than eight shillings in the pound ; and Dr. Petty
was in the habit of boasting that he never bought from
the needy soldiers, but from the regularly licensed deben-
ture-brokers. He was charged with gathering his im-
mense wealth by corrupt means, and he wrote a long
self-defence, entitled Reflections upon some Persons and
Things in Ireland, in which he ingeniously argues that
he would have been a wealthier man had he kept to his
original occupation of a doctor, and never set foot in
Ireland at all !