By
1653 the English had completely subjugated the entire island.
The combination of massacres, pestilence, and starvation was estimated
to have killed between half and two-thirds of the Irish people.
Thousands of others were shipped off into slavery in the American
colonies and the West Indies. Those sent to the Indies would become
the ancestors of the 'Black Irish' of Montserrat, the Caribbean
island where Irish was still spoken up to the 1800s, and where
many families have Irish names.
The
Adventurers’ Act had been a call to members of Parliament,
merchants and tradesmen to lend the money required to raise an
army to subdue the rebels in Ireland. The adventurers were offered
two and a half million acres
of Irish land, which would be confiscated at the end of the rebellion,
as security of their money. Suppliers of provisions and ammunition
to the army also had to be paid, and the adventurers were demanding
to be recompensed.
The
lands of the defeated Irish and Old English Catholics were declared
confiscated and preparations began for its distribution to the
various people to whom the government was indebted.
The
Irish landowners were ordered to move west of the River Shannon
to the province of Connacht before May 1, 1652, or risk death.
The poor people were allowed to remain as tenants, tradespeople,
and laborers.
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