In
August of 1652, the English Parliament passed the act for settling
Ireland. The land was surveyed while the English government would
decide who should forfeit land. The owners of Irish land be they
Catholic, Protestant, or Old English would suffer loss by degrees
of guilt, and with penalties assessed dependent upon their role
in the rebellion be it major or minor.
While
some were dispossessed simply for being Catholic, many Protestant
and Old English landowners were allowed to retain their land on
payment of heavy fines. Plans had also included forcibly moving
the Ulster-Scots from Ulster to the South, but these were never
acted upon as the Protestants were considered to be less of a
security risk.
Members
of the army, who had not been paid in 18 months, would be the
first to be settled on the land vacated by the Irish, followed
by the adventurers.
In
September of 1653, Parliament issued the order for the commencement
of what would come to be known as the Cromwellian Plantations.
Under penalty of death by hanging, no Irish man, woman or child
was to be found east of the River Shannon, after 1 May 1654.
The
Irish landowners who had been implicated in the rebellion were
to be transplanted to Connacht and to Clare, west of the Shannon,
and kept under close scrutiny by the military settlers. The only
people who would be allowed to remain east of the Shannon were
those who could prove that they had been faithful to the English
cause.
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