History of County Wexford - 17th-century Wars and Confiscations

17th-century Wars and Confiscations

A Plantation of English settlers took place, 1612–13, east of the River Slaney in County Wexford. The lands were distributed in pockets over various parts of this large area – roughly 1,000 Irish (or Plantation) acres on average were granted to each individual (though some received more). Some of those granted land were: Francis Annesley, Francis Blundell, Richard Cooke, Lawrence Esmond, Edward Fisher, Adam Loftus, Henry Pierse and George Trevelyan – however, this is just a partial list.

On 23 October 1641, a major Rebellion broke out in Ireland. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell and his English Parliamentarian Army first arrived in County Wexford to deal with the rebels located there. Ferns and Enniscorthy were captured by them near the end of September 1649. Wexford town was sacked by Cromwell and his Army, 11 October 1649 – hundreds of civilians were killed in the process. Cromwell was blamed for the massacre by the people of County Wexford and of Ireland in general. Reports of the numbers killed vary considerably.

New Ross, under the command of Lucas Taffe, surrendered to Cromwell 19 October 1649. Taffe and most of the garrison were allowed to march away as part of the terms of surrender. Taffe also wrote to Cromwell requesting "liberty of conscience as such shall stay" However, Cromwell wrote a noteworthy reply, indicative of what was to come in subsequent years:

"For that which you mention concerning liberty of conscience, I meddle not with any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience you meane a liberty to exercise the masse, I judge it best to use plaine dealing, and to let you know where the Parliament of England hath power that will not be allowed of."

— Oliver Cromwell, 19 October 1649, "Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches", p. 395.

The capture of Ross meant that all of County Wexford was effectively in Cromwell's hands, with the exception of the Fort of Duncannon – which held out until August 1650, before surrendering.

About 1655 the county was mapped under the Down Survey. The county was also covered by the Civil Survey, which was conducted 1654–56 (but which recorded land ownership in 1640–41). These surveys were conducted to aid the confiscation and re-distribution of lands. The lands of the Irish and Anglo-Normans were confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers as payment for their service in the Parliamentarian Army. In other counties Adventurers were alloted lands, but the lands in County Wexford were to go primarily to soldiers. It was only the landowners who were ordered west of the Shannon and who went into exile on the Continent – the ordinary people were allowed to stay on in their homes to serve as tenants for their new landlords. However, many soldiers (though not all) sold their lands almost immediately. Cromwell's death in 1658 meant that some of the grants of land that he had made were cancelled and a small number of the old proprietors were restored to their estates under Charles II. Other beneficiaries were Charles II's supporters, especially those who had helped 'restore' him to the English throne. All this is borne out by the Books of Survey and Distribution. More dispossessions were made when James II was defeated and dethroned, near the end of the 17th century, primarily the lands of his supporters. It was at Duncannon, in the south-west of the county that James II, after his defeat at the Boyne, embarked for Kinsale and then to exile in France.

Also in this century, the first Magpies in Ireland were recorded as having appeared in the County of Wexford about 1676. Robert Leigh, of Rosegarland (near Clongeen), writing 1684 states:

Wolves were very common at the time of Cromwell in Ireland. However, Government rewards offered to kill them and for their capture meant they became very rare within fifty years and extinct in Ireland before the end of the 18th century. The most reliable evidence suggests that Wolves became extinct in County Wexford in the 1730s, and that the last Wolf in Ireland was killed near Mount Leinster in County Carlow in 1786.