June 1654: An Ordinance for the Further Encouragement of the Adventurers for Lands in Ireland, and of the Soldiers and other Planters there.

June, 1654

[23 June, 1654.]

What Assessment shall be paid out of Ireland.

His Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging, taking into consideration how much the Honor and Safety of this Commonwealth is concerned in the speedy setling of Ireland; For the further Encouragement of the Adventurers for Lands in Ireland, and of the Soldiery of the Army, and late reduced Forces there in their Plantations; and for the better ease of all the Proprietors of Lands, and all other the Inhabitants of Ireland; doth Ordain, and be it Ordained by His Highness the Lord Protector, by and with the advice and consent of His Council, That from and after the four and twentieth day of June One thousand six hundred fifty and four, for and during the space of five years, from thence next ensuing, there shall be Taxed Assessed and Levyed upon all the Counties, Towns and Places in Ireland, and all the Estates real and personal therein, the several Sums and Proportions hereafter mentioned, and no more; That is to say, for two years, to commence the four and twentieth day of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and four, and ending the four and twentieth of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and six, Ten thousand pounds by the Moneth, for every Moneth during the said Two years.

For one year, commencing the four and twentieth day of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and six, and ending the four and twentieth day of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and seven Twelve thousand pounds by the Moneth for every Moneth during that year.

For one year, commencing the four and twentieth of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and seven, and ending the four and twentieth of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and eight, Thirteen thousand pounds by the Moneth for every Moneth during that year; And for one year, commencing the four and twentieth day of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and eight, and ending the four and twentieth of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and nine, Fourteen thousand pounds by the Moneth for every Moneth during that year, accompting every Moneth as they are in the Assessments in England.

Colledges, Hospitals, Alms-houses, &c. exempted.

Provided, That this shall not extend to charge any Manors, Lands, Tenements, Hereditaments, Rents, or Revenues belonging to any Colledge, Hospital, Alms-house, or given to any charitable or pious use, towards the payment of the several sums and proportions aforesaid, save onely for so much as the said Manors, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments are and shall be respectively worth by the year over and above the Rent and Revenue therefore respectively due and pavable to the said Colledges, Hospitals, Alms-houses, Charitable or pious uses, and every of them respectively.

After the 24 of June, 1659 Assessments in Ireland shall be proportionably with England.

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That from and after the four and twentieth day of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and nine, all publique Assessments, Impositions and Taxations whatsoever, be imposed, taxed and levyed proportionably from all the Inhabitants of England and Ireland, so that whatsoever shall be generally and in most counties charged upon one hundred pounds by the year of Lands, or upon one hundred pounds personal Estate in England, the same and no more shall be charged upon one hundred pounds by the year of Lands, and upon one hundred pounds personal Estate in Ireland respectively, and so in proportion for greater or less sums; and that therein such maner and way of imposing, assessing and levying shall be directed and used, as shall for the time being be directed and used in England.

Lands unplanted exempted.; No Forrage, Billet-money, Free-quarter, &c.

Provided always, and it is Ordained, That during the said five years, no Lands unplanted, unimployed or unmanured, shall (during their being unplanted, unimployed or unmanured) be charged to pay any rate or proportion towards the said monethly tax and assessment hereby ascertained as aforesaid, nor any other publique Tax or Assessment whatsoever. And that no Forrage, Billet-Money, Free-quarter of any sort, Carriage, Carriage-Money, Salt, Caddows, Small Rugs, Bedding, Bedclothes, or any payment or publique Tax, Burthen or Charge whatsoever, for or to the use or in behalf of the State, be layed, assessed or taken from any the Inhabitants, Owners or Occupiers of Lands in Ireland, but according to this Ordinance; And that no Officers or Soldiers quarters be taken, or had in private houses without the consent of the respective Inhabitants but onely when and where there is no other provision for them, and at such time and in such case every Officer and Soldier shall pay a reasonable rate or value for the same; and in default thereof, the Captain or other Officer on the place, immediately commanding the Defaulter or Defaulters, shall pay the same, and is hereby impowered to retain or defalk so much of the pay of every Soldier making default, as he shall pay for him.

Provided, That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Commissioners for the said Assessments, when they shall see cause, to give Order and Directions to any Officers or Soldiers of the Army to quarter upon such person or persons as they shall finde to be in arrear, or shall refuse to pay their assessments, until such person shall pay and satisfie the moneys due for the same.

Liberty to transport horses and other Cattel and goods to Ireland for seven years, without Custom or Excise on security.

And be it further Ordained and Established by the Authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawful to and for all and every the people of this Commonwealth, and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, to export out of England, Scotland, Wales, and every the Dominions of this Commonwealth into Ireland, Horses, Mares, Cattel, Sheep, Housholdstuff, Corn, Victuals. Tools, Instruments, Materials, necessary or useful for Planting, Building, Stocking, Imploying or Improving of Houses, Lands, or other Hereditaments in Ireland, and all other goods necessary or useful for any the purposes aforesaid, at any time during the space of seven years, to be accompted from the four and twentieth day of June, one thousand six hundred fifty and four, without paying any Custom, Subsidy, Excise or Import for the same in England or Ireland, upon sufficient security to be given to the Officers of the respective Ports, in such sort as by former Laws is provided, or hath been accustomed for those that ship and carry goods from Port to Port in England.

The same Custom and Excise in Ireland as in England.

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That the same Custom, Subsidy and Impost, which is now payable in England, for any Commodity, Goods or Merchandize, imported from, or exported into Forein parts, and the same Excise payable upon the Consumption or use of any Commodity in England, and no other, shall be from henceforth imposed, collected, levyed and paid in Ireland according to the respective books of Rates for the Customs and Excise in England, paid by Englishmen, as the same now are or hereafter shall be setled or altered by Act of Parliament.

Quit-Rents remitted for a time.

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every the Quit-rents charged or reserved upon the Lands granted or intended to the said Adventurers and Soldiers, by any former Acts or Ordinance, be remitted and discharged unto every the said Adventurers and Soldiers, their respective heirs and assigns, for five years next ensuing, from the four and twentieth of June, One thousand six hundred fifty and four, and until the Assessments of Ireland be brought into an even proportion with the Assessments of England, as is before expressed and after that time the Adventurers and Soldiers, their Heirs and Assigns shall pay all and every the Quit-rents expressed in one Act of Parliament, Entitled, An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the Rebels in his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland, to their due obedience to his Majesty and the Crown of England, according to the rates for Lands in the respective Provinces.

The State not bound hereby as to the rates of letting lands.

Provided, That this shall not binde up or conclude the State from letting or disposing such Lands in Ireland, as do or shall belong or remain to them, upon such terms as they shall judge advantageous to the Commonwealth.

Satisfaction for Rents, Services, &c. payable out of the lands intended for the Soldiers and Adventures.

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That for and in consideration of every Rent, Service, Charge or Duty, issuing, reserved, charged, due or payable (on or out of the Lands or other the hereditaments granted or intended to or for the said Soldiers and Adventurers, or either of them) to any person or persons, who have duly claimed the same, and according to this Ordinance, shall have the same allowed and ordered and certified. Every Adventurer and Soldier, on or out of whose Lands or Here ditaments the same shall be issuing, reserved, charged, due or payable, shall have set forth, and enjoy to him and his heirs for ever, so much Land in the County of Kildare (according to the acts and values of Adventurers at such measure as was allowed to such person for his adventure, in satisfaction whereof such Lands so charged were allotted unto them) as would have been produced or due for an adventure of such certain sum of money as the purchase or buying out of such Rent, Service, Charge or Duty shall be computed to amount unto, computation being thereof made and certified by such person and persons as shall be authorized by His Highness the Lord Protector with the consent of His Council.

Discharge from Exchequer and other old Rents and Arrears.

And be it also Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every the said Soldiers and Adventurers, their respective Heirs and Assigns, be and shall be for ever freed and discharged of and from all Exchequer, and other old Rents, Pavments and Arrears whatsoever, due or forfeited to the Publique; and their Lands for ever freed and discharged of and from all distresses and seizures concerning the premises.

Time to make claim

And be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That every person, or the Heirs, Executors or Assigns of such person who (upon the three and twentieth day of October, in the year One thousand six hundred forty and one) had any lawful Estate, Right, Title, Interest, Use, Possession, Reversion, Remainder, Office, Annuity, Service, Rent, Common Debt, Charge, or Incumbrance, in, to, or out of any Honors, Castles, Manors, Messuages, Lands, Tenements, Rents, Reversions, Remainders, Uses, Possessions, Offices, Rights, Conditions, or any other Hereditaments of what name or quality soever they be (within the Counties of Eastmeath, Westmeath, Kings County, Queens County, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Antrim, Down, Armagh and Lowth, or any of them) forfeited or any ways deemed, vested, adjudged, or taken to be in the actual and real possession of the late King Charles, his Heirs and Successors, upon or by force of any Act or Acts of Parliament, specified in a Commission under the great Seal of England to Charles Fleetwood Esq., Lieutenant-General of the Army in Ireland, and others, in the year One thousand six hundred fifty and three, or into or out of any Chantry Lands, Lands or Tenements given to superstitious uses, for maintenance of Popish Priests, and Idolatrous Masses, Trentals, Dirges, and the like, or for maintenance of Lazars, and Lazarous people, concealed in the possession and occupation of such person or persons who upon the fourteenth day of July, One thousand six hundred forty and three, or at any time since, was or were in Rebellion, shall on or before the three and twentieth day of October, One thousand six hundred fifty and four, make the truth and reality of such Estate, Right, Title, Interest, Use, Possession, Reversion, Remainder, Office, Annuity, Service, Rent, common Debt, Charge or Incumbrance, appear unto such persons as are appointed for receiving and determining Claims in Ireland, and obtain from them an Order or Certificate of their allowance thereof, and shall cause the same to be sent unto the Register for forfeited Lands, and to be by him annexed to the Survey of those Lands or other the premises, touching which such allowance shall be made: And in default thereof, the said Estate, Right, Title, Interest, Use, Possession, Reversion Remainder, Office, Annuity, Service, Rent, common Debt, Charge or Incumbrance, and every of them, shall be, and the same be hereby discharged, extinct, made null and void.

None shall incur a for feiture by selling or letting lands to any persons comprehended in the Qualifications, but such as shall do it knowingly.

And be it further Ordained and Established by the Authority aforesaid, That no persons shall incur either of the Penalties for or upon Selling, Aliening, or for or upon Letting, Setting or Granting by Lease, any of the forfeited Houses and Lands to any person or persons comprehended in the Qualifications of the Act of Parliament, Entituled, An Act for setling Ireland, but such onely who shall knowingly do the same; And that it shall be lawful to all persons to Let or Grant by Lease, Lands to any persons, who now, or by future Directions or Declaration of State, shall be exempted from Transplantation into Connaught or Clare.

Places returned among the Baronies, or for Baronies, to be deemed as they are returned in the Surveys.

And be it further Ordained and Established by the Authority aforesaid, That all and every City and County, or County of a City, City and Liberties, Town and County, half Barony, Territory, Franchise, Liberty, Parish, Town, Place or Land which is returned among the Baronies, or for or as a Barony (on the abstract of the Surveys, or estimate made concerning the ten Counties appointed for the said Soldiers and Adventurers) shall, as to the Division, Sub-division and enjoyment thereof amongst the said Soldiers and Adventurers, and every of them respectively therein concerned, be deemed and taken to be as the same are returned in the Survey, although the same then were not a Barony, or were in another County, or were a County Franchise or Liberty of it self: And that all Counties, Baronies and Places returned or certified in or by miswritten, mistaken or wrong names, shall be enjoyed by those whose Lots are or shall be on such Counties, Baronies or Places, as if they had been returned or certified by their true and proper names.

Adventurers and Soldiers may enter on places within their lots, if they be not Garisons.; Places being now Garisons, when they shall be dismantled, may be possessed by those in whose lot they fall.

And be it further Ordained, If within six moneths after publication of the late Act, for the speedy and effectual satisfaction of the Adventurers for Lands in Ireland, any Castles, Citadels, Forts, Bulwarks, Rampiers, Blockhouses, or any places of defence (in any of the Towns or Counties appointed for the said Soldiers and Adventurers) were judged and declared by the person or persons therein specified, to be fit and meet to be reserved for the publique safety of the Land, and the service of the Commonwealth (notwithstanding such Judgement and Declaration, and the Proviso in the said Act referring thereunto) the respective Adventurers and Soldiers, their several Heirs and, Assigns, in whose Lots or Proportions any such declared Castle, Citadel, Fort, Bulwark, Rampier, Blockhouse or other place of defence is or shall be, shall or may presently, or at any time hereafter, if the same be not now a Garison, enter upon, have and enjoy the same to him, his Heirs and Assigns; And if the same now be a Garison, and shall hereafter be dismantled, or the Guard of Soldiers withdrawn from the same, then and from thenceforth, it shall and may be lawful to and for such person his Heirs and Assigns, in whole Lot or Proportion the same is or shall be, to enter upon, have and enjoy the same to his and their own use for ever; And that upon the dismantling any such Castle, Citadel, Fort, Bulwark, Rampier, Blockhouse, or place of defence, or the pulling or taking down any part thereof, such person and persons, in whose Lot or Lots the same shall be, shall have and enjoy all and singular the Iron, Lead, Timber, Stones and Materials thereof, to his and their own use, without paying anything for the same: And that no person or persons do or shall convert the same to any other use whatsoever.

Incouragement to Preachers, who shall go into Ireland.

And to the end such godly and able Preachers as are already in Ireland, or shall be willing to transplant themselves thither for the spreading and publishing the knowledge of Christ in that Land, may have due encouragement therein, and a competent provision of maintenance, Be it further Ordained by the Authority aforesaid, That there shall be allowed unto every such person, as having first obtained from the Commissioners for approbation of publique Preachers, such Testimonial as by the Ordinance, Entitled, An Ordinance appointing Commissioners for approbation of publique Preachers, is directed, of his fitness after the four and twentieth of June, One Thousand six hundred fifty and four, transport himself into Ireland, the sum of fifty pounds towards the charge of his transportation, to be paid unto every such person out of the publique Treasury. And that the Commissioners for ordering and managing the Affairs of Ireland for the time being, and such other person and persons as shall hereafter be deputed by His Highness for the Government of that Nation, shall and are hereby required to place every such person in some such Benefice as shall be in the gift of His Highness the Lord Protector [or confirm any Presentation which shall be granted unto such person by the Patron] to the value of One hundred pounds per annum, and in case the same shall not be of that value, then to grant unto such person, such yearly allowance by way of augmentation as shall make up the same to that value, as also to grant such further augmentation as they shall think fit, to any such person, or to any other Preachers now there (whose Living doth not exceed the value of fifty pounds per annum) as they shall finde worthy such augmentation, not exceeding fifty pounds per annum; And all and every such person and persons so by them placed as aforesaid, shall hold and enjoy such Benefice, and all the Houses, Lands, Dues, and Profits of and belonging thereunto, and have such and the like benefit and means for recovery thereof, as if such person had been instituted and inducted according to the Laws in Ireland.