Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/374

 would be consulted previously to any estates being given away. The confusion of the times often cut short the existence of parliaments, so that there was no time for going through all the stages of a bill, which otherwise might have been sure to pass both houses. In the parliament that began on 22d October 1691, a bill passed the House of Commons, and was in 1692 laid on the table of the House of Lords, “to vest the forfeited estates in Ireland in their Majesties, to be applied to the uses of the war,” which bill “reserved to their Majesties one-third part of the forfeitures, to be disposed and given to such military officers and soldiers (as their Majesties should think fit) who actually served in the wars in Ireland in person there, and to no other person or persons whatsoever” (Parliament had nothing to do with the royal estates which King James had been in possession of). This being therefore the law that seemed certain to be passed in due time, King William took the management of the forfeitures, and gave grants of land in custodiam, that is, nominal leases, followed by annual releases from the payment of rent. In the course of years, on the ground that the House of Commons seemed to have no suggestions to offer, the king converted the custodiam grants into absolute grants. So Lord Galway received the Portarlington Estate, first in custodiam in 1693, and afterwards absolutely on the 26th June 1696, as appears from the Irish Patent Rolls, Grants to Henry, Viscount Galway. The proprietor who had forfeited the estate was Sir Patrick Trant of Brannockstoune, as he styled himself; the lands of Brannockstoune, in the county of Kildare, being probably favourite ones, originally the property of Sir John Eustace, who had mortgaged them to Sir Patrick. The Portarlington Estate had been so named by Lord Arlington. The original lands of the Trants were probably in county Kerry. The grant to Lord Galway calls the whole domain “the Lands of Ballybrittas and others.”

This grant of land, though large, cannot be called lavish. Luttrell states that it was worth £3000 a yeer. What had been the estate of a knight would not appear to be a prodigal settlement on a peer. The author of “Memoirs of Ireland” (page 185) states that John Trant, Sir Patrick’s son, “by the encouragement of some Tories near King William, came to England to solicit for his estate, which had been granted to the Earl of Galway; but he was baulked in his expectations, and his friends could do him no service. Upon which he went to the Earl of Galway and represented to him the want he was reduced to, being kept out of his estate by his lordship. The Earl, whose humanity gained him the love of all that knew him, said in answer, I owe the estate I hold to His Majesty’s bounty, in consideration of my service in this kingdom. I had a much better estate in France which was taken from me. I doubt not your interest with the king of France, and you may very readily get out of that French estate an equivalent for this Irish one.”

I give from the Irish Patent Rolls an abridged catalogue of the Estate. The different lots are described either as “lands” or “town and lands” (the word “town” meaning simply a house and farm-buildings). Where &c. is added, a number of other names are implied, for which the reader may search in the Patent Rolls of the Irish Public Record Office. The acres are Irish — and an Irish is to an English acre as 92 to 149. Throwing profitable and unprofitable acres into one sum, we find the total to be about 36,068 Irish, or 58,414 English acres. If we deduct the unprofitable, there remain 23,985 Irish, or 38,845 English acres.