THE SCOT IN ULSTER

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the country at 1,100,000, and calculates that 800,000 were Irish, 200,000 English, and 100,000 Scots,--of course the English were scattered all over Ireland, the Scots concentrated in Ulster. Petty divides the English into "100,000 legal Protestants or Conformists, and the rest are Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and Quakers." He states distinctly that a very large emigration had taken place from Scotland, after Cromwell settled the country in 1652. The power of the Scots must, indeed, have been so considerable and so much feared as to be greatly exaggerated, for it was asserted in Parliament in 1656, that they "are able to raise 40,000 fighting men at any time." [1]

Charles II.'s reign brought many remarkable changes, which had much effect on Ulster as well as on the rest of Ireland. It saw the beginning of the "Regium Donum," the State grant to the Presbyterians. The persecution did not continue as hotly as it was begun in 1661; gradually the Presbyterians recovered a portion of their freedom; gradually their ministers returned. In 1672 the Presbyterian clergy approached the King directly. The good-natured monarch received them kindly, and granted them from the Irish revenues a sum of £1200, to be given annually towards their support. It was the beginning of the State aid to the Irish Presbyterian Church, which continued with a slight interval until put an end to by the Disestablishment Act of 1869. [2] ...continue reading »

[1] Montgomery MSS., p. 65, note.

[2] Reid's History, vol. ii. p. 334.

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Page 84

The Scot in Ulster:
Sketch of the History of the Scottish Population of Ulster

by John Harrison

1888