Publications | Down Survey | 2000 Issue Contents

From monastic to secular
An anatomy of two early modern estates in south-east Ulster and north Louth: the Bagenals in Newry and the Carlingford region and the Cromwells in Lecale

ASK Abraham

Much of the historiography of sixteenth and early seventeenth century settlement in Ulster has inevitably focused on the acquisition of land from native Irish lords by English and Scottish settlers. Comparatively little attention has been given to the extensive amount of land released by the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536-1541. Much of this property found its way into the hands of settlers, either by purchase or royal grant, and sometimes formed the core of landed estates. This was particularly true in south-east Ulster where former monastic property comprised the basis of the estates of Sir Nicholas Bagenal at Newry in the mid-sixteenth century and of Edward, Lord Cromwell, in Lecale in the early years of the seventeenth century. It is the purpose of this brief article to illustrate the processes by which the Bagenals and Cromwells built up their estates and how they enhanced their monastic property with the acquisition of crown estates and by purchasing land from the native Irish.

Relatively little is known about the early life of Nicholas Bagenal other than he was a son of John Bagenal, a member of a prosperous merchant family and mayor of Newcastle- under-Lyme in Staffordshire on several occasions between 1519 and 1533. In his early years Nicholas may have profited from the aristocratic patronage of the Dukes of Northumberland who were prominent in Staffordshire, but his first appearance in Ireland is in fairly nefarious circumstances when he was pardoned for murder in 1542. Although the exact details are obscure, it seems that Nicholas fled England and sought refuge in Ireland after having killed someone in a brawl. It may be the case that the O'Neills in Ulster gave Nicholas protection, because he evidently fought for them as a mercenary and it was probably Conn 'Bacach', first Earl of Tyrone, who engineered a pardon for Nicholas from the Lord Deputy.' However, the Bagenals also had family links with the Irish government as Sir Patrick Bamewall, the Master of the Rolls in Dublin, was married to a kinswoman of Nicholas. This connection may help to explain how Nicholas was recommended for military service in France in 1544. On his return to Ireland in 1547 he was appointed Marshal of the Army in Ireland,2 an important and influential position which provided him with wide-ranging powers in the army as well as affording him much political and social influence. This powerful position evidently provides the background for Nicholas' eventual acquisition of substantial estates in south Down and north Louth.

Even though evidence is meagre and difficult to correlate, Nicholas Bagenal appears to have established a keen interest in this area during the late 1540s and may, in fact, have been residing there. In June 1549 he wrote to Lord Deputy Bellingham detailing discussions he had had with Lord Louth, the Bellews and other Louth gentry who had agreed to send labourers to Newry for building works.3 In the same letter he also drew attention to the dilapidated condition of the royal castles at Carlingford and Greencastle. Nicholas evidently saw the strategic value of Newry and Carlingford in establishing royal control in Ulster and in defending the northern Pale against the O'Neills, but he also clearly recognised that the area offered opportunity for his own personal profit in the form of landed wealth. This perception is confirmed by correspondence dating from July 1550 in which we leam that Nicholas Bagenal had purchased the lease of the Dominican Priory at Carlingford from Martin O'Kryne (Scryne) and wished to have the lease renewed in his own name as well as a lease on the estates of the former Cistercian Abbey at Newry.4 The abbey at Newry had been converted to a collegiate church in 1543 at the request of Arthur Magennis of Rathfriland who obviously had an interest in its estates. However, in May 1548, John Prowie, warden of the college, surrendered the college and its property to the Crown.5 The date of the surrender of the college at the same time as Nicholas Bagenal was establishing an interest in the area might well signal Bagenal's influence in the surrender of the college. Nicholas' request for a lease on the Carlingford and Newry properties was met and he was to hold the Newry estates at an annual rent of £30 11s 8d.6

In late 1550, Nicholas Bagenal's already-prominent status in Ireland was enhanced further by his appointment to the Privy Council and his knighting by Sir James Croft, the Lord Deputy, in 1551.7 In April 1552, Sir Nicholas' position in south Down and north Louth was also reinforced by a royal patent which not only granted him the lands of the abbey of Newry and priory at Carlingford, but also granted him the royal manors of Carlingford and Greencastle along with the Lordship of Moume (see Map 3).8 These latter estates had probably been effectively in Sir Nicholas' hands since the late 1540s. Also included were lands centred on the townland of Grange in north Armagh which had belonged to the abbey of Newry in the medieval period. All of these estates were to be held by knight's service, meaning that Sir Nicholas was a military tenant of the king. At some point after receiving this patent, Sir Nicholas also purchased land in the barony of Orior in south Armagh from the O'Hanlons.9 The circumstances surrounding this purchase and the exact date are unknown but it may have been an attempt by Sir Nicholas to bolster his position on the west side of his Newry estates. In 1568 Sir Nicholas purchased land in Killowen from Donald and James McYawne.10 Again the circumstances of this purchase are not apparent and the seven townlands involved are located along the south coast of the parish of Kilbroney (see Map 2).

An interesting and eclectic range of documentation has survived allowing us to identify the extent of the estates acquired by Sir Nicholas Bagenal and to glimpse their internal organisation. One group of documents, the 1540-1 survey of crown lands in Ireland, an inquisition into the lands held by the college of Newry taken after its surrender in 1549, and Sir Nicholas' patent of 1552 provide some indication of the extent of the lands acquired by Sir Nicholas in 1552. The 1549 inquisition, in particular, provides valuable information on the settlement in existence at Newry itself at this time. At the time of the inquisition the buildings of the original Cistercian abbey were still standing and had presumably housed the college. They consisted of a 'church, steeple, and cemetery, chapter- house, dormitory and hall, two orchards and one garden, containing one acre, within the precincts of the college'. Adjoining the claustral buildings were seventy-two messuages and cottages." As for the survey of crown lands, although prepared in 1540-41 it arguably furnishes a reasonably good idea of the structure and organisation of the manor of Carlingford and the Lordships of Moume (and Greencastle), Omeath and Cooley at the time of Bagenal's arrival in the area. They suggest that much of the Cooley peninsula including Omeath had suffered detrimentally from Irish incursions, particularly from the O'Hanlons, Magennises and O'Neills, and a large proportion of the land was waste. This was also the case on the northern side of Carlingford Lough where the castle at Greencastle was ruined and in decay.12

A unique and valuable insight into how Sir Nicholas Bagenal developed these estates is provided by a rent roll for his estate (with the exception of those lands he had purchased from the Irish) dating from 1575. The rental begins with a detailed rental of the town of Newry setting out the names of the tenants in The High Street', 'Tenements within the Fort' and The Irish Street without the Fort'.13 A map of the town, which may also date from about 1575, also shows these three divisions together with a pictorial representation at the 'New Castle' which appears to be a three-storey tower-house.14 A castle is also mentioned in the 1575 rental.

We have already noted that the buildings of the Cistercian abbey of Newry were still surviving at the time of Sir Nicholas Bagenal's grant of Newry. It is traditionally believed that he resided in the abbot's dwelling of the old monastery15 and it is quite conceivable that such a dwelling was a tower-house. Several years ago the substantial remains of a building similar to that depicted on the 1575 map and comparable to a series of contemporary architectural plans,16 were discovered in Newry. However, without closer archaeological investigation of the remains, it is impossible to know if they represent part of the claustral buildings of the medieval abbey or a completely new tower-house erected by Bagenal. The existence of the architectural plans, very rare for this period in Ireland, may indicate the latter. The rental also illustrates how far Sir Nicholas had developed his lands in the Lordships of Greencastle and Moume, Carlingford, Cooiey and Omeath. Although much land is recorded as waste, large tracts of land comprised valuable arable and pasture with significant amounts of woodland also being utilized. Judging by the surnames of Sir Nicholas' tenants in this area, there was a mixture of native Irish and Anglo-Irish. For instance, junior branches of the influential Anglo-Irish Dowdall, Seagrave and White families are found among the tenants in Cooiey while the tenants in Moume are mostly Irish.17

After the death of Sir Nicholas Bagenal in 1590 his son, Sir Henry Bagenal, not only inherited his estates but was also appointed as his successor as Marshal of the Army. Sir Henry played an active and prominent role in the Nine Years War and was killed at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598. After Sir Henry's death his son, Arthur, became the ward of Sir Patrick Barnewall and subsequently married Magdalen, the daughter and co-heiress'of Richard Trevor of Trevallyn in Wales. This marriage further enhanced the Bagenal family's Welsh estates as they already held land near Bangor in north Wales, as a result of the marriage of Sir Nicholas Bagenal to the daughter of Sir Edward Griffith.18 Although Arthur Bagenal received a patent for his Irish estates in 1613 which included the estates as discussed above,19 it appears that the Trevor family which had settled in Rostrevor, came to control the estates and dominate the region increasingly during the early seventeenth century. In 1606 Arthur granted his estates in trust to Sir John Flyde and John Trevor, his father-in-law.20 However, Arthur Bagenal continued to attempt to consolidate and safeguard his estates and influence in south Down. During the 1630s Arthur and his wife became involved in a dispute with the government regarding jurisdiction over various parishes in south Down which they unsuccessfully claimed as their right as part of the grant given to Sir Nicholas Bagenal in 1552.21 Arthur died in 1637 with the wardship of his son and estates being granted to John Trevor. His son Nicholas appears to have been more involved in his Welsh estates and, on his death in 1703, his Irish and Welsh estates passed to his cousins, Robert Needham and Edward Baylie.22 Unlike Sir Nicholas Bagenal, Edward, Lord Cromwell, who established himself in Lecale in the early 1600s, came from an aristocratic background. Bom in about 1559, he was the son of Henry, Lord Cromwell, and his wife Mary, daughter of John Paulet, Marquis of Winchester. His great-grandfather was Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's famous Principal Secretary and Chancellor. After a period at Cambridge, Edward sought a military career serving under the Earl of Essex in France in 1591 and again in the 1593 expedition against Spain. On the death of his father in 1593, Edward succeeded to his father's estates and title.23

Although the Cromwell estates in England are not well documented, the family seems to have held land in Devonshire, Leicestershire and Norfolk. Although Lord Cromwell appears to have held an influential position in local society in both Devonshire and Norfolk, throughout the 1590s he was plagued by various economic and financial difficulties and, by 1601, had sold most of his estates for £10,000 to help pay his debts.24

Cromwell's growing economic difficulties were also undoubtedly exacerbated by his failure to attain lucrative public office and an influential position at court where he had been unable to find favour with Robert Cecil, the son of Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's new Chief Secretary.25 Against this seemingly barren background of a deteriorating financial position and limited prospects in England, Cromwell looked to military service in Ireland as an alternative avenue of reviving his fortune. In 1598 he wrote to Cecil requesting employment under the Earl of Essex in Ireland.26 Evidence detailing Cromwell's military involvement in Ireland is extremely sparse but what has survived suggests that he played a fairly significant role and was a close associate of Essex. He had a command of four companies at Dundalk and in August 1599 he is found endorsing a report sent by Essex to the Privy Council.27
Notwithstanding his apparent success in Ireland, Cromwell was recalled to England and cashiered when Essex was recalled in August 1599. Cromwell's dissatisfaction and frustrated ambition eventually led him, along with a number of other similarly disaffected aristocrats and gentry, to provide support for Essex in his ill-fated revolt in January 1600. Although arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, Cromwell was fortunate enough to be released and pardoned after trial in March 1600 and fined £3,000.28

In the aftermath of the Nine Years War and the surrender of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in March 1603, Cromwell recognised the potential to carve out a fortune for himself which was afforded by the government's continued attempts to establish royal control in Ulster. After the accession of James VI and I, Lord Cromwell was appointed to the Privy Council and was, therefore, in an ideal position to benefit from opportunities provided by government policy in Ireland. Furthermore, by using his initiative and the contacts he had established during his military service in Ireland, he was able to take advantage of the active land market in early seventeenth-century county Down. He was able to capitalize on the financial difficulties of the native Irish lords there as well as doing business with fellow settlers and government ministers. It is against such a background that we must assess Lord Cromwell's acquisition of a landed estate in Lecale in the early years of the seventeenth century.

Due to a shortage of evidence, the chronology and finer details of the acquisition of land by Lord Cromwell in Lecale are opaque. However, by late 1605 he had acquired land which can be divided into three categories: the former estates of the medieval religious houses in Downpatrick and Lecale, the castle ofDundmm which had formerly been crown estate, and part of the Irish lordship of Kinelarty which he bought from the McCartans. One principal difference between Cromwell's method of acquisition and that of Sir Nicholas Bagenal is that Cromwell purchased all of his land while Bagenal received a large proportion of his by royal grant.

Although the estates of the religious houses in Lecale had been leased to William St. Leger and John Parker in 1552, they were granted to the Earl of Kildare in 1541.29 The details of the grant to Kildare have not survived but the estates reverted to the crown on the death of the earl in 1585. His wife Mabel was allowed to hold a rent from them for her life, an arrangement which seems to have caused Lord Cromwell and eventually Thomas, his heir, some difficulty.30

In August 1603, the ecclesiastical estates in Lecale were granted to Sir John Graeme, a Privy Councillor of James I, who in turn 'assigned' his interest in the land to John King.31 Letters patent dated 5 August 1603 were enrolled granting John King the reversions of the six monastic houses in Lecale in addition to various other estates in the four Pale counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath and Westmeath.32 The lands as listed in the patent differ little from those listed in the 1552 lease to St. Leger and Parker and comprise the property of the Cistercian Abbey at Inch, the Benedictine Priory at the Cathedral of Down, the Augustinian Priory of St. John and St. Thomas, the Priory of St. John the Baptist (Fratres Cruciferi), the Franciscan Friary and the Augustinian Monastery at Saul. Land held in Lecale by the monasteries at Bangor and Greyabbey in north Down were also included in this grant. At an unknown date, King sold these lands to Lord Deputy Mountjoy (the Earl of Devonshire) who subsequently sold them to Lord Cromwell.33 Documentation detailing either of these transactions has not survived making it difficult to be certain as to what date Cromwell purchased them, especially in the light of Cromwell never receiving a patent for his property. However, two pieces of related evidence would suggest that Lord Cromwell had purchased these estates before September 1605.

First, early in September 1605, Cromwell purchased the castle and lands at Dundrum and a third part of the lordship of Kinelarty lying to the north and south-west of Lecale respectively from Phelim McCartan and Donell oge McCartan.34 Under the government's policy of surrender and re-grant whereby Irish landholders surrendered their estates in return for a re-grant of their land from the crown as a feudal fief, both Cromwell and McCartan surrendered their portions of Kinelarty on 23 September 1605. Both parties received a re-grant of their lands on 4 October 1605 but under the terms of the new grant, each received a moiety (or half) of the lordship, meaning that Cromwell had increased his share.35 Each portion was to be held by knight's service. The castle and lands of Dundrum are not mentioned in the new grant, possibly because Dundrum was originally crown land and, therefore, technically exempt from the terms of surrender and re-grant.

Secondly, in September 1605 Lord Cromwell was also appointed governor and commander of 'all the country of Lecale, McCartan's country, the tower and castle of Dundrum, and the borders of them, in the county of Down' .36 Although this appointment does not implicitly indicate that Cromwell had acquired land in the area by that date, it suggests the likelihood of it being so. Furthermore, it seems more logical that Cromwell would have purchased a portion of Kinelarty after he had acquired the more extensive ecclesiastical estates. The purchase of Kinelarty may have been an attempt to consolidate his position along the northern borders of Lecale.

The surviving evidence appears to suggest that there was some controversy regarding Lord Cromwell's tenure of the former monastic estates, especially after the death of the Earl of Devonshire at the beginning of April 1606. By the end of that year Cromwell had sought the king's support in his right to these lands as he had 'found difficulty and opposition since the Earl's death.'37 Furthermore, after the death of Lord Cromwell on 24 September 1607 and, probably taking advantage of the minority of Thomas, Cromwell's heir, Gerald, 12th Earl of Kildare claimed a share in his estates and requested an inquisition to establish the rightful heir. The inquisition upheld the rights of Thomas Cromwell and he was ordered to pay a livery of £100.38

The predacious behaviour of the Earl of Kildare was only one of the problems which faced Lord Cromwell's widow and his heir after his death. In the days immediately following his death, Lady Cromwell took steps to secure their position and wrote to Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy, informing him of their precarious situation. Emphasising their disadvantageous financial position - their lands were only worth £200 per annum and subject to the rent held by the Countess of Kildare - she requested that her husband's allowance of 10s per day for the body of soldiers in his command be continued to her son. More significantly, she asked for the wardship of her son who was now the king's ward.39

Thomas, Lord Cromwell, did not receive a patent for his father's lands until August 1617 and his patent provides the first proper picture of the lands held by the Cromwells in Lecale.40 The patent first mentions the manor and castle of Dundrum and its associated townlands followed by the lands of the six monastic houses listed as they were in the patent given to John King in 1603. Lord Cromwell's portion of Kinelarty is mentioned but is not listed in detail.

A systematic analysis comparing the property listed in the 1552 lease, the 1549 inquisition, and the early seventeenth-century patents are outside the confines of this article, but a few comments can be made. First, there are only minor differences in the lands listed in these documents suggesting that they may have been copied from each other. Any differences relate mainly to variations in spelling and aliases of place-names. Secondly, land units appear to be defined in a combination of native Irish and feudal terminology as far as the former ecclesiastical lands are concerned: each land unit is defined either as a camcate or a ballyboe and on some occasions these terms appear to be used synonymously. Interestingly, each of the land units comprising Cromwell's share of Kinelarty are described as a 'quarter', the intermediate Irish landholding unit between the larger ballybetagh and the smaller ballyboe. Map 2 illustrates how the estates in Kinelarty complemented the former monastic estates on the northern side while the manor of Dundrum consolidated Cromwell's estates on the south-west.

Even though Cromwell had established himself in Lecale by 1617 and was created Viscount Lecale in 1624, he was, like his father, continually plagued by debt. As a privy councillor and a member of the English House of Lords, he was also frequently absent from his estates, a situation which led to problems with effective estate management.4' Cromwell attempted to redress his financial problems by making a number of leases and mortgages on his lands in Lecale. In June 1626, for example, he leased or 'farme lett' the manor of Downpatrick for one year to a number of English landholders in Hampshire and Staffordshire, including his wife's grandfather Sir Thomas Fleming, the Lord Chief Justice.42 Sir Thomas Fleming, along with Philip Fleming and Henry, Earl of Southampton, again received a lease from Cromwell in 1636 for part of Kinelarty.43 In October 1633 Cromwell leased to Robert Echlin, bishop of Down, the ferry and fishing in the Marshes in consideration of a loan of £1,000. However, these measures did little to stave off Cromwell's problems and by 1642 his debts amounted to £3,500.44

Cromwell was created Earl ofArdglass in 1645 and died in 1653. The Cromwells continued to hold their estates in Lecale until 1703 when Elizabeth, daughter and heiress ofVere Essex Cromwell, fourth Earl of Ardglass, married Edward Southwell, Secretary of State for Ireland, to whom the estates passed.45

This brief overview of the main processes involved in the creation of the estates of Sir Nicholas Bagenal and Edward, Lord Cromwell, in south-east Ulster has served to highlight several discemable patterns behind early modem settlement is this area. Even though Bagenal and Cromwell acquired their estates by slightly different means, each of these estates was primarily based on extensive former monastic property enhanced by royal land and control of a significant royal castle. Both landholders also complemented their estates by the purchase of land from neighbouring native Irish lords as a means of strengthening their position both territorially and politically. We can deduce from these observations the fundamental influence of the patterns and structure of medieval ecclesiastical and secular landholding on early modem settlement in this particular part of Ulster. This may give us a more perceptive appreciation of the development of landholding in the early seventeenth century.

Dr Ken Abraham is an independent archaeologist and an historian. He is currently preparing his PhD thesis on landed society in later medieval Meath for publication.

Abbreviations
CIPR:JamesI. Calendar of Irish Patent Rolls, James I (Dublin, c. 1830) CPCRI: Calendar of Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, ed. J. Morrin, 3 vols (Dublin, 1861-3) CSPI: Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, ed. H.C. Hamilton, E.G. Atkinson and R.P. Mahaffy, 24 vols (London, 1860-1912). Inq. Ult.: Inquisitionum in officio rotulorum cancellariae Hibemiae asservatarum repertorium, Ultonia (Dublin, 1827)
NLI: National Library of Ireland
PRO: Public Record Office
PRONI: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland