IRISH PARLIAMENT: CHARLES II - Anno 14/15. An Act for the Better Execution of his Majesties Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the several...

IRISH PARLIAMENT: CHARLES II - Anno 14/15. An Act for the Better Execution of his Majesties Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of his Kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the several Interests of Adventurers, Souldiers, and other his Subjects there - Dublin: Printed by John Crook, 1662. Folio. Wing I 309A. The rebellious Irish Catholics “being represented in a general assembly chosen by themselves, and acting by a council called by them the supreme council of the confederate Roman Catholicks of Ireland, did first assume, usurp and exercise the power of life and death, make peace and war, levie and coin money, and many other acts of soveraign authoritie .... by all the said ways disowning and rejecting your royal father and your majesties undoubted right to this kingdom.” This eighty-nine page Act then goes on to detail reaction to the king’s declaration for the settlement of Ireland which put paid to Catholic hopes of a fair deal with its emphasis on the rebellion of 1641: “Forasmuch as the rapines, depredations and massacres committed by the said Irish and popish rebels and enemies, are not only well known to this present parliament, but are notorious to the whole world; notwithstanding the many means and artifices, which for many years together, have been used to murther such witnesses, suppress such evidences, and also to vitiate and imbezle such records and testimonies, as might prove the same against particular persons.” The clinching argument against concession was put in the following terms: “And lastly, for that the said rebels, since their throwing off your royal fathers and your majesties government, are become subdued and conquered enemies, and have justly forfeited all their rights.” It is no cause for wonder that these pieces of Restoration legislation were to be labelled “the Black Acts” by future nationalist historians. Sweeney A295. BOUND WITH IRISH PARLIAMENT: CHARLES II - Anno 17/18. An Act for the Explaining of some doubts arising upon an Act for the better Execution of His Majesties Gracious Declaration for the Settlement of His Kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the several interests of adventurers Souldiers, and other his Subjects there, and for making some alterations of and additions unto the said Act for the more speedy and effectual settlement of the said Kingdom - Dublin: Printed by John Crook, 1665. Folio. Wing I 316B. A one-hundred-and-one-page document attempting to elucidate “several doubts and difficulties [that] have arisen partly from the uncertain and ambiguous penning of divers clauses in the said act: & partly from other accidents which could not then be foreseen”; suggesting that unless remedied, the implementation of the settlement of Ireland could not be brought to a proper conclusion. Sweeney A307. BOUND WITH IRISH PARLIAMENT: A compleat index to the Act of Settlement and to the explanatory Act of Settlement - Dublin: Printed by John Crook, 1666. Folio. Thanks to some splendid paper repair work on the part of the late Miss Dyson, conservator to the Chester Beatty Library, this was transformed into a very satisfactory set bound in modern half calf. Wing C 5641A. A valuable adjunct to the so-called “Black Acts” which determined land ownership in Ireland in such substantial measure down to the 20th century. Sweeney 2496.

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