|
1630
Muster Rolls
During
the early seventeenth century when British colonists
were settling in Ulster under the Plantation of Ulster,
landed estates were required to muster tenants for
defence when areas were under threat from the native
Irish. Early musters simply stated the number of men
on estates bearing arms. The best Muster Rolls were
drawn up c.1630 [PRONI: D/1759/3C/3] and these contain
the names of adult males bearing or capable of bearing
arms.
Within
the newly formed county of Londonderry there are lists
of names for all of the companies except the Skinners'
and the Salters' companies. The
names for the Goldsmiths' company are included with
those for the City of Londonderry. 1931 adult males
were listed for the entire county and are listed in
the database below. The muster rolls show that at
this time many of the tenants on estates within the
county were English or Welsh. The greatest concentration
of Scots was to be found on the Haberdashers' and
Clothworkers' estates in the north of the county and
also in the City of Londonderry - read
more.
Although
Co. Antrim was not part of the official Plantation
landlords there were expected to muster tenants for
defence. North Antrim (baronies of Cary, Dunluce and
Kilconway) was owned by the MacDonnells whose chief
had become the Earl of Antrim. Within the Barony of
Toome there are Muster Rolls for the Adair Estate
held by the Adair family and the Galgorm Estate held,
at that time by a Mr Edmonston who also held lands
in South Antrim..
The
Adair and Edmonston Estates in the Barony of Toome
were dominated by lowland Scots. Within the Earl of
Antrim's estate the three baronies were regarded as
different kinds of areas. Cary barony was described
in the Muster Rolls as Native Lands i.e. an area set
aside mainly for Highland Scots who were loyal to
the MacDonnells. Dunluce barony was an area set aside
mainly for English and Lowland Scots who had been
encouraged to settle there by the Earl of Antrim.
Kilconway barony was an area set aside for servitors
and the Irish. The
number of names listed in each barony reflect the
predominance of loyal British tenants in the Barony
of Dunluce. Of the total 849 names listed for the
four baronies - 520 were located in the barony of
Dunluce, 88 were located in Cary, 79 in Kilconway
and 162 in Toome. These
are included in the database below. If
you have not already done so you should read the paper
on Databases
before searching the databases.
| 1630
Muster Rolls for the Baronies of Cary, Dunluce,
Kilconway and Toome, Co. Antrim |
Excel |
PDF |
| 1630
Muster Rolls for the County of Londonderry |
Excel |
PDF |
|