Ulster plantation

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In Irish history, the confiscation and resettlement, in 1609, of the Ulster counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Derry, Fermanagh, and Tyrone by the English government after the Flight of the Earls. Provided with lots of 2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres as determined by government surveyors, the English and Scottish undertakers (those accepting grants of land) were also burdened with unrealistically heavy obligations relating to the settlement, development, and defence of their holdings. Delays in preparing the territory for occupancy, coupled with disputes among prospective settlers and government officials, accentuated these difficulties. Harsh treatment of native freeholders whose existing rights were frequently overridden by the new grants ensured an extremely hostile reception for the newcomers.

By the mid-1620s the progress of the official plantation was inconsiderable as undertakers frequently defaulted on their obligations, particularly in regard to the matter of removing native tenants. By then, however, independent migrations from England and especially from Scotland were rapidly creating patterns of settlement far different from the intentions of the original planners. Interspersed pockets of English, Scottish, and native Irish settlements were thus emerging within the planted territories. This situation was to prove explosive by 1641 and thereafter laid the basis for the chronic sectarian problems of the province as a whole.

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