County Dublin

County Dublin formed the hinterland of the Irish capital and was comparable to Middlesex in terms of size and economic dependence on its capital city.1 CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 699. With its good agricultural land and proximity to the markets of Dublin, the county was one of the most prosperous in Ireland, and in the middle ages had become a stronghold of Old English families such as the Fitzwilliams, Barnewalls, Luttrells, Plunketts and Talbots. Their hegemony was challenged in the early seventeenth century by the New English settlers, who used their income as government officials to buy lands close to Dublin, and to lend money to the older families in return for mortgages. For example, by 1641 the extensive estates of the Fitzwilliams of Merrion, which included Donnybrook, Taney, Kilternan and other manors immediately to the south of the city, were entirely in the hands of their New English creditors.2 Civil Survey, vii. 259-62, 273; Irish Statute Staple Bks. 223-5. As yet, political power remained in the hands of the older families, and the MPs elected for the Irish Parliaments of 1634 and 1640 were drawn from the Old English Barnewall and Luttrell families.3 H.F. Kearney, Strafford in Ire. (Cambridge, 1989), 229, 260; McGrath, Biographical Dict. But the gradual erosion of Old English influence in this period had encouraged them to band together in support of the reforms included in the ‘Graces’ presented to Charles I in 1628 and 1641, and it also informed their decision to join the Irish rebellion against English rule in the winter of 1641-2.4 M. Perceval-Maxwell, Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion (Dublin, 1994), 252-4.

The wars of the 1640s and early 1650s had a disastrous impact on County Dublin. The strategic importance of the city of Dublin ensured that the surrounding region experienced periods of intense fighting, and unremitting demands of a large garrison needing food and fodder. Confederate Catholic forces threatened the Irish capital in the winter of 1646-7, and the royalists under the marquess of Ormond besieged the city in the summer of 1649; on each occasion the surrounding area was plundered. Even after the arrival of Oliver Cromwell*, County Dublin remained vulnerable to raids from Irish forces based in the Wicklow Mountains or the midlands, which were difficult to police while the main field army was campaigning in the south of the country.5 Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 33-5. The ability of the county to recover from the war was hampered by heavy taxation. In September 1651 there were complaints from the parliamentary commissioners ‘of the defects and failure of assessments … in this county more than in any’, but within weeks County Dublin was rated at £800 per month, and by the autumn of 1654 this had risen to nearly £1,400.6 ‘Inedited Lttrs.’ ed. Mayer, 178; Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 78; An Assessment for Ire. (Dublin, 1654). The war also brought dramatic changes in land ownership. With the Old English in the Confederate camp, their estates were controlled by the Protestants in Dublin throughout the 1640s, and the Cromwellian invasion made this situation permanent. Under the terms of the adventurers act of 1653 the forfeited estates in the county were reserved for the commonwealth, and were let or granted to supporters of the new regime.7 A. and O. ii. 736, 749-50, 753. The county thus experienced an influx of English soldiers, increased interference from Dublin corporation, and also a strengthening of the ‘Old Protestant’ presence. The revenue commissioners appointed in 1653 were led by the governor of Dublin, Colonel John Hewson* and two leading aldermen, Daniel Hutchinson* and Thomas Hooke; the justices of the peace named in the same year included soldiers, Old Protestants and members of the Dublin corporation; and the assessment commissioners appointed in 1654 were also a mixed bag.8 Eg. 1762, f. 66; TCD, MS 844, f. 139v; An Assessment for Ire.

The elections for County Dublin in the protectorate Parliaments reveal something of the tensions between the different interest groups. On 2 August 1654 the vote was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and the city’s governor, John Hewson, was returned ‘nemine contradicente’.9 HMC Egmont, i. 553. Hewson was by now a major landowner in the county, having been granted the Luttrell estate at Luttrellstown and the Plunkett lands at Dunsoghly earlier in the year.10 14th Rep. of Dep. Keeper of Public Recs. in Ire. (Dublin, 1882), 43; HMC Egmont, i. 548, 550. He was a firm ally of the lord deputy, Charles Fleetwood*, and it might be assumed that his election would have had the support of the army. Yet the indenture shows no direct involvement by the officers in this election. The presiding sheriff was Alderman Richard Tighe*, and the named electors comprised five Old Protestant landowners – Sir Hardress Waller*, Sir Theophilus Jones* and Dr Dudley Loftus*, Robert Perceval of Finglas and Robert Kennedy of Mount Kennedy – alongside a number of long-established Dublin citizens, including five aldermen: Daniel Hutchinson, Thomas Hooke, Peter Wybrants, William Cliff, Charles Foster.11 C219/44, unfol.; P. Little, ‘Irish Representation in the Protectorate Parliaments’, PH xxiii. 343. The unanimity of the electorate, despite the absence of military men, suggests that Hewson was considered too powerful to oppose. The political climate was completely different in August 1656, when the Irish government was under the control of the more moderate figure of Henry Cromwell*. The influence of the city over this election is again apparent, as the recorder of Dublin, John Bysse, was returned in a contested election. His opponents, John Hewson and the former parliamentary commissioner, John Jones I*, tried to swing the vote by asserting they had the backing of Henry Cromwell – an odd claim to make, as both men were bitter opponents of the new regime.12 TSP v. 327; Little, ‘Irish Representation’, 344-5.

Henry Cromwell’s ally, Sir Theophilus Jones, was returned for the third protectorate Parliament of 1659, although the influence of the administration was probably not the deciding factor, as Jones enjoyed considerable prestige as a member of a powerful Old Protestant dynasty, and to this he could add his own status as a landowner in the county, as he had recently acquired the forfeited Lucan estate from the Sarsfield family.13 Irish Census, 1659, 379. After the end of the protectorate, a compromise seems to have been achieved, with the administration choosing one candidate and the Old Protestants the other. In the General Convention of March 1660, Sir Theophilus Jones was once again chosen, this time alongside Sir James Barry, the former second baron of the exchequer, whose father had sat for the city between 1613 and 1641.14 Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 199-200. In the Irish Parliament of 1661-6, the county MPs were the attorney-general, Sir William Domville, and another well-connected Old Protestant local landowner, Sir William Ussher.15 CJI, i. 589.