County

Perthshire straddled central Scotland, the northern two-thirds forming part of the highlands and the southern third part of the lowlands. This division gave the shire a strategic importance as a frontier zone. Its main town, Perth (also known as St Johnston) lay at the confluence of the valleys of the Rivers Tay and Earn, which formed the major routes into the highlands through the glens, towards the endemically violent and unstable areas of Invernessshire and Argyllshire to the north and west respectively.

Berwickshire, in the south-eastern corner of Scotland, was separated from England only by the River Tweed. Berwickshire’s strategic importance gave it a distinctive, marcher character. The town of Berwick had been in English hands since the middle ages, and although remaining the most important economic centre in the area, it became isolated from the social and political life of the shire. Without its county town, Berwickshire fell under the sway of powerful noble interests, encouraged by a Scottish crown concerned for the security of its southern border.

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. 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.

The four counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Queen’s and Wexford formed the south-east corner of Ireland, but their similarity was geographical rather than social or political in character. Each county represented a different stage in the history of English colonization in Ireland.

Westmeath, Longford and King’s Counties formed the north-western part of the province of Leinster, separated from Connaught by the River Shannon. Low-lying and poorly drained, the land in all three counties was of mixed quality, with good arable and pasture existing between large areas of bog. Commentators differed as to the agricultural worth of the area.

Counties Kildare and Wicklow, to the east and south of Dublin, were very different in geographical and social character. Kildare was a fertile, low-lying county, watered by the upper reaches of the River Barrow, and had long been an integral part of the English Pale. The Fitzgerald family, seated at Maynooth, had dominated the county until the attainder of the 9th earl of Kildare following his rebellion of 1534; thereafter, the Old English gentry had extended their influence, with the Eustaces, Sherlocks and Berminghams becoming prominent. Description of Ireland, 1598 ed. E.

Counties Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon, which formed the northern and eastern part of the province of Connaught, stretching from the River Shannon to the Atlantic, were geographically remote and economically backward in the early modern period. Much of Roscommon was inhospitable - projectors earlier in the century found that even Scottish settlers refused to rent land in some parts of the county. CSP Ire. 1606-8, pp. 9, 131, 146. The surveyors of the mid-1650s dismissed large areas of Sligo and Leitrim as ‘in general coarse and wet’. Civil Survey, x.

The western counties of Galway and Mayo – which contained some of the most mountainous and inhospitable land in the entire island – had never been subjected to the same degree of English settlement as the rest of Ireland, or even the rest of Connaught.

The three counties of Londonderry, Donegal and Tyrone, in the north west of Ulster, included some of the most remote and inhospitable country in Ireland. Donegal, in the west, contained some good land, but also considerable areas of ‘mountain, bog and unprofitable ground’; in the sixteenth century it had been dominated by the O’Donnells, captains of Tyrconnell, who ruled the area from Donegal Castle until their demise in 1607. Description of Ire. Anno 1598 ed. E. Hogan (1878), 29-31; Civil Survey, iii.

Meath and Louth, immediately to the north of County Dublin, were traditionally included in the English Pale. Meath was one of the biggest and most prosperous of the Irish counties, and, as a result, was double-rated in the taxes of the late sixteenth century. Description of Ire. 1598 ed. E.