Vanderplas Cork Deeds Descriptive List (Ref. U675)

Goulds, who perhaps may have emigrated following the final loss of their lands and power after 1690.

Administrative & Biographical History

By the end of the 16 th century, the area and the population of Cork City was not much greater than that of medieval times. The City was largely in the hands of a merchant patriciate of Old English descent. Despite some advances by the Reformation, by the early 17 th century, the merchant rulers were once again predominantly Roman Catholic. This was in contrast to the recent Munster plantation settlers who were of the Anglican tradition. The English authorities regarded Cork’s merchant oligarchy with suspicion due to its Catholicism and it was thought to be in league with Gaelic and Catholic forces outside the city. On the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, the leading Catholic families in Cork refused to proclaim James I as king. Lord Mountjoy soon put down what was termed the ‘Recusant R evolt ’ , which was mirrored in other Irish cities. The 17th century was a momentous and turbulent century in the history of both Cork and Ireland. It saw the re-establishment of the power of the crown over Ireland; a power that was now aligned with the Protestantism of the Reformation. It also witnessed the beginnings of the decline of the old Gaelic civilisation. Most historians regard the defeat of the Irish and Spanish forces at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the flight of the Earls in 1607 as watersheds in the history of Ireland. While the civic government of Cork City remained in the hands of the merchant patriciate, the tensions between it and the officials of the crown continued to simmer. Members of the leading Catholic families, such as Meades, Tirrys, Goolds and others were fined for non- attendance at formal religious ceremonies conducted according to the Anglican rite. The James 1 Charter of 1608, while it created the County of the City of Cork which covered a much larger area than the old medieval walled city and suburbs, also retained for the crown the right to poundage, tonnage and customs in the port of Cork. This was a severe financial blow to the merchants of the city. Matters came to a head in 1644, following the 1641 rebellion. In that year it was discovered that some of the leading citizens of Cork had been conspiring with Lord Muskerry, a military commander loyal to the Catholic Confederacy. Lord Inchiquin, in June 1644, then decreed the expulsion of the Irish and Catholic population of Cork from the city. The power of the Old Catholic merchant families, which had dominated the civic life of Cork for centuries, was broken. The forces of the Catholic Confederacy continued to struggle against the English forces, which were themselves riven by the conflict between parliament and the crown in the prelude to the English Civil War. The dispossessed merchants of Cork City were briefly reinstated in 1648 when English forces in Cork declared for the Royalist side. Their reinstatement was short-lived, as they were expelled again in 1649 on the arrival of Oliver Cromwell’s forces. Cork City was under military governance from 1644 to 1656 when Cromwell granted a new municipal charter to the Protestants of Cork City. Further orders expelling the Irish from Cork City were made in 1651 and 1656. The municipal government of the city was to remain firmly in Protestant hands until the reform of the Corporation in the 1840s, apart from a brief period during the reign of Catholic James II (1685-1690) when the Old English