1577. 12d. Geese, 200, at 3d.; worth 6d. Capons, 160, at 3d.; worth 6d. Chickens, 1,500, d.; worth 14d. "Horse meat: 120 horses kept at hardmeat, having sufficient hay, litter, and glay, with six sheaves of oats double banded for every horse, day and night, for the which the country hath allowance for every horse but after the rate of d. sterling for 126 days beginning primo Octobris, and ending 14to Mayi then [ensuing], 84l. 15s. sterling; against which they esteem the keeping of every one of the saia horses to be worth 4d. sterling, day and night, which amounteth unto 4521. sterling; and so there is clear lost by the country in the keeping of every one of the said horses by the day and night, 3d. sterling, amounting unto over and besides the keeping of them at grass in their best pasture, for the which there is nothing answered nor paid from the 14th of May to the last of September, amounting to the sum of 367. 58. Horse boys: 60 boys keeping all the foresaid horses answereth no more for his two meals per diem but d. sterling;" whereas every several horse boy's two meals by the day are worth 4d. Carts for the carriage of hay, faggots, wood, and coal, with divers other provisions; two carts taken up for the carriage of the Lord Deputy's provisions, with four garrons and two men for every cart, for which there is paid but 28. sterling a day; yet they cannot be hired in any place under 58. a day. Sum total of the money lost by the country in paying the cesses aforesaid, 2,210l. 118. 8d. sterling. III. "A BRIEF CERTIFICATE as well of such GRAIN and BEEVES as hath been taken up in the country towards the victualling of th' army for the year last past 1576, as also the charges of the horse boys there likewise cessed, belonging to the chief officers, captains, and pensioners, togethers with the losses thereof borne by the country, by reason of the sinail prices answered for the same." Similar to the preceding. Sum total of the losses, 4,3391. 138. 9d. sterling. Also, her Majesty's army pay nothing commonly in their travel through the country, but rather receive money of the subjects. They are forced to entertain kerne upon their own charges in sundry times of service. They affirm that they always serve and guard the Pale upon their own charges in the absence of the Lord Deputy. Sum total of all losses, as well for the cesse taken up for the provision of the Lord Deputy's household, as also for the army, 6,600l. 5s. 5d. sterling. *Scilicet, the Lords above mentioned. 1577. IV. "CESSES laid upon IRELAND in the EARL of SUSSEX' 1556.-Grain, 8,000 pecks, lacking one. Beefs, 1,000. 1558.-Grain, 9,3071ccks. Pcefs, 1,240. Porks, 570. 1560.-Grain and oats for the garrisons, 1,9177. [?] pecks. Grain for the Lieutenant's household, 3,700 pecks. Beefs and porks, as before. 1561.-Grain, 5,600 pecks. Beefs, 1,340. Porks, 610. v. To the LORD DEPUTY and the PRIVY COUNCIL in "Showeth your suppliants, the lords, knights, and gentlemen whose names are subscribed, now prisoners in her Majesty's castle of Dublin, that whereas it is declared in a letter written by her Majesty to the Lord Deputy and Council here that the [Lords] of our country now resident in that her realm of England were called before the Privy Council there soon after the exhibiting of their letters of complaint sent to her Highness by Barnaby Skurloge, and the rest sent for that purpose, and that the [Lords] being questioned withal, did confess and declare that cesse hath been used and accustomed to be taken within this realm by the Governor with the assent of the Council and nobility of the same upon necessity for her Majesty's garrison, and also that they thought him to be no good subject that would withstand the same. And it is also contained in the said letter that the said messengers hath humbly submitted them to her Majesty and confess to be in error for holding opinion to the contrary; and that also her Majesty willed that those whose names were subscribed unto the said letter should be punished for withstanding and repugning her Royal prerogative, like as her Majesty had there committed those that carried the same letters from hence, as more at large in the said letter appeareth. Whereupon your suppliants being called before your Honours here, and committed to her Majesty's said castle for subscribing of the said letters and sundry times examined severally and some of them, as the [Lords] of Howthe and Trymleston, with other gentlemen, being put in close prison, they all have there remained these ten days." To appease her Majesty's ill opinion of them, they humbly submit themselves to her in such sort and ample manner as their * Sussex was not Lieutenant or Deputy of Ireland in this year. 1577. p. 152. p. 151 a. agents there have done, beseeching your Honours to be mean to her Highness for recovering her favour, and to be petitioners with them to her Majesty for relief of this poor country, now brought into great decay, and also for the enlargement of their factors there; and in the meantime to take order for your suppliants' discharges. Signed: Rowland Baltinglas, Trymleston, Delvyn, Lavallen Nugent, Christopher Howthe, Edward Plunkett, William Sarcefield, Richard Myseett, Patrick Nangle, Oliver Plunkett, F. Nugent, William Talbott.* VI. "QUESTIONS to be RESOLVED by BARNABY SCURLOOCKE, RICHARD NETTERVILE and HENRY BURNELL, sent hither by the Lords of the Pale to seek redress for the burthen of the cesse." (1.) Whether her Majesty's Deputy, with the advice and assent of the nobility and Council there, has not of long time used to make cesse of victual at reasonable prices, for provision of the Deputy's house, and the furniture of the whole garrison of that realm. (2.) Whether they do find themselves aggrieved with the cesse or with the [manner] of exacting the same, or with both, or with any other thing thereto belonging. (3.) Whether the Deputy did not offer to reform the disorders in the levying of the said cesse. (4.) Whether when they complained to the Deputy that every plowland was charged with 91., he did not offer to discharge them for 5 marks the plowland. (5.) Whether the soldier is able to find himself with the present pay; and in case he be not, whether they think it not reasonable that the soldier should be victualled at reasonable prices, being employed for their defence. (6.) If they think it reasonable, then what order they think convenient to be taken, whereby the country may be eased, the soldier paying no more than his wages will bear, and the Queen no further burthened. (7.) Whether they find themselves aggrieved with any other thing than the cesse. VII. "The ANSWERS of BARNABY SCURLAKE, RICHARD (1.) Cesse for the garrison has been made by the Lord Deputy and Council for these 29 years, but for the Lord Deputy's house not so long. Whether the one or the other were always made by assent of the nobility we know not. "The prices were always rated as they thought fit that made There is a copy of a similar submission in vol. 623, p. 135. 1577. the cesses, who, for a long time after cesse began, priced things either as the market went, or so nigh the same, as the subject felt no great loss; but now the prices are far otherwise." (2.) With the taking of all such provision as the country is able to spare for furnishing the garrison, we are well contented, so as the prices be reasonable and the payments good. But with cesse, as it is now taken, the country hath good cause to find itself greatly grieved, considering the same hath brought the Pale to more decay than ever coyne and livery did when the same was used. The manner also of exacting cesse is misliked, for that it is not according to the prescript rule of the law, nor by any consent of those whose goods are taken. We cannot here fully declare the abuses depending upon cesse. Since the Conquest until within these few years, it cannot be remembered that the Governor there had cesse for his household. The same also appears to be forbidden by a statute made in that realm in the time of King Henry VI., that there should be no purveyor, harbinger, or avener in Ireland, but that the Governor should pay or agree with those from whom any goods should be taken by his achators. It was also established that all statutes in this behalf made in England should be put in execution in Ireland. (3.) The disorders in levying of cesse are so notorious and public that they cannot be unknown to the Governor, "whom we have often heard offer to reform the same." (4.) Although the plowlands are now charged at least as deeply as ever they were, and with so much as 91. yearly the plowland and upwards, yet upon the Lord Deputy's last repair into Ireland the Council condescended to impose the country with a cesse far greater (if not double as much) as it now bears, in grain and beeves. Accordingly for levying thereof, commissions were directed forth; but the Lord Deputy, upon the exclamation of the country, perceiving the extremity of it, qualified and brought the same to the proportion which the country now bears. "After this, the motion of discharging the plowland for 5 marks being made by his Lordship, the same would not be accepted by the inheritors and owners of the lands for divers reasons. First they suspected that extremity was used with them to draw them to inconvenience, whereunto if they yielded in an extraordinary manner, they foresaw what mischief their posterity lay open unto, being always subject to such devices; and therefore they thought good, leaving private composition, to refer the matter to Parliament, the most lawful and convenient place for compounding and ordering of such causes. Also they saw that the most common rate of plowlands throughout those shires that bare cesse was but six score acres, unto which rate also they understood, by report and otherwise, the Lord Deputy intended to bring plowlands. And so where five marks sterling the plowland amounted well nigh to 9d. the acre of 1577. that country money, the acre in most, or at least in many places, being letten for 12d. by the year; the landlord by this means should become not only a bare freeholder of his own land, but also should have left him but 3d. rent out of an acre by the year. Further they foresaw that the country itself yielded no money nor corn:* and therefore it was likely that in time corn and cattle, the principal things which the country breedeth and bringeth forth to bear charges withal, would grow so cheap as it would become little worth, and so would the payment of five marks be as chargeable as their present burthens are. "There have been muttered abroad devices that carried shows of more ease to the country than the payment of five marks, as 2d. or 1d. out of every acre, which is an old device invented long sithens by one that wrote of the reformation of that realm, yet hitherto not put in execution, nor presently liked of by the country; not for that they are unwilling to contribute towards the ease of her Majesty, but for that they would both have whatsoever charge they bear to run upon their goods or persons, and not upon their inheritance; and also that they would have their burthens not to rest in discretion, but to be grounded upon law." (5.) If the horseman's entertainment be but 9d. Irish by the day and the footman's 8d., they are not then able to find themselves. Notwithstanding we think it reasonable that they be victualled, but at reasonable prices, having regard as well of the ability of the country as to the quantity of their pay, for otherwise the victualling of 1,000 soldiers may destroy 10,000 subjects, each one able to serve a soldier's stead being well used, as the present manner of victualling by cesse in Ireland has done already. (6.)" We think it none otherwise reasonable than as before we have declared. And as for easing of the country, the soldier to pay no more than his wages will bear, and the Queen's Majesty to be no further burthened than now she is, we can devise no better order to be taken for that purpose than to increase the soldier's pay, as we have set forth in the notes which we last delivered unto your Honours, by following of which way her Highness shall be at less charge than now she is said to be at, as may be gathered (besides the matters in the said notes disclosed) by this also, that the victualling of the soldiers hitherto by cesse hath stood the Queen's Majesty yearly in exemptions (as the victuallers term them), viz., freights, venture, carriage, wastes, stowage, buildings, vessels, reparations, and sundry other things to a far greater sum than this increase of pay amounteth unto, as appeareth by sundry victuallers' accompts which some of us hath seen. At this present also, a great part of the garrison (if not all) have allowed them in place of |