Down Survey
Encyclopedia
The Down Survey, also known as the Civil Survey, refers to the mapping
of Ireland
carried out by William Petty
, English
scientist in 1655 and 1656.
The survey
was apparently called the "Down Survey" by Petty because the results were set down in maps; ‘admeasurement down’ was used; it is referred to by that name in Petty's will.
, went to Ireland to re-occupy the country following the Irish Rebellion of 1641
. This Cromwellian conquest
was largely complete by 1652. This army was raised and supported by money advanced by private individuals, subscribed on the security of 2,500,000 acres (10,000 km²) of Irish land to be confiscated at the close of the rebellion. This approach had been provided for by the 1642 Adventurers Act
of the Long Parliament
, which said that the Parliament's creditors could reclaim their debts by receiving confiscated land in Ireland.
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
provided for the confiscation and re-distribution of the lands of the defeated Irish, mostly Confederate Catholics
, who had opposed Cromwell and supported the royalists
. Parliamentarian soldiers who served in Ireland were entitled to an allotment of confiscated land there, in lieu of their wages, which the Parliament was unable to pay in full. Lands were also to be provided to a third group, settlers from England and America.
The dispossessed landholders were to be transported to Connaught
and to other countries.
, the Surveyor General
, had made a survey in 1653, which was notoriously erroneous. William Petty, then physician-general to the Irish armies, on a leave of absence from his position as Professor of Anatomy at Brasenose College, Oxford
, pointed out the defects and suggested remedies. He offered to undertake a new survey which would be concluded quickly - within thirteen months, more cheaply than the surveyor-general's proposals, and he would prepare a general map of the country. Despite Worsley's objections, the contract with Petty was signed on December 24, 1654.
provided to measure distances. Skilled cartographers then laid the information collected onto gridded paper at a central office in Dublin.
The method used was one of surveying the boundaries of parish
es, the block of townland
s inside those boundaries was not usually detailed. The scale used was generally 40 Irish perches to an inch (sometimes 80 perches), one perch equalling 21 feet (6.4 m). This land survey method was used widely in rural Ireland up to the nineteenth century and sorting out the precise details was left usually to the legal profession. As a result, the Down Survey is considered to be about 87% accurate.
Profitable and unprofitable land were distinguished, and there were abbreviated captions for arable
, meadow
, bog
, woodland
, mountain
and several kinds of pasture
, with area figures for each of these categories. Coverage of other subjects was uneven. In the parish maps, dwelling houses with the owners' names are entered in each townland.
Generally speaking, it was a survey of confiscated land. Parts of counties Roscommon
, Galway
, Clare
and Mayo
were not surveyed as they had been covered in the Strafford Survey of Connaught (1636–1640) and were anyway not to be confiscated.
Petty's other requests were reserved for consideration, and only after a delay of more than six months were his sureties released, and his claim for pay acknowledged.
After a delay, he received £18,532 for conducting the survey, to include payment for his assistants and general expenses.
He had difficulty in collecting further agreed payments from the army, set at £3,181 which was still due in February, 1657. In payment of this debt, 9,665 acres (39 km²) of land were allotted to him.
s.
As a result of the re-distribution, approx 7,500 New Model Army veterans settled in Ireland, in what became known as the Cromwellian Plantation.
in the survey, by several members of Parliament, particularly Sir H Sankey - illustrating that this survey involved fortunes for speculators and creditors of the Cromwell government. The allocations of land to Petty by the army in lieu of payment were alleged to be over-stated. His work in allocating the lands also made him open to attack and bribery
by those seeking allocation of the limited lands.
Following investigations, he was acquitted, but a dissenting report accused him of magnifying the debt due to him by the army, of charging the army with debts not really due by them, of reserving for himself portions of choice lands.
Although never convicted of mis-appropriation, charges related to the Irish survey pursued Petty for a number of years. In 1660, Petty published a pamphlet
, "Reflections upon some persons and things in Ireland" where he explained that he had defected from the ranks of scientists to doing the survey ...
He further explains his unpopularity by the need to attack him rather than directly attack his leader, Henry Cromwell
.
. The results became part of his life's work. Petty also undertook the first complete mapping of Ireland in 1673 and the first census
of Ireland, for the year 1659.
Sir William Petty further used the Down Survey, supplemented with other materials from surveys in 1636-40 and 1656-9, as research towards his 1685 atlas publication, Hiberniae Delineatio, the first printed atlas
of Ireland, which used reduced edited versions of his maps.
The survey brought him considerable personal profit. As his reward, he acquired approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²) in the Kenmare
area, in southwest Ireland, and £9 000. This was described in Aubrey's Biography of Petty as 50,000 acres (200 km²) visible from Mount Mangorton
. By 1658, when Cromwell died, Petty owned so much Irish land that he essentially owned what is now County Kerry
and held the title Earl of Landsdowne
, Landsdowne being a new British name for Kerry.
The English gentleman, Evelyn
, who knew Petty well, spoke of him:
in Dublin. The original Down Survey parish maps were lost in a fire in the Surveyor General's office in 1711, and the authenticated copies of the parish maps were lost in fires at the Public Record Office in the Four Courts
during the Irish Civil War of 1922
.
Petty also edited the parish maps into barony maps.
The details listed in terriers beside the maps include the names of previous owners of the lands, religious affiliation, land valuation, and area. The maps themselves include townland boundaries, and sometimes houses/castles, roads and fields. It listed the owners of land in 1640, and the new owners.
Considering the time and circumstances in which these maps were executed, their accuracy is surprising, and they continue to be referred to as trustworthy evidence in courts of law even at the present day.
holds a set of Down Survey parish maps copied by Daniel O'Brien in the 1780s and purchased in the 1960s from a firm of Dublin solicitors. These maps cover land in counties Cork
, Dublin, East Meath (Meath
), King’s County (Offaly
), Leitrim
, Limerick
, Longford
, Queen’s County (Laois
), Kilkenny
, Tipperary
, Waterford
, Westmeath
, Wexford
and Wicklow
. In some cases, summary barony maps have been included, though these barony maps are not necessarily fully comprehensive.
(PRONI) has a set in the Annesley Collection. The British Library
acquired another set in recent years. The best set, a personal set of Sir William Petty's, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
. It seems that set was en route by sea to London
in 1707, when a French vessel captured the ship. The Bibliothèque Nationale subsequently received the maps. The Ordnance Survey Office, Dublin, published a facsimile set of these maps in 1908.
Useful links
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
carried out by William Petty
William Petty
Sir William Petty FRS was an English economist, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers...
, English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
scientist in 1655 and 1656.
The survey
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
was apparently called the "Down Survey" by Petty because the results were set down in maps; ‘admeasurement down’ was used; it is referred to by that name in Petty's will.
Background
In August 1649 the New Model Army, led by Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, went to Ireland to re-occupy the country following the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
. This Cromwellian conquest
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
was largely complete by 1652. This army was raised and supported by money advanced by private individuals, subscribed on the security of 2,500,000 acres (10,000 km²) of Irish land to be confiscated at the close of the rebellion. This approach had been provided for by the 1642 Adventurers Act
Adventurers Act
The Adventurers' Act is an Act of the Parliament of England, with the long title "An Act for the speedy and effectual reducing of the rebels in His Majesty's Kingdom of Ireland".-The main Act:...
of the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
, which said that the Parliament's creditors could reclaim their debts by receiving confiscated land in Ireland.
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652
The Act for the Settlement of Ireland imposed penalties including death and land confiscation against participants and bystanders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and subsequent unrest.-Background:...
provided for the confiscation and re-distribution of the lands of the defeated Irish, mostly Confederate Catholics
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...
, who had opposed Cromwell and supported the royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
. Parliamentarian soldiers who served in Ireland were entitled to an allotment of confiscated land there, in lieu of their wages, which the Parliament was unable to pay in full. Lands were also to be provided to a third group, settlers from England and America.
The dispossessed landholders were to be transported to Connaught
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...
and to other countries.
Survey initiation
To facilitate the re-distribution, an accurate survey of the lands was required. Benjamin WorsleyBenjamin Worsley
Benjamin Worsley was an English physician, Surveyor-General of Ireland, experimental scientist, civil servant and intellectual figure of Commonwealth England. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, but may not have graduated....
, the Surveyor General
Surveyor General
The Surveyor General is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Originally this would often have been a military appointment, but is now more likely to be a civilian post....
, had made a survey in 1653, which was notoriously erroneous. William Petty, then physician-general to the Irish armies, on a leave of absence from his position as Professor of Anatomy at Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...
, pointed out the defects and suggested remedies. He offered to undertake a new survey which would be concluded quickly - within thirteen months, more cheaply than the surveyor-general's proposals, and he would prepare a general map of the country. Despite Worsley's objections, the contract with Petty was signed on December 24, 1654.
Survey methodology
The survey employed about a thousand men and was performed with the promised rapidity, not by introducing new scientific methods, but by careful direction of the numerous subordinates among whom the labor was apportioned. Instead of using skilled surveyors, he completed the project using the now-unemployed - and cheap - soldiery. To enable unskilled soldiers to complete the task properly, Petty designed and built some simple instruments. The soldiers were only required to note the position of natural features and then use the chainGunter's chain
Gunter's chain is a measuring device used for land survey. It was designed and introduced in 1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund Gunter long before the development of the theodolite and other more sophisticated equipment, enabling plots of land to be accurately surveyed and plotted,...
provided to measure distances. Skilled cartographers then laid the information collected onto gridded paper at a central office in Dublin.
The method used was one of surveying the boundaries of parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
es, the block of townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...
s inside those boundaries was not usually detailed. The scale used was generally 40 Irish perches to an inch (sometimes 80 perches), one perch equalling 21 feet (6.4 m). This land survey method was used widely in rural Ireland up to the nineteenth century and sorting out the precise details was left usually to the legal profession. As a result, the Down Survey is considered to be about 87% accurate.
Profitable and unprofitable land were distinguished, and there were abbreviated captions for arable
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
, meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
, bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
, mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
and several kinds of pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
, with area figures for each of these categories. Coverage of other subjects was uneven. In the parish maps, dwelling houses with the owners' names are entered in each townland.
Generally speaking, it was a survey of confiscated land. Parts of counties Roscommon
County Roscommon
County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Galway
County Galway
County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...
, Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
and Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
were not surveyed as they had been covered in the Strafford Survey of Connaught (1636–1640) and were anyway not to be confiscated.
Survey results and payment
On the completion of the work, the surveyor-general examined the survey but advised its rejection. A fresh committee accepted the survey on 17 May 1656.Petty's other requests were reserved for consideration, and only after a delay of more than six months were his sureties released, and his claim for pay acknowledged.
After a delay, he received £18,532 for conducting the survey, to include payment for his assistants and general expenses.
He had difficulty in collecting further agreed payments from the army, set at £3,181 which was still due in February, 1657. In payment of this debt, 9,665 acres (39 km²) of land were allotted to him.
Subsequent land allocation
Petty also took a prominent share of the subsequent commissioners' work of evaluating and allotting the lands among the claimants, for which he was compensated by assigning him 6,000 acres (24 km²) of land, and permission to buy £2,000 worth of debentureDebenture
A debenture is a document that either creates a debt or acknowledges it. In corporate finance, the term is used for a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money. In some countries the term is used interchangeably with bond, loan stock or note...
s.
As a result of the re-distribution, approx 7,500 New Model Army veterans settled in Ireland, in what became known as the Cromwellian Plantation.
Allegations of fraud
In the 1650s, Petty was charged with fraudFraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
in the survey, by several members of Parliament, particularly Sir H Sankey - illustrating that this survey involved fortunes for speculators and creditors of the Cromwell government. The allocations of land to Petty by the army in lieu of payment were alleged to be over-stated. His work in allocating the lands also made him open to attack and bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
by those seeking allocation of the limited lands.
Following investigations, he was acquitted, but a dissenting report accused him of magnifying the debt due to him by the army, of charging the army with debts not really due by them, of reserving for himself portions of choice lands.
Although never convicted of mis-appropriation, charges related to the Irish survey pursued Petty for a number of years. In 1660, Petty published a pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
, "Reflections upon some persons and things in Ireland" where he explained that he had defected from the ranks of scientists to doing the survey ...
- in order to demonstrate to the public the utility of a scientific training.
He further explains his unpopularity by the need to attack him rather than directly attack his leader, Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell
Henry Cromwell was the fourth son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier, and an important figure in the Parliamentarian regime in Ireland.-Life:...
.
Impact on Petty
Petty gained fame for his Survey of Ireland. It was the first British imperial survey of an entire conquered nation and Petty was given great credit as a pioneer by the Royal SocietyRoyal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
. The results became part of his life's work. Petty also undertook the first complete mapping of Ireland in 1673 and the first census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of Ireland, for the year 1659.
Sir William Petty further used the Down Survey, supplemented with other materials from surveys in 1636-40 and 1656-9, as research towards his 1685 atlas publication, Hiberniae Delineatio, the first printed atlas
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...
of Ireland, which used reduced edited versions of his maps.
The survey brought him considerable personal profit. As his reward, he acquired approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²) in the Kenmare
Kenmare
Kenmare is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.-Location:...
area, in southwest Ireland, and £9 000. This was described in Aubrey's Biography of Petty as 50,000 acres (200 km²) visible from Mount Mangorton
Mangerton Mountain
Mangerton or Mangerton Mountain is a mountain in County Kerry, Republic of Ireland. At a height of 839 m it is the tallest of the Mangerton range and 25th tallest in Ireland...
. By 1658, when Cromwell died, Petty owned so much Irish land that he essentially owned what is now County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
and held the title Earl of Landsdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne, in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. This branch of the family descends from the Hon...
, Landsdowne being a new British name for Kerry.
The English gentleman, Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
, who knew Petty well, spoke of him:
- The map of Ireland, made by Sir William Petty, is believed to be the most exact that ever yet was made of any country
Resulting documents
The resulting maps of the parishes, all drawn by Petty himself, were preserved in the Surveyor General's office and in the Public Record OfficePublic Record Office
The Public Record Office of the United Kingdom is one of the three organisations that make up the National Archives...
in Dublin. The original Down Survey parish maps were lost in a fire in the Surveyor General's office in 1711, and the authenticated copies of the parish maps were lost in fires at the Public Record Office in the Four Courts
Four Courts
The Four Courts in Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. The Four Courts are the location of the Supreme Court, the High Court and the Dublin Circuit Court. The building until 2010 also formerly was the location for the Central Criminal Court.-Gandon's Building:Work based on...
during the Irish Civil War of 1922
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
.
Petty also edited the parish maps into barony maps.
The details listed in terriers beside the maps include the names of previous owners of the lands, religious affiliation, land valuation, and area. The maps themselves include townland boundaries, and sometimes houses/castles, roads and fields. It listed the owners of land in 1640, and the new owners.
Considering the time and circumstances in which these maps were executed, their accuracy is surprising, and they continue to be referred to as trustworthy evidence in courts of law even at the present day.
Parish maps
Copies of a number of the parish maps survive in various institutions. The National Library of IrelandNational Library of Ireland
The National Library of Ireland is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism is the member of the Irish Government responsible for the library....
holds a set of Down Survey parish maps copied by Daniel O'Brien in the 1780s and purchased in the 1960s from a firm of Dublin solicitors. These maps cover land in counties Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Dublin, East Meath (Meath
County Meath
County Meath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Mide . Meath County Council is the local authority for the county...
), King’s County (Offaly
County Offaly
County Offaly is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe and was formerly known as King's County until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. Offaly County Council is...
), Leitrim
County Leitrim
County Leitrim is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Limerick
County Limerick
It is thought that humans had established themselves in the Lough Gur area of the county as early as 3000 BC, while megalithic remains found at Duntryleague date back further to 3500 BC...
, Longford
County Longford
County Longford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford.Longford County Council is the local authority for the county...
, Queen’s County (Laois
County Laois
County Laois is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It was formerly known as Queen's County until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The county's name was formerly spelt as Laoighis and Leix. Laois County Council...
), Kilkenny
County Kilkenny
County Kilkenny is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. The territory of the county was the core part of the ancient Irish Kingdom of Osraige which in turn was the core of the Diocese of...
, Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, Waterford
County Waterford
*Abbeyside, Affane, Aglish, Annestown, An Rinn, Ardmore*Ballinacourty, Ballinameela, Ballinamult, Ballinroad, Ballybeg, Ballybricken, Ballyduff Lower, Ballyduff Upper, Ballydurn, Ballygunner, Ballylaneen, Ballymacarbry, Ballymacart, Ballynaneashagh, Ballysaggart, Ballytruckle, Bilberry, Bunmahon,...
, Westmeath
County Westmeath
-Economy:Westmeath has a strong agricultural economy. Initially, development occurred around the major market centres of Mullingar, Moate, and Kinnegad. Athlone developed due to its military significance, and its strategic location on the main Dublin–Galway route across the River Shannon. Mullingar...
, Wexford
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
and Wicklow
County Wicklow
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...
. In some cases, summary barony maps have been included, though these barony maps are not necessarily fully comprehensive.
Barony maps
Some copies of the original Down Survey barony maps survive. The Public Record Office of Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
(PRONI) has a set in the Annesley Collection. The British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
acquired another set in recent years. The best set, a personal set of Sir William Petty's, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
. It seems that set was en route by sea to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1707, when a French vessel captured the ship. The Bibliothèque Nationale subsequently received the maps. The Ordnance Survey Office, Dublin, published a facsimile set of these maps in 1908.
Related publications
- A full account of the proceedings in connexion with the survey, from the will of Petty, was edited by Sir Thomas A. LarcomThomas LarcomMajor-General Sir Thomas Aiskew Larcom, 1st Baronet PC FRS was a leading official in the early Irish Ordnance Survey that started in 1824...
for the Irish Archaeological Society in 1851.
- The terms of reference of the survey are given in Andrews, J H Plantation acres: an historical survey of the Irish surveyor and his maps. BelfastBelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Ulster Historical Foundation, 1985, P 21-22.
Publications of the maps
- The National Library of Ireland Down Survey maps are issued on microfilm to readers.
- Surviving parts of the maps have been published by the Irish Manuscripts Commission as DOWN SURVEY (1654–1656)
- Copies of both Hiberniae Delineatio and the edited barony maps are available in Special Collections at UCCUniversity College Cork - National University of Ireland, CorkUniversity College Cork is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland. The university is located in Cork....
. - Another group of maps from this Survey, the parish maps, are available in microfilm at UCC.
External links
Information from the following sites was used in writing this article- Thoemmes.com - Profile of William Petty
- JRank.org - Profile of William Petty
- National Library of Ireland - Manuscripts Information (Down Survey)
- UCC - Sources of 17th century historical studies
- TheBookOfDays.com - Bio of William Petty
- Sir William Petty: A Study in English Economic Literature by Wilson Lloyd Bevan (1894)
Useful links