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chief of which was the non-erection of the specified
number of houses: this enquiry led to several seques-
trations of the city and liberties until 1628, and for some
time the rents were paid to the Crown.
In the rebellion of 1641 the English and Scottish
settlers received a considerable supply of arms and am-
munition from London, and having secured themselves
within the walls, successfully defended the city from the
attacks of the rebels under Sir Phelim O’Nial. In 1643
the inhabitants of Londonderry and Coleraine sent letters
to the lords-justices urging their impoverished condition
and praying for relief. Sir John Vaughan, the governor,
having died this year, Sir Robert Stewart was appointed
to the command of the garrison, of which five companies
aided in his defeat of Owen O’Nial at Clones, on the
13th of June. Towards the close of the year the parlia-
ment having taken the covenant, the London adven-
turers sent over an agent with letters desiring that it
should be taken within their plantation; but in the
year following the mayor was ordered by the lord-lieu-
tenant and council to publish a proclamation against it.
Col. Audley Mervin, who had been appointed governor
by the Marquess of Ormonde, was nevertheless obliged
from expediency to take the covenant: in 1645 he was
displaced by the parliament, and was succeeded by Lord
Folliott. Sir C. Coote, the parliamentary general, hav-
ing, in 1648, treacherously seized upon the person of
Sir Robert Hamilton, forced him to surrender Culmore
fort, by which the parliamentarians became masters of
all the forts of Ulster, except Charlemont. The Mar-
quess of Ormonde having failed in his attempts to in-
duce Sir C. Coote to join the king’s cause, the latter was
blocked up in Derry by the royalists; and soon after
the city and Culmore fort were regularly besieged by
Sir Robert Stewart, who was subsequently joined by
Sir G. Monroe and Lord Montgomery with their respec-
tive forces, and Chas. II. was proclaimed with great
solemnity before the camp of Derry. The decapitation
of the late king having excited general horror among
the majority of the people of the north, they rose
in arms and soon obtained possession of all the
towns and places of strength in that quarter, except
Derry and Culmore, which, after a siege of four months,
and when the garrison, consisting of 800 foot and 180
horse, was reduced to the greatest extremities, were
relieved by Owen Roe O’Nial, to whom Sir C. Coote
had promised a reward of £5000 for this service; and
by the defeat of Ever Mac Mahon, the Roman Catholic
general, the following year, at Skirfolas in Donegal,
Coote finally reduced all Ulster under the power of the
parliament. After the Restoration, Chas. II., in 1662,
granted letters patent to the Irish Society, containing,
with very little alteration, all the clauses of the first
charter of Jas. I.; this is the charter under which the
Society and the corporation of Derry now act. In 1684
the same monarch constituted a guild of the staple, with
powers as ample as those enjoyed by any other city or
town: in the following year, owing to the decay of trade,
the corporation complained to the Society that the go-
vernment of the town was too expensive for the ma-
gistrates to sustain, and solicited an abatement of the
rent.
In 1689 this city became the asylum of the Protest-
ants of the north, who, in number about 30,000, fled to
it for refuge before the marauding forces of James; and
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is distinguished in the annals of modem history for the
heroic bravery of its inhabitants amidst the extreme
privations of a protracted siege. The chief governor
having withdrawn the Protestant garrison, and steps
being taken to introduce an undisciplined native force
influenced by hostile prejudices, the young men of the
city closed the gates against its admission, and the bulk
of the inhabitants took up arms in their own defence.
The magistrates and graver citizens endeavoured to pal-
liate this ebullition of military ardour in their represent-
ations to the lord-lieutenant, but in the meantime the
armed inhabitants applied to the Irish Society for assist-
ance. Lord Mountjoy, a Protestant commander in the
army of James, was, however, admitted, in a great mea-
sure from personal regard, but on condition that a free
pardon should be granted within 15 days, and that in
the interval only two companies should be quartered
within the walls; that of the forces afterwards admitted
one-half at least should be Protestants; that until par-
don was received the citizens should guard the fortifica-
tions; and that all who desired it might be permitted
to quit the city. By the advice of Mountjoy, who was
obeyed as a friend and associate, the arms were repaired,
money cheerfully subscribed, ammunition purchased in
Scotland, and the agent despatched to England urged
to procure supplies. He was succeeded in the command
by his first lieutenant, Lundy, whom King William, on
sending an officer with some military supplies, commis-
sioned to act in his name; but the dissatisfaction of the
citizens was excited by the vacillating character of this
commander, who, on the approach of James to besiege
the city in person, prepared to surrender it, notwith-
standing the arrival of two English colonels in the river
with reinforcements, which he remanded. The principal
officers being about to withdraw, and the town council
preparing to offer terms of capitulation, the inhabitants
rose tumultuously against the constituted authorities,
received with enthusiasm a brave and popular captain
who presented himself at the city gates with a reinforce-
ment, and, rushing to the walls, fired upon James
and his party advancing to take possession of the place.
On deliberation they suffered the timid to depart unmo-
lested; Lundy first concealed himself and afterwards
escaped; and two new governors were chosen, one of
whom was the celebrated George Walker, rector of
Donoughmore. Under their directions the soldiers and
able inhabitants were formed into eight regiments, num-
bering 7020 men, with 341 officers; order and discipline
were in some degree established, and, notwithstanding
partial jealousies, 18 Protestant clergymen and seven
non-conformists shared in the labour and danger of the
siege, and by their exhortations stimulated the enthusi-
astic courage of the defenders with the fervour of devo
tion. The operations of an army of 20,000 men were
thus successfully opposed in a place abandoned as un-
tenable by the regular forces, unaided by engineers or
well-mounted guns, and with only a ten clays’ supply of
provisions. An irregular war of sallies was adopted with
such effect that James, who had hitherto remained at St.
Johnstown, six miles distant, returned to Dublin, leaving
his army to continue the siege. The defenders had now
to contend against the inroads of disease and famine;
and the arrival of Kirke with a fleet in the lough
afforded but little prospect of relief, as he deemed it too
hazardous an enterprise to sail up to the town in front
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