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area. His original acqUIsItIons were mainly
from the old Irish proprietors; sometimes their
title was confused and Sir Walter found himself
in dispute with other occupants. On these
occasions his manners could be rough. The
London East India Company purchased
woods high up the tidal estuary of the Bandon
river in 1612. Here they began to build ships.
Sir Walter chose to believe the land belonged
to him. He did not care to see Englishmen cutting
down his trees so he set armed men to
harry them. These hired muscle-men terrified
the shipyard workmen and broke down the
dams that had been built to operate the hammer
mills. The dispute over Dun Daniel woods
subsided into oblivion, but Sir Walter was
soon appearing in the records again. He next
made an attempt to take over Baltimore. His
claim was not a frivolous one.
In 1573 Fineen O'Driscoll had surrendered
his lands to the English Crown along
with other tribal lords of Munster. This was
part of a complicated land title reform the net
result of which was that Sir Fineen now held
title to his lands in person and not, as previously,
merely in his condition as elected leader
of the Sept. Fineen had been a young man
when he took this step; for many years the
change had no practical effect and his life in
West Cork continued in its normal pattern. In
1583 he visited London and received his
knighthood. As Sir Fineen O'Driscoll his standard
of living may well have proved more
expensive. In 1602, his prestige suffered a seri­
116
ous blow when he was obliged to hand over
three of his castles to the English. but his writ
still ran in West Cork and in the same year he
detained and handed over to the English
authorities wanted murderers who had sought
refuge in his territories. However, his financial
position seems to have deteriorated sharply
about then and one ofthe immediate results of
this was his sale ofa twenty-one-year lease of
Baltimore to Thomas Crooke in 1605.
About 1616 it seems likely that Sir Walter
Coppinger lent Sir Fineen O'Driscoll a sum of
money on security of his lands occupied by the
plantation at Baltimore. Sir Thomas Crooke
had purchased the lease of Baltimore only for
twenty-one years. The purchase had been made
in 1605, which meant that in 1626 the lease
either had to be renegotiated or the use of the
property returned to Sir Fineen, his heirs or
assignees. If Sir Fineen did not repay the loan,
Sir Walter Coppinger automatically became his
assignee and the absolute owner of Baltimore
on expiIy of the lease. In the meantime he
demonstrated the firmness of his intentions by
harrying the English planters in every way that
he was able. At first [Sir Walter] used force but
the planters seem to have soon organised themselves
adequately for their own defence; accordingly,
he altered his tactics and began to institute
civil and criminal actions against individual
planters in rapid succession. As a magistrate of
long standing in Cork city, Sir Walter must
have made a disturbing opponent.
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