JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY the last remnants of the Brehon Laws pressing into one compact holding an enforced in Ireland. equivalent, :as far as possible, of t.he SQUARING OF FA!RMS scattered rundale portions of arable . Among the "Practical Instructions land held by each tenant, with the object to Boarding _Pupils at Cloghan School," . of procuring for the .tenants peace, and as prescribed }?y "Captain ~ohn · F~tt ':: .g0od-will afuoI?;g.St th;ernsdves imd,_prosKenn~dy <V in_ ~'~38, we-, re~d "As t:q.e ~~erity by ~etMr husbandry, as alsg to comfort and the profits of the farmer mcrease the value of the estate.... At materially depend on the shape of the the e~piration of the leases (Nov. 1838) farm and the distribution of the build-. legal possession was taken of every ings. . . .The nearer the shape of the holding rhe following principles were farm come~ ;t9 ,a square and:,-the nearer- established for re-le1i:ting the estate: th~ buildings are placed; to the-,centre, - - -' } •, the better." The squaring, or c6nsoli- 1. No farm to consist of more dation, of farms and the wiping out of than one lot. rural v:Ilages became general all over 2. No holding was to be l,ess than Ireland from 1838 (2,), though it began four acres. earli:r in many dist'ricts. The initiative 3. No waste land holding was to came from the landlords and their -be given of greater extent than agents. Th3 chief motive unquestion- would authorise the expectaably was to increase the value of the tion of its occupier being able to landlord's property, to secure higher bring it into cultivation during a rents, and to establish a tenantry that twenty-one y,ears' lease. would be better able and more likely to 4. That those tenants, whose pay their rents promptly. But motives equivalent for old holdings might of philanthropy were not wanting as fall below the minimum size farm w~ shall see later. should obtaj;n the first choice of Ther: were two main methods of waste land farms and a compensaconsolidat:on. One was by adding to tion for the quantity of arable land a farm the adjacent lots of a tenant formerly held. The compensatio:i whos; tenancy expired. The tenancy to be given or received, for gain or might cease simply hy eviction, or by the loss of arable land, to be decided by tenant being encouraged to emigrate to three arbitrators ele·cted by each Australia or America; the landlord townland. arranging or sometimes paying his 5. T!he powers of arbitrators passage and even recommending him to should extend only to arable land a landowner overseas. Or a tenant was as lands found waste at the end of encouraged to sell to a neighbour, the the lease could have -had no irnlandlord often lending the purchase provements made upon them and money~"from five to twenty pounds." therefore could have no equitable Many landlords made a rule that a sale, claim for compensation f'or loss of however, voluntary, could be made only such. to a tenant holding adjoining lots. Th3 "Oonsequences. Up to the Spring total effect of this method was that of 1843, on this estate, Reclaimed by th~ remaining tenants were undisturbed tenants 350 acres 1 rood and 31 perches in their homes and obtained larger and (Cunningham measure) and thorough consolidated farms. drained rn2 acres. 246 new' and <Sub.. The other method, as ap- stantial cottages ·and 67 good office plied by Charles Horatio Kennedy, houses wer,e built, 102 pit,s for manure agent for Sir Charles Sityles, on th~ were sunk and five-sevenths of all the Cloghan Estate in Donegal, with its,rules new mearing fences made." . and consequences, is described by li.im- About the same time Lord George s:lf as follows:~"Consolidation by co:n- Hill was substantially following Ken·- (1) For an account of John Pitt Kennedy and his work s.ee "A P!~n for ]rish A,,griculturie," by David Kennedy, M.Sc., H.Dip.Ed., m "The Irish Eccliesiasttca.l Record," No.v€mber, 1944. (2) · Reiport of Devonshire Cbmmission on Irish Land Tenures:, 1843, "Dig-est of :Evidence before iDevonshire Commission," by John Pitt Kennedl\-'. nedy's method on his estate in Gweedore, but in a much more despotic and unctuous manner .(3). Other landlords in-Donegal were apparently not so thorough in their consolidation of farms, but in the words of {3) "~a.cts. from 'Qweec;lore,'' by Lord Hill. 116
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