Bandon and Kinsale

The County Cork towns of Bandon and Kinsale were linked geographically and economically by the River Bandon. At the mouth of the river lay Kinsale, an ancient fishing town made strategically important by its narrow natural harbour. Although of secondary trading importance to Cork and Youghal, Kinsale’s prosperity increased in the mid-1630s when Lord Deputy Wentworth (Sir Thomas Wentworth†) chose the port as his naval base on the south coast of Ireland. CSP Ire. 1633-47, pp. 83-4; Strafforde Lttrs. i. 365, 424. This not only afforded Kinsale unrivalled protection against piracy, but also brought the town trading benefits as the Irish squadron provisioned and re-fitted in the harbour. Despite welcoming a number of Protestant settlers, as a corporation Kinsale was ruled before 1641 by a Catholic oligarchy which included the Roche and Galwey families, who monopolised the borough’s representations to the Irish Parliaments of 1613, 1634 and 1640. The Council Bk. of the Corp. of Kinsale, ed. R. Caulfield (Guildford, 1879), 432-5; McGrath, Biographical Dict. Kinsale was also the main out-port for the inland town of Bandon. The new town of Bandon (or Bandonbridge) was first developed by the Becher family, and became a municipal and parliamentary borough in 1613. The driving force behind the later development of Bandon was Sir Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork, who began buying land in the town from 1612. Under Cork’s influence the town grew in size (from 135 inhabitants in 1611 to 1,025 in 1622, and around 1,500 in the 1640s), received walls and gates (by 1627), and became a judicial centre. Cork was able to insist that the bulk of the new settlers in Bandon were English Protestants, and an early by-law decreed that ‘no papist inhabitant shall be suffered to dwell within this town’. P. O’Flanagan, Bandon (Irish Historic Towns Atlas no. 3, Dublin, 1988), 1-4. Cork’s pre-eminence is shown in the elections for the Irish Parliament of 1634, when he secured the election of the lord deputy’s brother, Sir George Wentworth*, and his own local agent, William Wiseman. H. Kearney, Strafford in Ireland (Cambridge, 1989), 240; Lismore Pprs. ser. 2, iv. 30, 33; 85. In 1640 the MPs returned were both Boyle associates: Anthony Dopping and Francis Slingsby. McGrath, Biographical Dict.

On the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in 1641, both Bandon and Kinsale remained loyal to the crown. CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 357. Rumours of Catholic attempts to seize both towns were rife in the winter of 1641-2, and in March 1642 there were fears that 4,000 Irish troops were to be sent to capture them. HMC Egmont, i. 144, 162, 175. Bandon was badly affected by the war. Cut off from any seaborne relief by a hostile hinterland, the town remained vulnerable throughout the 1640s, and as early as May 1642 the Long Parliament had singled it out as an urgent case for relief. CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 327; LJ v. 77. Further problems were caused by an influx of refugees, which had swelled the town’s population to 7,000 by the summer of 1642. Chatsworth, CM/23, no. 119. Bandon reluctantly joined the defection of Inchiquin to Parliament in 1644, once it became clear that the move had the support of Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*), brother of the 2nd earl of Cork (Sir Richard Boyle*). Chatsworth, CM/28, no. 3. While the Protestants of Bandon were content to come under Parliament’s nominal control, the inhabitants of Kinsale had to be coerced. The Catholic population was summarily expelled in the summer of 1644, and the town garrisoned by parliamentarian troops. HMC Egmont, i. 234; Council Bk. of Kinsale ed. Caulfield, p. xl. When Lord Inchiquin once again joined the royalist cause in 1648, both towns fell into the king’s hands. Over the next few months Kinsale’s harbour became an important naval base for Prince Rupert’s fleet in its operations against Parliament in the English Channel, and the king’s ships were readily supplied by sympathetic townsmen, led by the customs collector, Robert Southwell. Council Bk. of Kinsale, p. xl. Parliament’s blockade of Kinsale from the sea during 1649 was of limited success, as the seaward defences were too strong, and the town held out until Oliver Cromwell's* landward advance, supported by Broghill, caused the garrison, with that of Bandon, to join the general defection of the Munster forces in November 1649. CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 138, 175, 178, 413.

The recovery of Bandon after the civil wars was aided by the political choices of the Boyle family. The earl of Cork’s influence in Bandon had not diminished, despite his absence in England and exile on the continent, and when he decided to make his peace with the commonwealth, he found the townsmen willing to accept his authority once again. In July 1651, barely two months after the earl’s return to Ireland, he and Broghill visited Bandon where they were attended by the provost and burgesses. Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 4 July 1651. Cork went to Bandon as many as four times a year during the remainder of the decade, and soon re-established his family’s control over its affairs. Chatsworth, CM/29, passim. Kinsale’s economic recovery was helped by its continuing utility as a naval base during the 1650s, and was especially useful as a provisioning station, being described in 1652 as ‘the only harbour in these parts for your ships of war to come in to victual and trim themselves’. CSP Dom. 1651, p. 511; 1651-2, p. 531; 1652-3, p. 535; 1653-4, p. 577; 1654, p. 466; 1655, p. 283; 1656-7, p. 408; 1659-60, p. 401; Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 250. During the early 1650s Kinsale was ordered to supply provisions to the fleet for between 300 to 800 men, a total similar to the burdens placed on Dover, Plymouth, and Yarmouth. CSP Dom. 1651-2, pp. 22, 391, 409; 1653-4, p. 145; 1655, p. 396. Kinsale’s importance as a port led to the domination of the corporation by the garrison, whose commander, John Hodder, was admitted as recorder in 1652. Council Bk. of Kinsale, 7. Hodder soon established a good relationship with the Boyles, from whom he rented land, but his sympathies with the Quakers led to his removal in the mid-1650s. Chatsworth, CM/28, no. 42. The election of another Boyle associate, Henry Bathurst, as the new recorder in 1656 coincided with the growing influence of Old Protestant burgesses in the corporation, including the former royalist, Robert Southwell and his son-in-law, the local landowner, John Percivalle (son of Sir Philip Percivalle*). Council Bk. of Kinsale, 20; Chatsworth, CM/28, no. 49. There followed a period of prosperity, in which corporation rights were vigorously defended. In 1657 laws against Catholics trading in the town were enforced, and moves were to curb the abuses of non-freemen. Council Bk. of Kinsale, 23, 27. Relying on the favour of Vincent Gookin*, as commissioner for letting crown properties, and the skilful lobbying of Robert Southwell, who had become sovereign (mayor) in October 1657, by the end of the decade Kinsale had secured a common lease of all the forfeited houses in the town, and nearly 4,000 acres besides. Council Bk. of Kinsale, 43, 45, 55. The wealth brought by this, and other favours, allowed the corporation to assert its authority: a programme of repairs to the town’s church, school and poorhouse was begun in 1657; the burgesses were ordered to wear new gowns; and the salaries of the borough’s sovereign and recorder were increased in 1659. Council Bk. of Kinsale, 28, 29, 47-9, 51.

The amalgamation of Bandon and Kinsale under the Instrument of Government allowed the return of one MP to Westminster. At first, this seemed not to cause any tensions, as the boroughs were prepared to support the Old Protestant interest. In July 1654 the earl of Cork was attended by the provost and burgesses of Bandon, who ‘desired me to advise them in the election of a burgess, which I did the day after, and nominated Mr Vincent Gookin, whom they afterwards upon my desire did choose’. Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 25 July 1654. The proximity of Gookin family estates to Kinsale and the influence of Boyles within the town may have encouraged that borough’s cooperation. The election indenture, dated 2 August, was signed by prominent members of both corporations, including Thomas Dunkin, the provost of Bandon (and Boyle tenant), and William Milner, the sovereign of Kinsale, and among the dozen other voters named were several Boyle tenants, including Abraham Savage, John Landon and William Wright, all of Bandon. C219/44, unfol.; NLI, MS 6259, unfol. In 1656 the boroughs’ interests again coincided, and Vincent Gookin was re-elected unopposed. Boyle influence was again important, as Gookin was by now a prominent member of the Old Protestant interest, and would become a staunch ally of Lord Broghill in the kingship crisis of 1657.

Despite this close cooperation in the mid-1650s, the working relationship between Gookin and the Boyles had broken down by January 1659. The Boyles chose Admiral William Penn* instead of Gookin as their candidate at Bandon and Kinsale, and this decision was naturally opposed by Gookin, who tried to have his fellow-surveyor, Dr William Petty*, elected instead. T.C. Barnard, ‘Lord Broghill, Vincent Gookin and the Cork Elections of 1659’, EHR lxxxviii. 355-9. Gookin, who had put himself forward as candidate for Cork and Youghal, then tried to persuade Broghill to fall in with his plans, which he claimed had the backing of the lord lieutenant, Henry Cromwell*, but his overtures were refused and he was sent away ‘a grieved and sad man’. Chatsworth, CM/30, no. 65. In high dudgeon, Gookin ‘repaired to Kinsale and Bandon, propounded Dr Petty to them, showing them that their election of me obliged them to me and their choosing Dr Petty at my request obliged him too’. Henry Cromwell Corresp. 441. Broghill suspected that Gookin had ‘played the knave egregiously at Bandon and Kinsale’ by assuring the burgesses that he commanded the support of the Boyle family. He encouraged his allies in Kinsale, John Percivalle and Robert Southwell, to oppose Gookin’s party in the town. Chatsworth, CM/30, no. 72. For once, Broghill did not get his way. Although Petty stood aside (having been elected for the Cornish seat of West Looe on 5 January), Gookin took his place, with the support of the Kinsale corporation, in the contest held on 20 January. Barnard, ‘Lord Broghill, Vincent Gookin and the Cork Elections’, 358-9.

The 1659 election may have weakened Boyle influence in within the Kinsale corporation. The focus of bad feeling was Robert Southwell and John Percivalle, both of whom had strong contacts with Broghill and the earl of Cork. Chatsworth, CM/30, no. 72. These two had questioned the policy of using the crown rents of the town for the benefit of a clique in the corporation led by the former sovereign, William Milner, apparently supported by Gookin. HMC Egmont, i. 603-6. This rebellion was short-lived, however. After Gookin’s death in October 1659, Kinsale seemed happy enough to join Bandon in accepting the Boyles as political patrons. Both constituencies returned Boyle clients in the elections for the General Convention in early 1660 and for the Irish Parliament in 1661. Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 219-21; CJI i. 589.