Derry Corporation Minute Book Volume 2 (1688-1704)

Introduction

This volume of Derry Corporation minutes covers the period from 2nd January 1688 to 20th July 1704.

During this period there was a considerable surge in support for King William III, who reigned as King of England, Scotland and Ireland, following the exposure of a Jacobite plan to assassinate him in 1696. A resolution, expressing condemnation of the plot was copied into the minute book on 16 April 1696 ‘with the names of all the Subscribers’.  The names of 226 people, listed in three columns, are a form of census of the walled city at this time.  

It is interesting that nearly all those members of the Corporation which are recorded as present at the meetings are also recorded in William R. Young’s Fighters of Derry Their Deeds and Descendants: Being a Chronicle of Events in Ireland during the Revolutionary Period 1688-1689.  It is a unique and unrivalled source for tracing 17th century Plantation ancestors.

The links above open as PDF documents. To access them you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader v7 or later installed on your computer. To download this software, which is free, visit the download pages of the Adobe website.

Highlights from Volume 2

The first Common Council of the City after the lifting of the Siege was held in the Town Hall on 27 August 1689:

“At this Councill it was ordered that Francis Hunt, Robert Harvey, Albert Hall, William Mackey, Henry? Campsie, John Nightingale, William Burnside?, John Harvey, Thomas Moore, John Gillen?, Joshua Ewing, John Crookshanks, Sam. Leeson?, Alex. Cunningham shall be sworne in Burgesses of this City, in place of soe many dead”.

In May 1690 a committee was formed to distribute relief to the city using the sum of £500 granted by the Irish Society.  Later that year a further committee is formed to petition the Crown for compensation of losses sustained during the Siege.  In 1691 the Mayor and 215 of its leading citizens signed a commission empowering three agents of Londonderry Corporation – Robert Rochfort (Recorder), David Cairns and John Mogridge – to press the Government in London for compensation for the losses and damages incurred during the siege. The agents were promised one sixth of the compensation and eight townsmen were appointed to distribute the remainder.

In November 1690, concern is expressed that the jail was ‘taken up with prisoners of war, leaving no room for ordinary criminals.’

By September 1691 discussions begin to focus on the rebuilding of the Market House which was destroyed during the Siege.

“It being Debated whether the Markett house and Guardhouse should be pulled down, and built up againe, according to Mr Nevills Modell  ….”

After the Siege King William and Queen Mary gave a large sum of money (a royal grant of £1,500 in 1691) to repair the buildings of Derry and it was decided to replace the old Townhall.  The architect chosen was Captain Francis Neville, who had been in the city during the Siege and had also drawn a map of the city and its area in 1689.  On this map he shows a drawing of his proposed new ‘Exchange’ and ‘Market house’.  Francis Neville’s building lasted until 1823 when it was remodelled.

On the 11 May 1692 it is ordered that James Young is to receive payment for Beer supplied during the Siege: “Ordered, That James Young be paid the sum of Thirty shillings for Beer he furnisht to Captain Forwards Troops at their first comeing to Joyne the City forces, after the Gates were Shutt.”