132 



Proceedings of the lloyal Irish Academy. 



JsTewcome^ that cam into Irelande a poore servynge man (neyther of 

 reputation nor any great acounte) yet atteyning to be vytualer to the 

 Army, he sodaynely begane to buyld, to purchace, & so to florysh, 

 that eu'^ry man could say it could not be but by abusynge the Queue 

 but thus it contynued tyll the L Borough^ was sent over deputy, who 

 callyng Newcome to a streyght acount & examynynge hys servyces 

 what coui'ses he had houlden, found so many colusyons, how he had 

 deceyved both prynce and souldyor, that for the example of all other, 

 he protested to hange hym, whych he thought to have pformed 

 indeed, but that he was hastely to set forwardes a jorny, in the 

 whych he dyed before he retu\ed backe. "Newcome that had well 

 fethered hys neast found meanes to gratyfy hys form crymes, & was 

 very shortly after made knyght, and it is well knowne that at thys 

 psent houre Syr Roberde iN'ewcome is one of the rychest Englyshe 

 knyghtes that is in all Irelande : 



yf it pleased hys ma*' to folowe thys psydent used by the 

 L Borough he myghte fynde the mystery from whence it is that hys 

 offycers do wax so rych & hym selfe so poore : 



Of hys Ma*'' solycitee that 

 IS Kow IN Ieelanbe^*' 



To speake of some feew offycers that be now of the tyme psent, 

 it is well knowne, that he that is now hys Ma*" solyciter, wythyn 



^ Sir Robert Newcomen, appointed Victualler-general to the Army, 1591 ; 

 received a fresh Patent as General Purveyor and Issuer of Victuals, 1604. See as 

 to his extravagant profits Cal. S.P. (Ireland), 1597-1598, p. 495. 



^ Thomas, fifth Lord Burgh or Borough de Gaynesboro, k.g., Lord Deputy, 

 1596-7. He died at Newry, October 14th, 1597, while on an expedition against 

 Tyrone, aged forty- two. Cal. S.P. (Ireland), 1596-1597, p. 415.— Vide " Complete 

 Peerage," vol. ii., p. 77. 



It is noticeable that Rich omits all mention of so eminent and important 

 an official as Sir John Davies. Probably he both disliked and feared the Attorney- 

 General, whose credit in England stood too high to be shaken. In another of his 

 reports, written a year later. Rich pointedly censures Davies' "Discovery," which 

 had appeared in 1612, as unduly optimistic in its account of the security of the 

 country, and the obedience rendered to the law throughout the country : — 



'* There is nothing that hath more deceived our late Queen and her honourable 

 Council here in England than those informations that were many times given out 

 of Ireland ; and I might speak of a book that was but lately presented to the 

 King's Majesty wherein was expressed how Ireland was never conquered till 

 now, and how his Majesty may only vaunt himself to be the Conqueror of that 

 realm ; for that now the country is brought into that quiet subjection that the 



