rty, Maguire, MacMahon, etc.
The settlements made by the earlier migrations of the Highlanders were
chiefly on the coast of Antrim. These settlements were connected with
and dependent on the Clandonald of Islay and Kintyre. The founder of
this branch of that powerful family was John Mor, second son of "the
good John of Islay," who, about the year 1400, married Majory Bisset,
heiress of the Glens, in Antrim, and thus acquired a permanent footing.
The family was not only strengthened by settling cadets of its own house
as tenants in the territory of the Glens, but also by intermarriages
with the families of O'Neill, O'Donnell, and others. In extending its
Irish possessions the Clandonald was brought into frequent conflicts and
feuds with the Irish of Ulster. In 1558 the Hebrideans had become so
strong in Ulster that the archbishop of Armagh urged on the government
the advisability of their expulsion by procuring their Irish neighbors,
O'Donnell, O'Neill, O'Cahan, and others, to unite against them. In 1565
the MacDonalds suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Shane O'Neill,
earl of Tyrone. The Scottish islanders still continued to exercise
considerable power. Sorley Buy MacDonald, a man of great courage, soon
extended his influence over the adjacent territories, in so much so that
in 1575-1585, the English were forced to turn their attention to the
progress of the Scots. The latter having been defeated, an agreement
was made in which Sorley Buy was granted four districts. His eldest son,
Sir James MacSorley Buy, or MacDonell of Dunluce, became a strenuous
supporter of the government of James on his accession to the British
throne.

In the meantime other forces were at work. Seeds of discontent had been
sown by both Henry VIII, and his daughter Elizabeth, who tried to force
the people of Ireland to accept the ritual of the Reformed Church. Both
reaped abundant fruit of trouble from this ill-advised policy. Being
inured to war it did not require much fire to be fanned into a flame of
commotion and discord. Soon after his accession to the English throne,
James I caused certain estates of Irish nobles, who had engaged in
treasonable practices, to be escheated to the crown. By this
confiscation James had at his disposal nearly six counties in Ulster,
embracing half a million of acres. These lands were allotted to private
individuals in sections of one thousand, fifteen hundred, and two
thousand acres, each being required to s