"The idea behind plantation was to take the land away from the Catholic Irish,  replacing them with English and Scottish settlers. This meant that a new Protestant community could be established quickly to weaken Catholic Irish resistance to English rule.  Plantation had been implemented on a limited basis in Ireland during the reign of the Tudors in the midlands and Munster during the 1550s and 1580s,"³during which time the English crown was not inclined to agressively pursue Scottish settlement seeking instead to encourage the English to Ireland. Counties Down and Antrim had already experienced succesful private plantations prior to the Plantation of Ulster. In 1603 about 95% of land in Ireland was owned by Catholics. "The early seventeenth century plans for the Ulster Plantation were the most  ambitious undertaken so far. The native Irish were to be moved from the planted lands to segregated areas. Most of the land in the counties of Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Coleraine (now Derry) was confiscated. It was granted at low rents to English and Lowland Scots settlers in portions of one to two thousand acres " ³

The possibility of the Plantation of Ulster was created with the Nine Years War (1594-1603), and the subsequent  "Flight of the Earls" of Northern Ireland in 1607. The intent and reason for the northern Earls' departure is unclear (it is unknown if they sought Spanish assistance or to avoid a mortal turn to the post treaty vendetta up to that point merely eroding their rights) ; The end result is they were never allowed to return home. 

The Flight of the Earls allowed for the provisions of the Plantation of Ulster,  the formal advent of which (1610)  saw  the native Irish alloted about 20% of the land,  while church owned lands accounted for about another 20%7.  Estates and the demand for tenancy went to three groups:  A) The undertakers for the plantation involving some  60 lowland Scotsmen and  60 Englishman7, B) Servitors comprised of about 60 military men who received land as a result of their service7, and C) about 290 native Irish, most but not all of which received very small estates7.  While the undertakers of England and Scotland were expected to bring in their  tenants , with the idea those Protestants to whom they let would cultivate and defend the land against the native Irish, those who had received their estate by military service were allowed to take in both Irish and newcomers.  But  too few foreigners wished to tenant the land in Ireland, and the undertakers were forced to take on Irish native tenants. As a result , natives often worked the land involved in the Plantation, while foreigners predominantly owned it.7 Still, "by 1701,  the percentage of non-Irish in the population had been increased from 5% to 25%" 10 By that time " 14% (of the land) was owned by Catholics".10 See the Cromwellian and Williamite plantations.

Image " A Map of Ulster as a whole"  from the  BBC's  Extensive   "Wars and Conflict The Plantation of Ulster" pages

 "Transplantation of these Protestants was intended as a check against the often rebellious Catholic majority in Ireland. In effect it gave the English a permanent base in that troubled country. In early years, the colony appeared to be a success. By 1680, however, some of the Scotch-Irish had become dissatisfied and again chose to migrate, this time to North America.(11). Among the causes of the dissatisfaction were English commercial restrictions on their cattle and woollen exports.(12) Within a few decades the trickle of emigration became a torrent. In 1715-1720 drought caused widespread crop failures and soaring food prices in Ulster; at the same time, upon the expiration of many long-term tenant leases in 1717, the English landlords demanded double and triple the old rents.(13) By 1728-1729, between 3,000 and 4,000 Ulster Scots were arriving annually at the ports of Delaware Bay alone.(14) "⁴
By 1727 James McCurdy and his wife Polly (Cooke) McCurdy emmigrated from Raithlin Island, Antrim to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. William Creighton  probably arrived earlier than the date he is known present Lancaster County  in 1752.. The remainder of our Scotch Irish remained in Ireland until their common descendant in the form of Sarah WILLIAMSON  arrived in 1917 from County Cavan. [See list of Irish Surnames above] 

Ireland's Protestant New World immigrants did not call themselves Scotch Irish. Later descendants developed the term in effort to distinguish those immigrants from the later arriving (mostly Catholics) of Ireland. Whether to call the immigrants to Ireland from Scotland who from there came to America as  Scotch or Scotch Irish or Irish has received ample study and much debate. Patrick Griffin in "The People with No Name: Ulster's Migrants and Identity Formation  in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania" states

" By one account, the group defined itself by Irish traditions in America and in so doing put an indelible stamp on colonial American religious practices.....Other interpretations argue that these people carried no distinctive characteristics to the colonies but fashioned themselves as Scots in the New World. .....Overemphasizing Scottish ancestry risks rendering these men  and women invisible, losing them amid the Scots who peopled the Middle Colonies. Similarly, focusing on their experience in Ireland underestimates the Scottish roots of tradition"⁵

Short term, the plantations were enormously successful for England. In 1603, before the Battle of Kinsale, about 95% of land in Ireland was owned by Catholics; by 1701, less than a century later, only 14% was owned by Catholics, an aggregate transfer of 81% of all productive land in Ireland. Further, the percentage of non-Irish in the population had been increased from 5% to 25%. It is possible that the Crown expected the Irish and British cultures to merge eventually (with English culture predominating, naturally), but of course this did not happen. Instead, the Plantations divided Ireland, apartheid-like, into two hostile camps, a socio-economic tinder box virtually certain to eventually explode. "¹⁰ 

The Cromwellian Plantation . Largest and most acrimonious of the plantations

Thirty years after the formal advent of the Plantation of Ulster, the English themselves were embroiled in Civil War. The zealot Puritan Cromwell eventually defeated the King.  Though most Irish gentry took the King's side in the Civil War, impelled by a fear that "if the Puritans triumphed in  England, the Catholic religion would be suppressed"⁶many saw England's chaos as their possibility for independence from foreign interference.  "On 23 October 1641 a series of uprisings in Ulster spread panic among the Protestant settlers. Those who were not killed by the rebels fled for safety into the defended towns, where plague and starvation soon took their toll.... The hostilities gradually spread throughout Ireland, and in 1642 a Catholic government was formed in Kilkenny." ⁶The Irish gentry of County Cavan,  where our later lines lived, succombed to substantial native Irish pressure and joined with those seeking to recapture what they had been forced to forfeit, for which they shortly later suffered in the Cromwellian plantation. (See County Cavan)

On the occasion of the uprising and in 1641, Cromwell promised the Catholics no mercy. Having defeated and killed the King of England, Cromwell arrived to Ireland in 1649, intent on punishing those who had killed English and Scottish settlers. He also saw in Ireland the opportunity to pay off debts to his troops and financiers. He unleashed his rage on the people of the Isle, conquering it entirely.   Cromwell's wrath was not limited to the Catholics; Presbyterians and members of the Church of England residing in Ireland also suffered loss of land and property as a result of Cromwell's massive restructuring, known as the Cromwellian plantation, one part of the longer period of The Plantation of Ulster. The Catholic uprising ended completely in 1652. 

This  "was the largest and most acrimonious of the confiscations, reducing Catholic ownership of land another 37%, from 59% to 22%. Whereas the Ulster Plantation had confiscated land principally from the Gaelic-Irish, the Cromwellian Plantation took land largely from 'Old English' Catholics (who had joined the rebellion hesitantly and only to show their support for the king), and transferred it to Cromwell's soldiers (in lieu of back pay) and to investors in the war effort. By the mid 1660s, the Cromwellian and Ulster Plantations had created a huge landlord class, including the oft-vilified absentee landlords, whose rental income often permitted them to lead lives of leisure, while backbreaking rents had thrust the native Irish into abject poverty, with 85% of the populace living at subsistence level. This laid the foundation for class warfare -- rich versus poor, or more accurately, rich Protestant landlord versus poor Catholic tenant -- which later erupted as the "land wars". ¹⁰ 

Today , the oath "Cromwell's Curse Upon You" retains venomous potency. 

The Williamite Plantation, Third and final wave of 17th century plantations  The 'Revolution Settlement' refers collectively to the provisions stretching from the Bill of Rights of 1689 to the Act of Settlement of 1701, both inclusive. It post dates the Jacobite War (1689-1690) (sometimes found called the Williamite War)  waged in Ireland between Jacobites and Williamites and the English Kings fighting for the throne which the groups represented. The Jacobites supported Catholic James I of England (acceded 1685) ;  Jacobite comes from the Latin form of  James-Jacobus. The Williamites supported his son in law and usurper,  the Protestant King William of Orange, a ruler of Holland who with whig support took the throne of England. Their war in Ireland involved huge areas;  County Cavan , where the earliest known members of several of our lines lived at a later date, plays no small role . [See The War in Cavan half way down the page at  The Jacobite War].  With the final Battle (of the Boyne) William won the war , and Ireland then suffered the third and final wave of 17th Century plantations (the "Williamite Plantation"), which reduced Catholic ownership of land from 22% to 14%.10 The Jacobite War is described in more detail below.

Background of the Jacobite War 
When James II , a Catholic, became King of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1685, he brought in the Catholic revival.  Securing legal and enduring toleration for Catholics was his primary objective from 1685-1690. Catholic champion Richard Tyrconnell was named Ireland's Earl of Tyrconnell, assumed command of an Irish army regiment and was appointed lord deputy in 1687. 

 "While in command of his regiment, Tyrconnell catholicized and enlarged its composition by adding over eight hundred catholic soldiers (Maguire 46). By the time James appointed Tyrconnell lord deputy, 67 percent of the soldiers were Catholic and only a few Protestant officers had not been dismissed. Tyrconnell, acting as lord deputy, also filled important civil posts with Catholics. Within a year after Tyrconnell's own appointment, a majority of judges, magistrates, and the central administration were also Catholic (Maguire 49). As Catholic control increased, so did the fears of the Irish and English Protestants. Irish Protestants feared losing their land. In England, Ireland was viewed as a blueprint or precursor of James' plans for England (Maguire 34). Though James' capable army could suppress any local disorder, civil unrest grew in England and the threat of civil war concerned the English parliament (Maguire 36)....William of Orange, James' son in law and national leader of the Dutch Republic...(landed in England and) to the Tory and Whig party members in England, William's arrival was not a surprise. Fearing civil war and chaos as well, leading Whigs and Tories invited William to take control of the country in July (Maguire xii). In September, William wrote the Declaration which stated his reasons for invading England and then distributed it throughout Europe. ........To James, Ireland was the starting point from which he could regain the throne in England....(He sailed there and  landed with French support) ...When James arrived in Ireland, 'he found in Ireland a Catholic body politic loyal to the Crown but not loyal to the Crown's wider English interests'  (Maguire 57). The Jacobite Parliament that James had indirectly created demanded the repeal of the Restoration land settlement. The Irish people cared less for the highly political power struggle (between Kings) and more about the local power struggle between Catholics and Protestants....before James could begin his march to England....he had to overcome the protestant dissenters in Ireland. ...Determined to gain control of Ireland, William and a fleet of 300 ships arrived in Belfast on 14 June 1690. Comprised of Dutch, Germans, Danes,English, and Huguenots, Williams army of 36,000 immediately marched south until he met James at the Boyne. ...After the victory at the Boyne, William possessed control of Dublin and most of eastern Ireland....Although the Jacobite war may only have been a small wrinkle in William's greater scheme of defeating France's King Louis XIV, the war decided the balance of power in Ireland for the following two centuries. Ending the Catholic revival and securing James a spot in the bitter memories of many, the Jacobite war reestablished Protestant control of Ireland."⁹

---

In Closing: 
"Short term, the plantations were enormously successful for England. In 1603, before the Battle of Kinsale, about 95% of land in Ireland was owned by Catholics; by 1701, less than a century later, only 14% was owned by Catholics, an aggregate transfer of 81% of all productive land in  Ireland. Further, the percentage of non-Irish in the population had been increased from 5% to 25%. It is possible that the Crown expected the Irish and British cultures to merge eventually (with English culture predominating, naturally), but of course this did not happen. Instead, the Plantations divided Ireland, apartheid-like, into two hostile camps, a socio-economic tinder box virtually certain to eventually explode. " ¹⁰ 

Sources: 

1. Colonial & Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania; Geneological and Personal Memoires, Vol. I. John W Jordan, L.LD, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Ex-General Registrar of Sons of the Revolution, and Registrar of Pennsylvania Society. Originally published NY and Chicago 1911.
2. "The LARIMER, McMASTERS and Allied Fa milies" by Rachel H.L. Mellon Pub 1903
3. The Ulster Plantation page of the Ireland's Millennia Website
4. ORIGINS OF THE GREEN AND DILL FAMILIES in North Carolina, Virginia and Delaware. By Alonzo Thomas Dill.  West Point, Virginia. 1983 citing: 11 Ford, Scotch-Irish in America, 182-186.  12 Dickson, Ulster Emigration to Colonial America 261-262. 13 Dickson, Ulster Emigration to the Colonial America, 261-262. 14 Ibid., 33.
5. Griffin, Patrick, The People with No Name: Ulster's Migrants and Identity Formation in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania. The William and Mary Quarterly 58.3 (2001): 53 pars. 6 Mar. 2003
6. The Curse of Cromwell from Irelandseye.com, citing the Appletree Press title: A Little History of Ireland, by Martin Wallace, Ian McCullough (Illustrator) 
7. the BBC's Wars and Conflict: The Plantation of Ulster pages, by retired University of Ulster Professor R J Hunter

8, The Significance of the Williamite Revolution Settlement  by Prof Arthur Noble  part of the European Institue of Protestant Studies
9. James II and The Jacobite War  from US Naval Academy's English Department Webpages, author unstated
10 . Desmond's Concise History of Ireland By Jerry Desmond 

11. The Jacobite War and The War in Cavan by Gregor Kerr , at The Doyle Page