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by what warrant they claimed to have, use, and enjoy, the liberties, privileges, and franchises of a corporate body; and a writ of scire facias issued, to appear in fifteen days of Easter, to shew cause against this information: which writ being served on them, they did not appear, but made default; and rules having been given for them to appear and plead, or that judgment should be for his Majesty, a writ was, in Easter term 1687, granted by the Court, to seize the said liberties, privileges, and franchises into the hands of his Majesty.

The corporation being thus stripped of their franchises, which was done with a view to put the power and property thereof into the hands of Papists; King James II. on the 5th of November, in the third year of bis reign, granted a new charter to the said corporation; whereby, after reciting the said judgment, he willed, ordained, and confirmed, that the town of Drogheda, and lands within the saine, and the liberties thereof, should be one entire town and borough of itself, and that the limits thereof should extend as far as its bounds of ancient times did, and be a distinct county; and he also willed, granted, confirmed, and ordained, that within the said town there should be one body corporate and politic, by the name of Mayor, Sheriffs, Burgesses, and Commons of the town of Drogheda; and that they and their successors for ever should be, by virtue of the said charter, one new body corporate and politic, unum novam corpus corporatum, by the said name to go in succession, with power to take, acquire, and possess lands, and to grant, demise, and assign the same; to sue and be sued; to have a common seal, a common council, and to make bye-laws and he likewise granted, confirmed, constituted, and ordained, that within the said town there should be for the future one Mayor, two Sheriffs, twenty-four Aldermen, and thirty-two Burgesses, to be elected out of the best and most discreet Aldermen, Burgesses, and Commons of the said town and by this charter he assigned, nominated, constituted, and made certain persons, therein severally mentioned by name, to be the immediate Mayor and Sheriffs of the said town, till the feast of Michaelmas then next ensuing, and certain other persons by name to be Aldermen and Burgesses of the said town, during their respective lives, and good behaviour: and granted several other powers and privileges, usual in original charters of incorporation.

The persons named in this charter, as constituent members of the new corporation were mostly Papists, who, acting under the charter, excluded all the Protestant members from voting in their assemblies; and they assumed to themselves a power of leasing for terms of years, several houses, lands, and tenements, which belonged to the old corporation, to persons who were all or most of them Papists. And amongst these leases, they granted to the said Christopher Pippard Fitz-George, a reversionary lease, dated the 3d of September 1688, of the premises comprised in his former lease, to hold for the term of sixty-one years, from and imme-[323]-diately after the expiration of the said former term, of which there were thon fifty-two years unexpired, at the same yearly rent of £8 10s.

The confused and miserable state of Ireland, occasioned by these unjust seizures, became, soon after the revolution, an object of legislative attention; and accordingly, by an act passed in England, 1 William and Mary, sess. 2. c. 9. for the better security and relief of their Majesties Protestant subjects of Ireland, all cities, boroughs, towns, and bodies corporate, within the kingdom of Ireland, were declared and enacted to be restored to the same state and condition, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, which they were in upon the 24th of June 1683; any proceedings against them by quo warranto, scire facias, or information in the nature of a quo warranto, judgments, seizures, or executions thereon, or any new charter, or any surrender, or other act or acts, since that time, to the contrary notwithstanding; all which were thereby declared to be null and void, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.

By this act, the said judgment of seizure, the new charter, and the said reversionary lease, as an act done under the new charter, and by the new officers thereby appointed, became absolutely void.

Pippard, the lessee, enjoyed the premises under the first lease till his death, which happened in November 1732, when George Pippard, as his eldest son and personal representative, became entitled, and accordingly held the same till his death, in September 1736; and then the present appellant, as the second son and personal representative of Christopher, the original lessee, enjoyed for the residue of the term, and paid the reserved rent to the corporation.