Gresham Lecture Barnards Inn Hall 23rd October

The Gresham Lectures embrace a wide variety of topics of interest to those involved in the City of London.  The lectures are free and held in the historical setting of Barnards Inn Hall, which used to be a Mercers School up to 1958.

One of the lesser known subjects involving livery companies are the Irish Plantations which took place early in the 17th Century, coincident in timing with the Virginia Plantations and the planned colonisation of America.  

Part of a series of three lectures on the establishment of Londonderry and forced colonalisation of Northern Ireland by the English, under Royal pressure financed by 55 Livery companies, Professor James Stevens Curl gave an interesting insight into the role of The Honourable Irish Company and particularly the Great Twelve - each allocated large areas of land in what we now know as Ulster.  Professor Curl outlined how the Irish Plantations shaped events in Europe and also in England - helping to bring about the decapitation of Charles 1 and creating the Civil War at home.

The story is fascinating and makes interesting reading - all lectures are transcribed and available online for printing out or for listening.