Chapter 1 explored the most usual way in which the Welsh came to Ireland in the early modern period: military service. The next two chapters assess the extent to which the Welsh were involved in Ireland's civilian establishment, specifically the secular and religious administration and the plantations. In none of these domains were the Welsh as prominent as they were in the Irish military. Nonetheless Welsh involvement, usually overlooked, was pervasive: Welsh men and women can be found throughout the Irish administration and plantation projects. These chapters will map the changing nature of the Welsh presence in the administration and plantations over time and, continuing a prosopographical approach, build a picture of how and why Welsh individuals established themselves in these spheres. They will complete the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Welsh presence in early modern Ireland and lay the groundwork for studying Welsh community and identity in Ireland in the second part of this book. Although many of the individuals discussed here had purely civilian backgrounds, Welsh soldiers remain at the heart of the discussion. The soldiers were able to establish themselves in Ireland as administrators and obtain land in the plantations as reward for service. The following chapters thus chart how Welshmen completed the journey from soldier to settler.

‘Administration’ is used here to denote the network of civil, legal, religious and military offices that enforced the dictat of the English crown in Ireland.