a failure which had cost Essex and the Crown dearly. Munster Plantation (1583 onwards) The Munster Plantation of the 1580s was the first mass plantation in Ireland. It was instituted as punishment for the Desmond Rebellions, when the Geraldine Earl of Desmond had rebelled against English interference in Munster. The Desmond dynasty was annihilated in the aftermath of the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–83) and their estates were confiscated by the Crown. The English authorities took the opportunity to settle the province with colonists from England and Wales, who, it was hoped, would be a bulwark against further rebellions. In 1584, the Surveyor General of Ireland, Sir Valentine Browne and a commission surveyed Munster, to allocate confiscated lands to English Undertakers (wealthy colonists who "undertook" to import tenants from England to work their new lands). The English Undertakers were obligated to develop new towns and provide for the defence of planted districts from attack. However, the colonial plans were complicated by surveys showing less land available than previously imagined, as well as lawsuits influenced by the earl of Ormond. It was agreed that ninety-one families would be settled on 12,000 acres and further smaller grants of 8,000, 6,000 and 4,000 acres families were to be planted. In 1611 it has been estimated that 94,000 acres originally assigned to undertakers had been reclaimed. Out of the eighty-six, original volunteers only fifteen ultimately took out patents, although these were supplemented by another twenty individuals not associated with the initial scheme. On the outbreak of the Nine Years' War, one contemporary estimate was that the plantation had attracted about 5,000 English settlers, but it is more commonly surmised that the total English population in the colony stood at c. 4000 at the first overthrow in 1598. This was well short of the 11,375 people that the original plans had envisaged. There was an enterprising capitalist element to the Munster plantations. Privateers and the enterprising public could buy land in Munster at pennies an acre as undertakers, sometimes backed by private investors. Sir Walter Raleigh owned large estates in Munster and harvested the forests around his estate to make tobacco pipes and wine barrels, although his company proved unprofitable. However, other investors made a fortune off the plantations. Businessman Robert Payne advocated for settlers to come to the Munster colonies. He bought land holdings in Munster for his venture, recruiting 25 business partners and partnering