Brian McPhelim O'Neill

While the Clan O'Neill of Lower Clandeboye had been established in that area for two centuries, it had once been part of the Earldom of Ulster, which upon the death of its last earl in the 15th-century passed into ownership of the Crown.

[2] Smith had his son Thomas put in charge of starting a colony and planned to firstly settle the Ards peninsula and then eventually moving westwards through Clandeboye via a mixture of conquest and plantation.

The negotiations failed to happen and Brian McPhelim O'Neill set about razing any buildings (excluding abbeys and priories) he could find throughout the northern Ards peninsula that could provide shelter.

Eventually Essex had to console himself with a grant for the Islandmagee peninsula on the east coast of Antrim, to which he was able to successfully plant all the way south to Belfast.

The scheme for settling County Antrim, including the territory of Lower Clandeboye, passed from Essex to Sir Arthur Chichester, who was more successful than his predecessor.