Reflections upon some Persons and Things in Ireland is an essay, written by Sir William Petty (1620-1687) and published in 1660.

London: Printed for John Martin, James Allesteye, and Thomas Dicas, and are to be sold at the Bell in St Pauls-Churchyard.

There was urgent need of a mapping of the country, to distribute forfeited lands among soldiers and among 'adventurers', individuals that had raised money to finance the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

Soldiers and adventurers were to be paid in land in Ireland, as part of the plantation campaign of Oliver Cromwell.

During the 'Down Survey', an operation, that was done in very short time, in 1655 and 1656, and that was carried out by a large group of surveyors and other assistants, under the command of Petty, all kind of controversies had risen, concerning the distribution of lands.

But now he has heard that one Sankey "(I judge the same that I knew a Foot-ball-Player in Cambridge)"[12] has accused him of fraud and bribery.

"His Reflections was composed in the heat of controversy and was the necessary means by which Petty might seek to justify himself in the eyes of his friends.

"[18] In general the book gives an impression, especially from the letters by Petty himself of a very aggrieved tone, on which he keeps repeating for many pages that he has been treated so badly by all his adversaries, many of whom he mentions by name, and of whom he creates caricatures.

An example: I have gotten the occasion of practising upon my own Morals, that is, to learn, how with silence and smiles to elude the sharpest Provocations, and without troublesome Menstruums to digest the toughest Injuries that ever a poor man was crammed with.At page 141 of the Reflections Petty announces his History of the Down Survey: "I have employed my late leasure to compile a large Volume, wherein what is here wanting is abundantly supplyed."

Petty also writes about two further publications on the same subject: "I have also written (...) a profest Answer to Sir Hieromes Eleven last and greatest Articles, containing the proofs of what is herein but barely alledged, which I may not publish till after my tryal.

(…) There is another piece of a quite contrary nature, being indeed a Satyre; which though it contain little of seriousness, yet doth it allow nothing of untruth: 'Tis a Gallery wherein you will see the Pictures of my chief Adversaries hang'd up in their proper colours; 'tis intended for the honest recreation of my ingenious friends."

[19] The Reflections are mentioned very shortly in Wood, Anthony (1691/2) – Athenae oxonienses: "written mostly against his busy and envious atagonist Zanchy (…).

"[24] Petty, in his reply, used the "rather ingenuous assertion" that the Down Survey was a public demonstration of the utility of a scientific approach.

Sectarian groups like the Anabaptists were in opposition to Cromwell's policy, but "hesitated to openly oppose a son of the Lord Protector.

"[25] One year later, Fitzmaurice, Edmond, in his Life of Sir William Petty 1623-1687 writes about the Reflections that it purports to be a correspondence between Dr.

[27] In four pages he gives a summary of the doings of Sir Hierome Sankey, and his advisor Benjamin Worsley, the surveyor-general of Ireland, and of Petty's "reflections" on them.