Sir Josias Bodley (1550-1618) was an English military engineer noted for his service in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

. Following the end of the war he remained in Ireland where he oversaw the rebuilding of several major forts. In 1609 he was entrusted with the

Bodley Survey The Bodley Survey was a 1609 cadastral survey overseen by Josias Bodley which aimed to study the largely unmapped areas of Ulster in the Kingdom of Ireland. It is also referred to as the Ulster Survey of 1609. The survey covered six counties Coun ...

which mapped out terrain for the

Ulster Plantation The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots: ) was the organised colonisation (''plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James VI and I. Small privately funded plantations by wealthy lan ...

Early life

He was the son of John Bodley a

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

from

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

, and the younger brother of the scholar Sir

Thomas Bodley Sir Thomas Bodley (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an England, English diplomat and Scholarly method, scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Origins Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the re ...

, known for his involvement in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

. Josias spent some of his youth abroad, where his Protestant father had gone as a Marian exile during reign of the Catholic

Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

. He attended

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

before travelling around Europe. He then joined the English forces fighting for the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

. By 1598, he had reached the rank of captain.

Ireland

Bodley served during the

in Ireland, where Crown forces were battling against the rebellion of

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (; – 20 July 1616) was an Irish lord and key figure of the Nine Years' War. Known as the "Great Earl", he led the confederacy of Irish lords against the English Crown in resistance to the Tudor conquest of Ir ...

. At the decisive

Battle of Kinsale The siege of Kinsale (), also known as the battle of Kinsale, was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of the Nine Years' War� ...

Bodley was appointed as "Trenchmaster" (

chief engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...

) of the Anglo-Irish troops under Lord Mountjoy besieging a Spanish expeditionary force. He later served in Ulster, taking part in the storming of one of Tyrone's great fortresses at Lough Lurcan (modern-day Moyrourkan Lough). He commanded the post of

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

with 700 troops as a garrison. When the

Treaty of Mellifont The Treaty of Mellifont (), also known as the Articles of Mellifont, was signed in 1603, ending the Nine Years' War (Ireland), Nine Years' War which took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. End of war Following the English victory in the Battl ...

brought the war to an end he was given a command in the peacetime

Irish Army The Irish Army () is the land component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. ...

like several other veterans.Bardon p.65 He was knighted in March 1604 and was subsequently appointed Inspector of Fortifications in Ireland. He was also made

Governor of Duncannon Fort The Governor of Duncannon Fort was a military officer who commanded the garrison at Duncannon in County Wexford. In later years the post became a sinecure and was abolished on the death of the last holder in 1835. List of governors * Sir Cary ...

Bodley Survey

Following the

Flight of the Earls On 14 September ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 4 September1607, Irish earls Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, permanently departed Rathmullan in Ireland for mainland Europe, accompanied by their fa ...

in 1607 and the subsequent O'Doherty's Rebellion, the lands of several rebel Gaelic lords were confiscated and plans were drawn up for the settling of British immigrants alongside those loyal Gaelic leaders who were to be granted land. Bodley carried out a preliminary study of the terrain as a guide for London when the

was being drawn up by

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) * James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) * James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu * James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334� ...

and his government. In 1609 he headed a more detailed survey which systematically catalogued the Ulster landscape for the first time. This became the basis for grants made under the Plantation. The King was impressed by the work and later commissioned Bodley to perform further studies of Ulster. He died in 1618, and was buried in Ireland. He was succeeded in his post as Inspector of Fortifications by two replacements. He was later included in John Prince's book '' The Worthies of Devon''.

References

Bibliography

* Bardon, Jonathan. ''The Plantation of Ulster''. Gill & MacMillan, 2012. * McGurk, John. ''Sir Henry Docwra, 1564-1631: Derry's Second Founder''Four Courts Press, 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bodley, Josias 1550 births 1618 deaths Engineers from Exeter English military engineers Emigrants from the Kingdom of England English army officers 16th-century Anglo-Irish people 17th-century Anglo-Irish people Military personnel from Exeter Josias Alumni of Merton College, Oxford