Divisions for Ecclesiastical and Legal Purposes.—Tyroue returns to the Imperial Parliament two members for the county at large, and one for the borough of Dungannon. It is in the north-western circuit. The assizes are held at Omagh, where the county jail is. Quarter sessions are held there, and at Clogher, Dungauuon, and Strabane, which three towns have bridewells. l'etty sessions are held in nineteen places. There is a resident magistrate at Omagh. The Lunatic Asy lum and a fever hospital are at Omagh ; fever hospitals are at Augh nacloy and Strabane, and dispensaries at twenty-two places. There are savings banks at Clogher, Cookstown, Dungannou, and Strabaue. The Union workhouses are at Castlederg, Clogher, Cookstown, Dun gannon, Gortiu, Omagh, and Strabane. The county is in the military district of Belfast, and there is a barrack station at Omagh. The staff of the county militia is stationed at Caledon. In September, 1852, there were 270 National schools in the county, attended by 10,731 male and 8,493 female children.
History and Antiquities.—This county seems to have been included in the territory of the Darnii, a nation mentioned by Ptolernmus. At a subsequent period, parts of it were known by the names of Hy-Briun and Hy-Fischria (the latter being the country about the river Dug); and the whole appears to have been called Kind Eoguiu, or Tir-oeu, modernised Tyrone. About 1177 the county was invaded by John do
Courcy, one of the Anglo-Norman invaders ; but appears to have remained in the hands of the O'Neills of Tir-oen, who were among the most powerful of the native chieftains, until 1601, when the Lord Deputy Mountjoy compelled him to submit Tyrone was compre hended in the great settlement made in Ulster, after the accession of James I. [(Issue], and was in great part parcelled out among under takers' (that is, persons who undertook to form settlements or colonies), partly Scotch and partly English.
In the great rebellion of 1641 Dungannon Fort was seized by Sir Phelim O'Neill. In 1646 the Scots and English were defeated by the Irish insurgents at Benburb, with the loss of above 3,000 men. This victory restored to the insurgents a predominance in Ulster, which however they finally lost on the arrival and success of Cromwell in 1649. In the revolutionary war the army of James, after raising the siege of Londonderry, retired to Strabane, in this county.