BARONY OF, in the county of Down in Ireland: it is a narrow slip of land, in some places three and in none above five miles broad; but the soil is for the most part tolerably good. It lies between the lake of Strangford and the sea, and in the south part it is opposite to Lecale. Sir Thomas Smith obtained a patent for this barony from Queen Elizabeth, and sent his natural son with a colony to possess it; but he was intercepted and slain by an Irishman. After Sir Thomas's death, Ards was granted by James I. to some of the Scots nobility.