It was funded in part by the Honourable The Irish Society, known in full as the Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, of the New Plantation in Ulster, within the Realm of Ireland, is a consortium of livery companies of the City of London set up in 1613 during the Plantation of Ulster to colonise County Londonderry. It was incorporated by royal charter of James I and consists of "six and twenty honest and discreet citizens of London" nominated by the livery companies. In its first decades it rebuilt the city of Derry and town of Coleraine, and for centuries it owned property and fishing rights near both towns. Some of the society's profits were used to develop the economy and infrastructure of the area, while some was returned to the London investors, and some used for charitable work.