In the spring of 1680, the Duke of Ormonde ordered one of his Dublin spies to find, "an army man in the Armagh area with the credentials to carry out a dangerous undercover task." At the advice of his agent, the Viceroy selected William Lucas, an Anglo-Irish landlord from Dromantine, County Down. The Lucas family had a long and profitable history with the O'Hanlon gang. Furthermore, Lucas' uncle, Sir Toby Poyntz of Poyntzpass, a justice of the peace, had been named by Rev. Power one of the outlaw Count's closest associates in the Ulster gentry.