without any further delay to march on and presently surprise the same These false rumours being unluckily spread and by some fomented out of evill ends exceedingly increased the present distractions of the people and raised such a panick fear among them as about seven of the clock at night the Lords Iustices and some of the Councel being then in the councel-chamber within the castle there came in to them a Gentleman of good quality who having not without much difficulty as he pretended recovered the gate of the castle caused the Warders then attending to draw up the bridge assuring them that the Rebels gathered together in great numbers had already possessed themselves of a good part of the Town and came now with great fury marching down the street that leads directly towards the castle gate But this feare was quickly removed by Sir Francis Willoughby who being that day made governour of the castle caused the draw-bridge to be let down and so found this to be a false alarum occasioned by some mistake fallen among the people who continued waving up and down the streets prepossessed with strange feares and some of them upon some slender accident drawing their swords others that knew not the cause thought fit to follow the example and so came to appeare to this Gentleman who was none of their company as so many Rebels comming up to enter the castle These were the first beginnings of our sorrows ill symptomes The Lords Iustices and Councell consult what course to take for the suppressing this rebellion and sad preparatives to the ensuing evils Therefore the Lords finding by several intelligences though some purposely framed that the power of the Rebels was suddenly swollen up to so great a bulk and likely so fast to multiply and increase upon them thought it high time to consider of the remedies and in what condition they were to oppose since they could not prevent so imminent a danger The rebellion now appeared without all manner of question to be generally raised in all parts of the North and like a torrent to come down most impetuously upon them besides it was no wayes improbable that all other parts of the kingdome would take fire and follow their example they had the testimony of Mac-Mahon positive therein The first thing therefore which they took into consideration was how they were provided of Mony Arms and Munition Then what Companies of Foot and Troops of Horse of the old Army they were able to draw presently together No money in the Exchequer as also what numbers of new men they could suddenly raise For the first they had this short accompt from the Vice-treasurer That there was no mony in the Exchequer And certainly it was a main policie in the first contrivers of this Rebellion to plot the breaking of it out at such a time when the Exchequer should be empty and all the Kings revenues both certain and casuall due for that half year as well as the rents of all the British throughout the kingdome should be found ready either in the tenants or collectors hands in the country and so necessarily fall under their power as they did to their great advantage For Arms and Munition the Stores were indifferently well furnished at this time Besides severall Peeces of Artillery of divers sorts most of them fitted for present service there were Arms for near 10000. men 1500 barrels of Powder with Match and Lead proportionable laid in by the Earle of Strafford late L. Lieutenant not long before and designed another way but so opportunely reserved for this service as the good providence of God did exceedingly appeare therein but principally in the miraculous preservation of them out of the hands of the Rebels who made the surprisall of these provisions then all within the castle of Dublin the common store-house of them a main part of their designe The old standing Army as appeares by this List consisted only of 41 Companies of Foot and 14 Troops of Horse A List of His Majesties Army in Ireland 1641. Before the Rebellion began Foot-Companies consisting of six Officers viz. Captain Lieutenant Ensign Chirurgion Serjeant and Drum and fourty four Souldiers each Company LORD Lieutenants Guard 45 Sir Robert Farrar 44 Sir Thomas Wharton 44 Sir George Saint-George 44 Cap. Francis Butler 44 Sir Wil. Saint Leguer 44 Lord Docwra 44 Lord Blaney 44 Sir Robert Steward 44 Lord Viscount Rannelagh 44 Lord Viscount Baltinglas 44 Sir John Vaughan 44 Cap. George Blount 44 Sir Hen. Tichbourne 44 Sir Frederick Hamilton 44 Lord Castle-Stewart 44 Sir Lorenzo Cary 44 Cap Chichester Fortescue 44 Sir John Gifford 44 Cap. John Barry 44 Sir John Neutervile 44 Cap. Thomas Rockley 44 Sir Arthur Tyringham 44 Cap. Philip Wenman 44 Cap. Charles Price 44 Sir Charles Coote 44 Cap. Thomas Games 44 Sir Francis Willoughby 44 Sir John Borlase 44 Cap. Robert Bailey 44 Sir Arthur Loftus 44 Cap. Wil. Billingsley 44 The Lord Esmond 44 The Lord Lambert 44 Sir George Hamilton 44 Lord Folliot 44 Sir Wil. Stewart 44 Cap. Robert Biron 44 Sir John Sherlock 44 The Earl of Clanricard 44 Cap. John Ogle 44 These Companies contain Officers 246 In all 2297 Souldiers 2051 In all 2297 Horse-Troopes THE Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant generall his Troop consisting of Captain Lieutenant Cornet and Horsemen 108 The Earl of Ormonds Troop like Officers and Horsemen 107 The Earl of Straffords Troop like Officers and Horsemen 58 Lord Dillons Troop like Officers and Horsemen 58 Lord Wilmots Troop like Officers and Horsemen 58 Sir Wil. Saint-Leguer Lord President of Munster the like 58 Lord Viscount Moore the like 58 Lo. Viscount Grandison the like 58 Lo. Visc Cromwell of Lecale the like 58 Cap. Arthur Chichester the like 58 Sir George Wentworth the like 58 Sir John Borlase the like 58 Lo. Viscount Conway the like 58 Sir Adam Loftus the like 58 These Troopes contain Officers 42 In all 943 Horsemen 901 In all 943 These were so strangely dispersed most of them into the remote parts of the kingdome for the guard of severall Forts and other places as it fell out to be in a maner most impossible to draw a considerable number of them together in any time either for the defence of the City or the making head against the Rebels in the North and besides it was much to be suspected the companies lying severally so remote and ill furnished with munition could with little safety march to Dublin Yet the Lords sent Potents presently away to require severall companies of Foot and some troops of Horse presently to rise and march up from their severall garrisons towards the city of Dublin And now it was held high time to give an accompt unto His Majesty then at Edenburgh in his kingdome of Scotland and to the Lord Lieutenant continuing still at London the Parliament still sitting there of the breaking out of this Rebellion Letters from the Lords Iustices and Councell to the Lord Lieutenant
whatsoever they had to cover their nakednesse taken from most of them as may appear by the examination of Adam Clover of Slonosy in the County of Cavan who being duly sworn deposeth inter alia That this deponent and his company that were robbed observed that 30 persons or thereabouts were then most barbarously murdered and slain outright and about 150 more persons cruelly wounded so that traces of blood issuing from their wounds lay upon the High way for 12 miles together and many very young children were left and perished by the way to the number of 60 or thereabouts because the cruell pursuit of the Rebels was such that their parents and friends could not carry them further And further saith that some of the Rebels vowed That if any digged graves wherein to bury the dead children they should be buried therein themselves So the poor people left the most of them unburied exposed to ravenous beasts and fowls and some few their Parents carried a great way to bury them And this deponent further saith that he saw upon the way a woman left by the Rebels stripped to her smock set upon by three women and some Irish children who miserably rent and tore the said poor English woman and stripped her of her smock in a bitter frost and snow so that she fell in labour under their hands and both she and her childe dyed there Thus did their mercy in sparing those miserable soules in this manner prove by much a far greater cruelty then if they had suddenly cut them off as they did afterwards many thousands of Brittish that fell into their hands For now they starved and perished in multitudes upon the wayes as they travelled along and to those that outlived the misery of their journey their limbes only served to drag up their bodies to christian buriall there denied unto them For many of the men and most of the women and children that thus escaped either to Dublin or other places of safety in the North not long outlived the bitternesse of their passage but either overwhelmed with grief or outwearied with travell contracted those diseases which furthered by hunger cold nakednesse ill lodgings and want of other necessaries struck deeply into bodies that had lived long at ease with much plenty and soon brought them with sorrow to their graves THese were the first fruits of this Rebellion which now began to dilate it self into the other Provinces having covered over the Northern Parts of the Kingdome with fearfull desolations The first Plotters were yet undiscovered but the great active instruments appointed for the execution of this horrid designe fully appeared and had already deeply imbrued their hands in the bloody massacres of the English Sir Phelim O Neale being the chief of that Sept Sir Phelim O Neales proceedings and now the person remaining of nearest alliance to the late Earl of Tyrone assumed to himself the chief power among the Rebels in Vlster and by his directions guided the rest of his complices on in the destruction of all the English there He was one of very mean parts without courage or conduct his education for a great part of his youth was in England he was admitted a Student of Lincolns Inne and there trained up in the Protestant religion which he soon changed after if not before his return into Ireland lived loosely and having no considerable estate by reason of the great engagement upon it became of very little esteem in all mens opinions Yet such were the over zealous affections of his Countreymen in this cause their secrecy in attempting their suddennesse in executing as by their forwardnesse to destroy the English and get their goods he quickly over-run that part of the Countrey He had prevailed so far within seven dayes after he first appeared in this Rebellion by seazing most treacherously at the very first upon Charlemont where the Lord Caufield lay with his Foot company the Forts of Dongannon and Montjoy as that in his Letter written to Father Patrick O Donnell his Confessor bearing date from Montjoy the 30 of Octob. he was able to brag of great and many victories And presently after he had gotten such a multitude of rude fellowes together though in very ill equipage as he marched down with great numbers of men towards Lisnagaruy near the chief Plantation of the Scots for that part of their plot to spare them as they did in the beginning they found now too grosse to take therefore they resolved to fall upon them without mercy and yet left sufficient forces to come up into the Pale to take in Dondalke in the County of Lowth Which was a Frontier Town in the last wars against Tyrone Dondalke taken by the Rebels about the beginning of Novemb 1641. and so well defended it self as with all the power he had he could never recover it into his hands There lay now a Foot company of the old Army but the Lieutenant who commanded it having neither his men in readinesse nor armes or munition made little or no resistance easily giving way to the forward affections of the inhabitants who delivered up the Town into the possession of the Rebels about the beginning of November 1641. The Rebels presently after their taking in of Dondalke marched on further into the County of Lowth and possessed themselves of Ardee The Rebels march up towards Tredagh a little Town within seven miles of Tredagh anciently called Drohedagh So as it was now high time to provide for the safety of that Town The Lord Moore had already retired thither from his house at Millifont and there remained with his troop of horse and two companies of foot One was under the command of Sir John Nettervile eldest sonne to the Lord Viscount Nettervile He discovered in the very beginning much virulency in his affections by giving false frights and raising false rumours and making all manner of ill infusions into the mindes of the Townsmen who as it afterwards appeared were but too forward to take part with the Rebels It is verily believed they had in the very beginning some plot to cut off the Lord Moore and seaze upon his Troop and that Sir John Netterviles part was to begin a mutiny which he attempted that night he was to be upon the watch by giving ill language and endeavouring to make a quarrell with his Lordship which he very discreetly passed over and so carefully looked to the guard of the Town as they could take no advantage to put on their designe Howsoever the Townsmen were extreamly frighted with the thoughts of their present danger and the greater part of them being Papists were ready to declare themselves for the Catholick cause only their desires were things might be so ordered The ill condition of Tredagh represented by the L. Moore to the L. Iustices as would administer unto them specious pretences of necessity for the same The L. Moore gave present advertisement unto the Lords Justices and
one Tooly Conley parish Priest to Master Moore to Colonel O Neale in the Low-Countries who within few moneths after arrived with this answer from the said Colonel desiring them not to delay any time in rising out but to let him know of the day when they intended it and that he would not faile to be with them within fourteen dayes of that day with good ayd also desiring them by any means to seize on the Castle of Dublin if they could And further he saith that during the time of these their private meetings there landed at Dublin Colonel Birne Colonel Plunket Captain Brien O Neale and others who came with directions to carry men away and that these were acquainted with the Plot and did offer their service to bring it on and that they would raise their men under colour to carry them into Spain and then seize on the Castle of Dublin and with the arms found there arme their Souldiers and have them ready for any action that should be commanded them He further also saith that they had divers private consultations about the carrying on of this conspiracy not onely at Dublin but in severall other places in the Province of Vlster and that they had set down severall days for the putting of it in execution but meeting with some obstacles did not come to conclude of the certain time till about the beginning of September and that then they peremptorily resolved on the 23. of October for the day to execute this long designed plot in and that they had respect unto the day of the week which did fall on Saturday being the Market-day on which there would be the lesse notice taken of people up and down the streets that they then setled what numbers of men should be brought up out of the severall Provinces for the surprize of the Castle and what Commanders should lead them on that seeing the Castle had two Gates that the Lemster men should undertake to seize upon the little Gate which lay neerest to the place where the arms and munition was placed and that the great gate should be undertaken by those of Vlster and that Sir Phelim O Neale should be there in person but that he excused himself because he resolved at the same time to seize upon London Derry and that thereupon by the impottunity of the undertakers it was imposed upon him the said Lord Mac Guire to be there in person at the taking of the Castle of Dublin That it was further resolved what number of Forces should be brought up out of the other Provinces to make good those places if possessed by them and that Sir James Dillon did undertake to be there with 1000. men within four dayes after the taking of the Castle as also that it was resolved that every one privy to that matter in every part of the Kingdome should rise out that day and seize on all the Forts and Arms in the severall Counties as likewise on all the Gentry and make them prisoners the more to assure themselves against any adverse fortune and not to kill any but where of necessity they should be forced thereunto by opposition These particulars together with many other circumstances very considerable are set down in the relation given in by the Lord Mac Guire while he remained prisoner in the Tower of London but I have thought fit to forbear to relate them at large because I find that relation published by authority and so presented to the common view We shall find also that Mac Mahone in his examination taken when he was first apprehended by the Lords Justices and Counsel here doth testifie that all the chief of the Nobility and Gentry in this Kingdom were acquainted with the first plot and particularly that all the popish party in the Committee sent into England as likewise in both houses of Parliament knew of it In the Examnation of William Fitz Gerald it is there affirmed that Sir Phelim O Neale sending for him five days after his rising in Arms told him what he did was by directions and consent of the prime Nobility and Gentry of the whole Kingdom and that what he had done in the Northern parts the same was executed at Dublin and in all other Forts and Towns throughout Ireland As being a course resolved upon among the Lords and Gentry for the preservation of his Majesties Prerogative their own Religion and Liberties against the Puritan faction in England Scotland and Ireland and that the Lord of Gormanstone knew of this plot while he was in England is testified by Lieutenant Colonel Read in his Examination as also by the Lord Mac Guire in his relation who saith that Colonel Plunket told him that he being at London had acquainted some of the Irish Committee and particularly the Lord of Gormanstone with this plot and that they approved it well Colonel Plunket in his Letter to Father Patrick Barnwal Lord Abbot of Mellifont as he stiles him doth seem much to glory in the means he had used to incite the Lords and Gentry of the Pale to appear in that blessed cause as he tearms it and assures him that the Lord of Gormanstone whom he there cals Lord General will goe bravely on And now it will be no difficult matter to resolve what were the secondary steps and motions of this great plot as well as by what persons it was wrought out in Ireland and carried on to the very point of execution And first it is to be observed that howsoever Sir Phelim O Neale the Lord Mac Guire Philip O Rely Colonel Mac Brian The first contrivers of the Rebellion did not first openly appear in it Hugh Mac Mahone and their adherents chief of the Irish Septs in Vlster and other counties neer adjacent did first appeare upon the stage and by their bloody execution notoriously declare themselves chief actors in this horrid tragedy Yet this Rebellion was either altogether nor originally plotted by them most of them had but subordinate notions of it and they as other of the chief Nobility and Gentry throughout the Kingdom had severall parts assigned them to act at severall times in severall places and did but move according to the first resolutions taken and such directions as they had received from the first Conspirators I take it to be most probable after the generall plot came to be reduced into form that as the Lord of Gormanstone was one of the first and chief movers in it so he and the chief of the Pale joyned together to draw in as they had done in all former Rebellions the principall septs of the old Irish to engage themselves and to appear first in the businesse That the Lord of Gormanston and some others of the Engl. Pale were engaged in the first Plot is very probable And after they had joyned together and so finely ordered the matter as they had made it a generall rising as Sir Phelim O Neale tearms it of all the Catholicks throughout the
threescore yeers or thereabouts sworn and examined before his Majesties Commissioners by vertue of a Commission in that behalf directed under the great Seale of Ireland Deposeth and saith THat these Protestant Ministers following about the beginning of the present Rebellion were murthered in the Counties of Tyrone Armagh viz. Master John Matthew Master Blyth Master Hastings Master Smith Master Durragh Master Birge and eight more whose names this Deponent hath forgotten by the Rebels none of which would the Rebels permit to be buried the names of such as murthered this Examinant knoweth not his cause of knowledge of the said murthers is that some of his this Deponents servants who were among the Rebels did give him the relation and he verily beleeveth them and besides this Deponent heard the same confessed and averred by many of the Rebels themselves and by some of those Protetestants that had escaped and that he this Deponent was a prisoner amongst the Rebels at Castle Gaufield neer the place of those murders where he continued fourteen moneths And further saith that in Dungannon in the County of Tyrone or neer thereunto the Rebels murdered three hundred and sixteen Protestants and between Charlmount and Dungannon above four hundred there were murdered and drowned at and in the River by Benburb the Black-water between the Counties of Armagh and Tyrone two hundred and six Protestants and Patrick Mac Crew of Dungannon aforesaid murdered thirty one in one morning and two young Rebels viz. John Begbrian Harie murdered in the said County of Tyrone one hundred and forty poore women and children that could make no resistance and that the wife of Brian Kelly of Loghgall in the County of Armagh one of the Rebels Captaines did with her owne hands murder forty five And this Deponent further saith that one Thomas King sometimes Serjeant to the late Lord Caulfields Company which this Deponent commanded he being enforced to serve under the Rebels and was one of their Provest Marshals gave the Deponent a List of every housholders name so murdered and the number of the persons so murdered which List this Deponent durst not keep At Portadowne there were drowned at severall times about three hundred and eight who were sent away by about forty or such like numbers at once with convoyes and there drowned There was a Lawgh neer Loghgall aforesaid where were drowned above two hundred of which this Deponent was informed by severall persons and particularly by the wife of Doctor Hodges and two of her sons who were present and designed for the like end but by Gods mercy that gave them favour in the eyes of some of the Rebels they escaped and the said Mistris Hodges and her sons gave the Deponent a List of the names of many of those that were so drowned which the Deponent durst not keep and saith that the said Doctor Hodges was imployed by Sir Phelim O Neile to make Powder but he failing of his undertaking was first halfe hanged then cut down and kept prisoner three moneths then murdered with forty four more within a quarter of of a mile Charlmount aforesaid they being by Tirlogh Oge O Neile brother to Sir Phelim sent to Dungannon prisoners and in the way murdered This Deponent was shewed the pit where they were all cast in at a Mill-pond in the Parish of Killamen in the County of Tyrone there were drowned in one day three hundred and in the same Parish there were murdered of English and Scottish one thousand and two hundred as this Deponent was informed by Master Birge the late Minister of the said Parish who certified the same under his hand which note the Deponent durst not keep The said Master Birge was murthered three moneths after all which murders were in the first breaking out of the Rebellion but the particular times this Deponent cannot remember neither the persons by whom they were committed This Deponent was credibly informed by the said Serjeant and others of this Deponents servants who kept company with the Rebels and saw the same that many young children were cut into quarters and gobbets by the Rebels and that eighteen Scottish Infants were hanged on a Clothiers tenterhook and that they murthered a young fat Scottish man and made candles of his grease they took another Scottish man and ripped up his belly that they might come to his small guts the one end whereof they tyed to a tree and made him goe round untill he had drawne them all out of his body they then saying that they would try whether a dogs or a Scotch mans guts were the longer Anthony Stratford Deposeth March 9. 1643. before us Henry Jones Henry Brereton The EXAMINATION of Robert Maxwell Clerk The Province of Ulster Arch-Deacon of Downe sworne and examined deposeth and saith inter alia THat by command from Sir Phelim O Neile the Rebels dragged the Deponents brother Lieutenant James Maxwell out of his bed in the rage and height of a burning Feaver and least any of his acquaintance or friends should bury him they carried him two miles from any Church and there cruelly butchered him when he neither knew what he did or said and thus Sir Phelim paid him two hundred and sixty pound which he owed him And his wife Grissell Maxwell being in child-birth the child halfe born and halfe unborne they stript starke naked drove her about an arrowes flight to the Black-water and drowned her The like they did to another English woman in the same Parish in the beginning of the Rebellion which was little inferiour if not more unnaturall and barbarous then the roasting of Master Watson alive after they had cut a collop out of either buttock And farther saith that a Scottish woman was found in the Glinwood lying dead her belly ripped up and a living child crawling in her wombe cut out of the Cawle and that Master Starkey School-Master at Armagh he a Gentleman of good Parentage and parts being upwards of an hundred yeers of age they stript naked caused two of his Daughters Virgins being likewise naked to support him under each arme he being not able to goe of himselfe And in that posture carried them all three a quarter of a mile to a turfe pit and drowned them feeding the lusts of their eyes and the cruelty of their hearts with the self-same objects at the same time At the siege of Augher they would not kill any English Beast and then eat it but they cut collops out of them being alive letting them there rore till they had no more flesh upon their backs so that sometimes a Beast would live two or three days together in that torment the like they did at Armagh when they murdered Hugh Echlin Esquire they hanged and murdered all his Irish servants which had any way proved faithfull or usefull to him during this Rebellion And as touching exemplary constancy in Religion this Deponent saith that Henry Cowell Esquire a gallant and well bred Gentleman was murdered because he
apparent danger and disturbance and that peradventure they might there finde as ill affections as they brought and so both joyning together they might easily destroy the state with the poore remainders of the English Nation in these Parts Whereupon the Lords thought fit to hold to their Prorogation yet to endeavour so to attemper and sweeten it as those who were most averse might in some measure rest satisfied therewith And therefore after a long debate of all particular circumstances they came at length to this resolution that the Earle of Ormond the Master of the Rolls and Sir Pierce Crosby three Members of the Board should have a meeting with Mr Darcy Mr Burk and some others of the most active and powerfull Members of the House of Commons and that they should let them know from the Lords that they have understood of their good affections and desires to doe somewhat in the House that might tend towards the suppression of this present Rebellion that they approved extreame well thereof And that howsoever they could by no meanes remove absolutely the Prorogation yet that they would descend so far to their satisfaction as to limit it to a shorter time and that at present they would give them leave to sit one whole day in case they would immediatly fall upon the work of making a cleer Protestation against the Rebels As also that they should have liberty if they pleased to make choyce of some Members of their own House to send down to Treat with the Rebels about laying down of Arms And for their grievances that their Lordships would with all readinesse receive them and presently transmit them over to his Majesty for a speedy redresse All this was accordingly performed the meeting was in the Gallery at Cork House Those of the House of Commons seemed at first to be extreamly troubled when they found there was no possibility of altering the present Prorogation But upon a further debate when they came to understand how ready the Lords were to yeeld to their satisfaction and that the time of the Prorogation should be shortned they seemed to rest indifferently contented undertook to make the Protestation in such full and ample manner as was desired and that they would fall immediately upon it and make it the work of the whole day Upon the 17 of November the Lords and Commons met in Parliament which was held in the usuall place of his Majesties Castle of Dublin And for the better security of the place as well as of the persons of those that were to meet there was a Guard of Musketiers appointed to attend during the time of their meeting but such care taken that they should carry themselves so free from giving any offence as no manner of umbrage might be taken at their attendance there The Houses were both very thin there were only in the House of Peeres some few English Lords three or foure Lords of the Pale and some two or three Bishops In the House of Commons they took into their consideration upon their first meeting the framing of the Protestation against the Rebels But those of the Popish party spake so ambiguously and handled the matter so tenderly as they could not be drawn to stile them by the name of Rebels so as they sent up unto the Lords a very meager cold Protestation against them which being in their House taken into debate it was strongly contested by the Protestant Lords that they should be stiled Rebels but that as stiffely opposed by the others They therefore fell upon a meane betwixt both which gave a kinde of accommodation saying they had Rebelliously and Traiterously raised Armes and so both parties being reasonably satisfied the Protestation was drawn up and returned back to the House of Commons in this Tenour as followeth The Protestation and Declaration of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in Parliament assembled WHereas the happy and peaceable Estate of this Realm hath been of late and is still interrupted by sundry persons ill-affected to the Peace and Tranquillity thereof who contrary to their Duty and Loyalty to His Majesty and against the Lawes of God and the fundamentall Lawes of the Realm have Trayterously and Rebelliously raised Armes have seized upon some of his Majesties Forts and Castles and dispossessed many of his Majesties faithfull Subjects of their Houses Lands and Goods and have slaine many of them and committed other cruell and inhumane Outrages and Acts of Hostility within this Realme The said Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being justly moved with a right sense of the said disloyall Rebellious Proceedings and actions of the persons aforesaid doe hereby protest and declare that they the said Lords and Commons from their hearts doe detest and abhorre the said abhominable Actions and that they shall and will to their uttermost power maintaine the Rights of his Majesties Crown and Government of this Realm and Peace and Safety thereof aswell against the persons aforesaid their Abettors Adherents as also against all forreine Princes Potentates and other persons and Attemps whatsoever and in case the persons aforesaid doe not repent of their aforesaid Actions and lay down Armes and become humble Suitors to his Majesty for Grace and Mercy in such convenient time and in such manner and forme as by his Majestie or the chiefe Governour or Governours and Councell of this Realm shall be set down The said Lords and Commons doe further protest and declare that they will take up Armes and will with their Lives and Fortunes suppresse them and their Attempts in such a way as by the Authority of the Parliament of this Kingdome with the Approbation of his most Excellent Majesty or of his Majesties chiefe Governour or Governours of this Kingdome shall be thought most effectuall Copia vera Exam. per Phil. Percivall Cleric Parliament Both Houses of Parliament sate two dayes and the time of the Prorogation being shortned unto the 11. of Ian. The Lords made choyce of the Lord Viscount Costelo to goe into England to carry over their desires to his Majesty concerning the meanes they thought fit to be used for the quenching this present Rebellion And besides those instructions formerly mentioned he had as I heard from the Popish Lords some more private which were to negotiate the staying such Forces as were intended to be sent out of England for that end Both Houses joyned together to appoint certaine Lords and some Members of the House of Commons to goe down to the Northen Rebels The Houses of Parliament send to Treat with the Rebels to understand the cause of their rising in Armes and referred them to the Lords Iustices for their instructions which accordingly they received together with a Commission under the Great Seale But the Rebellion having a farre deeper root then was at that time discovered this Commission was of little operation and the intended Treaty soone vanished The Northern Rebels were then so puffed up with their late victories
this is a true Relation as neare as I could collect it from the mouthes of those that were present of that famous victory so much boasted of by the Irish whereunto the inexperience of the English Commanders and the disorders of the common souldiers who were then but newly taken up and had never seene any service contributed farre more then any skill or courage shewed by the Rebels which they had only opportunity at that time to expresse by a loud shout Besides they were treble their number and had for their leaders Roger Moore Hugh Birne and Philip O-Rely the two last persons who had been trained in the Warres abroad under the Spanish Discipline and were of greatest experience among them they brought down a great part of those Forces out of the Counties of Cavan and Monagham and as soone as they came within the River of Boyne great numbers of the ordinary churles of the Pale adjoyned themselves unto their men and so made up a body sufficient to performe that service The newes of this unhappy defeat was brought the very same day being munday the 29 of November at evening to the Lords Justices as they sate in Councell It troubled them very much and as it was a matter of great rejoycing among the Popish Inhabitants of the City so it bred a generall sorrow and consternation among the English and Protestants It hapned in a very ill season the late made Colonels were but then in raising of their men And such Companies as were compleated were by the Lords the same day of the marching of the 600 men to Tredagh Sir Charls Coots Expedition into the County of Wiclow commanded out under Sir Charles Coot into the County of Wiclow for the repressing the insolencies of the Birnes and the Tooles towards the poore Engl sh whom they began to fall upon most furiously stripping murdering and driving them all out of that Territory as soone as they had taken in the Kings Fort in that County called Carews Fort and possessed themselves of the chiefe places of strength belonging to the English Gentlemen there He marched to the Town of Wiclow where he caused some few men and one woman to be executed they being found upon Examination guilty of the late spoyles committed most brabarously upon the English there and the very cloaths of an English woman that was stripped being found upon the back of that Irish woman that was there hanged In his return Luke Toole with neare a 1000 Irish under his command encountred him but he quickly made them flie and take to the next Bogge with the losse of some few of their men And so he returned with all possible speed to Dublin the Lords having sent him notice of the late defeat given to the Forces sent to Tredagh As soone as he arrived he applyed himselfe very carefully to the securing of the Town which now began to be more desperately threatned then ever by the neare approaches of the Rebels And so great were the disorders then in the City so inconsiderable the Forces raised the English Inhabitants so strangly dismayed the Papists so highly raised in spirit and courage as had the Commanders of the Rebels drawn those Forces together as they had in readinesse on both sides the River of Boyne for the siege of Tredagh and so marching up to Dublin had taken the advantage of the present distractions and forward affections which they would have undoubtedly found there to assist them They had in all humane probability made themselves Masters of the City and might so straightly have begirt the Castle as would within a very short time have endangerd the surrender of it But it pleased God to infatuate their Counsells The strong opinion they had that they should presently carry Tredagh and so possesse themselves of all the Armes and Munition they had in that Town caused them to fix their resolutions there and to set up their rest upon the obtaining that place In this as in many other wonderfull acts of divine providence which I then observed with great admiration it pleased God to appeare even miraculously in the preservation of the City and Castle of Dublin with the poore remainders of English and Protestants who had there taken sanctuary And now the Lords and Gentlemen of the Pale thought it high time to discover themselves and their affections to the cause They certainly had not only long entertained a defection in their thoughts but were as the severall forementioned Examinations testifie The defection of the Lords and chiefe Gentlemen within the English Pale the first contrivers and bringers in of the Northern Rebels into this execrable Plot they had now likewise drawn them into rhe Pale and therefore they could not hope now much longer to walk under a maske and entertaine the state with further professions of their loyalty They had gotten a competent proportion of Armes and Munition out of his Majesties store into their own possession They saw now the Northern Rebels advanced within the River of Boyne with very considerable Forces to strengthen their Party and by the late encounter and successefull victory they had therein they pleased their fancies with confident conceits of certaine prevailing if they would now declare themselves by a publike conjunction in the common cause and raising such numbers of men and quantities of provision as the plentifull circuit of the Pale did afford would prosecute the warre so happily begun and so successefully managed hitherto These and severall other considerations working very powerfully among the Lords and cheife Gentlemen of the Pale they did within very few dayes after the late defeat solemnly proceede on to the actuall consummation of their long meditated revolt For the manner place The manner of the conjunction of the Lords and chief Gentlemen of the men of the English Pale with the Northern Rebels expressed in the Examination of Edward Dowdall Esquire time and all other circumstances I shall referre the Reader to this ensuing Relation given in upon Oath March 1641. before Sir Robert Meredith Knight Chancellour of the Exchequer in the Examination of Edward Dowdall Esquire a Gentleman of the Pale one very well esteemed among them one that was present at all their meetings and deeply engaged in all their councells and actions He deposeth that some foure or five dayes after the defeat of the English souldiers at the Bridge of Gellianstown there issued a Warrant from the Lord of Gormanston to the Sheriffe of the County for a generall meeting of all the Countie at Dulick But the place of meeting was afterwards changed to the Hill of Crofty where all the Lords and Gentry of the Country met viz. The Earle of Fingale the Lord Viscount Gormanston the Lord of Slaine the Lord of Lowth the Lord of Dunsany the Lord of Trimblestone the Lord Nettervile And of the Gentry Sir Patrick Barnwall Sir Christopher Bellew Patrick Barnwall of Kilbrew Nicholas Darcy of Plattin James Bath of Acharn
them and so conclude with some professions of their Loyalty and readinesse to give their advices for the advancement of his Majesties service and the common peace of the Kingdome This was an Answer such as might justly be expected to come from persons so deeply now involved in the guilt of so high a Rebellion The great indulgence-used by the Lords Iustices and Councell towards the Lords of the Pale It is no wonder that they were thus put to their shifts and enforced to take up such fond excuses and imaginary pretences for their disloyalty For they could not in their own consciences but be most sensible of the very great indulgence used by the Lords towards them They had not failed in severall particulars to manifest the great confidence they had in their good affections They had refrained from giving them any manner of provocation or jealousie They had forborn the doing some acts of hostility for a time upon some Rebels among them because they would not give them any the least cause of complaint And however it appeared by the Examination of Mac Mahone and severall others that they were privie to the first plot yet the Lords proceeded with so much caution and tendernesse towards them hoping that now the Conspirators had failed in the maine part of their design which was the surprisall of the Castle of Dublin that they might yet reclaime them thereby and draw them into a just concurrence with them for the preservation of the Kingdome out of the hands of those bloody Northern Rebels who in the beginning were the only appearers in the cause But all was to no purpose they were too deeply engaged to recede therefore they ran now violently on and drew along all the cheife Gentlemen likewise of the Pale with them And now it shall be declared Luke Nettervile and others of the chief Gentlemen of the Pale gather Forces and quarter them within six miles of the City of Dublin how the cheife Gentlemen of the Pale began and proceeded on to act their parts About the beginning of December presently after the late defeat given to the English souldiers in their march to Tredagh Luke Nettervile second Sonne to the Lord Viscount Nettervile caused a Proclamation to be made in the Market place of Lusk requiring all the chiefe Gentlemen and other Inhabitants thereabouts not to faile upon paine of death presently to repaire unto Swoords a Town within six miles of the City of Dublin And within few dayes after did meet there the said Luke Nettervile George Blackney Esquire George King Iohn Talbot Richard Golding Thomas Russell Christopher Russell Patrick Caddell William Travers Richard Barnwell Laurence Bealing Holywood of Artaine and severall other Gentlemen who began to gather great numbers of men about them and putting such Armes into their hands as they had in readinesse at the present made their provisions to entertaine a settled Camp within that place The Lords understanding of this unlawfull tumultuous Assembly The Gentlemen of the Pale required by the Lords Iustices and Councell to repaire to Dublin and deeply apprehending the mischievous consequences that might ensue thereupon sent this Warrant following in a faire manner requiring thereby their present repaire unto them By the Lords Justices and Councell William Persons Io Burlace WHereas we have received information that Luke Nettervile Esquire Blackney of Rickenhore Esquire and George King of Clontarfe Gentleman and other Gentlemen of the County of Dublin with great numbers of men are assembled together in a body at Swoords and there abouts within six miles of this City for what intent we know not but apparently to the terror of his Majesties good Subjects and although considering the unseasonablenesse of this time chosen for such an act without our privity whatsoever their pretence is a construction might be made thereof to their disadvantage yet we being willing to make an indulgent interpretation of their actions in regard of the good opinion wee have of the Loyalty of those Gentlemen who it seemes are principalls amongst them in that Assembly and conceiving there may be some mistaking in that enterprise we have chosen the rather hereby to charge the said Luke Nettervile Blackney King and all the persons there Assembled with them upon their duties of Alleageance to his Majesty immediately upon sight hereof to separate and not to unite any more in that manner without direction from us and that the said Nettervill Blackney King and six others of the principall persons of those who are so assembled at Swoords or thereabouts as aforesaid doe appear before us to morrow morning at ten of the Clock to shew the cause of their assembling in that manner whereof they may not faile at their extreame perils Given at his Majesties Castle of Dublin 9. December 1641. Ormond Ossory Rob. Dillon Cha. Lambart Jo. Temple Charles Coot But they were so farre from rendring obedience to the commands they received from the Board as they kept the Messenger in restraint a day and a night threatning to hang him and after returned a scornfull peremptory Answer signifying unto their Lordships The Answer made by the Pale to the Lords Warrant That they were constrained to meet there together for the safety of their lives that they were put in so great a terror by the rising out of some horse Troops and foot Companies at Dublin who killed foure Catholikes for no other reason then that they bore the name of that Religion as they durst not as they pretended stay in their houses and therefore resolved to continue together till they were assured by their Lordships of the safety of their lives before they runne the hazard thereof by manifesting their obedience due unto their Lordships These were the very words and expressions used by those Gentlemen in their Answer And accordingly they still continued together encreasing their numbers of men and threatning to come down and encamp themselves at Clantarfe a little Village standing upon the very Harbour of Dublin where some of their followers had already at a low water seised upon a Bark lying there and carried away all the Commodities they found in her a great part whereof they had put into the then dwelling house of the said King to whom that Village did belong This was an act of so high a straine and so eminently tending to the present ruine of the City as it required a sudden remedy Delayes were dangerous in a matter of such perillous consequence and the Lords Justices and Councell plainely perceived that if the Rebels were suffered to come down and lodge there that they might without much difficulty make themselves masters of those few Barkes then in the Harbour the State having at that time no Ships of force to guard them and so put themselves in a faire way if they could bring the Wexford Ships about to joyn with them to block up the Harbour and stop the comming in to their reliefe all such succours as should
of English breed and declare openly that their reason is because they are English so great is their hatred not onely to the persons of the English but also to every species of that Nation and they destroy all improvements made by the English and lay waste their habitations Wee formerly signified to your Lordship that to take away all jealousie from the Papists of the English Pale we would furnish them with some Armes and the rather because wee well know that in the last great Rebellion in Ireland the English Pale stood firme to the Crowne of England and that the Rebell Tyrone in the heigth of his power and greatnesse was never able to get into the Pale with his Forces whilst hee was in Rebellion and upon this occasion the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the Pale making deep professions of their loyalty to his Majesty in imitation of their Ancestors and with expressions seeming to abhorre the Contrivers of this Rebellion here against whom they offered their power and strength so as they might have Armes and we being well assured that if wee could gaine their concurrence with us it would much facilitate our work wee did at their earnest suit issue for them Armes for one thousand seven hundred men wherewith divers Companies were armed by them and some of them selves were appointed Governours of the Forces of the Counties and Captaines of their Compaines but so many of those Companies revolted to the Rebels and carryed away their Armes with them as we have recovered back but nine hundred and fifty Armes so as those whose loyalty We had reason to expect would help us are now through their disloyalty turned against us and are strengthned with our own Armes and without all question if those of the English Pale had done their parts as became good subjects with their Armes they had from us and those they might gather amongst themselves they might with our help not only have defended the Pale against the Rebels but might also have prevented the ruine and destruction wrought by their Tenants and Neighbours on the poore English and Protestants amongst them for the Noblemen and Gentry sate still and looked on whilst the English and Protestants were ruined before their faces the Papist in the meane time remaining secure without the losse of goods or any thing else When wee saw the power and strength of the Rebels still growing upon us more and more and approaching by degrees more neare to us and the English and Protestants robbed and spoyled even within two miles of this City in disdaine and affront of this State which are scornes of so high a nature as we could not endure if we had strength sufficient to represse their insolencies and when we observed the retarding of our Succours of men and armes from England or Scotland neither of both Succours being yet come nor as we heard so much as in view there or in Scotland and when we found apparantly that for want of those supplies we became in a manner so contemptible as we were in danger to be set upon for taking from us this City and Castle before our aides should come wee be-thought us of all the meanes we could of gaining time being confident that wee cannot be so deserted by the State of England but that some supplies may yet come unto us And therefore on the third of December we directed our Letters to divers of the Nobility of the Kingdome who were nearest to us and most of them being of the English Pale to be with us here on the eight day of this Month that we might conferre with them concerning the present state of the Kingdome and we hoped by their help to handle the matter so as we might gaine a few dayes time before our supprisall here by which time in all likelihood our Succours might arrive although it be boldly given out by the Rebels that we shall have no Succours from thence which they divulge to enbolden their party and to strike terror and discouragement into the well-affected amongst whom there are many so weak as to apprehend from thence too much feare whereby many are fled the Kingdome On the eigth day of this Moneth the Earle of Kildare the Lord Viscount Fitz-Williams and the Lord Barron of Houth came unto us but the rest of the Noblemen not comming deferred our conference and on the eleventh day of this Month we received Letters from seven of them namely the Earle of Fingale the Lord Viscount Gormonston the Lord Viscount Nettervile and the Lords of Slaine Trimblestone Dunsany and Lowth dated the seventh day of this Month and signed by them pretending a feare of a Massacre on those of their Religion and that therefore they are deterred to wait on us but doe rather think it fit to stand upon their guard and how that resolution of theirs may stand with the loyalty they professe wee humbly submit to his Majestie 's excellent judgment for whose royall view wee send you here inclosed a Copy of their said Letters When we received those Letters we did admire whence their feares of comming to us should arise but afterwards we heard that they had been in consultation with the Rebels which also as to most of them is confirmed by the enclosed Examination of Christopher Hampton and indeed we know no cause of feare they have of us unlesse their own guilts begot in them the feare they pretend and they spare not though unjustly to charge us with a neglect of their advises whereas not one of them to this House offered to us any advice or reall assistance towards Pacification of these troubles It became then publike nor could wee keep secret that which they had published to others that those Noblemen so farre sided with the Rebels as they now stood on their guard wee therefore adjudged it fit for vindicating the State from the aspersion which we found so publikely endeavoured to be laid upon us to publish the enclosed Proclamation as well to satisfie to the world as those Noblemen who certainly are abundantly satisfied in their own secret thoughts that wee never intended to Massacre them or any other that being a thing which we and all good Protestants doe much abhorre what ever the practice of their Religion is and hath been found to be by wofull experience in other parts whereof we confesse we are now in great danger if our long expected Succours come not the sooner to us and it may be gathered from that unexampled tyranny which the Rebels have already exercised towards those of our Nation and Religion who fell into their hands what we for our parts may expect from them but the dishonour and shame which may reflect upon the English Nation by exposing this State and Kingdome to so apparent ruine and with it the extirpation of Gods true Religion afflicts us more then the losse of our own lives and fortunes when all might be saved by sending seasonably those Succors Wee lately received Letters