whole Troop of Horse on Two or Three Protestant Inns for some Months together till they wearied them out of their Trade drove away their Guests and broke them Sometimes they would compound for a Sum of Mony to be gone and then immediately send another Party as bad as themselves to succeed them by which means they ruined all the little Towns about Dublin and broke the Inhabitants The very first thing they did after they had gotten into the Army was to set a rate on Diet on hay and on Oats not above of what it cost the Innkeeper a thing to which they had been Strangers before but it seemed tolerable in respect of the Free Quarters to which they pretended afterwards though in effect it came to the same thing for they went away and never paid a Farthing for Meat or Drink or any other conveniencies allowed them in their Quarters only some gave Bills which were never paid nay they were not content to have their Meat and Drink and Quarters free but they so ordered the matter that their Quarters were generally better to them than their Pay They commonly had Billets on Three or Four Houses apiece every one of which paid them a certain rate per Week one private Soldier bragg'd that he had Fifteen Quarters the rate paid out of them was according to the quality of the House and the Person that had the Billet the very least was 18 d. or 12 d. per Week and the allowance to the Officers was proportional The truth of this is notorious to all in Dublin and is demonstrable from the number of Publick Houses which were obliged to quarter Men compared with the number of Men quartered in them The Houses were double in number to the Soldiers and yet every House had one or Two Soldiers at the least some Three some Four quartered on them for which they paid Weekly and yet so unreasonable were these Creatures that this would not satisfie them but they would go up and down the Country Stealing and Plundering Meat and Drink and forcing the poor Protestants to bring forth their whole Stock of Provisions of which they used to eat what they pleased and then destroy the rest that the Damned Whigs that is in their constant Dialect the Protestants might not have the benefit of it It was in vain to grumble or complain instead of remedy they were sure to have the injury redoubled upon them If any ventured to prosecute a notorious Robbery committed by a Soldier their Officers appeared in the Court for them and openly threatned the Jury if they found them Guilty Thus Colonel Luttrel afterwards Governour of Dublin appeared at Killmainham and brought off his Soldiers who were guilty of a Robbery by threatning the Jury and telling them that it should be worse for them if they found his Men guilty that the King's Souldiers must not be discouraged and must be allowed when in want to take from those that had meaning the Protestants and by his Authority he saved them being not only an Officer but one of the Justices of the Sessions And in the very Council Allbaville publickly owned that the Protestants durst not complain except they had a mind to be Massacred I use his Words 7. The Priests and Fryars were no less oppressive than the Soldiers they Multiplied in Dublin to Three or Four Hundred at the least they were well Fed and well Cloathed there were not more Lusty Plump Fellows in the Town than they insomuch that they were remarkable for it and reckoning that they consumed but Twenty Pound apiece one with another which was the least they cost the Town Eight Thousand Pound per Annum which is near Four times more than all the Protestant Clergy in Town received they built about Fourteen Chappels and Convents in Dublin and set up Two Nunneries all which came to a great Sum and a great part of it came out of the Protestants Pockets for they were such experienced Beggars that none escaped them and so importunate that none durst refuse them if any did they must expect to be the next who were Robbed They must be content to be Accused and Committed either on some secret Whisper or false Accusation The Insolency of the Friars may be guessed at by their Carriage to the Lord Primate Boyle Two of them as I had before occasion to remark came to demand Mony of him and because he refused them they procured a Warrant from Sir Thomas Hacket to commit his Son in Law and Nephew but others were forced to buy their Peace by large Contributions to them SECT X. The Progress King James made in destroying the Personal Estates of Protestants after the Revolution in England 1. THus the case stood with the Protestants of Ireland long before the Revolution happened in England Their Rents and Receipts were stopt their Expences multiplied and many were driven from their Houses and Farms their Trade decayed and their Towns and Villages destroyed by Robberies and Free Quarters but as soon as the new Levies upon pretence of resisting the Prince of Orange were made the mischief became much more universal and intolerable whereas before only Inns and Publick Houses together with Brewers Bakers Butchers and Chandlers were obliged to quarter Soldiers this Burden was now extended to all Gentlemen of the best quality if Protestants none being exempted this happened soon after the Lord Mountjoys going to France though the Lord Deputy as I noted before did possitively engage to him to the contrary in his Articles these new Guests committed all manner of rudeness and insolencies in their Quarters and drove away as many of the Gentry and Citizens as could steal a Passage or procure a License to be gone by bribing the Secretary Sir William Domvile a Gentlemen of about 80 Years of Age who had been Attorny General near Thirty Years as has been said had his House filled with them they treated the Old Gentleman so rudely and barbarously that all concluded it hastened his Death Some Roman Catholicks that were not known to belong to the Army would come to the Houses of Protestants and agree with them for their best Rooms and suitable Attendance and when they were to go away and should have paid instead of Mony they would present a Billet and then triumph in the trick they had put on their Landlords There are in Dublin about Seven Thousand Houses and it was very rare that King James had Four Thousand of the Army in Town and yet they ordered it so that every House had more or less quartered upon it Some Gentlemen had Ten some Twenty nay some Thirty quartered on them if there was no other Room they turned the Master or Mistriss of the Family out of their own Beds and sent both them and their Lodgers to provide for themselves not only Soldiers were thus quartered but likewise all Gentlemen Priests Fryars and some Noblemen that came with King James from France together with their Servants and
though the Protestants concerned sollicited it with the utmost eagerness and diligence even to the hazard of their Lives yet they could never procure the King and Councils Order for the restitution of their Church to be executed or obeyed and so they continued out of it till His present Majesties success restor'd them and their fellow Protestants to their Churches as well as to their other just Rights 12. Now here we had a full demonstration what the Liberty of Conscience would come to with which King James thought to have amused Protestants and of which he boasted so unmeasurably if once Popery had gotten the upper hand He and his Parliament might have made Acts for it if they pleas'd but we see here that the Clergy would have told them that they medled with what did not concern them and that they had no power to make Acts about Religious Matters or dispose of the Rights of Holy Church and we see from this Experiment who would have been obeyed We found here upon tryal that when King James would have kept his word to us it was not in his power to do it and that his frequently repeated Promises and his Act of Parliament for Liberty of Conscience could not prevent the demolishing defacing or seizing Nine Churches in Ten through the Kingdom and discovered to us That the Act for Liberty of Conscience was only design'd to destroy the Establish'd Church and not that Protestants should have the Benefit of it 13. Having taken away our Churches and publick Places of meeting the next thing was to hinder our Religious Assemblies It is observable that the Act of their pretended Parliament for Liberty of Conscience promises full and free exercise of their respective Religions to all that profess Christianity within the Kingdom without any molestation loss or penalty whatsoever but assigns no punishment to such as shall disturb any in their Religious Exercises and there was good reason for that omission for by this means they had left their Officers and Soldiers at liberty to disturb the Religious Assemblies of Protestants without fear of being call'd to any account 14. By the Act an open free and uninterrupted access was to be left into every Assembly and they commonly had their Emissaries in every Church to see if they could find any thing to object against the Preacher But the Ministers did not fear any thing could be objected even by malice on this Account and therefore when they found they were not like to make much of this they let it fall and the Officers and Soldiers came into the Churches in time of Divine Service or in time of Sermons and made a noise sometimes threatning the Ministers sometimes cursing sometimes swearing and sometimes affronting or assaulting Women and picking occasions of quarrels with the Men and comitting many disorders it vex'd and grieved them to see the Churches full contrary to their expectation that neither their Liberty of Conscience nor multiplying their Mass-houses nor their driving away several thousands of Protestants into England had in the least emptied them that their Liberty of Conscience instead of dividing had rather united Protestants and that the zeal and frequency of Devotion amongst those that remained supplyed the absence of those that were gone and crowded the Churches rather more than formerly it grieved them much to see those things and they on all occasions vented their spleen against the Assemblies of Protestants 15. In the Country where Churches were taken from the Protestants they met in private Houses and where their Ministers were gone and their maintenance seiz'd others undertook the Cures either gratis or were maintain'd by the voluntary Contributions of the People So that there appear'd no probability that Protestantism would be destroy'd without violence The Papists saw this and therefore watched an opportunity to begin it On the Sixth of Septem 1689. upon pretence of a Case of Pistols and a Sword found in some out part of Christ Church in Dublin they lockt it up for a Fortnight and suffered no Service to be in it On the Twenty seventh of October they took it to themselves and hindred Protestants to officiate any more in it On the Thirteenth of September on pretence of some Ships seen in the Bay of Dublin they forbad all Protestants to go to Church or assemble in any Place for Divine Service July 13. 1689. there issued out a Proclamation forbidding Protestants to go out of their Parishes one design of this was to hinder their Assemblies at Religious Duties for in Ireland generally Two or Three Parishes have but one Church and consequently by this one half were confined from the Service of God through the Kingdom June 1690. Colonel Lutterel Governour of Dublin issued his Order forbidding more than Five Protestants to meet together on pain of Death he was askt whether this was designed to hinder meeting at Churches it was answered that it was design'd to hinder their meeting there as well as in other places and in execution of this all the Churches were shut up and all Religious Assemblies through the Kingdom forbidden under pain of Death and we were assured that if King James had return'd Victorious from the Boyn it was resolved that they should never have been opened any more for us and the same excuse would have served for his permitting this that serv'd him the former year for not restoring the Churches taken away in his absence at the former Camp even that he must not disoblige his Roman Catholick Clergy Thus God gave them opportunity to shew what they intended against our Religion even to take away all our Churches and hinder all our Religious Assemblies and when they had brought their Liberty of Conscience to this and we had been obliged upon pain of Death to forbear all publick Worship for a Fortnight then he sent us deliverancâ— by means of his present Majesties Victory at the Boyn which restor'd us the Liberty of worshiping God together as well as the use of our Churches SECT XIX 5. The violences used by King James's Party to make Converts and to discourage the Protestant Ministers 1. BUT all these methods of ruining the Protestant Religion seem'd tedious to the Priests and therefore they could not be prevail'd with to abstain from violence wherever they had a fair opportunity to use it they applyed it with all diligence Several Protestant Women were married to Papists many of these used unmerciful Severities to their Wives and endeavoured by hardships and unkindness to weary the poor Women out of their Religion some stript them of their Clothes kept them some days without Meat or Drink beat them grievously and at last when they could not prevail turn'd them out of their Houses and refus'd to let them live with them Some sold off all that they had turn'd it into Money and left their Wives and Children to beg for no other Reason but because they would not forsake their Religion And this carriage was
to take us out of Jail to restore our Laws our Employments the free exercise of our Religion our Fortunes and Estates when we were unjustly depriv'd of them and 't was a very modest expectation in them and answerable to their other measures of Politicks to think a People harrass'd and stript and plundred and condemned by them to lose their Lives and Estates which was the Case of all those who fled from hence to England and in great measure of most of those that staid here should in the height of their smart and sufferings reject the kind offers of a Deliverer to depend on a Miracle yet they pretend this is what we ought to have done and because we did it not they rail at us in the most bitter Terms they call us Rebels and Traitors Villains and Atheists and load us with all the approbrious Names their Malice and Revenge can suggest But we cannot blame them to be angry the hungry Wolf if he could speak would curse and rail as heartily at the Shepherd that rescues the Lamb out of his Paws as they do at us or our Deliverer they had devour'd us in their Imaginations they had got the Civil and Military Sword into their Hands and engrost all Places of Trust and Profit these with the Legislative Power in the hands of our ancient and most malicious Enemies were more than enough to have destroy'd us but just when they should have divided the Spoil and concluded the fatal Tragedy the Prince of Orange his present Majesty interposeth and rescueth us this disappointment mads them beyond all bounds of patience and casts them into strange fits of railing and cursing Hell Damnation Confusion to him and his Royal Consort were continually in the Mouths of their Men Women and Children with these they used to entertain one another at their Tables and Debauches and endeavoured to force them by way of Healths on Protestants In short they spare no ill Name or Execration that impotent Rage could vent or invenom'd Rancour could suggest but when all is done in their quiet Intervals their Consciences cannot but acquit us and many of them made no scruple to confess That there was no medium but that either we or they must be undone and when that was the unavoidable choice that they according to their own confession had put on us I assure my self the World will not only excuse us but will think it was our Duty to have done what we did since they had left us no other visible way but this to avoid certain and apparent Destruction CHAP. V. A short Account of those Protestants who left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James SECT I. Concerning those who went away 1. THE former Discourse I suppose is sufficient to justifie the Protestants of Ireland as to their submission to the Government of their present Majesties and to shew the Reasons for their earnest desiring and thankfully accepting of that Deliverance which Providence offered us by their means It remains only to speak a few words in particular of those that left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James that they may understand the truth of each others Circumstances and not either of them unjustly censure the other 2. As to those that absented themselves out of the Kingdom it is certain that they offended against no Law in doing so it being lawful for any Subject to transport himself out of one part of the Dominions of England into another it is true that there is a Law or Custom that requires such as hold Offices from the King to take a Licence from the Chief Governour but the Penalty of this is no more than the forfeiture of their Offices and I find it disputed among the Lawyers whether it reach so far now few of those that went away compar'd with the whole number of them were Officers those that were generally took Licences of absence and at worst it was at their own Peril and it had been a great severity to have taken the forfeiture which was the sence of the whole Parliament of England in making an Act to exempt such from incurring any loss 3. But Secondly they had great reason to go out of the Kingdom because they foresaw that it would be the seat of Warr they saw 40 or 50 m Men put into Arms without any fund to maintain them they knew these to be their bitter and sworn Enemies they saw the course of Justice stopt against them and their Stocks and Cattle taken away before their faces several Gentlemen of the Country lost to the value of some 1000 l. before they stirr'd and to what purpose should they stay in a place where they certainly knew that all they had would be taken from them and their Lives expos'd to the fury of their Enemies Thirdly They had no reason to stay because they could not expect to do any good by their staying or to save the Kingdome the Papists had all the Forts and Magazins of the Kingdom in their hands they had all the Arms and publick Revenues they were in number Four or Five to one Protestant and they had the face of Authority on their side and then what could a scattered Multitude without Arms without Leaders and without Authority hope to do in their own defence by going into England they reckon'd themselves not only safe but likewise in a way of serving their Countrey 'T was from thence they expected Arms Ammunition and Commissions by the help of which they might put themselves in some capacity of rescuing their Estates and Friends they left behind which they lookt on as much better Service than to stay and perish with them 4. Fourthly the memory of the cruel usage and difficult times those met with who staid in Ireland in 1641. did frighten and terrifie all that reflected on them the number of those that were then massacred and starv'd was incredible and those that escap'd got away with such circumstances that the memory of what they had suffered was as ill as death if any will be but at the pains of reading over Sir John Temples account of the first half Year of the War or rather Massacre he will be satisfied that it was no unreasonable fear made so many Protestants withdraw out of the reach of such barbarities the same Men or their Sons that committed all those bloody murders and inhumanities were again arm'd in a much more formidable manner than they ever had been before and yet at that time they were able to maintain a War for Twelve Years and live by spoil and robbery and then what were the Children of those whose Parents had been murthered by them to expect but the same fate or at best a miserable Life in a desolate and spoild Country in which no wise Man would choose to live if he could help it indeed they could not expect to live long after all was taken from them but must in