Licensed according to Order May 24th 1689. A Full and True ACCOUNT OF THE Inhumane and Bloudy Cruelties OF THE PAPISTS TO THE Poor Protestants IN IRELAND In the YEAR 1641. Published now to Encourage all Protestants to be Liberal in their Contribution for their Relief and speedy Delivering them now out of the hands of those Bloudy-minded People LONDON Printed for Peter Richman in Duck-Lane 1689. Here followeth a true Description or Relation of sundry sad and lamentable Collections taken from the mouths of very credible persons and out of Letters sent from Ireland to this City of London of the perfidious outrages and barbarous cruelties which the Irish Papists have committed upon the persons of the Protestants both Men Women and Children in that Kingdom Annoque Domini 1641. THE Irish Nation is well known to be a people both proud and envious For the Commonalty they are for the most part ignorant and illeterate poor and lazy and will rather beg or starve than work and therefore fit subjects for the Priests and Jesuits to spur on upon such bloudy Actions and murtherous Designs Ignorance is their Mother which is devoid of mercy God deliver all good Christians from the Cruelty of such a Mother and Children It is too well known the more is the pity and to be lamented that the Irish have murthered of the Protestant party in the Provinces of Vlster Lempster Connaght and Munster of Men Women and Children the number of fifty thousand as it is credibly reported by Englishmen who have been over all parts of the Kingdom and do protest upon their Oaths that there are above five thousand Families destroyed The Kingdom of Ireland hath four Provinces wherein there are contained two and thirty Counties besides Cities and County Towns in all which places the English are planted up and down in all parts where the Irish have most murtherously and traiterously surprized them upon great advantages and without respect of persons either of age youth or infancy of young Men or Maids or of old Men or Babes stript all to their skins naked as ever they were born into the World so they have gone out of the World many hundreds having been found starved to death in Ditches for want of food and rayment where the rebellious Irish have shewed them no more mercy or compassion no not so much as they would do to their Dogs Thus much for the general now I come to particulars At one Mr. Atkins's house seven Papists brake in and beat out his brains then ripped up his Wife with child after they had ravished her and Nero like view'd Natures bed of conception they then took the child and sacrificed it in the fire They have flead the skin from the bones of others like Butchers the principles of whose Religion is bloud Witness our Books of Martyrs those Chronicles of bloud Witness those thousands of butcher'd Protestants in France and Germany They burned others firing their Houses Towns Villages those sons of the Coal as if their habitation were in Hell. They vowed to root out all the English Nation out of this Kingdom They turned all the Protestants out of Kilkeny At Belturbalt in the County of Cavan the Popish Rebels demanded the Town on promise that if they would surrender they should pass free with bag and baggage they back'd their promise with Oaths and Execrations cursing themselves if they did not let them go withall On serious considerations of the Inhabitants and the Governour they were persuaded to yield it up which when they had done and drawing away their goods and moneys they like treacherous Villians sent about twenty or thirty to-guard them when they had guarded them seven miles from the Town they with more of that desperate forsworn rabble seized on them robbed all the Protestants being between five hundred and a thousand persons Men Women and Children who submitting themselves to their mercy found no quarter but cruelty they stript them all naked and turn'd them out of their houses into the open fields in bitter could weather in a most vile and shamefull manner not affording them one of their lowzy rags to hide those parts which should be covered Take notice of the faith of a Papist who for his own advantage casts off all bounds of fidelity and common honesty They are remarkable for persidiousness and treachery as you may behold in that Master of Mis-rule the Arch-rebell Sir Philem O-Neal basely pretending to be a Suiter to the old Lady Cawfield being a Widow and made fair promises of his respects to her and when he had his advantage of possession of her house and goods turned them out of all and bound them prisoners and made her whom he intended his nearest Companion to be his lowest Vassal In the Town of Lurgon in the County of Armagh the Mac-kans skirmishing with the Englishmen slew divers of our men whereupon they entred parly demanding the Town Sir Willian Brunlow being Governour of the Castle on some considerations thought good to yield thereupon they promised and backt it with Oaths and great Protestations that they should have fair quarter and pass without prejudice to their lives yet behold the perfidiousness of these brutish creatures as men not fearing God or Devil whose practice they imitate who was a lier from the beginning Notwithstanding all these fair pretences they knew no mercy killed Men spoiled Women nay in their boundless rage slew and massacared and stript helpless Ministers whose calling might have pleaded pity But what speak we of pity to men that have no bowels In London-Derry at the Town of Belly-hagh belonging to the Londoners Sir Philem O-Neal promised under hand and seal to let the poor Protestants to pass with bag and baggage onely to part with their Town which was a fair goodly place yet this perfidious Rebel as if it was not enough to make these poor souls harborless to lay them open to wind and weather but to add to all their misery stript Man Woman and Child took their cloaths for a prey and sent them out naked without a shirt or smock to their backs left them not worth a groat this was one of their works of mercy if they scaped with their lives but how many lives might be lost by this immodest and inhumane act judge The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Will you behold another mercifull Act and Record it Captain Rory Macquire at the beginning of the Robellion for the first fortnight commands his Soldiers to give quarter to Women and Children but to massacare all the Men to spare none Wo to him that makes the Wife a Widow and the Children Fatherless but after they began to resist and to gather into Companies then hear the Charge of this bloudy man Giâ—e no quarter no not to Women though Tears and Prayers interpose yet know no pity no not to harmless Babes though it was death enough to kill their Parents nor spare neither Man Woman or Child It is
reported by an ominent Gentleman that had long dwelt among the Rebels but it s thought fit to forbear the names of those that gave intelligence of the barbarous cruelties of these savage beasts because they threaten to be the death of them that shall unmask them It is reported by this Gentleman that the Handlowans came to Town-regis divers of them assaulted the Castle of which Captain Saint John was Commander he with his Son got away with some difficulty leaping over the wall they fearing they might setch supplies to recover their lost Castle most inhumanly took the Captain 's Wife poor Gentlewoman and set her on the wall having stript her to her smock who was big with Child and within an hour of her delivery that in case the Captain and his Son should have assaulted the Town his Wife should have been the white at which he must have levelled Oh extreme and unheard of cruelty As for the Protestant Ministers whom they surprize their cruelty is such towards them at it would make the hardest heart to melt into tears Their manner is first to strip them and after bind them to a tree or some post where they please and then to ravish their Wives and Daughters before their faces in sight of all their merciless rabble with the basest Villains they can pick out after they hang up their Husbands and Parents before their faces and then cut them down before they be half dead then quarter them after dismember them and stop their mouths therewith They basely abused one Mr. Trafford a Minister in the North of Ireland who was assaulted by these bloudy Wolves of Rome's brood that know not God nor any bowels of mercy This poor distressed Minister desired but so much time to bethink himself before he took his farewell of the World to call upon God but these merciless wretches would admit no time but instantly fell on him hackt and hewed him to pieces Dr. Tate Minister of Belly-Hayes they stript starke naked and then wounded him dangerously in the head and then let him go towards Dublin where he lay long sick Sir Patrick Dunston's Wife ravished before him slew his Servants spurned his Children till they died bound him with rouls of Match to a board that his Eyes burst out cut off his Ears and Nose teared off both his Cheecks and cut off his Armes and Legs cut out his Tongue after run a red hot Iron into him Many Gentlewomen they ravished before their Husbands faces stripping them first naked to the view of their wicked companions taunting and mockings them after they have spoiled them with bitter and reproachsull words sending them away in such a shamefull or rather shameless manner that most of them have died with pain and grief or else have starved with want and cold Base cruelty unheard of exceeding the brute beasts and so much the worse because they are reasonable which makes them skilfull to destroy One Mr. Luttrell dwelling within three miles of the Burrough of Cavan a Gentleman worth by report two or three hundred pounds a year with a very great stock of Cattel was basely betrayed by an Irish Boy that he had bred up in his house See the baseness of the Popish brood who when he was at Dinner being upon the thirtieth day of October last was surprized by threescore of those Irish unmercifull Villains with a company of dirty Whores and Bastards that followed them which this Boy let in at a back door where pulling him and his vertuous Wife from the Table and four small Children the eldest of them being not six years of age and one sucking at her breast without pity or humanity stript them naked notwithstanding their prayers and tears to have let them kept their cloaths and then thrusting them in a cruel and violent manner out of doors threatned to kill them if they went not speedily away Take notice how uncertain all our outward comforts are So they departed for fear away being ashamed to be seen of their servants some of them running one way and some another to shift for themselves but the distressed Gentleman with his Wife and Children and a little youth directed their course towards Dublin hoping to find some of their friends in the way to relieve them but the farther they came the more miserable they were meeting their loving Friends robbed by others in the same manner which struck in them such amazement and fear that their hearts failed them so that being naked and hungry helpless and hopeless the poor Infants crying in their Ears which must needs kill their Hearts they went not far but sate down under a Hedge or Ditch and there died being not at that time above six miles from his own house for this little youth that he had bred up being an English Boy forsook not his Master when the rest ran from him but continued with him till death the same day some Horsemen or Troopers riding that way to coast the Countrey met this youth unto whom he told this sad story and being not far from the place led them to this lemantable sight where they beheld the true love of Man and Wife embracing each other in their death the three eldest Children dead but the suckling Child was preserved through heat being between them both and grabling and gaping for the dead Mothers Breast So the Troopers took up the Child carrying it to a Nurse for they knew the Parents well and bestowed some Cloaths upon the English youth who came to Dublin within few days after and related the story in my hearing In the County of Roscommon near the Town of Roscommon there fled into the Parish Church eleven-score of the English Men Women and Children where they remained three Days and Nights without any sustenance till they were almost starved so that at last what with the cries of their Children and their own wants they were forced to commit themselves to the cruelty of the Irish who according to their usual manner first stript them naked after drove them through the Town like so many harmless Sheep and Lambs over a Bridge at the Towns end having before broke down one of the middle Arches where a strong Water runneth so that either they must leap in or come back their intent being there to murther them as they did For the poor wretches being Sickly Weak and Faint for want of Food and Sleep yet unwilling to hasten their own ends some returned back whome they killed without mercy others they thrust into the Water who were drowned some that could did swim towards the shoar and there Inhumame Villians Bruitish Furies ran and met them before they got to Land and knock'd them in the head in the Water some few escaped that did swim to the other side of the River where the Irish could not come at them having before broken down the Bridge themselves and so escaped to Dublin to be sad witnesses of this lamentable Tragedy Mr. Blandry a
she could to preserve her Chastity and with a Knife she had unseen to them wounded one of them which the rest perceiving seized upon her violently stripped her and then bound her with her Armes abroad in such manner as she could not help her self any way and so like hell-hounds defloured her one after another till they had spoiled her and to shew their unheard-of malice were not herewith content but pulled the hair from her Head and cut out her Tongue because she should not report the truth and their cruelty but the Maid could write though she could not speak and so discovered their inhumane usage to her and her Mother The Maid was sent with a letter from her Father in Dublin to Mynhead in Somersetshire to her Uncle William Dyer her Mothers Brother living within three miles of Mynhead which Letter I have seen here in Town containing the Contents above written being Dated at Dublin the twentieth of November last About the eighth of Januanry last a distressed Minister came to Dublin that had left some goods with a supposed friend sent for them the goods could not be delivered unless He or his Wife came for them he would not go but she went and when she came where her goods were as if that were too little to lose her estate but her life must go also they hanged her up Was there ever such Barbarism among the Heathens In the County of Fermannagh in the Province of Vlster they murthered one Mr. Champion a Justice of Peace and a Burgess of the Parliament for the Borrough of Iniskillin in the said County who was betrayed by an Irish Villain his Tenant whom he had saved himself twice before from the Gallows The Rogue 's name was Patrick Mack-Dermot who finding one of his Companions brings him to Mr. Champion's House and tells Mr. Champion that he found this Thief stealing the Cattel the Gentleman knowing this Mack-Dermot said unto him before one Mr. Iremonger an Attorney I am glad thou art turned from Thief to catch a Thief whereupon he returned him this peremptory Answer that he was no more Thief than himself No sooner had he uttered these words in the Court before His House but there rushs in upon them a great number of these Rebels who without respect of mercy stabbed Mr. Champion instantly before he could get into his House so that he fell down immediately but their fury went further than death for they wounded him with their Skeins in thirty places after he was dead and then cut off his Head to make sure work whlie the rest ran into the House after Mr. Iremonger whom they followed so close that he had not time to lay hold on his Sword to help himself but falling down upon his Knees and calling upon God for mercy they fell upon him and ran him through and through and so he died One of Mr. Champion's Servants escaped to Dublin and reported this in my hearing in December last A third was likewise slain then the Rebells entred the House and killed more his Wives Sister and her Brother-in-law with two others in the house they kept prisoners taking possession of all they had within the house and without his Wife was down upon her Knees to beg a Sheet to put her Husband 's dead Body in And another Gentleman with other Friends that came to visit him over Night lost their lives next Morning In the County of Monaghan within two miles of the Town of Monaghan they murthered one Mr. George Foord in his Garden a great company having gotten into a room or lost over a Stable being between him and the house surprized him This was upon the one and twentieth of November last being the Lord's day for when he with his Wife and Family were gone to Church in that place they hid themselves till their coming back from Church and so watching their time and opportunity first set upon him without any words and then entred the house for the house was strong and not easily to be broken unless they were let in at the doors so they bound all the servants being some English and some Irish till they had found Mrs. Foord whom they stript naked and bound taking from her her Keys having also with them her Husband's Keys who lay murthered in the Garden and risled and opened every Trunk and Box in the House to find their Money where they found but little to what they looked for for they knew that Mr. Foord was rich and well monyed wherefore they began with threats to kill her if she did not speedily tell them but alas she could not then they fell to torturing of her heating a pair of Tongs in the fire and clapping them to the soals of her Feet and to the palms of her Hands so that with the pain thereof she dyed After she was dead they ript her Body to see if she had not swallowed any Gold into her Guts and so when they had pillaged the house and carried away with the Gentlewomans own Horses and Carts all that was worth the carriage they unbound the Irish servants which they before had bound and murthered such of the English as they pleased and then departed I heard Affidavit made of the truth and certainty of this Massacare in this manner before recited before divers of the Privy Council in Dublin in Ireland They set up Gallows five miles distant in divers places on purpose to hang up the Protestant Spies which they did accordingly they likewise cruelly set Women and Men on red hot Grid irons to make them confess where such Coyn and Money and Goods as they had or whether they had hid or sold any And all these cruelties were not done without the advice and animation of the Fryars Priests and Jesuits and their religious men or rather Firebrands of Hell who at their Masses and their Incendiary Sermons stirred up the people to the committing of these Massacares promising them pardon for the same and assuring them the more merit by how much the more they exceeded in their villainous Cruelties they themselves being still in the first of these executions For no stratagem of War nor other horrid Action or Dessign whatsoever was there undertaken without them They going on with their Soldiers in the head and front of every Battel and by their mischievous Advices and Counsels did make them mad Tyger-like with fierceness and cruelty assuring them that to imbrue their hands in the Bloud of the Protestants which they term Hereticks shall add to their merits and Canonization of Saints and gain them higher places and reward in Heaven Mr. Jerome Minister they basely abused who lived near Dublin sometimes but when he was thus murthered he lived near the Burrough of Athie in the County of Kildare they hanged him then mangled his Body cut off his Members stopt his Mouth with them then quartered him This is reported a by Citizen of Dublin now in London to bear witness of this truth A