Enemies this Gentlemen is Treason To hold Correspondence with any of the Kings Enemies or with Rebels in actual Rebellion or to joyn with them this is Treason you are not to enquire into the punishment but to open a door for the Petty Jury to enquire into the matter of Fact and what the Law is shall by the blessing of God be our business To Counterfeit the Kings Coyn or Clip it and you have very little of it at this time therefore you had need be careful in a more especial manner this likewise is Treason It is likewise Treason to counterfeit the Great Seal of the King for 't is the common Security by which many hold their Estates and some their Lives The killing of the Chancellor or any of the Judges or Justices of Oyer and Terminer in the doing of their Duty this likewise is Treason not so much with regard to their persons as to the work that they are about they representing the Kings Person The meanest Constable there if he has his Staff in his hand and doing his duty he that kills him shall dye the same death as he that kills the best man that wears Scarlet on the Bench. Gentlemen I must tell you another Câ—ime and it looks like a mark of Infamy on this Kingdom Murder in England is but Felony but it has been thought fit to make it Treason here and they that go out on Burning and Robbing Houses they shall be Indicted for Treason And Clerk of the Crown if any such be here now take notice I will have them Indicted for Treason The next thing for your Enquiry is Felony that concerning the Life of the Subject for a man to kill his fellow Subject this is Felony if he does it on a sudden passion and heat a man may kill another in his own defence for 't is natural for a man to kill rather than be killed and therefore he shall have his Pardon of course But Gentlemen this is not in favour of Duels and only where there is a great provocation there is not a man but has some passion about him but for a man to go to bed with Malice and arise the next morning and go meet his fellow Subject and kill him this is Murder and Treason in Ireland The next thing that is Felony is concerning the Goods of the Subject for an honest Labouring Man that by the industry of his whole Life has gotten a fair stock for the maintenance of himself his Wife and Children at night goes to bed and next morning when he arises he is a beggar and wants Bread. Gentlemen it would make every honest mans heart bleed to hear what I have heard since I came into this County it is ill in other parts of the Countrey but here they spare not even the wearing Clothes and Habit of Women and Children that they are forced to come abroad naked without any thing to cover their nakedness so that besides the Oath you have taken and the obligation of Christianity that lies upon you as you are Christians I conjure you by all that is Sacred and as ever you expect Eternal Salvation that you make diligent Enquiry let it never be said by any of you that it was your Neighbour or your Neighbours Servant did it and you are sorry for it but will not trouble your selves I tell you it is every mans business and I beseech you look into it To break into any mans House after night fall is Felony it is a sound sleep that the Labouring man takes but the idle Rogue that lies lurking sleeping all the day at night he arises and seeks whom he may devour If you were to do the most Charitable Work as building of a Bridge or Chappel or mending a High-way how many do you think of these men with half Pikes and Skeines would come to your assistance not one of them He engage But if a House or Town be to be Plundered they all run thither All Riots and Routs are to be enquired into numbers of People may meet for their own defence if they should hear or see the Countrey Robbing and Spoiling By a riotous Multitude coming to Burn and Rob their Houses in this case they may meet and desend their Goods and apprehend the Robbers in order to bring them to Justice but after all this they are not to contest with the Government nor do any thing to the prejudice of that I told you I would not trouble you with unnecessary matters all are lost in the greatest of Crimes and Outrages that are committed daily in the Countrey round about If I should go through all the Heads of this Charge it would take up more time than we have to spend here and therefore I shall shut up all and say no more than this that every man do apply himself to his Husbandry and Tillage to prevent that imminent danger of an approaching Famine that seems to be coming upon us and that you make it your business to search after and bring to Judgment those Robbers that live on the Mountains and while you continue to do your duty you shall have all the Protection the Government can give you So upon complaint of any Justice of the Peace that shall be backward or unwilling to appear against them care shall be taken to punish such and make them Examples Go together Gentlemen and consider of these things The Prisoners brought into Court. Clerk of the Crown Set John Price to the Bar Tho. King to the Bar W. Lewis James Beacon William Heatly Tho. Burroughs to the Bar c. Hold up your Right Hands Cl. John Price Tho. King c. You stand here Indicted for that you on the 25th day of February in the 5th Year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord King James the Second at Ballindery in the County of Wicklow with divers others wicked Traytors and Rebels in a warlike manner then and there did assemble your selves and a cruel and open War and Rebellion against our Soveraign Lord the King and his faithful Subjects of this His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland did Raise and Levy and did intend our Soveraign Lord the King to Death and Destruction to bring and to Depose him from his Kingly Authority and Government of this his Kingdom of Ireland and to fulfil and accomplish this your said traiterous Intentions and Designs you the said Persons with others the said wicked Traytors and Rebels the Day Year and Place aforesaid did arm your selves with divers Warlike Weapons as well offensive as defensive and did move and excite divers others the Subjects of our Soveraign Lord the King to joyn themselves wickedly and traiterously against the Peace of our Soveraign Lord the King and the Duty of your Allegiance and the Statute in that Case made and provided c. Cl. How sayst thou John Price art thou guilty of the Treason that thou standest here Indicted c. or Not Guilty Mr. Price Not Guilty Cl. Culprit
to enquire into all the Maladies Diseases and Sores within your County He has likewise given us Command to apply the healing Balsam of the Laws which will preserve the Subject most entirely in his Property And I am sorry I must tell you that there was never more need then now at this time I am glad at the same time that I can say that the Mischiefs fallen on a great part of this Kingdom and on no part more than on this County that is under the very Eye of the Government I say I am glad it can be said to have arisen for the most part from a Rabble of People who have arm'd themselves without any direction from the Government and that with unusual Weapons I mean Half-pikes and Skeans Gentlemen I must tell you plainly it looks rather like a Design to Massacree and Murder than any thing else They do not belong to the Army neither are they any part of them but these are the Vultures Kites and Ravens that follow Armies Souldiers that have travell'd abroad say Such are not known among them there I am told and very well assured That in Forreign Parts where these Vultures and Birds of Prey are it is hard for an Army to lie conceal'd without being discovered by them for it is odds but that a Horse or a Man drops where such multitudes of People are I am very far from laying this to the Charge of any that are under Command tho' it is possible that some of them under the scarcity they are in do give their assistance or at least encouragement to these Robbers otherwise it could not be that whole Flocks and Droves of Cattle are daily driven away and yet no one taken or brought to Justice for it The King is not wanting in his Care he has given Directions to have the Laws put in execution that Criminals may be brought in and punished and the Government has issued out many Proclamations but they are grown too familiar with them You are to enquire into this Matter in order to bring to punishment not only them that steal but those that receive I am told that open Markets are set up in this County of Wicklow A fat Bullock for 5 s. and a fat Sheep for 1 s. but it will fall heavy on them at last Divines say That God Almighty oftentimes makes the very Crime to become their own punishment And I verily fear that a few Months will produce a Famine in this Kingdom And what succeeds a Pestilence and the worst of all Pestilences for it is observed that a starved Rot is the worst of all Rots it falls out unhappily at this Season of the Year when the Cattle are breeding Under the Old Law the Jews were not to seeth the Kid in the Mother's Milk but these unmerciful Wretches go further than that sparing none but destroying old and young the encrease and all Pray Gentlemen consider of it and search the Houses of such as you have reason to suspect that had not any thing to eat the last Year go now into their Houses and you will find whole Carcases of Beef powdered up nay it may be for want of Salt or Money to buy it lying rotting and stinking Let me tell you it will be your turn next when they have robbed and spoiled your Protestant Neighbours they will come to you unless you take speedy care to prevent it The King has done wâ—at he can and the Government what they can in vain is the Law made if Offenders be not brought to condign punishment You all know there has been an Invasion in England of a Forreign Enemy the Prince of Orange and the same is designed on this Kingdom The estects of an Invasion is not known Defence is natural to all Kingdoms and States and therefore the Government has given Directions for raising a greater Army than at any time heretofore this Kingdom ever had It was so among the Romans of old who in cases of necessity did things clear contrary to the Fundamentals of their Laws The same necessity has put the King on arming here in France they have their Ban and with us our Commission of Array from sixteen to sixty but without any design that the effects should be to arm the Country with Half-pikes and Skeans they are fit indeed for the Mountains or to guard a Man's House but not to go abroad with at Noon-day Gentlemen you that are Justices of the Peace and Officers of the Army where ever you meet you ought to secure them and bind them over and know by what Authority they dare go abroad with such Weapons I need not say any thing to you in Defence of the King for it is really and truly your own Defence and therefore I shall proceed into the Heads which are prepared for your Enquiry at this time Our business here is like to be very great and our time short and therefore I shall not trouble you with small things we have greater matters than Assaults and Batteries We have Desolations and Ruines to shew you and set before you and without your care we are like to fall into the Gulph of Misery and Destruction The first thing we have to speak of is High Treason we have no Petty Treason in Ireland If any shall go about to Conspire the Death of the King Queen or the Heir Apparent the Prince of Wales this is High Treason at all times it was so at Common Law you must look to this betimes for if a blow be once struck here there can be no retrieving of it If any one shall go about to Seize the Kings Person or Imprison him this Gentlemen is Treason there is but few steps betweeen the Prisons and Graves of Kings and by all the observation that I can make out of the English or Scotch or Irish Histories where we have had swarms of Murdered Kings that if once they went into Prison they seldom ever escaped with Life Our King has more reason than any to dread this his Father who now is a Glorious Martyr in Heaven lost his life and the King himself ever since his Escape with Colonel Bamfield from St. James's has had so many miraculous Deliverances both by Sea and Land that we may conclude he is preserved for some mighty matter or else Providence had not done such great things for him and 't is but of late that he himself is escaped out of Prison I am told by Authority and am ordered to tell you that he is expected in this Kingdom very suddenly as a Place of Refuge He is the first King I think since Henry the Second except Richard that has been in this Kingdom It is a great misfortune that he should be forced to it but we may look upon it as a great blessing that he should think himself safe here when he cannot be so elsewhere To Seize any of the Kings Forts or Ships of War for these are the Bulwarks to defend him against his
are found by a Jury 〈◊〉 Twelve able men of your Countrey and therefore the Sentence of the Law is this That you be both and each of you taken from this place to the place from whence you came and there your Irons to be struck off and from thence to the place of Execution and there you shall be Hanged by the Neck till you are Dead and the Lord have mercy on your Souls And now let me give you advice your time is short spend it well and flatter not your selves with the hopes of a Reprieve or Pardon and for you Poore you have shortned the work of your Life you have gone a great way towards Heaven if that Restitution you made was out of Conscience Mr. Sheriff let them have a Confessor sent to them for Saturday is the day of their Execution The Women their friends setting up the cry in the Court. J. Keating They did not cry thus when the Cows were brought home to them they were busied then in the killing and the powdring them up The Copy of a Protection or Pass given by an Irish Officer to some Notorious Robbers of the County of Wicklow the Original being now in the hands of the Book-seller in London viz. I James Byrne Ensign to Capt. Charles Byrne do hereby certifie to you Terlagh Kelly Patrick Byrne and Patrick Mac-Teige and William Doyle to save you harmless for any Misdemeanors whatsoever As Witness my Hand this 24th of April 1689. James Byrne The following Letter being sent by the Lord-Deputy to the Judges of Assize was read in Court to the Grand-Jury c. By the Lord-Deputy General and General-Governour of Ireland AFter Our hearty Commendations We Great you well As His Majesty was graciously pleased to entrust Vs with the Government of this his Kingdom so upon the Invading of England and upon receiving certain Information that the Prince of Orange doth intend also to Invade this Realm We have for the Defence thereof raised a Considerable Army far above what could be maintained by the King's Revenue at the best of Times and when the Trade of this Country was in the most flourishing Condition this we have done by the King's Command to support his Regal Authority Crown and Dignity and to preserve the Lives Liberties and Properties of all his Liege People within this Kingdom And since our Dangers are at hand and that we may daily expect the Landing of an Enemy who intends the Subversion of His Majesty's Government the total Destruction of all his good Subjects Here we find our selves under an absolute Necessity to keep the King's Army still on foot in order to our preservation from the approaching Dangers And tho' we have hitherto with all the Care and Industry imaginable and by the Generous Concurrence of the Officers supported the new-raised Forces without being a Burthen to any other of His Majesty's People Yet considering the decay of Trade the great fall of the Revenue in these distracted Times the great Charges the Officers have been at in subsisting their Men it cannot be expected that the standing Forces can hereafter be maintained without Supplies and since the same cannot be done by Parliament We cannot think of a more effectual Expedient than by voluntary Subscriptions by way of Loan from the People which if Generously done with what may be made of the Revenue may support the Army and will stop all the Disorders that may be committed by the Souldiers which We shall always endeavour to prevent with all the Care and Industry possible By this Husbandry may go on as formerly and We shall be in a Capacity to form the Army so as that with the Assistance of Almighty God We do not doubt to put this Kingdom in a perfect posture of Defence We do therefore pray your Lordships to Recommend this Weighty Matter effectually at the Open Assizes in every County when you sit to all the Inhabitants of such Counties and to appoint the respective Sheriffs of such Counties to procure voluntary Subscriptions by way of Loan from the Inhabitants of such Counties of some certain Sum of Money from each to be subscribed to their Names to be afterwards satisfied by them respectively in Money Wheat Oats or Oatmeal towards the Maintenance of the Army to be paid in or delivered to the respective Sheriffs or their Order and in such places as the said Sheriffs shall respectively appoint from whom we expect an Account of their proceedings herein and a Copy of such Subscriptions as shall be made We do not doubt but every True and Loyal Subject will according to his Ability and the Exigency of the Subject-matter generously and chearfully Contribute towards the carrying on of so Great so Necessary and so Glorious a Work. We expect your Diligent Care herin and so We bid you heartily Farewel From His Majesty's Castle of Dublin the Second Day of March 1688. Your very Loving Friend TYRCONNEL An Answer to the foregoing Letter being drawn up by the Grand-Jury and entred into their Book and presented to Sir Henry Lynch setting forth the extream Poverty of their County occasioned by the daily Ruin of the English c. That they were not in a Capacity to subsist themselves and therefore not capable to raise any thing considerable for the Army Chief Justice Keating returning to Dublin and leaving Baron Lynch to go on to the other Counties c. the said Lynch told the Grand-Jury before he discharged them that the Writing they had drawn up was a Reflection and Scandal to their Country would be taken very ill by the Government and did not question but it would be brought in hereafter as an Evidence against them and therefore Order'd it should be torn out of the Book which was done accordingly A Gentleman taken by Sheriff Power and the Irish Army with the rest of the Prisoners Condemned at Gallaway having made his Escape for England writ the following Letter to a Friend his Relation Dear Brother THE Excuse that I offer for my not writing is this That my thoughts were so taken up what with the Misery I apprehended my poor helpless Father Mother Wife and Children which are all dear almost alike to me were in and an endeavour to procure some Employ whereby I should keep them if they could make their Escape and my self from perishing God is All-sufficient who I doubt not will provide for us if we make but a right use of our Afflictions It was my Fortune to meet with some Friends that promised the first Men that should be raised to procure me some Employ but when that will be is so uncertain and to live a Drone amongst my Friends who are almost in the same Circumstance with my self I lookt upon to be so much below a Man that I chose rather to List my self a private Centinel whereby I proposed to be in the Road if my Friends missed to hew out some Preferment in the mean time As to my private Condition since it