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A39585
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A narrative of the Irish popish plot for the betraying that kingdom into the hands of the French, massacring all Englidh Protestants there, and utter subversion of the government and Protestant-religion, as the same was successively carryed on from the year 1662 : given in to both Houses of Parliament / by David Fitzgerald.
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Fitzgerald, David.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing F1072; ESTC R7381
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34,384
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38
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Sheriff haveing received the said Order at the bounds of that County where he was to receive the Judges all comeing together to Limerick on Saturday night the said Sheriff as soon as he came thither came to me to the Marshal sea and shewed me the said Order which was very welcome to me because it would set me at Liberty never haveing been a minute in any restraint before those three nights Then the said Sheriff and I got ready to go to the Duke and did set forth from Limerick about a elven of the Clock the said night the night following his Grace being told that we were come to Town sent for me and upon further discourse of the said matters after he had taken part of my depositions asked me whether I feared any thing of the Treason sworn against me in Limerick as aforesaid and if I did suppose that there would be any dainger that his Grace would give me a Pardon I answered that for my knowledge in the said Conspiracy against the Government that I would accept of his Majesties gracious Pardon though I did not doubt to prove that I had discharged my self thereof by acquainting Magistrates from time to time of my knowledge thereof and for any other Crime excepting the same that I renounced all manner of Pardons and Protections and that in Limerick I would trust to a fair Trial this I refer to the Duke of Ormond Whereupon his Grace was pleased to order the Sheriff to return me my Arms and not to be used in the nature of a Prisoner and then we returned to Limerick to receive my Trial the Assizes sitting then the Grand Jury as I was informed were unwilling to returne Billa vera upon the Information of Walter Huet against me I haveing notice thereof used my interest in the said Grand Jury and desired that they might find the Bill against me that the accusation might be publickly known and the occasion thereof which was accordingly done the under named persons impannell'd for to try me The Names of the Jurors Sir George Inglesby Kt. Ralph Wilson Esq David Wilson Esq George Ailmer Esq Arthur Ormesby Esq John Croker Esq Nicholas Munckton Esq John Bury Esq Hassard Powel Esq John Mansfeild Esq George Evans Esq John Dixon Gent. Then they proceeded to the Trial and after hearing of the Witnesses who contradicted each other very Materially nor did either of their Tales agree together the matter appear'd so frivolous or rather set up by Practice that the Jury without any Hesitation pronounc'd me not Guilty Then the Grand Jury returned Billa vera upon the Indictment against the persons who broke my house Sir Richard Reynolds would not admit the Trial at the request of others but dissmissed them then the Clerk of the Crown called them by their names upon their Recognizance the number of fourteen or fifteen did appear Judge Reynolds adjudging the Indictment to be Vexatious having 31 mentioned therein but would not have the patience to hear the Trial being worked upon by others as I will Justifie put me off having at least twenty witnesses then in Court to prove the matter of Fact and ordered the said people to be dismissed and addmitted them not to their Trial then I prayed his Lordship in open Court to do me Justice and to let the Trial of the said persons that did appear proceed but all to no purpose Afterwards I went up to Dublin and petitioned to the Lord Lieutenant and Council and did set forth in the said petition the greivances and Injustice done unto me by Sir Richard Reynolds as I conceived by putting off the Trial aforesaid after the said Petition was read I was called to appear before the Lod Lieutenent and Council the Lord Chief Justice Keating alledging before the Lord Lieutenant and Council that the people aforesaid were extra But Sir Richard Reynolds could not deny they were in Court Keating and Reynolds Which I will justifie maintaine and prove by many good witnesses but they having no other way to smother the Illegal proceeding in Limerick than to say that the people did not appear The Lord Lieutenent and Council upon full consideration of my complaint did grant the ensuing Commission to examine the matters aforesaid Ormond By the Lord Lieutenent and Council of Ireland WHereas David Fitz-Gerald of Rakeal in the County of Limerick Esq hath exhibited an Information at this Board of several enormous Abuses done to him to the Scandal of his Majesties Government We therefore appoint and Authorize the High Sheriff of the County of Limerick Sir William King Kt. Governor of Limerick The Commission from the Lord Lieuten Sir George Inglesby Kt. Simon Eyton George Ailmer John Odel and Richard Maguair Esquires or any four or more of them to examine the matters in the Information hereunto annexed and make speedy return of the truth thereof to this Board by examination of Witnesses or otherwise in Convenient time that such course may be taken therein as to Justice appertains Given at the Council Chamber in Dublin the 23th of December 1679. Michael Armachanus Chan. Johan Dublin Aran. Henry Midensy Blessinton Ranalaugh Robert Fitz-Gerald Thomas Jones John Davys Secretary of State The said Commission was executed the third fourth and fifth daies of February 1679. By Garret Fitz Gerald Esq high Sheriff of the County of Limerick Simon Eyton George Ailmer and John Odel Esquires Upon the full examination and hearing of ten sufficient witnesses who proved the particulars mentioned in the said Information as aforesaid and finding twenty more ready to averre the same Returned the said Commission to the Lord Lieutenant and Council with the depositions of the ten that swore positive to the names of those that broke my house and heard them say kill the Rebel and knock him in the head before he goes any further and the said Commissioners did Certifie to the Lord Lieuetenant and Council that there had been a great many more ready to depose the same as the ten did in their depositions aforesaid Whereupon several of the riotous persons aforesaid were again taken up and brought to Tryal and though the breaking my house in the night and menacing words before recited were fully sworn against them by divers Witnesses against whom they had no colour of Exception yet such was the prevalency of the Conspirators and the Jury so prepared that they would not find them Guilty After which I went to Dublin and from thence came for England to give in my Testimony to His Majesty as I had before done to His Grace the Lord Lieutenent and Council from whom I had good encouragement to proceed and which I have herein before punctually publisht An Appendix in a Seasonable Address to his Country-men The Natives of Ireland Dear Country-men MY Family and self having so severely suffered for their Loyalty by the late Rebellion in Ireland and having the opportunity to discover another most horrid Conspiracy against our Gracious Soveraign
Die Sabathi 20 Novembris 1680. THis House being moved That David Fitz Gerald Esq may have leave to Print his Information given to this House concerning the Horrid Plot and Conspiracy in Ireland It is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the said David Fitz Gerald hath hereby leave given him to Print and publish the said Information Jo. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum ADVERTISEMENT WHereas there is one John Fitz Gerald or at least goes under that name who is said to be formerly a Fryer or Priest upon whom there has been some scandalous reflexions this is he who was seized in Bristol going for Ireland to search for Commissions in Old Wall I would only beg of the Reader not to take me for this man David Fitz Gerald. A NARRATIVE OF THE Irish Popish Plot For the betraying that KINGDOM Into the hands of the FRENCH Massacring all ENGLISH PROTESTANTS there And utter Subversion of the GOVERNMENT AND Protestant-Religion As the same was successively carryed on from the Year 1662. Given in to both Houses of Parliament By DAVID FITZ GERALD Esq LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three-Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1680. A NARRATIVE OF THE Irish Popish Plot. SInce we have manifestly found by woful experience That the Princely favours and tender proceedings of His late Majesty towards the Irish proved altogether ineffectual to contain them within the bounds of Loyalty and Duty but still they suffer themselves to be led blindfold into fatal Rebellions by the pernitious Counsels of their Priests the World may easily believe by their proceedings in the last Rebellion that their designs are always on foot and tending to no less than the utter subversion of the English Government in Ireland and establishing the Power in the hands of their own Natives and Religion For confirmation hereof we need not look back so far as the Testimony of that Franciscan Fryar one of their Council who declared That the Session of Parliament held at Dublin being Prorogued in Aug. 1641 and the time drawing nigh for putting their designs of surprizing Dublin-Castle and all other places in possession of the English into execution there was a grand consult or meeting of the Romish-Clergy and principal Lay-men of their Faction appointed to be at the Abbey of Multifarvan in the County of Westmeath where amongst other matters there debated the Question was what course should be taken with the English and all others that were found in the whole Kingdom to be Protestants and by their subsequent Practises it appear'd that no less than a general Massacre was resolved on Though the poor Fryar had no other Reward or Recompence for the Discovery save only a Confinement In which restraint he continued till the Romish party getting the upper hand found him in the Prison and there most cruelly Murder'd him It would be too tedious and unnecessary seeing they are so notoriously known to give an account of the several contrivances of the Popish Clergy of Ireland ever since the Conquest of that Kingdom to shake off the English Government and the horrid and barbarous cruelties they have practised in order thereunto Therefore I will confine my self to such particulars as have happened since His Majesties Restauration taking notice only That their Ignorance produces so blind a superstition towards the Popish Religion that they will most willingly venture their lives all that their many Rebellions have left them and those perhaps too much too unless they make better use of them to further any thing which they are made believe tends to the Honour of Holy Church As on the other side their malice to the English who are possest of their Estates is so great that they would be content to be in worse bondage to a Foraigner so they might but gratifie their revenge so far as to have the English equal sufferers with them Though they apprehend no danger of that taking themselves to be already such slaves that they fancy their condition cannot be worse by changing their Masters especially for a Prince of their own Faith witness their late agreement with Spain and their present one with France which these Papers set forth No man that has any insight into the affairs of Ireland can be ignorant that the Romish Clergy of that Kingdom have publickly and privately the enjoyment and exercise of their Religion according to the manner of the Church of Rome more freely since His Majesties happy Restauration than in several years before by the very great indulgence of the late Governors They have their Titular Primates Archbishops Bishops Vicars General Provincial Consistories Deans Abbots Priors c. who all live freely though somewhat covertly amongst them without controul exercising Jurisdiction over the people They have also their Priests Jesuits and Fryars who are of late years exceedingly multiplied and in great numbers returned out of Spain Italy France and other Foragin parts where the Children of the Natives of Ireland that are devoted to that way are usually sent to receive their education much to the damage and disadvantage of the Protestants in that Kingdome and no less to the Papists themselves if they would but have the patience to consider what miseries they have endured by the means of Ignorant Popish Priests who value no Religion so much as the want of their Impropriations Glebes and Monasteries But that which causes the greatest admiration in me is that Noble-men private Gentlemen and others that are Roman Catholicks and enjoy great part of their Estates if not all should be thus infatuated and misled by such a parcel of designing Hypocrites to act contrary not only to their Allegiance but their Honour and Interest too forgetting the Calamities by their means and wicked industry brought upon that Kingdom of Ireland to the utter ruine and destruction not only of many Thousand English Families but of many of their own Nation and Relations who were ignorant of their horrid designs yet did upon the same account perish and in some sort suffer'd more than the Conspirators themselves Within few years after His Majesties happy Restauration one John Mullowny a mean man by birth but now Titular Bishop of Killalow and several others of the Popish Clergy and Gentry of that Kingdom united in a Conspiracy against His Majesties Government in Ireland For the said Bishop Mullowny having whilst he was in France received in Paris the sum of One hundred thousand Lieures to promote a Rebellion in Ireland did engage the ensuing persons to carry on the said design to wit Collonel Miles Riley Collonel Cullen Collonel Byrne Collonel Mortagh O Bryan and Collonel Dudley Costellow the last of whom fail'd not to perform his part thereof as presently I shall relate But first for its progress the Reader must note That after the last Act of Settlement in Ireland the Popish Clergy being void of all hopes of His Majesties favours or any Toleration establish'd by Law imployed several