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
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
Law would not justifie him in it he has done like an honest Man If you paid the Money out of Conscience you did well but I fear it was your danger of the Halter made you part with your Money for if 22 s. and Damnation stood in the way I believe you would have kept the Money I am sure without satisfaction you cannot expect Absolution the Priest that gave the other Advice for the Maddoge or Skean will I suppose tell you so Two Protestant Evidences against Maurice Cavenagh for stealing several Head of Black Cattle hearing Judge Keating speak against Skeans said Evidence My Lord when we seized him we took a Skean away from him J. Keating Sir How durst you carry such an unlawful Weapon Cavenagh My Lord I am a Butcher it was a Butchers Knife J. Keating Ay I do not question but thou canst butcher upon occasion One Hicky spoke My Lord he is no Butcher but one of the greatest Rogues in the Country round us I have been in pursuit of him several times Cavenagh He is a Murderer My Lord do not believe him Evidence My Lord it was near ten Inches long thick at the back and sharp point every way a Skean J. Keating Is that your Butchers Knife you are a great Villain for carrying such a Weapon Cavenagh I was order'd to have a Skean my Lord. J. Keating Pray Sir who order'd you Cavenagh The Priest of the Parish J. K. A Priest Sir turning to his Brother Judge Do you hear that Brother Bar. Lynch What Priest Sir What Priest What is your Priest's Name J. K. Hold Brother Come Sir I shall not ask your Priest's Name I believe you will have occasion to see your Priest soon to do you a better Office then to advise you to carry Skeans And looking towards Coll. Tool and two Priests on the Bench next Sheriff Birne J. Keating A Priest Gentlemen a Priest is a Minister and a Minister of the Gospel his Doctrine ought to be Peace for the Gospel is a Doctrine of Peace When our Saviour came into the World Peace was proclaimed and when he went out of the World he left it for a Legacy to his Disciples My Peace be with you And pray Sir tell your Priest so from me when you see him It is not for Priests to arm or animate such Villains as you are for Mischief I shall not ask your Priest's Name Clancy an Irish Gent. My Lord he belies the Priest he is a Rogue Cavanagh I do not The Priests of every Parish did give orders to get Half-pikes and Skeans and they were getting together in Companies in every Parish J. Keating Who were they that were gotten together such Fellows as you Cavanagh No my Lord better Men then I a great many that are here in Court. The Jury withdrawing and returning soon again brought Poor and Bowland in Guilty Cavenagh Not Guilty J. Keating Gentlemen you have acquitted the greater Villain at your Door let it lie The Ordinary being called to give Bowland and Poor the Book for their Clergy J. Keating Sir I expect as true a Return from you as if I were there my self The Times are so that Men must forget Bowels of Mercy Ordinary do your Duty What place do you shew them Ordinary My Lord I shew them the 50th Psalm J. Keating Let them read the 5th Verse This is an Act of Mercy and I know not why it should not be in Irish rather the Country Language it was formerly in Latin because the Romish Church hath their Worship in Latin. The Ordinary return'd them both Non Legit J. Keating You William Bowland and you Edmund Poor you have been Arraigned for stealing of Cows two several Thefts It is a great misfortune and sin to be guilty of such Crimes at any time but yours is so much the worse because it falls in a time when there are such general and vast Depredations in the Country that many honest Men go to Bed possest of considerable Stocks of Black and White Cattel gotten by great labour and pains the Industry of their whole Lives and in the Morning when they arise not any thing left them but turn'd out of all to go a begging all being taken away by Rebels by Thieves and Robbers the Sons of Violence that make every thing they lay their Hands on their own on this side the Cape of Good Hope where are the most bruitish and barbarous People we read of there is none like the People of this Country nor so great a Desolation as in this Kingdom at this day any where to be found and particularly in this County It is come to that pass the a Man that looses the better part of his Substance chuse â—ther to let that and what he has besides go than come to give Evidence And why Because he is certain to have his House burnt and his Throat cut if he appears against them Good God! what a pass are we come to For what has any Man if the stronger Hand can take it from him it is better to live under no Law than in such a place We have lived to see twenty nine Years of Peace pass over our Heads And I have sat on this Bench before now I pray God that my lenity and others has not given Encouragement to these Thieves and Robbers there may be a Rogue in the Court or one that is evilly inclined I know none but take notice of this the Government is at length tyr'd with Mercy they see it does no good and Examples and Punishments of this kind are not intended so much in a great part for the punishment of the Offender as for discouraging of others to make them take warning by their Example that seeing what evil Courses bring Men to they may reform I will not take up time to tell you how the benefit of Clergy came whether in the room of the Cities of Refuge that were in the old times I know that Restitution was under the Jewish Law sufficient satisfaction and if the Thief could not make Restitution he was to be sold for a slave and the Money given to the party But as the world grows old it grows worse and those Lenitives signifie nothing for preventing Thieving and Robbery for Thieves and Robbers are like a Gangreen in the Commonwealth they are worse then Drones in the Hive I cannot tell my self that under the Circumstances we are in I should advise to pardon any that are taken in this general depredation that we are under and therefore you Bowland and Poore that might have lived as safely under the Laws as the biggest man in the Kingdom and none of your fellow Subjects durst lay his hand upon you but he was liable to answer for it and thus you might have lived to a fair old age and ended your days in peace but you have chosen the quite contrary for the Law provides likewise for the punishment of wicked and offending persons among which number you