A REMONSTRANCE OF Divers Remarkeable Passages concerning the Church and Kingdome OF IRELAND Recommended By Letters from the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and Counsell of Jreland And Presented By HENRY JONES Doctor in Divinity and Agent for the Ministers of the Gospel in that Kingdom TO The Honourable House of Commons IN ENGLAND London Printed for Godfrey Emerson and William Bladen and are to be sold at the signe of the Swan in Little-Brittain 1642 To our very assured loving Friend Master Lenthall Esquire Speaker of the Honourable the Commons House of Parliament in the Kingdom of ENGLAND THere hath been presented unto us a Remonstrance of the deplorable estate of this Church of Ireland and the lamentable Condition of the Clergy therein occasioned by the present Rebellion The Remonstrants desiring our Letters in the Representing of the same to the honourable House of Commons in England unto whose grave and wise consideration they do apply themselves We shall not need to say much in a matter so much speaking it self and the experience we have of the true sence they have of this distracted State gives us great assurance that they will take to heart this our miserable Church and Gods servants therein reduced unto unexpressable extremities both Church and State being now involved in one common calamity The bearer hereof Henry Jones Doctor in Divinity is intrusted by the Clergy to negotiate in their behalf and we have intreated him to solicite the cause of the poor robbed English expressed in our Letters to you of the fourth of this moneth We therefore do crave leave to recommend him in this imployment to that Honourable House he being a Person who is able to say much in this businesse having been some while a Prisoner in the hands of the Rebels and observed much of their proceedings and being intrusted with others as a Commissioner to take the examinations out of which the Remonstrance now to be by him offered to that Honourable House is extracted As for himself he hath suffered much in his private fortunes by these troubles and in respect of his Abilities and Learning and Painfulnesse in his Ministry he deserveth favour and encouragement Besides we have found him very diligent and forward in attending all occasions for promoting the publike services here by timely and important intelligence given to us of Occurences during his imprisonment with the Rebels and since especially in his information made to us of the approaches of the enemy to Drogheda when we could not conceive they would rise to that boldnesse by which information amongst others we had the opportunity of sending thither the present Garrison without whom it might have been in danger of surprising And so we remain from His Majesties Castle of Dublin the seventh day of March 1641. Your very assured loving Friends W. Parsons Jo. Borlace R. Dillon Ad. Loftus J. Temple Cha. Coote Tho. Ratherham Fran. Willoughby Rob. Meredith To the Honorable Assembly of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the Commons House of Parliament in the Kingdom of ENGLAND The undernamed in the behalf of themselves and their brethren the poore dispoiled and distressed Ministers of the Gospel in Ireland with the Widdowes and Orphans of such Humbly represent their lamentable Condition Shewing THat by the instigation of Popih Priests Friers and Jesuites with other fire-brands and Incendiaries of the State partly such of them as have been resident here in this Kingdom of Ireland before partly flocking in from Forraign parts of late in multitudes more then ordinary and chiefly by such of them as resorted hither out of the Kingdom of England And out of that ancient and known hatred the Church of Rome heareth to the reformed Religion As also by reason of the surfet of that freedome and indulgence which through Gods forbearance for our tryall they of the Popish faction have hitherto enjoyed in this Kingdom There hath been beyond all paralell of former ages a most bloudy and Antichristian combination and plot hatched by well-nigh the whole Romish sect by way of combination from parts forraign with those at home against this our Church and State thereby intending the utter extirpation of the reformed Religion and the professors of it In the room thereof setting up that idoll of the Masse with all the abominations of that whore of Babylon This also ayming at the pulling down and defacing the present state and government of this Kingdom under his Sacred Majesty theirs and our undoubted Soveraign and introducing another form of rule ordered and moderated by themselves without dependance on his Highnesse or the Kingdom of England whence have proceeded such depredations of of the goods and such cruelties exercised on the persons and lives of the loyall Subject such wasting and defacing of all Minuments of civility with such prophanation of holy places and Religion that by the most barbarous and heathenish Nations the like could not in any age be found to be perpetrated All which doth daily appear unto us your Suppliants appointed to enquire upon oath of the premisses and other particulars depending thereupon by vertue of a Commission to us directed under the great Seal of this Kingdom of Ireland bearing Date the three and twentieth day of December in the seventeenth year of his Majesties Reign and by one other Commission further enlarged concerning the premisses Dated the eighteenth of January in the year aforesaid Copies whereof together with the Copies of such and so much of the Depositions as answer to the particulars of this our Remonstrance we have hereunto annexed that both the validity of our proceedings and the truth of this our sayd Remonstrance may the better appear Vpon view of all which it doth very evidently appear that in the present most dangerous designe against this Kingdom the Popish faction therein hath been confederate with forraign States If we may rely upon the report made therof by the conspirators themselves and their adherents here whereof the following examinations are full IT being confessed that they had their Commission for what they did from beyond the Seas A That from Spain they did expect an Army before Easter next consisting if of none others yet of the Irish Regiments and Commanders serving in Flanders and else where under that King together with a great quantity of Powder Ammunition and Arms for a great number of men to be raised in Ireland This Kingdome as they make up their estimate being able to make up the body of an Army of two hundred thousand or more B From France also they looke for ayd C Being in all this further encouraged by Bulls from Rome some of these Rebels requiring to the Popes use and in his name the yeelding up of such places of strength as they had beleaguered D In all which respects and in allusion to that League in France they terming themselves the Catholike Army E and the ground of their war the Catholike cause And to this purpose hath
any longer for they would govern it themselves S And that their Religion should flourish in despight of King or State T In all which having broken thorow the due bounds of their Allegiance their vain and ambitious thoughts rove without knowing any limits It will not now content them to settle anew and mold again this Kingdom to their own Modell by calling of Parliaments making Laws and appointing their own Governours V Thus discourse they of the modestest sort but they will with the assistance of Spain and France set footing in England and after that in Scotland W where all things being setled to their desires the whole Forces of Ireland in way of retribution and acknowledgement of gratitude are intended for the King of Spain against the Hollanders X Unto which their disloyalty to theirs and our most gracious Soveraign they have added expressions of unheard of hatred to His Brittish Subjects of this Kingdom banishment or slavery are the greatest favours that would be afforded them But their generall profession is for a generall extirpation even to the last and least drop of English blood Y Which that it may be drayned to the full such of the English as cannot prescribe a settlement in this Kingdom for two hundred yeers are to be cut off and that notwithstanding they be of the Romish Sect It being to that end provided That such as do revolt to their part should for the present be accepted of yet so disposed as being drawn into the List of their Army they should be set upon the most dangerous Enterprises so either to be made away or to serve their own turns of them And what the Sword cannot for the present effect an Inquisition like that in Spain for finding out the Jewish and Moorish blood shall in time thorowly accomplish Z As for the future their Covenant is That no English should ever set footing again in Ireland A Even the very Language must be forgotten none being to speak English under a penalty B But that which exceeds all Not an English Beast or any of that breed must be left in the Kingdom C And as we finde the hearts of these men in their tongues so in their actions doing what they professe and being in both beyond all measure profane and heathenish in their impious words and behaviours towards God and the holy Scriptures Religion and the places of Gods publike Worship Blaspheming our God bidding his servants whom they had first T V stripped naked to go to their God and let him give them clothes D Breaking into Churches burning Pulpits Pues and all belonging thereunto with extreme violence and expression of hatred to our Religion and triumphing also in their impiety E Professing That not one Protestant should be left in the Kingdome F Dragging some Professors thorow the streets by the hair of the head into the Church where stripping whipping and cruelly using them they added these taunting words If you come tomorrow you shall hear the like Sermon G How have our sacred Books of holy Scriptures been used Gods Book hath been O horrible cast into and tumbled in the Kennell thence taken up and dashed in the faces of some Professors with these words I know you love a good lesson this is an excellent one come to morrow you shall have as good H They have torn it in pieces I kicked it up and down K treading it under foot with leaping thereon they causing a Bag-pipe to play the while L laying also the leaves in the kennell leaping and trampling thereupon saying A plague on it This Book hath bred alltne quarrell hoping within three weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be so used or worse and that none should be left in the Kingdom M and while two Bibles were in burning saying that it was hell-fire that was burning N wishing they had all the Bibles of Christendome that they might use them so But what Pen can set forth what Tongue expresse whose Eye can reade Ear hear or heart without melting consider the cruelties more than barbarous dayly exercised upon us by those inhumane blood-sucking Tygers Stripping quite naked Men Women and children even children sucking upon the Brest O whereby multitudes of all sorts in the extremitie of that cold season of Frost and Snow have perished Women being dragged up and down naked P Women in child bed thence drawn out and cast into prison Q One delivered of a childe while she was hanging R One ripped up and two children taken away and all cast unto and eaten by swine S One other stabbed in the breast her childe sucking T An Infant cruelly murthered whom they found sucking his dead mother slain by them the day before V A childe of 14 years of age taken from his mother in her sight cast into a Bog-pit and held under water while he was drown'd W The forcing 40 or 50 Protestants to renounce their profession and then cutting all their throats * What should we speak of their murthers X their hanging half-hanging and that oft times reiterated they delighting in the tortures of the miserable Z Hence some being left wounded in vain crying out that they might be dispatched A This being purposely done that these wretches might languish in their miserie their tormentors affirming that their Priests commanded them so to do B What should we speake of those 30 or 40 burnt in one House and 50 in another C the denying of buriall to the dead D whereby Christians have been eaten by Dogs and Dogs tearing Children out of the wombe the bloudy beholders relating such things with boasting and great rejoycing E And to make perfect the measure of their cruelty Two were said to be buried alive F and others that had been long buried digged up they saying that the Churches could not be Consecrated while Hereticks bodies or bones lay therein G The cruell usage of those 48 poore prisoners in the Gaole of Monaghan H Of those in the County of Armagh after drowned in the River of the Ban to the number of 80 I or 100. K or 196 L as it is diversly reported those 45 drowned together M And those 179 burnt in one house x All these we refer to the reading of the severall depositions concerning them hereunto annexed But how can that be forgotten or where shall it be beleeved which we hear to have been done in the Church of Newtown in the County of Fermanagh where a childe of Thomas Strettons was boyled alive in a Caldron A thing which as one bare reports we durst not so neither can we now with confidence enough present it to that your honourable Assembly nor can we averre it for true otherwise then as by concurring examinations we finde them solemnly deposed whereunto we desire to
and some expert souldiers for the present with arms and ammunition of all which they expect a speedy supply out of Flanders their own Regiments there exercised being to be sent over and some shipping from Spain allotted for service That this Kingdom being setled there are thirty thousand men to be sent into England to joyn with the French and Spanish forces and the service in England performed joyntly to fall upon Scotland for reducing both Kingdoms to the obedience of the pope which being finished they have ingaged themselves to the King of Spain for assisting him against the Hollanders And for drawing their followers to some head and for giving the fairer glosse to their foul Rebellion it is to be admired what strange and unlikely rumours of their own devising they cast abroad sometimes that many sail of Spaniards are landed now at one port then at another That Drogheda was taken at such a day and hour with all the circumstances at large and Letters to that purpose dated from Drogheda by the Rebels that besieged it That Dublin was taken And being infinitely ambitious of gaining the Earl of Ormond to their part for the greater countenance to their cause giving out that he was their own which was so long beleeved by the said followers until that noble Earl giving daily those honorable Testimonies to the contrary and they finding it to their cost though with the hazard of his own person further then his place might well allow they are now otherwise satisfied and place him in the rank of their mortall enemies together with that terrour to them Sir Charls Coot and others And thus have I laid down all that I have heard to me related omitting what I finde others more largely to insist upon All which their treacherous vain and ayry projects God disappoint As for my own private sufferings by the present rebellion I refer them to another Schedule this being so far taken up Deposed before us March 3. 1641. Hen. Jones Roger Puttock John Sterne Iohn Watson William Aldrich William Hitchcock The Examination of Edmund Welsh of Moylerstown in the Kings County THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That Piers Fitz-Gerald of Ballisonan in the said County taking his Peternell ready cocked presented the same to this Deponents brest saying when this Deponent offered to draw his sword that it was in vain for him to strive against so many and so disarmed him and took from him his sword and dagger with eight Guns with certain Powder and Lead alleadging that there was an Excommunion from the chief of their Church against any of his Religion that would not do the like and if he had not done so and that soon some of his neighbours would have had his head and that they would never ask any Quarter nor accept of any pardon And these trayterous words were then and there spoken and these hostile and outragious acts committed as aforesaid all which this Deponent upon oath averreth Edmund Welsh Iur. 22 Ian. 1641. VVilliam Aldrich Iohn Sterne The Examination of John Edgworth Esquire high Sheriff of the County of Longford THis examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That he sending abroad to know what the meaning of this Insurrection was word was brought him by one Thomas Stafford once a servant to this examinate that he heard there was a Commission come from his Majesty to the Irish by which they had power to destroy the English in this Kingdom and in so doing to revenge the wrong done to his Majesty by the Puritans of England who had not onely taken away his prerogative but had also deposed him and put up the Palsgrave in his stead this examinate discoursing further with the said Stafford asked him if there were not a great meeting of Friers and priests about the the third or fourth of October last being Saint Francis day at the Monastery of Multefarnam in the County of VVestmeath to which the said Stafford answered There was and being further asked by this Examinate what was the meeting for he answered he did not know onely thus much That some of the Friers told him that this was a yeer of Iubilee and that there was a plenary Indulgence or Bull as he termed it from the Pope for all the sins committed and all that should be committed this yeer of Iubilee Iohn Edgworth Deposed before us Febr. 23. 1641. Hen. Iones VVilliam Aldrich The Examination of John Brooks of Ballyheys in the County of Cavan Yeoman THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That by some of the Rebells this Deponent and other English Protestants were threatned to be presently murthered unlesse they would presently be gone And if they went to Dublin they should finde small relief there if for England as little there for England was in the same case And further said That they had long paid Rents to the English but they would make them pay it back again further alleadging That what they did they had authority for the same from the King or words to that effâ—ct Iohn C Brooks his mark Jur. 5 Ian. 1641. Roger Puttock Iohn VVatson The Examination of Grace Lovett wife to Fran. Lovett of Ballew-hillan in the County of Fermanagh THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That Patrick mac Collomac Donnell Edmond mac Donnell and the rest of their company the 25. day of October last entred into severall parcells of Land and outed this Deponent and her children as also took away the Lease Writings Will and Escripts that this Deponent had that concerned the estate of the severall parcells of Land And further deposeth That she heard one of the Company of Captain Rory Magwire who as this Deponent heard was a Friar say That it was well that this Deponent was come into their Company to save her life for if she should go for Dublin it would be as bad And if she went for England it would be worse for said he we have the Kings broad Seal for what we do And for the reason of our rising it is because the Puritans preferred a Petition against us and could not let us enjoy our Religion quietly for we stand for our lives And if we should not have done this we had all lost our lives upon one day or words to that effect And further this deponent saith That she this deponent her husband and four children were all stript naked by the said Rebels belonging to the said Captain Rory the said 25. day of October last at Newtown alias Castlecool Grace â— Lovets Mark Deposed before us Jan. 5. 1641. Hen. Jones Hen. Brereton The examination of Elizabeth Coats of Drumully in the County of Fermanagh Widdow THis examinate duely sworne deposeth inter alia That she heard some of the Rebellious company say and ask the English Protestants that were there robbed what they intended to do or whether to go saving unto them if they went for Dublin that was taken by the Lord
Fermanagh Gentleman THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That the Rebels then said that they had a Commission or Broad-Seal from the King for what they did and that when they the said Rebels had vanquished or over runne this Kingdom they would go over into England where they would have the assistance of Spain and France for over running the same Nath. Higginson Jur. 7. Ian. 1641. Coram Roger Puttock Hen. Brereton The Examination of Anne Marshall of Castle-Waterhouse in the County of Fermanagh Widdow THis examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That some of the Rebels most cruelly murthered VVilliam Marshall husband unto this Deponent giving him sixe severall mortall wounds then said that the Scots were at that time sent to leave never a drop of English bloud in England and that the Irish now had authority and command from the King to leave never a drop of English bloud in Ireland And further deposeth That the common speech of the said Rebels was that they were the Queens souldiers Anne Marshall Deposed before us 3. Ian. 1641. Roger Puttock Hen. Brereton The Examination of Jathniell Mawe of Ferringrin in the County of Fermanagh Gentleman THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That he heard some of the Rebellious Irish company say that there should not be one English man Woman or Childe left within this Kingdom and that they had the Kings Broad-Seal for what they did Iathniell Mawe Deposed before us Ian. 3. 1641. Hen. Iones VVill Aldrich The Examination of Richard Cleybrook of Ballyellis in the County of Wexford Farmer THis Examinate duely sworne desposeth inter alia That he heard Luke Toole say that he intended soon after to march to Killeothery and take it and afterwards to come to Dublin and take the Castle there and that he would not leave an English Man nor English Woman in the Kingdom but they all should be banished and that he would not leave any English beast a live nor any of the breed of them He saith also That he heard the said Luke Toole say that he would have his own Religion setled in this Kingdom And that he would pull the Lord Parsons Hat from his Head Richard Cleybrook his mark Coram me Ia. VVare The Examination of Margaret Farmeny and Margaret Leadly VViddows both of Acrashaniey in the Parish of Clowish and County of Fermanagh THese Deponents duely sworne inter alia depose That on the 23 day of October last the Rebells in that County to the number of an hundred or thereabouts robbed the Deponents of their goods and chattells and bound their hands behinde them urging them to confesse money And that the said Rebells bound one of the Deponents husbands and led and dragged him up and down in a rope and cut his throat in her own sight with a Skean having first knockt him down and stript him And at the same time murthered 14 persons more all English Protestants the said Rebells then alleadging That they had the Kings broad Seal to strip and starve all the English and that they were his souldiers And as the Deponents fled for succour towards Dublin they were stripped on the way by the Irish seven times in one day and left stark naked being aged women of 75 yeers old and the Rebells that saw the Deponents naked bid them go and look for their God and let him give them clothes Iur. 3 Ian. 1641. John Sterne William Hitchcock The examination of Henry Fisher of Powerscourt in the County of Wicklow THis examinate duely sworne deposeth inter alia That Luke Toole chief of the Rebells in those parts said That there was landed at Wexford nineteen thousand of the Spanish enemy whereupon they leaped and danced for joy And this Examinate further deposeth That Bryan Linch of Powerscourt revolted and fell from the protestant Religion to Masse and the said Linch with severall other Rebells entered the parish Church of Powerscourt called Staggonnell and burnt up pues pulpits chests and Bibles belonging to the said Church with extreme violence and triumph and expression of hatred to Religion And this convert Linch strongly laboured to have this Deponent hanged Hon. Fisher Jur. Ian. 25. 1641. Iohn Sterne VVill Hitchcock The Examination of Adam Clover of Slonosy in the County of Cavan THis Examinate duely sworn deposeth inter alia That this Deponent and his company that were robbed observed That 30 persons or thereabouts were then most barbarously murthered and slain out-right and about 150 more persons cruelly wounded so that traces of blood issuing from their wounds lay upon the high way for 12 miles together and many very young children were left and perished by the way to the number of 60 or thereabouts because the cruell pursuit of the Rebells was such that their parents and friends could not carry them further And further saith that some of the Rebels vowed That if any digged graves wherein to bury the dead children they should be buried therin themselves so the poor people left the most of them unburyed exposed to ravenous beasts and fowl and some few their parents carried a great way to bury them after they were dead and some were hid in bushes that the Rebells should not finde them And this Deponent further saith That he saw upon the high-way a woman left by the Rebells stripped to her smock set upon by three women and some children being Irish who miserably rent and tore the said poor English woman and stripped her of her smock in a bitter Frost and Snow so that she fell in labour in their hands and presence and both she and her childe miserably died there And this Examinate further deposeth That Iames ô Rely of or neer to the Parish of Ballyheys Yeoman and Hugh Brady of or neer the parish of Vrnagh and divers others of the Rebells did then often take into their hands the Protestant Bibles and wetting them in the dirty water did five or sixe severall times dash the same on the face of this Deponent and other protestants saying Come I know you love a good lesson here is a most excellent one for you and come to morrow and you shall have as good a sermon as this and used other scornfull and disgracefull words unto them And further saith That one Owen Brady of the parish of Armagh Gent. being one of the principall Guard to Philip mae Hugh mac Shane ô Rely did take divers protestants as they went by their Court of Guard to the Church by the hair of the head and in other cruell manner and dragging them into the Church there stripped robbed whipped and most cruelly used them saying If you come tomorrow you shall hear the like Sermon or to that effect with other scornfull and opprobrious words Deposed before us Ian. 4. 1641. Hen. Iones Randall Adams The mark of Adam Glover The Examination of Elizabeth Tayler wife of Iohn Tayler of the Newtowne alias Castlecool in the Parish of Drumuly