threescore yeers or thereabouts sworn and examined before his Majesties Commissioners by vertue of a Commission in that behalf directed under the great Seale of Ireland Deposeth and saith THat these Protestant Ministers following about the beginning of the present Rebellion were murthered in the Counties of Tyrone Armagh viz. Master John Matthew Master Blyth Master Hastings Master Smith Master Durragh Master Birge and eight more whose names this Deponent hath forgotten by the Rebels none of which would the Rebels permit to be buried the names of such as murthered this Examinant knoweth not his cause of knowledge of the said murthers is that some of his this Deponents servants who were among the Rebels did give him the relation and he verily beleeveth them and besides this Deponent heard the same confessed and averred by many of the Rebels themselves and by some of those Protetestants that had escaped and that he this Deponent was a prisoner amongst the Rebels at Castle Gaufield neer the place of those murders where he continued fourteen moneths And further saith that in Dungannon in the County of Tyrone or neer thereunto the Rebels murdered three hundred and sixteen Protestants and between Charlmount and Dungannon above four hundred there were murdered and drowned at and in the River by Benburb the Black-water between the Counties of Armagh and Tyrone two hundred and six Protestants and Patrick Mac Crew of Dungannon aforesaid murdered thirty one in one morning and two young Rebels viz. John Begbrian Harie murdered in the said County of Tyrone one hundred and forty poore women and children that could make no resistance and that the wife of Brian Kelly of Loghgall in the County of Armagh one of the Rebels Captaines did with her owne hands murder forty five And this Deponent further saith that one Thomas King sometimes Serjeant to the late Lord Caulfields Company which this Deponent commanded he being enforced to serve under the Rebels and was one of their Provest Marshals gave the Deponent a List of every housholders name so murdered and the number of the persons so murdered which List this Deponent durst not keep At Portadowne there were drowned at severall times about three hundred and eight who were sent away by about forty or such like numbers at once with convoyes and there drowned There was a Lawgh neer Loghgall aforesaid where were drowned above two hundred of which this Deponent was informed by severall persons and particularly by the wife of Doctor Hodges and two of her sons who were present and designed for the like end but by Gods mercy that gave them favour in the eyes of some of the Rebels they escaped and the said Mistris Hodges and her sons gave the Deponent a List of the names of many of those that were so drowned which the Deponent durst not keep and saith that the said Doctor Hodges was imployed by Sir Phelim O Neile to make Powder but he failing of his undertaking was first halfe hanged then cut down and kept prisoner three moneths then murdered with forty four more within a quarter of of a mile Charlmount aforesaid they being by Tirlogh Oge O Neile brother to Sir Phelim sent to Dungannon prisoners and in the way murdered This Deponent was shewed the pit where they were all cast in at a Mill-pond in the Parish of Killamen in the County of Tyrone there were drowned in one day three hundred and in the same Parish there were murdered of English and Scottish one thousand and two hundred as this Deponent was informed by Master Birge the late Minister of the said Parish who certified the same under his hand which note the Deponent durst not keep The said Master Birge was murthered three moneths after all which murders were in the first breaking out of the Rebellion but the particular times this Deponent cannot remember neither the persons by whom they were committed This Deponent was credibly informed by the said Serjeant and others of this Deponents servants who kept company with the Rebels and saw the same that many young children were cut into quarters and gobbets by the Rebels and that eighteen Scottish Infants were hanged on a Clothiers tenterhook and that they murthered a young fat Scottish man and made candles of his grease they took another Scottish man and ripped up his belly that they might come to his small guts the one end whereof they tyed to a tree and made him goe round untill he had drawne them all out of his body they then saying that they would try whether a dogs or a Scotch mans guts were the longer Anthony Stratford Deposeth March 9. 1643. before us Henry Jones Henry Brereton The EXAMINATION of Robert Maxwell Clerk The Province of Ulster Arch-Deacon of Downe sworne and examined deposeth and saith inter alia THat by command from Sir Phelim O Neile the Rebels dragged the Deponents brother Lieutenant James Maxwell out of his bed in the rage and height of a burning Feaver and least any of his acquaintance or friends should bury him they carried him two miles from any Church and there cruelly butchered him when he neither knew what he did or said and thus Sir Phelim paid him two hundred and sixty pound which he owed him And his wife Grissell Maxwell being in child-birth the child halfe born and halfe unborne they stript starke naked drove her about an arrowes flight to the Black-water and drowned her The like they did to another English woman in the same Parish in the beginning of the Rebellion which was little inferiour if not more unnaturall and barbarous then the roasting of Master Watson alive after they had cut a collop out of either buttock And farther saith that a Scottish woman was found in the Glinwood lying dead her belly ripped up and a living child crawling in her wombe cut out of the Cawle and that Master Starkey School-Master at Armagh he a Gentleman of good Parentage and parts being upwards of an hundred yeers of age they stript naked caused two of his Daughters Virgins being likewise naked to support him under each arme he being not able to goe of himselfe And in that posture carried them all three a quarter of a mile to a turfe pit and drowned them feeding the lusts of their eyes and the cruelty of their hearts with the self-same objects at the same time At the siege of Augher they would not kill any English Beast and then eat it but they cut collops out of them being alive letting them there rore till they had no more flesh upon their backs so that sometimes a Beast would live two or three days together in that torment the like they did at Armagh when they murdered Hugh Echlin Esquire they hanged and murdered all his Irish servants which had any way proved faithfull or usefull to him during this Rebellion And as touching exemplary constancy in Religion this Deponent saith that Henry Cowell Esquire a gallant and well bred Gentleman was murdered because he
whatsoever they had to cover their nakednesse taken from most of them as may appear by the examination of Adam Clover of Slonosy in the County of Cavan who being duly sworn deposeth inter alia That this deponent and his company that were robbed observed that 30 persons or thereabouts were then most barbarously murdered and slain outright 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 Rebels 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 therein themselves So the poor people left the most of them unburied exposed to ravenous beasts and fowls and some few their Parents carried a great way to bury them And this deponent further saith that he saw upon the way a woman left by the Rebels stripped to her smock set upon by three women and some Irish children 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 under their hands and both she and her childe dyed there Thus did their mercy in sparing those miserable soules in this manner prove by much a far greater cruelty then if they had suddenly cut them off as they did afterwards many thousands of Brittish that fell into their hands For now they starved and perished in multitudes upon the wayes as they travelled along and to those that outlived the misery of their journey their limbes only served to drag up their bodies to christian buriall there denied unto them For many of the men and most of the women and children that thus escaped either to Dublin or other places of safety in the North not long outlived the bitternesse of their passage but either overwhelmed with grief or outwearied with travell contracted those diseases which furthered by hunger cold nakednesse ill lodgings and want of other necessaries struck deeply into bodies that had lived long at ease with much plenty and soon brought them with sorrow to their graves THese were the first fruits of this Rebellion which now began to dilate it self into the other Provinces having covered over the Northern Parts of the Kingdome with fearfull desolations The first Plotters were yet undiscovered but the great active instruments appointed for the execution of this horrid designe fully appeared and had already deeply imbrued their hands in the bloody massacres of the English Sir Phelim O Neale being the chief of that Sept Sir Phelim O Neales proceedings and now the person remaining of nearest alliance to the late Earl of Tyrone assumed to himself the chief power among the Rebels in Vlster and by his directions guided the rest of his complices on in the destruction of all the English there He was one of very mean parts without courage or conduct his education for a great part of his youth was in England he was admitted a Student of Lincolns Inne and there trained up in the Protestant religion which he soon changed after if not before his return into Ireland lived loosely and having no considerable estate by reason of the great engagement upon it became of very little esteem in all mens opinions Yet such were the over zealous affections of his Countreymen in this cause their secrecy in attempting their suddennesse in executing as by their forwardnesse to destroy the English and get their goods he quickly over-run that part of the Countrey He had prevailed so far within seven dayes after he first appeared in this Rebellion by seazing most treacherously at the very first upon Charlemont where the Lord Caufield lay with his Foot company the Forts of Dongannon and Montjoy as that in his Letter written to Father Patrick O Donnell his Confessor bearing date from Montjoy the 30 of Octob. he was able to brag of great and many victories And presently after he had gotten such a multitude of rude fellowes together though in very ill equipage as he marched down with great numbers of men towards Lisnagaruy near the chief Plantation of the Scots for that part of their plot to spare them as they did in the beginning they found now too grosse to take therefore they resolved to fall upon them without mercy and yet left sufficient forces to come up into the Pale to take in Dondalke in the County of Lowth Which was a Frontier Town in the last wars against Tyrone Dondalke taken by the Rebels about the beginning of Novemb 1641. and so well defended it self as with all the power he had he could never recover it into his hands There lay now a Foot company of the old Army but the Lieutenant who commanded it having neither his men in readinesse nor armes or munition made little or no resistance easily giving way to the forward affections of the inhabitants who delivered up the Town into the possession of the Rebels about the beginning of November 1641. The Rebels presently after their taking in of Dondalke marched on further into the County of Lowth and possessed themselves of Ardee The Rebels march up towards Tredagh a little Town within seven miles of Tredagh anciently called Drohedagh So as it was now high time to provide for the safety of that Town The Lord Moore had already retired thither from his house at Millifont and there remained with his troop of horse and two companies of foot One was under the command of Sir John Nettervile eldest sonne to the Lord Viscount Nettervile He discovered in the very beginning much virulency in his affections by giving false frights and raising false rumours and making all manner of ill infusions into the mindes of the Townsmen who as it afterwards appeared were but too forward to take part with the Rebels It is verily believed they had in the very beginning some plot to cut off the Lord Moore and seaze upon his Troop and that Sir John Netterviles part was to begin a mutiny which he attempted that night he was to be upon the watch by giving ill language and endeavouring to make a quarrell with his Lordship which he very discreetly passed over and so carefully looked to the guard of the Town as they could take no advantage to put on their designe Howsoever the Townsmen were extreamly frighted with the thoughts of their present danger and the greater part of them being Papists were ready to declare themselves for the Catholick cause only their desires were things might be so ordered The ill condition of Tredagh represented by the L. Moore to the L. Iustices as would administer unto them specious pretences of necessity for the same The L. Moore gave present advertisement unto the Lords Justices and
himselfe an estate of good value He the said Thomas Stewart and she this Deponent then possessing that Estate were then at Sligoe aforesaid by Andrew Creane of Sligoe Esquire then high Sheriffe of that County Neile O Hart of Donelly in the said County Gentleman Roger O Conner of Skarden in the same County Gent. Donnell O Conner of _____ Gent. brother in law to Teige O Conner Sligo Richard O Creane of Tirreragh Gent. John O Creane Esqu and a Justice of Peace Son to the said Andrew Creane Anthony Screane of _____ neer Ballyshanny Gent. forcibly deprived robbed and despoiled of their Houshold-goods Wares Merchandize Specialities cattell horses plate money and other goods and chattels of the value of one thousand two hundred pounds Sterl or thereabouts Which robbery and outrage was committed in or about the beginning of December aforesaid at the very time of the Rebels surprizing robbing and pillaging of all the English and Scots of the Towne of Sligoe In the doing whereof not onely the persons Rebels before named but also Teige O Conner Sligo now of the Castle of Sligo general of the Rebels in those parts James French of Sligo aforesaid Esq a Justice of the Peace a notorious and cruell Rebell Brian O Conner of Drumcleere Gent. Captaine Charles O Conner a Fryar and Captaine Hugh O Conner all three Captaines and brothers to the said Teige O Conner Sligo Captain Patrick Plunket neer Killoony in the same County a Justice of the Peace Captaine Phelim O Conner Captaine Teige O Conner of the Glan Captaine Con O Conner of the same and divers others whose names she cannot for the present remember were most forward and cruell actors and those Rebels having altogether deprived and stripped all the British of all their estates they had she this Deponent and her husband and many other British were left in that Towne and amongst the rest there were left there which she can well remember viz. William Braxton the Deponent and her husband and six children James Scot and his sonne of the age of four or five yeers Sampson Port and his wife Mary Port and her father of the age of seventy yeers or thereabouts John Little Arthur Martin William Dowlittle and his wife and children William Carter and John Lewes and Elizabeth his wife Robert Scyens Elizabeth Harlow and one woman then was great with child and within a moneth of her time Isabel Beard who was great with child and very neer her time and others whom she cannot name which British people although they were promised fair quarter and taken into the protection of the said Teige O Conner Sligo who promised them a collection yet they were daily threatned to be murdered if they would not turne Papists in one moneth then the next after which for saving of their lives they were enforced to doe Notwithstanding which about the sixth of January then next following the said O Conner Sligoe having before called a meeting of his followers and kinred in the Counties of Sligoe and Letrim and considered with them and with a Covent of Fryars of the Abby of Sligo for three dayes together where they sate in Counsell all the men women and children of the British that then could be found within the same Towne saving this Deponent who was so sick that she could not stirre were summoned to go into the Goale and as many as could be met withall were carried and put into the Goale of Sligo where about twelve a clock in the night they were stripped stark naked and after most of them were most cruelly and barbarously murdered with swords axes and skeines and particularly by two Butchers named James Buts and Robert Buts of Sligoe who murthered many of them wherein also were actors Charles O Conner the Fryar and Hugh O Conner aforenamed brother to the said Teige O Conner Sligo and Teige O Sheile Kedagh O Hart Labourer Richard Walsh and Thomas Walsh the one the Jaylor the other a Butcher and divers others whom she cannot name And saith that above thirty of the British which were so put into the Goale were then and there murdered besides Robert Gumble then Provost of the said Towne of Sligoe Edward Newsham and Edward Mercer who were wounded and left for dead amongst the rest and Jo. Stewart this Deponents sonne which foure being the next day found alive yet all besmeared with blood were spared to live All which particulars the Deponent was credibly told by those that so escaped and by her Irish servants and others of the Towne and saith that some of the women so murthered being big with child by their wounds received the very arms and legs of the children in their wombs appeared and were thrust out and one woman viz. Isabel Beard being in the house of the Fryars and hearing the lamentable cry that was made ran into the street and was pursued by one of the Fryars men unto the River where she was barbarously murdered and found the next day with the childs feet appearing and thrust out of her wounds in her sides And further saith that on the said sixt day of January there were murdered in the streets of the Towne of Sligo these British Protestants following viz. William Sheiles and John Sheiles his sonne William Mapwell and Robert Akin And the Deponent further saith as she was credibly informed by the persons before named that the inhumane Rebels after their murthers committed in the said Goale laid and placed some of the dead bodies of the naked murdered men upon the naked bodies of the women in a most immodest posture not fit for chaste eares to heare In which posture they continued to be seen the next morning by those Irish of the Towne that came into the said Goale who were delighted and rejoyced in those bloody murthers and uncivill actions And that they of the Irish that came to bury them stood up to the mid-leg in the blood and braines of those that were so murdered who were carried out and cast into a pit digged for that purpose in the Garden of Master Ricrofts Minister of Sligo And she further saith that whereas the River of Sligo was before very plentifull of Fish it did not for a long time after those murders afford any Fish at all And this Deponent saw the Fryars in their white habits in great companies in precession going to sanctifie the water casting thereinto holy water She saith also that the Pryor of the Covent of Sligo after the murder of the said woman in the River fell frantick and ran so about the Streets and continued in that frenzy for three or four weeks and saith that of her six children three were starved and dyed after her release of imprisonment which had been for eigthteen moneths amongst the Rebels Signum predict VVV Janae Stewart alias Menize Jurat 23. Aprilis 1644. Henry Jones Henry Brereton Captaine ANTHONY STRATFORD of Charlmount in the County of Armagh Esquire The Province of Ulster aged
would not consent to marry a beastly Trull Mary Ny Neile a neer Kinswoman of Sir Phelim's He was proffered his life without the Blouse if he would have gone to Masse but he chose rather to dye then to doe either There was made the like proffer of life for going to Masse to Robert Eckline a child of eleven or twelve yeers of age but he also refused it saying he saw nothing in their Religion for which he would change his owne And this Deponent further saith that very many of the British Protestants the Rebels buried alive and took great pleasure to heare them speak unto them as they digged downe old ditches upon them except those whom they thus buried they buried none of the Protestants neither would permit any who survived to performe that duty for them And further saith that the Rebels would send their children abroad in great troops especially neer unto Kinard armed with long wattles and whips who would therewith beat dead mens bodies about their privy members untill they beat or rather thrashed them off and then would returne in great joy to their Parents who received them for such service as it were in triumph And further saith that if any women were found dead lying with their faces downwards they would turne them upon their backs and in great flocks resort unto them censuring all parts of their bodies but especially such as are not fit to be named which afterwards they abused so many wayes and so filthily as chast ears would not endure the very naming thereof Many of the Protestants the Rebels would not kill out-right but being halfe dead would so leave them entreating for no better favour at their hands two or three dayes after but to kill them out-right which sometimes were granted sometimes denied A young youth having his back-bone broken was found in a field having like a Beast eaten all the grasse round about him the Deponent could not learne that they killed him out but that they removed him to a place of better Pasture so that in those most bloody and execrable wretches that of the holy Ghost is cleerly verified The very mercy of the wicked is cruelty And further saith that the Rebels themselves told him this Deponent that they murdered 954. in one morning in the County of Antrim and that besides them they supposed that they killed above 1100. or 1200. more in that County They told him likewise that Colonell Bryan O Neile killed about one thousand in the County of Downe besides three hundred killed neere Killeleigh and many hundreds both before and after in both those Counties At Sir Phelims return from Lisnegarvy some of the Souldiers forced about 24. British into a house where they burned them alive whose terrible out-cryes they desired very much to imitate and expresse unto others And saith that he heard Sir Phelim likewise report that he killed 600. English at Garvagh in the County of Derny and that he had left neither man woman nor Child alive in the Barony of Munterlong in the County of Tyrone and betwixt Armagh and the Newry in the severall Plantations and Lands of Sir Archibald Atcheson John Hamilton Esquire the Lord Canfield and the Lord Mount Norrice and saith also that there were above two thousand of the British murdered for the most part in their owne houses whereof he was informed by a Scotch man who was in those parts with Sir Phelim and saw their houses filled with their dead bodies In the Glenwood towards Dromore there were slaughtered as the Rebels told the Deponent upwards of twelve thousand in al who were all killed in their flight to the County of Downe The number of the people drowned at the Bridge of Portadowne are diversly reported according as men staid amongst the Rebels this Deponent who staid as long as any and had better intelligence then most of the English amongst them and had best reason to know the truth saith there were by their owne report 190. drowned with Master Fullerton At another time they threw 140. over the said Bridge at another time 36. or 37. and so continued drowning more or fewer for seven or eight weeks so as the fewest which can be supposed there to have perished must needs be above 1000. besides as many more drowned betwixt that Bridge and the great Lowgh of Montjoy besids those who perished by the sword fire and famine in Coubrassill and the English plantations adjacent Which in regard there escaped not 300. out of all those quarters must needs amount to many thousands Neere unto the Deponants House thirty six persons were carryed to the Cure-bridge at one time and drowned At another time six and fifty Men Women and Children all of them being taken out of the Deponents House and at severall other times severall other numbers Besides those that were drowned in the Black-water at Kinnard In which Towne and the Parish of Tinon whereof the Deponent was Rector there was drowned slaughtered and dyed of Famine and for want of Cloathes about six hundred The Deponent might adde to these many thousands more but the Diary which he this Deponent wrote amongst the Rebels being burned with his House The numbers of British destroyed within the Province of Ulster Bookes and all his Papers he referreth himselfe to the number in grosse which the Rebels themselves have upon inquiry finde out and acknowledged which notwithstanding will come short of all that have been Murdered in Ireland there being above one hundred and fifty foure thousand now wanting of the British within the very precinct of Vlster And this Deponent further saith That it was common Table-talke amongst the Rebels that the Ghost of Master William Fullerton Timothy Jephes and the most of those who were throwne over Portadowne-Bridge were daily and nightly seene to walke upon the River sometimes singing of Psalmes sometimes brandishing of naked Swords sometimes scrieching in a most hideous and fearefull manner The Deponent did not beleeve the same at first neither doth he yet know whether to beleeve it or no but saith that divers of the Rebels assured him that they themselves did dwell neere to the same River and being daily affrighted with those apparitions but especially with their horrible scrieching were in conclusion inforced to remove further into the Country Their owne Priests and Fryers could not deny the truth thereof But as it was by the Deponent Objected unto them said it was but a cunning flight of the Devill to hinder this great worke of propagating the Catholicke Faith and killing of Heretickes or that it was wrought by Witchcraft The Deponent himselfe lived within thirteen miles of the Bridge and never heard any man so much as doubt of the truth thereof Howsoever he obligeth no mans faith in regard he saw it not with his owne eyes otherwise he had as much certainty as morrally could be required of such a matter And this Deponent further saith That the degenerate Pale English were most cruell
county of Dublin And about the same time there were sent down four hundred Muskets to the Lords of the Ardes and Clandeboys for the arming of the Scots in the county of Downe All of these had powder lead and match proportionable to their armes at the same time delivered unto them Severall Counties within the Province of Lemster declare themselves for the Rebels But now the poyson of this rebellion which had hitherto contained it self within the Northern counties and the confines of them began to be diffused into other parts of the Kingdome It had already infected the counties of Letrim Longford West-Meath and Lowth lying contiguous unto them And upon the 12 of Novemb. the Irish in the County of Wiclow brake out most furiously despoiling robbing and murthering all the English inhabitants within that territory They burnt all their fair well-built houses drove away their cattell and laid siege to Fort Carew wherein was a foot company of the old army The newes being brought to the Lords Justices thereof they well considered the importance of the place and that if it were in the hands of the Rebels and that whole county in their possession they could expect little quietnesse or even safety in the Citie by reason of their near neighbourhood Whereupon they were most desirous to have sent down forces for the relief of it But when they came on the other side to consider their want of means for the performance of that service that they had no money but few men and many of them not to be trusted That it would be very dangerous to divide their small forces and so to leave the Citie in a manner unguarded they were enforced to lay aside that resolution and with great grief to sit still and suffer the poor English in those parts to be exposed to the mercilesse cruelties of those barbarous Rebels who went on furiously with the work and quickly cleared all that county of the English inhabitants Within few dayes after the Irish in the Counties of Wexford and Caterlagh began to rise likewise and to follow the bloody examples of their neighbours There were now also great apparencies of the disloyalty of the County of Kildare who with large protestations under the pretence of doing service had gotten into their hands the arms and munition designed for them by the State And so mysterious and doubtfull was the carriage of the Lords and chief Gentlemen of the English Pale giving no manner of intelligence to the State of the proceedings of the Rebels nor making any kinde of preparatives against them as their affections began even then to be justly suspected So as the City of Dublin being the receptacle of the whole State The sad condition of the City of Dublin the Magazine of all the arms munition and other provisions for the army and the chief sanctuary of all the English and despoiled Protestants was now reduced to a very sad condition desperately encompassed on every side the Northern Rebels being come down in two severall parties with great forces within 20 miles of it on the one side and the Rebels of the County of VViclow infesting it on the other side which with the great resort of strangers and the continuall rumours of new plots and devices to surprize the town possessed the Protestants with extraordinary fears of their present danger But that which made their condition appear much more formidable unto them was the daily repair of multitudes of English that came up in troops stripped and miserably despoiled out of the North. Many persons of good rank and quality covered over with old rags and some without any other covering then a little twisted straw to hide their nakednesse Some reverend Ministers and others that had escaped with their lives sorely wounded Wives came bitterly lamenting the murders of their Husbands mothers of their children barbarously destroyed before their faces poor infants ready to perish poure out their souls in their mothers bosome some over-wearied with long travell and so surbated as they came creeping on their knees others frozen up with cold The resort of multitudes of men women and children to the City of Dublin in a most miserable posture ready to give up the ghost in the streets others overwhelmed with grief distracted with their losses lost also their senses Thus was the town within the compasse of a few dayes after the breaking out of this rebellion filled with these most lamentable spectacles of sorrow which in great numbers wandred up and down in all parts of the City desolate forsaken having no place to lay their heads on no clothing to cover their nakednesse no food to fill their hungry bellies And to adde to their miseries they found all manner of relief very disproportionable to their wants the Popish inhabitants refusing to minister the least comfort unto them so as those sad creatures appeared like living ghosts in every street Many empty houses in the city were by speciall direction taken up for them Barns Stables and out-houses filled with them yet many lay in the open streets and others under stals there most miserably perished The Churches were the common receptacles of the meaner sort of thē who stood there in a most dolefull posture as objects of charity in so great multitudes as there was scarce any passage into them But those of better quality who could not frame themselves to be common beggars crept into private places some of them that had not private friends to relieve them even wasted silently away and so died without noise And so bitter was the remembrance of their former condition and so insupportable the burthen of their present calamity to many of them as they even refused to be comforted I have known of some that lay almost naked having clothes sent laid them by refusing to put them on Others that would not stir to fetch themselves food though they knew where it stood ready for them But they continued to lie nastily in their filthy rags and even their own dung not taking care to have any thing clean handsome or comfortable about them And so even worn out with the misery of their journey and cruell usage having their spirits spent their bodies wasted and their senses failing lay here pitifully languishing and soon after they had recovered this town very many of them dyed leaving their bodies as monuments of the most inhumane cruelties used towards them The greatest part of the women and children thus barbarously expelled out of their habitations perished in the city of Dublin and so great numbers of them were brought to their graves as all the Churchyards within the whole Town were of too narrow a compasse to contain them So as the Lords took order to have two large pieces of new ground one on each side the River taken in upon the out-Greens and set apart for burying places These were the memorable spectacles of mercy and of the great commiseration the
was set on fire or smothered not above two or three escaped is appeares in their Examinations jurat Jan. 12. Anno Dom. 1641. Lisgool within that County above 150. men women and children almost all consumed by fire At the Castle of 2 Thomas Wenslaw further deposeth that at the Castle of Moneah there were ninety Protestants more slaine and murdered And that from the 3 Castle of Moneah the Rebels marched to the Castle of Tullah where by their owne confession they promised those Protestants that were there faire quarter But when they had delivered up their Armes and the Castle those Rebels in the Bawne of the Castle first stripped them all of their cloaths and then and there most cruelly murthered them Moneah neere 100. British there slain altogether And the same bloody company of Rebels were no sooner admitted into the Castle of Richard Bourke Batchelour in Divinity of the County of Fermanagh deposeth that he heard and verily beleeveth the burning and killing of one hundred at least in the Castle of Tullah and that the same was done after faire quarter promised jurat Jul. 12. 1643. Tullah which was delivered up into the hands of Roury Mac Guire upon composition and faithfull promises of faire quarter but that within the very court they began to strip the peopl most cruelly put them to the sword murthering them all without mercy 4 Rowry Mac Guire upon the 24. of Octob. 1641. came with his Company unto Lissenskeah and desired in a friendly manner to speake with Master Midleton who had the keeping of the Castle The first thing he did as soone as he was entred therein was to burne the Records of the County whereof Master Midleton was the keeper being Clerke of the Peace which he enforced him to deliver unto him as likewise one thousand pounds he had in his hands of Sir William Balfoures which as soone as he had he compelled the said Midleton to heare Masse sweare never to alter from it and immediately after caused him his wife and his children to be hanged up and hanged and murdered one hundred persons besides at least in that Towne These particulars and severall other set down at large in a Relation sent me in by Sir John Dunbarr Knight one of the Justices of Peace within the County of Ferminagh At Lissenskeah they hanged or otherwise killed above 100. persons most of them of the Scottish nation for after once they had the English in their power they spared none of them but used al the Scots with as much cruelty as they did the English This County was very well planted by the British undertakers and all of them and their Tenants in a very short space after a most horrible manner quite destroyed or utterly banished from their Habitations In the Counties of Armagh and Tyrone where the British were much more numerous and Sir Phelim O Neale and his Brother Turlagh O Neale the principall actors the murders of the British were much more multiplied and committed with greater cruelty if it were possible then in any other places 1000. men women children drowned in one place There were 5 This number is deposed in Doctor Maxwels Examination taken the 22. of Aug. 1642. one thousand men women and Children carried out at severall times in severall troops and all unmercifully drowned at the Bridge of Portnedowne which was broken downe in the midst and so driving and forcing them on threw them into the River And as other Relations give it in 6 This number of so many persons drowned within the County of Armagh is deposed by Thomas Green and Elizabeth his wife as appeares by their Examinations taken Nov. 10. 1643. four thousand persons were drowned within the severall parts of that County 7 William Clerke of the County of Armagh Tanner saith that he with 100. men women and children or thereabout were by the Rebels driven like hogs about six miles to a River called the Band in which space the foresaid Christians were most barbarously used by forcing them to goe fast with Swords and Pikes thrusting them into their sides and they murthered three by the way and the rest they drove to the River aforesaid and there forced them to goe upon the bridge which was cut downe and with their pikes and swords and other weapons thrust them downe headlong into the said River and immediatly they perished and those who assayed to swim to the shore the Rebels stood and shot at Jurat January 7. 1641. The Rebels in a most barbarous manner drove on many of those miserable stripped Christians unto the place of their sufferings like Swine and if any were slack in their pace they sometimes pricked them forwards with their swords and pikes often hastening on the rest either by killing or wounding some of their fellowes in the way 7 Mary the wife of Ralph Corne deposeth that 180. English were taken by the Irish and driven like Cattell from Castle Cumber to Athy 8 Elizabeth the Wife of Captaine Rue Price of the Towne and County of Armagh deposeth That five of her Children together with 110. other Protestants out of the Parishes of Armagh Laugaule and other places were sent away with passes from Sir Phe. O Neale with promise to be safely conveyed over to their friends in England That their Conductor was Captain Manus O Cane and his Souldiers who having brought or rather driven them like Sheep or Beasts to the Bridge of Portnedowne there forced or threw all those poore prisoners into the water together with the Deponents five children and then and there drowned most of them 9 And those who could swim and come to the shore they either knocked them on the head and so after drowned them or else shot them to death in the water Jurat Jan. 29. 1641. Other companies they carried out under pretence of giving them safe conduct out of the Country and so got them to goe cheerfully on by vertue of Sir Phelim O Neales Passe untill they came at some place fit for their execution 9 Christian Stanhaw the relict of Hen. Stanhaw of the Parish of Laugalle in the County of Armagh deposeth That upon the drowning of 140. Protestants one time at Portnedowne-Bridge after they had thrown them in some of them swimming to the shore the Rebels with their muskets knocked out their braines Jurat July 23. 1642. And if they drowned them then they had some prepared to shoot or knocke downe with Poles any such as could swim or used any other meanes to escape out of the water 10 James Shaw of Merket-hill in the County of Armagh deposeth the manner of Mistresse Cambels pulling the Rebel into the water and how he was drowned with her Jurat Aug. 14. 1642. Amongst many others a Gentlewoman whose name was Mistris Cambell being forcibly brought by them to the River and she finding no meanes to escape their fury sodainly clasped her armes about one of the chiefe rebels that was most forward to thrust her
Gent. did take William Blundell of Grange in the County of Armagh Yeoman and put a rope about his necke and threw him into the black water at Charlmount and drew him up and downe the water to make him confesse his money who thereupon gave him 21 pounds yet within three weeks after he his wife and seven Children were drowned by the Rebels And further saith that Samuel Law of Grenan in the Parish of Armagh was by the said Neile Oge O Neile and others brought to a Wood and that then they there put a With about his neck and so drew him up and downe by the necke untill he was glad to promise them ten pounds Jurat ut supra Some had ropes put about their necks and so drawn thorow the water some had Withes and so drawn up and down thorow Woods and Bogs others were hanged up and taken down and hanged up againe severall times and all to make them confesse their money which as soone as they had told 19 Margaret Fermeny in the County of Fermanagh deposeth That the Rebels bound her and her husbands hands behind them to make them confesse their money and dragged them up and downe in a rope and cut his throat in her owne sight with a skeane having first knocked him downe and stripped him and that being an aged woman of 75. yeers old as she came up afterwards to Dublin she was stripped by the Irish seven times in one day the Rebels bidding them goe and looke for their God and bid him give them cloaths Jurat they then dispatched them out of the way 20 Edward Wilson of the County of Monaughan deposeth that among other cruelties used by the Rebels to the English they hung up some by the armes and then hacked them with their swords to see how many blowes they could endure before they dyed Jurat Others were hanged up by the Armes and with many slashes and cuts they made the experiment with their Swords how many blowes an Englishman would endure before he dyed Some had their 21 Anne the wife of Mervin Madesly late of the City of Kilkenny Gent. sworne and examined deposeth That some of the Rebels in Kilkenny aforesaid struck and beat a poore English woman untill she was forced into a ditch where she dyed those barbarous Rebels having first ript up her child of about six yeers of age and let her guts run about her heels jurat Bellies ript up and so left with their guts running about their heels 21 James Geare of the County of Monaughan deposeth That the Rebels at Clewnis murdered one James Nettervile Proctor to the Minister there who although he was diversly wounded his belly ript up and his intrailes taken out and laid above a yard from him yet he bled not at all untill they lifted him up and carried him away at which this Deponent being an eye witnesse much wondered and thus barbarously they used him after they had drawne him to goe to Masse with them jurat April 6. 1642. But this horrid kinde of cruelty was principally reserved by these inhumane Monsters for 22 Owen Frankland of the City of Dublin deposeth That Michael Garray told this Deponent that there was a Scottish man who bring driven by the Rebels out of the Newry and knockt on the head by the Irish recovered himselfe and came againe into the Towne naked Whereupon the Rebels carried him and his wife out of the Towne cut him all to pieces and with a skeine ripped his wives belly so as a child dropped out of her womb Jurat July 23. 1642. Women whose sexe they neither pitied nor spared hanging up severall Women many of them great with childe whose 23 At Ballimcolough within foure miles of the City of Rosse in April 1642. John Stone of the Graige his sonne his two sons in law and his two daughters were hanged one of his daughters being great with child her belly was ript up her child taken forth and such barbarous beastly actions used to her as are not fit to be mentioned bellies they ripped up as they hung and so let the little Infants fall out a course they ordinarily tooke with such as they found in that sad condition 24 Phillip Taylor late of Portnedowne deposeth that the Rebels killed a Dyers wife of Rosse trever at the Newry and ript up her belly she being great with child of two children and threw her and her children into a ditch and that he this Deponent drove away Swine from eating one of the children Jurat And sometimes they gave their Children to Swine 25 John Montgomery of the County of Monaghan sworn and examined saith that one Brian Mac Erony ringleader of the Rebels in the County of Fermanagh killed Ensign Floyd Robert Worknum and four of their servants one of which they having wounded though not to death they buried quick As also that he was credibly informed that the daughter in law of one Foard in the Parish of Clownish being delivered of a child in the fields the Rebels who had formerly killed her husband and father killed her and two of her children and suffered the dogs to eat up and devour her new borne Child jurat June 26. 1641. Some the Dogges eat and some 26 Katherine the relict of William Coke of the County of Armagh Carpenter deposeth That the Rebels of the said County robbed stripped and murthered a great company of Protestants some by burning some by the sword some by hanging and the rest by starving and other deaths And this Deponent to shun their rage and save her poore life hid her selfe in a ditch of water and sate there among high rushes so long as that she was almost frozen and starved to death and then crawled away secretly And further saith that some of the Rebels that escaped and fled from the battell of Lisnagaruay meeting one Mistreis Howard and Mistreis Frankland both great with child and six of their children with them those Rebels then and there with their pikes killed and murdered them all and after ripped open the Gentlewomens bellies took out their children the one of them being quick and threw them into a ditch in the sight of Jane this Deponents daughter who escaped because she spake Irish and said she was an Irish woman jurat Feb. 24. 1643. taken alive out of their Mothers bellies they cast into ditches And for sucking children and others of a riper age some 27 James Stevenson Clerke of the County of Letrim deposeth that the Rebels there took Isabel Stevonson a young child left at Fostering with one Hugh Mac Arran and enquiring whose child it was they told him it was a Scottish mans child whereupon they tooke the child by the heels and run and beat the braines of it out against a Tree jurat April 20. 1643. had their braines knockt out others 28 Anne Hill wife of Arthur Hill in the County of Caterlagh deposeth that as she passed through the County of Wickloe William the Plasterer with nine
or ten Rebels more pulled off her back a young child of one yeer and a quarter old threw it on the ground trod on it that it dyed stripped her selfe and foure small children who by the cold they thereby got since dyed jurat were trampled under-foot to death 28 Iohn Stubbes of the County of Longford Gent. deposeth that he heard by some of the Sheriffs men that Henry Mead and his wife John Bigel William Stell and Daniel Stubs the Deponents brother were put to death by Lisagh Farrols and Oli. Fitz Gerrals men who hanged them upon a Windmill and when they were halfe dead they cut them to pieces with their skeines jurat Novemb. 21. 1641. Some they cut in gobbets and pieces 29 William Parkinson of Kilkenny Esquire deposeth that the wife of John Harvey told him that she being at Kilkenny and having there turned to Masse to save her life was notwithstanding stripped againe together with her children and one Purcell a Butcher after he had stripped her daughter of five yeers of age ripped up her body till her intrales fell out whereof she dyed that night whereof she complaining to the Major of Kilkenny he bid away with her and dispatch her so as not onely the Butcher but many other did beat and wound her so as she hardly escaped with her life jurat ut supra others they ript up alive 30 Elizabeth Champion late wife of Arthur Champion in the County of Fermanagh Esq deposeth that when the Castle of Lisgoole was set on fire by the Rebels a Woman leaping out of a window to save her selfe from burning was murdered by the Rebels and next morning her childe was found sucking her brest and also murdered by them jurat Apill 6. 1642. some were found in the fields sucking the brests of their murdered Mothers others lay stifled in Vaults and Cellars 28 El. Price deposeth that a great number of poore Protestants especially of women and children they pricked and stabbed with their Skeins Pitch-forks and Swords and would slash mangle and cut them in their heads brests faces armes and other parts of the body but not kill them out-right but leave them wallowing in their blood to languish starve and pine to death and whereas those so mangled desired them to kill them out of their paine they would deny it but sometimes after a day or two they would dash out their braines with stones or by some other cruell way which they accounted done as a favour of which she hath in many particulars been an eye-witnesse jurat June 29. 1641. others 30 Charity Chappell late wife of Richard Chappell Esquire of the Towne and County of Armagh deposeth that as she hath credibly heard the Rebels murdered great numbers of Protestants and that many children were seen lying murdered in Vaults and Sellers whether they fled to hide themselves jurat July 2. 1642. 30 Thomas Fleetwood late Curat of Kilbeggan in the County of Westmeath deposeth that he hath heard from the mouth of the Rebels themselves of great cruelties acted by them And for one instance that they stab'd the Mother one Jane Addis by name and left her little sucking childe not a quarter old by the dead corps and then they put the brest of its dead Mother into its mouth and bid it sucke English-bastard and so left it there to perish jurat March 22. 1642. 31 Mary Barlow deposeth that her Husband being by the Rebels hanged before her face she six children were stripped stark naked turned out a begging in frost snow by means whereof they were almost starved having nothing to eat in three weekes while they lay in a Cave but two old Calfe-kins which they beat with stones and so eat them haire and all her children crying out unto her rather to goe out and be killed by the Rebels then to starve there jurat starved in Caves crying out to their Mothers rather to send them out to be killed by the Rebels then to suffer them to starve there Multitudes of 32 John Duffield of the County of Armagh Gent. deposeth that the Rebels wounded John Ward and Richard Duffield so as they thereof dyed and that their wives and the said Johns six children being all stript dyed of want and cold And further saith that many thousands of Protestants men women and children being stripped of their clothes dyed also of cold and want in severall parts of the Country jurat Aug. 9. 1642. men women and children were found drowned cast into ditches bogges and turfe-pits the ordinary Sepultures of the British Nation 32 Catherine Madeson of the County of Fermanagh deposeth that they drew some lying sicke of Fevers out of their beds and hanged them and that they drove before them of men women and children to the number of sixteen and drowned them in a Boggie-pit knocking such on the head with Poles as endevoured to get out Thousands dyed of cold and want in all parts of the Country being neither permitted to depart nor relieved where they were enforced to stay * Jane the wife of Gabriel Constable late of Drumcad in the County of Armagh Gent. sworne and examined saith that her husband and his mother about 88. yeers old and his Brother being murdered by the Rebels in the Parish of Kilmore that a great number of Protestants were about Candlemas 1641. by the means and instigation of Joane Hamskin formerly a Protestant but a meer Irish woman and lately turned to Masse and of divers other her assistants forced and thrust into a thatcht house within the Parish of Kilmore and then and there the Protestants being almost naked covered with rags onely the same house was by that bloody woman and her barbarous assistants set on fire in severall parts thereof the poor imprisoned parties who were by armed parties kept there lockt in were miserably burned to death and at length the house fell upon them and the combustible part of the house being consumed before the bodies of all those miserable wretches were burned to ashes the bodies of many of them lay there in holes to the great terrour of the beholders that were Protestants three onely escaped out of a hole of the house and the rest that attempted to escape the flames were then and there forced and thrown in again and so burned to death jurat June 16. 1642. Multitudes enclosed in houses which being set on fire they were there most miserably consumed 33 Katherine Madeson of the County of Fermanagh deposeth that they drew some lying sicke of feavers out of their bed and hanged them jur ut supra Some dragged out of their sick-beds to the place of execution 34 Thomas Green in the Parish of Dumcres in the County of Armagh Yeoman and Elizabeth his wife sworn and examined saith That the Deponent Tho. Green hardly escaped away with his life but that the other Deponent and six children were all left among the Rebels and so stripped of their cloaths and hunger-starved that
five of the children dyed and she this Deponent being put to beg among the mercilesse Rebels was at length rescued from them by the Scottish Army She further saith that the Rebels did drowne in a bog 17. men women and children at one time within the said parish and she is verily perswaded that the Rebels at severall times and places within the County of Armagh drowned above 4000. Protestants enforcing the sonnes and daughters of those very aged people who were not able to goe themselves to take them out of their beds and houses and to carry them to drowning especially in the River of Toll in the Parish of Loghgall jurat Novemb. 10. 1643. children enforced to carry their aged parents to the Places designed for their slaughter 35 John Rutledge deposeth that such were the barbarous and inhumane cruelties of the Rebels that sometimes they enforced the wife to kill the husband the son to kill the father and the daughter to kill the mother and then they would hang or put to death the last blood-shedder He further saith that of his knowledge the Rebels in the Towne of Slego forced one Lewes the younger to kill his father and then hanged the son and in Mogne in the County of Mayo the Rebels forced one Simon Lepers wife to kill her husband and then caused her son to kill her and then they hanged the son nay some children compelled most unnaturally to be the executioners of their owne parents wives to help to hang their husbands 36 This deposed in Master Goldsmiths Examination which is set forth at large in the page following mothers to cast their owne children into the water and yet after these enforced acts which no doubt were performed out of hopes and assurance to have their owne lives saved alwayes murdered And such was the malice and most detestable hatred borne to the English by the Irish as they taught their 37 Anne Read the relict of Helchiah Read of the County of Letrem deposeth that she being stripped out of all she had some of her children dyed of want and famine and that one of her sons called Stephen Read being about six yeers of age was about the 10. of February 1641. in the house of James Gray of the County of Cavan and going forth to play there then gathered about him six Irish children of that Towne who suddenly fell upon him and in such manner that some with sticks and some with stones put out his eyes and bruised his body extreamly so that he by meanes of those children which were none of them as she is perswaded above eight yeers of age not long after dyed and had been killed outright in the place had not an English woman come thither who took up the dying child from them saying she wondred they could find in their hearts so to deale with a poore child but they answered they would doe as much for her if they were able jurat July 12. 1642. children to kill English children 35 Dennis Kelly of the County of Meth deposeth that Garret Tallon of Cruisetowne in the said County Gent. as it is commonly reported hired two men to kill Anne Hagely wife to Edw. Tallon his son a Papist and at that time absent from home and the said two men did in most bloody manner with skeines kill the said Anne Hagely and her daughter and her daughters two children because they would not consent to goe to Masse and after they would not permit them to be buried in a Church or Church-yard but they four were buried in a ditch jurat Aug. 23. 1643. and the 38 John Grissell of the Queens County deposeth that the women and children in those parts were as cruell and forward as the men Rebels the children though young being very bold in their robberies bidding this Deponent and the rest of the English be gone or else they should be hanged Irish women did naturally expresse as much cruelty as the chiefest Rebels among them If these be not sufficient let us over-looke the particular ends of some particular persons and we shall yet in them behold more horrid cruelties then these before mentioned What 39 This particular deposed by Margaret Perkin as also by Elizabeth Bursell who saith that the child was of twelve yeers of age being the child of Thomas Straton of Newtown jurat Jan. 19. 1641. shall we say to a child boyled to death in a cauldron a 40 The wife of Jonathan Linne and his daughter were seized upon by the Rebels neer the Town of Caterlagh carried by them into a little wood called Stapletowne wood and there the mother was hanged and the daughter hanged in the haire of her mothers head as is deposed by James Shaw Vicar of old Laughsin Jan. 8. 1643. woman hanged on a tree and in the haire of her head her owne daughter hanged up with her a woman 41 Adam Clover deposeth that he saw upon the high way a woman left by the Rebels 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 of her smock in a bitter frost and snow so that she fell in labour in their hands and both she and her child dyed there jurat Jan. 4. 1641. miserably rent and torne to pieces 42 This cruelty was used to some English in the Province of Conaught as was testified by the Lords Justices and Counsell as doth appeare by their Letters some taken 38 Elizabeth Baskervile deposeth that she heard the wife of Florence Fitz Patrick find much fault with her busbands souldiers because they did not bring along with them the grease of Mistresse Nicholson whom they had slaine for her to make candles withall jurat April 26. 1643. 38 Martha Culme deposeth that she heard some of the Irish themselves detest the cruelty of the women who followed their Camp and put them on in cruelty saying spare neither man woman nor child jurat 42 Tho. Fleetwood Curate of Kilbeggan in the County of Westmeath deposeth that the L. President of Conaught caused an English woman who could speak Irish to go toward Dublin with a letter but she was taken within five miles of the Town of Athlone brought back and stoned to death by the women of the Town dwelling on the hither side of the bridge jurat by the Rebels their eyes plucked out their hands cut off and so turned out to wander up and down 43 James of Hackets town in the County of Caterlagh deposeth that an Irish Gentlewoman told him and others that she turned an English woman away who was her servant and had a child and that before the poore woman and child were gone halfe a mile divers Irish women slew them with stones jurat Aprill 21. 1643. others stoned to death 44 John Clerk of Knockback Gent. deposeth that he heard credibly from Master Litghboune Minister of the Naas that the Rebels shot a parish Clerk neer Kildare through both his
thighes and afterward digged a deep hole in the ground wherein they set him upright on his feet and filled up the hole in the earth leaving out only his head in which state and posture they left the poor wounded man till he pined languished and so dyed jurat Octob. 24. 1643. a man wounded and set upright in a hole digged in the earth and so covered up to the very chin there left in that miserable manner to perish a 45 Katherine the relict of William Coke of the County of Armagh deposeth that many of her neighbours who had been prisoners among the Rebels said and affirmed that divers of the Rebels would confesse brag and boast how they tooke an English Protestant one Robert Wilkinson at Kilmore and held his feet in the fire untill they burned him to death And the same Robert Wilkinsons owne sonne was present and a prisoner when that cruelty was exercised on his Father jurat February 24. 1643. mans feet held in the fire till he was burnt to death his wife hanged at his doore 46 At Cashal in Munster beside many Ministers which they there hanged after a most barbarous manner they stript one naked and drove him through the Towne pricking him forwards with Darts and Rapiers and so pursuing him till he fell downe dead jurat ut supra a Minister stripped stark naked and so driven like a beast thorough the Town of Cashell the Rebels following and pricking him forward with darts and rapiers 47 Christian Stanhaw the relict of Hen. Stanhaw late of the County of Armagh Esq deposeth that a woman that formerly lived neer Laugale absolutely informed this Deponent that the Rebels enforced a great number of Protestants men women and children into a house which they set on fire purposely to burne them as they did and still as any of them offered to come out to shun the fire the wicked Rebels witb sithes which they had in their hands cut them in pieces and cast them into the fire and burned them with the rest jurat July 23. 1642. a company of men women and children put into a house and as they were burning some children that made an escape out of the flames were taken by some of the Rebels who stood by cut them in pieces with sithes and so cast them into the fire again Neither did these horrible tortures which they put these poor innocent Christians unto aslack their fury their malice towards them did not determine with their breath But after so many severall bloody wayes and cruell inventions wherewith they rent their souls from their wretched bodies even to their 48 Adam Clover of the County of Cavan deposeth that he observed thirty persons to be most barbarously murdered and about 150. more cruelly wounded so that traces of blood issuing from them lay upon the high way for twelve miles together and many very young children were left and perished by the way to the number of sixty or thereabouts because the cruelties of the Rebels were 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 therein themselves so the poore people left most of them unburied exposed to ravenous beasts and fowles jurat Jan. 4. 1641. dead carkasses in some places they denied all manner of buriall some 49 Edward Saltinstale deposeth that the Rebels killed William Loverden when he was naked his wife and children looking on and cutting off his head held it up to his wife and children and his sorrowfull wife taking his corps and burying of it in a Garden Patrick O Dally a Rebell took it up and threw it into a ditch jurat ut supra they cast into ditches others 50 Thomas Green and Elizabeth his wife depose that the Rebels at severall times murdered killed and destroyed the most part of the Protestants in the Parish of Dumâ—res being about 300. and indeed most of the Protestants in all the County therabouts did they kill and destroy by drowning hanging burning the sword starving and other deaths exposing their slaughtered bodies to be devoured by dogs swine and other ravenous creatures And this Deponent Elizabeth saw the dogs feed upon those dead carcasses jurat Novemb. 10. 1643. they left to be devoured by dogs swine others by Fowls and ravenous birds nay 51 Richard Bourke Batchelour of Divinity deposeth that he was informed that Master Lodge Arch-deacon of Killalow being buried about six yeers since and divers other Ministers bones were digged out of their graves as patrons of heresie by direction of the titular Bishop of Killalaw and Robert Jones a Minister was not admitted Christian buriall by direction of some Popish Priests jurat July 12. 1643. severall which had been formerly buried they digged up and left them to putrifie above ground And these truly are but some of those wayes among many others which with most exquisite pains and cruell tortures were used by these mercilesse 52 Arthur Agmoughty deposeth that during the siege of Castle Forbez the Rebels killed poor children that went out to eat weeds or grasse and that a poore woman whose husband was taken by the Rebels went to them with two children at her feet and one at her breast hoping to beg her husbands life but they slew her Rebels to let in 51 David Buck deposeth that in the parish of Munrath in the Queens County the Rebels digged up a number of English mens graves and left the corps above ground to be abused by dogs hogs or any other ravenous creatures death among an innocent unprovoking unresisting people that had alwayes lived peaceably with them 53 Master Creighton deposeth in his Examination that sometimes the chiefe of the Irish would make heavy moane for the evils they perceived were comming on their Country and Kinred and said they saw utter destruction at hand for that they had covered so great a bitternesse so long in their hearts against the English and now so suddenly broken out against them that had brought them up kept them in their houses like children and had made no difference between them their English friends and kinred by all which the English had so well deserved of them and they had requited them so evill that the English would never trust them hereafter and now it remaineth that either they must destroy the English or the English them iurat ut supra administing all manner of helps and comforts to those who were in distresse that made no difference betwixt them and those of their owne Nation but ever cherished them as friends and loving neighbours without giving any cause of unkindnesse or distaste unto them It is not possible to re-collect or expresse the wickednesse of their mischievous inventions or horrour of their bloody executions 54 Jane the relict of Gabriel Constable deposeth that the Rebels having halfe killed one Ellen Millington and then put her into a dry hole
made for a Well and made her fast in with stones whereof she languished and dyed the Rebels bragged how many of them went to see her kick and tosse in the hole her husband being formerly murdered by the Rebels jurat ut supra actuated with all kind of circumstances that might aggravate the hight of their cruelty towards them Alas who can comprehend the feares terrours anguish bitternesse and perplexity of their souls the despairing passions and consternations of their mind What strange amazed thoughts must it needs raise in their sad hearts to find themselves so sodainly surprized without remedy and inextricably wrapt up in all kind of outward miseries which could possibly by man be inflicted upon any humane creatures What sighes groanes trembling astonishment What schriches cryes and bitter lamentation of wife and children friends and servants howling and weeping about them all finding themselves without any manner of hope or deliverance from their present misery and paine How inexorable were their barbarous tormentors that compassed them on every side without all bowels of compassion any sense of their sufferings or the least commiseration and pitty the common comforters of men in misery It was no small addition to their sorrows to hear 54 Francis Barbour of Dublin Gent. deposeth that at the beginning of the Rebellion he heard severall of the Rebels publikely say That now the day was their own and that they had been slaves to the English a long time but that now they would be revenged to the full and would not leave before Christmas day an English Protestant rogue living with other like bitter words jurat Jan. 5. 1643. the base reviling speeches used against their country and country-men some loudly threatning 55 Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Green deposeth that she heard the Rebels say the English were meat for dogs that there should not be one drop of English blood left within the Kingdom and that they would destroy all the very English children whom they called bastards jurat Novemb. 10. 1643. 55 Richard Cleybrook deposeth that he heard Luke Toole say that they would not leave an English Beast alive or any of the breed of them jurat 55 Samuel Man of the County of Fermanagh Gent. deposeth that he heard some of the Irish say that there should not be one English man woman or child left in the Kingdome jurat 55 Elizab. Dickinson deposeth that she heard some of the company of Roury Mac Guire say that the Irish had command to leave never a drop of English blood in Ireland jurat Novemb. 17. 1642. Katherine Madeson of the County of Fermanagh deposeth that she hath often heard the Rebels say that they would drive all the English and Scottish out of the Kingdome and that both man woman and child should be cut off and destroyed jurat Novemb. 17. 1642. all should be cut off and utterly destroyed that had one drop of English blood in them the Irish women crying out to spare neither man woman nor child that was English that the English was meat for dogs and their children bastards How grievous and insupportable must it needs be to a true christian soule to hear a base 56 Elenor Fullerton the relict of Wil. Fullerton late Parson of Lougall deposeth that in Lent 1641. a young roguish Cow-boy gave out and affirmed in this Deponents hearing that his hands were so weary in killing and knocking downe Protestants into a bog-pit that he could hardly lift his armes to his head jurat Septemb. 16. 1642. 56 Owen Frankland deposeth that he heard Hugh O Cane late servant to Mistris Stanhaw calling to his fellows in a boasting manner asking them what they had been doing at home all the day that he had been abroad and had killed sixteen of the rogues and shewed them some money jurat ut supra villaine boast that his hands were so weary with killing and knocking downe Protestants into a bogge that he could not lift his armes up to his head or others to say 57 Elizabeth Champion late wife of Arthur Champion in the County of Fermanagh Esquire saith that she heard the Rebels say that they had killed so many English men that the grease or fat which remained upon their swords and skeines might well serve to make an Irish candle jurat April 14. 1642. that they had killed so many English men that the grease or fat which remained on their swords or skeines might have made an Irish candle or to consider that two 58 John Birne late of Dongannon in the county of Tyrone deposeth that he heard some of the native Irish that were somewhat more mercifull then the rest complaine that two young Cow-boyes within the Parish of Tullah had at severall times murdered and drowned 36. women and children jurat Jan. 12. 1643. young Cow-boys should have it in their power to murder 36. Protestants Whosoever shall seriously weigh these particulars will not much wonder that so great numbers of British and Protestants should be destroyd in so short a time after the first breaking out of the Rebellion as Master Cunningham 59 James Shaw a Minister deposeth that after the cessation made with the Irish divers of them confessed the Priests had given them the Sacrament upon condition they should not spare man woman or child that were Protestants and that he heard divers of them say in a bragging manner that it did them much good to wash their hands in the blood of the Protestants which they had slaine Jurat Jan. 7. 1643. deposeth in his Examination He there saith that the account of the persons killed by the Rebels from the time of the beginning of the Rebellion Octob. 23. 1641. unto the month of April following was as the Priests weekly gave it in in their severall Parishes one hundred and five thousand jurat April 22. 1641. When the Castle of Lisgoole 60 Elizabeth Champin deposeth that when the Rebels had set the Castle of Lisgoole on fire upon the Protestants there enclosed and saw the said house so burning they said among themselves rejoycingly Oh how sweetly doe they fry jurat ut supra was set on fire by the Rebels and so many British as are before mentioned consumed in the flames those mischievous villaines that had done that wicked fact cryed out with much joy how sweetly do they fry How did the Inhabitants 61 William Lucas of the City of Kilkenny deposeth that although he lived in the Towne till about five or six weeks past in which time he is assured divers murders and cruell acts were committed yet he durst not goe abroad to see any of them But he doth confidently beleeve that the Rebels having brought seven Protestants heads whereof one was the head of Master Bingham a Minister they did then and there as triumphs of their victory set them up on the Market-Crosse on a Market-day and that the Rebels slasht stab'd and mangled those heads put a gag or carret in the said Master Binghams mouth slit up
integrity and credit They are all upon Oath as all the other Examinations concerning cruelties before mentioned likewise are I shall leave the severall particulars to the consideration of such as shall please to take the paines to read them over And I may well say of them in respect of the former cruelties inserted as was said to the Prophet Ezekiel in another case Turne thee yet againe Ezek. 8.13 and thou shalt see greater abominations then these A generall REMONSTRANCE of the distressed PROTESTANTS in the Province of MUNSTER SEting forth from the gasping condition of thier most sad and distressed souls That wheras the Province of Munster through the vaste expence of English treasure and blood was reduced from the height of Barbarisme to such a degree of Civility that the power and dignitie of the English Crown was much advanced and extended by the surest and noblest bonds of a florishing people those of Religion Civilitie and Profit Of Religion witnessed by the enlarged Congregations both in Cathedrall and Parochiall Churches Civility by the many costly Plantations fair strong Buildings plentifull Markets and bountifull Hospitality And Profit by the free Trade and Commerce throughout Christendome Lands fully improved abounding with heards and flocks of all sorts of the best English Cattell which enabled us to advance great sums to his Majesties Customes contribute large Subsidyes and to supply the West of England with such a considerable proportion of Wooll and Cattle that a great part of the Trade of those parts subsisted therby And this begun at the great charge of the EnglishVndertakers in the time of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory since when few parts of Christendome from their beginning in so short space had such a Rise and growth which was not alone to our selves but the very Natives must confesse that their Estates were hugely augmented by our improvements And therfore let it not be wondred at that when we consider from what we are falne to what we are faln if the pain of losse strive to equall that of sence and if the depth of our Miseries have not sunke our soules to stupidity we may compare our Woes to the saddest paralell of any Story Our Temples demolished or worse prophaned by sacrifices to Idols our Houses and Castles become ruinous heaps our Nation extirpated destroyed No quality age sexe priviledged from Massacres and lingring deaths by being robbed and stript naked through cold or famine Passages of a notable peece of Clemency and Mercy The famished Infants of murdered Parents swarm in our Streets for want of Bread perish before our faces and many of our yet miserable remnant which lived plentifully and relieved others are forced to aske relief and those they ask of constrained by want to refuse them So as undoubtedly our present Miseries are not farre distant of those of Samarias Siedge and all those cast upon us by this unparalelled Rebellion at a time when we were most confident and secure more and greater Jmmunities and Bounties being granted by his Majestie that now is then ever was by his Royall Progenitours for what cause offence or least seeming occasion of provocation our Soules could never imagine Sinne excepted save that we were Protestants and his Majesties loyall Subjects and could not endure their poysonous breaths to belch out such prophanenesse as in a deepe measure pierced and wounded the sacred fame of our King and to colour this wee must goe under the notorious names of first Puritans and later of Round-heads For particular instances time would faile and length weary the Reader But we all together confident to make it manifest by abundant instances That the Depopulations in this Province of MUNSTER doe well and neere equall those of the whole KINGDOME The particulars whereof as of the multitude of inhumaine cruelties were collected and reduced to severall instances with ample proofe by the many Moneths indevours of a reverend Divine one Arch-Deacon BISSE thereunto authorized by vertue of a Commission under the Broad-Seale of this Kingdome who was most barbarously murthered by the Jrish expressing that to be the cause And because it may be thought requisite to touch something of the Demeanours of the Jrish since the Cessation as well as before many English have beene murthered as they travelled with other expressions of that utter detestations of the English that if any remaine which few doe nor surely will doe that can but breath but elsewhere then must they be in a degree worse then any knowne slavery And likewise for other parts of the Cessation they have beene totally broken and our Quarters being of large extent universally taken from us even to the wals of our Garrisons wherein we have often called to the chiefe of them for justice which being denied or which is worse delayed want of meanes to justifie our selves leaves us without remedy All which we poure forth our griefes and Supplications above to God alone and here on earth to our Dread Soveraign The EXAMINATION of Anne the late Wife of John Sherring late of the Territory of Ormond The Province of Munster neere the Silverworks in the County of Tipperary aged about 25. yeeres Sworne and Examined Deposeth and Saith THat about Candlemas was two yeers the said John Sherring her then husband going from his Farme which he held from Master John Kenedy Esquire neer to the Silverworks one Hugh Kenedy one of the brothers of the said John Kennedy a cruell Rebell together with a great multitude of Irish rebellious Souldiers then and there fiercely assaulted and set upon her said husband and upon one William Brock William Laughlin Thomas Collop and eight more English Protestant men and about ten women and upon some children in their company and then and there stript them of their cloaths and then with stones poleaxes skeines swords pikes darts and other weapons most barbarously massacred and murdered her said husband and all those Protestant men women and children In the time of which Massacre a most loud and fearfull noise and storme of thunder lightning wind hailstones and raine began The time being on a Sabbath day about an hour before night the former part of that day being all very faire but that thunder lightning and tempest happening suddenly after the massacre was begun much afrighted and terrified this Deponent and many others insomuch as those murtherers themselves confessed it to be a signe of Gods anger and threatning of them for such their then cruelty yet it deterred them not but they persisted in their bloody act untill they had murdered those said English Protestants and had hackt hewed slashed stab'd and so massacred them that many of them were cut all to pieces and her husband for his part had thirty grievous wounds then and there given him viz. some through or neer his heart ten mortall wounds in his head three in his belly and in either arme four and the rest in his thighes legs back and neck and that murder
Rebels that hanged them were Garret Forrestall of Knockive and Gibbon Forrestall of Tinyhinch and the eldest son of Richard Barron alias Fitz Geraldine of Knockeen aforesaid and divers others whom she cannot name all of the County of Caterlagh which said Robert Pyme after he was hanged up twice proved alive in his grave and stroke his hand upon his brest saying Christ receive my soule and with those words in his mouth was then and there buried quick and one of those poore Protestants at Goran by name Fristoram Robinson the Rebels hanged him twice thrust him through with darts but he still continuing alive and speaking they buried him quick And this Deponent Jonas Wheeler further saith that one old English Protestant who was a Shepheard and his wife going from Kilkenny towards Ballidownell the Rebels hanged up the poor old man and going a little off his wife perceiving breath in her husband said unto him Oh joy you are alive yet which when some of the Rebels over-hearing hanged him out-right and dragged him up and downe untill his bowels fell out then his wife desiring them to hang her too but they refused And saith that this Deponent asking the Rebels of Kilkenny how they durst doe what they did considering the King was against them they answered that if the King would not hold with them they could have forty thousand to come to assist them out of France Spain and bring ammunition and armes enough and all things necessary and fight against the King and the English And the Deponent Elizabeth Gilbert further saith that she heard one James Eustace a servant to the Rebell Colonell Cullen say publiquely in Master Joseph Wheelers house in Kilkenny Let the King take heed for if they meaning the Irish had not their owne desires they would bring in a forraigne King and one Tristram Dyer a Protestant was as his wife told this Deponent murthered in a Wood with his owne Hatchet and covered with Leaves and Mosse EXAMINATIONS touching the Apparitions at Portnedowne-Bridge within the Province of ULSTER JAmes Shaw of Market-hill in the County of Armagh Inne-keeper deposeth that many of the Irish Rebels in the time of this Deponents restraint and staying among them told him very often and that it was a common report that all those that lived about the Bridge of Portnedowne were so affrighted with the cries and noise made there of some spirits or visions for revenge as that they durst not stay but fled away thence so as they protested affrighted to Market-hill saying they durst not stay nor returne thither for feare of those cries and spirits but took grounds and made creats in or neer the Parish of Mullabrack Jurat Aug. 14. 1642. Joane the relict of Gabriel Constable late of Drumard in the County of Armagh Gent. deposeth and saith that she hath often heard the Rebels Owen O Farren Patrick O Conellan and divers others of the Rebels at Drumard earnestly say protest and tell one another that the blood of some of those that were knockt in the heads and afterwards drowned at Portadowne-Bridge still remained on the Bridge and would not be washed away and that often there appeared visions or apparitions sometimes of men sometimes of women brest-high above the water at or neer Portadowne which did most extreamly and fearfully scriech and cry out for vengeance against the Irish that had murdered their bodies there and that their cryes and scrieches did so terrifie the Irish thereabouts that none durst stay nor live longer there but fled and removed further into the Country and this was a common report amongst the Rebels there and that it passed for a truth amongst them for any thing she could ever observe to the contrary Jurat Jan. 1. 1643. Katherine the relict of William Coke late of the County of Armagh Carpenter sworne and examined saith that about the 20. of December 1641. a great number of Rebels in that County did most barbarously drowne at that time one hundred and eighty Protestants men women and children in the River at the Bridge of Portnedowne and that about nine dayes afterwards she saw a vision or spirit in the shape of a man as she apprehended that appeared in that river in the place of the drowning bolt upright brest-high with hands lifted up stood in that posture there untill the latter end of Lent next following about which time some of the English Army marching in those parts whereof her husband was one as he and they confidently affirmed to this Deponent saw that spirit or vision standing upright and in the posture aforementioned but after that time the said spirit or vision vanished and appeared no more that she knoweth And she heard but saw not that there were other Visions and Apparitions and much scriching and strange noyse heard in that RIVER at times afterwards Jurat February 24. 1643. Elizabeth the wife of Captaine Rice Price of Armagh deposeth and saith that she and other women whose husbands were murdered hearing of divers Apparitions and Visions which were seen neere Portnedowne-Bridge since the drowning of her Children and the rest of the Protestants there went unto the Bridge aforesaid about twilight in the evening then and there upon a sudden there appeared unto them a Vision or Spirit assuming the shape of a woman waste-high upright in the water naked with elevated and closed hands her haire hanging down very white her eyes seemed to twinckle and her skin as white as snow which spirit seemed to stand straight up in the water often repeated the word REVENGE REVENGE REVENGE whereat this Deponent and the rest being put into a strong amazement and affright walked from the place Jurat January 29. 1642. Arthur Culme of Clowoughter in the County of Cavan Esquire deposeth that he was credibly informed by some that were present there that there were thirty women and young children and seven men flung into the River of Belterbert and when some of them offered to swim for their lives they were by the Rebels followed in Cots and knocked on the heads with poles the same day they hanged two women at Turbert and this Deponent doth verily beleeve that Mulmore O Rely the then Sheriffe had a hand in the commanding the murder of those said persons for that he saw him write two Notes which he sent to Turbert by Bryan Rely upon whose comming these murders were committed And those persons who were present also affirmed that the bodies of those thirty persons drowned did not appeare upon the water till about six weeks after past as the said Rely came to the Towne all the bodies came floting up to the very Bridge those persons were all formerly stayed in the Town by his protection where the rest of their Neighbours in the Town went away Elizabeth Price wife of Michael Price of the Newry deposeth that Sir Con Mac Gennis suffered his Souldiers the Rebels to kill Master Turge Minister of the Newry and severall other Protestants and
owne doores Al manner of relief forbidden to the English as they passed upon the high-ways stripped and despoiled of all they had And having thus seized upon all their goods and Cattell ransackt their houses gotten their persons under their power the next thing they did was to strip man woman and child many of them stark naked and so to turne them out of their owne doors not permitting them in some places so much as to shelter themselves under bushes or in the Woods and strictly prohibiting all the Irish under great penalties to give them entertainment or any kind of reliefe as they passed on upon the high wayes And certainly their designe in this most notoriously appears to have bin no othen then that al such as they would not lay their hands upon and cruelly murder in cold blood might miserably perish of themselves through cold nakednes and want and therfore as fast as any of them so stripped got old rags to cover their nakednesse they endeavoured to strip them againe and againe as may appeare by the Examination of John Gourley who deposeth that some were stripped twice some thrice as fast as they could get any old rags to cover their nakednesse the next Irishwomen or even the children that met them would take them off And he and his Wife further depose that when their house together with the Towne of Armagh were set on fire by the Rebels she was stripped of her clothes seven severall times after she got other cloths The manner of stripping the English and at length they left her not so much as her smock or hairlace and that she got to a place and hid her selfe in a hutch for three or four dayes and after went to find out her children two of which had the small Pox visibly upon them Jurat Novemb. 8. 1642. How infallibly this course succeeded and how surely they compassed their devillish ends hereby is but too well known The English leaving sufficient monuments in the Highwayes as they passed as well as in the Towns wherein they arrived of the dismal mortality it bred among them The miseries and mortality it brought among them And for the fuller satisfaction of any one who shall doubt thereof I have thought fit to insert these two ensuing Examinations James Redferne of the County of London Derry deposeth that in the Towne of Coleraine since the Rebellion began there dyed of robbed and stripped people that fled thither for succour many hundreds besides those of the Towne who had anciently dwelt there and that the mortality there was such and so great as many thousands dyed there in two dayes and that the living though scarce able to doe it laid the carcases of those dead persons in great ranks into vast and wide holes laying them so close and thick as if they had packed up Herrings together Magdalen Redman late of the Dowris in the Kings County Widow being sworne and examined deposeth and saith That she this Deponent and divers other Protestants her neighbours and amongst the rest 22. Widowes after they were all robbed were also stript stark naked and then they covering themselves in a house with straw the Rebels then and there lighted the straw with fire and threw amongst them of purpose to burne them where they had been burned or smothered but that some of the Rebels more pittifull then the rest commanded these cruell Rebels to forbeare so as they escaped Yet the Rebels kept and drove them naked into the wild Woods from Tuesday untill Saturday in frost and snow so as the snow unmelted long lay upon some of their skins and some of their children dyed in their armes And when as the Deponent and the rest endeavoured to have gone away for refuge to the Burre the cruell Rebels turned them againe saying they should goe towards Dublin and when they endeavoured to goe towards Dublin they hindred them againe and sayd they should goe to the Burre and so tossed them to and fro Yet at length such of those poore stripped people as dyed not before they got away out of the hands of the Rebels escaped to the Burre where they were harboured and relieved by one William Parsons Esquire And yet there dyed at the Burre of those stript persons about forty men women and children And this Deponent and those other stript people that survived lived miserably at the Burre aforesaid untill they with the rest had quarter to come from thence to Dublin Jur. 7. March 1642. Doh Watson Will. Aldrich Isabel the relict of Christopher Porter late of Dowris in the Kings County sworn and examined deposeth and saith in all the particulars above mentioned as Magdalen Redman before examined being her Neighbour Some of the most notorious CRUELTIES and barbarous Murthers committed by the Irish Rebels attested upon Oath as they appeare in severall Examinations annexed in the Margin WE may in these poore soules as it were in large Characters behold the miseries of all those multitudes of Men Women and Children that were in all parts of the Kingdome thus inhumanely stript and so exposed to the same want cold and nakednesse The mercies of the wicked are cruell how bitter was their compassion to all those British that thus suffered A particular enumeration of severall bloody Massacres horrid cruelties exercised upon the British all testified upon Oath and taken out of severall Examinations which are inserted in the Margin How horrid barbarous and insupportable was the commiseration they thus expressed towards them Yet these were as they told them at first but the beginnings of their sorrowes For when the Northerne Rebels began to find their owne strength and that partly by treachery partly by force they had possessed themselves of all the chiefe places of strength in Vlster disarmed the English robbed them of their goods and Cattell stripped them of their clothes and had their persons now under their power and all this without any considerable resistance made by them then they could contain themselves no longer but in a most fierce outragious manner furiously broke out acting in all places of that Province with most abominable cruelty those horrid massacres and execrable murders as would make any Christian eare to tingle at the sad commemoration of them Then they began to appear in their owne colours and with great delight to satiate their ancient implacable malice in their long wished and often plotted destruction of all the British Inhabitants Within the County of Fermanagh multitudes were presently killed in cold blood Multitudes killed in cold blood some taken at the Plough others as they sate peaceably in their own houses others travailing upon the wayes all without any manner of provocation by them given sodainly surprized and unexpectedly cut off At the Castle of 1 Thomas Wenslaw and John Simpson of the County of Fermanagh Gentlemen depose and say that in the Castle of Lisgoole there were 152. men women and children burnt when the said Castle