employed them. There does not live a man, who has the slightest regard to his reputation, "Richard Bourke, bachelor of divinity, deposeth, that he was informed, that Mr. Lodge, archdeacon of Killalow, being buried about six years since, and divers other ministers' bones were digged out of their graves as patrons of heresy, by direction of the titular bishop of Killalow; and Robert Jones, a minister, was not admitted Christian burial, by direction of some Popish priests. Jurat. July 12, 1643."444 "James, of Hacketstown, in the county of Catherlogh, deposeth, That an Irish gentleman told him and others, that he had turned an English woman away, who was his servant, and had a child, and that before the poor woman and child were gone half a mile, divers Irish women slew them with stones. Jurat. April 21, 1643."445 "John Clerck, of Knockback, gentleman, deposeth, That he heard credibly from Mr. Lightbourne, minister of the Naas, that the rebels shot a parish clerk, near Kildare, through his thighs, and afterwards 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 they left the poor wounded man, till he pined, languished, and so died. Jurat. October 24, 1643."446 "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 confess, brag and boast, how they took an English Protestant, one Robert Wilkinson, at Kilmore, and held his feet in the fire until they burned him to death; and the said Robert Wilkinson's own son was present, and a prisoner, when that cruelty was exercised on his father. Jurat. February 24, 1643."447 "Dennis Kelly, of the county of Meath, deposeth, That Garret Tallon, of Cruisetown, in the said county, gentleman, 444 Temple, 95. 446 Ibid. 445 Idem, 93. 447 Ibid. that will dare to justify or palliate the use of such materials of fraud. In common cases, they as is commonly reported, hired two men to kill Anne Hagely, wife to Edward Tallon, his son, a Papist, and at that time absent from home; and the said two men did, in a most bloody manner, with skeins, kill the said Anne Hagely, and her daughter, and her daughter's two children, because they would not consent to go to mass; and after, they would not permit them to be buried in a church or church-yard, but the four were buried in a ditch. Jurat. August 23, 1643."448 "The examination of Joseph Wheeler, of Stancarty, in the county of Kilkenny, Esqr.; Elizabeth, the relict of William Gilbert, of captain Ridgway's company; Rebecca Hill, the relict of Thomas Hill, late lieutenant to the said captain Ridgway; Thomas Lewis, late of Kilkenny, gent.; and Patrick Maxwell, of the Graig, in the same county, gent. sworn and examined, depose and say, "That they have credibly heard and believed, that Florence Fitz-Patrick having enticed a rich merchant of Mountwrath to his the said Fitz-Patrick's house, to bring thither his goods, which he promised should be safely protected and safely redelivered: he the said Florence Fitz-Patrick possessing those goods, afterwards caused the said merchant and his wife to be hanged; and they have credibly heard, that the said Florence Fitz-Patrick also hanged lieutenant Keiss and his son, one Hughes, a school-master, and divers other Protestants."449 "The examination of Jane, the wife of Thomas Stewart, late of the town and county of Kilkenny, merchant, sworn and examined before his majesty's commissioners, in that behalf authorized, deposeth and saith: "All the men, women, and children of the British that then could be found within the same town (saving this deponent, who was so sick that she could not stir) were summoned to go into the gaol, and as many as could be met with, all were carried and put into the gaol, where, about twelve o'clock in the night, they were stripped stark naked, and after most of them 449 Idem, 117. 448 Temple, 92. might be allowed to pass without comment, which would then be wholly superfluous: but in were most cruelly and barbarously murdered with swords, axes, and skeins, and particularly by two butchers, named James Buts and Robert Buts, of Sligo, who murdered many of them; wherein also were actors, Charles O'Connor, the friar, and Hugh O'Connor aforenamed, brother to the said Teigue O'Connor, Kedagh O'Hart, labourer, Richard Walsh and Thomas Walsh, the one the jailor, 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 gaol, were then and there murdered: besides Robert Gumble, then provost of the said town of Sligo, Edward Nusham, and Edward Mercer, who were wounded and left for dead amongst the rest, and Joe Stewart, this deponent's son, which four 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 escaped, and by her Irish servants and others of the town: and saith, that some of the women so murdered 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 friars, and hearing the lamentable cry that was made, ran into the street, and was pursued by one of the friar's men unto the river, where she was barbarously murdered, and found the next day, with the child's feet appearing and thrust out of her wounds in her sides: and further saith, that on the said sixth day of January, there were murdered in the streets of the town of Sligo, these British Protestants following, viz. William Shiels and John Shiels, his son, William Mapwell and Robert Akin: and the deponent further saith, (as she was credibly informed by the persons before named) that the inhuman rebels, after their murders committed in the said gaol, 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 ears to hear: in which posture they continued to be seen the next morning by those Irish of the town that came into the said goal, who were delighted in those bloody murders and uncivil actions; and that the present extraordinary and unparalleled one, more than usual care is necessary, to probe the they of the Irish, that came to bury them, stood up to the midleg in the blood and brains of those that were so murdered!!! who were carried out, and cast into a pit digged for that purpose, in the garden of Mr. Ricrofts, minister of Sligo."450 "John Birne, late of Dongannon, in the county Tyrone, deposeth, That he heard some of the native Irish, that were somewhat more merciful than the rest, complain that two young cow-boys, within the parish of Tullah, had at several times murdered and drowned thirty-six women and children. Jurat. January 12, 1643."451 "William Lucas, of the city of Kilkenny, deposeth, That although he lived in the town till about five or six weeks past, in which time he is assured divers murders and cruel acts were committed, yet he durst not go abroad to see any of them; but he doth confidently believe, that the rebels having brought seven Protestants' heads, whereof one was the head of Mr. Bingham, a minister, they did then and there, as triumphs of their victories, set them upon the market-cross, on a market day; and that the rebels slashed, stabbed, and mangled those heads; put a gag, or carrot, in the said Mr. Bingham's mouth; slit up his cheeks to his ears, laying a leaf of a Bible before him, and bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough; and after they had solaced themselves, threw those heads into a hole, in St. James's Green. Jurat. August 16, 1643."452 "Christian Stanhaw, the relict of Henry Stanhaw, late of the county of Armagh, Esquire, deposeth, that a woman that formerly lived near 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 burn them; as they did; and still as any of them offered to come out, to shun the fire, the wicked rebels, with 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."453 450 Temple, 108. 451 Idem, 97. 453 Idem, 94. ulcerated wound, and heal the disordered state of the public mind, on the most stupendous sys "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 Worcnum, 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-inlaw 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-born child. Jurat. June 26, 1642."454 "John Stubs, of the county of Longford, gentleman, deposeth, That he heard, by some of the sheriff's men, that Henry Mead and his wife, John Bigel, William Stell, and Daniel Stubs, the deponent's brother, were put to death by Lysach Farrol's and Oli Fitz-gerrald's men, who hanged them upon a windmill, and, when they were half dead, they cut them to pieces with their skeins. Jurat. Nov. 21, 1641."455 "Charity Chappel, late wife to Richard Chappel, esquire, of the town and county of Armagh, deposeth, That, as she hath credibly heard, the rebels murdered great numbers of Protestants, and that many children were seen murdered in vaults and cellars, whither they fled to hide themselves. Jurat. July 2, 1642."456 Extract from the Deposition of John Carmick. "Twenty-two castles were seized upon, and the church of Monah, with eighteen Protestants burnt in it: seven hundred and sixty-four Protestants were destroyed in that county; and I did hear that there were about 152,000, that they had destroyed in that province of Ulster, in the first four months of the rebellion. JOHN CARMICK."457 454 Temple, 89. 455 Idem, 90. 457 Idem, 225. |