to stand upon their best guard, until they heard from their lordships, how they should be secured from these perils; protesting nevertheless, that they were, and would continue, both faithful advisers and resolute furtherers of his majesty's service, concerning the present state of the kingdom, and the safety thereof, to their best abilities." This letter was subscribed by the earl of Fingall, the lords Gormanstown, Slane, Dunsany, Netterville, Louth, and Trimblestown. CHAP. XIV. The gentlemen of the pale assemble at Swords. ON the same 7th of December, on which the above-mentioned letter was drawn up,1 "a party of horse and foot being sent by the justices, into the neighborhood of Dublin, in quest of some robbers, came to the village of Santry, where they murdered some innocent husbandmen (whose heads they brought into the city in triumph), on pretence that they had harbored and relieved the rebels, who had made inroads and committed depredations in these parts. Hard, indeed," says Mr. Carte, "was the case of the country people at that time, when not being able to hinder parties of robbers and rebels, from breaking into their houses and taking refreshments there, this should be deemed a treasonable act, and sufficient to authorize a massacre." The next morning complaint being made to the government of this outrage, no redress was obtained. Whereupon some gentlemen of quality and others, inhabitants of that part of the country, being justly alarmed at these proceedings, and mindful of the report of Coote's barbarous proposal at the councilboard, forsook their houses and prepared for their defence. For this massacre following so soon after3 "the executions and 3 Id. ib. 2 Carte's Orm. [ Carte, Temple, Borlase. in Dublin; and from thence to take some advantage for the forfeiture of their estates. It answered this end very well, that sir Charles Coote, immediately after his inhuman executions and promiscuous murders of the people in Wicklow, was made governor of Dublin at the very time of send ing out the summons to the lords of the pale."-Life of Ormond, vol. i. 258. murders which sir Charles Coote had ordered in the county of Wicklow; his being made governor of Dublin for that service; and the catholics of that city being all disarmed the day before the lords of the pale were invited to a conference there, confirmed their belief of the truth of the report, that a general massacre of those of their religion was intended." To Wherefore these gentlemen assembled together on the 9th of December, at Swords, a village distant from Dublin about six miles; and on the 10th, the justices issued their warrant,+ “ commanding them to separate on sight of it; and that nine of the principal persons so assembled should appear before them at the council-board, by ten of the clock the next morning, to shew the cause of their assembling together in that manner." this warrant they returned an answer on the same day, to the following effect: "that they were constrained to meet there, for the safety of their lives, which they conceived to be in no small danger, having been forced to forsake their dwellings on the last Tuesday at night, by the rising out of horse troops and foot companies, who, on the said night killed four catholics, for no other reason but because they bore the name of that religion; and that they had been before put into many fears, by certain intelligence given them of unexpected attempts against their lives. Wherefore they desired ardently to be in some certain way assured by their lordships of the safety of their lives, before they ran the hazard thereof; which was the only motive, that hindred them from manifesting that obedience, which they knew to be due to their lordships' commands." CHAP. XV, The lords justices violate the public faith. THE justices seeming to comply with these gentlemen's ardent desire above-mentioned, issued a manifesto, dated the 14th of December,* but not published till the 15th;' wherein $ Id. ib. 4 Temple's Hist. of the Irish Rebel. 1 Remonstrance from Trim. Borlase says it was dated the 13th, and gave them till the 18th of December to come in; and yet he owns, "that the order to sir Charles they allowed them the space of two days, viz. until the 17th of that month, for their appearing before them in Dublin; and in order to induce them to appear then," they gave them the word of the state, that they might safely and securely repair thither, without danger of any trouble or stay whatsoever." And yet, on the same 15th of that month,3 they de tached a party of horse and foot to Clontarf, under the command of sir Charles Coote, with orders" to fall upon and cut off" the inhabitants, and burn the houses of that village, which belonged to Mr. King, one of those gentlemen assembled at Swords, to whom, by name, the public faith had been given." These orders," says Borlase, "were excellently well executed;"* though it is confessed, that " no opposition was made."`" Sir Charles Coote,' who by the lords justices special designation, was appointed to go on this expedition, as the fittest person to execute their orders, and one who best knew their minds, at this time pillaged and burned houses, corn, and other goods belonging to Mr. King, to the value of four thousand pounds."+ The pretended plunder of an English bark,‡ by some of the common people of that village (part of which plunder is said $ Carte's Orm. vol. i, Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 61. 3 Id. ib. 4 Id. ib. Temple. Coote to burn Clontarf (which he recites with Ormond's name to it among the rest) is dated the 14th of that month."-Hist. of the Irish Reb. f. 61. "This proclamation was sent and delivered to lord Gormanstown on the 15th, by father Cahill, whom the justices had lately employed in a treaty with the Ulster rebels."-Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 249. "Sixteen of the poor towns-people were killed by sir Charles Coote's soldiers, on that occasion." Collect. of Massac. committed on the Irish. "In the same week fifty-six men, women and children, being frighted at what was done at Clontarf, took boats and went to sea, to shun the fury of a party of soldiers come out of Dublin, under the command of colonel Crafford; but being pursued by the soldiers in other boats, were overtaken and thrown overboard."-Ib. + " "Which was but sorry encouragement to him," says Mr. Carte, "to accept their invitation to Dublin, and gave just grounds of apprehending, at least, some danger of trouble; from which danger the manifesto pretended to secure him, as well as the rest that were assembled at Swords."-Orm. vol. i. fol. 254. Mr. Carte's observation on this occasion is pertinent and just: “ No account of this affair," says he, " takes the least notice of any men on to have been put into Mr. King's house in his absence, and is made the sole pretence for this breach of public faith), must have happened, if at all, some time before this manifesto was published. For the justices made express mention of it, in their letter to the earl of Leicester of the 14th of December ; on which day too, their order to pillage and burn Clontarf is dated, although their manifesto was not published till the 15th. In that letter, their lordships express their intention of ordering that expedition; and after betraying a guilty consciousnes," that the gentlemen of the pale would take new offence thereat ;" they add, "but that we will adventure upon." From whence it evidently appears, that on the very day before that on which they published their manifesto, they had taken a resolution to violate it.* CHAP. XVI. The order for a general pardon limited by the justices. BUT if even this perfidious measure should be found insufficient to excite these gentlemen to any hostile or disloyal at board the bark, or of any ill treatment that they met with; which had there been any, would have been unavoidable, and could not have failed of being mentioned by those who relate it; so that it seems to have been a vessel deserted or wrecked; in which case, people that live on the seacoasts, influenced by a common but barbarous notion, are apt to deem and treat good aboard as lawful plunder.”—Life of Orm, vol. i. fol. 246. N. B. In the lords justices order to burn Clontarf, and destroy its inhabitants, there is no mention made of the inhabitants having plundered an English bark, being the cause of that order. See Borl. Ir. Rebel. f. 61.— Borlase adds, that the number of fishing-boats at Clontarf, and this plunder," did much disquiet the lords justices and council, suspecting that, thereby, the port of Dublin might have been blocked up." Id. ib. fole 62.-Sir Charles Coote burnt Clontarf the 15th of December, 1641,--Id. ib * "The lords justices, as soon as they were satisfied that the lords of the pale would not trust themselves in the city in the hands of sir Charles Coote, though they were ready to treat with commissioners sent from thence to any place out of his power, took measures in order to convies them of treason, and forfeit their estates.”—Carte's Orm, vol, i. fol. 275-6. tempt, the justices had still in reserve, divers other means equally calculated for that iniquitous purpose. Their lordships had, about this time, received" an order of both houses of the English parliament, dated November 30th, directing them, to grant his majesty's pardon to all those who, within a convenient time, should return to their obedience." Yet notwithstanding this order for a general pardon,* they still continued their former proclamation, which was so limited, with respect to persons, places and time; and clogged, besides, with such impracticable conditions, that they must have been themselves sensible, that it was apter to prevent than to produce submissions. For first, it absolutely precluded freeholders from all hopes of pardon; " because," says lord Castlehaven,3 "they had estates to lose." And on the other hand, the poorer Irish, who alone had been guilty of the depredations, and other mischiefs then committed, were to be pardoned upon such terms only, as it was not in their power to comply with. "For their pardon," says Temple,+ was to be granted only, on condition of restoring the goods and chattels taken from the British;" which restitution, the same writer confesses, it was impossible for them to make." Besides this pardon, instead of being general (as both houses of the English parliament intended it should be), extended only to the lower people of four See Temp. Irish Reb. * Ib. p. 48. 3 Memoirs. 2 Id. ib. “It was not the (English) parliament's intention to extirpate that whole nation, but they ordered mercy and pardon, both as to life and estate, should be extended to all husbandmen, laborers, artificers, yea to (persons of) higher rank and quality, according to the respective de merits and considerations under which they fell, and that all should enjoy the benefit of their articles."-Scobel's Acts, fol. 197. from Borl. Hist. of the Irish Rebel. fol. 70. 1 "In another instance," says Dr. Leland," the conduct of these wretch. ed governors was still more suspicious; they received instructions for a general pardon to such rebels as should submit within a certain time, to be limited by the lords justices. But no proclamation was published, no pardon offered in consequence of these instructions. A pardon offered in the name of the English parliament, must have had greater influence than any act of an Irish ministry, despised and suspected by the body of the nation. But the chief governors, and their creatures, were experienced in the art of converting forfeitures to their own advantage."-Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 339-40.' |