desires, commanded sir Charles Coote, knight and baronet deceased, to march to the county of Wickloe, where he burnt, killed, and destroyed all in his way in a most cruell manner, man, woman, and childe; persons that had not appearing wills to doe hurt, nor power to execute it. Soone after, some foote companies did march in the night by direction of the said lords justices, and their said partie, to the town of Sauntry in Fingall, three miles off Dublin; a country that neither then, nor for the space of four or five hundred yeares before, did feele what troubles were, or war meant ; but it was too sweet and too near, and therefore fitt to be forced to armes. In that towne innocent husbandmen, some of them being catholiques, and some protestants taken for catholiques, were murdered in their inn, and their heads carryed tryumphant into Dublin. Next morning, complaint being made of this, no redress was obtayned therein; whereupon some gentlemen of qualitie, and others the inhabitants of the country, seeing what was then acted, and what passed in the said last march towards the county of Wickloe, and justly fearing to be all murthered, forsooke their howses, and were constrayned to stand together in their owne defence, though ill provided of armes or ammunition. Heereupon a proclamation was agreed upon at the board, on the 13th of December 1641, and not published or printed till the 15th of December, by which the said gentlemen, and George Kinge by name, were required to come in by, or upon the 18th of the said month, and a safetie was therein promised them. On the same day another proclamation was published, summoning the lords dwelling in the English pale near Dublin to a grand councill on the 17th of the said month; but the lords justices and their partie of the councill, to take away all hope of accommodation, gave direction to the said sir Charles Coote, the said 15th day of the said month of December, to march to Clontarffe, being the house and towne of the said George Kinge, and two miles from Dublin, to pillage, burn, kill, and destroy all that there was to be found; which direction was readily and particularly observed, (in a manyfest breach of public faith) by meanes whereof, the mecieing of the said grand councill was diverted: the lords not daring to come within the power of such notorious faith-breakers: the consideration whereof, and of other he matters aforesaid, made the nobilitie and geutry of the English pale, and other parts of the province of Leinster, sensible of the present danger, and put themselves in the best posture they could for their naturall defence. Wherefore they employed lieutenant collonel Read to present their humble remonstrance to your sacred majestie, and to declare un'o you the state of their affayres, and humbly to beseech relief and redress; the said lieutenant collonel, though your majestie's servant, and imployed in publique trust, (in which case the law of nations affords safety and protection) was without regard to either, not only stopped from proceeding in his imployment, but also tortured on the rack at Dublin. 11. The lord president of Munster, by the direction of the said lords justices, (that province being quiet) with his accomplices, burnt, preyed, and put to death men, women and children, without making any difference of qualitie, condition, age, or sex in several parts of the province; the catholique nobles and gen lemen there were mistrusted and threatened, and others of inferior quality trusted and furnished with armes and ammunition. The province of Connaught was used in the like measure; whereupon most of the considerable catholiques in both the said provinces were inforced (without armes or ammunition) to look after their safety, and to that end did stand on their defence; still expecting your majestie's pleasure, and always ready to obey your commands. the plot of the said ministers of state and their adherents being even rire, applications were incessantly by them made to the malignant partie in England, to deprive this people of all hopes of your majestie's justice or mercie, and to plant a perpetual enmity between the English and Scotish nations, and your subjects of this kingdome. Now 12. That whereas this your majestie's kingdome of Ireland in all successions of ages, since the raigne of king Henry the Second, sometime king of England and lord of Ireland, had parliaments of their owne, composed of lords and commons in the same manner and forme, qualified with equall liberties, powers, privileges and immunities with the parliament of England, and onely depend of the king and crowne of England and Ireland: And for all that tyme, no prevalent record or authentique president can be found that any statute made in England could or did bind this kingdome, before the same were here established by parliament; yet upon untrue suggestions and informations, given of your subjects of Ireland, an act of parliament, entituled, an act for the speedie and effectual reducing the rebells in his majestie's kingdome of Ireland to their due obedience to his majestie and the crowne of England; and another act, intituled, an act for adding unto and explayneing the said former act, was procured to be enacted in the said parliament of England, in the eighteenth yeare of your majestie's raigne; by which acts, and other proclamations, your majestie's subjects unsummoned, unheard, were declared rebells, and two millions and a halfe acres arrable, mea dow and profitable pasture, within this kingdome, sold to undertakers for certain summes of monie; and the edifices, loghs, woodes, and bogges, wastes and other their appurtenances, were thereby mentioned to be granted and past gratis. Which acts the said catholiques doe conceave to have been forced upon your majestie; and although void, and unjust, in themselves to all purposes, yet containe matters of evil consequence and extreame prejudice to your majestie, and totally destructive to this nation. The scope seeming to aim at rebells only, and at the disposition of a certaine quantitie of land; but in effect and substance all the landes in the kingdome, by the words of the said acts, may be distributed, in whose possession soever they were, without respect to age, condition, or qualitie; and all your majestie's tenures, and the greatest part of your majestie's standing revenue in this kingdome, taken away; and by the said acts, if they were of force, all power of pardoning and of granting those lands, is taken from your majestie; a president that no age can instance the like. Against this act the said catholiques do protest, as an act against the fundamentall lawes of this kingdome, and as an act destructive to your majestie's rights and prerogatives, by collour whereof, most of the forces sent hither to infest this kingdome by sea and land, disavowed any authorite from your majestie, but do dépend upon the parliament of England. 13. All strangers, and such as were not inhabitants of the citty of Dublin, being commanded by the said lords justices, in and since the said month of November 1611, to depart the said citty, were no sooner departed, than they were by the directions of the said lords justices pillaged abroad, and their goods seized upon and confiscated in Dublin; and they desireing to returne under the protection and safetie of the state, before their appearance in action, were denied the same; and divers other, persons of rank and qualitie, by the said lords justices imployed in publique service, and others keeping close within their doores, without annoying any man, or siding then with any of the said catho liques in armes, and others in severall parts of the kingdome liveing under, and having the protection and safetie of the state, were sooner pillaged, their howses burnt, themselves, there tenants and servants killed and destroyed, than any other, by the direction of the said lorus justices. And by the like direction, when any commander in chiefe of the army, promised, or gave quarter or protection, the same was in all cases violated; and many persons of qualitie, who obtained the sanic, were ruined before others; others that came into Dublin voluntarily, and that could not be justly suspected of any crime, if Irishmen or catholiques, by the like direction were pillaged in Dublia, robbed and pillaged abroad, and brought to their trial for their lives. The cittys of Dublin and Corke, and the ancient corporatt townes of Drogheda, Yeoghal and Kingsale, who voluntarily received garrisons in your majestie's name, and the adja cent countryes who relieved them, were worse used, and now live in worse condition than the Israelites did in Egypt; so that it will be made appeare, that more murders, breaches of publique faith and quarter, more destruction and desolation, more crueltie, not fitt to be named, were committed in Ireland, by the direction and advice of the said lords justices and their partie of the said councill in less than eighteene months, than can be parallelled to have been done by any christian people. 14. The said lords justices and their adherents have, against the fundamental lawes of the lande, procured the sitting of both howses of parlia ment for severall sessions, (nyne parts of ten of the naturall and genuine members thereof being absent, it standing not with their safety to come under their power) and made upp a considerable number in the howse of commons of clerks, souldiers, serveing men, and others not legally, or not chosen at all, or returned, and having no manner of estate within the kingdome; in which sitting, sundry orders were conceived, and dismisses obteyned of persons before impeached of treason in full parliament ; and which passed or might have passed some acts against law and to the prejudice of your majestie and this whole nation. And dureing these troubles, termes were kept, and your majestie's court of cheefe place, and other courts sate at Dublin, to no other end or purpose, but by false and illegal judgments, outlawries, and other capitall proceedings, to attaint many thowsands of your majestie's most faithful subjects of this kingdome, they being never summoned, nor having notice of those proceedings; sheriffs, made of obscure meane persons, by the like practice, appointed of purpose; and poore artificers, common souldiers and meniall servants returned jurors, to pass upon the lives and estates of those who came in upon protection and public faith. Therefore the said catholiques, in the behalfe of themselves and of the whole kindome of Ireland, doe protest and declare against the said proceedings, in the nature of parliaments, and in the other courts aforesaid, and every of them, as being heynous crimes against law, destructive to parliaments and your majestie's prerogatives and authoritie, and the rights and just liberties of your most faithful subjects. Forasmuch, dread sovereigne, as the speedy applycation of apt remedyes unto these grievances and heavie pressures, will tend to the settlement and improvement of your majestie's revenue, the prevention of further effusion of blood, the preservation of this kingdome from desolation, and the content and satisfaction of your said subjects, who in manifestation of their duty and zeal to your majestie's service, will be most willing and ready to employ ten thousand men under the conduct of well experienced commanders in defence of your royal rights and prerogatives; they there fore most humbly beseech your majestie, that you will vouchsafe gracious answers to these their humble and just complaints, and for the establish ment of your people in a lasting peace and securitie, the said catholiques doe most humbly pray, that your majestie may be further gratiously pleased to call a free parliament in this kingdome, in such convenient tyme as your inajestie in your high wisdom shall think fitt, and the urgencie of the present affairs of the said kingdome doth require; and that the said parliament be held in an indifferent place, summoned by, and continued before some person or persons of honour and fortune, of approved faith to your majestic, and acceptable to your people here, and to be timely placed by your majestie in this government, which is most necessary for the advancement of your service, and present condition of the kingdome: in which parliament, the said catholiques doe humbly pray these or others their grievances may be redressed; and that in the said parliament, a statute inade in this kingdome in the tenth yeare of king Henry the Seventh, cors only called Poyning's Act, and all acts explayning, or enlarging the same, be by a particular act suspended during that parliainent, as it hath beene allready done in the eleventh yeare of queen Elizabeth, upon occasions of far less moment than now doe offer themselves; and that your majestie, with the advice of the said parliament, will be pleased to take a course for the further repealing, or further continuance of the said statutes, as may best conduce to the advancement of your service here, and peace of this your realme; and that no matter whereof, complaint is made in this remonstrance, may debarr catholiques, or give interruption to their free votes, or sitting in the said parliament, and as in duty bound they will ever pray for your majestie's long and prosperous raigne over them. Wee the undernamed being thereunto authorised, doe present and signe this remonstrance in the behalfe of the catholiques of Ireland, dated this 17th day of March, 1642. According to your majestie's commission to us directed, we have received this remonstrance, subscribed by the lord viscount Gormanston, sir Lúcas Dillon, knight, sir Robert Talbott, bart. and John Walsh, esq. authorised by, and in the behalfe of the recusants of Ireland, to present the same unto us to be transmitted to your sacred majestie, dated the 17th day of March, 1642. CLANRICKARD and ST. ALBANS. ROSCOMMON. NUMBER VI. Extract of a Collection of some of the Massacres and Murders committed on the Irish in Ireland, since the 23d of October 1641. [See Review, p. 178, &c.] This collection was first published in London in the year 1662. The author's frequent, candid and public appeals to things openly transacted, and to enemies themselves, then living, and well known, is a strong proof that what he relates is real matter of fact; and there is yet a stronger inducement to think it so, because it has never yet been proved to be otherwise: nor, as far as I have learned, even attempted to be proved. County of Antrim. 1641. ABOUT the beginning of November, the English and Scotch forces in Knockfergus murdered in one night all the inhabitants of the territory of the Island Magee, to the number of about 3000 men, women and children, all innocent persons, at a time when none of the catholics of that country were in arms or rebellion.-Note, that this was the first massacre committed in Ireland of either side. Mr. Mac Naghten having built a smail fortress in the said county, to preserve himself and his followers from outrages until he understood what the cause of the then rebellion was; as soon as colonel Campbell came near with part of the army, he sent to let him know, that he would come to him with his party, which he did; and they were next day murdered to the number of 80, by sir John Clotworthy, now lord Massareen's, soldiers. *Sir Audley Mervyn, sir Robert Hannah, (lady Mountrath's father) several general and other officers, then, and many years after, alive. About the same time, 100 poor women and children were murdered in one night, at a place called Balliaghiun, by direction of the English and Scotch officers commanding in that county. County of Derry. 1641. Some 300 men, women and children of the Irish, having freely come under the protection of the garrison of London-Derry, were stripped, plundered, and killed by the said garrison. 1644. Mr. Morris Mac Daniel, natural son of the late Earl of Antrim, was hanged at Coleraine, by the governour's orders, notwithstanding he had colonel Michael Jones's pass. County of Down. 1641. The burgesses and inhabitants of the town of Newry, meeting the English army on their march to besiege the castle of the said town, were received into protection; and, after quarter given to the garrison of the said castle, the said inhabitants, and the soldiers of the said garrison, to the number of 500 and upwards, men, women and children, were brought on the bridge of Newry, and thrown into the river, and such of them as endeavoured to escape by swimming, were murdered. County of Donegall. 1641. About the 20th of November, sir William Steward commanded the gentry and inhabitants of that county to join with his forces in oppo sition to the rebels, and accordingly they came to the place appointed, where captain Cunningham, with a party of the said sir William's regiment under pretence of incorporating with them, fell upon the inhabitants with his armed soldiers, and killed very many of them; among whom were Owen Mac Sweeny, Morris O'Farey, and Donagh O'Callan, gentlemen of quality and estates. About the same time, captain Fleming, and other officers of the said regiment commanding a party, smothered to death 220 women and children, in two caves. And about the said time also the said captain Cunningham murdered about 63 women and children, in the isles of Ross. 1641. The governor of Letterkenny gathered together on a Sunday morning 53 poor people, most of them women and children, and caused them to be thrown off the bridge into the river, and drowned them all. 1641. In November, one Reading murdered the wife and three children of Shane O'Morghy in a place called Ballykenny of Ramaltan, and after her death cut off her breasts with his sword. 1641. 1642. The garrisons of Rapho, Drombo, Lifford, and Castle Raghaen, slaughtered no less than 1500 of the poor neighbouring inhabitants never in arms; and three persons were chiefly noted among them for their barbarous cruelty, by name James Graham, Henry Dungan, and Robert Cunningham, commonly called the killer of old women. 1641. 1642 About 2000 poor labourers, women and children, of the barony of Tirbu, were massacred by the garrisons of Ballashany and Donegall; and lieutenant Thomas Poe, an officer among them, coming under colour of friendship to visit a neighbour that lay sick in his bed, and to whom he owed money, carried a dagger under his cloak, which, whilst he seemed to bow towards the sick man in a friendly manner, asking how he did, he thrust it into his body, and told his wife her husband should be no longer sick. 1650. In the mouth of June, about 3000 horse and foot of his majesty's army being defeated near Letterkenny by the English rebels, adhering to Cromwell, most of the principal officers of the said party taken prisoners in the battle, were killed in cold blood, by order of sir Charles Coote, |