I. Hearsay evidence.

The reader will find, in the annexed notes,* full and complete corroboration of all our allega

*"The examination of dame Butler, who, being duly sworn, deposeth that

"She was credibly informed by Dorothy Renals, who had been several times an eye-witness of these lamentable spectacles, that she had seen to the number of five and thirty English going to execution; and that she had seen them when they were executed, their bodies exposed to devouring ravens, and not afforded so much as burial.

"And this deponent saith, That Sir Edward Butler did credibly inform her, that James Butler, of Finyhinch, had hanged and put to death all the English that were at Goran and Wells, and all thereabouts!!!

Jane Jones, servant to the deponent, did see the English formerly specified going to their execution; and, as she conceived, they were about the number of thirty-five; and was told by Elizabeth Home, that there were forty gone to execution. Jurat. Sept. 7, 1642. ANNE BUTLER."438

"Thomas Fleetwood, late curate of Killbeggan, in the county of Westmeath, deposeth, That he hath heard from the mouths of the rebels themselves of great cruelties acted by them. And, for one instance, that they stabbed the mother, one Jane Addis by name, and left her little sucking child, not a quarter old, by the corpse, and then they put the breast of its dead mother into its mouth, and bid it suck, English bastard,' and so left it there to perish. Jurat. March 22, 1642."439

"Richard Bourk, bachelor in divinity, of the county of Fermanagh, deposeth, That he heard, and verily believeth, the burning and killing of one hundred, at least, in the castle of Tullah, and that the same was done after fair quarter promised. Jurat. July 12, 1643,"440

438 Temple, 116, 117.

439 Idem, 107.

440 Idem, 84.

tions. They speak their own condemnation, and shed confusion and disgrace on those who have

"William Parkinson, of Castle-Cumber, in the county Kilkenny, gent. deposeth, That by the credible report, both of English and some Irish, who affirmed they were eye-witnesses of a bloody murder committed near Kilfeal, in the Queen's county, upon an Englishman, his wife, four or five children, and a maid, all which were hanged, by the command of Sir Morgan Cavanagh and Robert Harpool, and afterwards put all in one hole, the youngest child being not fully dead, put out the hand, and cried Mammy, Mammy, when without mercy they buried him alive. Jurat. February 11, 1642.”441

“Owen Frankland, of the city of Dublin, deposeth, That Michael Garray told this deponent, that there was a Scotchman, who being driven by the rebels out of Newry, and knocked on the head by the Irish, recovered himself, and came again into the town naked, whereupon the rebels carried him and his wife out of the town, cut him all to pieces, and with a skein ripped his wife's belly, so as a child dropped out of her womb. Jurat. July 23, 1642.”442

"Alexander Creighton, of Glaslough, in the county of Monaghan, gent. deposeth, That he heard it credibly reported among the rebels aforesaid, at Glaslough, that Hugh Mac O'Degan, a priest, had done a most meritorious act, in drawing betwixt forty and fifty English and Scotch, in the parish of Gonally, in the county of Fermanagh, to reconciliation with the church of Rome; and, after giving them the sacrament, demanded of them whether Christ's body was really in the sacrament or no? and they said, Yea. And that he demanded further, Whether they held the pope to be supreme head of the church? They likewise answered, He was. And that thereupon he presently told them, They were in good faith, and for fear they should fall from it, and turn heretics, he and the rest that were with him cut all their throats. Jurat. March 1, 1642."

99443

441 Temple, 87.

442 Idem, 89.

443 Idem, 100.

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