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." "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. 452 Idem, 97. 451 Idem, 97. 453 Idem, 94. t 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. tem of imposture that the world has ever seen. We shall therefore analyze two of those depositions, the most remarkable of the whole. Of all the witnesses who have sworn to the large collection of legendary tales, on the subject of the pretended massacre and cruelties of the Irish, there is none on whom so much reliance has been placed as dean Robert Maxwell, afterwards bishop of Kilmore. His clerical character 'appeared calculated to produce, and did inspire confidence. His testimony is therefore a fair subject of discussion. If it pass the ordeal of investigation, and come out pure and perfectly admissible, it will afford a favourable augury for the rest but if it be abandoned as utterly indefensible, without possibility of appeal, then its "Thomas Green, in the parish of Dumcaes, in the county Armagh, yeoman, and Elizabeth his wife, sworn and examined, saith, That the deponent, Thomas Green, hardly escaped away with his life; but that the other deponent and six children were left all amongst the rebels, and so stripped of their clothes, and hunger-starved, that five of the children died; and she, this deponent, being put to beg amongst the merciless rebels, was at length rescued from them by the Scottish army: she further saith, that the rebels did drown, in a bog, seventeen men, women, and children, at one time, within the said parish; and she is verily persuaded that the rebels, at several times and places within the county of Armagh, drowned above four thousand Protestants, enforcing the sons and daughters of these very aged people, who were not able to go themselves, to take them out of their beds and houses, and carry them to drowning, especially in the river of Toll, in the parish of Loghall. Jurat. November 10, 1643."458 458 Temple, 91. condemnation involves that of the elaborate productions of all his fellow-labourers. Indeed we should be willing to rest the merits of the case on this individual deposition; and hope to prove that a more crude, wild, extravagant, and ridiculous farrago of absurdity and falsehood was never offered to the "greedy maw" of public credulity and cullibility. The specimens we have already given, on the subject of the ghosts,* and the gross contradiction respecting the number of 154,000 massacred,† would be enough to prove that he had "Laid perjury on his soul." But we deem it by no means improper to offer to the consideration of the reader, another collection of extracts from the evidence of this Extracts from the Deposition of Dean Robert Maxwell, sworn to, August 22, 1642. Deponent saith, That the rebels themselves told him, this deponent, that they murdered nine hundred fifty-four in one morning, in the county of Antrim; and that, besides them, they supposed they killed above eleven or twelve hundred more in that county: they told him likewise, that colonel Brian O'Neil killed about a thousand in the county of Down, besides three hundred killed near Killeleigh, and many hundreds, both before and after, in both those counties.459 “That he heard Sir Phelim likewise report, that he killed six hundred English at Garvagh, in the county of Derry; and that he had left neither man, woman nor child alive in the barony of Wunterlong, in the county of Tyrone, and betwixt Armagh and the Newry, in the several plantations and lands * Supra, 46. reverend divine, to satisfy the most incredulous readers, what a miserable support can be afforded to the tale of the massacre, by such a voucher. The dean swears, with great gravity, in one part of his deposition, that "there were upwards of Sir Archibald Atcheson, John Hamilton, Esq. the lord Caulfield, and the lord Mountnorris: and saith also, that there were above two thousand of the British murdered for the most part in their own houses, whereof he was informed by a Scotsman, 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 all, who were all killed in their flight to the county of Down. The number of the people drowned at the bridge of Portnedown are diversely reported, according as men staid amongst the rebels. This deponent, who staid as long as any, and had better intelligence than most of the English amongst them, and best reason to know the truth, saith, There were (by their own report) one hundred and ninety drowned with Mr. Fullerton; at another time, they threw one hundred and forty over the said bridge; at another time, thirty-six or thirty-seven; 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 one thousand, besides as many more drowned between that bridge and the great lough of Montjoy, besides those that perished by the sword, fire, and famine, in Coubrasil, and the English plantations adjacent; which, in regard there escaped not three hundred out of all these quarters, must needs amount to many thousands.460 "And further saith, that he knew one boy, that dwelt near unto himself, and not exceeding fourteen years of age, who killed, at Kinnard, in one night, fifteen able strong men with his skein, they being disarmed, and most of their feet in the stocks. Another, not above twelve years of age, killed two 460 Temple, 113. Borlace, 135. |