of 12,000 slain in the Glenwood, as the rebels told this deponent," there were "954 murdered in one morning, as the rebels themselves told him," there were, moreover, "above 2,000 murdered in their own houses, as he was informed by a Scotsman," and Sir Phelim O'Neil had women, at the siege of Augher. A woman, tenant to the deponent, killed seven men and women of her English fellow-tenants in one morning; and it was very usual, in all parts, for their children to murder the Protestants' children; and sometimes with lath swords, heavy and well sharpened, they would venture upon men and women of riper years, cruelties not to be believed, if there were not so many eye-witnesses of them." 29461 "And further saith, That the rebels would send their children abroad in great troops, and especially near unto Kinnard, armed with long wattles and whips, who would therewith beat dead men's bodies about their privy members, until they beat or rather thrashed them off; then would return in great joy to their parents, who received them for such service as it were in triumph."462 “ Further, this deponent saith, That it was usual sport with one Mac-Mahon, captain of the castle and town of Monaghan, (as the said Mac-Mahon confessed before Mr. Hugh Echline and many others) to take a wooden prick or broach, and thrust it up into the fundament of an English or Scotchman, and then after drive him about the room with a joint stool, until, through extreme pain, he either fainted, or gave content to the spectators by some notable skips and frisks; which rare invention he offered to put in practice at the same time, and in the same place where he boasted thereof, but that the said Mr. Echline prevailed with him to omit it, as sufficiently (without any further demonstration) believing the excellency of the sport."463 461 Borlace, App. 136. 462 Temple, 113. "left neither man, woman, nor child alive, from Armagh to Newry, as he heard Sir Phelim himself report." The inhumanity of the Irish to the English beasts, according to the dean, was really shocking. They used to cut collops off their backs, and then let them loose in the woods, till, O miraculous! they roared the flesh off their backs! This fit of roaring would sometimes last for two or three days together!* But the most marvellous part of the story is, that the dogs and cocks became traitors! and appear to have entered into a league with the rebels!! For, during "the three first days of the rebellion," they neither crowed nor barked, to alarm their masters, "not even when the rebels came by night, in great multitudes, to rob and murder them!!!"t * "At the siege of Augher, they would not kill any English beast, and then eat it; but they cut collops out of them, being alive; letting them roar till they had no more flesh upon their backs, so that sometimes a beast would live two or three days together in that torment."464 "And the deponent further saith, That the first three days and nights of this present rebellion, viz. October 23, 24, and 25, it was generally observed, that no cock crew, or any dog was heard to bark, no not when the rebels came in great multitudes unto the Protestants' houses by night to rob and murder them; and about three or four nights before the six and fifty persons were taken out of the deponent's house and drowned, and amongst those the deponent's brother, lieutenant James Maxwell, in the dark of the moon, about one of the 464 Temple, 112. Borlace, 133. Who can wade through such a miserable mass of folly and fraud, without bitterly exclaiming, "How God and good men hate so foul a liar?"465 Stratford's deposition* is exactly of the same character as Maxwell's; and is so distinctly and clock at night, a light was observed, in manner of a long pillar, to shine for a long way through the air, and refracted upon the north gabel of the house. It gave so great a light, about an hour together, that divers of the watch read both letters and books of a very small character thereby. The former the deponent knoweth to be most true, both by his own experience, and the general observation of as many as the deponent met with in the county Armagh. The latter was seen by all those of the deponent's family, and besides by many of his Irish guard. “ Deposed, August 22, 1642. "WILLIAM ALDRICH.' 99466 "ROBERT MAXWELL. *"Captain Anthony Stratford deposeth and saith, that "These Protestant ministers following, about the beginning of the present rebellion, were murdered in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh, viz. Mr. John Mathew, Mr. Blythe, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Smith, Mr. Darragh, Mr. Birge, and eight more, whose names this deponent hath forgotten, by the rebels, none of which would the rebels permit to be buried ; the names of such as murdered, this examinant knoweth not; his cause of knowledge of the said murders is, that some of his, this deponent's servants, who were among the rebels, did give him the relation!!! and he verily believeth them; and besides, this deponent heard the same confessed and averred by many of the rebels themselves, and by some of those Protestants that had escaped and that he this deponent was a prisoner among the rebels, at Castlecaufield, near the place of those murders, WHERE HE CONTINUED FOURTEEN MONTHS! And further : 465 Shakspeare. 466 Borlace, App. 136, 137. legibly stamped with the broad seal of perjury, that even the most superficial observer cannot mistake its character. saith, that in Dungannon, in the county of Tyrone, or near thereunto, the rebels murdered three hundred and sixteen Protestants; and between Charlemont and Dungannon, above four hundred; that there were murdered and drowned at and in the river of Benburb, the Black water, between the counties of Armagh and Tyrone, two hundred and six Protestants; and Patrick Mac-Crew, of Dungannon, aforesaid, murdered thirty-one in one morning; and two young rebels, John Begbrian and Harry, murdered in the said county of Tyrone, one hundred and forty poor women and children that could make no resistance: and that the wife of Brien Kelly, of Loghall, in the county of Armagh, (one of the rebels' captains,) did with her own hands murder forty-five. And deponent further saith, that one Thomas King, sometimes sergeant to the late lord. Caufield's company (which this deponent commanded) he being forced to serve under the rebels, and was one of the provost marshals, gave the deponent a list of every householder's name so murdered, and the number of the persons so murdered; which list this deponent durst not keep: At Portnedown there were drowned at several times about three hundred and eight, who were sent away by about forty, or such like numbers at once, with convoys, and there drowned: There was a lough near Loghall aforesaid, where were drowned above two hundred, of which this deponent was informed by several persons, and particularly by the wife of doctor Hodges, and two of her sons, who were present and designed for the like end: but by God's mercy, that gave them favour in the eyes of some of the rebels, they escaped; and the said Mrs. Hodges and her sons gave the deponent a list of the names of many of those that were so drowned, which the deponent durst not keep; and saith that the said doctor Hodges was employed by Sir Phelim O'Neil to make powder; but he failing of his undertaking, was first half hanged, then cut down, and kept prisoner three months, and then murdered with forty-four more, within a quarter of a mile of Charlemont aforesaid, they being The insurrection began on the 23d of October, 1641. The deposition of this man was taken on by Tirlogh O'Neil, brother to Sir Phelim, sent to Dungannon, prisoners, and in the way murdered. This deponent was showed the pit where they were all cast in. "At a mill pond in the parish of Kilamen, in the county of Tyrone, there were drowned in one day three hundred, and in the same parish there were murdered of English and Scottish twelve hundred, as this deponent was informed by Mr. Birge, the late minister of the said parish,* who certified the same under his hand, which note the deponent durst not keep: the said Mr. Birge was murdered three months after: all which murders were in the first breaking out of the rebellion, but the particular times this deponent cannot remember, neither the persons by whom they were committed. This deponent was credibly informed by the said sergeant and others of this deponent's servants (who kept company with the rebels,) and saw the same, that many young children were cut into quarters and gobbets by the rebels, and that eighteen Scottish infants were hanged on a clothier's tenterhook, and that they murdered a young fat Scottish man, and made candles of his grease; they took another Scottish man and ripped up his belly, that they might come to his small guts, the one end whereof they tied to a tree, and made him go round until he had drawn them all out of his body; they then saying, that they would try whether a dog's or a Scotchman's guts were the longer. "ANTHONY STRATFORD. "Deposed, March 9, 1643, before us, "HENRY JONES, "HENRY BRERETON."467 *The wonderful density of the population of this parish, where fifteen hundred persons were murdered, might excite doubts, but for the circumstance, that this important fact was "certified by Mr. Birge, under his own hand." It is much to be regretted that the deponent "durst not keep" this valuable document, which was worthy of being preserved in the archives of Ireland. 467 Temple, 110. |