among the rebels, did give him the information;" in another " Thomas King did give him a list of the householders so murdered;" in 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. Jurat. August 23, 1643.820 "Joseph Wheeler, of Stancarty, in the county of Kilkenny, Esq.; Elizabeth, the relict of William Gilbert, and others, 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 re-delivered: 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."821 "Jane, the wife of Thomas Stewart, deposeth and saith: All the men, women, and children of the British that then could be found within the town of Sligo (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 were most cruelly and barbarously murdered with swords, axes and skeins: 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 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 820 Temple, 92. 821 Idem, 117. another "the wife of Dr. Hodges, and her two sons gave him a list;" in another, the murder of fifteen hundred in one parish is "certified posture they continued to be seen the next morning by those Irish of the town that came into the said gaol, who were delighted and rejoiced in those bloody murders and uncivil actions; and that they of the Irish, that came to bury them, stood up to the mid-leg 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."sa "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 thirtysix women and children. Jurat. January 12, 1643."9998 "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."824 "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 scithes, 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."825 "John Montgomery, of the county of Monaghan, sworn and examined, saith, 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,"826 "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 Fitzgerald'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, 1641.827 822 Temple, 108. 823 Idem, 97. 827 Idem, 90. 924 Ibid. 825 Idem, 94. 826 Idem, 89. by Mr. Birge under his own hand;" and in this manner, he proceeds throughout the whole deposition. I now close the second class of the testimony, on which the wretched legend of the Irish massacre rests. I trust the reader will agree that it fully realizes Warner's description, and is nothing more than a collection of " idle, silly tales," of " what this body heard another body say."ses One man swears, that he "heard, and verily believeth;" another, that he heard it credibly reported among the rebels themselves;" a third, that "an Irish gentleman told him and others;" a fourth, that "he was informed;" and a fifth, that "a woman absolutely informed this deponent;" and similar ribald nonsense, to which nothing but the spirit of fraud, falsehood, perjury, and rapine, that predominated among the rulers of Ireland at that period, could have given currency; and which would not, at present, be admitted as evidence, by the most paltry, pettifogging justice of the peace, against the lowest wretch in the community. Is there a man, not lost to every sense of honour and justice, who can read this account without 'horror, amazement, indignation, and regret? horror at the atrocious wickedness of the host of perjurers, "Charity Chappel, late wife of 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 lying murdered in vaults and cellars, whither they fled to hide themselves. Jurat. July 2, 1642,"829 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."830 "Arthur Culm, of Cloughwater, in the county of Cavan, esquire, deposeth, That he was credibly informed, by some that were present there, that there were thirty women and young children, and seven men, flung into the river of Belturbert; and when some of them offered to swim for their lives, they were by the rebels, followed in boats, and knocked on the head with poles: the same day they hanged two women at Turbert; and this deponent doth verily believe, that Mulmore O'Rely, the then sheriff, had a hand in the commanding the murder of those said persons, for that he saw him write two notes, which he sent to Turbert by Brien O'Rely, upon whose coming these murders were committed: and those persons who were present also affirmed, that the bodies of those thirty persons drowned did not appear upon the water till aboat six weeks after, past; as the said O'Rely came to the town, all the bodies came floating up to the very bridge; those persons were all formerly stayed in the town by his protection, when the rest of their neighbours in the town went away."831 28 Warner, 146. 829 Temple, 90, 30 Trial of Magnire, 225. 831 Temple, 122. who were thus made the instruments to plunder the property and sacrifice the lives of the ill-fated Irish; amazement at the Baotian and superlative stupidity of those who committed themselves by perjuries open to the detection of the most superficial observer; indignation at the base imposture, or gross neglect, which has led so many subsequent writers, particularly Hume, to poison the pure streams of history, by recourse to such a pestilential source as this vile, this ribald story; and profound regret, if he have hitherto, as is most probable, been deluded into a belief in one of the most wicked, base, and unfounded romances ever palmed on a deceived world, in the shape of history? Third class of depositions. I now proceed to a cursory examination of the third class of depositions, which, though not resting on hearsay, or not absolutely impossible, are yet so utterly improbable, as to be unworthy of belief. One of the witnesses swears, that she and her six children had nothing to eat for three weeks, while they lay in a cave, but two old calf skins, which they beat with stones, and ate them hair and all.* Another, seventy-five years old, swears that she was stripped seven times in one day, by the rebels, as she was proceeding to Dublin.f She gives no account how she replaced the clothes of which she was seven times plundered. Another swears, that all the nobles in the kingdom, that were Papists, had a hand in the plot. It is too obvious to require illustration, that even if this were a fact, it was impossible for any man to be so well assured of it, as to be able safely to take this sweeping oath. But, setting this consideration wholly aside, the perjury is proved by the simple fact, that the earl of Clanrickarde, and other Catholic noblemen, were not only wholly unconcerned in the insurrection, but absolutely fought against their countrymen. "Mary Barlow deposeth, That her husband being by the rebels hanged before her face, she and six children were stripped stark naked, and turned out a begging in the frost and snow, by means whereof they were almost starved, having nothing to eat in three weeks, while they lay in a cave, but two old calf skins, which they beat with stones, and so eat them hair and all, her children crying out unto her, rather to go out, and be killed by the rebels, than to starve there."882 +"Margaret Fermeny, in the county of Fermanagh, deposeth, that the rebels bound her and her husband's hands behind them, to make them confess their money, and dragged them up and down in a rope. and cut his throat in her own sight with a skein, having first knocked him down and stripped him; and that being an aged woman, seventyfive years old, as she came up afterwards to Dublin, she was stripped by the Irish seven times in one day."833 "Patrick O'Brien, of the parish of Galloom, in the county of Fermanagh, affirmeth, upon oath, That all the nobles in the kingdom, 933 Idem, 88. 962 Temple, 90. Another swears, that two and twenty widows were stripped stark naked, and driven out into the woods, where they remained in that condition from Tuesday till Saturday, and "the snow unmelted lay long on some of their skins!"'* It were endlesss to recapitulate the miserable tales with which Temple's history is filled: they are as nauseating by their absurdity, as shocking by their falsehood. A few more shall close the subject. This writer very gravely informs us, that the day previous to the breaking out of the rebellion, the priests in many places "gave the people a dismiss at mass, with the liberty to go and take possession of the Englishmen's lands, and to strip, rob, and despoil them of all their goods and cattle ;"+ that were Papists, had a hand in this plot, as well as the lord Macguire, Hugh Oge, and Mac-Mahown; that they expected aid out of Spain, by Owen Roe O'Neal; and that colonel Plunket, one of those that was to be an actor in the surprise of the castle of Dublin, told him that he knew of this plot eight years since; and that within these three years, he hath been more fully acquainted with it."834 "Magdalen Redman, late of the Dowris, in King's county, widow, being sworn and examined, deposeth and saith, that she this deponent, and divers other Protestants, her neighbours, and amongst the rest twenty-two widows, after they were all robbed, were also stripped, stark naked, and then covering themselves in a house with straw, the rebels then and there lighted the straw with fire, and threw amongst them, on purpose to burn them; where they had been burned or smothered, but that some of the rebels more pitiful than the rest, commanded these cruel rebels to forbear, so as they escaped: yet the rebels kept and drove them naked into the wild woods, from Tuesday until Saturday, in frost and snow, so as the snow unmelted, lay long upon some of their skins!!! and some of their children died in their arms. 97835 "Whereas the priests did long before, in their public devotions at mass, pray for a blessing upon a great design they had then in hand: so now, as I have heard, they did in many places, the very day before the breaking out of this rebellion, give the people a dismiss at mass, with free liberty to go out, and take possession of all their lands, which they pretended were unjustly detained from them by the English; as also to strip, rob, and despoil them of all their goods and cattle."888 Sir Charles Coote's Testimony concerning the generality of the Rebellion. "Sir Phelim O'Neile and Roger Moore were the actors in the massacres; and by public directions of some in place, and of the titulary bishops, for sending an exact account of what persons were murdered throughout all Ulster, a fourth part of the kingdom of Ireland, to the parish priests of every parish; and they sent in a particular account of it, and the account was one hundred and four thou sand seven hundred in one province, in the first three months of the rebellion."837 834 Temple, 61. $35 Idem, 81. 836 Idem, 79. 837 Trial of lord Macguire, 227. |
