A General Martyrology, Chapter 40
CHAP. XL. The Persecution of the Church in Ireland, Anno Christi, 1642.
THough the barbarous cruelty used by the Irish against the English, go usually under the name of Rebellion, yet I rather look upon it as, and chuse to call it a persecution, because their cruelties were exercised upon Protestants only, so farre as ever I could hear; neither were the English Papists murthered, yea they joyned with the Irish in murthering of their brethren. Besides, the Jesuites, Priests, and Friars were the chief instigators to these murthers, stirring up continually all sorts, both of the Gentry and Communalty, to shew the utmost of their zeal therein; and when their designe was so surely laid, that they thought it impossible to be prevented, they did in their publick devotions recommend by their Prayers the good successe of a great designe, tending much to the advancement of the Catholick cause; and that they might stir up the people with the greater animosity and cruelty to put it in execution, they everywhere declaimed loudly against the Protestants, saying, That they were Hereticks, not to be suffered any longer to live amongst them; that it was no more sin to kill one of them, than to kill a dog; Popish malice.and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them.
They also with much acrimony represented the severe courses taken by the Parliament of England to suppresse the Romish Religion, and utterly to extirpate the Professors of it:Popish lyes. They told them that in England they had caused the Queens Priests to be hanged before her face, and that they held herself under a most severe discipline; and that the like cruel Laws should be made against Popery in Ireland, &c.
When their plots were ripe for execution, we finde their first proceedings against the English very various; some of the Irish only stripping and expelling them; others murthering man, woman, and childe without mercy; yet all resolving universally to root out all the Protestants out of Ireland; yea, so deeply malicious were they against the English Protestants,The malice against the English. that they would not endure the very sound of that language, but would have all such punished as spake English; and the names of all English places they would have changed into old Irish.
In many places they killed the English Cowes and Sheep, meerly because they were English: sometimes they cut off their legs, or cut out a piece of their buttock, and so left them to live in pain: yea in some places, what they could not devoure, they killed, and left in great multitudes stinking in the fields.
The Priests gave the Sacrament unto divers of the Irish, upon condition that they should neither spare man,Popish malice and cruelty. woman nor childe of the Protestants, saying, that it did them a great deale of good to wash their hands in their blood. One Halligan a Priest, read an excommunication against all those, that from thenceforth should relieve or harbour any English, Scotch, or VVelch man, or give them almes at their doores, whereby many were famished to death. The Friars with tears exhorted them not to spare any of the English; they boasted, that when they had destroyed them in Ireland, they would go over into England, and not leave the memorial of an English man under heaven.
They openly professed, that they held it as lawful to kill a Protestant, as to kill a sheep or a dog. One of their Priests said, that it was no more pity or conscience to take their lives or estates from them, than to take a bone out of a dogs mouth.
The day before this Massacre was to begin, the Priests gave the people a dismisse at Masse, with free liberty to go out and take possession of all their lands, which they pretended to be unjustly detained from them by the English. As also to strip, rob, and despoil them of all their goods and cattel; the Protestants being as they told them, worse than Dogs, for they were Divels, and served the Divel, and therefore the killing of such was a meritorious act, and a rare preservative against the pains of Purgatory; for that the bodies of such of them as died in this quarrel should not be cold, before their soules should ascend up into heaven, so that they should not need to feare the paines of Purgatory; and this caused some of these Murtherous Cains to boast, after they had slain many of the English, that they knew that if they should dye presently they should go strait to Heaven.
The chief Gentlemen of the Irish, when this persecution first began, perswaded many of their Protestant neighbours, that if they would bring their goods and cattel to them,Popish perfidiousnesse. they would secure them from the rage of the common people; and hereby they got abundance peaceably into their hands, whereof they cheated the Protestants, refusing to restore them again; yet so confident were the Protestants at first of their good dealing in regard of former familiarity, that they gave them Inventories of all they had; nay digged up such of their best things as they had hidden in the ground, and deposited them in their custody. They also gat much into their hands by fair promises, and deep oaths and engagements, that if they would deliver them their goods, they would suffer them with their wives and children quietly to depart the Country; yet having got what they could, they afterwards murthered them.
Having thus seised upon all their goods and cattel, ransack't their houses, and gotten their persons under their power, the next work was to strip man, woman, and childe stark-naked, and so to turn them out of doors,Prodigious▪ cruelties not suffering them so much as to shelter themselves under bushes, or in the woods, strictly prohibiting all the Irish, under great penalties, not to give them any relief as they passed in the high wayes; and their great designe herein was, that they on whom they would not lay their hands and cruelly murther in cold blood, might miserably perish through cold, nakednesse, and want; and therefore if any of them gat any old rags to cover their nakednesse with, they stripped them again and again, sometimes twice or thrice over, the Irish women being very active herein, yea they taught their very children to do the like; yea they would not leave to the women so much as a smock or an hairlace: So that many of them being starved, fell down dead in the high wayes: Others that gat to any English town, by reason of famine, and cold suffered by the way,Many starved and strip…. died so soon as they came thither.
In the town of Colerain, of these miserable people, that fled thither for succour, many thousands died in two dayes, so that the living being not able to bury them, laid the Carkasses of those dead persons in great ranks in waste and wide holes, piling them so close and thick as if they had packed up herings together.
One Magdalen Redman deposed that she, and divers others Protestants, amongst whom were twenty two widows, were first robbed, and then stripped stark-naked, and when they had in an house covered themselves with straw, the bloody Papists threw burning straw in amongst them on purpose to burn them; Then did they drive them so naked in to the wilde woods in frost and snow, so that the snow covered their skins, where a long time it lay unmelted, and some of their Children died in their armes with the extremity of the cold; and whereas some of these poor soules went towards the Burre for shelter, the cruel Irish turned them back again, saying, they should go to Dublin; and when they went towards Dublin, they beat them back, saying, they should go to the Burre, and so tossed them to and fro, that some of them died; those which through many difficulties gat to the Burre, many of them died there; and those that survived, lived miserably by reason of their many wants.
Yet though these bloody Villaines exercised such inhumane cruelties towards the poor Protestants, they would commonly boast, that these were but the beginnings of their sorrows; and indeed they made it good; for having disarmed the English, robbed them of their goods, and cattel, stript them of their cloathes, and having their persons in their power, they furiously broke out into all manner of abominable cruelties, horrid massacres, and execrable murthers, so that it would make any Christians eare to tingle, and his heart to ake to hear the mention of them.
For there were multitudes murthered in cold blood, some whilst they were at plough, others as they sate peaceably in their houses, others travelling upon the high wayes;Horrible murthers. all without any manner of provocation given by them, were suddenly destroyed.
In the Castle of Lisgool were about one hundred and fifty men, women, and children consumed with fire. At the Castle of Moneah were one hundred slain altogether. At the Castle of Tullah, which was delivered to Mac Guire upon composition, and faithful promises of faire quarter, as soon as he and his entred the Court, they began to strip the people, and most cruelly put them to the sword, murthering them all without mercy.
At Lissenskeah they hanged and killed above one hundred of the Scottish Protestants,Popish perfidiousness. shewing them no more favour than they did to the English. Yea the County thereabouts being well planted and peopled, was in a most horrible manner quite destroyed. In the Counties of Armagh and Tyrone, where the Protestants were more numerous, their murthers were more multiplied, and with greater cruelty, if it were possible, than in other places.
An Irish Monster.Mac Guire coming to the Castle of Lissenskeah, desired in a friendly manner to speak with Master Middleton, who admitting him in, as soon as he was entred, he first burned the Records of the County which were kept there; then he demanded one thousand pounds which was in his custody of Sir William Bal…ores, which as soon as he had, he caused Master Middleton to hear Masse, and to swear that he would never alter from it, and then immediately caused him, his wife and children to be hanged up: hanging and murthering above one hundred persons besides in that place.
At Portendown Bridge there were one thousand men, women, and children carried in several Companies, and all unmercifully drowned in the River, the Bridge being broken down in the midst, and the people driven and forced on till they tumbled down into the water. Yea in that Country there were four thousand persons drowned in several places,Multitudes drowned. the barbarous Papists driving on the poore soules, when they had miserably stripped them, unto the places of their sufferings like swine; and if any were slack in their pace, they pricked them forward with their swords and pikes; yea to terrifie the rest, they killed and wounded some; and when they were cast into the river, if any assayed to swimme to the Shore, the Rebels stood and shot at them.
In one place one hundred and fourty English were taken and driven like cattel for many miles together. Other companies they carried out under pretence of safe conduct, thereby causing them to march chearfully till they had got them to some place fit for execution, and then murthered them there. One hundred and fifteen men, women, and children they sent with Sir Philem Onenles Passe, till they had brought them to the bridge of Portendowne, Popish treachery.and then forced them all into the water, and such as by swimming, or other means sought to escape, they either knocked them on the head, and after drwowned them, or else shot them to death in the water. One Mistris Campbel being forced by them to the River,A just reward. and finding no meanes to escape their furie, suddenly clasped one of the chief of them in her armes, and so both tumbling into the River, they were drowned together. At another time one hundred and fourty Protestants being thrown in at the same place, as any of them swam to the shore, the bloody villaines with the butt-ends of their muskets knockt out their brains.
At Armagh, O Cane gat together all the Protestants thereabouts, pretending to conduct them to Coleraine; but before they were gone a dayes journey, they were all murthered, and so were many others, though they had protections from Sir Phileme O Neale. The aged people in Armagh were carried to Charlemount, and there murthered.
Presently after, the Town of Armagh was burnt, and five hundred persons of all sorts were there murthered and drowned. In Killoman were fourty eight families murthered. In one house twenty two Protestants were burned; In Kilmore all the inhabitants were stript and massacred, being two hundred families: Some they set in the stocks till they confessed where their monie was, and then massacred them; The whole County was a common butchery,Prodigious cruelties. where many thousands perished in a shor time, by sword, famine, fire, water, and all other cruel manner of deaths that rage and malice could invent.
To many, these bloody Villains shewed so much favour as to dispatch them presently, by no means allowing them so much time as to pray. Others they imprisoned in filthy Dungeons full of dirt and mire, and there clapping bolts on their legs, suffered them to perish at leasure. One told John Cowder that they would kill him,They deny them liberty to pray. but first bid him say his prayers, and when he kneeled down to pray, they presently cut off his head. When some others upon their knees begged but leave to pray before they were slain, they would bid them bequeath their soules to the Divel; others would ask them, why do you desire to pray? your soules are already with the Divel; and so would immediately slaughter them. At Casel they put all the Protestants into a loathsome Dungeon, where they kept them twelve weekes in great misery. Some they barbarously mangled and left them langushing upon the high wayes, crying out but for so much mercy as to be dispatched out of their paine; some they hanged up twice or thrice: Others they buried alive. Some when they were half-hanged, they cast into pits, covering them with a little earth,Some buried alive. where they sent out most lamentable groanes for a good while after.
In Queenes County, an English man, his wife, five children, and a maid, were all hanged together, then put into a hole; the youngest child being not dead, put up the hand and cried Mammie, Mammie, and yet without mercy they buried it alive.
Thomas Mason in Laugal was extreamly beaten and wounded, yet his wife and some others carried him away, whereupon these Villaines cruelly hacked, slashed and wounded them, and then dragged the said Mason into an hole, and there threw stones on him with the weight whereof they kept him under: there he lay languishing and groaning till his own wife, to put him out of paine, stopped his breath with her handkerchief.
At Clownes seventeen men were buried alive, yet so as their pitiful cryes were heard afar off.
Some were deadly wounded, and so hanged upon tenter-hooks. Some with ropes about their necks were drawn through the water.Some were hung upon tenter-hooks. Some with ropes about their middles were drawn through woods and bogs.
In Castle Cumber one of these cut-throats took two boyes, wounded them, and hung them upon a butchers tenters. Some were hanged up, and taken down several times to make them confess their monie, which when they had done, they presently murthered them. Some were hung up by the armes, and then with their swords they made experiment how many blowes an English Protestant would endure ere he died. Some had their bellies ript up, and so were left with their guts running about their heels.
An ancient woman coming towards Dublin, was stript seven times in one day,Blasphemy. and they bade her go and look for her God, and bid him give her cloaths again.
In Kilkenny they cruelly beat an English woman, till they forced her into a ditch,Many had their bellies ript. where she died; then they took her child, a girle of about six years old, ript her belly, and let out her guts.
One they forced to go to Masse with them, yet afterwards wounded him, ript his belly, took out his guts, and so left him alive.
A Scottish man they stripped and knocked on the head, who afterwards coming to himself, went into the Town naked; Then did they again take him and hewed him all to pieces; They also ript up his Wives belly, so that a Child dropped out of her womb. Many other women great with childe they hung up, then ript their bellies, and let the Infants fall out. Sometimes they gave their children to be devoured of Swine and Dogs. One John Stone with his son, two sons in law, and their wives, they took and hung them all up; and one of the young women being great with child, they ript her belly, took forth her child, and used such beastly barbarous actions to her as are not fit to be mentioned. At the Newry they ript up a womans belly that was great with two children, throwing them to be devoured of swine. Also another woman being delivered of a childe in the fields, they which had formerly killed her Father and Husband, killed her also with two of her children, and gave the new-born infant to be devoured of Dogs.
In the County of Armagh they Robbed, stripped, and murthered abundance of Protestants, whereof some they burned, some they slew with the sword, some they hanged, and some they starved to death; and meeting Mistris Howard, and Mistris Frankland with six of their children, and themselves both great with child, with their pikes they killed and murthered them all, ript open the Gentlewomens bellies, took out their children, and threw them into a ditch. A young Scottish womans child they took by the heeles,Children had their brains dashed out. and dashed the braines out against a tree; the like they did to many other children.
Anne Hill going with a young child on her back, and four more by her side, these cruel persecutors pulled the child off her back, trod▪ on it till it died, stripped her self and the other four children starke naked, whereby they died of cold.
Some others they met with, hanged them up upon a Windmill, and before they were half dead, cut them in pieces with their Skeins. Many other Protestants, especially women and children they pricked and stabbed with their Skeins, Forks and Swords, slashing, cutting and mangling them in their heads, faces, breasts, armes and other parts, yet killed them not, but left them wallowing in their blood, to languish, starve and pine to death, and when they desired them to kill them out of their paine, they refused; yet sometimes after a day or two, they would dash out their braines with stones or clubs, which they accounted as a great favour.
One goodwife Harvey at Kilkenny was forced to go to Masse, yet afterwards, together with her children was stripped, and one of her daughters had her belly ripped that her intrails fell out; and her self was so beaten and wounded, that she hardly escaped with life.
The Castle of Lisgoole being set on fire by these mercilesse Papists, a woman leaped out at a window to save her self from burning, but they presently murthered her;Many burned. the next morning her child was found sucking at her breast, which they murthered also. And whereas many Protestants with their wives and children fled into vauls and cellars to hide themselves, they were all murthered there. One Jane Addis they stabbed, and then putting her child of a quarter old to her breast, bid it suck English bastard, and so left it to perish there.
One Mary Barlow had her husband hanged before her face, and her self with six children were all stript stark naked in frost and snow, after which, sheltring themselves in a Cave,Some perish by famine. they had nothing to eat for three weeks, but two old Calves skins, which they beat with stones, and so eat them hair and all, her children crying to her rather to go out and be killed than to famish there.
In the cold weather many thousands of Protestants of all ranks, ages, and sexes, being turned out stark naked, perished of cold and hunger, thousands of others were drowned, cast into ditches, bogs, and turf-pits. Multitudes were inclosed in houses, which being set on fire they were burnt miserably. Some that lay sick of feavors they drew out of their beds and hanged them. Some men, women, and children they drove into boggie pits; and if any of them endeavoured to get out, they knockt them on the heads.
Some aged men and women, these Barbarians enforced their own children to carry them to the river where they were drowned: yea some children were compelled unnaturally to be the Executioners of their own Parents:Unnatural cruelties. wives were forced to help to hang their own husbands, and mothers to cast their own children into the water, after all which themselves were murthered. In Sligo they forced a young man to kill his own father, and then hanged him up: In another place they forced a woman to kill her husband, then caused her son to kill her, and then immediatly hanged the son; and this they did that they might destroy both soul and body. Yea such was their detestable malice against the English Protestants, that they taught their children to kill English children; One of these Villains wives was very angry with their souldiers, because they did not bring the grease of a fat Gentlewoman,Children kill English children. whom they had slaine, with them for her to make candles of.
The Irish women that followed the Camp, egged on the men to cruelty, always crying out, kill them all, spare neither, man, woman, nor child. They took the child of one Tkomas Straton, being about twelve years old,Some boiled in Cauldrons. and boiled him to death in a Cauldron. One Goodwife Lin and her daughter were carried into a Wood, where they first hanged the mother, and then the daughter in the hair of the mothers head. Some women and children of the Irish, meeting an English woman great with child, stript her to her smock, then pulled off her smock, and so rent and abused her, that the poor woman falling into labour, both she and her child died under their hands.
In some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut off the hands of the Protestants,Some had their eyes pulled out and so turned them out into the fields to wander up and down till they perished. The very women in some places stoned the English women to death, together with their children. One man they shot through both his thighs; then digging a hole in the ground, they set him in it upright upon his feet, and then filled up the hole, leaving out only his head, where they left him till he pined and languished to death. Of another man they held his feet in the fire till he was burned to death.
In Munster they hanged up many Ministers in a most barbarous manner. One Minister they stripped stark naked, and drove him through the town, pricking him forwards with darts and rapiers, and so pursued him till he fell down dead.
Neither did all the malice that they bore to these poor Christians, end with their lives when they had slain them, but extended after death to the denying burial to their carcasses, casting some into ditches, leaving others to be devoured of ravenous beasts and fouls; yea some that had been formerly buried they digged up, and left them as dung upon the face of the earth.
These barbarous Villains vowed that if any Parents digged graves to bury their children in, they should be buried therein themselves. They stripped one William Loverden naked, then killed him before his wife and children, cut off his head, and held it up for them to gaze at; and when his wife had buried hin in his garden, they digged him up, and threw him into a ditch. Divers Ministers bones that had been buried some years before, they digged up, because they were, as they said, Patrons of Heresie.
Poor children that went out into the fields to eate weeds and grasse, they killed without all pity. And a poor woman, whose husband was taken by them, went to them with two children at her feet, and one at her breast, hoping to beg her husband, but they slew her and her sucking infant; brake the neck of another, and the third hardly escaped: And which was a great aggravation of their wickednesse, they exercised all this cruelty upon the English Protestants who never provoked them thereto, yea that had alwayes lived peaceably with them, administring help and comfort to them in distresse, putting no difference betwixt them and those of their own Nation, and cherished them as friends and loving neighbours. Notwithstanding all which courtesies, they now shewed them no favour or pity. Alas, who can comprehend the fears, terrours, anguish, bitternesse, and perplexity that seized upon the hearts of the poor Protestants, finding themselves so suddenly surprized without remedy, and inextricably wrapt up in all kind of outward miseries, which could possibly by man be inflicted upon humane creatures! What sighs and groans, trembling and astonishment, what shrikes, cries, and bitter lamentations of wives, children, servants and friends, howling and weeping, finding themselves without all hope of deliverance from their present miseries! How inexorable were their barbarous tormentors that compassed them in on every side, without all bowels of compassion, or the least commiseration and pity! One Ellen Millington they put into an hole, fastning her in with stones, and left her there to languish to death, bragging how many of them went to see her kick and tosse in the hole. Yea they boasted upon their successe, that the day was their own, and that ere long they would not leave one Protestant Rogue living, but would uttery destroy every one that had but a drop of English blood in them; their women crying out, Slay them all, the English are fit meat for dogs, and their children are bastards. Yea so implacable was their malice, that they vowed that they would not have an English beast alive, nor any of the breed of them. How grievous was it to any Christian heart to hear a base Villain boast, that his hands were so weary with killing and knocking down Protestants into a bog, that he could not lift up his armes to his head! Another boasted that he had been abroad and had killed sixteen of the rogues. Others boasted that they had killed so many, that the grease and fat which stuck upon their swords, might well make an Irish candle. Yea two boyes boasted, thar at several times they had murthered and drowned thirty six women and children.
These mercilesse Papists having set a Castle on fire, wherein were many Protestants, they rejoycingly said amongst themselves, O how sweetly do they fry!
At Kilkenny when they had committed many cruel murthers, they brought seven Protestants heads, amongst which one was the head of a Reverend Minister, all which they set upon the Market-crosse, on a Market day, triumphing, slashing, and mangling them; and putting a gag into the Ministers mouth, they slit up his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf of a Bible before it, they bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough; it cannot be imagined with what scorn and derision they acted these things, and with what joy and exultation their eyes beheld the sad spectacle of the Protestants miseries; what greedy delight they took in their bloody executions.
An English woman, whom they had stripped stark naked, gat a little straw, which she tied about her middle to cover her nakednesse; but these impudent villaines set fire to it, boasting what brave sport they had, to see how the fire made the English Jade dance.
At Kilmore they put many Protestants, men, women, and children together into a thatched house, and then set fire on it, boasting of the lamentations and out-cries that they made whilest they were in burning, and how the children gaped when the fire began to burne them; taking pride, and glorying in imitating those cries.
They took one Mistris Maxwel being in labour, and threw her into a river,Prodigious cruelties. boasting that the childs arme appeared, and that it was half-born when the mother was drowned.
These bloody Persecutors took great pleasure and delight in their cruelty, and to encrease their misery, when they butchered them, they used to say, Thy soul to the Devil. One of them coming into an house with his hands and cloaths all bloody, made his boasts, that it was English blood, and that his skeine had p…cked the cleane white skins of many of them, even to the hilt thereof. When any of them had killed a Protestant, many of them would come one after another, each of them stabbing, wounding, and cutting his body in a most despiteful manner, and then leave it naked to be devoured of dogs, beasts, and fouls; and when they had slain any number of them, they would boast that they had made the Devil beholding to them, in sending so many souls to hell.
But its no wonder that they carried themselves so towards these innocent Christians, when they spared not to belch out their execrable blasphemies against God and his holy Word.
In one place they burnt two Protestant Bibles, and then said it was hell-fire they burnt.Bibles burnt. Other Bibles they took, cut in pieces, and then burnt them, saying, that they would do the like to all Puritane Bibles. In the Church at Powerscourt they burnt the Pulpit, Pues, Chests and Bibles belonging to it. Others of them took the Protestants Bibles, and wetting them in dirty water, did several times dash them on the faces of the Protestants,Blasphemies. saying, I know you love a good lesson, here is an excellent one for you, come to morrow and you shall have as good a Sermon as this. Others they dragged by the hair of the head into the Church, there stripped and whipped them in a most cruel manner, saying, If you come to morrow you shall heare the like Sermon. They took the Bible of a Minister called Master E…ward Slack, and opening it, they laid it in a puddle of water, and then stamped upon it, saying, A plague on it, this Bible hath bred all the quarrel, and that they hoped within a few weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be used as that was, or worse.
They did most despitefully upbraid the Profession of the truth to those blessed souls, whom neither by threats nor terrours, pains nor torments they could draw to forsake their Religion. And though some by extreme torments were drawn to professe the change of their Religion, yet did they finde no more favour with these hell-hounds, who with great scorn used to say,Aposttaes murthered. That it was fit to send them out of the world whilst they were in a good mood.
At Claslow, a Priest with some others, drew about forty or fifty English and Scottish Protestants to be reconciled to the Church of Rome, and then he told them that they were in a good faith, and for fear they should fall from it and turn Hereticks, he with his companions presently cut all their throats.
John Nicholson and Anne his wife, being received into the Protection of one Fitz Patrick, he laboured to perswade them to go to Masse, and to joyn in the present massacre; but they professed, that rather than they would forsake their Religion they would die upon the swords point;Constancy, and Courage. Then he would have had the woman burn her Bible; but she told him, rather than she would burn her Bible, she would die the death; whereupon the Sabbath morning after they were both of them cruelly murthered; but he that acted the villany was so tormented in conscience,Gods judgements on Persecutors. and dogged with apparitions of them, as he conceived, that with inward horror he pined away.
In the County of Tipperary near the Silver works, some of these barbarous Papists met with eleven English men, Protestants, ten women, and some children, whom they first stripped off their cloaths, and then with stones, poleaxes, skeins, swords, &c. they most barbarously massacred them all; this was done on a Sabbath evening, the day having been very fair and clear; but just at that time God sent a fearful storme of thunder, lightning, wind, haile and rain, so that the murtherers themselves confessed, that it was a signe of Gods anger against them for this cruelty, yet they persisted in their bloody act, hacking, hewing, flashing and stabbing them, so that most of them were cut in pieces then tying withs about their necks, they threw them into an hole which they made for the purpose; yet it pleased God, that one Scottish and an English man, though they had many grievouous wounds, and were left for dead, after a while revived, and with much difficulty escaped with their lives; but as God shewed his great mercy in preserving them, so he shewed his just judgment upon Hugh Kennedy, the chief of those murtherers, who presently fell into a most desperate madnesse and distraction, neither resting day nor night, till about eight days after he drowned himself.
In the County of Mayo, about sixty Protestants, whereof fifteen were Ministers, were upon Covenant to be safely conveyed to Galway by one Edmund Burk and his souldiers; but by the way this Burk drew his sword,Popish perfidousnesse. teaching thereby the rest of his company to do the like; and so they began to massacre these poor Protestants, some they shot to death; some they stabbed with their skeins, some they thrust through with their pikes; some they cast into the water and drowned, the women they stript stark naked, who lying upon their husbands to save them, were run through with pikes, so that very few of them escaped with life.
In the town of Sligo fourty Protestants wete stript and locked up in a Cellar; and about midnight a Butcher, provided for the purpose, was sent in amongst them,Many knocked on the head who with his axe knocked them all on the heads.
In Tirawly, thirty or fourty English, who had formerly yielded to go to Masse, were put to their choyce whether they would die by the sword, or be drowned? they chose the latter, and so being driven to the Seaside, these barbarous villaines with their naked swords forced them into the Sea; the mothers with their children in their armes wading to the chin, were afterwards overcome by the waves, where they all perished.
But present death was counted too great a favour, and therefore of some they twisted withs about their foreheads till the blood sprang out at the crown of their heads: Others they hanged, and let down several times, &c.
The sonne of Master Montgomery, a Minister, aged about fifteen years, met with one of these blood-suckers, who formerly had been his schoolmaster, who drew his skein at him, whereupon the boy said, Good Master, A boy murthered by his Master.whip me as much as you will, but do not kill me; yet this mercilesse Tyger, barbarously murthered him without all pitie. A Scottish man was first wounded, and then buried alive in a ditch.
In the Towne of Sligo, all the Protestants were first stript, and robbed of all their estates; afterwards they were summoned to go into the Goale, and such as refused, were carried in; and then about midnight they all were stripped stark naked, and there most cruelly and barbarously murthered with swords, axes, skeins, &c. some of them being women great with child, their infants thrust out their armes and legs at their wounds; after which execrable murthers, they laid the dead naked bodies of the men upon the naked bodies of the women in a most immodest posture,Berbarous cruelty, and impudence. where they left them till the next day to be looked upon by the Irish, who beheld it with great delight; Also Isabel Beard, great with childe, hearing the lamentable cries of those that were murthered, ran forth into the streets, where she was barbarously murthered, and was found the next day with the childs feet coming out of the wounds in her sides: many others were murthered in the houses and streets: But by Gods just judgment the river of Sligo, which was before very full of fish, whereby many were nourished, for a long time after it afforded no fish at all. A Prior also that had a hand in the murther of Isabel Beard, and of casting her into the river, presently after fell mad.
About Dungannon were three hundred and sixteen Protestants in the like barbarous manner murthered: About Charlemount above four hun…dred; about Tyrone two hundred and six.
One Mac Crew murthered thirty one in one morning: Two young Villains murthered one hundred and fourty poor women and children that could make no resistance: An Irish woman with her own hands murthered forty five.
At Portendowne Bridge were drowned above three hundred.Many drowned. At Lawgh were drowned above two hundred: In another place three hundred were drowned in one day. In the parish of Killamen there were murthered one thousand and two hundred Protestants.
Many young children they cut into quarters and gobbets: eighteen Scottish infants they hanged upon a clothiers tenterhooks. One fat man they murthered, and made Candles of his grease;They made candles of their grease. of another Scottish man they ript up his belly, took one end of his small guts, tied it to a tree, and forced him round about it till he had drawn them all out of his body, saying, that they would try whether a dogs or a Scotchmans guts were the longer.
By the command of Sir Philem O Neale, Master James Maxwell was drawn out of his bed, being fick of a Feavor▪ and murthered; and his wife being in child-birth, the child half borne,Prodigious cruelties. they stript her stark naked, drove her about a flights shoot, and drowned her in the Blackwater; the like, or worse they did to another English woman in the same town. They took one Master Watson, and cutting two collops out of his buttocks they roasted him alive. Of a Scottish woman great with child, they ript up her belly, cut the child out of her womb, and so left it crawling on her body.
Master Starkey, Schoolmaster at Armagh, being above one hundred years old, they stripped stark naked; then took two of his daughters being Virgins, whom they stripped stark naked also, and then forced them to lead their aged father under the armes a quarter of a mile to a turspit, where they drowned them all three,Popish uncleannesse. feeding the lusts of their eyes, and cruelty of their hearts with the same object at the same time.
In some places they shewed the like cruelty to the English beasts, which they would not kill out-right, but used to cut collops out of them, delighting to hear their roaring,Their cruelty to the cattel. and so the poor cattel would sometimes live two or three dayes in that torment.
To one Henry Cowel, a gallant Gentleman, they profered his life,Henry Cowel. if he would marry one of their base Truls, or go to masse, but he chose death rather than to consent to either. Also to one Robe…t Ecklin, Constancy.a child about eleven years old,Robert Ecklin. A childs constancy. they profered his life if he would go to Masse, but he refused, saying, That he saw nothing in their Religion for which he would change his own.
Many of the Protestants they buried alive, solacing themselves in hearing them speak to them, whilst they were digging down old ditches upon them.
They used also to send their children abroad in troops armed with long wattles and whips,Childrens beastly cruelty wherewith they used to beat dead mens bodies about their privy members, till they beat them off, and then would return very joyful to their Parents, who received them, as it were in triumph for their good actions.
If any women were found dead, lying with their faces downwards, these bruitish persons used to turn them on their …acks,Popish uncleannesse. viewing and censuring every part of them, especially those parts that are not fit to be named, which also they abused so many ways, and so filthily, as chast ears would not endure the naming rhereof.
They brake the back-bone of a young youth, and so left him in the fields,Monstrous c…ue…ty to a boy. and some dayes after he was found, having, like a beast, eaten all the grasse round about him; yet neither then would they kill him out-right, but removed him to a place of better pasture, wherein was fulfilled that saying, The tender mercies of the wicked are cruelty.
In the County of Antrim they murthered nine hundred fifty four Protestants in one morning, and afterwards about twelve hundred more in that County. Near Lisnegarvy they forced above twenty four Protestants into an house,Many burnt. and then setting fire on it, they burned them all, counterfeiting their out-cries in derision to others.
Sir Philem O Neal boasted that he had slain above six hundred at Garvagh: and that he had left neither man, woman, nor child alive in the Baronry of Munterlong. In other places he murthered above two thousand persons in their houses, so that many houses were filled with dead bodies.
Above twelve thousand were slain in the high ways as they fled towards Down. Many died of famine, many were starved to death for want of clothes, being stript of all in a cold season; Some thousands were drowned. So that in the very Province of Ulster there were about one hundred and fifty thousand murthered by sundry kinds of torments and deaths.One hundred and fifty thousand murthe…red in Ulster.
These bloody Persecutors themselves confessed that the Ghosts of divers of the Protestants which they had drowned at Portendown Bridge, were daily and nightly seen to walk upon the river, sometimes singing of Psalms, sometimes brandishing naked swords, sometimes screeching in a most hideous and fearful manner;Gods judgements on persecutors. so that many of the Popish Irish which dwelt near thereabouts; being affrighted herewith, were forced to remove their habitations further off into the Countrey.
The Popish English were no whit inferiour, yea rather exceeded the natural Irish in their cruelty against the Protestants that lived amongst them, within the pale, being never satisfied with their blood till they had seen the last drop thereof.
Anne Kinnard testified that fifteen Protestants being imprisoned, and their feet in the Stocks, a Popish boy being not above fourteen years old, slew them all in one night with his skeine. Another not above twelve years old, killed two women in another place. An English Papist woman killed seven men and women of her neighbours in one morning.Boys and women murderers. And it was usual for the Papists children to murder the Protestants children, and sometimes with their woodden Swords, sharp and heavy, they would venture upon people of riper years.
An English woman, who was newly delivered of two children, some of these villains violently compelled her in her great pain and sicknesse to rise from her bed, and took one of the infants that was living, and dashed his brains against the stones, and then threw him into the River of the Barrow; the like they did by many other infants. Many others they hanged without all pity.
The Lord Mont Garret caused divers English Souldiers that he had taken about Kilkenny to be hanged,Souldiers hanged. hardly suffering them to pray before their death; they dyed very patiently, and resolutely in the defence of the Protestant faith; and one of them, being an Irish man, had his life offered if he would turn Papist, but he rather chose to dye,Constancy. and so was executed with the rest.
Some of these Persecutors meeting a poor young Girle that was going to see her friends, they first half-hanged her, and then buried her quick.
One Fitz Patrick enticed a rich Merchant that was a Protestant, to bring all his goods into his house, promising safely to keep them, and to redeliver them to him. But when he had thus gotten them into his possession, he took the Merchant and his Wife, and hanged them both:Popish perfidiousnesse. the like he did by divers others.
Some English mens heads that they had cut off, they carried to Kilkenny, and on the market day set them on the Crosse, where many, especially the women, stab'd, cut, and slashed them, every one accounting themselves happy that could but get a blow at them.
One of the heads being a Ministers, a woman struck so hard with her fist, that the same night her hand grew black and blew, and so rankled, that she was lame of it a quarter of a year after:Gods judgements on Persecutors. Another woman that looked on those heads with much rejoycing, presently after fell so distracted, that neither night not day she could rest, but cryed out continually that she saw those heads before her eyes.
One English ▪ Protestant, saying, that he would believe the Divel as soon as the Pope, they presently hanged him up in an Apple Tree till he dyed.
A poor Protestant woman with her two children going to Kilkenny upon businesse, these bloody miscreants baited them with Dogs, stabbed them with skeins,Some worried with dogs. and pulled out the guts of one of the children, whereby they dyed; and not far off, they took divers men, women, and children, and hanged them up; and one of the women being great with child, they ripped up her belly as she hanged, so that the child fell out in the cawle alive. Some after they were hanged, they drew up and down till their bowels were torn out.
How many thousands of Protestants were thus inhumanely murthered by sundry kinds of deaths in that one Province of Ulster we have heard before; What the number of the slain was in the three other Provinces, I find not upon Record; but certainly it was very great; for I finde these passages in a general Remonstrance of the distressed Protestants in the Province of Munster. We may (say they) compare our woe to the saddest Parallel of any story;The Munster Remonstrance. Our Churches are demolished, or which is worse, profaned by Sacrifices to Idols: our habitations are become ruinous heaps: No quality, age, or sex priviledged from Massacres, and lingring deaths, by being robbed, stript naked, and so exposed to cold and famine. The famished Infants of murdered Parents swarme in our streets, and for want of food perish before our faces, &c. And all this cruelty that is exercised upon us, we know not for what cause, offence, or seeming provocation its inflicted on us, (sin excepted saving that we were Protestants, &c. We can make it manifest that the depopulations in this Province of Munster, do well near equal those of the whole Kingdome, &c.
And thus in part we have heard of the mercilesse cruelties which the bloody Papists exercised towards the Protestants; Let us now consider at least some of Gods judgements upon the Irish, whereby he hath not left the innocent blood of his servants to be altogether unrevenged.Gods judgements on Persecutors. Some particular instances have been mentioned before: as also the apparitions at Portendown Bridge which affrighted them from their habitations, concerning which it is further testified,Apparitions at Portendown B…idge. that by their own confession, the blood of those that were knocked on the head, and then thrown into the River at that Bridge, remained for a long time upon the stones, and could not be washed away; as also that ofttimes they saw apparitions sometimes of men, sometimes of women rising breast-high above the water, which did most extreamly screech and cry out for vengeance against the Irish that had murdered them there.
Catherine Coke testified upon oath, that when the Irish had barbarously drowned one hundred and eighty Protestants, men, women, and children at Portendown Bridge, about nine days after she saw the apparition of a man bolt upright in the River, standing breast-high, with his hands lift up to heaven, and continued in that posture from December to the end of Lent, at which time some of the English Army passing that way saw it also, after which it vanished away.
Elizabeth Price testified upon oath that she and other women whose husbands and children were drowned in that place, hearing of these apparitions, went thither one Evening, at which time they saw one like a Woman rise out of the River breast-high, her haire hanging down, which, with her skin, was as white as snow, often crying out, Revenge, Revenge, Revenge, which so affrighted them that they went their way.
Divers Protestants were thrown into the river of Belterbert, and when any of them offered to swim to the Land, they were knocked on the head with Poles, after which their bodies were not seen of six weeks: but after the end thereof, the murtherers coming again that way, the bodies came floating up to the very Bridge where they were.
Sir Con mac Gennis with his company slew Master Turge, Minister of the Newry, with divers other Protestants, after which the said Mac Gennis was so affrighted with the apprehension of the said Master Turge his being continually in his presence, that he commanded his souldiers not to slay any more of them, but such as should be slain in battel.
A young woman being stript almost naked, there came a Rogue to her, bidding her give him her money, or he would run her through with his Sword. Her answer was, You cannot kill me except God give you leave, A Miracle.whereupon he ran three times at her naked body with his drawn Sword, and yet never pierced her skin, whereat he being confounded, went his way and left her; This was attested by divers women that were present and saw it.
But besides these forementioned judgements of God which befel them for their inhumane cruelties; we may observe how the hand of God hath been out against them ever since, and that in a special manner, by emasculating and debasing of their spirits; whereby it hath come to passe that ordinarily a few English Souldiers have chased multitudes of them, and generally in all the battels and fights that have been betwixt them, they have always been beaten, though the ods was great of their side; And as they made themselves formerly drunk with the innocent blood of the unresisting Protestants; so now God hath given them their fill of blood in jealousie and fury. Many thousands of them have perished by the Sword of War; And how heavy hath the hand of God lain further upon them this present year, 1650. in that terrible and universal plague that hath been scattered all over the Nation, whereby many thousands more of them have perished, and God is still fighting against, and probably will continue their destruction, till they either shall truly be humbled for their horrid sins, or be utterly consumed from the face of the earth!
Amen; Even so come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
These particulars were attested upon Oath by sundry persons before Commissioners appointed to take their Examinations.
Here place the tenth Figure.