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A25428 A letter from a person of honour in the countrey written to the Earl of Castlehaven : being observations and reflections upon His Lordships memoires concerning the wars of Ireland. Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, Earl of, 1614-1686. 1681 (1681) Wing A3170; ESTC R613 23,258 78

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accidents as might happen in full peace and when the course of Justice is free But your Lordship saith that on this partly and partly on other occasions that preceded and some too that followed but you enumerate none the whole Nation finding themselves concerned took Arms for their own defence and partlcularly the Lords of the Pale did so who yet at the same time desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King which was refused This being the chief ground by which your Lordship would justifie the most formed and dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion that ever was in that Kingdom since the Crown of Englands first Title thereunto which your Lordship being a Peer of England should have distinguished from a just and a lawful War but do not I must observe to your Lordship that its an ill way to acquaint the King with their pretended Grievances La main a lespe they should have done that if they had any before their treacherous and bloody Massacres and open Rebellion but indeed they had none to offer but what was the just return of their own black Actions for your Lordship knows as I have said before that by Committees of both Houses of Parliament in Ireland whereof most were Papists they had just before their Rebellion returned loaden with such Graces and Condescentions of Favour from the Crown as had been sufficient meeting with the least ingenuity gratitude and humanity to have made wavering Persons good Subjects but the Lord Macguires and others Confessions manifested that they had laid their Design of Treason too deep to retreat easily when they had once struck the stroak till finding their error not from remorse but from sense of danger imminent which must inevitably follow unless they could subdue England too At the first they made a loud cry of Grievances and at length bid fair as they had made Ireland a field of Blood and Desolation to disturb England also Concerning the further discouragement the Rebels received by Sir John Reads treatment and what that was and upon what grounds though I have all the passages thereof by me and will by no means allow of Racking any Man as being contrary to the Law of England yet I must observe that it was a very jealous time after so many thousands slaughtered barbarously in cold blood the Rebellion increasing every day too great a curiosity arising to know the bottom of the design that remedies proportionable might be applied and Sir John Read being one of the Kings Servants and a designing Papist being there so unseasonably without being able to give a good account of himself or business and going away Agent for the Rebels in Arms without leave of the State might make them exceed the strict bounds of Law in his Examination Your Lordship in the next place taking notice that you had tryed this and other ways to acquaint the King with your Grievances which I have shewed before were none and all failing an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom this being a meer colour and pretence your Lordship unfortunately puts the effect before the pretended cause for by what you had said before and what the truth of the cause is the horrid Rebellion for it never merited the name of a War was universal before they so much as alleadged any Grievance Your next Memoire is of your entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner after the Battle of Kilrush which you were a Spectator of and that some who came with him turned it another way publishing through the Army that it was a Feast for my Lord Mountgarret and the Rebels which through the English Quarters past for currant Here your Lordship by your own shewing intimates that though you were a Spectator from your own House of a Battle wherein the Crown lay at stake and had formerly discovered you had force enough to recover your Cat el taken away by the Rebels and apprehend some of their Leaders which you call Rogues yet though a Peer of both Kingdoms you would be no Actor though the Kings General was at your Gate doubting it seems the event of Battle but the success rendring my Lord of Ormond Victorious you set before him that Dinner which you had not strength to keep from him And indeed it was generally then held by the English that if the Rebels had gained the day your Lordship would more frankly have bid the Lord Mountgarret their General and a Butler also welcome to that Dinner than you did my Lord of Ormond and this is what passeth rant in this particular to this day which you believe was much the cause of that villainous proceeding as you call it fore-mentioned whereas it seems you were so far from being ill dealt with in the least that my Lord of Ormond your Guest though he might have justified his carrying you Prisoner with him to Dublin who would not assist him in Fight as your Tenure required left you as some think by a blameable omission Master of your own House and without the least damage done you though much happened after to the Kingdom by your liberty of which you were for some time restrained in the Sheriffs hands and after ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin which you say startled you and it brought to your thoughts the proceedings against the Earl of Strafford c. whereupon you made an escape probably in the manner related But here your Lordship not distinguishing times and I not having Papers by me am so doubtful of an intermixture of Affairs to your advantage that I must reserve the unfolding thereof to another tfme when I shall be able exactly to shew you the times of your Lordships appearing and joyning with the Rebels and of the proceeding against the Earl of Strafford and how they preceded on the other I shall only for the present observe how that great personage though more innocent than your Lordship could pretend to never sled his Tryal well knowing that would have fixed more guilt upon him in construction of Law than could be proved against him and judged it more honourable to hazard the losing of his Head than his Innocency Your Lordships Wisdom took a contrary course and concluding that Innocency was a scurvy plea in an angry time as in deed it is in any times where it is so thin laid that gross guilt appears under it you find it safer to arraign the state than to abide a Tryal and accordingly taxing them for passion and partiality and to be of the Parliaments perswasion when your Lordship would have had them and the whole Kingdom of yours and by what means time hath manifested you resolved to attempt an escape and save your self in the Irish Quarters which your Lordship did to the Mountains of Wicklow where being come you cared little for the Justices Is it possible if your Lordship had thought your self innocent that you would seek safety or count your self safe among the most enormously
Irish their Commission and under his Majesties Authority at other times and sometimes under both It will be fitter at present for me to be silent therein than to attempt the unblending such a mixture and seperate your Acts of Allegiance from those of Opposition to the King which I must always blame you for or to condemn you intirely when some things your Lordship did were by full Authority though very fatal to the English Protestant interest in that Kingdom and no ways advantageous to his Majesty or his Affairs But the First Part of your Story which takes up three Sections of your Memoirs I cannot let pass unanimadverted and corrected without condemning the generation of the just suffering Blemish and Calumny to lie upon his Majesty and Government both in England and Ireland and leaving your Lordship in a mistake of having done well when I hope I shall evince that you did very ill unless the galantry of a Souldier can expiate for all that was amiss For this end I must take notice to your Lordship that all I find you urge to satisfie your own Conscience or to vindicate your Honour and Integrity to the World in this your ingaging your self amongst the Irish is to this effect Your Lordship saith That at the first eruption of the Rebellion which you seem to tye to the North but was universal you acquainted the Lords Justices with your willingness to serve the King against the Rebels as your Ancestors had formerly done in Ireland but they replying that your Religion was an Obstacle there being then a Parliament in that Kingdom sitting you were resolved to see the event sending your Brother to your House at Madingstowne in the County of Kildare to secure and defend it in case there were any rising in those parts Sometime after the Parliament being dissolved but you do not mention that you attended your duty in Parliament when it was sitting and declaring against the Rebels your Lordship desired a Pass from the Justices to go to England but they refusing you acquainted them with the condition of your Estate and desired a supply of Money till you could apply to the Parliament of England for a Pass to bring you over which they denyed You press'd them then to direct you what course you should steer to which they replied Go home and make fair weather You took this advice and being come my Lord of Antrim and my Lady Dutchess of Buckingham both Papists and after that deeply ingaged in the Rebellion soon followed whether by concert with your Lordship is not said and you were very well pleased with so good company But in a short time the Irish came and drove away great part of your Stock which you recovered by a party sent out with your Brother who brought with him two or three of the chiefest Conductors of that Rabble This inraged the Irish so much as you conceived your Brother was not safe there and therefore sent him to Dublin to attend the Justices Orders and assure them of your readiness to return on a call they sending a Convoy which they promised to do as Occasion required But your Lordship hearing that you were indicted of High Treason and hereupon your Brother addressing to the Lords Justices again to let them know that they had not kept their words with him in suffering this clandestine proceeding against you as your Brothers Letter calls it you went to Dublin and addressed your self to my Lord of Ormond as your Brother did in your behalf to the Lords Justices and Council to acquaint them with your coming and upon your appearance before them they ordered you to come the day following at which time without calling you in they committed you to Mr. Woodcock 's House one of the Sheriffs of Dublin Your Brother seeing as he calls it this rigorous usage towards you and being refused a Pass for himself to go for England he got away to the King at York and petitioned him that you might be sent for over to be tryed here by your Peers But his Majesties Answer was That he had left all the Affairs of Ireland to the Parliament upon which he petitioned the Parliament to the same effect their Answer was that they could do nothing without the King After this your Brother saith he was continually serving his Majesty in England Your Lordship once more placeth your self at Madenstowne whither you had at first retired by advice of the Lords Justices and continued there some Five or six moneths after in peace and quietness but your Lordship doth not mention that other neighbouring places possessed by the English did so or what in diligence your Lordship had with or gave to the State But proceed to say That in the mean while Parties were sent out by the Justices from Dublin and the Towns adjacent to kill and destroy the Rebels and the like was done through all parts of the Kingdom But your Lordship adds the Officers and Souldiers did not take care enough to distinguish between the Rebels and Subjects but killed in many places promiscuously on which partly and partly on other provocations that proceeded and some too that followed the whole Nation finding themselves concerned took to Arms for their own defence and particularly the Lords of the Pale did so who yet at the same time desired the Justices to send their Petition to the King which was refused And for their further discouragement Sir John Read his Majesties sworn Servant a stranger to the Countrey uningaged and an Eye-witness of their proceedings then upon his Journey to England prevailed with by them to carry their Remonstrance to his Majesty and to beg his Pardon for what they had done coming to Dublin and not concealing his Message was put to the Rack for his good will The said Lords having tryed this and other ways to acquaint the King with their Grievances and all failing an open War broke forth generally throughout the Kingdom Your Lordship next takes notice of your accidental entertaining my Lord of Ormond at Dinner immediately after the Battle of Killrush which you were a Spectator of being in sight of your House but that some who came with him turned this another way and publishing through the Army that it was a mighty Feast for my Lord Mount Garret and the Rebels this through the English Quarters past for currant And you believe it was much the cause of this under-hand villainous proceedings as you call it against you fore-mentioned Your Lordship proceeds to tells us That after Twenty Weeks that you had remained in Prison you were ordered to be removed to the Castle of Dublin which startled you and brought to your thoughts the proceedings against the Earl of Strafford who confiding in his Innocency lost his Head you concluded then that Innocency was a scurvey plea in an angry time besides your Lordship looked upon the Justices and most of the Council to be of the Parliaments Perswasion wherefore you resolved to attempt
not but the Trumpet was quickly dispatched with some slight Answer which coming to your knowledge you repaired to Kilkenny whither the Council was returned and on information finding what you had heard to be true you sent for Sir Bobert Talbot Sir Richard Barnwall Collonel Walter Bagnal and such others as were in the Town well affected and leading Men of the Assembly though not of the Council Now being in your Lodging you acquainted them with what you had understood and that if they would stick to you you would endeavour to give it a turn You all agreed on the way which was to go to the Council then sitting to take notice of the Kings offer and their return and to mind them that the consideration and resolutions concerning Peace and War the general Assembly referved to themselves only and therefore to require that they would send immediately a Trumpet of their own with a Letter to the Marquess of Ormond giving him to understand they had issued a Summons for a general Assembly in order to acknowledge the Kings gracious Favour in naming him his Commissioner to hear your Aggrievances and redress them This you put in execution and gained your point without much resistance The Marquess of Ormond being thus brought into a Treaty the Confederate Commissioners met at Seginstowne near the Nasse as his Excellency had appointed in order to a Cessation of Arms. At which time all Parties laboured to get into possession of what they could Collonel Monk after made Duke of Albermarle march'd into the County of Wicklow to take in the Harvest and possess some Castles Your Lordship being then commanded by the Council to go against him and having Rendevouz'd your Troops consisting of about 3000 Horse and Foot at Ballynekill in the County of Catherlagh notice was brought you that Collonel Monk was marched away in all haste to the assistance of the Lord Moor then facing Owen Roe Oneal near Portlester You finding your self now to have nothing to do thought it worth the while to endeavour taking in Dullerstown Tully Lacagh and all other Castles in the County of Kildare between the Rivers of the Barrow and Liffe which you did leaving Garrisons in them This done you repast past the Barrow at Monaster-Evan marched into Leix and took three or four small places But as you were going on had Advice from the Commissioners at Seginstowne that they had on the 15th of September 1643 concluded a Cessation of Arms with the Marquess of Ormond to which you submited As your Lordship did also to the two Peaces of 1646 1648 both sutable and of the same strain and though both were of advantage only to the Irish and highly dishonourable to the Crown of England and destructive to the English and Protestants yet both were broken and set at naught by the Irish themselves a just Judgment of God against them whose hands were full of Blood and there being no hopes that such untempered Morter could cement them and the Posterity left alive of murdered Parents Brothers Sisters and other Relations or that ever the English could live out of danger and free of Massacres for the future without exemplary punishment of the Murderers and Rebels and bringing them by forfeitures and otherwise to an absolute subjection to the Laws and keeping them in that state as it is now hoped they are and will be by the watchful Eye of Government I shall now as briefly as I can take the liberty to give your Lordship impartial Remarks upon what your Lordship hath written in justification of the Rebels or tending to caluminate his Majesties Government or English and Pretestant Subjects reserving a fuller account thereof to a fitter occasion In the first place Seeing your Lordships Memoires dedicated to the King I cannot but take notice how dangerous a thing it is and of how bad consequence it may prove especially in this case and juncture to misinform his Majesty not that I do suspect or tax your Lordship of design to abuse the King for I do charitably believe as your Lordship affirms upon your word that they do not contain a lie or mistake to your knowledge yet I must positively aver and it is my part to make it good that the Relation wants the most material and pregnant Truths in the principal part thereof and of most consequence to the Publick as I doubt not your Lordship will believe and confess upon such glances as I shall make upon particulars as I go over them But before I proceed it will import the giving clear light to an affair which contrary interests have so much endeavoured to perplex to observe the state that unhappy Kingdom of Ireland was in at the Eruption of that satal Rebellion A Parliament sitting the year before in Ireland both Houses taking notice of some Grievances growing upon them and the want of some good New Laws for advancing the Prosperity and good Government of that Kingdom did send chosen Agents or Commissioners both Lords and Commons of most esteem amongst them to attend his Majesty in England for redress of such Grievances and procuring such new Grants and Graces as they were directed to move for from a Gracious King His Majesty received them favourably and with good dispatch they returned for Ireland fully satisfied and loaden with all the Graces and Bounties good Subjects could hope to receive upon such an Address to their Prince and what needed Confirmation in Parliament was to be done when the Parliament should meet at the day to which it was Prorogued The People of Ireland were never better pleased then with the gracious Returns his Majesty had made by their Commissioners That Kingdom never enjoyed a more prosound and more like to be lasting Peace and Prosperity Commerce and Trade both at home and abroad never flourished more barbarous Customs were never more entirely subdued and abrogated there never was more Unity Friendship and good Agreement amongst all sorts and degrees except in the standing root of miscnief the difference in Religions then at this time nor more mutual Confidence I can say being that time there the Sheep and the Goats lived quietly together and there was that intire trust in one another as to all Matters Civil and Temporal that I remember very well the Summer before the Rebellion The Titular Bishop of Fernes coming his Visitation into the County of Wexford where I then dwelt at the request of a Popish Priest I lent most of my Silver Plate to entertain the said Bishop with and had it honestly restored In this serene and happy state was that Kingdom every one sitting under his own Vine and Fig-tree in peace and in the abundance of all things when whether surfeiting of Quiet and Plenty or by the just Judgment of God upon a sinful and superstitious Nation or that the said Committees having staid in England till they saw symptoms of a misunderstanding between his Majesty and his two Houses af Parliament in England and
bloody and guilty men that ever were under the Sun and fly the Kings Justice with reflection and scorn upon the State that was pursuing them for their Crimes and to avoid the inward stings of Guilt or Apprehensions of Punishment run head-long into open and a vowed Guilt among those who were under Gods Vengeance and the Kings I leave this to your Lordships more serious second thoughts Being out of the danger of Justice though your Lordship cared little for the Justices as how could your Lordship when you were associated with those who had bid defiance to God and the King yet your Lordship quickly saw a proof how civil and merciful they had been to you hitherto when they upon your escape shewed you they had power enough to pursue you and pillage and burn your House in your Mountain view and use your Family as Enemies which they might have done before but their constant course was to endeavour the re-gaining those who had faltered in their Allegiance and not to increase the number which was too heavy upon them already Your Lordship at length arrived to the beloved place designed the City of Kilkenny Head Quarters of the Confederate Rebels where you found many of your acquaintance preparing for their natural defence seeing no distinction made or safety but in Arms. Your Lordships heart was now at rest among your Friends and Relations to whom indeed after committing all the wickedness their hand of violence could reach to being defeated in several Battels by his Majesties Forces and driven into their Holds defence became natural their Crimes having left them no hopes but in Arms and who could expect no distinction to be made where they were universally involved in the same black guilt For this end your Lordship saith they had chosen a Council formed an Oath of Association made Four Generals of the Four Provinces caused a Seal to be made raised Monys constituted a General Assembly c. all ensigns of the more than Regal Power they had usurped To this Council your Lordship was sent for and being well prepared by those inclinations which made you forsake the Kings Government and the Laws you quickly closed with them upon the grounds before expressed and upon consideration of their model of Government and very reasonable as your Lordship judged it Oath of Association which your Lordship prints at large and their desiring your conjunction with thanks returned your Lordship engaged your self to run a Fortune with them upon very ill principles if anger and revenge inclined you to it as much as any other consideration which you intimate though you say you cannot resolve It s strange how the Earl of Castlehaven and Lord Audley in England could close so cordially with the Irish who had shed so much innocent English Blood in full peace and think himself justified by such an account of his ingagement as this unless he had been resolved in the justice of their cause from the beginning however he carried it with seeming fairness to the Lords Justices till he got out of their reach But ingaged your Lordship was and being thus Confederate and having taken the Oath of Association becoming one of their Council and General of the Horse under Preston and giving the most specious account you can of your proceedings in that quality Truth being the greatest and best friend I had rather one or several Persons and Families should lie under the Consequences of its impartiality than that the English Nation and Protestant Religion should suffer by a timorous unworthy concealing or withholding any part of it And since your Lordship to palliate or justifie your own Actions and the Confederate Irish Cause endeavours to render the generality of the English Protestants Criminal your Lordship must not think it much that I one of English Race and for Religion of the Church of England should be a little plain in their Justification and Defence and for that end remove the mask your Lordship hath put upon the face of Affairs by continuing my Remarques upon your Lordships Memoires And first to the constitution of a Council it was made up of Members uncapable of that trust by Law In the Oath of Association and Propositions grounded thereon there is not a word but breaths high Treason except the first thirteen lines which set up the Kings Name and Authority only in pagentry and mockery to be crucified and contradicted by all that follows and yet this Oath your Lordship held very reasonable as the case then stood that is when you and your Confederates were incouraged or heightned with a Power able as you fancied to make good what you had sworn And suitable to this ungodly trayterous Oath where all the subsequent proceedings of the Confederates their Councils at home and their Actions abroad their Cessations and pretended Peaces which I shall take notice of more particularly in their respective series of time The general Assembly met the 24th of October 1642 your Lordship saith it differ'd nothing from a Parliament but that the Lords and Commons sate together and not in two Houses Was this so inconsiderable a difference in the Opinion of a Peer of England as well as Ireland or fit for one of so noble Extraction to be submitted to against Honour Law and right Reason But the truth is and I speak it for the honour of the Nobility of Ireland the Rebels had not debauched enough of them either for interest or number to bear the Countenance of a House of Peers or to be of any considerable figure among that People who having cast off Majesty could not be warmed by the beams thereof which I count the Nobility but they resolved of course into common persons again and had but single Votes among the Croud instead of those Honourable Priviledges and Negative Voice which their Ancestors had acquired as the just reward of their faithfulness to the Crown in former times and in all Defections and Rebellions since the subjection of that Nation to England And this your Lordship ingeniously confesseth and saith we see it was a force-put upon you and you hoped in time the storm being passed to return to your old Government under the King Here you own the being fallen from it but could your Lordship imagine or any others believe this Cob-web pretence possible were you not all ingaged by the bond of an Oath to the contrary and to preserve your new upstart treasonable Model and Constitution and that the storm should never cease till you had by Arms attained a confirmation of all that you had done for which by the said Oath you renounced the receiving any Pardon or Protection but by your own Sword But that Assembly differed also from a Parliament in this That it was called by a packt party of bloody Papists in Rebellion and Confederacy and had neither Legal nor Regal Authority But to conciliate credit and belief you add That there were many learned in the Law amongst you whom
you incouraged to keep you as near the old Government as might be holding to the Ancient Laws of the Land This is as improbable as the other but if true is a demonstration that Irish Popish Lawyers are the worst instruments that can be tollerated in Ireland And it is notorious in Fact that these were the Men that did both contrive and put in order the Rebellion and frame their whole Constitution and without whose Council and Abilities having had their Education in the Inns of Court of England they had never come out of that Chaos of Confusion where they were at first or reduced their Affairs to a consistency but had been quickly mastered And therefore I hope this hint concerning the Lawyers will awaken his Majesty and Parliament of England and the Government in Ireland to provide against the continuance of such dangerous instruments as the Popish Lawyers have shewed themselves to be and in probability will so continue making use of their Learning and Skill for subversion of Government and good Order So that Ireland is never like to be quiet if they be tollerated Your Lordship proceeds to tell us that this Assembly without delay approved all the Council had done how could they well in gratitude do less being themselves a Creature of that Councils making and settled a Model of Government viz. That at the end of every General Assembly the supream Council should be confirmed or changed as they thought fit That it should consist of Twenty five six out of each Province three of the six still resident the 25th was your Lordship with no relation to any Province but to the Kingdom in general c. Your Lordships Relation was a mock Image of his Majesty which was also to the Kingdom in general and but that it is not now my business I could here evince that this Constitution cast the over balance of the Government clearly into the Irish hands such of the old English Extraction as joyned with them being Ciphers upon the matter as it appeared afterwards in practice so improbable was what your Lordship asserts that if a Letter came to them written in Irish it would be wondred at and hardly could one be found to read it unless you would confess that those skilled in reading the Irish Language are extinct for the meerest Irish of that Kingdom and all the Popish Clergy who if any are likliest to be skilled in it were ingaged in the Rebellion and constant promoters of it having their Colledges and Monasteries in Kilkenny and all Cities and chief Towns under the Confederate Irish Power and wholly at their Command For a close of this Paragraph your Lordship saith you were not in case to bring to Justice those that begun the Rebellion but you never saw any of them esteemed or advanced This is strange when Owen Roe Oneal Sir Phelemy Oneal Con Oneal the Mc. Donnels Mc. Thomas the Farrolls the Delyes the Mc. Cartyes Mc. Guires Mc. Mahans Fitzpatricks Mc. Gennis's and generally those of the meer Irish septs and Families were chiefly trusted whose names it were too tedious to repeat but I have Authentick Lists of them but indeed I do believe the Confederates even of English Extraction had as little will as power to question those that begun the Rebellion and to this day they are so far from any inclination to condemn it that all their Writings run in Justification of it and I never yet met with any that cordially seemed to repent it or perswade others to it except only Peter Walsh whom your Lordship calls your Ghostly Father Caron and some few Remonstrants with them who condemning the Doctrines of Rebellion King killing and Deposing c. do obliquely censure this Rebellion and some of them positively call the beginners and continuers thereof to repentance The rest of your Lordships Memoires is more History than Justification as well whilst you continued to serve under the Confederate Catholicks which was till the Peace of 1646 proclaimed as after till you left Ireland wherein your Lordships part being mixed of Gallentry and Generosity in some instances as well as Severity and fierce Prosecution of the English in others I will not be a critical observer thereof or lead any to envy your Lordship the just esteem of whatever you did honourably though in an ill cause But since your Lordship lays some weight of merit upon the Cessation and two Peaces of 1646 and 1648 and expresseth no unfavourable Opinion of that which goes by the name of Glamorgan's Peace and think much that the Irish their Estates were given away by the Acts of Settlement I shall only make some general Remarks upon those particulars and the whole state of that Rebellion and so put an end to your Lordships trouble and my own And first I must observe upon the whole matter that the Irish did the English more hurt and advantage themselves more by the Cessation and two first Peaces than ever they did or could do by open force after the first Massacre Upon this grounds the Lords Justices and Council were from the beginning averse to them and for me to shew the Design and Intrigue of the Cessation and Peaces which I can do by unquestionable Memorials and Records will make a great part of a Volumn and cannot well come within the bounds of a Letter but when I have said all I think fit to your Lordship upon occasion of your Letter your Lordship who as you were an Enemy as keen as generous having been by your place and interest privy to all the Cabals and secret Councils against the English and Protestants being deeply ingaged in the Roman Catholick Confederacy and any other Attempts against them in what shape or form soever they appeared will I hope if you find any thing written by me questionable or doubtful in your opinion favour me with your severest Reflections thereupon for as I design nothing but exact truth wherever it light so if by inadvertency or want of full information I should erre or come short in the least your Lordship shall find me ready to retract or supply but never to persist in it Your Lordship knows as well as any man that the Earl of Ormoud made afterwards Marquess and Duke with the same Title was the first of that Family of the Botelers that was Educated in the Protestant Religion his Mother the Lady Thurles Brothers Sisters and all his Relations continuing Roman Catholicks and in the Irish Quarters and those able to bear Arms as the Lord Muskery after Earl of Clancarty and Collonel Fitzpatrick his Brother in Law his Brother Collonel Richard Butler of Vilcash and Collonel George Mathewes and other his Relations as the Lords Mountgarret Dunboyne and divers other Lords and others of his Name and Family were Generals or Commanders of lower Quality in the Rebels Army so that his Lordship was upon the matter single in any Duty and Allegiance to the Crown all his Lordships Friends Kindred and Dependants