came to Dublin and therefore I desired to have his counsell and advise He began after this manner You intend to go to ublin saith he if you do you must go speedily for within two dayes the Irish Army will be before Dublin so that you cannot passe if you should get so much favour as to passe yet when you come to Dublin you will not be admitted to come within the Gates and in the Suburbs there are sixe or seven score dying daily for want of food so that there will be no abiding place for you If you intend to go for England the least childe you have will not be carried under twenty shillings and you saith he have not one penny if you should finde so much friendship as to passe gratis there are such a multitude of people that are gone out of this Kingdom that England being but a small Island and Populous of it selfe is not able to receive you if you should be received there can be no long continuing place for you for the Papists are striving in England as well as here the Queene being fled into France for some abuses offered her own Person her Servants and Chaplains which indignities the King of France intending to revenge hath leavied an Army of 40000 men to invade England and the Cardinall in Flanders hath leavied the like number to the like end and purpose therefore it will be no purpose to go thither Lord Mr Staples said I what shall I do then If you stay here you must do as they do and turn to Masse yet they will not trust you sayd he fearing least if the King of England should ever be able to bring an Army into this Country the turn-coat English should joyne with them and cut the Irish throats in a night as the English once did the Danes in England Therefore whosoever of the English should turn to the Romish Church they would also compell to take Armes and place them in the Front and eminent place of danger that so they might fall And for hereafter when they had gotten the Kingdome into their own hands which they make no question but to have in a short time having all the Forts Castles and strong-holds in Ireland in their own hands already but the Castle of Dublin and Drogheda and these two places they would not for many thousand pounds have gotten for reasons known unto themselves but when they have once obtained them and the Kingdome those English that have not fallen by the sword the holy Church hath so ordered it that they shall be cut off by the Inquisition so that they will not leave an English-man alive whose Ancestors hav◠not been here for 200 years with many other like words Jur. 29. Jan. 1641. John Biggar John Sterne William Aldrich William Hitchcock The examination of John Mountgomery late of Clounish in the County of Monaghan Gent. THis Examinate duely sworn e deposeth inter alia That in their journey and Marching within the County of Monaghan the Rebells murthered of his knowledge at the least fourescore Protestants and committed a number of other wicked barbarous and notorious Robberies and actions and by their owne relation robb'd stripped naked kill'd and drowned 45 of the Scots at one time and that the same Robbers also murthered Mr Blyth and Master Mathew two constant Protestant Preachers within the County of Tiron and murthered one Master Fullerton Parson of Loughall in the County of Armagh and neere fourescore more English more of Protestants by drowning and throwing them all over the Bridge of Portdown in the said County into the River Bann And further saith that the Rebells aforesaid or some of them confessed unto him and so he was told also by divers Scottish-men that they the same Rebells when they came to Armagh Monaghan and Dungannon set all the prisoners at liberty and that they broke open and defaced the Church of Armagh and burned the pewes pulpit and the best things in the said Church And this Deponent whilest he was with the same Rebells saw them to pull in peeces kick up and down deface and spoyl all the Protestant Bibles and other protestant books that they found in any place where they came neither this Deponent nor any other protestant prisoner nor other durst so much do as to save or looke upon any of them in their sight nor would they willingly suffer any one to speak the English tongue And further it was pretended that it was agreed in the Parliament House of England thet the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland should be sent for to Dublin unde colour of passing Patents of their Lands and there should be imprisoned untill such time as they should either go to the Protestant Church or should be put to death And if they should go to the Church yet not to be released untill they had given security that their followers should go to the Church also otherwise to bring them in to be censured And further saith That when the Rebells of the County of Monaghan had surprized or had command of all that County some of them said that they would be governed by the Roman Law and some by the English Law which they knew better And said further That when they had taken Dublin and Drogheda Derry and Knockfergus which they did not doubt but to conquer before Candlemas then next they would have a Parliament and would settle a Government but would have no Protestants amongst them but that they would suffer English or Scottish to be Deputies Lords Justices or Judges so that one of the Irish Nation might be joyned with them and so that all should go to Masse And the same Rebells publikely and generally also said That they made no account but to keep Ireland for ever in regard they had of their own Souldiers two hundred thousand fighting men besides labourers and they expected from the King of Spain according to his promise fifteen thousand souldiers and Arms and money fit for them and from the King of France some Ayd because the Queen of England his sister was so deprived of liberty of religion And the same Rebells also further said in this Deponents hearing That in all forraigne parts it was agreed and resolved that all Protestants or others that would not go to Masse should be put to the Sword And this Deponent further saith That he did hear Neale mac Kenny Baron of Trough neer Glaslock a notorious Captain of the Rebells say That the King had sent directions from Scotland that Sir Pbelomy Roe ô Neale Knight should be Generall of all His Majesties Forces in Ireland against the English and that he the said Neale mac Kenny should be Governour of the three Counties of Tyrone Armagh and Monaghan And that therefore he the said Neale mac Kenny and the rest of the Irish Forces would after their conquest of Ireland go into England and there by the assistance of the English papists also conquer the same And that from thence they
any longer for they would govern it themselves S And that their Religion should flourish in despight of King or State T In all which having broken thorow the due bounds of their Allegiance their vain and ambitious thoughts rove without knowing any limits It will not now content them to settle anew and mold again this Kingdom to their own Modell by calling of Parliaments making Laws and appointing their own Governours V Thus discourse they of the modestest sort but they will with the assistance of Spain and France set footing in England and after that in Scotland W where all things being setled to their desires the whole Forces of Ireland in way of retribution and acknowledgement of gratitude are intended for the King of Spain against the Hollanders X Unto which their disloyalty to theirs and our most gracious Soveraign they have added expressions of unheard of hatred to His Brittish Subjects of this Kingdom banishment or slavery are the greatest favours that would be afforded them But their generall profession is for a generall extirpation even to the last and least drop of English blood Y Which that it may be drayned to the full such of the English as cannot prescribe a settlement in this Kingdom for two hundred yeers are to be cut off and that notwithstanding they be of the Romish Sect It being to that end provided That such as do revolt to their part should for the present be accepted of yet so disposed as being drawn into the List of their Army they should be set upon the most dangerous Enterprises so either to be made away or to serve their own turns of them And what the Sword cannot for the present effect an Inquisition like that in Spain for finding out the Jewish and Moorish blood shall in time thorowly accomplish Z As for the future their Covenant is That no English should ever set footing again in Ireland A Even the very Language must be forgotten none being to speak English under a penalty B But that which exceeds all Not an English Beast or any of that breed must be left in the Kingdom C And as we finde the hearts of these men in their tongues so in their actions doing what they professe and being in both beyond all measure profane and heathenish in their impious words and behaviours towards God and the holy Scriptures Religion and the places of Gods publike Worship Blaspheming our God bidding his servants whom they had first T V stripped naked to go to their God and let him give them clothes D Breaking into Churches burning Pulpits Pues and all belonging thereunto with extreme violence and expression of hatred to our Religion and triumphing also in their impiety E Professing That not one Protestant should be left in the Kingdome F Dragging some Professors thorow the streets by the hair of the head into the Church where stripping whipping and cruelly using them they added these taunting words If you come tomorrow you shall hear the like Sermon G How have our sacred Books of holy Scriptures been used Gods Book hath been O horrible cast into and tumbled in the Kennell thence taken up and dashed in the faces of some Professors with these words I know you love a good lesson this is an excellent one come to morrow you shall have as good H They have torn it in pieces I kicked it up and down K treading it under foot with leaping thereon they causing a Bag-pipe to play the while L laying also the leaves in the kennell leaping and trampling thereupon saying A plague on it This Book hath bred alltne quarrell hoping within three weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be so used or worse and that none should be left in the Kingdom M and while two Bibles were in burning saying that it was hell-fire that was burning N wishing they had all the Bibles of Christendome that they might use them so But what Pen can set forth what Tongue expresse whose Eye can reade Ear hear or heart without melting consider the cruelties more than barbarous dayly exercised upon us by those inhumane blood-sucking Tygers Stripping quite naked Men Women and children even children sucking upon the Brest O whereby multitudes of all sorts in the extremitie of that cold season of Frost and Snow have perished Women being dragged up and down naked P Women in child bed thence drawn out and cast into prison Q One delivered of a childe while she was hanging R One ripped up and two children taken away and all cast unto and eaten by swine S One other stabbed in the breast her childe sucking T An Infant cruelly murthered whom they found sucking his dead mother slain by them the day before V A childe of 14 years of age taken from his mother in her sight cast into a Bog-pit and held under water while he was drown'd W The forcing 40 or 50 Protestants to renounce their profession and then cutting all their throats * What should we speak of their murthers X their hanging half-hanging and that oft times reiterated they delighting in the tortures of the miserable Z Hence some being left wounded in vain crying out that they might be dispatched A This being purposely done that these wretches might languish in their miserie their tormentors affirming that their Priests commanded them so to do B What should we speake of those 30 or 40 burnt in one House and 50 in another C the denying of buriall to the dead D whereby Christians have been eaten by Dogs and Dogs tearing Children out of the wombe the bloudy beholders relating such things with boasting and great rejoycing E And to make perfect the measure of their cruelty Two were said to be buried alive F and others that had been long buried digged up they saying that the Churches could not be Consecrated while Hereticks bodies or bones lay therein G The cruell usage of those 48 poore prisoners in the Gaole of Monaghan H Of those in the County of Armagh after drowned in the River of the Ban to the number of 80 I or 100. K or 196 L as it is diversly reported those 45 drowned together M And those 179 burnt in one house x All these we refer to the reading of the severall depositions concerning them hereunto annexed But how can that be forgotten or where shall it be beleeved which we hear to have been done in the Church of Newtown in the County of Fermanagh where a childe of Thomas Strettons was boyled alive in a Caldron A thing which as one bare reports we durst not so neither can we now with confidence enough present it to that your honourable Assembly nor can we averre it for true otherwise then as by concurring examinations we finde them solemnly deposed whereunto we desire to
afterwards it was reported His Majesty was in England it was said that Sir Phelim ô Neal was made Generall by His Majesties appointment and that there were others that had command by the same appointment We dayly heard of most cruell murthers of prisoners on all sides of us besides what we saw committed in our own Town in some places neer were hanged sometimes 17 sometimes 22 at a time as at Clownish and Carrick mac Rosse And within seven miles were murthered some 25 men women and children in the night and every hour we expected the like usage being often threatned that not any English should be left in Ireland Convoyes were sent with many pretending to bring prisoners safe to such places as they were desired to go and were most pitifully murthered and drowned by the way by such as conveyed them others were turned out without any Convoy and so murthered About six weeks since I my wife and four small children with some other English were turned out of the Town of Monaghan about three of the Clock in the afternoon the Drum beating and Art Roe mac St Patrick mac Art Moyl who is chief Governour there went before and declared that we must be gone forthwith and not suffered to return on pain of death when we were assured that not past a quarter of a mile before us there were men with Swords and with Skeans lying in wait to murther and strip us of which we were fully assured but it pleased God we escaped that time by means of one Bryan mac Hugh mac Rosse mac Mahon about a week after we had leave to come as far as within a mile of Drogheda called Bewley neer unto which place are encamped many Rehels which came from towards Monaghan and other places of the North at which place Sr Phelim ô Neal was where might he perceived by the Speeches of the Rebels that they were very confident to take Drogheda and Dublin but during this Examinates remaining there were driven off the Walls which they assayed to assault with scaling-Ladders on Sunday last was a sennight in the morning before day and many praised be God run from the Walls and left some of their Muskets and Pikes behinde them as they related amongst themselves from thence this Examinate was sent into Drogheda and a Prisoner released thence for him and from thence is gotten to Dublin by Sea with his Wife and four small children neer famished and starved being left quite destitute of all relief for the present George Cottingham Iura Martij 4. 1641. Hen. Jones Will Aldrich And whereas the sufferings of the loyall Subjects of this Kingdom of Ireland do consist as in the cruelties exercised on the Persons so in the spoiling and robbing them of their Estates Fortunes and Livelyhoods whereof the said severall Commissioners do authorize and require a strict inquiry to be made And whereas in the foregoing Remonstrance Depredation of the Goods of the Subjects is one part of the Charge laid to these Rebels and humbly offered by the Remonstrants to be considered off by the Honourable House of Commons in England They the said Remonstrants and humble Petitioners for the fortifying of that their Allegation do here withall present the generall Summes of such Counties as have answered to that particular from the 30. of December last past untill the 8. day of March 1641. The whole amounting unto above six hundred thirty five thousand three hundred seventy five pounds four shillings and nine pence the Persons thereunto appearing being in all hitherto examined but six hundred thirty seven whereas this by the following considerations may be readily conceived hardly to be the five hundreth part of the full losses of the whole Kingdom I. For first Out of the whole Province of Munster containing these following large and rich Counties viz. Tipperary Limerick Cork Kerry and Clare no one hath yet appeared II. Out of the whole Province of Connaght containing these Counties Roscomon Mayo Galway Sligoe and Leitrim There have only eleven out of Leitrim given in their losses being 1352l 04s 08d III. Out of the Province of Vlster these alone have appeared themselves viz.    1 s d Out of Lowth 6. Examinates Their losses 4332 01 04 Cavan 113. Examinates 47418 07 00 Fermanagh 94. Examinates 26947 10 08 Armagh 8. Examinates 03802 12 08 Tyron 2. Examinates 01667 00 00 London-Derry 1. Examinate 01911 00 00 Monaghan 31. Examinates 36181 00 08 None appearing out of the Counties of Down Antrim or Donegall IV. Fourthly For the Province of Leinster the number of the Examinates is as followeth    1 s d In the County of Dublin 72. Exam. Their losses 120032 15 03 County of Kildare 57. Ex. 098967 17 04 County of Wickloe 65. Ex. 132457 14 02 County of Wexford 38. Ex. 062519 12 04 County of Catherlagh 16. Ex. 010270 01 08 County of Kilkenny 5. Ex. 008312 00 00 County of Meath 46. Exam. 033678 14 03 County of VVestmeath 7. Ex. 003512 12 00 Kings County 9. Examinates 011525 04 08 Queens County 14. Exam. 018884 15 09 County of Longford 28. Ex. 016440 10 08 V. Fifthly Of those Counties that have come in one being considered with another not the five hundred part hath appeared there being of them 1. Many imprisoned or besieged by the Rebels 2. Many gone into England before the beginning of this commotion and since 3. Multitudes murthered and none hitherto appearing for them 4. Many thousands by reason of the danger of the wayes not daring to appear 5. Many being sick and weak by reason of their sufferings so not able to appear 6. Many there are who in time purpose to give in the particulars of their losses but for the present forbear being in many respects not prepared for the doing thereof 7. Lastly of such as have given in their particulars few can depose to the full of their losses wanting the help of their Papers torn from them or of their Agents who could inform them of their Estates they being remote in the Country and there imprisoned or besieged or by reason of the danger of the wayes not daring to adventure from such places of safety as they have betaken themselves unto if perhaps they have not altogether perished by the hand of the enemy The same Consideration may also induce any to beleeve that of the other particulars in the said Remonstrance either for words blasphemous against God impious against Religion or traiterous towards His sacred Majesty or for Actions wicked cruell or barbarous or for discovery of the minds and intents of these conspirators and their adherents the least part hath been set forth in the said Remonstrance and Examinations thereunto annexed and yet that alone is sufficient and more then enough to set forth the miserable condition of the poor distressed Church and miserable wasted Kingdom of Ireland Of all which we the Commissioners aforesaid do herein give up a true report attested under our respective hands