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A47446 The state of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's government in which their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of their endeavouring to be freed from his government, and of submitting to their present Majesties is demonstrated. King, William, 1650-1729. 1691 (1691) Wing K538; ESTC R18475 310,433 450

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Clergy were established in Ireland by as firm Laws as the Properties of the Laity The King by his Coronation Oath was obliged to maintain them Their Tithes and Benefices were their Free-holds and their Priviledges and Jurisdiction were settled and confirmed to them by the known and current Laws of the Kingdom according to which the King was obliged to govern them and whereof he was the Guardian The Clergy had beside all this peculiar Obligations on him and a Title to his Protection for they had espous'd his Interest most cordially Whilst Duke of York they used their utmost diligence to perswade the People to submit to Gods Providence and be content with his Succession to the Crown in case his Brother dyed before him and they prest that point so far that many of their People were dissatisfied with them and told them often with heat and concern what reward they must expect for their pains if ever he came to the Throne they saw their danger but could not imagine any man would be so unpolitick and ungrateful as to destroy such as had brought him to the Throne and could only keep him safe in it and therefore they ventured all to serve him and many of them by their Zeal for him lost the Affections of their People and their Interest with them It was chiefly due to their diligence and care that his Title from the beginning met not the least opposition in Ireland tho the Army in it were intirely Protestant Had they and the rest of the Protestants in this Kingdom been in any measure disloyally principled in the time of Monmouth and Argile's Rebellion they might easily have made an Insurrection more dangerous than both those and the least Mutiny or revolt amongst them could hardly have failed to have ruined King James's Affairs at that critical time but they were so far from attempting any such thing that they were as ready and as zealous to assist him as his very Guards at Whitehall which he himself could not but acknowledge how he rewarded them I have already shewn and how grateful he was to the Clergy that thus principled them will appear by the Sequel 4. First therefore when his Majesty came to the Crown he declared that he would protect the Church of England in her Government and Priviledges under which we suppos'd the Church of Ireland to be concluded And accordingly the Clergy and People of this Kingdom return'd his Majesty their Address of Thanks though they very well knew that this was no more than was due to them by the Laws and by the King's Coronation Oath in particular But they were soon told by the Roman Catholicks that his Majesty did not intend to include Ireland in that Declaration and that it must be a Catholick Kingdom as they term'd it Every discerning Protestant soon found by the method they saw his Majesty take that he in earnest intended to settle Popery in England as well as Ireland but he thought himself so sure of effecting it suddenly in Ireland that his Instruments made no scruple to declare their intentions nay they were so hasty to ruin our Religion that they did not so much as consult their own Safety but even before it was either seasonable or safe in the opinion of the wiser sort amongst themselves they began openly to apply all their Arts and Engines to effect it 1. By hindring the Succession and Supplies of Clergy-men 2. By taking away their maintenance 3. By weakning and then invading their Jurisdiction 4. By seizing on their Churches and hindring their Religious Assemblies 5. By violence against their Persons And 6. By slandering and misrepresenting them and their Principles SECT XV. 1. King James in order to destroy the Protestant Religion hindred the Education and Succession of Clergy-men 1. THE Good and Support of Religion doth very much depend on the educating and principling Youth in Schools and Universities and the Law had taken special care that these should be in the hands of English men and Protestants and the better to secure them the Nomination of the Schoolmasters in every Diocess except four is by a particular Act of Parliament lodged in the Lord Lieutenant or Chief Governour for the time being The Clergy of each Diocess by the Act are obliged to maintain a Schoolmaster and his Qualifications are described in the Act. But when the Earl of Tyrconnel came to the Government he took no notice of those Laws but when any School became void he either left it unsupplyed or put a Papist into it And in the mean time great care was taken to discourage such Protestant Schoolmasters as remain'd and to set up Popish Schools in opposition to them Thus they dealt with the School of Killkenny founded and endowed by the charitable Piety of the late Duke of Ormond they set up a Jesuits School in the Town and procured them a Charter for a Colledge there they drove away the Protestant Schoolmaster Doctor Hinton who had officiated in it with great industry and success and seiz'd on the School-house commonly call'd the Colledge and converted it to an Hospital for their Soldiers Thus in a few years they would not have left one publick School in the hands of a Protestant for the Education of their Youth 2. There is but one University in Ireland and there is a Clause in the Statutes thereof that gives the King Power to dispense with the said Statutes it was founded by Queen Elizabeth and certainly never designed by her or her Successors to be converted against the fundamental Design of its Institution into a Seminary of Popery yet advantage was taken of this Clause though we had reason to believe it would have been done if there had been no such Clause to put in Popish Fellows as soon as the Fellowships became vacant one Doyle a Convert was the first who was named a Person of so exceedingly lewd and vicious a Conversation as was fully prov'd before the Lord Tyrconnell and of so little Sence or Learning that it seemed impossible that any Government should have countenanc'd such a Man yet this did not much weigh with his Excellency and therefore the Colledge insisted upon another Point the Dispensation that Doyle had gotten through his ignorance was not for his purpose for it required in express Terms that he should take the Oath of a Fellow and that Oath includes in it the Oath of Supremacy the Provost tendered it to him but he durst not take it for fear of disobliging his own Party upon this they refused to admit him he insists on his Claim and complains to the Lord Deputy upon a hearing Justice Nugent Baron Rice and the Attorny General supplyed the Place of Advocates for him but the Case was so plain that even Justice Nugent had not the confidence to deny the insufficiency of his Dispensation and therefore they ordered him to get another But to be even with the Colledge for demurring on the King's Mandate they stopt
troubling a Parliament but King James's Council used not to stick at the Formalities of Law or Reason and therefore vast Quantities of Brass Mony were coined and made Current by a Proclamation dated June 18. 1689. under severe Penalties The Metal of which this Mony was made was the worst kind of Brass old Guns and the refuse of Metals were melted down to make it Work-men rated it at Three-pence or a Groat a Pound which being coined into Six-pence's Shillings or Half-crowns one Pound weight made about 5 l. and by another Proclamation dated 1690. the Half-crowns were called in and being Stamp'd anew were made to pass for Crowns so that then 3 d. or 4 d. worth of Metal made 10 l. There was coined in all from the first setting up of the Mint to the Rout at the Boyne being about twelve Months 965375 l. In this Coin King James paid all his Appointments and all that received the King's Pay being generally Papists they forced the Protestants to part with their Goods out of their Shops for this Mony and to receive their Debts in it but the Protestants having only good Silver or Gold and Goods bought with these when they wanted any thing from Papists they were forced to part with their Gold and Silver having no means of coming by the Brass Mony out of the King's Hands so that the Loss by the Brass Mony did in a manner intirely fall on the Protestants being defrauded for I can call it no better of about 60000 l. per Month by this Stratagem which must in a few Months utterly exhaust them when the Papists had gotten most of their Saleable Goods from their Protestant Neighbours and yet great Quantities of Brass Mony remain'd in their Hands they began to consider how many of them who had Estates had engaged them to Protestants by Judgments Statute Staples and Mortgages this was all the reserve of their Fortunes left the Protestants And to take this likewise from them they procured a Proclamation dated February 4. 1689. to make the Brass Mony Current in all Payments whatsoever whereas at first Judgments c. were excepted Thus they rid themselves of their Brass Mony and put it on Protestants The Chancellor Fitton compelling the Trustees for Orphans and Widows to receive their Mortgages c. in this Coin as well as others tho they pleaded that they knew not how to dispose of it nor if they did know could they legally receive it or make use of it being only Trustees Sometimes it was pleaded that by the Original Covenants they were to have a certain time of warning before they should be obliged to receive their Mony tho offered them in Silver but all signified nothing the Chancellor over-rul'd all their Pleas and placed the Brass Mony on them not so much as allowing it to remain in the Court. 7. The Governor of Dublin the Provost-Marshal and their Deputies assumed the same Power and threatned to hang all that refused the Brass Mony of which we had many Instances one Mr. Bennet a Tanner owed Mony to one Alderman Smith and to Mr. Hugh Leeson a Clergy-man Bennet having some Goods taken from him for which he was paid in Brass Mony tendered it to them but upon a Civil refusal he complained to Governor Luttrell who gave him two Warrants to the Provost-Martial to take them he shewed them to Alderman Smith who immediately complied and received his Mony but Luttrell being informed of it was angry that Bennet had compounded the business and therefore directed the Provost to take him by whom he was kept a Fortnight and not released till he paid 20 l. Fees Leeson was likewise taken and committed with him One Chapman a Widow was used yet worse by the Provost-Martial's Deputy one Kerney a Petition was preferred against her by the Sollicitor of one who owed her 150 l. by Bond alledging falsly that she had refused to receive it in Brass Kerney sent his Troopers for her at Ten a Clock at Night he told her with many Oaths and Execrations that he would have her Burnt next Morning that he had Power to put to what Death he pleased any that should refuse or undervalue the Brass Mony and would exercise it on her Her Debtor was present and acknowledged that the Allegation in the Petition was false that he had never tendered the Mony only sent to her House and received answer that she was not at home and that his Sollicitor had wronged her in the Petition yet the Deputy-Provost abated nothing of his Rigour but made her be thrust into a dark Closet for that Night without Bed or Candle Her Sollicitor offered any Security for her till next Morning but he threatned to Tye him Neck and Heels send him to Newgate and Hang him next day at his own Door for interceding for her At Nine next Morning he sent a Messenger to her to prepare for Death for he would have her Burnt immediately She had often whilst in Custody proffered to receive her Mony and never before refused it which some represented to him so effectually that he at last consented to release her she paying 4 l. Fees and 10 s. to her Adversary's Sollicitor that prefer'd the False Petition against her and signing an Acknowledgment to be entered on Record and a General Release She demurr'd a little at the General Release but the Provost renewing his Threats of Burning her and Hanging her Sollicitor obliged her to perfect it But where Papists were Creditors and Protestants Debtors the Case was otherwise of which Mr. Rose a Merchant is an Instance he had received 500 l. from some Roman Catholicks for which he drew a Bill of Exchange into England on his Correspondent the Seas being shut up they sued for the Mony tho it was supposed on all hands to be paid in England Whilst they went on with the Suit the Brass Mony came into Play and then they would have withdrawn it but Mr. Rose having great quantities of this Mony put on him for Goods taken away from him persisted in it the Declaration against him being filed however the Judge kept him three Terms taking occasion from the Sickness of the Attorney or any other little matter to adjourn the Cause At last Mr. Rose brought the Mony and deposited it in Court which the Judge called an Affront and the receiving it was demurr'd to and there the Cause remain'd till the Change of the Government without any Determination 8. By these means vast Quantities of Brass Mony were lodged in the Hands of Protestants and not knowing what else to do with it they laid it out on the Staple Commodities of the Kingdom such as Hides Tallow Wooll Corn c. these they bought up at any Rate as supposing they might sometimes turn to account whereas the Brass Mony could signifie nothing The Papists were aware of it and therefore put the King upon taking these again out of their Hands which they contrived thus They put out a
but by the legal course of Juries But King James and his Parliament intended to do the work of Protestants speedily and effectually and not to wait the slow methods of proceeding at the Common Law They resolv'd therefore on a Bill of Attainder and in order to it every Member of the House of Commons return'd the Names of such Protestant Gentlemen as liv'd near him or in the County or Burrough for which he serv'd and if he was a stranger to it he sent into the County or Place for information they were in great haste and many escaped them on the other hand some that were actually in King James's Service and fighting for him at Derry of which Cornet Edmund Keating Nephew to my Lord Chief Justice Keating was one were return'd as absent and attainted in the Act. When they had made a Collection of Names they cast them into several Forms and attainted them under several Qualifications and accordingly allow'd them time to come in and put themselves on Tryal the Qualifications and Numbers were as follow 1. Persons Attainted of Rebellion who had time given them till till the Tenth of August to surrender themselves and be tryed provided they were in the Kingdom and amenable to the Law at the time of making the Act otherwise were absolutely Attainted One Archbishop One Duke Fourteen Earls Seventeen Viscounts and one Viscountess Two Bishops Twelve Barons Twenty six Baronets Twenty two Knights Fifty six Clergymen Eleven hundred fifty three Esquires Gentlemen c. 2. Persons who were absentees before the Fifth of Novem. 1688 not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First of September 1689. One Lord. Seven Knights Eight Clergymen Sixty five Esquires Gentlemen c. 3. Persons who were Absentees before the Fifth of November 1688. not returning according to the Proclamation of the Twenty fifth of March attainted if they do not appear by the First day of October 1689. One Archbishop One Earl One Viscount Five Bishops Seven Baronets Eight Knights Nineteen Clergymen Four hunder'd thirteen Esquires Gentlemen c. 4. Persons usually resident in England who are to signifie their Loyalty in case the King goes there the First of October 1689. and on His Majesties Certificate to the Chief Governour here they to be discharged otherwise to stand attainted One Earl Fifteen Viscounts and Lords Fourteen Knights Four hunder'd ninety two Esquires Gentlemen c. 5. Absentees by reason of sickness and noneage on proving their Loyalty before the last day of the first Term after their return to be acquitted and restor'd in the mean time their Estates Real and Personal are vested in His Majesty One Earl Seven Countesses One Viscountess Thirteen Ladies One Baronet Fifty nine Gentlemen and Gentlewomen 6. They vest all Lands c. belonging to Minors Ladies Gentlewomen in the King till they return and then upon Proof of their Loyalty and Faithfulness to King James they are allow'd to sue for their Estates before the Commissioners for executing the Acts of Repeal and Attainder if sitting or in the High Court of Chancery or Court of Exchequer and upon a Decree obtain'd for them there the Sheriffs are to put them in possession of so much as by the Decree of one of those Courts shall be adjudged them The Clauses in the Act are so many and so considerable that it never having been printed intire I thought it convenient to put it into the Appendix Perhaps it was never equall'd in any Nation since the time of the Proscription in Rome and not then neither for here is more than half as many Condemned in the small Kingdom of Ireland as was at that time proscribed in the greatest part of the then known World yet that was esteemed an unparallel'd Cruelty When Sir Richard Nagle Speaker of the House of Commons presented the Bill to King James for his Royal Assent he told him that many were attainted in that Act by the House of Commons upon such Evidence as fully satisfied the House the rest of them were attainted he said upon common Fame A Speech so very brutish that I can hardly perswade my self that I shall gain credit to the Relation but it is certainly true the Houses of Lords and Commons of their pretended Parliament are Witnesses of it and let the World judge what security Protestants could have of their Lives when so considerable a Lawyer as Sir Richard Nagle declares in so solemn an occasion and King James with his Parliament approves that common Fame is a sufficient Evidence to deprive without hearing so many of the Gentry Nobility and Clergy of their Lives and Fortunes without possibility of pardon and not not only cut off them but their Children and Posterity likewise By a particular Clause from advantages of which the former Laws of the Kingdom would not have deprived them though their Fathers had been found guilty of the worst of Treasons in particular Tryals 7. I shall only add a few Observations on this Act and leave the Reader to make others as he shall find occasion 1. Then this Act leaves no room for the King to pardon after the last day of November 1689. if the Pardon be not Enroll'd before that time the Act declares it absolutely void and null 2. The Act was conceal'd and no Protestant for any Money permitted to see it much less take a Copy of it till the time limited for Pardons was past at least Four Months So that the State of the Persons here attainted is desperate and irrecoverable except an Irish Popish Parliament will relieve them for King James took care to put it out of the power of any English Parliament as well as out of his own Power to help them by consenting to another Act of this pretended Parliament Intituled An Act declaring that the Parliaments of England cannot bind Ireland and against Writs of Errors and Repeals out of Ireland into England 3. It is observable with what hast and confusion this Act was drawn up and past perhaps no man ever heard of such a crude imperfect thing so ill digested and compos'd past on the World for a Law We find the same Person brought in under different Qualifications in one Place he is expresly allow'd till the First of October to come and submit to Tryal● and yet in another Place he is attainted if he do not come in by the First of September many are attainted by wrong Names many have their Christian Names left out and many whose Names and Sirnames are both put in are not distinguished by any Character whereby they may be known from others of the same Names 4. Many considerable Persons are left out which certainly had been put in if they could have gotten their Names which is a further proof of their hast and confusion in passing the Bill It is observable the Provost Fellow● and Scholars of the Colledge by Dublin are all omitted the Reason was
the Money due to it out of the Exchequer 3. The Foundation consists of a Provost Seven Senior and Nine Junior Fellows and Seventy two Scholars these are partly maintain'd by a Pension out of the Exchequer of 388. l. per Annum this Pension the Earl of Tyrconnel stopt from Easter 1688. and could not be prevail'd with by any intercession or intreaties to grant his Warrant after that time for it by which means he in effect dissolv'd the Foundation and stopt the Fountains of Learning and of Religion this appeared to have been his design more plainly afterwards for King James and his Party not content to take their maintenance from them proceeded and turn'd out the Vice Provost Fellows and Scholars seiz'd upon the Furniture Books and publick Library together with the Chappel Communion Plate and all things belonging to the Colledge or to the private Fellows or Scholars notwithstanding that when they waited on him upon his first arrival in Dublin he promis'd That he would preserve them in their Liberties and Properties and rather augment than diminish the Priviledges and Immunities granted to them by his Predecessors In the House they placed a Popish Garrison turn'd the Chappel into a Magazin and many of the Chambers into Prisons for Protestants the Garrison destroy'd the Doors Wainscots Closets and Floors and damnified it in the Building and Furniture of private Rooms to at least the value of 2000. l. One Doctor Moore a Popish Priest was nominated Provost one Macarty Library Keeper and the whole designed for them and others of their Fraternity 4. It is observable that there was not the least Colour or Pretence of Law for this violence nor could they give the least Reason in Law or Equity for their proceeding except the necessity of destroying of the Protestant Seminaries of Learning in order to destroy their Religion This made them so eager against the Collegians that they were not content to turn them without Process or Colour of Law out of their Free-holds but they sent a Guard after them to sieze and apprehend their Persons and it cost the Bishop of Meath their Vice-Chancellor all his Cunning and Interest with the Governour Lutterell to prevent their Imprisonment With much ado he was prevailed on to let them enjoy their Liberties but with this Condition that on pain of Death no Three of them should meet together So sollicitous were they to prevent the Education of Protestants under Persons of the same Profession and that there might be none to succeed the present Clergy 5. With the same design they hindred the succession of Bishops and inferiour Clergy-men into the room of those that dyed or were removed the Support of Religion as is well known depends very much on the choice and settling of able and fit Persons in Vacancies and it so happened that partly by the uncertainty of Estates partly by frequent Forfeitures to the King partly by the grasping of the Prerogative and other Accidents most of the considerable Preferments and Benefices of the Church were in the disposal of the Crown there are very few Livings in Ireland in the Presentation of Lay Patrons but they either belong to the King or the Bishops The Bishopricks are all in the King and all the Livings in the Bishops Patronage are in the Vacancy of the Bishoprick likewise the Kings This is a great Trust and the King is bound to dispose of it for the good of the Church But King James plainly design'd by the means of his Trust to destroy the Church that had intrusted him for instead of giving the Preferments as they fell to good and able men who might preserve and maintain the Interest of their Religion he seiz'd them into his own hand had the Profits of them returned into the Exchequer and let the Cures lye neglected The Archbishoprick of Cashell the Bishopricks of Clogher of Elphin and of Clonfert were thus seiz'd with many Inferiour Livings and the Money received out of them dispos'd to the maintenance of Popish Bishops and Priests directly against the Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom 6. At this rate in a few years all the Preferments and Livings of the Kingdom of any value must have fallen into the King's hands and we must have expected to have seen them thus dispos'd of for as many as fell after King James's time were put to this use and we were assured by the Popish Priests that all the rest as they became vacant were design'd to the same Purpose and they were so unreasonable that though both Law and Justice allow a competency for serving the Cure whilst a Living upon any Account whatsoever is in the King's Hand yet the Commissioners of the Revenue and Barons of the Exchequer would allow nothing the Bishop of Meath made an Experiment of this Some Livings in his Diocess upon the Death of one Mr. Duddle the Incumbent were seiz'd by the Commissioners of the Revenue being in the King's Presentation the Bishop did what was in his Power towards supplying the Cure and according to his Duty appointed a Curate assigning him a Salary according to the Canons but the Commissioners would not allow him any thing and though the Bishop endeavoured it and petition'd both the Commissioners and Barons of the Exchequer yet he could never get any thing for the Curate This was a Precedent and the same was practis'd in all other Cases all the Absentees Cures were in the same Condition and though they yielded plentifully to King James yet the Curates had no other maintenance than the voluntary Contributions of the poor plunder'd Protestant Parishioners who were forced to pay their Tythes either to King James's Commissioners or to Popish Priests who had Grants of them 7. This was an effectual though a slow way of putting an end to the Ministry at least to deprive them of all legal Title to Preferments for the Bishops being most of them old would soon have dropt off and King James was resolved to have named no more and so the legal Successions of Bishops must in a short time have ceas'd and all the Livings depending on them must likewise have gone in course to maintain Popish Priests that is all the Deanries Dignitaries and most other Benefices 8. The Papists upbraided us with out want of Power and seem'd to laugh at the Snare into which we were fallen by means of our Popish King not considering that this proceeded from a manifest Breach of Trust and Faith in him and that the Case is the same in all Trusts if the Trustees prove faithless and even in all Popish Countries the Kings have the nomination of Bishops as well as in England and that the Succession of Bishops had almost lately failed in Portugal upon some difference between the King and Pope and the Advocate General of France Mr. Dennis Tallon tells us in 1688. that Thirty five Bishopricks being about a third part of the whole Number were vacant in that Kingdom on the same account
your Revenue to boot And tho no King can well avoid being impos'd on by his Servants I believe it in my Conscience that the present Managers of your Revenues in Ireland think it no Sin to rob a Popish King of his Due Hence it is that there is an universal Agreement and Combination betwixt the ..... Merchants ..... we will by way of Retaliation take care that no Catholick be admitted into the Civil This Combination makes your Letters for Civil Places the Reversion of Outlawries and for Catholicks being admitted free of Corporations so little regarded in Ireland by those that past for Tories here c. yet publickly espouse the whiggish Quarrel the other side the Water I beseech you Sir consider that however your Kingly Prudence may prevail with You to dissemble Your Resentments of the Non-compliance and Disobedience of Your stiff-neck'd English Protestant Subjects You ought to exert Your Regal Authority in Ireland a Kingdom more peculiarly Your own where ..... month before or at least not outlive Your Majesty a month for if that poor Nation be not made considerable during Your Reign his Lordship must not hope for the Favour my Lord Stafford had of being legally Murdered by a formal Trial but may well expect all Formality laid aside to be sacrificed to the unbridled Fury of the lawless Rabble and dissected into little Morsels as the De-Wits were in Holland And truly the Fanaticks threaten no less and it were to be wished they cried out upon more of Your Ministers than they do at present for You may take it for granted they will never speak well of Your real Friends ..... other will endeavour to marr and the Work will go on like that of Babel confusedly for want of good Intelligence among the Workmen Sir You are under God the great Architect that will with the Blessing of Jesus live to see the glorious Structure fully finish'd In order to which 't is requisite You lose no time in making Ireland intirely Your own that England and Scotland may follow You are gone too far if You do not go farther not to advance is to lose Ground Delays are dangerous and all the World allow Expedition and Resolution to ..... if this were once compassed France could no more hope upon a falling out with England to take advantage of the diversity of our Sects and what may spring thence Domestick Jars and Divisions Sir Notwithstanding the Doubts and Fears of Trimming Courtiers and some Cow-hearted Catholicks You may live long enough to undertake and crown this great Work with the Grace and Assistance of the same Almighty God that defeated the Rebels in the West and made them instrumental in settling You in Your Throne and that permitted this Country to be lately sprinkled with the Blood of Martyrs which must infallibly contribute to the Conversion of Souls in this Kingdom for the Blood of Martyrs is and ever was the fruitful Seed of the Church The Seed is sown in many parts of England and the Harvest will without doubt be great and plentiful but the Workmen too too few if You do not provide your self with Catholick Privy-Counsellors Ministers Judges Officers Civil and Military and Servants As to the Choice of which I will mind Your Majesty of the Advice given Moses by Jethro his Father-in-Law in the following words Provide out of all the People able Men such as fear God Men of Truth hating Covetousness When Your Counsellors and Ministers are thus qualified and not till then You may hope to do what becomes a James the Second And to furnish Your self with able Men You must follow Your Royal Father's Advice to the Prince of Wales that is With an equal Eye and impartial Hand distribute Favours and Rewards to all Men as You find them for their real Goodness both in Ability and Fidelity worthy and capable of them Such as fear God as the truly Wisest will advise You to the best Measure for promoting God's Glory Men of Truth will like Tyrconnel serve You faithfully without trimming tho with never so apparent Hazard to their Fortunes and Lives And Men hating Covetousness will not betray Your Interest be corrupted nor sell Places to such Undermanagers of Your Revenue as buying them for a Spill in gross will be sure to retail them at Your Cost a Practice much in use here and in Ireland at present where few or no Places can be had without Bribes by which means You are cheated in both Kingdoms of an Hundred thousand Pounds a Year in the opinion of understanding honest and indifferent Judges for no Man will give a Shilling surreptitiously for an Office but with a design to cheat You of Twenty To prevent which there is no Remedy but that of employing smart Men of known Integrity to be chosen without Favour or Affection that will be content with their respective Salleries and imploy their utmost Industry to improve not imbezel Your Revenues the Ornaments of Peace and Sinews of War SIR These Kingdoms are of Opinion Popery will break in upon them and it were a pity to disappoint them and when You take effectual Measures Your trimming Courtiers will unmask and come over nay half the Kingdom will be converted of it self What I have here presumed to write is the effect of my unfeigned Zeal for the Good of Religion and Your Majesties Interest which I hope will induce You to pardon a plain-dealing and loving Subject that daily beseeches God to bless Your Majesty and these Kingdoms with a long and prosperous Reign and with numerous long-liv'd Male Issues and to inspire You with wholsom Thoughts that may direct You to the performance of such Heroick Actions as may gain You immortal Fame in this World and eternal Glory in the next Lord Clarendon's Speech in Council on his leaving the Government of Ireland My Lords IT has been sometimes used to make Speeches upon these Occasions but I know my insufficiency for that Task and therefore shall trouble your Lordships with very few words In the first place my Lords I give your Lordships many thanks for the Civilities I have received from every one of you and for the great Assistance I have had from you in the discharge of my Duty here I know your Lordships can witness for me that I never desir'd your concurrence in any thing that was not for the King's Service I do again beg your Lordships to accept of my Thanks with this assurance that I shall give the King an account when I have the honour to kiss his Hand of your Lordships great readiness and diligence to advance his Service My Lord Deputy I shall not long detain your Lordship The King hath placed your Excellency in a very great Station has committed to your Care the Government of a great and flourishing Kingdom of a Dutiful Loyal and Obedient People It is extreamly to be lamented that there are such Feuds and Animosities among them which I hope your Excellency's Prudence with
were all on the catch and that he would do his own Business and not trouble them or any of them or words to that purpose and desired this Deponent to return him a good Jury and that he the said Dunsany would give this Deponent twenty Guinnies in hand and three or four hundred Pounds when he should be restored to the Possession of his Estate To which this Deponent made answer That he would impose nothing on his Lordship and that he would do him Right Then the said Lord Dunsany swore that this Deponent should not repent what Kindness this Deponent would shew him in that Affair and said he would not fail paying the twenty Guinnies upon the return of the said Venires This Deponent desired the said Lord of Dunsany to imploy his Brother Thomas Plunket in the prosecution of that Concern which he promised he would do and thereupon began to name such as he would have of the Jury Which this Deponent desired he should forbear telling him if this Deponent should be examined to that the Aray would be quash'd The said Dunsany then said he would put the Venires into this Deponent's Hands and do what he thought fit and said this Deponent should hear from him within some short time which he performed And this Deponent deposeth that he did receive the said two Venires either from the said Lord Dunsany's Messenger or from himself or one of his Servants But this Deponent having recollected his Memory is more apt to believe that it was the said Lord of Dunsany's Messenger or Servant whom this Deponent hath seen before in the said Lord's Company that came according to his the said Lord Dunsany's Promise that delivered the said Venires to this Deponent for he desired to know at his departure from this Deponent where and when the said Mr. Thomas Plunket should meet this Deponent in order to return the said Writs or words to that effect That this Deponent appointed him to give the said Thomas Plunket notice to meet him at Trim at one Mr. Eveys House on such a day as this Deponent cannot tax his Memory now with That this Deponent having several Occasions to this City waited on Mr. Daley this Deponent's Counsel now Mr. Justice Daley and advised with him about the Proposals and said Overtures betwixt him this Deponent and the said Lord of Dunsany and thereupon resolved to serve the said Lord Dunsany gratis and not to take or accept of any manner of Consideration from the said Lord of Dunsany and that he this Deponent would be very just to him which Resolution was approved of by the said Mr. Justice Daley This Deponent further deposeth That according to appointment being met with punctually had some Discourse with the said Thomas Plunket who said The said Lord of Dunsany his Brother was not prepared for a Trial and that he would go on soon with all his Estate at once and that them two Parcels were inconsiderable in respect of the Bulk of his Estate and desired this Deponent to reserve the best Men in order to return them on the Juries when he should put other Venires for that purpose in this Deponent's hands or words to that purpose This Deponent desired him to consider what he had to do and he should not blame him this Deponent hereafter He the said Thomas Plunket then replied That he would be satisfied with what Returns this Deponent should make on the said two Venires and desired that the best Men might be reserv'd as aforesaid Whereupon this Deponent soon after return'd the aforesaid Venires with Pannels to them severally annexed This Deponent further deposeth That he having notice from the Lord Bp of Clogher that he heard that the said Lord of Dunsany should reflect on this Deponent saying He would not return him a good Jury without a Consideration and having met the said Thomas Plunket in the said Lord Bishop's Lodgings in Michaelmass or Hillary Term last he desired the said Lord Bishop to acquaint the said Thomas Plunket with the Expressions he heard of the said Lord of Dunsany Which he having done the said Thomas Plunket said That this Deponent desired no Consideration and that the Lord Dunsany aforesaid was much obliged to him this Deponent and that he was mighty kind to him and would justify the same This Deponent further deposeth That the said Thomas Plunket having met this Deponent at Longwood after some Discourse he had with this Deponent the seventeenth day of March last past shewed him a List of the Juries and asked this Deponent if he returned them To which this Deponent answered That he had as he believed He the said Thomas Plunket thereupon said most of them were Phanaticks and that they would hang the said Lord of Dunsany if they could This Deponent made answer then That if they prov'd inconvenient that it was the said Thomas Plunket's fault for that he had desired this Deponent to return what he this Deponent pleased and to reserve the best Men for the Bulk of the said Lord Dunsany's Estate or words to that effect The said Thomas Plunket said He would never consent to the return of such Juries and passionately said If he had the twenty Guinnies to give this Deponent that he would have better Juries This Deponent asked the said Thomas Plunket if this Deponent desired any such Sum or any Sum of him when he met at Trim he then replied that he did not but that the said Lord Dunsany did promise it After a while he likewise said That he told the said Lord of Dunsany that this Deponent could not be supposed to have made that Return for Ill-will or Gain for that none would give any Sum of Money where the Party could Nonsuit himself as also that this Deponent had returned good Juries for several of his Country naming Mr. Evers and others and that it was his ill Luck that hindred him or words to that effect This Deponent further deposeth That neither of the Defendants directly or indirectly desired this Deponent for to return the said Juries Neither did this Deponent give them notice that he had any Venires neither did he know that there were any Venires ordered to be granted by this Court until he received the said Venires either from the said Lord or Tenants or Messengers as aforesaid and further saith not Mr. Burridge's Affidavit about Robbers Sept. 27. 1690. THen came before me Ezekiel Burridge Clerk and saith That about the beginning of the late Earl of Tyrconnel's Government he was set upon by three Men near Glasneven within a mile of Dublin who gave this Deponent four Wounds with their Swords and tore his Gown so that he could never afterwards wear it They likewise attempted to rob him had they not been prevented by the coming in of Company Two or three days after he heard that a Fellow was seen on the same Ground who looked suspiciously and being pursued was taken in the Suburbs Whereupon the
of Money to compound the Matter This Trick was very common and at last no Protestant tho he had ever so good Evidence against a Papist durst prosecute him for he was sure to be acquitted and then the Prosecutor was liable to the Revenge of an Action of the Case and the Damages that a Popish Jury pleased to give against him 12. There is an Act of Parliament 10 Henrici 7. cap. 12. That forbids keeping Guns or Ordnance without License from the Lord Lieutenant or Deputy The Design of it was to prevent the Irish from fortifying themselves in their little Castles whereby at that time they created the Government great Trouble and raised daily Rebellions But the Lord Chief Justice Nugent interpreted this to the disarming of all Protestants and because there chanced to be a Sword and Case of Pistols found September 6 1689 in some outward by place in Christs Church Dublin one Wolf the Subverger was committed to Newgate indicted and found guilty and had good luck to escape with his Life the Chief Justice declaring it was Treason tho Wolf was only indicted for a Misdemeanour 13. But had the Laws been in never so good Hands it could not have secured us from Destruction when the King who designed that Destruction against us pretended to be above all Laws and made no Scruple to dispense with them every Law in these Kingdoms is really a Compact between the King and People wherein by mutual consent they agree on a Rule by which he is to govern and according to which they oblige themselves to pay him Obedience But there is no general Rule but in some Cases it may prove inconvenient it is therefore agreed by all that in Cases of sudden and unforeseen Necessity there is no Law but may be dispensed with but then first it is observable that this Necessity must be so visible and apparent that all reasonable Men may see and be satisfied that it is not pretended and where the Necessity has been thus real no Man can shew that either the People or Parliament ever quarrelled with a King for using a dispensing Power 14. Secondly It must be observed that this Power of Dispensing in Cases of Necessity is mutual and belongs to the People as well as the King it being as lawful for a Subject in Cases of Necessity to dispense with his Obedience to a Law nay with his Allegiance to his King as for a King to dispense with the Execution of a Law or the exacting Obedience and this mutual power of dispensing with the Laws which are publick Compacts in Cases of Necessity is tacitly understood in them as well as in all other Covenants Doctor Sanderson proves this Power of Dispensing to belong to the People as well as to the Prince in his tenth Praelection N. 21. and he gives an Example in N. 22. The Case is thus The Conspirators after the Gunpowder Treason was discovered fled into Warwickshire and made an Insurrection the Sheriff raises the Posse Comitatus against them they fled from thence into Worcestershire where by the Law the Sheriffs of Warwick could not follow them but the Sheriff dispensed with the Law Judging saith he as he ought to have done That if he would perform right the Office of a good Subject the Observation of the Law in that Case of Necessity was very unseasonable and he ought to obey the Supreme Law which is the Safety of his Country The Sheriff did accordingly and was highly commended by King James the First for it There might be many Examples of this kind given in which the People are allowed to dispense even with their Allegiance in case of Necessity It is against the Allegiance of a Subject to own the Power of an Usurper to bear Arms to judge of Life and Death or administer Justice between Man and Man by his Commission and yet Dr. Sanderson determines it to be the Duty of a good Man to do all these if required by an Usurper Praelect 5. N. 19. and accordingly we find Judge Hales acted under the worst of Usurpers Oliver Cromwell and executed the Office of a Judge as may be seen in his Life 15. Thirdly 'T is the most wicked as well as hazardous thing that a King or People can do to pretend a necessity for dispensing with those publick Compacts when the pretence is not real for the publick Faith is hereby violated the party unconsulted is abused a just reason of Distrust raised between the King and People and they of the two that assume to themselves this power of dispensing upon a pretended not real necessity in Cases of great Moment to the Kingdom are in a fair way to lay a real necessity on the other party to dispense with their part of the Compact that is to say if the King will pretend a Necessity where there is none for his not governing by Laws in Cases that concern the common safety of the Kingdom he gives a shrewd Temptation and a justifiable Colour to his People to dispense with their Submission and Allegiance to him And it is full as good a Reason for a Peoples taking Arms to defend themselves against illegal Violence to alledge that they were necessitated to do so to prevent the Ruin and Destruction of them and their Posterity as it is for a King to alledge that he uses illegal Officers and Force to preserve himself and his Kingdoms And if the Allegation be real I do not see why it should not justifie the one as well as the other tho the one be against the Oath of Allegiance and the other against the Coronation Oath Cases of extreme Necessity being tacitly excepted in both Kings therefore that take on themselves to dispense with Laws without the consent either tacit or express of their People give an ill Precedent against themselves and must blame themselves if their People taught by them return it upon them 16. 'T is plain the Officers employed by King James in Ireland both Civil and Military were unqualified and uncapable by Law of those Employments If Lord Tirconnell for instance claimed Subjection of us by the Laws I do not see why he should expect the People to be better Observers of the Laws than he was Suppose that it was against the Law for them to resist him it was likewise against the Laws that he should command them if he dispensed in one Case they only dispensed in the other and in this Case it was as lawful for the one to dispense as the other I suppose the only Reason in a settled Government why one Man can claim our Submission and not another is because the known Laws give the one and not another the power of commanding but the Laws as well as the Interest of this Kingdom said positively that the Earl of Tirconnell and Men of his Character and Religion should not have any Office Civil or Military and therefore those Protestants that stood on their Defence against him
so high a manner as King James had been by his Protestant Subjects did ever take so much pains to ruin his Enemies or condescend to such mean Acts as he did to ruin us SECT VI. V. King James's destructive Attempts upon the Trade and Trading Part of the Nation 1. TRade is of so great advantage to a Kingdom and the Profit it brings to the Exchequer is so considerable that it is hardly credible that any King should contrive to destroy it in his own Kingdom and yet King James has given us just reason to conclude that he designed the Ruin of it in all his Kingdoms at least was well pleased with it Many Roman Catholicks who pretended to know his mind have confidently affirm'd that he purposely let the Ships of England decay and rot that the French might grow great at Sea and destroy the Trade of the English The Reason pretended for doing so was to humble his Subjects and take away their Wealth from them that made them proud and surly so that the King could not have his Will of them I speak the Language of these Roman Catholicks and the King himself could not sometimes forbear Words to the same purpose And if we consider the Condition in which their present Majesties found the English Fleet the thing will not want probability It was further pretended by many of King James's Officers that it was more for the King's Advantage to have his Subjects poor than rich For said they you see how willing the poor Irish are to enlist themselves Soldiers for two pence a day who know no better way of living but it were impossible to bring the rich Churls of England so they usually called them from their Farms and Shops on such terms to serve the King They further alledged that the Poverty of the Generality of France is the Reason that they are so willing to be Soldiers and makes them so easily maintain'd when they are enrolled Upon such destructive Maxims did they found their design of ruining Trade in these Kingdoms 2. But whatever be said to the general Design it is certain King James ruined the Trade of Ireland in prosecution of his purpose of destroying the Protestants there The Money and Wealth circulated in their Hands and few others had either Stock Understanding or Credit to carry on a Trade besides them They innocently imagined if there had been no other Reason that this alone would have prevailed with the then Government to have permitted them to live secure easie and quiet but they quickly found that King James and his Ministers wou'd rather have no Trade at all in the Kingdom than it should be in the Hands of Protestants Merchants have generally their Stock in Moveables so that it is easie for them to transport themselves and their Effects into another Country if they find themselves uneasie in their own And sure the Protestant Merchants could not be easie in Towns which they had formerly governed and in which they were now subjected to mean inconsiderable People many of which had formerly been their own menial Servants but now advanced to the Honor of being Magistrates treated their late Masters with such Affronts and Abuses as are intolerable to Free Men and which Solomon observes make even wise Men mad 3. This together with the apprehension of danger to their Lives and Fortunes from the advancement of such indigent and malicious persons to Power did drive most of the rich Traders out of the Kingdom The rest contracted their Stocks called in their Debts and resolved to give over Trading or else follow their Neighbours into England as soon as they could clear themselves of their Business the effect of this Resolution of theirs was ruinous to all such as were indebted to them or in their Books for it was impossible to raise Money to answer those Debts when called for so suddenly tho they had Stock enough to answer them if time had been allowed them as they expected when they contracted them by which means Protestants were forced to ruin one another as well as some Papists that depended on them a great many being forced thereby to shut up Shop and break for small Debts that bare no proportion to their Stocks and Credit whose payment had been good if they had not been called on too suddenly and if the Circulation of Trade had not been stopped 4. The next thing that destroyed the Trade of Ireland was the advancing persons of mean or no Fortunes unto places of Profit These had no ready Money to give the Merchants and yet were necessitated to live high and appear in fine Cloaths and either by force or fraud they got into the Shop-Books and by refusing to pay disabled the Merchants to make their usual Returns and by that means broke their Credit which is the Foundation of Trade The Protestant Soldiers and Officers in whose places the indigent Papists were substituted were generally so good Husbands as to have some little thing in store and hence were enabled to take up at the best hand and punctualy pay what they had expended but these New-Comers gave their Creditors where they chanced to be trusted only Oaths and Curses and Abuses instead of Payment a general stop of Trading immediately followed especially the Manufactures set up in the Kingdom which were very considerable to its Trade came to be neglected and every thing upon Tyrconnell's coming to the Government was at a stand The Clothier would not lay out his Money to make Cloth and pay Workmen when it must either lie on his Hands or he be obliged to trust it to such Debtors that would only return him Abuses for his Money The Builder would not go on in his Building and part with his ready Money when he could have no Security of enjoying it or receiving Rent for it if he let it By these means great numbers of Tradesmen and Laborers all generally Protestants were reduced to Beggary and their Families starved Such sort of People as these are the Men that carry on Trade and enrich a place but were now forced to leave the Kingdom and seek elsewhere for Work their going away stopped the usual Consumption of Commodities and made Trade yet more dead and heavy 5. There was a third thing that did further discourage the Merchants and that was the Exaction of the Custom Houses The Officers found that by the decay of Trade the King's Revenue must fall and that then they would be in hazard to lose their places to prevent which they used all the Rigor and Exactions imaginable they had Valuators of their own chusing which put what Rates on Goods they pleased and then the Merchant must pay the Duties accordingly without Remedy Frequently the Values set on Goods were double nay treble to what they ought to have been and to the true intrinsick Worth of the Commodity or what they could be sold for the Consequence whereof was that the Merchant paid often double or treble Duties
for Three Months from the First of January a thing impossible without allowing them to Steal and Plunder It was this struck so much terror into Protestants and made them so jealous and apprehensive of Danger that they fled into England in great numbers especially when they found that the New Raised Men as they surmised began to make havock of all things It was this gave Credit to a Letter dated December the Third 1688 sent to the Lord Mount Alexander whether true or counterfeit I cannot determine intimating a design to Destroy the Protestants on Sunday the Ninth of the same Month which Letter was spread over the whole Kingdom The People of Derry had beside this several Letters and Intimations of Mischief designed against them and against the Protestants of Ireland And though that directed to the Lord Mount Alexander may not seem of great weight yet whoever considers the circumstances of the Protestants of Ireland at that time will acknowledge that it was not to be despised In the Year 1641 the Seizing of Dublin by the Lord Mac Guire was prevented by as improbable a discovery as this Letter while the Protestants in the rest of the Kingdom were Massacred through the incredulity of some who could not be perswaded to give ear to such intimations of the Design as were brought before them In England the Gun-powder Treason was revealed and the destruction of the Three Kingdoms prevented by a Letter as insignificant as that directed to the Lord Mount Alexander About the very time intimated in the Letter for the Massacre a new raised Regiment belonging to the Earl of Antrim appeared before the Town without the King's Livery without any Officers of Note or the least warning given by the Earl of their coming lastly without any Arms besides Skeans Clubs and such other Weapons as Kearnes and Tories used 6. The People of the Town were frightened at the Sight and refused them entrance into the City this was the First rub or provocation the Lord Deputy met with it was a meer accident and proceeded from his own Ignorance or Negligence who had left that Garrison the only one of any considerable strength in Ulster where most Protestants lived without one Soldier to Guard it and then sent such a pack of Ruffians to take Possession of it many of whose Captains and Officers were well known to the Citizens having lain long in their Jails for Thefts and Robberies When therefore such a Body of Men came to demand entrance at the very time that they expected a Massacre what could they imagin but that these Men came to execute it and who could blame them for shutting their Gates They were well assured that these were Men fit for such an Execution and that they were ready on command to do it and perhaps would not stay for an Order The Lord Deputy bethought himself too late of his Error but could never retrieve it though by means of the Lord Mountjoy he did all in it that was possible having brought the City to accept of a Pardon and receive a Garrison of Soldiers but then it was such a Garrison as they were able to Master and no more by the Articles were to be admitted into it before the ensuing March. 7. We ought to remember the reason of Building Londonderry and 't is plain from its Charter granted by King James the First that it was Founded to be a Shelter and Refuge for Protestants against the Insurrections and Massacres of the Natives who were known always to design and be ready to execute their malice on their Conquerors To keep them therefore in awe and secure the Plantation was the Design of Building the City it was upon this condition and by these Covenants the Proprietors of the City held their Estates and the Inhabitants had been false to the very design and end of their Foundation if they had given up the City with the keeping of which they were intrusted into the Hands of those very men against whom by the Charter it was designed to be a Security and Bulwark At this rate the Lord Deputy might give away any mans Estate and have bestowed it on his greatest Enemy and that with much less injury to the Publick The People therefore of Londonderry had good reason to refuse to deliver their City to the Kearnes and Tories of Ulster though inlisted under the Earl of Antrim by a Commission from a pretended Lord Deputy these were excluded by their very Charter and by the design of Building the Place from possessing it much less had they reason to deliver it to a parcel of men of whose Commission they knew nothing and whose Errand they had reason to believe was to cut their Throats 8. 'T is to be considered that Londonderry was under a further provocation to lay hold on the first opportunity to do themselves Justice and that was the wicked and illegal Invasion made on their Charter Liberties Priviledges and Estates by a most unjust and oppressive Sentence given by an unqualified Lord Chief Baron on a Quo Warranto for which there was not the least pretence in the World as may appear to any one that will be at the pains to view the Proceedings in Court By this Sentence grounded on a foolish nicety objected to the Plea the whole English Interest and Plantations in that County were ruined and the whole Designs of them destroyed and perverted and therefore it was not to be wondered if they took the first opportunity to save themselves from imminent Destruction They concluded that a Government who on a nicety could take away their Charter their Priviledges their Estates and subvert the design of Building their City might as easily and unavoidably find another nicety to take away what remained together with their Lives and therefore they cannot be much blamed if they had been under no other Temptation but this that they were willing to withdraw themselves from a Government whom they durst not trust and which took all advantages against them to destroy them 9. The shutting up of Derry against the Earl of Antrim's Regiment was all that was done by any Protestant in Ireland in opposition to the Government till King James deserted England except what was done at Enniskillin where the People were under the same circumstances with those of Derry having about the same time refused to quarter two Companies sent to them by the Lord Deputy They were not so much as summoned by him nor did they enter into any Act of Hostility or Association or offend any till assaulted being content to stand on their Guard against such as they knew to be Mortal Enemies to the English Interest to subdue whom they were planted in that wild and fast Country But as soon as the News of King James's deserting the Government came into Ireland all Protestants look'd on themselves as obliged to take care of their own Preservation and finding that continual Robberies and Plunderings were committed by such
Retinue All the Houses in Town were taken up with such Guests who were often treacherous Spies on their Hosts and reckoned themselves very kind if they did not procure them to be clapt up by a false Information The Story of one Gentleman is remarkable related to a good Family in England of his Name as he pretended which was Brown he lodged at one Mr. Brocks from whom he stole several things of value and sold them Mr. Brock found him out but he thought to have prevented the discovery by Swearing Treason against him which he did before Chief Justice Nugent but the Justice of the Peace who took the Examinations of the Theft having gotten some of the things into his custody traced them so clearly to the Thief that there was no denying it The Gentleman upon this to prevent further Prosecution was forced to certify under his Hand that he was prejured in what he had Sworn before the Lord Chief Justice How heavy these things fell on the Citizens may be conjectured from this the Rents of the City were considerable and many Gentlemens Estates consisted in them But now they thought themselves happy if their Tennants would stay in their Houses and keep them in Repair though they paid no Rents at all In the best inhabited Places of the Town where Houses about Two Years before yielded Sixty Pound apiece they were well contented if they got Ten Pound or the Ground-Rent but it was a chance if they got so much 2. Thus Estates both in City and Country were rendred Fruitless to Protestants but yet whilst the Cattle and the great Manufactories and Staple Commodities of the Kingdom were in their Hands whilst they had the Wool the Hides the Tallow and Butter which bring in all the Mony that is in the Kingdom all the former Arts would not have undone them and therefore some means must be used to get their Stocks from them it seemed not decent for the Government to Seize on them as they Seized on our Horses and Arms it was not thought fit to give a positive Order for doing it the truth is there was no need of it it was sufficient to connive at the new raised Men to have it effectually done the Priests had made every Man that came to Mass to get a Skean and half Pike at least and they whispered to the People that it was not for nothing that they were thus Armed They assured them that whatever Injury they did their Protestant Neighbours would be forgiven them only they advised them not to shed Blood Sometimes they went along to see it effectually done and sometimes they imposed it as a Pennance on such as came to them for Absolution to rob some of their Protestant Neighbours This may seem improbable but we have had credible Informations of it and it will not seem so unlikely if we consider that the Priests often led them out to these Plunders and stood by whilst they committed them that all these Robbers are absolved by them without restoring one Sheep which could not be if the Priests reckoned the taking and keeping them a Sin And lastly that some of the greatest of these Robberies were committed in Lent when they do their Pennances and eat no Flesh and therefore they could not be tempted at that time to Steal and Kill in order to eat For in some places they killed whole Flocks and left them dead on the Place These Robberies began in November 1688 and by the end of March next after they left hardly one Protestant in Ireland a Cow or Sheep Ireland has always been famous for its Pastures and the Riches of it has always consisted in Cattle of which many Gentlemen had vast Stocks for a Man to have Six Eight or Ten Thousand Sheep was very common some had more even to Twenty Thousand All these were gone in Three Months to the value of at least a Million of Mony which if rightly managed would with the Cows and Bullocks of which there were likewise great Herds have furnished an Army of an Hundred Thousand Men with Flesh enough for Three Years Those who took them from the Protestants destroyed them without consideration they killed them by Fifties and Sixties and threw them into Bog-pits they took off their Skins and left their Carcases to rot and made all the hovo●k of them imaginable 3. Nor was the Government at all displeased at this but on the contrary did plainly encourage them no Complaints made against them were minded none of them were punished or called to account for it and there happened two or three remarkable things that plainly discovered it to be their design that the Protestants should lose all For First when these Robberies began some Protestants got together overtook the Robbers rescued the Prey from them and killed some of them this being done in two or three places they were frightened and quiet for some time but the Lord Deputy saw that if this were suffered his design would not take and therefore ordered our Arms to be Seized this was the true motive of his taking away so suddenly the Arms of the Protestants These Arms he put into the Hands of those very Robbers whom the Protestants in the defence of their Cattle had beaten and wounded and whose Relations they had killed who now knowing that their Adversaries could make no further Resistence vowed Revenge and perfected what they had begun not leaving them a Beast and forcing them to flee for their Lives and then they plundered their Houses as well as their Cattle and left them nothing that could be found with them Nay so far did the Government Countenance them that they had suffered those Men who had thus defended their Cattle to be indicted and Bills were found against them who had killed some of those Robbers in the actual fact of Robbing to do which they are empowered and ought to have been rewarded by a particular Statute of Ireland 4. But Secondly it appears that the Robbing of the Protestants was designed by the Government from the Confession of Chief Justice Nugent who boasted of it as a piece of Policy and own'd that they could not have done their work without it and at the Assizes at Cork publickly called such Robbers necessary Evils and from the beginning he took care not to discourage them The forementioned Proclamation February 21 1686 acknowledges that the Robberies were occasioned by the carelessness and neglect of the Civil Magistrate And Thirdly That it was a meer design to ruin the Protestants is manifest from this that as soon as their Stocks were gone and those who took them began to rob their Papist Neighbours the Government put a stop to it and issued out a Commission to hang them which accordingly was executed at Wicklow and the Naas and several other Places and that it might be effectually executed they joined some Protestants in it which might as well have been done before and there is no reason that it was
not done but because it would have prevented the ruin of the Protestants as well as it now preserv'd the Papists It is manifest what the Government designed when by a few Robberies committed on Papists it was alarm'd and issued out Commissions to hang the Robbers yet could not be prevailed with to take notice of the many Thousand Robberies committed on the Protestants For the Proof of this see Albavill's Instructions to the forementioned Commissioners in the Appendix SECT XI The Methods by which Kings James compleated the ruin of the Protestants Personal Fortunes 1. THE Protestants by the Deputies taking away their Horses and the Army their Cattle were put out of a possibility of Living in the Country or of making any thing of their Farms by Plowing or Grazing and had saved nothing but their Houshold-Stuff and Mony only some of them when they saw the Irish taking away their Cattle slaughtered part of them Barrelled them up and sent them to Dublin and other Towns they preserved likewise their Hides and Tallow of the Year 1688 not having any vent for them and the Merchants upon the same account were stored with such Commodities as used to be sent Yearly into England or Foreign Parts and many of these went out of the Kingdom for their own Safety and left their Goods in the Hands of their Servants or Friends Their going away though they had License for it and those Licenses not expired was made a pretence to Seize their Goods and in March 1688 the Officers of the Army throughout the Kingdom without any Law or Legal Authority by order from the Lord Deputy Seized all Goods Houses Lands c. belonging to any who were out of the Kingdom there was no other reason given for this but that it was the Deputies Pleasure it should be so in May the Commissioners of the Revenue took it out of the Soldiers Hands and that they might be the better able to go through with it endeavoured to procure from their pretended Parliament an Act to confirm all they had done till that time and further to empower them to examin Witnesses upon Oath concerning concealed Goods of Absentees The Bill as it was drawn by the Commons added a power to oblige every body to discover upon Oath what they concealed belonging to their absent Friends and to Commit whom they pleased without Bail or Mainprize during pleasure not excepting the Peers of the Realm which made the House of Lords correct these Clauses and several others in the Bill upon the Motion and earnest Struggling of the Bishop of Meath though the Commissioners did in a great Measure put the Act in Execution as the Commons intended it for where-ever they expected any good of Absentees to be they sent and seized all that was in the place and then refused to restore any thing to the Owners but upon Oath that it was their own proper Goods the rest they supposed to belong to some Absentee and made it lawful Prize all such being by the Act vested in the King though the Owners who were absent without any Fault of their own should have come back and claimed by which Act all Protestants that had fled for their Refuge into England or any other place or were gone upon their lawful Occasions to the number of many Thousands were absolutely divested of all their Personal Fortunes and cut off from all Claim to their Goods and Chattels whatever The Condition of those who staid behind was very little better so many Contrivances were set on foot to ruin them and take away the little Goods that were yet left them that they were as effectually destroy'd as their Neighbours that went for England they knew that besides Goods the Protestants had some ready Money and Plate their chief aim was to come by them and several ways were thought of to effect it sometimes they were for setting up a Mint and for forcing every Body to bring in on Oath to be coined whatever Plate was in their Possession sometimes they were for searching Houses and seizing all they found but these Methods were looked on as too Violent and not likely to succeed if they should put them in Practice they therefore defer'd these for the present and appli'd themselves to the following Courses by which they got from us a great part of our Mony Plate and Goods and if our Deliverance had not been speedy would ●●fallibly have got the rest 1. They would pretend for a Summ of Mony to procure License for a Ship to go off and when they had gotten the Mony and the People had Ship'd themselves and their Effects they then ordered the Ship to be unloaded again and seized all the Mony and Plate they found which had been privately conveyed on Shipboard tho' not forfeited by any Law 2. They would take off the Embargo which was generally laid on Ships and pretend that they would suffer the Merchants to Trade and as soon as they had got the Custom-houses full of Goods and receiv'd vast Rates for Custom besides Bribes to the Officers that attended the Ships they would put on the Embargo again stop the Goods and not return one Farthing 3. They promised Licenses for England to all who would pay for them and when they had gotten vast Summs from the Crowd that press'd to get away they would then stop the Ships and make their Licenses useless There was nothing to be done without a Bribe at what Rate may be imagined from this that an ordinary Tide-waiter one White at Rings-End was accounted to have gotten in Bribes for conniving at Peoples going off at least 1000 l. in a few Months 4. All Protestants that lived in the Country were forced to take out Protections these were sold at great Rates and it was not sufficient to buy them once they were often voided either by new Orders or the Change of Governors and then they were obliged to take them out a new some had Protections not only for their Goods but likewise for some Arms and Horses and renewed them five or six times paying a good Rate for them every time and yet at last they lost all their Horses Arms and Goods as well as their Neighbors who had no Protections 5. Where they learnt any Man had Mony they seiz'd him on some Pretence or other and if they found the Mony it was sufficient Evidence of his Guilt they sent him to Goal and converted the Mony to their own use at the worst they knew it was only restoring it in Brass Thus they serv'd Mr. Heuston in Bridg-street and Mr. Gabriel King in the County of Roscommon who could never get any satisfaction for his Silver and Plate thus taken from him and the case was the same with many others 6. In several places the Governors went into Mens Houses and Shops and seiz'd wh●● they found without the Formality of a Pretence and took it away Cork was used at this rate their Governor Mounsieur Boiselot
But they found a way to elude this by another Clause in the same Act which orders the Mansion House and Demeasnes of the Proprietor or his Assignee in 1641. to be restor'd and the Leases made of such to be void Now they never wanted an Affidavit to prove any beneficial Farm or good House they found in the Hands of a Protestant to have been Demeasnes and a Mansion House and then the Leiutenants of the Counties put them in Possession 3. The same Lieutenants had an Order from Albiville Secretary of State to turn all Protestants out of their Houses if they judged them to be Houses of any strength and to garrison them with Papists We could never procure any Copy of this Order from the Office though they own'd there was such an Order and we found the Effects of it the Reasons of concealing it I suppose were the same with concealing the Act of Attainder The design of the Order was to turn out the few Protestant Gentlemen that liv'd on their ancient Estates and had neither forfeited them by the Act of Attainder nor lost them by the Act of Repeal it was left to the discretion of the Lieutenant of the County whom they would turn out and they acted according to their Inclinations and turn'd out almost every body and 't was with great difficulty and interest that any procured to be eased of this trouble I have given a Copy of some of their Orders in the Appendix In short the Soldiers or Militia took Possessions of such Gentlemens Houses as durst venture to live in the Country and they themselves were sent to Jail and had K. James got the better they must never have expected to have gotten possession of their Houses or been releas'd of their confinement till they had gone to execution for though they had been very cautious how they convers'd yet there would not have wanted Witnesses to prove they had corresponded with some body in England or Scotland since the First of August 1688. and then their Estates were forfeited The Gentlemen thus used were very sensible of one inconveniency that befel them on this Account it troubled them more than their confinement to see their Houses and Improvements destroy'd for when the Soldiers got into the Houses under pretence of garrisoning them they sometimes burnt them and always spoil'd the Improvements As for the Estates of Absentees the Commissioners of the Revenue dispos'd of them and hardly one Estate in Ireland but was already promis'd to some Favourite Papist or other who by Leases from the Commissioners were in actual possession of them through the whole Kingdoms as far as King James's Authority was owned 20. It may be imagined by some that King James did not know that the Repealing the Acts of Settlement and Explanation was of such mischievous Consequence to Protestants and that the Protestants were wanting to themselves and him in not giving him due Information But these Persons will find themselves mistaken in their surmises if they consider 1. That King James when Duke of York was present at all the Debates concerning the Settlement of Ireland at the Council Board in England and was one of the Council when those Acts of Settlement and Explanation past it he had heard every Clause in them debated for near Two years and from time to time he had perfect information and was continually sollicited about them having a fair Estate in Ireland settled on him by them containing by estimation 108000 Acres to the value of 10m Pounds per Annum and perhaps there was not any thing he understood better relating to the Affairs of his Kingdoms then the Consequence of these Acts. We have seen before how many Promises and Assurances King James had given for maintaining them as well knowing the importance of them to this Kingdom But notwithstanding this he of his own accord was the first that motioned the Repealing of them in his Speech at the opening the Parliament in Dublin 2. The Protestants prest and earnestly sollicited to be heard at the Bar of the Lords House upon the Subject of those Acts that they might shew the reasonableness of them and demonstrate the injustice and mischief of repealing them but were deny'd to be heard and an Order made that nothing should be offered in their favour If therefore King James wanted information it was because he would not receive it 3. The Bishop of Meath so far as was allow'd him laid open the Consequences of repealing these Acts so fully in his Speech which he made in the House of Lords when he voted against the Act of Repeal that no Man who heard him as his Majesty did could pretend to want information 4. The Protestants were so far from being silent or letting things pass without opposition that they laboured every Point with all imaginable industry and used all the industry they could with King James to inform and perswade him and when they could not gain one Point they stuck at the next and endeavour'd to gain it till he had deliberately over-rul'd all their Reasons and Pleas from Point to Point and this they did to make his Designs against them the more undeniably plain not out of any hope of success or expectation to prevail with him for they knew their appearing for a thing in the Parliament was enough to damn it of which they had many Experiments One was so remarkable that I shall mention it Mr. Coghlan had a mind to procure a favour for a Friend from the House of Commons whereof he was a Member he knew if he mentioned it it would miscarry and therefore he got a Papist to propose it the House seem'd averse to it and he for Experiments sake rose up and with some seeming warmness oppos'd it immediately the House took the Alarm and in opposition to him voted it They knew likewise that it was determined to destroy them and gratifie their Enemies and that the reason why they were not allow'd to debate the main Point the justice and reasonableness of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation was because that could not be done without shewing what Traitors and Murtherers the Papists had been whom King James was then about to gratifie a thing which he would by no means endure to hear 5. The Reason therefore why the Protestants made so vigorous an opposition and plyed the King and his pretended Parliament with so many Petitions Representations and Intercessions was to stop the Mouths of those that they foresaw would be apt to impute their Misfortunes to their sullenness or negligence that would not be at the pains of an Application to save themselves and to demonstrate to the World that the Destruction brought on them was not a thing of chance but that it proceeded from a formed and unalterable design of their Enemies to destroy them insomuch that they never could have expected to enjoy one Foot of Estate or quiet hour in the Kingdom if King James had continued
seized on most of the Churches in the Kingdom 4. The manner of their doing it was thus The Mayor or Governour in the Towns with the Priests went to the Churches sent for the Keys to the Sextons and if they were found forced them from them if not they broke open the Doors pull'd up the Seats and Reading Desk and having said Mass in them lookt upon them as their own and said the King himself had then nothing to do with them being consecrated places and to alienate them or give them back to Hereticks was Sacriledge In the Country the Militia Captains or Officers of the Army that chanced to be quartered in the several places performed the same part that the Mayors or Governors did in Corporations thus Christ's Church in Dublin was seized by Luttrel the Governour and about Twenty six Churches and Chappels in the Diocess of Dublin 5. Of this Protestants complained to King James as a great violation of his own Act for Liberty of Conscience in which it is expresly provided that they should have Liberty to meet in such Churches Chappels and other places as they shall have for that purpose they further represented to him That all the Churches of Ireland were in a manner ruined in the late War in 1641. That it was with great difficulty and cost that the Protestants had new built or repaired them That many were built by private Persons on their own Costs and that the Roman Catholicks had no Pretence or Title to them but his Majesty answered That they were seiz'd in his absence at the Camp without his knowledge or consent That nevertheless he was so much obliged to his Roman Catholick Clergy that he must not dispossess them that they alledged a Title to the Churches that they had seiz'd and if the Protestants thought their Title was better they must bring their Action and endeavour to recover their Possessions by Law 6. This Answer was what the Attorney General had suggested to him and the Reader will perceive that the whole was a piece of deceit that the pretence of the Churches being seiz'd whilst his Majesty was absent was a meer Collusion and that there could not be a more false Suggestion than that the Papists had any Right to the Churches or a more unjust thing than to put the Protestants on recovering a Possession by a Suit at Law which was gotten from them by so open violence but this was the Justice we lookt for and constantly met with from him and therefore there being no Remedy to be expected we were forced to acquiesce 7. Only to colour the matter a little and lest this should make too great a noise in England and Scotland where King James at this time had very encouraging hopes he issued out a Proclamation December 13. 1689. in which he acknowledges that the seizing of Churches was a violation of the Act for Liberty of Conscience yet doth not order any restitution only forbids them to seize any more They had in many places notice of this Proclamation before it came out and therefore were more diligent to get into the remaining Churches for they look't on the Proclamation as a confirmation of their Possessions which they had before the publishing of it and in some places the Popish Officers kept it from being published till they had done their Work the Protestants not being allowed to go out of their Parishes could not come by it till it pleas'd their Popish Neighbours to produce it and so it prov'd like other Proclamations of his Majesty in favour of his Protestant Subjects it was not published till the inconveniency it pretended to prevent was brought upon them and the mischief actually executed and it made their Enemies more hasty and diligent to do it than otherwise they would have been lest they should slip the time and lose the opportunity 8. But after all some were too late and the Protestants got sight of the Proclamation before their Churches were seiz'd but here the Priests put off their Vizors and acted bare-faced they told the People the King had nothing to do with them or their Churches that they were immediately under the Pope and that they would neither regard him nor his Proclamations or Laws made to the damage of Holy Church 9. The Protestants had a mind to make an Experiment how far this would go and whether the Priests or King would get the better in order therefore to make the Tryal they chose out some Instances in which the violence and injustice of turning them out of their Churches were most undenyable and laid their Case before His Majesty and his Council by their Petitions and that the Petitions might not be laid aside or lost as was the common Custom to deal with Petitions and Affidavits to which they were ashamed to return a flat denial they engaged some of the Privy Council to espouse their Cause and had the luck to gain several of the Popish Nobility to favour their Suits especially of such as had Estates in England and knew King James's true Interest and their own 10. The Petitions of Waterford and Wexford were the most favourably received and in spite of all the opposition that the Attorny General Nagle or the Sollicitor General one Butler who concern'd himself with singular impudence against the Petitions could make they obtained an Order for restitution of these two Churches the Wexford Petition sets forth the Loyalty of the Minister the peaceableness of the People their having contributed to the building of several Popish Chappels within and without the Walls of that Town and that the Roman Catholiks had no occasion for the Church the reasonableness of this Petition was so manifest that King James and his Council made an Order for the restitution of the Church but he now found how precariously he reign'd in Ireland notwithstanding their mighty professions of Loyalty and absolute Subjection upon all occasions and more particularly in their Act of Recognition for the Mayors and Officers refused to obey his Order 11. Upon which he was importuned by the Protestants with new Complaints but being ashamed to own his want of power to make good his former Order he referr'd the Waterford Petition to the then Governour of that place the Earl of Tyrone who reported that the Church of Waterford was a Place of strength and consequently not fit to be trusted into the Hands of Protestants and so all they obtain'd by their Petition Attendance and Charges was to have their Church turn'd into a Garrison instead of a Mass-house this pretence could not be made for the Church of Wexford it having no appearance of strength and therefore the Order for restoring it was renewed and the disobedient Mayor sent for and turn'd out for which the Popish Clergy made him ample satisfaction but notwithstanding that King James appear'd most zealous to have the Church restored and express'd himself with more passion than was usual that he would be obeyed and
to take us out of Jail to restore our Laws our Employments the free exercise of our Religion our Fortunes and Estates when we were unjustly depriv'd of them and 't was a very modest expectation in them and answerable to their other measures of Politicks to think a People harrass'd and stript and plundred and condemned by them to lose their Lives and Estates which was the Case of all those who fled from hence to England and in great measure of most of those that staid here should in the height of their smart and sufferings reject the kind offers of a Deliverer to depend on a Miracle yet they pretend this is what we ought to have done and because we did it not they rail at us in the most bitter Terms they call us Rebels and Traitors Villains and Atheists and load us with all the approbrious Names their Malice and Revenge can suggest But we cannot blame them to be angry the hungry Wolf if he could speak would curse and rail as heartily at the Shepherd that rescues the Lamb out of his Paws as they do at us or our Deliverer they had devour'd us in their Imaginations they had got the Civil and Military Sword into their Hands and engrost all Places of Trust and Profit these with the Legislative Power in the hands of our ancient and most malicious Enemies were more than enough to have destroy'd us but just when they should have divided the Spoil and concluded the fatal Tragedy the Prince of Orange his present Majesty interposeth and rescueth us this disappointment mads them beyond all bounds of patience and casts them into strange fits of railing and cursing Hell Damnation Confusion to him and his Royal Consort were continually in the Mouths of their Men Women and Children with these they used to entertain one another at their Tables and Debauches and endeavoured to force them by way of Healths on Protestants In short they spare no ill Name or Execration that impotent Rage could vent or invenom'd Rancour could suggest but when all is done in their quiet Intervals their Consciences cannot but acquit us and many of them made no scruple to confess That there was no medium but that either we or they must be undone and when that was the unavoidable choice that they according to their own confession had put on us I assure my self the World will not only excuse us but will think it was our Duty to have done what we did since they had left us no other visible way but this to avoid certain and apparent Destruction CHAP. V. A short Account of those Protestants who left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James SECT I. Concerning those who went away 1. THE former Discourse I suppose is sufficient to justifie the Protestants of Ireland as to their submission to the Government of their present Majesties and to shew the Reasons for their earnest desiring and thankfully accepting of that Deliverance which Providence offered us by their means It remains only to speak a few words in particular of those that left the Kingdom and of those that staid and submitted to King James that they may understand the truth of each others Circumstances and not either of them unjustly censure the other 2. As to those that absented themselves out of the Kingdom it is certain that they offended against no Law in doing so it being lawful for any Subject to transport himself out of one part of the Dominions of England into another it is true that there is a Law or Custom that requires such as hold Offices from the King to take a Licence from the Chief Governour but the Penalty of this is no more than the forfeiture of their Offices and I find it disputed among the Lawyers whether it reach so far now few of those that went away compar'd with the whole number of them were Officers those that were generally took Licences of absence and at worst it was at their own Peril and it had been a great severity to have taken the forfeiture which was the sence of the whole Parliament of England in making an Act to exempt such from incurring any loss 3. But Secondly they had great reason to go out of the Kingdom because they foresaw that it would be the seat of Warr they saw 40 or 50 m Men put into Arms without any fund to maintain them they knew these to be their bitter and sworn Enemies they saw the course of Justice stopt against them and their Stocks and Cattle taken away before their faces several Gentlemen of the Country lost to the value of some 1000 l. before they stirr'd and to what purpose should they stay in a place where they certainly knew that all they had would be taken from them and their Lives expos'd to the fury of their Enemies Thirdly They had no reason to stay because they could not expect to do any good by their staying or to save the Kingdome the Papists had all the Forts and Magazins of the Kingdom in their hands they had all the Arms and publick Revenues they were in number Four or Five to one Protestant and they had the face of Authority on their side and then what could a scattered Multitude without Arms without Leaders and without Authority hope to do in their own defence by going into England they reckon'd themselves not only safe but likewise in a way of serving their Countrey 'T was from thence they expected Arms Ammunition and Commissions by the help of which they might put themselves in some capacity of rescuing their Estates and Friends they left behind which they lookt on as much better Service than to stay and perish with them 4. Fourthly the memory of the cruel usage and difficult times those met with who staid in Ireland in 1641. did frighten and terrifie all that reflected on them the number of those that were then massacred and starv'd was incredible and those that escap'd got away with such circumstances that the memory of what they had suffered was as ill as death if any will be but at the pains of reading over Sir John Temples account of the first half Year of the War or rather Massacre he will be satisfied that it was no unreasonable fear made so many Protestants withdraw out of the reach of such barbarities the same Men or their Sons that committed all those bloody murders and inhumanities were again arm'd in a much more formidable manner than they ever had been before and yet at that time they were able to maintain a War for Twelve Years and live by spoil and robbery and then what were the Children of those whose Parents had been murthered by them to expect but the same fate or at best a miserable Life in a desolate and spoild Country in which no wise Man would choose to live if he could help it indeed they could not expect to live long after all was taken from them but must in
Regiment he with other his Associates having often before plundred broken and despoyled the Seats of our Church without interruption or disturbance resolved on Christmas-day at night to brake and plunder our Altar on which we had that day celebrated the Holy Communion and to that end he with two more about midnight entered the Church This Keating immediately attempted to brake one of the folding doors leading to the Communion Table and endeavouring with all his force to wrest the door from the hinges immediately as he thought saw several glorious and amazing Sights But one ugly Black Thing as he call'd it gave him a great Souse upon the Poll which drive him immediately into so great disorder that he tore all the Cloaths off his Back and ran Naked about the Streets and used all mad Bedlam pranks whatever He was put into the Dungeon where he remained for the space of 14. dayes without either Meat Drink Cloaths or any thing necessary for the support of nature would not take as much as a drop of cold water continually Rav'd of the Spoyls of the Church and saying That he took the most pains in breaking and taking off the Hinges and yet got the least share for his pains From the Dungeon he was removed to one Thomas Kelly's house in the Town where he behaved himself as in the prison neither eating bit nor drinking drop or admitting a ragg to cover his Nakedness and about eight dayes after he removed from the Dungeon dyed in a sad and deplorable manner I was so curious as to enquire of those that knew him very well whether ever he was Mad before or lyable to any such disorders they all assured me that they never knew any thing of that nature by him in the whole course of his life so that I think we may very well look upon it as the immediate Hand of GOD. SIR I dare assure you that this is a great Truth and so evident and manifest that it hath challeng'd and extorted an Acknowledgment from all parties whatever Neither the Romish Clergy nor any of the Officers of the Regiment who are all Papists do in the least disown it And it had this influence and effect upon all Souldiers and Papists that from that time forth never any of them were known to enter plunder or disturb our Church We have an account that another of Keatings companions at the very same time was struk Mad in the very act of breaking the Communion Table and that within very few hours after he dyed but they politickly conceal'd it and buryed him privately soon after for fear it should be known but the certainty of this I dare not Affirm but am sure some of their most sober and serious Clergy did freely own it George Prowd Trim 1st March 1689. No. 28. General Rosens ORDER to bring the Protestants Before Derry Conrade de Rosen Mareschal General of all his Majesties FORCES DEclares by these Presents To the Commanders Officers Souldiers and Inhabitants of the City of Londonderry That in case they do not betwixt this and Monday next at Six a Clock in the afternoon being the 1 st of July 1689. Agree to Surrender the said place of London-derry unto the KING upon such Conditions as may be Granted them according to the instructions and power Leiutenant General Hamilton formerly received from the KING That he will forthwith issue out his ORDERS from the Barony of Inishone and the Sea-Coasts round about as far as Charlemont for the gathering together of those of their Faction whether Protected or Not and cause them immediately to be brought to the Walls of London-derry where it shall be Lawful for those that are in the Town in case they have any pity for them to open the Gates and receive them into the Town otherwise they will be forced to see their Friends and nearest Relalations all starved for want of Food he having resolved not to leave one of them at home nor any thing to maintain them And that all hope of succour may be taken away by the Landing of any Troops in these parts from England He further Declares That in case they refuse to submit he will forthwith cause all the said Country to be immediately Destroy'd that if any Succour should be hereafter sent from England they may perish with them for want of Food Besides which he has a very considerable Army as well for the Opposing of them in all places that shall be judg'd necessary as for the Protecting all the rest of his Majesties dutiful Subjects whose Goods and Chattels he promises to Secure destroying all the rest that cannot be brought conveniently into such places as he shall judg necessary to be preserved and burning the Houses Mills not only of those that are in actual Rebellion but also of their Friends and Adherents that no hopes of escaping may be left for any man Beginning this very day to send his necessary Orders to all Governours and other Commanders of his Majesties Forces of Colerane Antrim Carrickfergus Belfast Dungannon Charlemont Belturbet Sligo and to Col. Sarsfield commanding a flying Army beyond Ballyshany Col. Sutherland commanding another towards Iniskillen and the Duke of Berwick another on the Fin-water to cause all the Men Women and Children who are any wayes related to those in Londonderry or any where else in open Rebellion to be forthwith brought to this place without hopes of withdrawing further into the Kingdom that in case before this said Monday the 1 st of July in the Year of our Lord 1689. be expired ●hey do not send Us Hostages other Deputies with a full sufficient power to Treat with Us for the Surrender of the said City of Londonderry on reasonable Conditions that they shall not after this time be admitted to any Treaty whatsoever And the Army which shall continue the Siege and will with the assistance of God soon reduce them shall have Orders to give no Quarter or spare either Age or Sex in case they are taken by Force But if they return to their Obedience due to their Natural Prince he Promises them that the Conditions granted them in his Majesties Name shall be Inviolably observed by all his Majesties Subjects and that He himself will have a care to Protect them on all occasions even to take their parts if any Injury contrary to the Agreement should be done them making Himself responsible for the performance of the Conditions on which they Agree to Surrender the said place of Londonderry to the KING Given under my Hand this 30th day of June in the Year of our LORD 1689. Le Mareschal Rosen No. 35. The Indictment of Dennis Connor in which the Counterfeit Letter to Mr. Will. Spike is inserted Term ' Hillar ' quinto sexto Jacobi Regis COm' Dublin ' Scilicet Juratores pro Domino Rege Sacrament ' suum dicunt proesent ' quod Dionisius Connor nuper de Dublin ' in Com' Civit ' Dublin ' Yeoman e●…o