Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A70215
|
The Irish-evidence convicted by their own oaths, or, Their swearing and counter-swearing plainly demonstrated in several of their own affidavits herewith faithfully published as also a full and impartial account of their past & present practices.
|
Hetherington, William.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing H1626; ESTC R10355
|
17,276
|
20
|
not to try any more of the Lords in the Tower and after the Parliament was Prorogued he told the said Witnesses or some of them that he would remove their Nests 10. That the said Fitz-Gerald had kept continuall correspondency and familiarity with the four Witnesses which were brought over by a Messenger from Ireland and a Person of Quality perceiving it told him that he had not observed the Orders the Committee gave him which was That he should not come near any of the Evidence nor Converse with them The said Fitz-Gerald replyed that he was Commanded by the King to come there and also gave the said Person of Quality very scurrilous abusive language 11. The said Fitz-Gerald also abused the said four Witnesses or some of them and asked them if they came to hang poor Plunket 12. That the said Fitz-Gerald said he was abused because he would not accuse the Duke of Ormond and the Chancellor of Ireland which he knew to be as honest men as any in the three Kingdoms THe Examination of these Articles being referred to a Committee Mr. Hetherington produced all the Evidence that Fitz-Gerald had been tampering with and gave full satisfaction to the Committee of his villanous Practises of which indeed his own Insolent Behaviours before the said Committee might alone have been a very pregnant proof And the Chair-man of that Committee was making his Report to the House when the Black Rod came to Prorogue them soon after which a Dissolution followed otherwise 't is probable this Plot-shammer would have been severely dealt with according to Law But escaping Justice then so luckily has encouraged him and his Accomplices to proceed since more boldly in their endeavours to sham the Popish Plot and Suborn Witnesses against the Earl of Shaftsbury Mr. Hetherington c. The first course he took to shock the Integrity of the other Witnesses was to fright them with impudent lies and scandalous Aspersions upon the Person and Honour of His Sacred Majesty assuring them with Horrid Oaths That His Majesty did not send for them nor regard whether they were all hang'd or drown'd That His Majesty did not believe there was any Popish Plot at all nor care for prosecuting it That they should never get any allowance if they would not be ruled by him c. Such brazen-fac'd slanders on the best of Monarchs who on all occasions has so vigorously shewn himself a true Defender of the Protestant Faith that no good Subject can repeat them without Horror and Wonder that the Villian that broach'd them has so long escaped the Pillory or rather the Gallows In the next place he braves it out with fine clothes and Insults over the other Witnesses poverty and shews them whole handfulls of temptation bright charming Gold Insinuating that they should have the like encouragment if they would but embark with him in the same design Some of them indeed had so much conscience and sparks of honesty remaining or at least such regard to their future repute and safety as for some time to struggle with these Temptations and then freely upon Oath discovered the profered Subornations and wheadling devices yet afterwards as may reasonably be judged by the sequel over-swayed with the suggestions of the Devil and his Instruments so as to value neither Truth nor Conscience nor even their former Oaths pinched with necessities and Brow-beaten with the frowns of Grandees and abandoned almost by all the World they began to hearken to the voice of this Man-catching Syren and forget the Popish Plot and set up the Irish Ha-loo-loo against Protestants and being once engaged and having slung their Consciencies over-board nothing remains that they will Boggle at or which their grand Plot-shamming Masters and dayly Feeders please to put them upon This may seem a bold charge and would appear very unjust had we only suspitions and probable proofs or violent presumptions to justifie it but we have it under several of their own hands nay more upon their Oaths which for the Readers satisfaction we shall here faithfully recite The following Depositions being by several of them ere they were so totally debauched voluntarily sworn before the respective Magistrates therein mentioned London ss The Information of Maurice Fitz-Gerald Gent. taken this Eighteenth Day of March 1680. upon Oath before me Sir John Frederick Knight and Alderman one of the Kings Majesties Justices of the Peace for the City of London THis Informant being duly sworn saith That whereas it is reported in and about the City of London and Westminster and other places That he hath retracted from the Evidence and Information that he gave upon Oath before John Odell Nicholas Mouncton and George Aylesmer three of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Limerick in the Kingdom of Ireland against several Persons in the said Information mentioned being concerned in the Horrid Popish Plot contrived against His Majesty and His Protestant Subjects there it is altogether false and untrue And further declareth That whatsoever he hath related in the said Information is altogether true and will upon no account whatsoever retract from the same but will justifie the same Information whensoever he this Informant shall be thereunto required And further saith That whereas there was a Petition lately presented in the name of this Informant and others as he hath heard to the King and Council by David Fitz-Gerald That he this Informant had disowned any Information that he had given against Sir John Fitz-Gerald and Colonel Pierce Lacy He this Informant doth declare That he knew nothing of the said Petition till after it was presented and was not any waies concerned in the same Maurice Fitz-Gerald Jur. Coram me John Frederick Vera Copia E. B. Which Information given by the said Maurice Fitz-Gerald in Ireland follows in these words Com. Limerick The Information of Maurice Fitz-Gerald Gent. taken before us John Odell Nicholas Muncton and George Aylsmer three of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Limerick THe Informant being duely sworn on the Holy Evangelist saith That on or about Winter 1676. after Captain Thomas Mac-Inerina returned out of Flanders and France whether he had been imployed as Agent from the Irish Gentry there was a very great meeting at Colonell Peirce Lacy's House at Curroe where met besides the said Colonel the Lord of Brittas Molowney the Popish Titular Bishop of Killalow Brenan the Popish Bishop of Waterford Duley the Popish Bishop of Limerick two Jesuits whose names this Informant knows not Sir John Fitz-Gerald John Power Son to David Power late of Killbolan John Hurley Eustace White John Bourke of Cahormohill William Bourke his Brother Captain John Purdon Captain Thomas Mac-Inerina Captain Richard Stephenson David Fitz-Gerald and he this Informant and several others whose names this Informant knows not where and at which time the said Captain Mac-Inerina gave an account of his Agency and what Force the French King had promised to send over into this Kingdom of
The Irish-Evidence Convicted by their Own OATHS OR THEIR SWEARING AND Counter-Swearing Plainly Demonstrated In Several of Their Own AFFIDAVITS Herewith faithfully Published AS ALSO A Full and Impartial ACCOUNT OF THEIR Past Present Practices LONDON Printed for William Inghal the Elder 1682. The Irish-Evidence CONVICTED By their own OATHS I Doubt not but the whole Nation is by this time sufficiently Alarm'd with the noise of the Irish Witnesses and their Notorious Adventures their Swearing Counter-swearing Quarrels amongst themselves Suborning and being Suborn'd Endeavours to drop the Popish Plot and Sham another upon Protestants c. are become the Common themes of every Table-talk and the Subject matter of Play-House Drolls But the Methods how the persons by whom and the Ends for which they were turn'd Renegado's and brought to debauch their Consciences to such an unparallel'd degree are things perhaps not so Generally known or taken notice of Nor shall I though I have more Reason than most Private Persons to Inspect those Affairs undertake fully to satisfie in all those Particulars only shall here present the publick with a few Remarques and true Copies of some of their own Depositions which will afford us not a little Light therein for he must be extreamly dull that by those four Grapes cannot Judg of the whole Vintage 1. It appears by Coleman's Letters and all the Evidence of the Popish Plot that the same was a General Conspiracy to Subvert and Root out the Protestant Religion not only in England but likewise in the rest of his Majesties Dominions and indeed throughout the World Whence it cannot in Reason be imagin'd they would neglect to carry on the same in Ireland a Kingdom where the over-ballance of Papists the open undisturb'd Residence of Popish Bishops and Priests the natural Antipathy and Malice in the Natives towards the English as well on the account of Religion as for enjoying several of their Lands and many other Reasons afforded such apt fewel for that Combustion On the other side 't is most probable that the French as well to embroil our Affairs and promote Popery as more especially in hopes of gaining at long Run the Possession and Government of so Important a Kingdom into their own Hands might be forward enough in offering them Assistance as they did to the Rebels of Messina in Sicily when lately they Revolted from their Soveraign the King of Spain 2. The Plot in England being Discovered and the Prosecution vigorously carried on against the Traytors and some of them Executed 't is no wonder if Conscious Guilt and Fear a very powerful motive with an Irish man and which has abundance more Influence on them than true Remorse of Conscience or Kindness to the English might prevail with some of the Conspirators to Discover what they knew and indeed their Informations were so Coherent and Backt with such pregnant Circumstances that both His Majesty and the Parliament declared themselves satisfied There was such a Bloody and Traiterous design on foot in that Kingdom and accordingly Plunket the Titular Primate on the Testimony of some of these Evidence and his own Papers was Condemn'd and Executed 3. But the Popish Party taking Boldness from the Dissolutions of Parliaments whereby the Prosecution against them was not so vigorously carried on or at least retarded and perceiving the Poverty of these Witnesses who had a very little to subsist on but the meer Charity of well disposed Protestants resolv'd to try if they could take them off and prevail with them by Bribes and Hopes to decline their former Evidence and lay the Plot at the Protestants doors This they foresaw would be a two-edg'd Strategem for if they succeeded and could get these Witnesses to be believ'd as to the Protestant Plot then they should Infallibly destroy many of their Enemies and most zealous Prosecutors as the Earl of Shaftsbury c. or if the Sham were Discovered and the Witnesses Trapp'd in their Stories yet however it would spoil their Credit and render their Testimony so suspected as to be Invalid against any of the Popish Traytors and so either way not fail of doing their Party a most Effectual Service Nor had they reason to despair of prevailing with these fellows for though some of them not all did now call themselves Protestants yet even those pretended Converts remain'd Papists in their Hearts or at least were still Irish men that is implacable Enemies to the English And as fear of a Rope first brought them to Discover so now these fears beginning to lessen and new fears arise that they should suffer for Discovery Therefore the only way whereby they could hope for reconciliation to their Countreymen and Pardon and Absolution from their Church was to be Instrumental in Sacrificing the Lives of as many Protestants as they could to her Interest as a Peace-Offering Add hereunto their wretched Poverty which not only rendred them desperate but that very small Relief which they had received from Protestonts gave them greater opportunities to colour such a Sham-Plot and swear against their Charitable Innocent Benefactors 4. In order therefore to this they first tamper with and prevail upon David Fitz-Gerald and make use of him as a Decoy to wheadle in the rest concerning which Worshipful Tool it will be necessary to give a brief Account His Pedigree is very suitable to his Imployment and Practiecs his Father a pitiful Villain considerable only for having had the honour to have been Indicted and Out-law'd as being one of the Cut-throats of the Protestants in the late Rebellion in that Kingdom and who now goes a begging with his Wife from Door to Door This young Hero their Son was Originally a Foot-Boy first to one Captain Butler and afterwards to one Colonel Piggot and though he hath had the impudence to say before the King and Council that he was a man of a considerable Estate 't is most Notorious that in Lands Goods or otherwise he was never worth twenty Pounds in his Life whilst he continued in Ireland and what he hath done as to Discovery of any thing of the Popish Plot he was provok'd thereunto rather by desire of Revenge than any Sentiments of Loyalty for his Landlord Sir Thomas Southwel having distrain'd a few Cattel he had for his Rent which were not at all worth 10 l. And having no way to recover them back again being all that he and his Family had to subsist on but by breaking of the Pound and stealing them out and Sir Thomas Prosecuting him for the same he then in Revenge Charges Sir Thomas for Concealing the Popish Plot pretended to be Discovered by him to the said Sir Thomas sometime before which whether true or false I determin not 't is certain few people believ'd it the whole Country knowing him to be a fellow of so vile a Life and Conversation that they would give no credit to any thing he should either say or swear though they were otherwise well satisfied