THE implacable Rancour and restless At­tempts of those in Communion with the Church of Rome, tho they have in all Ages display'd themselves in the most bloody Characters, and have had the barbarous Effects of depopulating Regions, Coun­treys and Kingdoms, by Massacres, Sword and Fire, in order to the setting up and establishing their Religion, by destroying the Lives and Properties of those of different perswasions: Yet perhaps amongst all their Efforts of that Kind, none have deserved greater ab­horrence, nor given a blacker Testimony of their Inhu­manity, than the barbarous and bloody Irish Rebellion, which brake out in the Year 1641. and was carried on with that Rage and Violence, that it laid almost all the parts of that deplorable Countrey in Blood and Confu­sion, depriving by a most horrid Massacre, above two hun­dred thousand Persons, of all Ages, Sexes, and Qualities, [Page 4]of their dearest Lives: Leaving Children without Parents, Wives deprived of their Husbands, and Husbands robb'd of their Wives; sometimes without distinction burying whole Families in the same Fate. And though there be many Histories of large Volumes, that have Chronicled this Affair, to be still kept alive in the Memories of Po­sterity, yet it must not be accounted a Work improper at this time, to remarque some of the most important and best attested Passages relating thereunto. This little Collection presents you with nothing but what comes un­der the Hands of the Great Ministers of State, and those which at that time had a share in the management of the publick Affairs, and Administration of that unhappy Kingdom.

The Priests and others of that Communion, of the Irish Nation, have not been wanting to decrie, and as much as in them lies, to blast all Evidences of that Kind, and have taken all occasions to Remonstrate the Pressures which they pretend to have suffered under the then Govern­ment in that Kingdom, and spare not to term it Tyran­nical: They intimate as if their Case were like that of the Israelites in the Land of Egypt, and equal to those Persecutions for Religion in the Primitive Times.

In a Remonstrance of Grievances presented to his then Majesty, in behalf of the Catholicks of Ireland, and given in to his Majesties Commissioners at Trime, the 17 of March, 1642. they Express themselves to this purpose.

This is the language of that Remonstrance, whereby they endeavour to cast the Odium of their infamous Trea­sons and Butcheries upon his then Majesty, and the Prin­cipal Officers of State within that Kingdom; of which there needs no other Confutation, than a true and Im­partial Relation of the beginning and Progress of that Rebellion.

The Kingdom of Ireland was brought in subjection to the Crown of England, by the victorious Arms of Henry the second, the beginning of whose Conquests bear Date from the year of our Lord, 1172. The Towns and Vil­lages were contemptible, their Buildings so poor, that when the King arrived at their chief City of Dublin, he set up a Long House made of smoothed Wattles, af­ter the manner of their Countrey, and therein kept his Christmass; finding there no place fit for his Reception and Entertainment. The Inhabitants were as uncultivated as their Lands, being generally void of all manner of Ci­vility, govern'd by no settled Laws, but living like beasts of Prey, biting and devouring one another; without any reasonable Constitutions for determining of their Proper­ties, or to fence them against open Force and Violence: Murthers, Rapes, and the most notorious Robberies, and other Acts of Inhumanity and Barbarism, raging amongst them without Controul or means of Redress. For the first Century almost the English kept themselves in Bodies di­stinct and separate from the Irish, not suffering them to inhabit or mix amongst them, but in after-times by De­grees they admitted them into a fatal familiarity, which polluted them with their beastly Customs and Manners; for prevention of which, in the times of that most excellent [Page 6]Prince, Edward the third, many good and wholsome Laws were Enacted. Notwithstanding which, they have not sail'd at all times to Rise up and imbrue their hands in the Blood of their English Neighbours; so that Ireland hath for a long time been a true Aceldama, or Field of Blood, and a devouring Sepulchre of the English Nati­on.

For by the Histories of those times, we cannot find that there was any settled Peace or good Establishment, from the first coming over of the English, until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; which contain'd above three hundred and eighty years; during the greatest part of which time, they were in Perpetual Troubles and Combustions, being extreamly Harass'd and over-worn with Misery: where­upon that Blessed Queen, even in the beginning of her Reign, sent over Prudent and Religious Governours, to advance the Work of Reformation; and enacted many more wholsome Laws against the Barbarous Customs of the Irish. Notwithstanding which Care, and all the Circum­spection of that wise Princess, still there was one Rebelli­on breaking out upon the Neck of another, even amidst their repeated Submissions and pretended Obedience to the English Crown; which occasion'd her to send over a Royal Army under the Conduct of her most Renown'd and Choice English Commanders. Nevertheless it was not without great difficulty and Effusion of much English Blood and Treasure, that that Glorious work of redu­cing the Traitor Tyrone, was accomplished. The calami­ties of that War, and the raging of a Famine, had re­duced that Kingdom to a deplorable Condition, in the daies of King James the first; who seized the six Coun­ties within the Province of Ʋlster, which had belonged to the Rebels; some part of which were reserved to gratifie the well-affected Natives, and the rest distribu­ted, in certain Proportions amongst the English Underta­kers; who settled themselves, and many of their Families, in those parts, laying the Foundations of some good [Page 7]Towns, incompassed with Stone Walls; raising several Castles and Houses of strength in the parts of the Coun­trey, to the great Comfort, and security of the Brittish Inhabitants; who with great cost and much Industry cul­tivated the Land, and introduced Civility amongst the Na­tives; the whole Kingdom began exceedingly to flourish, the People to multiply and increase, and the very Irish themselves seemed satisfied with the Tranquility they enjoyed.

Upon the Accession of Charles the first to the Crown, the Affairs of Ireland look with a more calm and benign Face than in Times past; many Applications from the Popish Nobility and Gentry, for the Redress of their Grievances, were with great Clemency received, and with great Moderation recommended to the Care of the then two Houses of Parliament sitting at Dublin. The Catho­licks were permitted to the private Exercise of their Re­ligion, with great Freedom; they had their Orders of Bishops, Vicars, Priests and Nuns permitted amongst them; and by the Inter-Marriages of the English, with some of the better refin'd Natives, all things presented as if inclin'd to Amity: the advantages they received by the English Improvements and Commerce, caused many of the Native Gentry and others, to displace their Irish Tenants, and set their Lands to the English; of which they found the Benefit by a great advance of their Rents and Securities: so serene and full of Lenity was the con­duct of the Government, that the late Irish Army raised for the Invasion of the Kingdom of Scotland, were Peacea­bly disbanded, and their Arms and Munition laid up in his Majesties Stores in the Castle of Dublin; there seem­ed to be no more remains of former Disorders, nor was there any more noise of War heard. In this great calm the English were in a profound Security, under the Hopes of a Blessed Peace. All sate pleasantly enjoying the Fruits of their Labours, without any Apprehensions of the ap­proaching Storm, when on the twenty third of October, [Page 8]One thousand six hundred forty one, brake out that dread­ful Rebellion, and universal Defection and Revolt, where­in not only the Native Irish, but almost all the old Eng­lish that adhered to the Church of Rome, were generally concerned. It would be a large Task to trace out the Progress of the Rebellion, so execrable in its self, so odi­ous to God, and the whole World, as no Age, no King­dom, nor People can match the horrid Cruelties, the abo­minable Murders, that have been almost numberless, as well as without Mercy, committed upon the English and Protestant Inhabitants throughout the Land. And this carried on with such a deep reservedness and Secresie, as is enough to beget Admiration: for it could not be un­derstood that any English man (besides the uncertain Pre­sumption which Sir William Cole had of a Commotion to be raised in the Province of Ʋlster, about a fortnight be­fore this dreadful Rebellion broke forth;) I say, that any English, man had Notice, or the least Apprehensions of it. It's true, the said Sir William Cole upon his first conceiv­ing that something was hatching amongst the Irish, did write a Letter to the Lords Justices and Council, Da­ted the eleventh of October, One thousand six hundred forty one. Wherein he gave them Notice of the great resort made to Sir Phelim Oneal, in the County of Tyrone, and likewise to the House of the Lord Mac-Guire in the County of Fermanagh, and that by Persons much suspe­cted to be fit Instruments for Mischief; as also that the said Lord Mac Guire, had lately made several Journeys into the Pale, and other places: And had spent much time in writting Letters, and sending Dispatches abroad. The Lords upon receipt of those Letters from Sir Willi­am Cole, required him to be very Vigilant, and use his utmost Diligence to find out the occasion of those meet­ings, and to give them the most speedy Advertisement thereof, or of any other matter that might tend to the service of the State. The twenty third of October, was the day appointed for seizing the City and Castle of Dublin, [Page 9]and for murdering the Lords Justices, and Council of Ireland, and the rest of the Protestants, and to seize upon all the Castles, Forts, Sea-Ports and Strengths, that were in the hands of the English: Notice hereof was brought to the Lord Justice Parsons, the Evening before, by Owen O Connally, a Person of meer Irish Extraction: His Lord­ship gave little credit to it at first, as proceeding from an obscure Person, and one who at that time seemed dis­guised with Liquor; but however the Lord Parsons gave him order again to go to Mac Mahon, and to get out of him, as much certainty of the Plot, and as many cir­cumstances, as he could; charging him to return unto him that Evening, with an Account of what farther par­ticulars he could get.

Immediately strict Orders were given to the Constable of the Castle to have the Gates thereof well guarded, as also to the Maior and Sheriffs of the City, to have strong Watches set upon all the parts of the same, and to stop all Strangers. About ten that night they found the said Connally seized by the Watch, and carried to Pri­son, and from thence they brought him to the Lord Bor­laces House; where upon Examination, upon Oath, he de­clared, that finding Col. Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon, at the Lord Mac Guire's Lodging, the said Hugh told him, that there would that Night be great numbers of Noble-men, and Gentlemen of the Irish Papists, from all the parts of the Kingdom, in that Town, who with himself had de­termined to take the Castle of Dublin, and possess them­selves of all his Majesties Ammunition there, to morrow morning, being Saturday; and that they intended first to batter the Chimnies, and if the City would not yield, then to batter down the Houses, and so cut off all the Pro­testants that would not joyn with them. And that the said Hugh then told him, that the Irish had prepared men in all parts of the Kingdom, to destroy all the English inha­biting there, to morrow Morning by ten a Clock; and that the Protestants in all the Sea-Ports, and other Towns [Page 10]in the Kingdom should be killed this Night; and that all the Posts that could be, could not prevent it; that he moved the said Hugh to forbear executing of that Busi­ness, and to discover it for the saving of his own Estate, who said he could not help it. But said, they did owe their Allegiance to the King, and would Pay him all his Rights, but that they did this for the Tyrannical Government, that was over them, and to imitate Scotland, who got a Priviledge by that course. This is the main Scope of the first Examination that was taken before the Lords Justi­ces, which occasioned the following Proclamation.

Before we come to the Particulars of this bloody Ex­ecution, it will not be amiss to recite a passage from the Excellent Pen, of that great Peer and States­man, the Earl of Orrery, in his Answer to P. Welsh. The Wifest of men thought the Irish Papists fastened to his Majesty in the Year, 1641. by the best of Governments, and to the English Protestants, by the strictest tyes of Interest and Friendship, Marriage, and which is more in their Esteem, Gossiping and Feasting; to the publick Peace, by their, as flourishing, so free Condition; and to all, by those Royal Graces, which his Sacred Majesty at that time Indulged their Commissioners; such as themselves desired, 'twas but to Ask and have: Yet all this Honey was turn'd into Gall; for at that very time, wherein the King was Exercising such High Acts of Grace to them, the Irish Papists Plotted, and soon after perpe­trated the worst of Rebellions; the worst Extensive, Ex­ulcerating generally; and Intensive, breaking forth, with more Perfidy, Barbarisme and Cruelty, than can be pa­rallel'd in any History. So far that extraordinary Per­son.

But whilst by the great Care and Conduct of the Lords Justices, and Council, the intended surprize of [Page 13]the Castle of Dublin, was defeated, divers of the Chief Ring-Leaders seized and in Custody, their other Confe­derates brake forth in the North of Ireland, with an un­interrupted and Tragick Execution of their Hellish Pur­poses; and dividing their Forces into several Parties, ac­cording, as they had determined amongst themselves, at one time surprized by Treachery, the Town and Ca­stle of the Newry, the Fort of Don-Gannon, the Fort Mont-Joy, Charl [...], Ton-Rages, Carick, Mac-Rosse, Clough-Cut­ter, Castle [...]ley, Castle of Monagham; being all of them considerable [...]es of strength, and in divers of them Com­panies of Ho [...]se and Foot, belonging to the standing Ar­my. They likewise m [...]de themselves Masters of a multi­tude of other Castles, Houses of strength, Towns and Vil­lages well Peopled with English Inhabitants, who had much inriched the Country as well as themselves, by their painful Labours. The English thought themselves secare in the friendship of their Irish Tenants, Servants or Land-Lords, and the surrounding Neighbourhood, whom they had endeavoured to oblige by all the kindnesses of Friend­ship: So that when the Fire first began to break out, and the whole Country began to rise about them, some had their recourse to those they esteemed their Friends, for Protection, relying on their Tenants, Neighbours, or Land-lords for Preservation, or at least present safety, and with great confidence, put their Lives, their Wives, their Children, and all they had into their Power. But Oh Inhumane and Perfidious! these confiding Innocents, were by these their Irish Friends, either betrayed into the hands of other Rebels, or most inhumanely Butcher'd by their own hands; such Maxims had their bloody Priests instilled into them, that they held it mortal sin to give any manner of relief or Protection to the English: No tyes of Faith or Friendship, could restrain their Rage: Irish Landlords devoured their English Tenants; Irish Tenants and Servants made a Sacrifice of their English Landlords and Masters; one Neighbour cruelly Butchered and destroy­ed [Page 14]another: the Venom descended in the Veins of their Children; those of the Irish Nation, in the very beginning fell to Strip and Kill the Children of the English: 'Twas thought meritorious in them that could by any means bring the English to Destruction; Servants were killed as they were Plowing in the Fields; Husbands cut to peices in the presence of their Wives; the Childrens Brains dashed out in the Presence of their Parents, and in a mo­ment their Goods and Cattel were seized, their Houses burnt, the Places of their Habitation laid desolate; and those that had their Lives, exposed to the greatest mise­ries of Nakedness and Famine.

Where the English stood upon their Defence, and in small Parties endeavoured to oppose the violence of the Rebels, there they entrapt them with promises of safety of Pass-ports, of Protections for themselves and Goods. This they confirmed to them sometimes by Oaths and deepest Protestations, sometimes under Hand and Seal; but no sooner were they in their Power, but they took themselves to be discharged from the Sacred Obligations of Faith and Justice, and with more than Pagan Barbarism, cut in peices those whom they had taken into their Pro­tection; Permitting their Soldiers after all the forementi­oned securities, to destroy and Butcher them at their Plea­sures.

Nor were the sacred Walls of the Cathedral Church at Armagh any defence against the Sacrilegious Violences of Sir Phelim Oneal, and his Brother Turner: Besides, many others by the same Artifices inveigled and betrayed out of Churches, Castles, and Places, to which they had fled for security. The Rebels were embodied and dispersed in Parties through all the Neighbourhoods, so that the English durst not draw out of their own Houses, to form a Body to op­pose them: whereas if they had left their Houses upon the first rising of the Irish, and in several Counties put them­selves into a Posture of Defence, they might have undoubt­edly [Page 15]prevented the effusion of much of that Blood which for want of some such Conduct, was so barborously spilt. Other Policies they made use of, to heighten and Pro­tract the Calamities of the Innocent. Of some they took Plate, Money, or whatever other moveables could be pro­duced; promising them under such consideration to convey them safe to Dublin; notwithstanding which, by an unpre­sidented perfidy, they either exposed them into such unsuf­ferable Calamities upon the way, under which they could not subsist, or else dispatcht them by an immediate But­chery, after they had undertaken their Conduct.

At the first breaking out, they did not in many places murder many of them; but the course they took, was to seize upon their Goods and Cattel, and all they could strip them of, leaving themselves, their Wives, and Children naked, and in that miserable plight exposed to the seve­rities of most bitter Cold and Hunger; forcing many of them to the Mountains, to seek their way through Woods and Boggs; and if by any means they procured other co­vering, so but of Rags, they were immediately stript of that too, and none suffer'd to give them any shelter or relief, without falling under the heavy displeasure of their Priests and Officers.

Mr. Creighton, who by his Charity relieved great num­bers of them, and for that time preserved them from Pe­rishing; testifies upon his Examination, that in one com­pany there passed by his House fourteen hundred Persons, besides divers other lesser numbers, all without any Wea­pons, or any thing but their Cloaths, which they suffer'd them not to carry away with them, but most cruelly stript many of them to their Skins, and betray'd them into the hands of other Rebels, by whom they were barbarously killed or mangled: Thirty Persons of one Company be­ing slain out-right, and a hundred and fifty others mise­rably wounded; so that Tracts of Blood issuing from [Page 16]their Wounds, lay upon the High-way for twelve miles together. Many very young Children, to the number of sixty or thereabout, were left, and perished by the way, because the bloody pursuit of the Rebells were such, that their Parents and Friends could carry them no further. Some of the Cannibals vowed, that if any dug Graves to bury their dead Children, themselves should be buried therein: So these miserable People were compelled to leave most of them unburied, expos'd to ravenous Beasts and Fowls; some few of the distressed Parents were forced to carry a great way, to cover them with Earth. A Wo­man great with Child, was left upon the Road stripped to her Smock, who was set upon by three Irish Women and some Children, who rent and miserably tore the said poor English Woman, leaving her Naked in a bitter Frost and Snow; Insomuch that she fell in Labour under their hands, and both she and her Child died together. Ma­ny of those Men, and Women, and Children, that esca­ped into places of Safety, not long out-lived the bitter­ness of their passage, but either with Grief, or weary with Travel, Hunger, Cold and Nakedness, contracted those Diseases, which put a Period to their Pilgrimage.

Whilst these Outrages, and Desolations ravaged in di­vers parts of the Countrey, especially the Northern parts, (for they had not yet discovered their united Treasons in other places,) the Lords Justices, and Council, issued a Commission of Fire and Sword, for the destruction of the Rebels and their Associates, and withal to receive as ma­ny of them as would submit to Mercy into his Majesties Favour: They likewise gave out what quantities of Arms and other Ammunition the present Exigences would af­ford, to preserve the Peace, and obstruct the Irruption of the yet undiscovered Flames, which were ready to breakforth in the nearest adjoyning Counties to the City of Dub­lin: These Commissions and Arms were put into the hands of the Popish Nobility and Gentry, who pretended great [Page 17]Loyalty and affection to the Publick, as well as into the hands of the English: By which it is apparent, the great Confidence the Lords-Justices and Council were pleased to Repose in them, seeking by this means to have made them Instrumental for the Preservation of much of that Blood, and many of those Lives, which notwithstanding all their endeavours were overwhelmed by the Uncontroulable torrent of that Bloody Rebellion; which now no longer confines it self within the Limits of the Northern Coun­ties, but brake out in the Neighbourhood of the Chief City, about the middle of November. The Barbarous Irish in the County of Wiclow, most furiously fell upon the En­glish, Robbing, Pillaging, Murdering all within that Terri­tory; their fair Houses were soon consumed to Ashes, their Cattel and live Goods drove away, and a siege laid to Fort Carew, wherein was a Company of Foot belonging to the old Army.

In few days after, this Conspiracy shewed it self in the Counties of Wexford and Caterlagh, who equalled if not exceeded the bloody Cauelties of their Neighbours. Likewise the County of Kildare, into whose hands the State had intrusted Arms and Munition for the Preserva­tion of the Publick, even those Arms so design'd, were employed against them; nor was the Carriage of the Lords and Chief Gentlemen of the English Pale, such as exempt­ed them from suspicion. This indeed was that which heightned the fears and apprehensions of the City of Dub­lin, which was now the only Sanctuary of the English Na­tion; they saw themselves surrounded with the approach­ing Troops of Inhumane Rebels on every quarter. But that which added the greatest Terror to their Consterna­tion, was the constant Resort of multitudes who came in every moment stripped, wounded and miserably destroyed from the Northern parts: Persons who had lived in good Quality, having no covering but Rags; others wrapt round with twisted Straw, to hide their Nakedness; here you should see some Reverend Ministers, and others of a [Page 18]grave Aspect, bruised, hackt and wounded, and hardly escaping with their Lives; nothing was heard but the sad Lamentations of Wives for their murdered Husbands, Mo­thers for their Children barbarously Butchered before their Faces; Poor Infants, batter'd and benumm'd with Cold and Travel, gasping out their Souls in the Bosoms of their Fainting Mothers.

So great were the numbers of those that perished in the Churches, Streets, and Corners of the City, that the or­dinary Burying-places could not contain them: Two large Pieces of Ground were set apart for that purpose, these were never to be forgotten Objects of Testimonies of Po­pish Commiseration. It is not easie to form an Idea of the dismal Confusion and Consternation which shewed it self in the Faces of the distracted Citizens; the English In­habitants saw those Barbarities, Out-rages, and Slaughters, which had fallen upon their Country-men in Adjacent parts, now entring in at their own Gates; the Papists Inhabi­tants, furnished with Arms ready to execute their Conceal­ed. Villanies, themselves fenceless, without Fortification or other means to secure them from their Barbarous At­tempts; such a frightful Aspect shewed it self in the City, as seemed an Omen of their approaching Ruine. Nor was it only the Common and Inferiour sort that were the Actors in these dismal Tragedies, but some of the Chief Gentlemen of the Nation, under pretence of securing the Goods of the English, took them into their own Cu­stody, without any design of ever making any Restitu­tion, but having after this peaceable sort deprived them of their subsistence, they afterward exposed them to the want of all things, without restoring any part of their own to be a Refreshment to them in their great Ex­tremities.

Many of the English Protestants had entertained so good an Opinion of their being kindly dealt with, that they de­livered their Goods into their hands by Retail, giving them Inventories of all they had; they took some of the choicest [Page 19]Goods out of places wherein they had concealed them, to put them into the Custody of the Irish; who having, as hath been said, either by force or fraud made themselves Masters of the Protestants Estates, next spared not to strip Man, Woman and Child, and expose them to the severity of the Weather, in many places not permitting them the shelter of a Bush, or to remain in the Woods; forbidding those of their own Nation and Communion, un­der great Penalties to give them any sort of Entertainment or Relief.

And perhaps amongst all their Barbarities none look with a blacker Face, or gives a truer Demonstration of the im­placableness of their Temper, and their natural thirst for Blood, then this carriage of theirs, that those who perish­ed not under the violence of their hands, should notwith­standing be exposed to such rigours and insuperable neces­sities, as they were not able to out-live: they were not con­tent to have stript them once or twice, but as often as they got any covering, thô never so tattered and miserable, the next Irish Woman, nay even their very Children, would not fail to strip them of them; of which divers Deposi­tions were given in before the Commissioners, in that be­half appointed, especially one John Courley, Deposeth up­on his Examination, That when the Town of Armagh was set on Fire by the Rebels; and his Wife joyned in the same Deposition, That their House being consumed in that Conflagration, she was stript no less then seven several times, and at last left with not so much as her Smock or Hair-lace; and that she concealed her self in her Hutch for three or four dayes, and then went to seek her Children, two of which had the Small-Pox at that time appearing upon them: This was an infallible way to accomplish their In­humane and Bloody purposes, as was too visible by the Issue; the High-wayes and Towns through which the English had passed, being covered with heaps of those which had perished of that great Mortality, which was the Conse­quence of the Inhumane Cruelty of the Bloody Rebels: [Page 20]For a further Confirmation of which, take the following Depositions.

That of James Refern, of the County of London-Derry; which gives an Account, that in the Town of Colerain, the Mortality was so great, that the Living were hardly capable of stowing the Bodies of the Dead, which they pa [...]kt in great Ranks, in large Graves or Holes, as if they had been packing Herrings.

That of Magdalen Redman, is no less to the purpose, which saith, That a great Company of her Protastant Neighbours, amongst which were twenty two Widows, ha­ving been robb'd and stript stark naked, they covered them­selves in a House with Straw, which some of the Rebels set a Fire, on purpose to burn or smother them; but some of them being touched with more Compassion, command­ed them to forbear, by which they escaped that fiery Try­al: Notwithstanding which they were driven naked into the Woods, where they were forced to continue in Frost and Snow, from Tuesday to Saturday, their Bodies be­ing so Cold, that the Snow lay upon them unmelted, divers of their Children dying in their Arms: When they endeavoured to escape to the Burre, the wicked Rebels would turn them towards Dublin, and when they were making for Dublin, they hindered them again, telling them they should to the Burre. Thus were they tossed from place to place where there was no shelter, nor any relief; so that many of them dyed under their hands; and of those that after escaped to the Burre, though they there met with some Relief, by the Charity of William Parsons Esquire, yet above forty of their number died there, of the Cruelty they had undergone.

In the Castle of Lisgoole, a hundred fifty two Men, Women, and Children, were burnt or smothered, as ap­pears by Deposition, of Tho. Wenslaw, and John Simpson. At the Castle of Moneah, ninety Protestants were slain and murdered: the same Rebels having promised fair Quarter to the Protestants in the Castle of Tallah, after [Page 21]they had the Castle and their Arms delivered into their hands, first stript them of all they had, and then most barbarously murder'd them. This was attested by Tho. Wenslaw aforesaid.

One hundred Persons, most of the Scotch Nation, were hanged or otherwise destroyed at Lissenskeah; where Row­ry Mac Guire with his Company, having in a pretended friendly manner desired to speak with one Mr. Middle­ton, who had the keeping of the Castle, being Clerk of the Peace, and upon that, the securing the Records of the Countrey; these the said Mac Guire having enforc'd Mid­dleton to deliver to him, immediately burnt: Taking like­wise a Thousand pound in Money, which he had of Sir William Balfoures: after which he compelled Mr. Middleton to hear Mass, and to swear never to alter from it, and then with a Compassion equally extending to Soul and Body, caused both Him, his Wife and Children to be hung up, and immediately strangled.

At Portnedown Bridge, so famous for the never to be forgotten Cruelties of the savage Rebels, a thousand Men, Women and Children were in several Parties unmerciful­ly thrown into the River; for they having broken the Bridge down in the midst, forced the miserable Innocents to expire in those Waters: Some Relations speak of four thousand persons that were drowned in that County. The Barbarous Wretches drove the Poor pillaged Christians be­fore them like Herds of Swine, wounding, pricking and forcing them forwards with their Swords, and other In­struments of Cruelty; and if they slackned their Pace, they were either knockt on the Head, or thrown over into the River.

To divers, and very considerable Companies, they pre­tended to give Passes of safe Conduct under the Hand of that Arch-Rebel Sir Phelim O Neal, and when they had brought them near some great River, or place fit for their Purpose, they failed not to cast them into the Water; and if any endeavoured to make their escape, they were [Page 22]knock't on the Head with Poles, or shot with Pistols, or other fire-arms, to prevent the saving of their wretched Lives.

It's very Observable, what in this dismal History is mention'd, of one Mrs. Cambel, who being by them for­ced to the River, and perceiving no means to escape their Fury, suddenly claspt her Arms about one of their Chiefs, who was most forward to thrust her into the Water, and carried him down with her to the Bottom, where they both perished together.

So great was the inveterate Rage of that Sir Phelim O Neal, that he caused another considerable Rebel to sum­mon together the Protestants remaining about Armagh, pre­tending to Conduct them to Colerain, and when they were got hardly one dayes Journey from him, they were all Butcher'd and destroyed, as many others were by Dire­ction from his Brother: By their Order likewise, the Aged People were taken out of Armagh, and murdered at Charlemont; soon after which they set fire to the Cathe­dral and Town of Armagh, where they destroyed above five hundred Persons, Young and Old. Forty eight Fa­milies at the Parish of Keblaman, were Barbarously mur­dered by Direction from the said Sir Phelim, after they had been protected by him three quarters of a Year.

Within two Miles of Kilmore, there were two and twen­ty English Protestants burnt in one house; and the Rebels strip't, kill'd, or murdered all, or the most of the English in that Parish, which consisted of two hundred Families: they likewise set many in the Stocks, that would not Confess their Money, and when they had all they could get, then they Murdered them.

Many other Horrid Inhumane Cruelties were used in the murdering of Multitudes of poor Innocent Souls. To many these bloody Villains shewed so much favour as sud­denly to dispatch them out of their Pain, by no means allowing them leave or time to make their Prayers! for [Page 23]others they held a sudden Death too easie a Punishment: Therefore they Imprison'd some in most beastly Dunge­ons, full of Dirt and Mire, and there Clapping bolts on their Heels, suffered them to perish at leisure. Others they barbrously mangled and left Languishing upon the High-wayes, crying out for so much Mercy as to be de­livered out of their Pain. Others they buryed alive, a manner of Death they used to several of the English in several places. An English-man, his Wife, four or five Children, and a Maid, were hang'd, and afterwards put all into one Hole; the Youngest Child being not fully dead, put out the Hand, and crying, Mammy, Mammy, when without Mercy they buryed him alive.

At Clowms, within the County of Fermanagh, there were seventeen, having been hanged till they were half dead, cast together into a Pit, and being covered over with a little Earth, lay Pittifully sending out most lamentable Groans for a good time after. Some were deadly wound­ed, and so hanged upon Tenter-hooks. Some had Ropes put about their Necks, and so drawn through the Wa­ter: some had Withs, and so drawn up and down thorow Woods and Bogs; others were hanged up and taken down, and hanged up several times, and all to make them confess their Money, which as soon as they told, they then dispatcht them out of the way. Others were hang­ed up by the Arms, and with many slashes and cuts they made the Experiment with their Swords, how many blows an English-man would endure before he dyed. Some had their Bellies Ript up, and so left with their Guts run­ning about their Heels. But this kind of Cruelty was principally reserved by these Inhumane Monsters for the Women, whose Sex they neither pitied nor spared, hang­ing up several Women, many of them great with Child, whose Bellies they ript up as they hung, and so let the little Infants fall out▪ A course they often took with them they found in that sad Condition. And sometimes they [Page 24]gave their Children to Swine; some the Dogs eat; and some taken alive out of their Mothers Bellies, they cast into Ditches. And for sucking Children, and others of a Riper Age, some had their Brains knock't out, others were trampled under foot to Death.

Some of the Rebels meeting one Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Frankland, both great with Child, and six of their Chil­dren with them, with their Pikes killed and murdered them all, and after ripped open the Gentlewomens Bellies, took out their Children, and threw them into a Ditch. Some they cut in Goblets and Pieces, others they Ript up alive. Some were found in the Fields sucking the Breasts of their murdered Mothers. Others lay stifled in Vaults and Cellars, others starved in Caves, crying out to their Mothers rather to send them out to be kill'd by the Rebels, than to suffer them to starve there.

One Mary Barlow deposeth up Oath, That Her Husband being hanged by the Rebels before her Face, she and six Children were stripped stark Naked, and turn'd out a begging in Frost and Snow, by means whereof they were almost starved, having nothing to Eat in three Weeks, while they lay in a Cave, but two old Calf-skins, which they beat with Stones, and so eat them, hair and all: Multitudes of Men, Women and Children were found drowned, cast into Ditches, Bogs, and Turf-Pits, the or­dinary Sepulchres of the Brittish Nation. Thousands dy­ed of cold and want in all parts of the Countrey, being neither permitted to depart, nor relieved where they were enforced to stay. Multitudes enclosed in Houses, which being set on fire, they were there most miserably consumed; some dragg'd out of their Sick-beds to the place of Execution: Such was the barbarous and inhumane Cruelty of the Rebels, that sometimes they enforced the Wife to kill the Husband, the Son to kill the Father, and the Daughter to kill the Mother, and then they [Page 25]world hang or put to Death the last Bloodshedder.

In the Town of Slego, they forced one Lears the young­er, to kill his Father, and then hanged the Son: and in Mogne they forced one Simon Lepers Wife to kill her Husband, and then caused her Son to kill her, and then they hanged the Son. Children were enforced to carry their Aged Parents to the places designed for their Slaughter, Mothers to cast their own Children into the Water, and yet after these enforced Acts, which no doubt were performed, out of Hopes and Assurance to have their own Lives saved, alwayes Murdered. And such was the Malice, and most detestable hatred born to the English by the Irish, as they taught their Children to kill English Children, and the Irish Women did na­turally express as much Cruelty, as the chiefest Rebels among them. If these be not sufficient, let us look over the particular Ends of some particular Persons, and we shall in them behold more Horrid Cruelties than these before mentioned. What shall we say to a Child boyl'd to Death in a Cauldron, being the Child of one Tho. Straton of Newtown.

A Woman hanged on a Tree, and in the Hair of her Head her own Daughter hanged up with her. A Woman miserably Rent and Torn to pieces. Some ta­ken by the Rebels, their Eyes pluckt out, their Hands cut off, and so turn'd out to wander up and down; others stoned to Death. A Man wounded, and set up­right in a hole digged in the Earth, and so covered up to the very Chin, there left in that miserable man­ner to Pine and perish. A Mans Feet held in the Fire till he was burnt to Death, his Wife hanged at his Door. A Minister stript stark naked, and so dri­ven like a Beast through the Town of Cashel, the Re­bels [Page 26]following him, and pricking him forward with Darts and Rapiers.

A Company of Men, Women and Children, put into a House, and as they were burning, some Children that made an escape out of the Flames, were taken by some of the Rebels who stood by, cut them in pieces with Sithes, and so cast them into the Fire again.

Neither did these Horrible Tortures, which they put these Innocent Christians unto, a-slake their Fury, their Malice towards them did not Determine with their Breath.

But after so many several Bloody Wayes and cruel Inventions, wherewith they rent their Souls from their wretched Bodies, extended even to their dead Carcas­ses: In some places they denyed all manner of Buri­al; some they cast into Ditches, others they left to be devoured by Dogs and Swine, others by Fowls and Ra­venous Birds. Nay several which had been formerly bu­ried, they digg'd up, and left them to putrifie above ground.

And these truly are but some of those wayes among many others, which with most exquisite pains, and cru­el Tortures were used by these merciless Rebels, to let in Death among an Innocent, unresisting People, that had alwayes lived Peaceably with them; Administring all manner of Helps and Comforts to those who were in Distress, that made no difference betwixt them and those of their own Nation, but ever Cherished them as Friends, and Loving Neighbours, without giving any cause of un­kindness or distaste unto them.

It is not possible to recollect or express the wicked­ness of their mischievous Inventions, or horrour of their bloody Executions, actuated with all kind of circumstances that might aggravate the heighth of their Cruelty to­wards them. Alas! who can comprehend the fears, ter­rours, anguish, bitterness and perplexity of their Souls? the despairing Passions and Consternations of their Minds? What strange amazed Thoughts must it needs raise in their sad Hearts, to find themselves so suddenly surpri­zed without remedy, and inextricably wrapt up in all kind of outward miseries which could possibly by man be inflicted upon any humane Creatures! What sighs, groans, trembling, astonishment! what scrieches, cryes, and bitter lamentation of Wife, Children, Friends and Servants, howling and weeping about them, all finding themselves without any manner of hope of deliverance from their present Misery and Pain! how inexorable were their barbarous Tormentors, that compassed them on eve­ry side, without all bowels of compassion, any sence of their Sufferings, or the least commiseration or pity, the common Comforters of men in Misery. It was no small addition to their sorrows, to hear the base reviling speeches used against their Countrey and Countrey-men, some loudly threatning all should be cut off and utterly destroyed, that had one drop of English-blood in them: The Irish Women crying out, to spare neither Man, Woman, nor Child, that was English; that the English was meat for Dogs, and their Children Bastards.

How grievous and insupportable must it needs be to a true Christian soul, to hear a base villain boast, that his hands were so weary with killing and knocking down Protestants into a Bogg, that he could not lift his Arms up to his Head? or others to say, that they had killed [Page 28]so many English-men, that the grease or fat which re­mained on their Swords or Skeins, might have made an Irish Candle! Or to consider, that two young Cow-boys should have it in their Power to murder thirty six Pro­testants! whosoever shall seriously weigh these Particu­lars, will not much wonder that so great numbers of Brittish and Protestants should be destroyed in so short a time after the first breaking out of the Rebellion: As Mr. Cunningham Deposeth in his Examination, he there saith, that the Account of the Persons killed by the Re­bels, from the time of the beginning of the Rebellion, October 23. 1641. unto the Month of April following, was, as the Priests weekly gave it in, in their several Parishes, one hundred and five thousand, April 22. 1642.

When the Castle of Lisgoole was set on fire by the Re­bels, and so many Brittish as are before mentioned, con­sumed in the flames, those mischievous Villains that had done that wicked Fact, cryed out with much Joy, How sweetly do they fry! How did the Inhabitants of Kilkenny, a City planted with old English, where Civility and good Manners seemed to flourish, solace and please themselves in abusing most unchristianly the Heads of a Minister and six other Protestants, brought in a kind of Tri­umph into the Town! Certainly it is not to be imagi­ned, much less expressed, with what scorn and derision they acted these great Crueities upon all Brittish which they had gotten into their Power! with what Joy and Exultation their Eyes did behold the sad spectacle of their Miseries! what greedy delight and pleasure they took in their bloody Executions! what Malice and Hatred they expressed towards them! many with the last stroke of Death giving them, in their last Agony, that fearful Va­lediction in Irish, Anim a Duel, Thy Soul to the Devil.

But it is no wonder that they carried themselves after this barbarous manner to these poor Christians, when they spared not most fearfully to belch out their Rage against their Maker. What open Hellish Blasphemies were uttered by these wicked Miscreants! With what Indig­nation and Reproach did they tear and trample under feet the sacred Word of God? How dispitefully did they upbraid the Profession of the Truth, to those blessed Souls, whom neither by Threats nor Terrors, pains nor Torments, they could draw to forsake their Religion.

But I shall not here touch any further upon those who died thus Gloriously, this will be a work fitter for some more able Pen.

If we shall take a survey of the Primitive Times, and look into the sufferings of the First Christians, that suf­fered under the Tyranny and Cruel Persecutions of those Heathenish Emperours, we shall not certainly find any one Kingdom, though of a far larger Continent, where more Christians suffered, or more unparallel'd Cruelties were act­ed in many years upon them, than were in Ireland, with­in the space of the first two Months after the breaking out of this Rebellion. And howsoever some by outward Inflictions and Tortures, were drawn to profess the change of their Religion, and had presently their Reward; (for many of those they suddenly dispatch't with great scorn, saying, It was fit to send them out of the World in that good Mood;) yet I dare say, we shall find many thus Crue [...]ly put to Death, equal to some of those Ancient Worthies for their Patience, Constancy, Courage, Magnanimity in their sufferings, but triumphing and insulting with their last breath, over the Insolency, Rage and M [...]lice of their most Inhumane and Cruel Persecutors.

We shall find in the Roman History, during the several Cru­el Contestations betwixt Marius and Scilla, when their Factious Followers filled the whole City of Rome with streams of blood, strange and most incomparable Passages of Friendships: One exposing himself to all manner of Dangers, for the Preservation of his Friend of a con­trary Faction; Servants willing to Sacrifice themselves to save the Lives of their Beloved Masters. But here on the contrary, what open violations of all bonds of Hu­manity and Friendship! no Contracts, no Promises obser­ved; Quarter given in the most solemn manner, with the greatest Oaths and severest Execrations, under Hand and Seal, suddenly broken. The Irish Landlords making a Prey of their English Tenants, the Irish Servants betray­ing their English Masters; And every one esteeming any Act, wherein they could declare their hatred and ma­lice most against any of the British Nation, as Gallant and cruly Meritorious.

It is not to be denied, but that the first and most bloody Executions were made in the Province of Ʋlster, and there they continued longest to execute their Rage and Cruelty; yet must it also be acknowledged, that all the other three Provinces did concur with them, as it were with one common Consent, to destroy and pluck up by the Roots all the English planted throughout the Kingdom; and for this purpose they went on, not only Murdering, Stripping and driving out all of them, Men, Women and Children, but they laid waste their Habita­tions, Burnt their Evidences, defaced in many places all the Monuments of Civility and Devotion; the Courts and Places of the English Government; Nay, as some of them­selves express it, they resolved not to leave them either Name or Posterity in Ireland.

Notwithstanding what hath been here Related, be no­thing but what is matter of Fact, and that for brevity's sake, many particular Instances of their Inhuman Barba­rity be omitted; yet have those of that Communion had the Forehead to deny, or Extenuate those monstrous Execu­tions, and to lay the Guilt of all that Blood upon the Pro­testants themselves; as if they had been the Contrivers of their own Executions, and of the Extirpation of their own Families; which is an Assurance so peculiar to the Papists, that cannot be matcht amongst any other sort of Men, I was about to say Monsters. These are proofs of that Ve­racity, and Charity, that Humanity and Sincerity, which is to be expected from those, the Principles of whose Re­ligion, teach them to stick at no Villany, no Butchery, no Perjury, nor Cruelty, for the promoting their Bloody Re­ligion.