WHEN their Plots were ripe for Execu­tion, we find their first Proceeding a­gainst the English various; some of the Irish only stripping and expelling them, others murthering Men, Women and Children without Mercy; all resolving universally to root out all the Protestants out of Ireland; so deeply malicious were they against the English Protestants, that they would not so much as endure the sound of their Language.

The Priests gave the Sacrament unto divers of the Irish upon condition they should neither spare Man, Woman nor Child of the Protestants. One Hilligan a Priest, read an Excommunication against all those, that from henceforth should relieve or harbour any English, Scotch or Welch Man, or give them Alms, whereby many were famished to death. The Friars exhorted them with Tears, not to spare any of the English; they boasted, that when they [Page 6] had destroyed them in Ireland, they would go over into England, and not leave the Memorial of an Eng­lish Man under Heaven.

They openly professed, that they held it as lawful to kill a Protestant as to kill a Dog. One of their Priests said, That it was no more pity to take their Lives from them, than it is to take a Bone out of a Dogs Mouth.

The Day before this Massacre began, the Priests gave the People a Dismiss at Mass, with liberty to go out, and to take Possession of all their Lands, as also to strip, rob and despoil them and their Goods and Cattle; the Protestants being, as they told them worse than Dogs, for they were Devils, and there­fore the Killing of such was a Meritorious Act, and a rare Preservative against the Pains of Purgatory; and this caused some of the Murtherers to boast, after they had slain many of the English, that they knew, that if they should die presently, they should go straight to Heaven.

The Irish, when the Massacre began, persuaded many of their Protestant Neighbours to bring their Goods to them, and they would secure them, and hereby they got abundance peaceably into their Hands, whereof they cheated the Protestants, refus­ing to restore them again; yet so confident were the Protestants at first of them, that they gave them Inventories of all they had, and digged up their best things that were hidden in the Ground, and deposited them in their Custody. They also got much into their Hands by fair Promises, deep Oaths and Engagements, that if they would deliver them their Goods, they would suffer them, with their Wives and Children, quietly to depart the Coun­try; [Page 7] and when they had got what they could, they afterwards murthered them.

Having thus seized upon their Goods and Cattle, ransackt their Houses, got their Persons, stript Man, Woman and Child naked, and so turned then out of doors, strictly prohibiting the Irish under great penal­ties, not to give them any relief; by means hereof many miserably perish'd through cold nakedness and hunger.

In the Town of Coleraine, many of these poor peo­ple that fled thither for succour, many thousands died in two days, so that the living could not bury the dead, but laid their Carcasses in ranks in waste and wide holes, speling them up as if they had been Herrings.

One Magdalen Redman deposeth, that she, and divers other Protestants, among whom were two and twenty Widows, were first robbed, and then stript naked, and when they had covered them­selves with straw, the bloody Papists, threw in burning straw among them, on purpose to burn them; then they drove them out into the Woods in Frost and Snow, where many of them died with extream cold, and those that survived, lived miserably by reason of their many wants.

Yet though these bloody Villains exercised in­human cruelties towards the poor Protestants, they would commonly boast, That these were but the be­ginning of their sorrows, for indeed they made it good; for having disarmed the English, robbed them of their goods, stript them of their Clothes, and having their Persons in their power, they furiously broke out into all manner of abomina­ble Cruelties, horrid Massacres, and execrable Murders.

[Page 8]For there were multitudes murdered in cold blood, some as they were at Plough, others in their Houses, others in the High-ways; all with­out any provocation, were suddenly destroyed.

In the Castle of Lisgool, were about one hundred and fifty Men, Women and Children consumed by fire. At the Castle of Tullah, which was delivered to Mac-Guire, upon composition, and faithful pro­mises of fair quarter, as soon as he and his en­tered, they began to strip the people, and most cruelly put them to the Sword, murdering them without mercy.

At Lissanskeach, they hanged and killed above one hundred of the Scottish Protestants, in the Coun­ties of Ardmagh and Tyrone, where the Protestants were more numerous, their murders were more multiplied, and with greater cruelty.

Mac-Guire coming to the Castle of Lissanskeach, desired to speak with Mr. Middleton, who admitted him in, he first burnt the Records of the County, then demanded one thousand pounds which was in the custody of Sir William Belfores, which as soon as he had, he caused Mr. Middleton to hear Mass, and to swear that he would never alter from it, and then hanged him up with his Wife and Children; hanging and murdering above one hundred persons besides in that place.

At Portadown Bridge, there were one thousand Men, Women and Children, carried in several Companies, and all unmercifully drowned in the River. Yea, in that County there were one thou­sand persons drowned in several places.

In one place an hundred and forty English were taken and driven like Cattle for many miles toge­ther. [Page 9] Other companies they carried out to a place fit for execution, and then murdered them. One hundred and fifteen Men, Women and Children, they sent with Sir Philemy Oneal's pass, till they came to Portadown Bridge, and there drowned them.

At another time one hundred and forty Pro­testants, being thrown in at the same Place, as any of them swam to the Shore, the bloody Villains, with the But-end of their Muskets knockt out their brains.

At Ardmagh, O Cane got together all the Pro­testants thereabouts, pretending to conduct them to Colerane; but before they were a days Journey, they were all murthered, and so were many others, though they had Protections from Sir Philemy O­neal. The aged people in Ardmagh were carried to Charlem [...]nt, and there murthered.

Presently after the Town of Ardmagh was burnt, and five hundred persons murthered and drowned. In Killaman, were forty eight families murthered, in one house twenty two Protestants were burned. In Kilmare all the inhabitants were stript and mas­sacred, being two hundred familes: the whole was a common Butchery; many thousands perished by sword, famine, fire, water, and all other cruel deaths that rage and malice could invent.

At Casel they put all the Protestants into a loathsome Dungeon, kept them twelve weeks in great misery. Some they barbarously mangled, and left them languishing; some they hanged up twice or thrice, others they buried alive.

In Queens County, an English Man, his Wife, five Children and a Maid, were all hanged toge­ther. [Page 10] At Clownies sevent [...]n Men were buried a­live; some were wo [...]de [...], and hanged upon Ten­ter-hooks.

In Castle Cumber, two Boys wounded, and hung upon Butchers Ter [...]ers. Some hanged up, and taken down to con [...]ss money, and then murthered. Some had their [...]ellies ript up, and so left with their Guts above their heels.

In Kilkenny an English Woman was beaten into a ditch, where she died; her Child about six years old, they [...]pt up her belly and let out her Guts. One the [...] forced to Mass, then they wounded him, ript up his belly, took out his Guts, and so left him [...]ive.

A Scottish man they stript, and hewed to pie­ce [...] ript up his Wifes belly so that her Child [...]pt out; many other Women they hung up with Child, ript up their bellies, and let their infants fall out; some of the Children they gave to Dogs.

In the County of Ardmagh, they robbed, stripped, and murdered abundance of Protestants, whereof some they burned, some they slew with the Sword, some they hanged, some they starved to death; and meeting Mistress Howard and Mistress Frank­land with six of their Children, and themselves both with Child, they murdered them all, ript o­pen the Gentlewomens Bellies, took out their Children and threw them into a ditch. A young Scottish Woman's Child, they took by the heels, and dasht out its brains against a Tree; the like they did to many other Children.

Ann Hill going with a young Child on her back, and four more by her side, they pulled the Child off her back, trode on it till it died, stripped her [Page 11] and the other four Children naked, whereby they died of cold.

Some others they met with hanged them up upon a Windmill, and before they were half dead, cut them in pieces with their Skeins.

Many other Protestants, especially Women and Children, they pricked and stabbed with Skeins, Forks and Swords, slashing, cutting, and mangling them in their Heads and left them alive wallowing in their own blood, to languish, starve and pine to death.

The Castle of Lisgoole, being set on fire by these merciless Papists, a Woman leapt out at a Win­dow to save her self from burning, whom they pre­sently murthered; many fled to Vaults and Cellars, where they were all murthered. One Joan Addit they stabbed, and then put her Child of a quarter old to her Breast, and bid it, Suck English Bastard, and so left it to perish.

One Mary Barlow had her husband hanged, her self with six Children stript naked, in Frost and Snow, after which, sheltering themselves in a Cave, they had nothing there to eat for three weeks, but two old Calves skins, which they beat with stones, and so eat them hair and all.

In the cold weather, many thousands of Pro­testants of all ranks, ages, and sexes, being turn­ed out naked, perished of cold and hunger; thou­sands of others were drowned, cast into Ditches, Bogs and Turf-pits: multitudes miserably burnt in houses; some that lay sick of Fevers they hanged up; some Men, Women, and Children they drove into boggy Pits, and knock't them on the head.

[Page 12]Some aged Men and Women these barbarous Papists enforced their own Children to drown them, yea, some Children were compelied unnaturally to hang their own Parents, Wives forced to hang their own Husbands, and Mothers to cast their own Children into the Waters, after which themselves were murthered. In Sligo, they forced a young man to kill his Father, and then hanged him up. In another place they forced a Woman to kill her husband, then caused her son to kill her, and then hanged the Son: yea such was their malice against the English, that they taught their Children to kill English Children.

The Irish Women that followed the camp, cryed out, Kill them all, spare neither Man, Woman nor Child. They took the Child of Thomas Soratt [...]n, being about twelve years old, and boiled him in a Cauldron. One good wife Lin, and her Daugh­ter, they carried into a Wood, first hanged the Mother, and then the Daughter in the hair of her Mothers head.

In some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut off the hands of the Protestants, and turned them into the Fields, where they perished. The Women in some places, stoned the English Women and Children to death. One man they shot through his thighs, digged a hole in the ground, set him upon his feet, fill'd up the hole, left out only his head, where he languished to death. Another man they held his feet in the fire till he was burnt to death.

In Munster they hanged up many Ministers in a most barbarous manner. One Minister they strip­ped naked and drove him through the Town, pricking him with Darts and Rapiers, till he fell down dead.

[Page 13]These barbarous Villains vowed, That if any Pa­rents digged Graves to bury their Children, they should be buried therein themselves. They stripped one Wil­liam Loverd [...]n naked, then killed him before his Wife and Children. Divers Ministers bones that had been buried some years before, they digged up, because they were, as they say, Patrons of Heresy.

Poor Children that went out into the fields to eat weeds and grass, they killed without pity.

A poor woman whose husband was taken by them, with two Children at her feet, and one at her breast, hoped to beg her husband, but they slew her and her sucking Child, brake the neck of another, and the third hardly escaped; and all this wicked­ness they exercised upon the English, without any provocation given them. Alas, who can compre­hend the fears, terrors, anguish, bitterness and per­plexity that seized upon the poor Protestants, find­ing themselves surprized without remedy, and wrapt up in all kind of outward miseries which could pos­sibly by man be inflicted on human creatures? what sig [...]s and groans, trembling and astonishment, what shrieks, cries, and bitter Lamentations of wives, children, servants and friends, howling and weeping, finding themselves without all hope of deliverance from their present miseries. How in­exorable were their barbarous Tormentors, that compassed them on every side, without all bowels of compassion, or the least commiseration or pity; yea they boasted, upon their success, That the day was their own, and that e're long they would not leave one Protestant Rogue living, but would utterly destroy every one that had but a drop of English Blood in [Page 14] them. Their women crying out, Slay them all, the English are fit meat for Dogs, and their Children are Bastards.

The merciless Papists having set a Castle on fire, wherein were many Protestants, they rejoicing­ly said, O how sweetly do they say!

At Kilkenny, when they had committed many cruel murthers, they brought seven Protestants heads, one, the head of a reverend Minister, all which they set upon the Market-cross, on a Market day, triumphing, slashing and mangling them; they put a gag in the Minister's mouth, [...]lit his cheeks to his ears, and laid a leaf of a Bible upon it, and bid him Preach, for his mouth was wide enough.

At Kilmore they put many Protestants, men, wo­men and children, into a thatched house, and there burnt them. They throw Mrs. Maxwell into the river, when in labour, the child being half born when the mother was drowned.

In one place they burnt two Protestants Bibles, and then said, It was Hell Fire they burnt. Other Bibles they took, cut in pieces, and then burnt them, saying they would do the like to all Puritan Bibles. They took the Bible of a Minister, called Mr. Edward Slack, and opening it, they laid it in a Puddle of Water, and then stamped upon it say­ing, A Plague on it, this Bible hath bred all the Quarrel.

At Glastow, a Priest with some others, drew a­bout forty English and Scottish Protestants to be re­conciled to the Church of Rome, and then told them, They were in a good Faith, and for fear they should fall from it, and turn Hereticks, he with his Companions presently cut all their Throats.

[Page 15]In the County of Tipperary, near the Silver-Works, some of these barbarous Papists met with eleven English Men, ten Women and some Children, whom they first stript, and then with Stones, Pole-axes, Skeins, Swords, &c. they most barba­rously massacred them all.

In the County of Ma [...], about sixty Protestants, whereof fifteen were Ministers, were upon co­venant to be safely conve [...]ed to G [...]y, by one Edward Bur [...], and his Soldiers; but by the way, this B [...]rk and his Company began to massacre these poor Protestants, some they shot to Death, some they stabb'd with Skeins, some they thrust through with their Pikes, some they drowned; the Wo­men they stript naked, who lying upon their Hus­bands to save them, were run through with Pikes, so that very few of them escaped with Life.

In the Town of Sligo, forty Protestants were stript and locked up in a Cellar, and about Mid-night, a Butcher provided for the purpose, was seat in among them, who with his Ax butchered them all.

In Tyrawly, thirty or forty English, who had yielded to go to Mass, were put to their Choice, whether they would die by the Sword, or be drowned? they chose the latter; and so being driven to the Sea-side, these barbarous Villains, with their na­ked Swords, forced them into the Sea; the Mo­thers, with their Children in their Arms, wading to the Chin, were overcome by the waves, where they all perished.

[Page 16]The Son of Mr. Montgomery a Minister, aged about fifteen years, met with his School-master, who withdrew his Skein at him, whereupon the Boy said, Good Master whip me as much as you will, but do not kill me. Yet this merciless Tiger barbarously murthered him without all pity.

In the Town of Sligo, all the Protestants were first robbed of their Estates, then cast into Goal, and about Mid-night were all stript naked, and there most cruelly and barbarously murthered with Swords, Axes, Skeins, &c. some of them being Women great with Child, their Infants thrust out their Arms and Legs at their Wounds; after which execrable Murthers, these Hell-hounds laid the dead naked Bodies of the Men upon the naked Bodies of the Women, in a most immodest Posture, where they left them till the next day to be looked upon by the Irish who beheld it with great delight. Also Isabel Beard, great with Child, hearing the lamentable Cries of those that were murthering, ran out into the Streets, where she was murthered, and the next day was found with the Child's Feet coming out of the Wounds in her Sides; many others were murthered in the Houses and Streets.

About Dungannon, were three hundred and six­teen Protestants in the like barbarous manner mur­theren; about Charlemont, above four hundred; about Tyrone two hundred and six.

One Mac Crew murthered thirty one in one morning.

Two young Villains murthered 140 poor Wo­men and Children that could make no resistance. [Page 17] An Irish Woman with her own Hands, murthered forty five.

At Portadown Bridge, were drowned above three hundred, at Lawgh were drowned above two hun­dred in one day. In the Parish of Killamen, there were murthered one thousand and two hundred Protestants.

Many young Children they cut in Quarters; eighteen Scottish Infants they hanged upon a Clo­thiers Tenter-hooks; one fat Man they murthered and made Candles of his Grease; another Scottish Man they ript up his Belly, took one end of his small guts, tied it to a Tree, and forced him round about it, till they had drawn them all out of his Body, saying, they would try whether a Dogs or a Scottish Man's Guts were the longest.

By the Command of Sir Philem O Neal, Mr. James Maxwell was drawn out of his Bed, being sick of a Fever, and murthered, his Wife being in Child-birth, the Child being half born, they stript naked, drove her about a flight shot, and drowned her in the black-Water; the like, or worse, they did to another English Woman in the same Town. One Mr. Watson they roasted a­live. A Scottish Woman great with Child, they ript up her Belly, cut the Child out of her Womb, and so left it crawling on her Body.

Mr. Starkey Schoolmaster at Ardmagh, being a­bove one hundred years old, they stript him naked, then took his daughters, being Virgins, whom they also stript naked, and then forced them [Page 18] to lead their aged Father to a Turf-pit, where they drowned them all three.

To one Henry Cowel a gallant Gentleman, they proffered his life, if he would marry one of their Trulls, or go to Mass; but he chose death rather than to consent to either.

Many of the Protestants they buried alive, sola­cing themselves, whilst they were digging down old ditches upon them.

They brake the back bone of a Youth, and left him in the Fields; some days after he was found, having eaten the grass round about him: neither then would they kill him out-right, but removed him to better Pasture, wherein was fulfilled that saying, The tender mercies of the Wicked are cruelty.

In the County of Antrim, they murthered nine hundred and fifty four Protestants in one Morning; and afterwards about twelve hundred more in that County near Les [...]egarvy, they forced twenty four Protestants into an House, and burnt them all.

Sir Philem O-Neal boasted, that he had slain above six hundred at Garvah, and that he had left neither [...], woman nor child alive in the Barony of Munter­long. In other places he murthered above two thousand Persons in their houses, so that many houses were filled with dead bodies.

Above twelve thousand were slain in the high­ways, as they fled towards Downe. Many died of Famine, many died for want of Cloaths, being stript naked in a cold season; some thousands were drowned, so that in the Province of Ulster, there were about one hundred and fifty thousand mur­thered by sundry kinds of torments and deaths.

The Popish English were no whit inferior, yea, [Page 19] rather exceeded the natural Irish in their cruelty a­gainst the Protestants that lived among them, within the Pale, being not satisfied with their Blood, till they had seen the last drop thereof.

Ann Kinnard testified, That fifteen Protestants be­ing imprisoned and their Feet in the Stocks, a Popish Boy being not above fourteen years old, slew them all in one night with his Skein.

An English Woman, who was newly delivered of two Children, some of these Villains violently com­pelled her, in her great pain and sickness, to rise out of her Bed, and took one of the Infants that was living and dashed his Brains against the Stones, and then threw him into the River of Barrow; the like they did to many other Infants. Many others they hanged up without all pity.

The Lord Mont Garret, caused divers English Soldiers, that he had taken about Kilkenny, to be hanged, hardly suffering them to pray before their death.

One Fitz Patrick, an Irish Papist, enticed a rich Merchant that was a Protestant, to bring all his Goods to his House, promising safely to keep them, and to re-deliver them to him; but when he had gotten them into his possession, he took the Mer­chant and his Wife, and hanged them both. The like he did by divers others.

Some Englishmen's heads they cut off and carried them to Kilkenny, and on the Market-day set them on the Cross; where many, especially the Women stab'd, cut and slashed them.

A poor Protestant Woman with her two Chil­dren, going to Kilkenny, these bloody miscreants baited them with Dogs, stabbed them with Skeins, [Page 20] and pulled out the Guts of one of the Children, whereby they died; and not far off they took di­vers men, women, and children, and hanged them up; One of the Women being great with Child, they ripped up her Belly as she hanged, so that the Child fell out in the Cawl alive. Some after they were hanged, they drew up and down till their Bowels were torn out.

How many thousands of Protestants were thus in­humanly butchered by sundry kinds of deaths, we cannot ascertain.

In the Province of Ulster we find about 150,000 murthered as before; what the number of the slain was in the three other Provinces, I find not upon Record, but certainly it was very great, for you have these passages in a general Remonstrance of the distressed Protestants in the Provinee of Mun­ster, We may (say they) compare our woe to the saddest Parallel of any Story, Our Churches are profaned by Sacrifices to Idols; Our Habitations are become ruinous heaps; No quality, Age or Sex, priviledged from Mas­sacre and lingering deaths, by being robbed, stript naked and so exposed to cold and famine. The famished In­fants of murthered Parents swarm in our Streets, and for want of food, perish before our faces, &c. And all this cruelty that is exercised upon us, we know not for what cause, offence, or seeming provocation it is inflicted on us (sin excepted) saving that we were Pro­testants, &c. We can make it manifest that the de­populations in this province of Munster, do well near equal those of the whole Kingdom, &c.

And thus in part you have heard of the merciless cruelties which the bloody Papists exercised to­wards the Protestants: Let us now consider, at least, [Page 21] some of God's Judgments upon the Irish, whereby he hath not left the innocent Blood of his Servants to be altogether unrevenged.

These bloody Hell-hounds themselves confessed, That the Ghosts of divers of the Protestants which they had drowned at Portadown Bridge, were daily seen to walk upon the River, sometimes singing of Psalms, sometimes brandishing naked Swords, sometimes shreek­ing in a most hideous and fearful manner. So that ma­ny of the Popish Irish which dwelt near thereabouts, being affrighted therewith, were forced to remove their Habitation further off into the Country.

Catheri [...] Cook testifieth upon Oath, That when the Irish had barbarously drowned one hundred and eighty Protestant men, women, and children, at Portadown Bridge, about nine days after, she saw the apparition of a Man bolt upright in the River, standing breast high, with his hands lifted up to Heaven; and conti­nued in that Posture from December to the end of Lent, at which time some of the English Army passing that way, saw it also, after which it vanished away.

Elizabeth Price, testified upon Oath, That she, and other Women, whose Husbands and Children were drowned in that place, hearing of those Apparitions, went thither one evening, at which time they saw one like a Woman rise out of the River, breast high, her hair hanging down, which with her Skin, was as white as Snow, often crying out, Revenge, Revenge, Re­venge, which so affrighted them, that they went their way.

Divers Protestants were thrown into the River of Belterbet, and when any of them offered to swim to the Land, they were knoked on the head with Poles, after which their Bodies were not seen for [Page 22] six weeks; but after the end thereof the murtherers coming again that way, the Bodies came floating up to the very Bridge where they were.

Sir C [...] Mac-Gennis with his Company slew Mr. Turge Minister of the Newry, with divers other Protestants, after which the said Mac-Gennis was so affrighted with the Apprehensions of the said Mr. Turge, his being continually in his presence, that he commanded his Soldiers not to slay any more of them, but such as should be slain in Battle.

A young Woman being stript almost naked, there came a Rogue to her, bidding her, Give him her money, or he would run her through with his Sword. Her answer was, You cannot kill me except God give you [...]ve; Whereupon he ran three times at her naked body with his drawn Sword, and yet never pierced her Skin, whereat he being confounded went his way and left her. This was attested by divers Women that were present and saw it.

As for the Protestant Ministers whom they sur­prized, their manner was first to strip them, and after bind them to a Tree, or Post, where they pleased, and then to ravish their Wives and Daugh­ters before their faces (in sight of all their merciless rabble) with the basest Villains they could pick out, after they hanged up their husbands and pa­rents before their faces, and then cut them down before they were half dead, and quarter'd them, after dismember'd them, and stopped their Mouths therewith.

They basely abused one Mr. Trafford, a Minister in the North of Ireland, who being assaulted by these bloody Wolves of Rome's Brood that knew not God, nor any Bowels of mercy. This distres­sed [Page 23] Minister desired but so much time as to call up­on God, before he went out of the World; but these merciless wretches would admit no time, but instantly fell upon him, hackt and hewed him to pieces.

Sir Barck Dunstan's Wife ravished before him, slew his Servants, spurned his Children till they di­ed, bound him with Match to a board that his eyes burst out, cut off his ears and nose, teared off both his cheeks, after cut off his arms and legs, cut out his tongue, and after run a red hot [...]on into him. These Particulars, with many more, were attested before the Commissioners appointed for that pur­pose.