Deposition of Ruth Crisp

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Ruth Crisp the Relicte of Henry Crispe late of Pollardstowne in the Countie of Catherlagh a minister of gods word sworne & examined deposeth and sayth That a month or 5 weeks before Christmas 1641 the Rebells in the said County of Catherlagh being risen vpp in Armes & robbing and spoiling the English & protestantes This deponentes said husband (then alive) and shee being great with child, fledd for saffetie of their lives with their family to the Castle of Catherlagh Leaveing behinde them to the power & handes of the Rebells their dwelling howse farme & meanes & their goodes & Chattells consisting of Cattle horses Corne hay howshold stuffe, books & other thinges of good value Of all which they were then and there deprived & robbed, And by meanes and occasion of the same Rebellion this deponentes said husband & shee were alsoe deprived of & lost in d ivers due debts which were owing vnto them & of his Church liveing & spirituall meanes, By all which he was & shee lost & were dampnified (as this deponent is verely perswaded) the value of ffive hundred Powndes ster: And further saith that the parties Rebells that soe robbed & spoiled them were William Macky one of their tenantes at Pollardstowne aforesaid & his wife & children (whoe forceibly tooke possession of their howse and some of their goodes & kept possession of their howse till towardes Easter then next following & then burned the same) but whoe the rest of those parties were she cannott tell in particular for whole papistes of he Cuntry in generall being then risen vp in Armes robbed spoild & pillaged & swept away all the goodes of the English thereabouts wholly & stripped shott cutt and mangled many of the English & by credible reporte murthered divers protestantes And of this deponentes knowledge there of one Jonathan Lynn an English protestant comeing from about Hacketstowne in the said County to the said Castle
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of Catherlaghe with his wife, 2 of his sonns & one daughter they were all stripped naked by the Rebells in their way towardes the Castle & himself was shott through his Arme, & cutt and wounded in his headd & other parts: And great other numbers of protestantes kep came & fledd vnto the said Castle all st from seuerall places (all stripped of their clothes) & some of them alsoe wounded & shrewdly hurt by the Rebells the papistes: And shee further sayth That although the said Jonathan Lynn recouered of his health and wowndes: yet being in great want in the Castle, his wife & his daughter being necessitatted did about August 1643 privately goe out of the said Castle to gather vpp a little corne for their releefe, And being gone about half a myle from the Castle divers bloody Rebells meeting with them did then and there hang them both vpp by the haires of their heads in a tree And afterwardes these 2 (being proper women) were (as this deponent hath very credibly heard) murthered mangled & cutt to peeces She further saith That about the begining of lent next after the begining of the Rebellion in the yere 1641 There being very nere (as shee thincketh) fowre hundred people in the said Castle of Catherlagh (most of them like to starve for want of food) one Mary the wife of Walter fflane & three mayde servants of English, goeing privately out of the Castle to seeke releefe, were about a myle from the said Castle mett with by divers wicked Rebells whose names she is not able to expresse, which Rebells then and there forceibly brought those 4 women back within the view of the said Castle, where those Rebells called with a lowd voice to the rest that were in the Castle, That they should see their Cuntry women hanged before their faces And instantly in pursuance thereof they then and there hanged them to death
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accordingly & then stripping them they cast their dead bodies all together in a hole in the high way & there left them; Then presently after A great number of those Rebells in the night tyme came to assault and take the said castle, And fynding divers of the poore English in Cabins on the outside of the Castle They then & there murthered stabbed & burned to death divers infants & seuerall po ore men & women and threw some of the murthered Carcasses into the River, & divers others they then and there most miserably wounded, shott & hurt in seuerall places some had a hand cutt off some their nose cutt off some their faces slyced & cutt downe, many stabbd in seuerall places Not so much as spareing the infants that suckt their mothers breastes but stabbing them with darts & vseing many other most execrable & bloody tortures & cruelties vpon soe many of the English as they then and there mett withall, But whenas those Rebells saw that they could not surprize the said Castle & that the morning and day light came vpon them Then they sett all the Corne stacks about the Castle [ ] on fier: & the beseiged people sallying out Those wicked & Cowardly Rebells then ran away & fled: & yet not before they had shott to death one of the English souldjers on the topp of the Castle that had soe sallied out vpon them:
And this deponent further saith That after that the said Henry Crispe and her said husband, had had divers skirmishes & conflicts with the Rebells & had Joined with other English against them vizt about the begining of July 1643 he the said Henry Crispe went out vpon a party from Catherlagh aforesaid against the Rebells together with one Captaine Chambers, Captain Dunbarr Captaine Edward Harman & divers others both foote and horse And rode out within about 3 myles of Kilkenny & had taken from the Rebells a great prey of Cattle, Howbeit as they were comeing homewards a strong Ambush of Rebells foote and horse that were said to be nere One thowsand mett with them: where{vpon} a
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a stowt and sharpe skirmish happening The said Captaine Chambers and her said husband [ ] ouerlayd with the numbers of the Rebells were taken & promissed fair quarter howbeit when they had gotten her said husband amongst them they then and there hewd and cutt in peeces & there alsue kild one Mr Curtes & 3 more of the English souldjers & the rest of the English escaped, Howbeit they carried the said Captaine Chambers to Kilkenny: where (although they had promissed him faire quarter) yet then and there they most perfidiously and barbarously first half hanged him Then they cutt of his head & throwing it betwixt his leggs into a ditch there left him
The mark of the said Ruth Crispe
[mark]
Jur xi marcij 1645 coram
Hen: Clogher
Will: Aldrich

Catherlagh
Ruth Crispe Jur 11o Marcij
1645
Intw Cf
24o Nov:

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