Deposition of Edward Williamsonn

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Edward Williamsonn of Mounstereven in the County of Kildare Clarke aged 63 yeres or thereabouts sworne & examined before his Maiesties Commissioners by force of his highnes Commission to them directed vnder the great seale of England Ireland, Deposeth and sayth: That about Sct Andrews day 1641 when the present Rebellion was begun and since hee this deponent was and hath bin deprived robbed and dispojled of his goodes chattells & meanes of the value and to his losse of Eight hundred and fforty powndes ster: And this deponent deponent is Like to be deprived of and Loose the future proffits of his Church Liveings (worth at least fowrscore powndes per annum) vntill a peace be established And {fur}ther sajth That the parties that soe deprived and robbed him of his said goodes & estate were and are Rebells and actors in the present Rebellion and are thus named vizt John Mc Murtogh Dempsy s of the Killeene in the parrish of Killbreckan in the County of Kildare gent Esquire Cozen german to the Lord viscount of Clanmalero viscount of Phillipstowne Thomas ffitz Oliver ffitzgarrett of Dunneny in the said County gent: & their servants souldjers or partakers, whose names he cannot expresse in respect he was fled away to the Castle of Mounstereven where he lived as a preacher Chirurgion & souldjer in the garrison for a yere and nyne moneths vntill it was surrendred by to the Erle of Castlehaven: Morrice ffitzgarret of Allen Esquire in the same County (whoe now forceably holdeth the possession thereof together with one Garrett fiz Peires ffitzgarrett of Ballisannon in the said County of Kildare Esquire, And further saith that divers tymes before the said surrendry, the same Castle was beseiged by the said Lishagh lord of Clenmalero aforesaid Henry Dempsy of now of Lea: (the Castle belonging to Captain Henry Burrowes) Richard mc Tho: Dempsy of Balleene in the County of Kildare gent
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fol. 312v

& by divers others of the sept and name of the Dempsys and divers others their souldjers complicees and partakers whoe this deponent cannott name which rebellious Crew oftenty mes first brought scalling ladders & therewith attempted to take the Castle, but were repulsed and the said Tho Richard Mc Tho: Dempsy (their then principall Comander) was then and there shott with a bullet in the dark of the night by some of the Castle & was therewith slaine and then all his Company run away and left his body there: And a month afterwards or thereabouts the Rebells came againe & brought 3 engins called Sowes which were double planckt stufft with woll and lyned with Cowhydes soe as they were muskett proofe, & those sawes they brought closse to the wall of the Castle, and began to breake the wall; Howbeit it pleased god that by a shott from a brass peece that they had in the Castle which was laded with powder & with a slugg that waighed about 2 or 3 pownd, the beseiged shott one of their sowes quite through, and through the one side of of another of them: which shott there killd a friere giveing benediction to those Rebells souldjers As some of thenglish and Irish afterwards protested vnto this deponent and the rest in the Castle: but after 3 shotts more with that peece and divers shotts with musketts from the Castle those Rebells alsoe run away & left their sowes sledges hammers pickaxes & other tooles and instruments which they brought for breaking of the walls behynd them: And afterwards those Rebells have had made nyne sawes more in and neere the towne of Mounstereven, those sawes also were all burnd by the English Comanded by Sir Arthur Loftus Knight, and all the irish driven out of the said towne of Mounstereven and then the howses in the towne sett on fyre & burned by the English
Edward Williamson
Jur viijo Januarij 1643
Hen: Jones
Hen: Brereton
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