Deposition of Richard Tailor

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Richard Tailor late of the Birr alias Parsontowne in the Kings Countie Carpenter Shoomaker sworne and examined deposeth and saith That about Alhallontide 1641 the Rebellio{n} began about Birr & other parts of the Cuntry thereabouts & then t{his} deponent being bound prentice vnto & liveing with one William Remington an English protestant his Maister at Birr aforesaid staid with his said Maister working on his trade of a shoomaker. And saith That betwixt soone after All hollantide aforesaid and Candlemas then next after 1641 or thereabouts. Theis murthers & cruelties hereafter mencioned were Comitted by the Rebells vizt One Mary Nelson a Scottish protestant was at Craghan within the County of Tipperary very nere Birr asaulted by twoe Rebells, at which tyme a third vizt. by one William oge & William Booy of Croghan aforesaid, And as she was stowtly feighting with them one Donnogh mcThomas of the Birr aforesaid a bloody Butcher came t comeing towards them, she conceiving him to be her frend, cried out vnto him & said, for gods sake helpe mee, wherevnto he answered I will helpe you I warrant you & therevpon comeing behind her hee with a beef ax first knockt her downe, then with his ax aforesaid cutt off her head & hands & then & there they gave that bloody Butcher & the other two Rebells gave her about 30 wounds more (many of them mortall) in {most} all the parts of her body: Soe as then and there she was most barbarously murthered, And att the same tyme and place there were six more English protestant women vizt Ellen Palmer & one Mary a Taylors wife & 4 more were alsoe murthered by the 3 Rebells before named & others to the number of 100 Rebells or thereabouts which seven murthered protestants were then stript stark naked & left lying on the grownd weltering in their bloodes in the open Aire for a day & a night, And then then Mr Parsons whoe was gouernor of the [Naas] Birr made such meanes that they were sent for and carried to the Byrr in Carrs, where they were all buried in this deponents presence, And att or about the same tyme was murthered at Craghan aforesaid one Thomasservant to Mr Heyward an English protestant, by the Rebells aforesaid, Each of the parties soe murthered haveing seuerall dangerous wounds: And further saith that about a Quarter of a yere after those murthers Comitted vizt about Candlemas aforesaid 1641 one Edward Garner of the Birr Taylor & his wife, being carried from the Birr aforesaid with a Convoy towards Dublin were in the way vizt in a place called the Iland within the Kings County
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Countie aforesaid about 3 myles from the Birr aforesaid murthered by one Turlogh Carrall now of the Birr aforesaid whoe presently a and his companion as they were travelling in the night a little behind the Convoy: which said <B> Carroll and his Confederats did then and there stripp naked the said Garner & his wife saveing that they left her a pair of stockings on her leggs: And & there they were left lying: And about a weeke afterward a papist Preist called father Cahir ffarrell comeing by with his boy & being displeased that the woman had her stockings left vpon her said to the boy that he would give him vj d. to pull off and take away the English Sowes her stockings which the boy eftsoone performeing hee fownd 5 li. in gould in her stockinges which they carried away but left the dead bodies there still vntill the Crowes & Ravenous creatures devowred them.
About Ester 1642 one Edward Ewrin late of the Birr a farrier being sent from Birr towards Bannagher to fetch salt was mett with by the way at Dolnah in MaCoghlans Country in the said Kings County by some of the Coghlans and their Confederats the souldjers of John mcCoghlan cheefe of that Country (since knighted, as is reported) whoe carried him thence into Ormond hard by Tinnelogh in the County of Tipperary where they first half hanged him & then letting him recover breath buried him aliue in a hole with rubbish and stones: yet soe as about a month after the dogges scraped & drew his body out of the grownd & devowred it the flesh
And this deponent further saith that quickly after the time that the towne and Castle of Birr was (vpon a seige) taken from the English, by the Irish Rebells vizt about ffebruary 1642 [ ] there were left in and about that t y Towne to the mercy of the Rebells about Seventeene children of English, whose parents were either formerly slaine by the Rebells or dead, As namely 3 Children of one Samuell Smith named of the Birr named Ewsaby, Ann & Margrett whoe being almost starved with hungar & cold and denyed to come into their fathers howse by one Robert Tewe that had gotten the possession thereof, Those poore children for shelter from the cold were all crept into an oven on the backside of theire <D> said fathers howse whither the the Inhumane Rebell Robert Tew aforenamed brought some straw and craming it into the oven to the children sett it on fyre soe as then and there hee burned them all 3 to death in that oven.
About the same tyme a yong Irish Roague called Adam the sonn of the said Robert Tewe with a Cudgell knockt in the head & killed another of the said fatherles Children that was the daughter of one Patrick Taylor a protestant, and that done tyed a with about the dead childs leggs, & therewith drew it vpp and downe, makeing that his good sport and recreation
In or About the
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In or About the month of ffebr aforesaid 1642, another twoe other of those fatherles Children by name Giles Middleton ad Ann Middleton children of one John Middleton (whoe with his wife were formerly hanged to death at Castletowne in Dowhely by John ô Carroll of Clonlisk Es{quire} & his souldjers) were at Birr aforesaid knockt in the head & murthered when they came to begg releefe, by certeine strang Rebells that were said <E> to have comen thither out of the Pale, whose names the deponent cannott expresse howbeit they are or very lately were resident & dwelling in the towne of Birr aforesaid. And the residue of all those 17 fatherles children (saveing onely one) are alsoe since murthered or starved to death in and about Birr aforesaid: All which this deponent knoweth to be true for that from the very time of the begining of the Rebellion vntill about the xvth of March 1644 hee was restrained & kept at Birr aforesaid by and amongst the Rebells to make shooes & boots for them, & then by gods providence he escaped from them on a Sunday morning when the Rebells that had soe restrained him were in a t t Masse, And the deponent was sawe most of the murthered bodies aforesaid & might haue since seene the rest if hee durst have gone vnto them: And further sayth: That when the Castle of Birr was taken the good Ladie Parsons left with & gave vnto him this deponent a great quantity of bedding brasse pewter lynnen Apparrell & other thinges worth (as he thincketh) CC li. ster, All which were afterwards forceibly taken from him by one Captain Burnell whoe alsoe then and there robbed the wife of the said William Remington this deponents said late Maisters wife of money lether and other thinges worth about fowrscore Powndes: And there was alsoe then left with & given vnto this Deponent by Captain Chidley Coote a great quantety of rich and good apparrell worth one hundred pownds as he thincketh All which were alsoe taken from him by the said Captain Burnell, saveing some <f> few that were stollen from this deponent by a an Irish boy one James ffleming by name
<Dr. J: W A:>
Signum predicti [mark] Ricardi Taylor
Jur xxjo October 1645
Hen: Jones
Will: Aldrich
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Kinges County
Richard Taylor Jur xxjo October 1645
Intw

Mr Ralph Wat[west] to be perused
Mr [Char] Coote [ ]