Deposition of Amy Hawkesworth
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Amy the wife of ffrances Hawkesworth the [ ] now of Abbey Boile in the <A.> Countie of Roscomon Taylor, and late the wife of Edward Mewsham Newsham late of the towne and County of Sligoe Clothier murthered by the Rebells sworne and examined deposeth and saith, That about the first of November 1641 the Rebellion of the Irish papists brake out and was discouered at & in the towne of Sligoe aforesaid: And then the Rebells <A> vizt Teige o Connor Sligoe Cheefe Comander there or reputed generall there Brian ô Connor, Captain Charles ô Connor a fryer, Captain Hugh o Connor all brothers to the said Teige ô Connor Sligoe Captain Brian Mc Donnogh, Captain Luke Taafe, Captain ffrancis Taafe Captain Patrick Plunckett Captain Donnell Mc Brian Dorroghe o Connor Captain John ô Crean Captain Brian mc Swyne Captain Roger mc Owen mc <A> Swine Captain Phelim Connor Captain Teige Boy ô Connor Captain Teige o Connor of the Glann Captain Con ô Connor of the same Colonell Owen <B:> ô Roirk Captain Teige mc Brian Ballagh o Roirk, Captain Hugh mc Donnogh Captain Robert Mc Nemy Captain William oge Mc Phelim mc Glanogh of the Dartry in the County of leitrim Captain William Mc Glannaghe of the same Captain Teige Mc Phelim mc Glannagh of the same Mr James ffrench and Geoffrey ffrench his sonn, Mr Keadagh ô Bannaghan Edmund <C> Mc Brian Mc Swyne gardian of the dominicans of the Abbey of Sligoe Charles Gilgin of Sligoe sonn of John Gilgin of the same, William Crean of the same towne sonn of Andrew Crane of the same Esquire a Justice of the peace James ffrench of the same towne Merchant, and divers other lewd Irish papists whose names she cannott for the present Remember assembled themselues together at Sligoe aforesaid, And then and there being Armed and arrayed & in warlick & Rebellious manner with pyks swords skeanes and other weapons fell suddenly vpon all the brittish protestants thereab in that towne Consisting of threescore families at the least & amongst the rest vpon the said Edward Newsham her husband & her this deponent, and from those protestants then and there by force and Armes tooke & carried away all their Cattle horses & sheepe then and there being they being a great number & of an extraordinary value, And about a fornight afterwards those Rebells aforenamed and their confederats by force & armes attempted and beseiged the Castle of Sligoe then kept by protestants, but they being not able to defend the same long nor oppose the beseegers were inforced to
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to surrender and yeild vp the said Castle vnto them: But yet vpon quarter offered & promised by the Rebells, that euery howsholder in the Castle should haue 10 s. in money & their best suite of apparell & shold be saffely convoyed to the Boile, But the Rebells would haue & did by force deprive the protestants of all the rest of their goods & dryve them from their habitacions, & amongst the rest they then and before deprived robbed & dispoyled her then husband Edward Newsham and her this deponent of goods & chattells and expelled & stripped them of their habitacion & meanes of the value and to their losse of twoe hundred Pownds ster: But whenas this deponent and her husband and the rest were (as depending vpon their Quarter promissed) were come out of the gate of the said Castle Then those Rebells most perfidiously & in breach and violacion of the quarter promissed, assaulted and sett vpon them all & str i then & there stript them of almost all their clothes: and vyolently thrust them into a howse, where they restrained and kept them in extreame misery fo & almost starved them with hungar and cold for 6 daies & nights together Insoemuch as some young children thereby died, And then the Rebells sent about forty of those Robbed protestants away to the Boyle, & vndertooke (and principally the <A:> said ô Connor Sligoe) then and there faithfully promissed to protect the rest from danger & gave such his vndertakeing vnder his hand And withall hee promissed that if they would stay and live amongst them at Sligoe as formerly they hadd done their goods should be restored vnto them. And this deponent and her said then husband being then sent for by her this deponents mother to come away to her to Abbey Boile & haveing sent some on purpose to bring them hither the said ô Connor Sligoe & James ffrench would by noe noe meanes suffer them to depart but suffered them to goe & stay in their owne howse, yet restored nothing vnto them nor any of the rest but thay lay in the howse on a little strawe in great distresse for about three weeks or above, And then some of the said Connor Sligos Rebellious tenants by his Comand or sufferance (vs vyolently halled & thrust all most of the protestants that stayd there into the gaole of Sligoe, The said ô Connor Sligoe for excuse saying he putt them there for feare the Common souldjers should doe them mischeife Howbeit this deponent and her twoe children & Elizabeth the wife of Tho: Stewart and one Mris Braxton were not putt into the gaole amongst the rest, but this deponents said then husband & a servant woman & 2 prentices were amongst many others then thrust into the said gaole about 3 o clock in the afternoone, And about <B A:> one of the clock of the night following, The said Hugh ô Connor Charles o Conner the frier Charles Gilgin Robert Butts a Butcher James Butts his brother another butcher
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Butcher and others whose names she cannott now call to mynd came with swords Rapiers skeines & other weapons, (as the said Edw: Newsham her then husband the on his de a t h bed afterwards informed her) into the said goale where the said prisoners were, And then and there they the same Rebells did most barbarously and divellishly Cutt slash hack stabb wound and cutt in peeces the most of those poore protestants their prisoners vizt Thomas Stewart aforenamed, merchant Sampson Port and his wife mr William Walsh and his wife Mr William Braxton James Scott & his child & one Pawle, father to the wife of the said Sampson Port. John little Arthur Martin. William Doolittle, his wife & children: William Carter Serieant John Lewis and his wiffe Elizabeth Harlae the deponents servant woman Robert Siens and William Blatt & Jeremy Blatt, her husbands late Apprentices & seuerall others whose names she cannott remember: And then and there the said wicked Rebells gave this deponents said husband soe many seuerall slashes and cutts in his head & shoulders that he those parts might well be compared to a griskin cutt and thick slyced to be bruiled in the fyre, with which wounds he falling downe to the grownde & after some that were slaine falling and lying vpon him he there lay in the blood of himself & the rest vntill morning & then being fownd with 2 or 3 more alive, the keeper of the prison in the morning would not suffer the other bloody soldjers to kill them outright, But for that tyme saued their lives And then quickly after one Robuck ô Crean at the intreaty of the deponent begged her said husbands life: wherevpon her husband having hidden some money hee & she gaue 20 s. to come into one Dermotts Boys howse whilest she had should wash and dresse him which she performed aswell as she could, & then & there her said husband related vnto her the manner of the said Massacre in the gaole to be as aforesaid. But they this deponent & her husband being euery howr in danger to be murthered, did by meanes of the said Robert Robuck ô Crean procure a passe from the friers there for them and there children to goe to Abbey Boile But her husband being extreame weake & faint with bleeding & his cloths stiff with his blood, she hyred 2 horses & for him & the Children B & gaue 22 s. for the hire of them But had not passed aboue a myle but the wicked Rebells stripped her husband & her & her children to their very skinns exposeing his many wounds to the snowy & cold weather, & soe shee carrying thone of her Children thother walked in her hand, and her poore fainting husband f staggering & crawleing with extreame paine and difficulty most miraculously as farr as Ballinefadd the wicked Rebells there that then layd seige to a Castle held there by the English) where surprised them and
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then and there one of them with a sword gaue her husband such a blow on his head that he therewith fell downe to the grownd, and for all their passe shewed, they would not suffer them neither to goe to the Castle nor depart out of the towne, but at length sayd that for tenn shillings they would saue his liffe or otherwise they would Kill him but as for her she & her children should goe amongst the English into the Castle to help to eat them out: wherevpon she & her children were forced to Leave her said poore wounded husband husband there amongst those merciles villaines & went into the Castle, And there she haveing a brother that was a souldier she borrowed x s. of him for redeeming her husband, & came and deliuered it to her those Rebells whoe having received it, would not release him but quickly after hanged him to death & kept & deteined her in miserable restraint amongst them till her poore brother for redeeming her life & liberty gave them fiftie shillings more, But how often she was threatened by those and other wicked villaines to be hanged. & how many swords & skeines were presented at her & her children with oaths & threats to take awaie their lives: although it was very often and too true yet it may seeme <B> incredible to relate, And this deponent further saith that at and soone after the said massacre in the gaole of Sligoe the Rebells there murthered in the water the wife of James Scott & gave her such a wound in her belly that the childs Arme (wherewith she was great) appeared through the wound, and she & her child in that posture were carried down with the streame of the River vnto a mill, where they were taken vpp, And about the same tyme there were murthered in the streets of Sligoe fowre Scochmen that had Lately fled to the towne for succour. And this deponent was a miserable spectactor & ey witnesse when the Dead bodies of those that were murthered in the gaole were carried out the nexte morning after the massacre Comitted, which bodies were throwne into two great holes made in the orchard of one Mr Ricroft a late minister there, and there buried
Signum predictæ [mark] Amiæ
<Jur xijo Octobr 1644
Hen: Jones Hen: Brereton>
And this deponent further saith that her now husband ffrancis Hawkesworth hath bin and is by meanes of this Rebellion deprived robbed & spoyled of his goods chattells & meanes of the value & to his losse of 60 li. & above, & had his howse burned to the ground by the Rebells And that he & she have a charge of 7 poore children
signum predictæ [mark] Amiæ
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