Deposition of Thomas Hewett
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Thomas Hewett of Belcarrow in the County of Mayo Inholder sworne and examined deposeth and sayth That about Alhallontide 1641 The present Rebellion began in the said County: And then a great multitude of Irish rdid rise vpp in Armes entered into open Rebellion and robbed all the English in that Country that they possibly could of all their goods, And this deponent fearing the like danger to falle presently vpon himself resolved to sell and part with his Cattell & goodes but was disswaded therein by the Right honorable Myles <A:> Lord Viscount Mayo his neighbour whoe offered and promissed to give this deponent (if he would contyn u e his dwelling where he was) three times as many goodes and cattle as should bee taken from him by any of the Rebells Wherevpon this deponent kept still his cattell and goods that otherwise he could haue sold for ready money and contynued his dwelling and Inkeepeing at Belcarrow aforesaid vntill about the <B:> begining of december 1641: Att which tyme Edmund McHenry Kelly of Dennamoney in the same County gent John mcHenry Kelly of the same his second brother gentleman & Richard fitzwilliam Kelly of the same his third brother of the same gent, with a number of Rebellious Irish souldiers whose names he cannott expresse <C> together with one Vllick Brennagh of the Parrish of Bellcarrow aforesaid gent: Robert Brennagh of the same gentleman Moyler oge Stainton of the same parrish gentleman, Donogh ô Carney of the same husbandman and one Richard mcThomas Boye of the same parrish gentleman being all this deponents neighbours & meere Irish men with divers others came with force and Armes to this deponents said <D> howse, And then and there the said Edmund Henry Kelly theldest brother drawing his skeane presented it against the breast of this deponents Sonne John Hewett: saying he would kill him if he would not goe out of the howse presently: Wherevpon hee (for safety of his Liffe) left the howse; And then the said Edmund mcHenry Kelly & his brothers & the other Rebells before named
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with their Rebellious Crew did forceibly possesse take & carry away from thence all their or otherwise disposed of as they pleased this deponents howsholdgoods & afterwards tooke his Cattle horses Corne hay provision & expelled this deponent and his familie from their habitacion and meanes worth One hundred forty <144 li.> fowre Powndes at the least, And the same Rebells did still contynue their robberyes and wickednes vntill they had depriued all the English in that County of all that they had, And this deponent and family (fled (for safety of their lives) to the said Lord of Mayos howse within the said towne of Belcarrow, where they as protected by his lordship contynued in great danger for about 3 weekes Insoemuch as they were euery night in feare to be slaine by a number of Rebells that almost euery night attempted & besett that howse But whenas the deponent sawe that their numbers still increased with their mallice and Resolucion to doe him & his family more mischeefe, He deserted that howse and came with his family to Castle Barr belonging to <A> Sir Henry Bingham knighte, The possession whereof the said Sir Henry had formerly deliuered to the Lord of Mayo (the said Sir Henry being himself turned to Masse & gone away to live amongst the Irish papists within the Countie of Thomond:) In which Castle this deponent by the permission of the said Lord of Mayo staid together with his family vntill the first Cessacion of Armes was agreed on: And saith that in the time that he stayd there, hee was credibly Informed and told of seuerall murthers outrages and cruelties Comitted by the Irish Rebells vpon and against the persons of the English in seuerall & other protestants aswell in the County of Mayo, as in other Counties of this Kingdome of Ireland: vizt of a massacre and bloody murther
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<A> att the bridg of Shrewle acted and Comitted by the bloodie Rebell Redmund Bourk gent a Captain of Rebells and his souldjers Whoe about Candlemas 1641 att Shrewle afforesaid sett vpon and assaulted a great number of Rebe English whereof the Bishop of Killallah & about viijt ministers were part, and then and there murthered about threescore and tenn of those English Howbeit the said Bishop escaped with seuerall wounds into the Church there, his wife and children & the rest of those that escaped with their lives being stript of their clothes which murther was comitted quickly after that the said lord of Mayo had convoyed those English thither: Some said it was done when his Lordship was and his Souldjers were gone half a myle or a myle out of sight, others said it was done in his Lordships sight but the certenty thereof this deponent knoweth not: Howbeit none of those English (they being taken from Castlebarr) were suffered to carry or take away any weopen or Armes for their defence with them noe not soe (as this deponent is perswaded) soe much as a knife) for if they had had but reaso weapons they might & would as he thincketh, haue defended & rescowed one another & have foiled the Rebells,
About twoe daies after that murther Comitted one of the Clandonnells of the Parrish of Strade and said County of Mayo Whose christen name this deponent cannott Remember came to the said towne of Belcarrow which belonged to the said Lord of Mayo, haveing his hands his sword and skeine (which hee then and there shewed) all imbrewed in blood, & shewing alsoe out of his pockett a great many of peecs
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of gould which (as he boasted) he had taken from the English gentlemen that hee and the rest had slayne at Shrewle there Confessing that he himself had then and there slaine one Mr Barnard a minister one Mr Jones a rich gentleman & one Mr Smith a Merchant of Bristow, And then and there the said Clandonnell sayd that he would not wash his hands from that blood, till he had killed the rest of the Englishmen that were left behind in the Cuntrie, which s t words struck this deponent (that well heard them) into a great feare, Howbeit although the said Clandonnell hadveing than in his Company one Hugh <A> Hart then servant and steward to the Lord of Mayo & divers others lewd and desperate persons; yet they hearing that this deponent and others were comen into the said howse belonging to the said Lord of Mayo in that towne of Belcarrow & that they had some guns within the howse, went away to the howse of one Arthur ffrench an Irishman in that towne, where they dranck strong drinck & the said Clandonnell & Hugh Hart the Lord of Mayos said steward playd at the Cards, where the said Hart thincking (as he afterwards said) to wynn the said Clandonnells gould, lost all his owne money to the said Clandonnell
And further saith that the said Hugh Hart (though steward & servant to the said Lord of Mayo) robbed many of the English protestants that were his lords tennants and others, and amongst the rest robbed one William Powell and Bartholomew Hickley his soninlaw of their hows=hold goods Corne lynnen and other things, threatening to kill those English if they conveyed any of their goods awaie & in particular he the said Hart presented his naked skeane to the
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breast of the said Hickley swearing he would kill him if he medled with soe much as one penny worth of his the said Hickleys owne goodes: And the said Hickleys wife was stript in the streets of Belcarrow aforesaid by some of the complicies of the said Hugh Hart, in his the said h Harts presence, & of all her clothes, & a Ring of gold being then and there taken from her, the said Hugh Hart had the same, which afterwards this deponent sawe worne by the said Harts wife vpon her finger: And saith that the said Hart was att the time of this deponents comeing away from the lord of Mayos howse (which was since the first Cessacion of Armes proclaimed) was & still contynued the servant steward & Receiver of the Rents of the said lord of Mayo his Master, & not only in his Actions but alsoe in his words which was most cruell & invective to and against the English, and would frequently say That none of the English deserved to live, but that it was a pitty they were not all killd, And although both this deponent and divers others of the distressed and robbed English made divers complaints of to the said Lord of Mayo for wronges cruelties & Iniuries done vnto them by the said Hart his steward yet his Lordship gaue them noe redresse, but suffered him to goe on in his wickednes, And this deponent hath heard it credibly reported by twoe Irish Smiths that were newly comen from Sligoe to Belcarrow aforesaid Castlebarr to live there, & by very many others (& beleeveth the Report to be true) that some of the O Connor Sligoe brothers and other Rebells haveing robbed the English and Scottish at Sligoe cawsed a great Company of them to be afterwards putt into the gaole there, and about Midnight to be all murthered and cutt in peecs with swords, some stabbed with skeanes and other knockt in the heads & with sledges and axes And that they saved twoe or 3 of them alive till the Last, & whome they had cawsed them to kill others of those English & Scotts & at length killd them alsoe, Which murther was reported to haue bin
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bin comitted about Januarie 164 5 1641 those Smiths confidently & w i th much greef saying they were in the Sligoe when that massacre was committed Hee heard it alsoe verely credibly reported that certeine Rebe by the wiffe of of one Mr George Bohannan, (whom he beleeveth) that certeine Rebells whose names he cannott expresse that about the xxth of November 1641 <B> did at a place betweene nere strade in the said County of Mayo and the towne of Sligoe aforesaid C omitt a most cruell and bloody murther was comitted vpon the person of one the said Mr George Bahannon, by stabbing him with skeanes & pykes a and then before he was dead putting him into a ditch, there pulling earth vpon him and burying him quick, And that the parties that Committed that murther were Edmund ô Maghery that liveth nere Strade aforesaid gent a Rebellious Captain and his souldiers which murther the said Mris Bohannon often (with weeping related to this deponent to have bin in manner as aforesaid, And this deponent is asured that her said report is too true, And further saith that the said Mris Bohannon was by this present Rebellion and that murther brought with her 4r po yong children from a plentifull estate to that pouerty & beggary that shee and her children went a begging from dore to dore almost naked, & had starved, had not the good viscountesse Mayo (that still contynued a protestant) & this deponent and his wife & some other of those few English that were left at Castlebarr in charity releeved them:
<C> And this deponent further saith that hee hath beene often told and that very credibly by divers of the Irish themselues & others that there haue bin drowned of English and Scottish protestants in the River of the Moyne within tenn myles of Strade to the number of twoe hundred or three hundred & that those protestants were carried into and vpon that River in boats & throwne out of the same into the River & drowned by a number of Rebellious souldiers whose names he cannott expresse, and this deponent is very confident that that report is very true
And
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further saith that one Mris Gardner a protestant the wife of <D> John Gardner of the Barrony of Carragh in the County of Mayo Esquire haveing gotten leave & a Convoy of twoe Irish men to goe along with her from the Castle of Belleeke to visitt some of her children which were tenn or 12 myles off her in that Cuntry, those twoe Irish men her Convoy about the moneth of August 1643 fell vpon that gentlewoman in her way & murthered her as this deponent hath credibly heard from her owne husband & from by divers both English and Irish, and as he verely beleeveth, And this deponent further saith That about Midsomer next before the Rebellion bega <A> brake out, the now gran Rebell Rory More ofinnow a Colonell Came to the Lord of Mayo aforenamed to his howse at Belcarrowe, & there staid about a weeke with his Lordship & then they had much Conference together, from thence the said Rory More went to Cropatrick hard by the sea coast, & went alsoe to divers others placs to view the Cuntry parte of the said County of Mayo haveing in his Company 6 men & a foote boy, that were, or seemed to be his servants, And although this deponent did not then suspect the said Rory More, nor the occasion he came about yet since the Rebellion brake out he suspected (as he doth still) that he came to view the coasts passages wayes & strengthes of the Cuntry: & that he was then about his plotting and adviseing concerning the then intended & since acted Rebellion. And further saith that the parties hereafter mencioned have bin Actors in the present Rebellion by robbing and pillidging the kings loyall protestant subiects levying carrying Armes & partaking with other Rebells and one with another against his Maiesty & in doeing and Comitting of divers outrages <B:> & cruelties vizt Sir Theobald Burk knight sonn and heire apparent to the said Lord of Mayo Richard Bourk of in the County of Mayo Esquire brother to the said Lord of Mayo, John Browne of the Castle of Aneile in the same County gent an English papist, Anthony Garvy ofin the same
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<A> County Esquire a Justice of peace, Anthony John Garvie ofCastle in the same County late high sherriff of that County: (whoe since the Cessacion of Armes did in this deponents howse in Belcarrow aforesaid say theis words I thinck that Ireland wilbe hard enoughe for England and Scotland, or to that effecte) David Kelly of Dunnamony in the same County gentleman Edmund <B> Bourk of the Cloughers in the same County gent one of their Captains, John Bourk his brother another of their Captains John Moore of the Brees in the same County Esquire soninlaw to the said Lord of Mayo a Colonell & Edmund Bourk Esquire yonger sonn to the Lord of <symbol> of Mayo, And saith that neither the parties Rebells aforesaid nor any any other of the Irish papists that lived within the said County of Mayo had any losse at all nor had any thing taken from them within that County that either this deponent knoweth of or <+> can beleeve since the Rebellion brake out vnles it were or hath bin within 6 weekes or lesse now last past, that the Scotts came out of the north amongst them: But that till then those Irish before mencioned & their souldjers & confederats peaceably enioyed all their owne goodes: & alsoe the goods that the had taken from the English protestants and which they had which they shared and devided amongst them, And further saith <C> that Mr John Browne abovenamed was a man principally employed as Thresurer for the Rebells of that County and that he received the contribucion money of that Cuntry raised for manteinance of their Rebellious Warrs
Signum predicti [mark] Thome Hewett
Jur 23o July 1645
Hen: Jones
Hen: Brereton
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