Depositions of Ellenor Stringer

fol. 243r

1836

Ellenor Stringer the wife of Robert Stringer of the Cittie of Corke Joyner aged about 50 yeres sworne & examined deposeth That about the first daie of January in the yere of our Lord 1641 when the present Rebellion was begun within those parts she this deponent with her former husband William Selly (then alive, but since dead) Lived at Bengore on one Mr Tho: Debbneys Land & near to the Lord of Muskeryes Land within seven Miles of Bandonbridge when & where divers Irish Rebells whose names she knows not attempted & brake their howse & from thence & their grownde tooke away & robbed them of twenty Cowes & heffers & of all their howsholdgoods & other goods worth 100 li. And from thence her then husband & shee & her children to save their Lives fled to Bandon where they remained about a moneth or thereabouts And then being pressed & pinched with want & wanting frends to releeve them, & the deponent vnderstanding that some musketters were to Martch out of Bandon aforesaid shee with when they went out accordingly did goe along with them some 5 or 6 Miles towards Clanekilty & att their comeing back againe shee this deponent together with one Richard Mewden an English Protestant who had six small children; were neare <A> McCarty Reoghs Castle of Kilbritton suddenly apprehended and surprized by some of the troops of the said McCartie Reagh whose names shee cannott expresse. Howbeit shee very well knoweth that they came from amongst & were part of t such of the said McCarty Reoghs troope of horse as were then in her sight mustering together vpon the hill of kilbrittan aforesaid: which said troops that soe tooke them bound this forceibly, carried them along to the said Castle of kilbrittan where they bound her the deponent & the said Richard Mewden back to back so hard with coards that it was greevously painfull vnto them, then those Rebells taunting and flowting them bade them looke out & see if the English Roagues would come & rescowe them: And about an howre after that they <B> were soe brought in & bound, the said McCarty Reoghe himself came into the said Castle vnto them vnto whom they earnesty cryed & prayed that he would either vnbynd them or take away their Lives quite, so as to putt them out of their payne: Wherevpon the said McCarty Reogh cawsed them to be vnbound & presently to be putt into a dark dungeon vnder the Castle wall where they contynued all night, & in the morning they were brought out vpon & to the Court

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fol. 243v

1837

of guard where they were kept tyed together for two dayes And then vpon intelligence that some troops of Bandon had killd a Cowboy of theirs, the said McCarty Reaghs souldiers in his presence then with his him the said McCarty Reogh in his Castle carried the deponent and <C> the said Mewden owt of th & through the rest of the souldiers to the gallows (which were formerly built within the sight of the Castle for hanging of the Englishe) And then & thos there those souldiers questioned and asked him the said Richard Mewden where Mr Woodly his Masters goods were he tould them he knew nothing nor nothing could confesse, wherevpon they tooke him & hanged him to death in this deponents presence & on the gallowes aforesaid in the sight of the said Castle Howbeit the mother of the said McCarty perceiveing out of a window of that Castle that the said Mewden was already hanged shee sent her Preist vnto her this deponent who was by the gallowes, whoe first asked her of what religion shee was she answered answered shee was of that religion wherein she had bin bredd & would live & die which said Preist having first spoken to the souldiers there present, did at length bidd this deponent come away to the Ladie which she did whoe therevpon asked whoe asked whoe that man was which was then hanged, & the deponent telling her the truth, the said Lady then & there expressed theis words vizt cursed be the time that ever my sonn (meaning the said <D> McCartie Reagh) did hang this man, for neither his father nor granfather in any the former warrs did ever hang any of the English, or words to that purpose And that therevpon the said Ladie gave direction that this deponent should be kept in that Castle till shee could have her convoyed to Bandon aforesaid & gave her victualls & cawsed her to goe vp & downe the Castle to help her servants in their work, which she did vntill the night of the next day, when some of the said McCarty Reaghs souldiers then in the said Castle forced her away out of the Castle, & carried her vp & downe the woods & other placs till at length they all came to one Mr Horns howse

fol. 244r

1838

<E> near Eniskeane in the woods where McCarty Reogh & his forcs were, & where they stayd & kept their quarters from Saturday till Monday but gave the deponent noe meate Howbeit the said Lady wrote to the said McCarty Reogh to release her the deponent yet he did it not presently but promissed he would when they martched towards Cork. And at Length he realeased her but saide when shee prayed for his passe he said he was too busie to give her any. yet before shee was released shee was much threatened by divers of his souldjers to be killd, called English whore & told that shee bewitched the English vnto them: (which indeed they they sawe not att that tyme not farr from them) And this deponent is very confident that she had been hanged aswell as the said Mewden, (the same roape that hanged him being about her neck) but that the said Ladie mediated for her & prevented it: And further saith that after shee was whilest shee was soe as aforesaid in restrainte amongst the said Rebells One Teige ô Downing a Rebell Comander amongst them asked her if shee could make an oate Cake, shee said shee would as well as shee could, whereto some other of the Rebells then present whose names shee knows not then said & swore, that it would <f> have an English tast, And one Teige ô North was then & there another Comander amongst them, And one Mcffynnen was another Comander there alsoe vnder mc Carthy And after this deponent was gott in Like from the goeing away she was 7 tymes brought back againe by the said McCarty Reoghs souldiers & tossed & carried from place to place & at length seven roagues that lay in the way bett & struck her very extreamely: howbeit with much difficulty & dangers to shee gott away from them: And this deponent further saith that whilest this deponent was soe as aforesaid prisoner amongst the said Rebells one Mr Meech of the parrish of Merrogh & one ffulbrooks sonn of the same Parrish (both English) & thirteene more of English men women & children being were taken & carried away vpp and <g> downe by the said mcCarty Reaghs forcs in her sight from place to place & ledd by some roaguish boys & yong Rebells: And saith that shee hath been credibly told (& beleeveth nothing more then the truth of the report) that the said Mr Meech, ffulbrooke & the other thirteen English were by those Rebells murthered knockt in the heads with stones, murthered & soe buried or putt a lto all together in a ditch in a meadow belonging to or lying neere Mr Snowfell a Minister in the Parrish of Eniskeane

The marke of the said
Ellenor Stringer
Deposed vnto this 9th of August 1653
Joh. Harding
Tho: Waring
Wa: Cooper

fol. 244v

1839

Against McCarthy Reagh
Ellenor the wife of Robert
Stringer of Cork Joyner
A 16
McCarthy Reagh
16