Deposition of John Sweet

fol. 256r

1808

Capten John Sweete of Timoleige in the Countie of Cork sworne & examined deposeth & saith That in the begining of the Rebellion in Munster vizt about the later end of ffebruary 1641 he this deponent Lived at Ballydoonasse nere Coolemayne Castle <A> then inhabited by Charles mcCarty Reaghe, where haveing a wife, one child & a family together with a good stock of Cattle Corne howsholdgoods & other thinges of considerable value, & fynding that divers of the inhabitants of Carbery were daily plundering & robbing of the English he the said Charles mcCarty Reogh sent seuerall Messengers to him this deponent to invite him to come & bring all his family & goods to his the said McCartie Reoghs Castle: But becawse one Donogh mcDaniell Carty of Ballingarrah gentleman this deponents Landlord hadd of his owne accord seased on all this deponents goods vpon pretence that others would have taken them if he had not: & yet promised to make restitution of twoe parts vpon demand, soe as he might have a third part for preserveing of them, And what corne this deponent had threshed in his howse he the said Donogh mc Carty promissed to send it to this deponent by stealth in the night to Kinsale <B> for he durst not doe otherwise for the said mcCartie Reogh had given an order that whosoever had any Englishmans goods in their possession: should have their owne goods taken from them & besids bee further punished if they deliuered any of them back to the Englishe, And this deponent therevpon goe in went away to Kinsale but received noe Corne at all, & so about half a yere after the deponent demanding but twoe of his Cowes from the said Donogh, whoe in deed had 20 oxen & 30 Cowes yong & old or thereabouts in his hands of this deponents goods he the said donogh then protested he durst

12

fol. 256v

1809

<C> durst not doe it for if he did mcCartie Reoghe would know, & it would be asmuch as his life was worth for in deed before that tyme the said mcCartie Reogh was in publique action of Rebellion: And the more to manifest the same he the said mcCarty Reogh had of this deponents knowledge seazed on of a great quantety of his Englishe neighbours Corne & other goods as divers of the said English have since vpon examination deposed vnto him the said deponent, And besids it was generally reported (and the deponent beleeveth the same to be true) that where as the Lord of Killemeaky had advised seuerall English that Lived in Clonekilty within Carbery to come away from thence with their goods: & soe save them from the surprisall & hands of the Irish: he the said Mc <D> Carty Reogh hearing of the same sent divers of his servants to them to perswade them to stay with their goods there, saying it would be a great disparagement to him if they should goe & desert the place, where they & their goods should be saffe if they would contynue there, And therevpon some of them stayinge there, vpon hopes of his fidelity were quickly after robbed of all they had & as divers of them protested to him this deponent when they came robbd & stript to the fort of kinsale, where they cursed the said mcCarty Reogh for suffering them to be robbed <E> & so stript. And in deed they were soe stripped robbed & miserably vsed that some one of them vizt oneAwstin (an ancient man) was by that occasion starved to death & five or six English more died presently afterwards: & fifteene hundred of the English of the County aforesaid whoe were robbd & stript which came that yere to Bandonbridg all died by want & starveing And this deponent further

fol. 257r

1810

<ff> saith that he this deponent hath with his owne eys seene & he hath alsoe read an order or Comission in writing which was vnder the hand of the said mcCarty Reoghe that he the said McCarty Reagh comanded that One Mr Mrs Burrows (an English gent) should be hanged becawse he was an intelligencer to the English against the Irish and a Traytor Declareing by the said writing that that one Dermot mcCarthy alias mcneCrimen (whoe was taxed for the same) was cleere of the same fact, or to that effect And this deponent was present when the same writinge was afterwards produced & read about December now last past before the high Court of Justice then sittinge at Corke where the said Dermott mcCarthy was adiudged to be executed, But a little before he was executed yet after the Centence given for his death; he the said dermot <G> mcCarty told & protested vnto the deponent that the death of the said Mr Burrowes, for which he was then adiudged to die, was not his owne act, nor was he guiltie of the same but it was done by a superior power: To which this deponent answered that he this deponent knew that the said mcCarty Reogh was cheefe Comander of all the forcs Irish forcs of that Countrie & alsoe Regulator of the Civill affaires thereof & soe nothing of value could be done without without his Comand or sufferance, wherevnto the said Dermott replyed It is true that mcCarthy Reogh is the cheefe of our howse & Lord of the Country And I should haue done very much much for him for to have excused him of that which he was questioned for, but now I have taken too much vpon my owne self to excuse him and he not any way Likely to bee the better for it for as he I conceived, the said mcCarty Reoghe is was condempned to dye aswell as hee I am, And those witnesses that he procured at the highe Court of Justice to cleare himselfe & lay the act vpon mee. I make noe question but Gods Judgements will light vpon them; for what they swore

fol. 257v

1811

there, was false, And now I shall desire to know if yow or any rationall man should thinck that I or any others should dare to hang or kill any one without the superiors Command & not to be questioned for it by the superior: And then & there he the said Dermott mcCarthy alias Crimen Macnecrimin demanded of him this deponent whether he ever heard that he the said Dermot was soe much as once questioned for the same fact by the said mcCarthy Reogh his superior or to that effect, he the said Dermott then & there vttering & expressing many other words in declaration of his owne innocency: And afterwards when he was vpon the gallowes, & that the deponent had order to see him executed, he declared there openly before the Multitude that he was not guilty of the fact for which he was then to die:
<I> And wa this deponent further saith that a little after the happie defeat given to the Lord of Ormond and his Irish Rebellious party att dublin: And after that the twoe prince Mawrice & Rupart were gone out of Mounster over sea hee the said McCarty Reaghe came in a hostill way with some horse & foote to the Castle of Kilbrittaine then possessed by Thomas ffitz Morris Esquire whoe had married the said mcCarty Reoghs mother, & in her right held the said Castle & the Lands there vnto belonging as the Jointure or dower of the l his said wife: as he the said Thomas ffitzmorris often told & averred to him this deponent, And he also seuerall times told him this deponent that the said Thomas fitz Morris asked the said McCartie Reagh then why he came in that manner thither to that Castle which was his the said ffitzmorris & which he held in right of his mother for her life & that that the said mc Carty had then nothing to doe with it or to that affect, And that therevnto the said mcCarty Reogh answered that he he came thither as to a place of securitie, & that he had spilt

[NOTE: This deposition continues on fols 260r-260v]