Deposition of Audrey Carington

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Awdrey Carington of the Relict of Thomas Carington late of Ballenesse in the County of Cavan sworne and examined deposeth and saith That in the very begining of the present Rebellion within the County aforesaid shee this deponent and her said husband (whoe was then alyve) were expelled and driven from their howse & farme of Ballenesse aforesaid, and robbed and deprived of Cowes yong Cattle Mares howsholdgoods ready money and other goods and chattells of the value & to their losse of Cl li. or thereabouts By the Rebells Charles Magowran of <a> Magowran in the said County gent & his C divers others of that name & others his complicees confederates and souldjers whom shee cannott nominate, And at the same tyme they were att Droughill in the same County robbed & deprived of a Quantety of Oats worths vj li. By the Rebell Phillip mc Shane ô Rely of, or nere Kilmore in the County of Cavan (whoe then forceibly entered vpon the land of Drowghill belonging to Sir Edward Bagshaw knighte & possesseth the same) and by his partakers & souldjers whose names she cannott expresse, And sayth that by the perswasion of the said Charles Magowran, her said husband (being a weaver, was perswaded to goe back againe & stay with her this deponent his wife & 7 Children & work vpon his trade of a weaver; [ ] And vpon faire promisses to haue some of their goodes restored they all stayd & he worked vpon his trade there at Bellenesse aforesaid for the Rebells, whoe would neuer pay any thinge Considerably for their work Soe as they were forced to remove to Belturbett; from thence the Rebells would not suffer them to come away but they all were restrained there for above a yere: During which tyme of their stay in that County the Rebells at Belturbett (as this deponent was credibly told) & verely beleeveth drowned at Beltubett bridge, about fifty protestants, and hanged one Mr Carr, & one Tymothy Dickinson And the deponent and her husband (though staid and restrained there becawse of his husbands trade) yet they were still in feare & danger

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of their Lives: lookeing every day when the Rebells would either fetch them away to Drowne, or murther them Howsoever it pleased god to preserve their liues yet they lived in great want, and her husband about November 1642 died att Belturbett aforesaid, Leaveing her this deponent & children to the mercy of the Rebells; whoe at the length suffered them to come away from the Belturbett aforesaid, but before they came to Cavan certeine Stragling vnknowne rebells robbed the deponent of what meate & provision she hadd, And afterwards when they were comen out of the County of Cavan divers other stragling Rebells whome she knew not robbed her, the deponent & her children of such apparell and things which as they carried, saveing some clothes on their backs, and yet they stript one woman in their company stark naked, whoe had a child in her Armes, and in deed they lefte nothing with any one of the deponents company (that were about 140 persons) that was worth takeing away: Howbeit with much difficulty she & the rest escaped with liffe to the English Army. She further saith That after the drowneing of the people at Belturbett. It was a Common report amongst the very Irish themselves thereabouts that none durst come vnto nor stay at the bridge of Belturbett, becawse some spiritt or ghost came often thither & cryed Reveng Reveng:
Shee further saith that the Rebells at Belturbett kept their feast of Ester next following the begining of the Rebellion, vpon Palmsunday & the daies following which was a iust weeke before our feast of Ester, And on that which they then kept for Ester day, The Rebell Owen Brady then a Comander there & the rest of the Rebells as they came from Masse, sett fyre on, and burned the most part of the towne of Belturbett aforesaid together with the Church there which was a goodly faire building
<Cavan
Christopher Lawson>
signum predictæ [mark] Awdreæ
Carington
Jur xxjo October 1645 coram
Hen: Jones
Will: Aldrich

Cavan
Awdrey Carington Jur
21 Oct 1645
Intw
hand

[Copy at MS 832, fols 109r-109v]