Deposition of Katherin Cooke

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Katherin the Relicte of William Cooke aged about 56 yeres late of Clonbrassill in the County of Armagh Carpenter aged about 56 yeres the said William being (since slaine at the seige of Newry when it was recovered from the Rebells) sworne & examined saith That in the beginning of the present Rebellion her said husband and shee were (amongst a great number of others forceibly deprived robbed and dispojled of their goods chattells <a> & meanes of the value and their losse of One hundred pownds ster <A> at the least by the Rebellious souldjers of Toole McCann of <I> Portadowne in the same County gentleman And further saith that a great number of Rebells in the said County of Armagh did about the xxth of december 1641 most barbarously drowne at one tyme one hundred & fowerscore protestants men women & children in the River at the bridg of Portadowne And about nyne dayes afterwards she sawe a vision or spiritt in the shape of a man as she apprehended which she sa we that appeared in that River in the place of the drowning bolt vpright brest high, with elevated and closed handes & stood in that posture there at times more, or lesse, vntill the latter end of lent then next followeing att which tyme some of the English Army (whereof her husband aforenamed was one) martching by that place Many of them and amongst the rest her said husband as they Confidently affirmed to her this deponent saw that spiritt or vision standing vpright & in the posture a{fore}mencioned: But after that tyme the same spiritt or vision vanished & appeared noe more that she knoweth of And heard of but saw not that there were other vi sions and apparitions there & much scrich ing & strang noise heard in that River at tymes afterward s And further saith that after the battaile at the lurgan which happened to be in at All hollantide 1641 the Rebells in the said County of Armagh robbed strapt and murthered A great number of Protestants some they murthered by burneing some by the sword some by drowning some by hanging & the rest by starveing and other deaths Inasmuch as few or some that they mett with escaped death And this deponent to shun their rage & to save her pore liff hid herself in
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in a water ditch and sate there amongst high Rushes soe long that shee was almost frozen and starved to death: when shee rose and she Crawled away secretly But although with much difficultie she escaped with liff yet she was the miserable sep eywitnesse of the murthering of many protestants as of one John Allen Thomas Martin John Rogers Roger Birchall William Jackson & [ all ] all murthered in the Lurgan woodes. Besids many others that she saw slaine but cannot remember their names. And further saith That in the great battaile of Lesnegarvy betwixt the protestants & the irish Rebellious papists there was slaine of Rebells that were numbred (besids what they carried a way privatly [ ] seven hundred of the Rebells & about 14 of the protestants And it was then soe miserably cold that this d ep & such frost {and} snow that the deponents children and divers other children then and there present at that battaile would (where they sawe som the warme bloud of any fall on the grownd tread therein with their bare feete to keep them from freezing & starving such was thextremity of the weather then and their miseries And shee further saith that shee being one eywitnesse of the Battaile aforesaid observed such strong fury [ ] and rage in the very horses of the protestant Ryders that they with great eagarnes and fury and with strang Nayings & vnaccustomed roreings rushed amongst the Rebells bore them downe under their feete and took divers of their pykes in their very mowths and furiously rushed [ ] them out of the Rebells hands & trampled them under theire feete beating them rebells alsoe downe most strangly with their f[ ] feete In soe much as those very horses <a 3> destroyed many of them: And some of the Rebells that escaped & fled from that battaile meeting one Mris Howard and g & Mris ffranckland both great with child & naked 6 children of theirs those Rebells then and there with their pykes killd & murthered them all and after ripped opened the gentlewomens bellys & tooke out their children thone of them being quick and threw them into a ditch in the sight of Jane this deponents daughter whoe escaped becawse she spoke Irish and sayd she was an irish woman
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And this deponent further saith That [ ] many of her this deponents neighbours who had bin prisoners amongst the Rebells at Dunganon Castle & some at Portadowne Castle earnestly say and affirmed that divers of the Rebells wold professe bragg and boast how they toke an English protestant one Robert Wilkinson at Kilmore & held his feete in the fyre vntill they burned him to death. And the said Robert Wilkinsons owne sonn by name Hugh Wilkinson affirmed he was present & a prisoner when the lik that cruelty was exercised vpon his father. And that the like or some other cruelty had bin exercised vpon himself but that he yeilded to goe along with & partake with them the Rebells as indeed he did, vntill he gott an oportunity to run from them. And he likewise averred to the deponent that the Rebells at Kilmore alsoe hanged the said Robert Wilkinsons wife (she being nere 60 yere old) at her owne dore And that the Rebells at Kilmore tooke another woman by name the wiffe of Gregory Jackson & Ann Jackson her sister in law and threw them both into a bogg pitt upon their heads where they drowned & smothered them & there left them both sticking with their feete upwards in that bogg
The mark of the said
Katherin Cook [mark]
{J}ur 24o febr 1643
{Hen:} Jones
Hen: Brereton

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Armagh
Katherin Cooke Armagh
Jur 24o febr: 1643
copied Intw
hand

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