[215] Ireton to Lenthall, November 3, 1651, printed by order of Parliament, November 28; Ludlow, i. 286; Diary in Contemp. Hist. ii. 253, 262, 264. In the list of mayors in Lenihan’s Hist. of Limerick Stretch’s name does not occur; perhaps there was a by-election.
[216] Relation by Dr. William Layles (probably the same as Lawless, an old Limerick name), endorsed by Clanricarde, calendared among Clarendon MSS. at October 27. The writer was present in the town. The above is printed in Contemp. Hist., iii. 263, and the articles of surrender are at p. 254. The Aphorismical Discovery, ib. 19, gives even greater importance to Fennell. Castlehaven’s Memoirs, 95. Clarendon, Ireland, p. 199, says Fennell was executed some months after the siege, so that it was not Ireton’s doing. The crime for which he suffered appears to have been the murder of Edward Croker near Youghal on Shrove Tuesday, 1642, Hickson, ii. 139. See also the letter in Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 403, July 1653: ‘Those of the Irish army who forced us to render Limerick upon so base conditions were hanged at Cork, viz. Col. Ed. Fennell and Lt.-Col. William Bourke, of Brittas.’
[217] From a comparison of all the accounts it is certain that the Bishop of Emly, Purcell, Baron, Stretch, Walsh, Fanning, and Higgins, were executed soon after the surrender. Layles, who was not present, had heard that two priests, Francis and George Wolfe, also suffered as well as Fanning’s two sons and brother. The Aphorismical Discovery says Fanning was betrayed by a servant, when taking refuge from the cold among the soldiers quartered in the cathedral. Clarendon, Ireland, 198, says he had been refused food and shelter by his own wife. See also note to Gardiner’s Commonwealth, ii. 57. As to the execution of James Wolfe, a Dominican, there can be little doubt, see Clarendon, ut sup., 199, and Hibernia Dominicana, 568.
[218] Ludlow, i. 288; Thurloe, i. 212; Contemp. Hist. iii. passim. Cromwell is said to have specially recommended O’Neill to Philip IV., as a good soldier. On February 4, 1652-3, O’Neill petitioned the Council of State, and on April 1 he was discharged from the Tower, Cal. of S.P. Dom.
[219] Ludlow, i. 288; Aphorismical Discovery, iii. 20.
[220] Ludlow, i. 290-293, 278 (with Mr. Firth’s note); Diary in Contemp. Hist., iii. 241, 249, 260; Scobell’s Acts and Ordinances, ii. 154. ‘A lady that went for a maid, but few believed it,’ Lady Fanshawe’s Memoirs, 57.
[221] See Preface to Clarke Papers, i. lxviii.; Irish Commissioners to Cromwell December 2, 1651, printed in appx. to Firth’s Ludlow, i. 496, and ib. 297; W. Rowe to Cromwell in Milton State Papers, p. 17.
[CHAPTER XXXV]
LAST PHASE OF THE WAR, 1652
Galway still holds out, Dec. 1651.