The state of the country after a year of Tyrconnel’s government may be inferred from such reports as have survived of the Spring Assizes in 1689. Chief Justice Keating and Baron Lynch, one of the new judges, presided at Wicklow. John Price, lately Receiver-General, but dismissed since Clarendon’s departure, was under his successor’s protection. When the new levies were in progress ‘the Merryboys,’ urged on by some of their clergy, made a general attack on the Protestants. Plunder was the order of the day. Price lived at Ballinderry in the Wicklow hills, and his neighbours gathered round him for mutual safety. Colonel O’Toole, who was said to have collected twenty-six loads of miscellaneous booty, demanded their horses and arms, which were refused. Colonel Sheldon was then sent with a strong force, and to him they submitted. On these facts Price and a hundred other Protestants were indicted for high treason. A true bill was found, but the multitudinous defendants challenged all Roman Catholics. For want of Protestant freeholders no petty jury could be had, so that the trial failed. A juror named Saville was discharged as destitute. Even his wife’s and his children’s clothes had been taken. Keating asked him the value, and he answered, ‘Truly, my lord, I have not yet computed my loss, but they have taken away all.’ In his charge to the Grand Jury the Chief Justice said the country generally was in an ill state, ‘but here they spare not even wearing clothes and habits of women and children, that they are forced to come abroad naked without anything to cover their nakedness.’ He prayed for the preservation of his sacred Majesty King James II., ‘for the protection of dutiful subjects, and for the subversion and eradication of all those who desire the subversion of his government either by foreign force or inbred conspiracy.’ He told the Roman Catholics that their turn would come. They knew that there had been ‘an invasion in England of a foreign enemy, the Prince of Orange, and the same is designed on this kingdom.’ When these words were spoken William was actually King of England, and it is not surprising that the Protestants, when they regained power, should have considered Keating a traitor, or at the very least a trimmer.[175]
Opinions of two judges.
At the same Assizes Maurice Cavanagh and two men named Poer and Boland, were indicted for robbery with violence. Cavanagh gave evidence against his accomplices and was acquitted. In sentencing Poer and Boland to be hanged, Keating said the worst of the three had escaped; and he drew a vivid picture of the condition of those who had put the labour of their whole lives into cattle and lost all in a night. There was, he said, nothing so barbarous this side of the Cape of Good Hope. Cavanagh swore that his parish priest had ordered him to have a skean, that similar orders had been given in other parishes, and that companies were thus everywhere collected armed with skeans or half-pikes. A letter dated March 2, addressed by Tyrconnel to the judges, was read in court. The Chief Justice having returned to Dublin, the Grand Jury gave in their answer to Lynch. The Lord Lieutenant complained of a falling revenue, and demanded a voluntary aid to be raised by the sheriffs, but they said in writing that the country was poor through the daily ruin of the English, and they could hardly live, much less subscribe. In discharging them the judge said their paper was a reflection and scandal to their country, and would be very ill taken by Government. He ordered it to be torn out of the minute-book, lest it should be used in evidence against them, and this was accordingly done.[176]
Case of Sir Thomas Southwell, March 1689.
Cork and Bandon, Mallow and Castlemartyr, being in Jacobite hands, about a hundred of the Munster gentry who were determined not to submit, prepared to join Lord Kingston at Sligo. Sir Thomas Southwell of Castlematras, near Rathkeale, was the leader of this expedition. Avoiding Limerick, they crossed the Shannon at O’Brien’s Bridge and made their way through Clare with slight opposition. At last they were captured in a narrow pass by James Power, sheriff of Galway, at the head of a strong force. It seems clear that the conditions were not faithfully kept, but the prisoners were all taken unharmed to Loughrea and thence to Galway. They were tried before Martin, one of the new judges, who went to court preceded by a piper instead of a trumpeter. The facts could not be denied, and the whole party were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and even ordered to prepare for immediate death, but there were several reprieves, and all were suffered to live until William’s arrival altered the situation. Southwell himself made friends with Kenneth, Lord Seaforth, who was allowed to carry him off after several months’ captivity. James granted him a pardon, though Nagle said he was then precluded by the Act of Attainder from doing so. As Southwell was by that time safe in Scotland, the validity of King James’s clemency remained undecided.[177]
William’s attempt to gain Tyrconnel.
Tyrconnel was a partisan of France, and in 1686 boasted that he could hand over Ireland to her whether he became Viceroy or not. Barillon said much the same, adding that only time and a Parliament could restore their property to the Catholics of Ireland. In the meantime James thoroughly approved of the Lord Deputy’s proceedings in that direction. There is no evidence that Tyrconnel at any time contemplated making terms with William, but he may have wished it to be thought that he did. He told Archbishop Marsh and others that he was weary of the government, but could not quit it without his master’s leave. ‘What,’ he said, ‘shall I do with the sword? There is nobody to receive it. Shall I throw it into the kennel?’ He may have had a moment of despair when he saw the thanes leaving their misguided master, and there is a letter written by Chief Justice Keating with his approval, which hints that he and his co-religionists would be satisfied if they could be placed in as good a position as they had held under Charles II. If James gave the order he was ready to disband his new levies. Keating’s letter was addressed to Sir John Temple, whose nephew advised William to send over Richard Hamilton, one of the officers sequestered in the Isle of Wight. It is uncertain whether Hamilton had an understanding with Tyrconnel, or whether he really thought he could persuade him to accept William’s terms. However that may be, it was known in a month that the emissary would not return as he had promised, and he doubtless confirmed Tyrconnel in his determination to resist. John Temple was blamed for the bloodshed that followed, and his tragic death was the result of remorse.[178]
Unrest in Ulster,
and in Dublin.
‘It pleased God,’ said George Walker, ‘so to infatuate the councils of my Lord Tyrconnel that when the 3000 men were sent to assist his master against the invasion of the Prince of Orange, he took particular care to send away the whole regiment quartered in and about Londonderry.’ The air was full of rumours, and the prevailing panic was increased by an anonymous letter announcing that there would be a massacre of the Protestants on Sunday, December 9. Many copies were circulated, one of which, addressed to Lord Mount Alexander, was found in the street at Comber in Down. The letter was doubtless an impudent fabrication, but it had a great effect, for 1641 was not forgotten. Copies reached Dublin on Friday, Sunday was the fatal day, and 3000 Protestants managed to get away by sea on the Saturday. Tyrconnel did not lose a moment before issuing a proclamation against false news, and he sent a yacht after the fugitives, but they could not be persuaded to return. The alarm spread to the country, and for several successive Sundays Protestant congregations worshipped with armed sentries at the door, like the Scotch field conventicles in Lauderdale’s time. The panic in London owing to false reports brought by countrymen took place a week later, and may have been an echo of the Comber letter, but the truth will never be known. Londonderry became a city of refuge, with vigorous support from Enniskillen and Sligo, which Tyrconnel had also neglected to garrison.[179]