Statement of Rory O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, in 1607

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Trusting that some might be interested in the records of Irish history, this following is quite revealing.

The context is that Red Hugh O’Donnell, ‘the’ O’Donnell a very ancient title in Ireland, lost the battle of Kinsale against the English, went to Spain and was poisoned there by an English agent. So he was then succeeded by his brother Rory as O’Donnell who was made the first Earl of Tyrconnell (an old name for Co. Donegal), when the Ulster lords made their supposedly favourable peace of Mellifont at the end of the Nine Years War.

But while favourable on the surface, Hugh O’Neill later remarked that the period was one of ‘destruction by peace’. What happened was that although these lords were left in nominal possession of their lands and rights, in reality the whole state operated a crooked but semi secret campaign against them, effectively forcing them into exile, as obviously happened. When in exile they submitted documents outlining this story, hence this document from Rory O’Donnell.
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“An abstract of the exactions etc, spiritual as well as temporal, suffered by the Earl of Tyrconnell from the 1st James I to this year 1607, to be presented to the King.

1. The Priests & religious persons dwelling in his country were daily pursued & persecuted.

2. The Lord Deputy in the presence of several noblemen of that country told him that he must go to church or else he should be forced thereto, for which he resolved rather to abandon lands and living, yea all the Kingdoms of the Earth with the loss of his life, than to be forced utterly against his own conscience and the utter ruin of his soul to any such practice.

3. That there were taken from his tenants by the Kings forces at Lifford 150 cows besides many sheep & swine, wherewith they were not satisfied, but suffered a number of people of their apparel. Sir George Cary being Lord Deputy – the first year after the Lord Deputy going into England.

4. In the same year after he went to England, the garrison of Lough Foyle & Ballyshannon took from his tenants 400 cows for the victualling of the soldiers, concerning which the Council in England wrote to the Lord Deputy requiring him to give the Earl payment in English money, which he could not have.

5. On his arrival before the King, expecting a patent of all such lands as his ancestors had held, according to the promise made by the King’s lieutenant, of all the lands following, together with the homages, rents & duties accustomed to be paid to the Earl’s predecessors in the several territories & Countries of Sligo, Tirawley, Moylurg, Dartry, Tuolong [this latter place is not in Meehan’s text], in Fermanagh & Sir Cahir O’Dogherty his Country, and all Sir Niall O’Donnell’s lands, yet were they excepted, and kept from him, together with the castle of Ballyshannon and 1,000 acres of lands & the whole salmon fishing of the river of Erne, which is found to be worth 800 pounds a year, the same castle being one of the Earl’s chiefest mansion houses.

6. That although Lifford was not excepted out of said Patent, as evidently appears in so much that the Council of England by their letters dated in 1605 & 1607, finding no title or cause to the contrary, required the Deputy to remove all the garrisons in Tyrconnell, & especially that of Lifford and to deliver possession to the Earl, “yet on consideration of the said letter, the Earl’s urgent necessity for some dwelling house, & the former things excepted, they adjoined 4,000 Acres of the best land unto the garrison, and kept for his highnesses use withal a house in Derry withal the ancient duties thereunto belonging, which was never excepted in the said Patent.”

7. The Michaelmas after the King’s Coronation, 25 July 1603, when “the Earl arrived in Ireland, with the King’s letters to have his Patent passed;” the Lord Deputy would take no notice thereof but left him 13 weeks in Dublin, until a survey were taken of all the Earl’s lands, rights & duties, which office being for the Earl found reasonable, was not received by the Lord Deputy, who presently passed the Earl’s Patent as he pleased, upon which the Earl procured the letters to have the full benefit of the said office, and yet received no benefit.

8. The same year there were 11 Bishops [Meehan mentions no Bishops] & 7 Sheriffs sent to Tyrconnell by each of which was taken out of every cow and plough horse 4d and as much out of every colt & calf, twice a year and 2/6 again of every shoemaker, carpenter, smith and weaver in the whole country & 8d a year for every married couple.

9. When Sir Niall O’Donnell, for usurping the title of O’Donnell, taking the Earl’s creaghts, and tenants, was committed to prison, whereout he broke and killed some of His Majesty’s subjects, the Earl by special warrant from the Lord Deputy persecuted him & took all his own creaghts again. Sir Neal having made complaint before the Earl of Devonshire in England, and my Lord of Salisbury, was dismissed & returned into Ireland. Notwithstanding which, Sir George Carey, in malice to the Earl, gave warrant to sundry officers to levy and take satisfaction for the said prey from the Earl’s tenants for Sir Neal’s use. “Where they with 180 of Sir Niall’s men and 3 English companies took 500 cows, 60 mares and plough horses, 13 horses, besides meat and drink for 6 weeks for said companies, besides many other extortions, the country being then very poor”, whereupon the Earl procured order for restitution, which was no sooner granted than countermanded at Sir Niall’s request, whereby 140 ploughs of the Earl’s tenants were hindered from ploughing that season.

10. The Earl can testify by good witnesses, whose names without their danger he cannot tell, that when Sir Niall & Sir Ralph Bingley pretented to kill or murder the Earl, they made the said Carey privy thereto, he seeming to uphold, patronise and countenance them in that bloody enterprise.

11. The Earl could testify that Carey, in the presence of Sir Arthur Chichester (now Lord Deputy), Sir G Bourchier and the Earl’s own man Matthew Tully, said that he would force the Earl unto action, whereof the Earl complained unto England, but could not have remedy, or punishment inflicted upon Carey, because the Earl could not show the same to the King, Carey having many friends of the Privy Council.

12. A horse boy named Kelly, for killing of one Cusack, being to be hanged, was (by a man sent privately by Carey) promised his life, on condition of his accusing the Earl of being the author that did set him on to kill the said Cusack, which the boy confessed, which served to no purpose for him, than to accelerate his hanging and when brought to the gallows and he saw no hope of his life, he swore that he never saw the Earl, that those who were sent by Carey to promise him his life, were the causers of his former false confession, which he swore to be false in the presence of 400 persons, and the Sheriff of the County and Portreeve of Trim, when he was executed for the same fact. Carey sent soldiers to apprehend an English man (whom the Earl brought over as a gardener) in the Earl’s lodging, he, the Earl, being within, the English man was taken and kept close prisoner, without meat, drink or light, (to see if he would accuse the Earl as Kelly had done) until he died. All which cruel and tyrannical proceedings the Earl represented to the English Council, who promised satisfaction by punishing Carey, who on his arrival in England did rather obtain greater favours than any reprehension or check for his doings, so as the Earl was constrained to take patience for a full satisfaction of his wrongs.

13. The said Carey gave warrant to leave £100 towards building a Church at Derry, which being levied by horsemen and footmen sent into the country under Sir Henry Docwra was disposed to Sir Henry’s use, and not for the said matter pretended.

14. Carey kept Sir Henry Docwra and Sir Henry Folliott’s horsemen and footmen, and Sir Ralph Constable’s, Sir Thomas Roper’s, Captain Doddington’s and Captain Hume’s [?, not listed by Meehan] companies for months upon the country’s charges. They committed many rapes and used many extortions, which the Earl showed, and could neither get payment for their victuals, nor obtain punishment for their rapine and extortions.

15. There never was a garrison in Tyrconnell that did not send at their pleasure private soldiers into the country to fetch now 3 beeves [meaning cattle] now 4, which they practiced until they had taken all, and when the Earl complained, Carey seemed to flout him rather than anyway to right him.

16. There were taken from the Earl’s tenants by Sir Henry Folliott’s company 38 plough horses for carriage, which were never restored nor any recompense made for them. And at another time 21 & again 14, all in the same nature as the former, and never restored, they being taken in the Spring of the year, whereby the tenants were hindered of ploughing as before.

17. For the said Sir Henry’s house there were taken up every month 6 Beeves & 6 muttons by his own officers within the Barony of Tirhugh, which was done continually for a year, without any manner of payment for the same.

18. Capt Doddington at one time took 12 beeves & 12 muttons, without paying for the same.

19. Capt William Cole took 12 beeves & 12 muttons without payment.

20. All these injuries the Earl humbly represented from time to time to Carey, & could never be heard but was in scoffing manner dismissed by him, who also threatened a lawyer who pleaded some cases for the Earl, saying “that he and his posterity should smart for his doings until the 7th generation,” so that all the Earl’s business were ever since left at random and no lawyer durst plead in his cause.

 

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21. The Earl prosecuting some rebels in the country, killed some of them & took their chieftain prisoner, whom the Earl carried off to Sir Henry Folliott to be executed, for which the Earl had this reward, that his adversaries proposed to the imprisoned person to save his life, if he, could accuse the Earl of any crime that might work his overthrow, which he could not do whereupon he was hanged.

22. Carey directed a general covenant to Sir Ralph Bingley, Vice Governor of Lough Foyle, and to Captain Cole, Vice Governor of Ballyshannon, to compel all Niall’s tenants, as Sir Niall demanded, to return to him, with their goods and chattels. Whereupon the said Vice Governors made motion of an examination of 12 of the Earl’s men and as many of Sir Niall’s, whether and what tenants did unto either of them belong. Whereunto the men being come the Earl’s men were not examined but locked up into a room, and the Vice Governors upon the false deposition of Sir Niall’s men, directed warrant and sent soldiers to the number of 300 to bring all the Earl’s tenants, against their wills, unto Sir Niall, to the number of 340, who paid half a crown apiece & 12d for every cow and garran, as a fee unto the Captains, whereby they lost their ploughing for 28 days, the soldiers being in the country all the while.

23. The Earl afterwards finding no justice at Carey’s hands, went into England & made complaint and procured letters of sundry articles in answer to his demands, to Sir Arthur Chichester Lord Deputy, who on receipt of them seemed willing to give the Earl contentment in his demands, & withal consented & gave warrant for establishing the Earl in possession of the Lifford, which he recalled next day, & deferred the matter until his going to the North. Where he came & took a view of the town & called to Council Sir Henry Docwra to know his opinion concerning the place for His Majesty’s service, the which, more for his own profit than for his service, he judged to be a place most requisite for his Majesty’s use, but afterward the Lord Deputy being at his house, Sir Henry wife begged a lease of the said town for 21 years, with the market thereof, whereby he detected his project in his wrong & unjust opinion concerning the place, all which to be true the Lord Deputy will not deny.

24. After the Earl was in possession of Castle Doe by Sir George Carey’s warrant, one Niall McSweeney, pretending a title to it, forcibly entered the said Castle, the Earl being in England, & dispossessed the Earl’s Constable, under an order afterward granted by the Council against the Earl. And on the Earl’s return from England he made humble suit to the Lord Deputy to be restored to the possession, whereof he was so treacherously dispossessed, until a course of Law were taken between the said Niall & him. The which he did not obtain but possession was maintained against him until Niall went out into rebellion, whereby the Earl lost the rent of 60 quarters of land for a year & a half, the Earl yearly paying the King’s rent for the same, & afterward the Earl besieged and won it at his own charges, in recompence of which the Lord Deputy appointed Capt Brook to dwell there & constrained the Earl to accept of such rents as he had given order to the said captain to pay, and to pass a lease thereof and 4 quarters of the best land thereunto for 21 years to the said captain.

25. Captain Henry Vaughan being sheriff, in 1605 got a warrant to levy £150 upon the County for building of a session house, which was only built of timber and wattles, and although the captain promised to make it substantial and durable, yet was it not worth £10, it having fallen in one mouth after being built, yet he sent soldiers at the country’s charges to levy every penny of the said money & afterward the country was forced to defray the charges of another session house for the next year ensuing by the Lord Deputy’s appointment & order.

26. At the same Sessions in 1605, the Lord Deputy being at Lifford, there was one Owen McSweeney to be executed, to whom by appointment of Sir Oliver Lambert, who gave a caveat to Sr Henry Folliott, as often as there should be any persons executed to assure them of their lives, if they inform any matter to overthrow or prejudice the Earl. Sir Henry sent privates promising him his life & large rewards if he would charge the Earl with some detestable crime.

27. At the same Sessions the Earl was called to the bar for hanging some wood kerne during the Lord Lieutenant’s time, he having then authority to execute martial law, in so much that he had to plead a particular pardon which he had, as the Judge alleged the general pardon would not avail him or stand him in any stead.

28. A short time after, Sir Henry Docwra’s & Sir Henry Folliott’s horsemen and footmen were by the Lord Deputy’s warrant cessed upon the country, where they remained for 4 months and paid nothing for their charges for horse meat or man’s meat.

29. The Earl having purchased £1,600 worth of his own inheritance from Sir Ralph Bingley, who entered into bonds of the staple of £3,000 for maintaining the Earl in possession of all the lands he had passed unto the Earl, against all persons pretending title to the whole or any part thereof; yet the Council gave warrant to one who was Sir Ralph’s tenant, before the passing of the said land to the Earl, to enter into possession of all such lands as he formerly held, by virtue of a writing between him & Sir Ralph, mentioning no certain rent but which Sir Ralph pleased to demand, so he continued in possession and paid no rent to the Earl. And into another part of the said lands the Bishop of Derry entered, pretending the same as his right, and afterward Sir Ralph being arrived in Ireland, the Earl made suit to the Lord Deputy to have him apprehended, until he performed covenant according to the said bonds. Which the Lord Deputy would not do but bade him to deal with the mayor of Dublin to have him arrested, and when the mayor’s officer was brought to execute the warrant, with as full an authority as might be, Sir Ralph showed the Lord Deputy’s warrant of protection, whereby the Earl lost both his lands and his money.

30. On the Lord Deputy’s coming into Fermanagh in 1606, the Earl having gone thither to meet him, he sent privately, one Teigue O’Corcoran, servant to Maguire, and brought him secretly into the hall where he slept, where he was bound & tortured with bed cords that they might extort or he charge the Earl with something tending to the Earl’s overthrow and ruin, where he continued for 5 days, within which time the Lord Deputy came to Ballyshannon where he, being at supper, demanded of the Earl what right he had to the former things he claimed in the several territories before specified. Whereunto the Earl answered that his ancestors were in possession of the several territories before specified for 1300 years & that the said duties, rents and homages were duly observed and paid during the said time. Whereunto he replied that the Earl was unworthy to have them, & that he should [never] enjoy them, that the state was sore [Meehan has ‘sorry’] he had so much left him as had then in possession, & withal wished him to take heed of himself, or else he would make his pate ache; all which he said in the presence of the Lord Chief Justice, others of the Council and divers gentlemen, that sat at the table.

31. At the same time there were sundry old challenges of tenants, preys and spoils, between the Earl & Sir Niall, which controversies the Earl for his part, at the Lord Deputy’s entreaty (he promising first to order and answer all the spoils taken by virtue of Sir George Carey’s warrant), preferred to the Lord Deputy’s censure, and delivered up to that end all his papers, and notwithstanding this promise there were £300 ordered against the Earl and all his challenges frustrated and his papers burnt. And afterwards Sir Niall’s papers were privately given back to himself by reason whereof the Earl was forced at the last Sessions to give to Sir Niall the benefit of all the said papers again, he having nothing to show to the contrary.

32. On the Lord Deputy’s return to Fermanagh he sent for Maguire and wished him to accuse the Earl. Maguire protested he could not charge him with anything, to whom the Lord Deputy replied with an oath he should never part from him, until he had confessed matters against the Earl.

33. Ferighe O’Reilly being condemned to be hanged at Athlone for some crime, by a messenger secretly sent by the Lord Deputy who arrived just as the said Ferighe was to be hanged, and so offered him his life and large rewards if he would charge the Earl with treason, which he promised to do and thereupon he was taken back, and privately examined. But finding his examination to halt (no wonder since it was forged at the same instant) re-sent him to the prison to remain there until he had performed somewhat of that he had promised and if he could not do it then he was to be hanged, & there he continued until the Earl his departure from Ireland.

34. Donogh O’Brien, who had sometime followeth the Earl, was committed to prison of Athlone from whence he escaped. Sir Oliver Lambert sent a protection to him, & he being come before the Lord Deputy and Sir Oliver in a private chamber, Sir Oliver told him he should have his pardon & large rewards if he would charge the Earl with treason, but he neither could, nor would, do so and chose rather to abandon his native country than feel the effects of their merciless mercy.

35. Owen Grany McCormuck, natural (son) of Moylurg in the Co. of Roscommon, was taken prisoner and brought before the Earl of Clanricarde and the Council of Connaught, by order of the Lord Deputy, to accuse the Earl. And being examined he swore before them all he could not charge him with anything, whereupon he was enlarged.

 

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36. Fearigh O’Kelly was to be executed in Galway, his life was offered to him if he would accuse the Earl and because he could not charge him with anything he was hanged.

37. The Earl can bring good proof that 27 persons hanged in Connaught and Tyrconnell, all of them had the same promises made to them if they would accuse the Earl.

38. Captain Ellis having ravished a maiden of 11 years in the Earl’s country and caused 2 soldiers to hold her hands and legs etc, which was presented by a jury to the sheriff in his term court, whereof the Earl informed the Lord Deputy and prayed his Lordship to proceed against Ellis, which he refused and only wished the Earl to demand for the verdict of the said jury at the next Sessions and promised never to grant a pardon to the said Ellis in the presence of several noble men & gentlemen, and the matter being moved at the next Sessions and again referred to the jury, they presented Ellis guilty, upon which he being absent, a writ of outlawry was directed, which the Earl has to show under the hand of the Clerk of the Crown, and yet the Lord Deputy notwithstanding his promise, granted Ellis his pardon.

39. The said Ellis told an Englishman who acquainted the Earl therewith, that he would come with soldiers and raise an alarm near the Earl’s house, and that when the Earl should come forth he would kill him, making no question of obtaining his pardon, which words the Earl showed to the Lord Deputy in presence of many, adding with an oath how he stood not assured of his life, if Ellis were not restrained, or bound to the peace, neither of which just demands could the Earl obtain.

40. The duties of the fishing of Killybegs being the Earls and found to have been in his ancestors possession by the survey of 1300 years before, was taken from him, (it being worth £500 that Season) by Sir Henry Folliott & the Bishop of Derry, which wrong the Earl showed to the Lord Deputy but could get no redress save that the Lord Deputy addressed a warrant to the Bishop to maintain him in the possession against the Earl, both for that season and all times ensuing.

41. Sir Henry having occasion to use carriage horses, took those that served the Earl’s house, with fuel and wood for fire; & the soldiers scorning to lead the horses themselves, went into the Earl’s house and forcibly took out one of the Earl’s boys & ran another unto the thigh for refusing to go with them, whereof the Earl complained, but could get no redress.

42. Three McSweeneys & O’Boyle, who always held their lands from O’Donnell, paying what he pleased to impose, & so from the Earl as was also found by the said survey, and they also made over all their estates rights to the said Earl by deeds of enfeoffment & suffered a recovery in due form of law & again took their said lands from the Earl by lease of years for certain rents, notwithstanding the Lord Deputy gave warrants to every one of them that demanded it, to pay no rent to the Earl, & that if he should demand any other of them than that they pleased to pay, then the Governor of Derry was required to raise the country from time to time and resist the Earl from taking his rents.

43. On the Earl’s journey into the Pale to know the reason why he was debarred from receiving his rents, he lodged on a certain night in the Abbey of Boyle, where he was scarcely arrived, ere the constable of the town, accompanied by 20 soldiers and their ensign, and all the churls of the town, surrounded & fired the house where the Earl lay, he having no company with him, but his page & 2 Serving men, but through the singular Providence of all mighty God (whose fatherly care he hath ever found vigilant over him), he was able to defend himself against them the whole night, they using all other industry to fire it on one side, & throwing in stones & Staves in the Earl’s face, & running their pikes & swords at him, until they had wounded him (besides his other bruises from stones & staves) in six places. They swearing to kill him, affirming that he was a traitor to the King, & that it was the best service they could do him to kill him. And that all is true Sir Donogh O’Conor (who was taken prisoner by them because he would not assist in their wicked design, to kill the Earl) will testify, but in the morning the Earl was rescued by the country folk, who conveyed him safely out of the town. And when the Earl complained & showed his wounds to the Lord Deputy he promised to hang the constable & ensign, but afterwards he did not once deign so much as to examine the matter or call the delinquents to account, by reason whereof the Earl doth verily persuade himself (which surmise was afterward confirmed in him by the credible report of many) that some of the State were sorry for his [escape] but especially Sir Oliver Lambert, who had purposefully drawn the plot of the ensign, and set the ensign on to execute it, as the Earl will also justify.

44. Finally the Lord Deputy having written to the Earl for some hawks this last summer, the Earl, desirous to continue his accustomed amicable benevolence and amity towards him, and bestowing some hawks on him, sent unto him a cast, he himself remaining only with two cast more to bestow on his other good friends. All this notwithstanding, did the sheriff of Tyrconnell cause one Donal Gorme McSweeney (being one of those before deputed by warrant to detain the Earl’s rents) to take up his hawks from the Earl’s man and sent them to the Lord Deputy. Whereof the Earl understood, he being then in Dublin and made the Lord Deputy a challenge for his hawks, yet could not recover them, whereat grieved he said that he found himself more grieved at their loss in that nature, than at all the other injuries he had before received. Whereunto the Lord Deputy replied that he cared not a rush for him and his bragging words, warning him withal to look well to himself, in the same threatening manner that he had done before at Ballyshannon.
Endorsed to the King of England, his Most Excellent Majesty
For the Earl of Tyrconnell.”

Source
An abstract of the exactions etc, spiritual as well as temporal, suffered by the Earl of Tyrconnell, from the 1st of James I to this year 1607, PRONI D3835 A 4 579 to 575. Possibly the slight summarising or abstracting of this text occurred among the State Papers somehow, or by the transcriber, Richard Nugent, when he perused the Irish State Papers and transcribed this c.1860. In any case what seems to be the full text is available in Rev Charles Patrick Meehan, The fate and fortunes of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O’Donel, Earl of Tyrconnel (Dublin, 1868), p.207-225, although, as noted above in square brackets, some slight differences can be seen.