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Deposition of Ann Sherring

  • Reference:  MS 821, fols 181r-181v
  • County: Tipperary
  • Date: 10/2/1644
  • Type: Dublin Original
  • Nature of Deposition: Assault, Multiple Killing, Robbery, Signs and Wonders, Stripping, Words, Suicide
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  • How to Cite
    • fol. 181v


    (folio is bound in and numbered back to front)
    414
    <A> Ann P the late wiffe of John Sherring late of [Wormwood] the Territory of Ormond ner{e} alias the Silverworks in the County of Tipperary aged about 25 yeres sworne & examined deposeth and saith That about Candlemas was twoe yeres the said John Sherring her then husband goeing from his farme which he held from Mr John Kenedy of [wormwood] Esquire nere to the Silverworks <A> One Hughe Kenedy one of the brothers of the said John Kenedie a cruell Rebell together with a great multitude of irish rebelliows souldjers then and there feircely assaulted and set vpon her said husband & vpon one William Brock John Brock William Laughlin Tho : G ulley & eighteene more english protestante men and about ten children women and vpon some children in their Company and then and there first stript them of their clothes and then with stones poleaxes skeanes swords pykes darts & other weapons most barbarously masacred & murthered her sa i d husband & all those protestant men women & children: In the tyme of which massacre a most lowd & fearfull noice & storme of thunder lightening wynd, haile stones, and rayne began: The tyme being on a Sabbath day about an howre before night, the former part of that day being all very faire But that thunder lightening & tempest happening suddenly soone after the massacre was begun much affrighted & terrfied this deponent and many others, Insoemuch as some of this murtherers themselues Confessed it to be a signe of gods anger & threatening of them for such their then cruelty: yet it deterred them not but they persisted in their bloudy act vntill they had murthered those said English protestants & had had hackt hewd slashed stabbed & soe massacred them that many of them were cutt all to peecs & her husband for his part had thirty greivous wounds then and there given in vizt some through or nere the his hart: tenn mortall wounds in his head three in his belly and in either Arme fowre: & the rest in his thighes leggs his back & neck, And that murther done those barbarous Rebells tyed withs about their necks & drew them out of the refyneing mylne (where indeed they slew them:) & threw them

    fol. 181r


    415
    or most of them into a deepe hole (formerly made) one vpon another Soe that none of those 23 men women nor children escaped death Howbeit one Tho: Ladell a Scotish man & one Tho: Gallop George Kelly (whoe then and there endured and had many greivous woundes & being left on the ground for dead: crawled vpp (after the Rebells were gone away) and with much difficulty escaped with their liues And further saith that such was Gods Judgment vpon the said Hugh Kennedy for that bloudy fact, That he presently fell into fell into a most desperate madnes & distraccion & could not rest day nor nighte Ter yet Coveting to doe more mischeefe vpon the English, and <A> but being prevented & denyed to doe it He about a weeke after drowned himself in the next River to the Silver works But his barbarous & wicked souldjers went on in their wickednes, And afterwards bragged how they had Killed a minister & his wiffe & 4 children nere the Citty of Limrick: And this deponent is too well assured that those and other irish Rebells in that part of the Cuntry exercised and comitted a great number of bloudie murthers robberyes and outrages against the persons & goodes of the protestants: soe as very fewe escaped with their liues & none at all saved their goodes: And further saith That all the popish gentry [ ] and others in the Cuntry thereabouts especially all those of the septs & names of the ô Brians, & the Coghlans & the Kenedyes were all actors in the present Rebellion against his Maiesty and either acted assisted incyted or consented to all the murthers robberies cruelties & rebellious acts aforesaid And shee further saith That by meanes of this said Rebellion her said husband and shee were in at Ormond at [ wormwood ] aforesaid abou t Candlemas 1641 robbed & deprived of their Cattle, howseholdstuff, corne, malt, provision, ready money, debts the benefyte of their leas and other their goods & chattells of the value and to their Losse of one hundred and threescore pownds at the least, And that <B> the said John Kenedy Esquire their landlord was the man that soe depriued the and robbed them thereof: & the other Rebells stript her stark naked
    Signum [mark] predictæ Annæ Sherring
    Jur xo ffebr 1643
    Hen Jones Hen: Brereton
    415



    Henry Brereton
    Henry Jones



     

Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2