Examination of Rose Ennis
- Reference: MS 831, fols 112v-113v
- County: Dublin
- Date: 16/4/1653
- Type: Commonwealth
- Nature of Deposition: Military Action, Multiple Killing, Robbery, Stripping, Words
- How to Cite
fol. 112v
Rose Ennis widdow living at Sir william Vshers house at the bridge foot in dublin aged thirty six <C> yeares or thereabouts being duely sworne and examined sayth that shee was present in the house of william Crofton of at Tee Temple in the County of Sligoe Esquire in the first yeare of the Rebellion and sawe about a fortnight before Christmas in the said yeare (being the yeare 1641) a great nomber of Irish Rebells come to the said house of m r vnder the command of Captaine Iriell ô Hara Captaine John Crean Captaine Hugh mcdonogh and one Cormacke oge ô Hara and Bryan ô Hara
fol. 113r
1178
who besieged the said house (the said beseigers being seaven or eight hundred as shee thinks) which house the said mr Crofton defended till about Candlemas following, and then agreed to surrender it to the said beseigers vppon quarter for life and goods of all that were in the house, and all their goods without dores Corne and Cattle, which quarter the said Captaines Iriell ô Hara, John Crean and Hugh mcdonogh did sweare vppon a booke to performe, and the said Mr Crofton did sweare vppon the bible to conceale noe goods nor of other persons that were not then in the house, which oathes were taken in this Examinants presence, and the said Captains did sweare to giue safe Convoy to the said mr Crofton and all in his house to whatsoever place hee wold appoint, and within nyne days after they said house was to be surrendered, but after the said Condicions made as aforesaid the said Captains having gotten in many of their rude company kept there and wold not departe the said house, and the very next day after they carried out one mr Oliphant a scottish minister and another scottish man and woman and stripped the said mr Oliphant starke naked, and hanged them all three at an Ashtree neere the said house, in this Examinants owne view, and drew the said Mr Oliphants dead body at a horse taile and buried him in a ditch and soone after the said Irish rebels, some of them came into the house againe and called for mr Wray another Minister an English man, then in Mr Croftons owne chamber (vaunting they had
fol. 113v
1179
hanged the other whereuppon the said mr Wray spoke to mr Croftons desiring his prayers and soe went out to them but within short tyme after came in againe stripped starke naked, Captaine John Crean being in the said Chamber all the while, and the next day after the said Mr Crofton this Examinant <E> and all the rest were marching away towards Ballimote (though by their quarter they were to haue remained for nyne days at Tee Temple) and by the ways some of the said Irish Rebels murthered the said mr wray notwithstanding that Captaine Hugh mcDonogh had taken twenty shillings of mr Crofton safely to convoy the said mr wray to Ballimote, And further sayth that credibly heard heard that the said Irish Rebels about the same tyme had halfe killed many English people, and buryed them alive, Eight in one grave at Rabane, within halfe a mile of Templehouse, which grave this Examinant sawe and sayth that six shee was told by some that were present, and some of the Rebels themselues that six of the said eight [
the [
Sixteeth Sixteenth day of
Aprill 1653 sworne before vs
William Gilbert
Tho: Richardson
Dublin
Mrs Ann Loftus and
Rose Ennis their
Examinacions touching the
Murther at Templehouse
in the County of Sligo
in the yeare 1641.
Thomas Richardson
William Gilbert