Be of good cheer: trials & executions for misdeeds 1689

[smcarberry]

In a changing world, with local people going elsewhere for careers and strangers coming into your Internet space, it may take some effort to realize the joy and good will of the season. Firstly, the Clare library administration has a lock on that sentiment for me, because this Forum enriches my sense of history, day in and day out. So, to add to the offerings here, I am showing the way to a British publication of 1816, with long sections on various trials for treason. Of course such a volume would not be complete without something from the wilds of East Clare. Although the description is meandering, even a quick reading picks up the theme that staying alive was an art when involved in political activities of those times, which were highly polarized and subject to widely differing allegiances as English monarchs rose and fell in fairly rapid succession.

"The Trial of Maurice Cavenagh, Edmund Poor, and William Bowland, in Ireland, for Felony, in stealing Cows, A.D. 1689" p. 630
in
A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason (London, 1816), Vol. XII
http://books.google.com/books?id=6RMwAA ... &q&f=false

I am fairly sure that this volume has not been mentioned here previously, because I would have remembered the part about the wife who joined her husband in these intrigues, as fully armed as he and likewise on horseback. Due to her gender, she lived, as did some men whose prospective executions were so protested that only two of their number actually were hung. That was good will back then, apparently.

At least the misfortunes of those condemned men has brought us a long list of Munster inhabitants, appearing in that article. Galway is stated in the heading, because the High Sheriff of Galway was the one rounding them up, but the article lists places in Clare for their activities.

Onwards to a peaceful and prosperous New Year, please.

Sharon Carberry

Trials for treason, vol.jpg (28.7 KiB) Viewed 4709 times

Condemned Prot.jpg (26.21 KiB) Viewed 4709 times

Condemned Munster men pt2, 1689.jpg (69.08 KiB) Viewed 4709 times

Condemned Munster Prot.jpg (68.97 KiB) Viewed 4709 times