STRAFFORD AND THE ULSTER SCOTS
[Sidenote: Rise of a Presbyterian community in Ulster.]
[Sidenote: Two tolerant bishops.]
[Sidenote: Extension of Laud's system to Ireland.]
The Scottish settlers in Ulster gave trouble from the first, for
crossing the sea did not change their nature, nor their religious
opinions. When Presbyterianism was oppressed at home, Ireland received
its ministers; when persecution came there, they could go back to
Scotland. Always glad to promote his own countrymen, James I. appointed
them to Irish bishoprics; they in their turn ordained others, often
without much inquiry as to their views on Church government. Andrew
Knox, who was Bishop of Raphoe from 1611 to 1633, was not over
particular about the regularity of orders, and many Presbyterians
were preferred by him. 'Old Bishop Knox,' says Adair, 'refused no
honest man, having heard him preach. By this chink John Livingston and
sundry others got entrance.' Knox died about the time of Wentworth's
coming to Ireland, and up to that time another Scotch bishop, Robert
Echlin of Down, followed in his footsteps. Livingston had been
silenced by Spottiswood in Scotland, but brought recommendations from
eminent laymen, and Knox told him he thought his own life had been
prolonged only to do such offices as ordination. He did not care
about being called my Lord, and he allowed the imposition of hands
to be by presbyters in his presence. He gave Livingston the book of
ordination, desiring him to draw a line through any words to which he
objected. 'I found,' says the latter, 'that it had been so marked by
some others before that I needed not mark anything; so the Lord was
pleased to carry that business far beyond anything that I had thought
or ever desired.' This was in 1630. Seven years before Echlin had
done a like service for Robert Blair, acting only as one of several
presbyters. 'This,' says Blair, 'I could not refuse, and so the matter
was performed.' Knox was succeeded by John Leslie, and Echlin by
Henry Leslie, neither of whom was much inclined to make terms with
Presbyterianism. The Laudian canons had altered the position for them,
and later on the Covenant made the breach irreparable.[206]
[Sidenote: Wentworth, Laud, and Bramhall, 1634.]
[Sidenote: A conference where no one is converted, 1636.]
[Sidenote: Bramhall's rhetoric.]
[Sidenote: Silenced ministers go to Scotland.]
In May 1634 Bramhall became Bishop of Derry in succession to Downham,
who had been a strong Calvinist and a friend of Presbyterians. He was
soon in correspondence with Wentworth, who encouraged him to insist
on strict conformity, and with Laud, whose confidence he enjoyed
throughout. Very many of the Scotch ministers were driven back to their
own country, there to swell the growing discontent and to prepare the
way for the lay crowds whom Wentworth's later policy was to drive out
of Ulster. Bramhall did not confine himself to his own diocese, but
gave his services to Down also, where Echlin was driven to enforce
conformity without much conviction on his own part. Henry Leslie
succeeded on Echlin's death, and a conference was held at Belfast on
August 11, 1636, between the two bishops and five Presbyterians who
refused to subscribe the new canons. Among them was Edward Brice, who
is regarded as the founder of that church in Ulster. Their spokesman
was James Hamilton, Lord Claneboy's nephew, who had been ordained
by Echlin ten years before. Both sides were no doubt satisfied
that they were wholly in the right, but Bramhall was more extreme
even than Leslie, who as bishop of the diocese of course conducted
the controversy. According to the Bishop of Derry, who intervened
frequently, Hamilton was a prattling Jack, a fellow fit to be whipped,
who might worship the devil if he pleased. He prescribed hellebore to
purge the Scot's brain, reminding him with a bold metaphor that the
weight of Church and State did not hang 'upon the Atlas shoulders of
such bullrushes' as he was; and he blamed Leslie, not without something
like a threat, for allowing so much liberty of discussion. The five
ministers were sentenced to perpetual silence so far as the diocese
of Down was concerned. Outward conformity was for a time achieved,
but only by the temporary effacement of the Scotch colony in Ulster.
Brice did not long survive the Belfast conference, but Hamilton,
Cunningham, Ridge and Colwort all retired to Scotland. Among other
ministers silenced by Leslie the most noteworthy were John Livingston
and Robert Blair, both of whom went to Scotland and helped materially
to defeat Laud. They had attempted to lead about 140 of the faithful to
New England, but were beaten back by storms from a point nearer to the
banks of Newfoundland than to any place in Europe. 'That which grieved
us most,' says Livingston, 'was that we were like to be a mocking to
the wicked; but we found the contrary, that the prelates and their
followers were much dismayed, and feared at our return.'[207]
[Sidenote: Bramhall was Wentworth's instrument.]
[Sidenote: Case of Bishop Adair.]
[Sidenote: Bishop John Maxwell.]
[Sidenote: Deprivation of Adair.]
Ussher submitted against his inclination to Wentworth and Laud. Some
years later, when they were both prisoners, Bramhall, who was in the
same position, thought it necessary to apologise to his metropolitan
for interfering in the diocese of Down, his defence being that he
was employed by the Lord Deputy. 'Since I was Bishop,' he added, 'I
never displaced any man in my diocese, but Mr. Noble for professed
popery, Mr. Hugh for confessed simony, and Mr. Dunkine, an illiterate
curate, for refusing to pray for his Majesty.' But if he was tolerably
mild as a bishop, he was much less so when acting as Wentworth's
representative. Archibald Adair, a Scotchman by birth, was made Dean
of Raphoe in 1622, and became Bishop of Killala in 1630. He was a
good Episcopalian, but a good Scot also, and he did not like to see
Canterbury lording it over his native land. In 1639 John Corbet,
minister of Bonhill, was deprived by the General Assembly for refusing
the covenant or for adhering to episcopacy, and he fled to Dublin,
where he published a bitter pamphlet against his enemies at home.
He was presented by Strafford to the vicarage of Strade in Adair's
diocese, but found the bishop by no means friendly. It was, he said,
an ill bird that fouled its own nest, and a raven (corbie) which had
been driven from the ark could expect no resting place with him.
For these and other expressions, which were thought favourable to
the Covenanters, Adair was summoned before the High Commission, but
deprivation might not have followed on such slight grounds had not the
bishopric been wanted for someone else. This was John Maxwell, Bishop
of Ross, Spottiswood's friend and executor, who had been Laud's most
active ally in Scotland. 'The satisfaction of the Bishop of Ross,'
Wentworth wrote to the King, 'shall be the only thing I shall attend in
the next place, and have found even already the means to effect it by
depriving, and that deservedly, the Bishop of Killala and substituting
the other in his place. This is one of the best bishoprics in the
kingdom, worth at least one thousand pounds a year.' And he thought
this was a good way 'to quench the venom of that rebellious humour.'
Charles and Laud were of the same opinion, and but little independence
was to be expected from the Irish High Commission. Bedell, however,
with whom it seems Chappell agreed, was against the deprivation, partly
on canonical grounds and partly because it was 'as times and things now
stood inconvenient.' He prevailed nothing; the Bishop was sentenced to
be deprived of his bishopric, deposed or degraded, fined 1,000_l._,
imprisoned during the King's pleasure, &c. Soon after the meeting of
Strafford's last Parliament a bishop, possibly Bedell, moved that Adair
should have his writ of summons. Ormonde spoke against it, and Bramhall
declared that the deprived prelate was 'fit to be thrown into the sea
in a sack, not to see sun, nor enjoy the air.' Lord Ranelagh said there
had been a patient hearing at the High Commission, where many of their
lordships' House sat, who found Adair 'guilty of favouring that wicked
Covenant which all the House detests,' and the writ was unanimously
refused. The Court wind changed when Strafford was dead and Laud a
prisoner, and Adair was made Bishop of Waterford. Maxwell succeeding
him at Killala was stripped, wounded, and left for dead by the rebels
during the massacre at Shrule, but escaped ultimately to England.
Corbet was not so fortunate, being 'hewn in pieces by two swineherds in
the very arms of his poor wife.'[208]
[Sidenote: The Scots hate Wentworth.]
[Sidenote: English, Scotch, and Irish in Ulster.]
Clarendon, who hated the Scots and did not love Strafford, says 'he had
an enemy more terrible than all the others and like to be more fatal,
the whole Scotch nation, provoked by the declaration he had procured of
Ireland and some high carriage and expressions of his against them in
that kingdom.' The Ulster colony had been injured by the Londonderry
forfeiture, and he had done what he could to discourage further
immigration, but it was not until the summer of 1638 that the attitude
of the Scotch settlers began to give him serious uneasiness. Antrim,
who was at Court and in communication both with Hamilton and Laud,
believed or professed to believe that Lorne, who became Earl of Argyll
soon after, intended to attack his estates, and suggested that the King
should provide him with plenty of arms 'to be kept in a store-house in
Coleraine, because it would be too far for me and my tenants to send
to Knockfergus, if there were any sudden invasion.' Lorne knew what
was going on at Court, and announced in Scotland that Antrim intended
to invade him. It appears from his late letters that Strafford thought
Lorne not unlikely to come, but he knew well that his Council would
advise nothing that might strengthen Tyrone's grandson. And in case
the troubles of Scotland were to extend to Ulster, he thought it very
likely that the settlers there would borrow the arms to help their
countrymen. 'They are,' he added 'shrewd children, not much won by
courtship, especially from a Roman Catholic.' He had but 2,000 foot and
600 horse, none of which could be spared for Scotland, but it might be
possible to raise double that force of English and Irish. The latter
disliked the Scots and their religion, but might be a source of danger
in other ways. In the meantime he told Northumberland, the best part of
the Irish army might be drawn down into Ulster, close upon Scotland,
'as well to amuse those upon that side as to contain their countrymen
among us in due obedience.'[209]
[Sidenote: The Scottish Covenant, 1638.]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's plan to bridle Scotland.]
[Sidenote: Case of Robert Adair.]
[Sidenote: An inquisitorial policy.]
That Strafford was generally hated by the Scotch is, indeed, abundantly
proved by the record of his trial, when their commissioners denounced
him as 'the firebrand that still smoked' after the cold shower-bath of
the Ripon treaty. The quarrel was of much older date, originating with
Wentworth's espousal of the Laudian policy and his steady repression of
everything that savoured of Presbyterianism, but it was not until after
the promulgation of the Scottish Covenant at the beginning of March
1638 that the question became a national one. He kept himself well
informed, and read all public documents, but it was not until the end
of July that he first gave his opinion to Northumberland, and then in
strict confidence. Armed collision with the Scots should be avoided as
long as possible unless they crossed the border, which did not yet seem
likely. Berwick and Carlisle should be made thoroughly defensible, and
as President of the North he could prepare an armed force, particularly
in Yorkshire. He thought Leith, which he had formerly visited, might
easily be seized in the spring, and maintained with the help of the
fleet and a garrison of 8,000 or 10,000 men. 'I should hope,' he added,
'his Majesty might instantly give his law to Edinburgh, and not long
after to the whole kingdom, which though it should all succeed, yet
at the charge of that kingdom would I uphold my garrison at Leith,
till they had received our Common Prayer Book, used in our churches
of England without any alteration, the bishops settled peaceably in
their jurisdiction; nay perchance till I had conformed that kingdom
in all, as well for the temporal as ecclesiastical affairs, wholly
to the government and laws of England; and Scotland governed by the
King and Council of England in a great part, at least as we are here.'
Later on he drew attention to the importance of securing Dumbarton,
but in both cases the Covenanters forestalled him. Then as now a brisk
trade existed between Ulster and Scotland, and the colonists naturally
demanded terms as favourable as were granted to the mother country,
with which they were in thorough sympathy. The first lay Covenanter who
felt the weight of Wentworth's hand seems to have been Robert Adair,
Laird of Kilhill in Galloway, who had an estate of 400_l._ or 500_l._
a year at Ballymena, where he was a Justice of the Peace. Adair, who
was the Bishop of Killala's nephew, had taken an active part against
Charles and Laud in Scotland, and made no secret of having signed the
Covenant. Henry Leslie, Bishop of Down, who was himself a Scotchman,
reported the case to Wentworth, who advised him to 'inquire out the
names of all others that have danced after the same pipe, as also of
all such as profess themselves Covenanters, and send them hither to me;
in the rest of your proceedings, your lordship shall not be so much
as once touched upon, or heard of.' Adair retired to Scotland, and
lived securely at Kilhill, but he was declared a traitor in Ireland,
and his estate forfeited. In November 1641, when Strafford was dead
and the Ulster rebellion begun, Charles, at the unanimous request of
the Scottish Parliament, reversed the sentence passed upon Adair for
having 'adjoined himself to his own native country,' and he recovered
his Irish property.[210]
[Sidenote: The Black Oath, 1639.]
[Sidenote: The King procures a petition against the Covenant.]
[Sidenote: Wentworth's threats.]
Before the end of 1638 the Scotch Covenanters were thoroughly aware
that Wentworth was their most important enemy. He sent a clever young
officer to Edinburgh to report upon the doings there, 'and this
gentleman,' he wrote, 'tells me that the whole nation universally
hates me most extremely, and threaten some personal mischief unto me.'
Ensign Willoughby pretended to Rothes that he was a Dutchman, and
the Earl answered that Holland was well governed and that Scotland
also could do very well without a king. Next day Alexander Leslie was
present and said Ireland would certainly be invaded if the King came
to blows with his Scottish subjects--a threat which Leslie himself
carried out, but not while Strafford lived. Wentworth proposed, and
Charles agreed with alacrity, if, indeed, he did not himself make the
first suggestion, that the Covenant should be met by a new and very
stringent oath binding the Scots of Ulster not only to obey the King,
but not even to protest against any command of his, and to renounce all
covenants or associations not ordered by him. This is still remembered
in Ulster as the Black Oath, and it is evidently inconsistent with all
modern ideas of liberty. The manner of imposing it matched the matter,
and we know the details from the evidence of an unwilling witness who
proved in after life that he was as strong a royalist as even Scotland
has produced. Charles himself proposed that means should be taken to
procure a petition repudiating the Covenant and in favour of the new
oath, and his plan was strictly carried out. Wentworth summoned such
of the leading Northern Scots as he thought could be trusted to meet
him in Dublin on April 27. Lord Montgomery, who was the chief of them,
caught cold on the journey and desired to be excused; but the Lord
Deputy, whether he believed in the cold or not, would not be so put
off, and adjourned the meeting to his lordship's lodgings. The two
Leslies, Bishops of Raphoe and of Down, took the lead, and the former
drew up a petition which some of the laymen thought hasty. In the words
of the oath Wentworth would allow no alteration, saying that it had
been well considered; but in the petition offering the subscribers'
services to the King he admitted the qualification 'in equal manner
and measure with other his Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects of
this kingdom.' For the rest, the petitioners declared their belief
that the Covenant had been imposed upon great numbers of their nation
by the tyranny of the dominant faction. The fiery bishop who drafted
the petition thought it much too mild, and the oath itself so mean
as not to be worth taking. To one speaker, who thought a little more
deliberation would be advisable, the Lord Deputy answered: 'Sir James
Montgomery, you may go home and petition or not petition if you will,
but if you do not, or who doth not, shall do worse.' The petitioners
were then summoned to the Council Board, and the Lord Deputy himself
administered the oath to them two or three at a time.[211]
[Sidenote: Severe measures in Ulster.]
[Sidenote: General objection to the Black Oath.]
[Sidenote: Many Presbyterians flee to the mountains, or to Scotland.]
[Sidenote: The only exemptions from taking the oath].
The petition was signed by Lords Montgomery and Clandeboye, by the two
Leslies, and by James Spottiswood, Bishop of Clogher, who was brother
to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and had himself declined the Scottish
primacy several years before. Of the thirty-six commoners whose
signatures follow the majority were clergymen, and at least two of them
became bishops after the Restoration. It is quite evident from what
followed that they represented only a very small part of the Scottish
population of Ulster. The petition and oath were proclaimed by the
Lord Deputy and Council, including Ussher and Bulkeley. The oath was
made obligatory on all persons of the Scottish nation of the age of
sixteen years and upwards, who inhabit and have any estate whatsoever
in any houses, lands, tenements or hereditaments within this kingdom
of Ireland,' and local commissions were issued for the enforcement
of the order. If there is any ambiguity in the words quoted it is
clear that servants as well as owners of property were in practice
held liable. Three peers, Clandeboye, Montgomery, and Chichester, sat
as commissioners at Bangor in Down, and the former, who was acting
against the grain, reported progress to Wentworth. The Lord Deputy
believed there would be general and ready obedience to this, as to his
past orders in Ireland; but Clandeboye reported that great numbers
fled at his approach, and especially servants, that their masters are
doubtful to find sufficient to reap their corn.' He believed that the
chief obstructor was 'Mr. John Bole, the preacher of Killileagh, the
old blind man that was once with your lordship,' but he abstained
from arresting any clergyman, 'especially a preacher,' without direct
orders from the viceroy. These orders were given at once, and the old
blind minister was sent up to Dublin in charge of a pursuivant. He
had already been forced to take the oath on his knees with a crowd of
others, but not before time had been given to preach a sermon in which
the Presbyterians were not obscurely compared to Daniel, and Wentworth
to the ministers of Darius. Under such circumstances the parable would
be remembered, and the backsliding easily forgiven. George Rawdon was
so busy 'swearing all the Scotch men and women' in Down that he could
not go to Dublin for law business, and Mr. Spencer, another magistrate
in his neighbourhood, 'despised the employment exceedingly.' Numbers
took the oath unwillingly, but numbers also took to the woods and
mountains, leaving their corn uncut, their cattle untended, and their
houses unprotected, and a great many fled to Scotland, where Bramhall
was short-sighted enough to think they could do but little harm. He had
himself prepared the ground by first depriving and expelling the Ulster
ministers, whom Archbishop Spottiswood called 'the common incendiaries
of rebellion, preaching what and where they please.' Among the refugees
was one English gentleman, Fulk Ellis of Carrickfergus, who commanded
over a hundred of them at Newburn. The expenses of this contingent were
paid by subscription, 'having no parish in Scotland to provide for
them.... One, Margaret James, the wife of William Scott, a maltman,
who had fled out of Ireland, and were but in a mean condition, gave
seven twenty-two shilling sterling pieces, and one eleven pound
piece. When the day after I inquired at her how she came to give so
much she answered, "I was gathering and had laid up this to be part
of a portion to a young daughter I had, and as the Lord hath lately
been pleased to take my daughter to Himself, I thought I would give
Him her portion also."' Wentworth, who thought there were at least
100,000 Scots in the North, concentrated all the troops in Ulster and
Leinster at Carrickfergus, which was enough to prevent anything like
an insurrection. He insisted that the oath should be taken by all
Scots without exception, except those who professed themselves Roman
Catholics. Is it wonderful that the Scotch thirsted for his blood,
or that he was believed, however untruly, to favour the religion of
Rome?[212]
[Sidenote: A 'desperate doctrine.']
[Sidenote: The case of Henry Stewart.]
[Sidenote: Palpable high treason.]
[Sidenote: A tardy pardon.]
[Sidenote: Petitions against episcopacy, 1641.]
[Sidenote: Illegality of the Black Oath.]
'We are,' said Baillie, 'content with our advantage that my Lord
Deputy permits to go out under his patronage that desperate doctrine
of absolute submission to princes; that notwithstanding all our laws,
yet our whole estate may no more oppose the prince's deed, if he should
play all the pranks of Nero, than the poorest slave at Constantinople
may resist the tyranny of the Great Turk.' In Down and Antrim the
Scots formed a great majority of the colony, and Scotland was near.
In Tyrone and Londonderry the English element prevailed, and the
more scattered Presbyterians had the worse time. There were some who
would not yield, and either could not or would not fly.' Many were
imprisoned in Dublin, like 'worthy Mrs. Pont,' whose husband had to
leave the country, and who was shut up for nearly three years. The
case which attracted the greatest attention was that of Henry Stewart,
a native of Scotland, holding property in Ulster, who with his wife
Margaret, his daughters Katherine and Agnes, and a servant named James
Gray were brought before the Castle-chamber for refusing the oath.
Attorney-General Osbaldeston told the prisoners they were guilty of
high treason, but that the King would mercifully accept fines. He
laid down in the boldest way that kings derived no authority from the
people, but directly from above, and that everything done against their
authority is done against God. Stewart was willing to take the first
part of the oath, promising allegiance and obedience, but would not
swear to ecclesiastical conformity or abjure all other oaths. Wentworth
told him that the whole form hung together, and that no mercy would
be shown unless he took all the oath unreservedly. Ussher practically
agreed with Stewart, but Wentworth overruled him and held with Bramhall
that the non-abjuration of all oaths, bonds, and covenants was palpable
high treason. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart and their eldest daughter were fined
3,000_l._ apiece, the younger daughter and Gray 2,000_l._, making
13,000_l._ in all, and they were also condemned to imprisonment for
life. They were told that if the King thought it proper to release
them, they would have first to take the oath and to give security for
their allegiance during life. The prisoners were pardoned by the King,
but not until Strafford had been some time in the Tower, and the money
penalties were also remitted. Whitelock stated at Strafford's trial
'that Stewart was fain to sell his estate to pay his fine.' He had to
support his family in prison for fifteen months, and seems to have
been half-ruined; but he secured the favour of the Scotch Parliament,
who recommended his case in London, and in 1646 the House of Commons
voted him 1,500_l._ and Gray 400_l._ out of the estate of Sir George
Radcliffe, then sequestered. The Irish Attorney-General had married
Radcliffe's niece a few days after Stewart's trial, which adds point to
the story. Gray, who had nothing of his own, and was maintained in gaol
by his master, took an amusing and profitable revenge. He was employed
in the spring of 1641 to promote a petition against episcopacy, and
was said to have received 300_l._ for his services. Signatures were
easily got, but Bramhall said they were all of ignorant and obscure
persons, 'not one that I know but Patrick Derry of the Newry, not
one Englishman.' After Strafford's death Ormonde and others who had
taken part in Stewart's trial admitted that they had been mistaken and
were excused, but the Lords Justices Borlase and Parsons offered some
arguments in their predecessor's favour. They allowed that the case
was one for the law-courts and not for the Castle-chamber; but this
error was not Strafford's, who followed a long established practice.
The heaviness of the fine was meant to strike terror into others, and
not to ruin the individuals charged, and they were even inclined to
think that the sentence was just. It is nevertheless evident that the
invention and enforcement of the Black Oath by prerogative only was
unadulterated despotism. The Roman Catholics of Ireland had much to
complain of, but they were not called upon to take oaths which had no
parliamentary sanction.[213]
[Sidenote: Strafford proposes to drive out all the Scots, 1640.]
[Sidenote: 'Under Scots' to be deported to remote places.]
When Strafford was impeached, two witnesses swore that at the time
of Stewart's trial he had openly threatened to root out stock and
branch all Scots who would not conform, and had called them rebels
and traitors. This no doubt was said hastily and in anger, but he
afterwards expressed the same sentiments when he had had time,
plenty of time, to think. Writing to Radcliffe from York more than
a year later he proposed 'to banish all the under Scots in Ulster
by proclamation,' grounded upon a request from his subservient Irish
Parliament. By 'under Scots' he meant all who had not given hostage to
fortune by acquiring considerable estates in land. There were 40,000
able-bodied Scots ready to welcome Argyle if he landed in Ireland, and
that chief was cunning enough to tempt 'the mere Irish, the ancient
dependents of the O'Neills in that province,' to strike a blow for
lands and liberty. A vote of this kind in the Irish Parliament would
help the King much, for it would infallibly create 'a perpetual
distrust and hatred' between England and Scotland, and would add to his
Majesty's reputation in foreign parts. The banishment might be called
conditional upon the continuance of hostilities. As to the owners of
'considerable estates,' they were but few, and the loss to them of all
their tenants and servants was nothing to the general peace which would
follow the expulsion of the 'under Scots, who are so numerous and so
ready for insurrection,' and who were already armed. Even those who had
taken the Black Oath were to be treated as prospective rebels. Shipping
was to be provided at once, and the exiles landed in some bays or lochs
where the Campbell galleys could not reach them. Radcliffe, who was
in Dublin, kept this letter to himself, for he saw that the plan was
impossible, and he knew that the House of Commons there was already
getting out of hand. Strafford believed that something equivalent
to a state of siege existed, and that he was therefore justified in
the most extreme measures. History may make excuses, but to the Long
Parliament he was the man who had encouraged them to oppose the King,
who had then gone over to the side of prerogative, receiving titles and
power as the price of desertion, and who was ready to dragoon better
men into submission. To honest Scotch Covenanters he was of course the
arch-enemy, and those who espoused their cause from selfish motives
knew that his interests were not theirs.[214]
FOOTNOTES:
[206] Adair's _True Narrative_, 26; Mant's _Church of Ireland_, 457;
Blair's statement in Reid's _Presbyterian Church_, i. 103.
[207] Wentworth to Bramhall, September 12, 1634, in _Rawdon Papers_;
Report of the Belfast conference in Reid's _Presbyterian Church_, i.
195 and Appx. iv; Livingston's narrative, _ib._ 204-6.
[208] Bramhall to Ussher, April 26, 1641, in his _Works_, i. xc;
_Liber Munerum_, v. 113; Carte's _Ormonde_, i. 96; Wentworth to
the King, September 2, 1639 (from Dublin) in _Strafford Letters_,
and to Radcliffe, September 23 (from Covent Garden), in Whitaker's
_Radcliffe_, 182; Bedell to Ward, April 23, 1640; in _Two Biographies_,
365; _Irish Lords' Journal_, March 31, 1640; Hickson's _Irish
Massacres_, ii. 6-8. Corbet's 'Ungirding of the Scottish Armour' was
licensed in Dublin, May 6, 1639, by Edward Parry, afterwards Bishop
of Killaloe, on behalf of the Archbishop of Dublin. It is in the form
of a dialogue between Covenanter and anti-Covenanter. The dedication
of six pages to Wentworth contains some strong language about the
'fiery zealous faction' dominant in Scotland. 'The best of them is as a
briar; the most upright is a thorn hedge; they do evil with both hands
earnestly, hunting every man his brother with a net. They are gone in
the way of Cain, etc.' Corbet's much better known _Lysimachus Nicanor_,
dated January 1, 1640 (n.s.) was probably printed in Dublin, but has no
printer's name and no imprimatur. He is believed to have had assistance
both from Bramhall and Maxwell. Baillie (_Letters_, i. 243) wrongly
attributes it to Henry Leslie, and calls the author 'a mad scenic
railer.' It purports to be the letter of a Jesuit, who congratulates
the Scots on their approach to the views of the Society concerning
resistance to kings. See the article on Corbet in _Dict. of Nat.
Biography_. I have used the copies of the two tracts preserved in the
Cashel Library with MS. notes by Foy, afterwards Bishop of Waterford.
[209] Clarendon's _History_, ii. 101; _Strafford Letters_ in July 1638,
ii. 184-194, and Wentworth's answer to Laud, dated August 7; Baillie's
_Letters_ i. 93.
[210] _Rushworth_, viii, 672; Wentworth to Northumberland, July 30,
1638, to the Bishop of Down, October 4, and the Bishop's two letters of
September 22 and October 18; Reid's _Presbyterian Church_, i. 294.
[211] Wentworth to Windebank, January 6, 1638-9; examination of Ensign
William Willoughby, January 9, in _Strafford Letters_; the King to
Wentworth, January 16 in _Rushworth_, viii. 504; Sir James Montgomery's
evidence, _ib._ 490. On February 27 Laud wrote to Wentworth (_Works_,
vii. 526), 'I showed his Majesty your other letter sent on purpose to
show, and he was much taken with your project to have the Scotch there
take an oath of abjuration of their abominable covenant.' The text of
the Black Oath is in _Rushworth_, viii. 494, in _Strafford Letters_,
ii. 345; in Reid's _Presbyterian Church_, i. 247 n.; and in Cal. of
State Papers, _Ireland_, at September 7, 1639.
[212] Evidence at Strafford's trial, in _Rushworth_, viii. 490-494. The
Act of State with the petition, oath, and proclamation in _Strafford
Letters_, ii. 343. Lord Clandeboye's letters, August 23 and September
2, _ib._ Narrative of John Livingston quoted in Reid's _Presbyterian
Church_, i. 257. Livingston was at this time minister of Stranraer,
which was naturally full of refugees from Ulster. Robert Baillie talks
of the 'Spanish Inquisition on our whole Scottish nation there.'
_Letters_, i. 199, 206, and see Archbishop Spottiswood's letter (August
1638), ib. 466. Bramhall to Laud in State Papers, _Ireland_, January
12, 1639; Rawdon to Conway, _ib._ July 6. Bishop H. Leslie tells Conway
the swearing began in Dean Shuckburgh's parish (Connor), who cleverly
persuaded 630 to take the oath, _ib._ October 7.
[213] Baillie's _Letters_, i. 190, 195; sentence of the Castle-chamber,
September 7, 1639, in State Papers, _Ireland_; comments of Lords
Justices and Council, _ib._ July 30, 1641; _Rushworth_, viii. 496;
Bramhall to Ussher, April 26, 1641; Reid's _Presbyterian Church_,
i. 257, 294. Strafford at his trial objected to the witness Salmon
because he said Stewart was tried in October instead of September, but
the substance of his evidence is unchallenged and confirmed by other
accounts.
[214] Evidence of Salmon and Loftus, which was not shaken by rebutting
witnesses, at Strafford's trial in _Rushworth_, viii. 496. Strafford's
letter of October 8, 1840, from York, in Whitaker's _Life of
Radcliffe_, who endorsed it 'rejected by me, and crossed.'