In 1685, King Charles II of England died and his Catholic
brother, James, ascended the throne. As
a result, positions of power in Ireland were re-possessed by Catholics and
members of the Protestant gentry in the south (already a minority), who did not
immigrate to England, or transplant themselves north, began to organize
themselves into defensive positions in the larger country houses (Wright &
Warren). Aristocrats in England, also
fearing the consequences of rule under a Catholic King, formally invited the
Dutch Prince of Orange to become King William III and by February of 1689 “The
Glorious Revolution” put an end to what many at the time referred to as the Romanizing of England.
THE MARCH TO SLIGO
Soon after, on 1st March 1689 (just before James
II landed in Ireland with 5000 French troops to join an Irish army of 50,000
men, as part of a Jacobite plan to re-take the English throne) about 200 gentleman
of Cork, along with their tenants and servants, responded to a program of
Protestant disarmament by deciding to march north and join Lord Kingston’s
forces at Sligo.
The group, led by Sir Thomas Southwell and several old
officers, met at Mallow and then headed in the direction of Limerick .
After a few successful encounters,
including an exchange of fire at Brian’s
Bridge in County Clare , intelligence of the march spread; as they
approached Galway , in need of both food and
water, they encountered several troop of horse advancing toward them.
It suddenly became
clear that their guide had led them into an ambush, and the group found
themselves cut off, on a narrow passage, in the middle of a bog just outside Loughrea,
surrounded by a company of men on either side of them; this included, several
troops of King James’s horse in front as well as four to five hundred militia
men behind. Before being forced to halt,
shots were exchanged and one of Southwell’s group, Morgan Williams, was killed.
Finally, unable to
form themselves into any cohesive defense, the group halted.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW PURDON & CATHERINE GUN*
In the chaos that preceded the surrender, chronicles of the
event cite the behaviour of two of Southwell’s party: Captain Bartholomew
Purdon & Catherine Gun.
An eyewitness account records that, either through loss of
temper or through a calculated attempt to reduce the lopsided confrontation
down to a single win or lose combat, Captain Bartholomew Purdon of Ballyclough,
with his pistol in one hand and his sword in the other, spurred his horse
toward the troop of horse in front of them and challenged its commander,
Captain Burke, to a duel. This, the commander refused and after some bickering,
negotiation ensued.
It may have been during some of this bickering or, perhaps,
it may have been Catherine Gun, herself, who prior to this had inspired
Purdon’s charge, because eyewitness accounts state that she was one of the most
vocal against surrender. Miss Hickson’s Old Kerry Records states that after
another of Southwell’s party, Captain Thomas Miller, had cried out “Gentlemen
you have the sword before and the gallows behind”(17), Catherine entreated all
to “fight and die honourably rather than trust to the mercy of a perfidious
enemy”(Wright & Warren, 118).
Catherine was the only woman who had attended the march, refusing
to stay behind, and, dressed in men’s clothing, was described as mounted amazon-like in her saddle (Burke,
51). One legend of her recorded that she
and her husband had been in some place that had been besieged and forced to
surrender. After terms had been reached,
all the women present were allowed to leave, carrying their valuables;
observing these requirements, Catherine subsequently declared that the only
valuable she wished to take was her gun
and to this end immediately scooped up her husband, William Gun of Rattoo,
County Kerry, and, upon her back, carried him off with her (Burke, 117).
SURRENDER & INCARCERATION
According to the official articles of surrender, Southwell,
Purdon and Captain Miller agreed to “lay down such horse and arms, as was fit
for the king’s service” to James Power, High Sheriff of Galway, and Captain
Burke, commander of the King’s Horse (Burke, 65); in return, members of Southwell’s
party would be allowed to retain their own personal arms, one horse each and
granted safe passage to any place except their original destination of Sligo.
After being halted a week at Loughrea, however, it became
apparent that the terms of the treaty were not being upheld, and, as a result
of a court hearing held soon afterward, the gentlemen in the party were placed,
against their will, in private lodgings, while their tenants and servants were
forced to live, without shelter, outside.
The landing of King James in Ireland precipitated another
appearance in court on the 16th of March, and it was at this point
that the members of Southwell’s group were officially declared traitors and sentenced
to a traitor’s death of being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Once again placed in different locations about the town,
which included a public house, a castle, and a marshalsea (Wright & Warren,
190), the Galway prisoners spent the next months in varying degrees of comfort;
they later reported being well treated by their captors some of the time,
abused in different ways at other times and, in one instance, assured by the
Earl of Clanricarde’s men that they were only hours from torture and death.
By the beginning of 1690, however, they were moved back
south to Dublin and, while James was confronting William of Orange at the
Boyne, three hundred members of Southwell’s group were locked inside a small
church to await the outcome of a battle that would decide the fate of both
themselves and the future United Kingdom.
After eighteen months of captivity, the ordeal of the Galway prisoners was over.
Burke, Oliver Joseph.
Anecdotes of the Connaught
Circuit. Dublin :
Hodges, Figgis &
Hickson, Mary Agnes. Selections
from Old Kerry Records. London :
Watson & Hazell,
1872.
Townsend et al. An
Officer of the Long Parliament & His Descendants. London :
Oxford University Press, 1812.
Wright, Thomas & Henry Warren. History of Ireland London :
J. Tallis & Company, 1854.
*It is worth noting that both of these individuals were the
children of prominent officers in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, whom Oliver
Cromwell distinguished as being instrumental in the return and keeping of both
Cork & Youghal for the parliamentarians (Townsend, 83). Catherine Gun was the daughter of Colonel
Richard Townsend & Captain Bartholomew Purdon was the eldest son and heir
of Sir Nicholas Purdon, which some historical accounts record as the officer
who killed the famed Alasdair MacColla after the battle of Knockanass.
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