[Sidenote: Arrival of Fleetwood, Sept. 1653.]
[Sidenote: Trials at Kilkenny, Clonmel, and Cork.]
On June 8 Fleetwood married Ireton's widow, and on July 10 his father-in-law made him commander-in-chief in Ireland. In the following month he was appointed by Parliament a commissioner for the civil government along with the regicides Ludlow, Corbet, and Jones, and John Weaver, the member for Stamford. Fleetwood was in Ireland by the beginning of September, but there was not much left for a general to do except to superintend the reduction of the army. The dregs of the war had to be dealt with first, but the Commissioners were given great powers in the domain of law and justice, and their first care was for the punishment of those to whom murder could be brought home. Doctor Jones had already received orders to collect evidence. A High Court was erected in Dublin under Chief Justice Lowther, who issued commissions to find and examine witnesses in the country. Local courts were also established, the first of which, consisting of Justices Donnellan and Cook and Commissary-General Reynolds, sat on October 4 at Kilkenny in the room where the Supreme Council had been used to meet. Notwithstanding the difficulty of getting evidence eleven years after the first outbreak, sixteen persons were found guilty at Kilkenny, six at Clonmel, and thirty-two at Cork; and we are told that most of these were very considerable men, heads of septs or otherwise important. The High Court in Dublin did not sit until January.[247]
[Sidenote: Uncertainty as to number executed.]
It was considered murder to kill persons not in arms or who had been received to quarter, and this was the general principle on which prosecutions were based. The record is imperfect, but Cox estimated that not above two hundred died by the hands of the common executioner, though many murderers had perished by the sword or by disease. Hearsay evidence was probably admitted to an extent which would not be dreamed of in our days, but trials were carefully conducted, and there were a great many acquittals. Of the original insurgents surviving, by far the most important were Sir Phelim O'Neill, who had lurked in Tyrone since the surrender of Charlemont, where his wife remained. Early in 1653 he ventured, with a view of communicating with her, to take up his abode in an old house on an island in Roghan Lough, near Coalisland, accompanied by Tirlogh Groom O'Quin and a score of soldiers. His messenger was a follower named O'Hugh, who was under protection at Charlemont, and Lord Caulfield's attention was thus roused. The little lake was surrounded and boats were launched upon it, and the island, which was very near the shore, was quite indefensible even against musketry. Sir Phelim surrendered, and was taken to Carrickfergus, where he was very civilly treated by Venables, who had found him a gallant enemy. He was sent off to Dublin and tried there upon the last day of February, his companions, with the exception of O'Quin, being released.[248]