1641 Depositions: First three volumes published

The first three of 12 volumes are now available

The first three volumes of the 1641 Depositions have been published. The three books, edited by Aidan Clarke, are witness testimonies predominately from the counties in Ulster. Volume I deals with the counties of Armagh, Louth and Monaghan; Volume II focuses on Cavan and Fermanagh and Volume III document Antrim, Derry, Donegal, Down and Tyrone.

The testimonies are mainly by Protestants, but also by some Catholics, from all social backgrounds, concerning their experiences of the 1641 Irish rebellion. The testimonies document the loss of goods, military activity, and the alleged crimes committed by the Irish insurgents.

This body of material is unparalleled anywhere in early modern Europe, and provides a unique source of information for the causes and events surrounding the 1641 rebellion and for the social, economic, cultural, religious, and political history of seventeenth-century Ireland, England and Scotland.

In total, 19,010 manuscript pages in 31 bound volumes have been transcribed and will be published across 12 volumes. These just published represent the first three,  as follows:

Volume I: Armagh, Louth & Monaghan, ISBN 978-1-906865-25-2, 356 pp, €50
Volume II: Cavan & Fermanagh ISBN 978-1-906865-26-9, 591 pp, €50
Volume III: Antrim, Derry, Donegal, Down & Tyrone ISBN 978-1-906865-27-6,  605 pp, €50

Publication of the remaining volumes IV- XII will follow over this year and next.