Records of the atrocities unleased in Ireland during the rebellion which began in October 1641 and ended in May 1642 were formally recorded in sworn Depositions taken at the time, and was subequently followed up in Commonwealth Depositions sworn and recorded in the early 1650’s. Two depositions were taken about them murder of Joan Blood in Rosberry in Easter 1642. One deposition was provided by Walter Weldon, son of Ann Weldon, who provided hearsay evidence that William Harrold murdered Joan Blood.
William Harrold also provided a sworn Deposition which contradicts the account provided by Walter Weldon. William Harrold was a prisoner at the time his Deposition was taken.
Walter Weldon's Deposition of 1654
Walter Weldon was 27 years old when he gave his sworn Deposition on February 9th 1654 about the murder of Joan Blood in Rosberry by William Harrold during the Catholic Rebellion which commenced October 23rd 1641 and ended May 1642. Walter would therefore have been about 15 years at the time the events he is recounting happened. His sworn testimony was that:
- His widowed mother Ann Weldon lived at Rosberry;
- She was fearful of continuing to live there least the Rebels should destroy her and her children;
- She repaired to Dublin with them a few months after the beginning of the Rebellion;
- She left behind her servant Joan Blood in the said Weldon house in Rosberry;
- Joan’s directions were to look to the goods in the house and to send them to Dublin if she could, and to observe who would meddle with them, should any of the Rebels attempt to pillage the house.
Soon after Ann Weldon and her family repaired to Dublin, Patrick Sarsfield, son of Peter Sarsfield of Tully in Co. Kildare [where the Irish National Stud is located today] to whom Ann Weldon was a tenant for the said lands of Rosberry:
- Sent his servant William Harrold to possess himself of Ann Weldon’s house and goods under the pretence of keeping them for Ann Weldon’s use;
- Where for a period of four months, William Harrold and Joan Blood continued to live in Ann Weldon’s house under this pretence;
- That William Graham, one of the troopers under the command of Major Meredith told Walter Weldon about two months later, that William Harrold planned to murder Joan Blood lest she observe his actions and brought several Irish rebels into the house to murder Joan Blood;
- Joan Blood had some intelligence providing prior warning on William Harrold’s intention, according to William Graham, and took to hiding herself at the top of the house where there was a sinke [depression in the roof] and the Rebels could not find her and went out of the house;
- But William Harrold, perceiving and being by now well acquainted with the places in the said house, went to the top of the house to look for Joan Blood, and discovered her hiding;
- William Harrold took Joan Blood by the hand out of the sinke and brought her down stairs, out of the house and immediately called the said Rebels back again into Ann Weldon’s house and handed Joan Blood over to the Rebels and said to them to “go and dispatch your business”, whereupon the Rebels carried Joan Blood about a musket shot from the house and there one of the Rebels shot Joan Blood in the back and killed her.
William Harrold's Deposition of 1654
William Harrold also provided a sworn Deposition on March 22nd 1654 at the time he was held as a prisoner in Dublin, and was probably arrested on foot of Walter Weldon’s Deposition sworn 6 weeks earlier. Walter was forty years old when implies he was 29 when the events he gave evidence about occurred.
William Harrold, late of Rosberry, was sworn in and on examination by William Gilbert and William Markham, said:
- Soon after Easter 1642, he lived in Rosberry and was employed there by Patrick Sarsfield to oversee Ann Weldon’s corn crop in the field;
- He dined and lodges in the house of Rowland Taylor of Rosberry;
- About the time in question, he was told by some of the inhabitants of Rosberry that a William Harrold, a soldier under the command of one Oliver Dongan, a Captain of the Rebels, had killed a boy near the town of Rosberry.
- That he [William Harrold] saw the William Harold that morning before the boy was killed but did not see him since;
- William Harrold does not remember if he had at any time any discourse with Katherine Taylor or any other of the inhabitants of Rosberry concerning the killing of the said boy.
William Harrold further said that about the beginning of the Rebellion (October 23rd 1641), when he was in Rosberry:
- He did here there that several of the Rebels did come to the said town of Rosberry about 11 o’clock at night, and did burn the house of Ann Weldon, and did take out of the house one Joan Blood, who was left in the house by the widow Weldon to preserve the corn and house from the rebels;
- He saw the house was on fire and came tither and there did see Joan Blood amongst the Rebels, and when he approached the Rebels he was taken prisoner and bound with Rowland Taylor;
- Together they were taken and carried as prisoners out of the town of Rosberry;
- Joan Blood was also taken as prisoner with the said Rebels, and when they were taken out of the town together, William McCartan, since deceased, and one of the Rebels, shot Joan Blood in the back with a musket, and she immediately fell to the ground and died;
- Whilst the said Rebels were stripping her of her clothes, William Harrold and Rowland Taylor escaped from the Rebels and said nothing thereafter.
Does anyone know the fate of William Harrold in 1654?