Note 411 — CCLXXXVIII.—To the persecuted Church in Ireland.[410]
Reading edition
Wentworth, Earl of Stafford, was at this time Deputy or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Previous to his appointment to that office, which was in 1632, the Scottish settlers in Ireland were not troubled on account of their nonconformity. After the Black Oath was imposed in this year, he declared that he would prosecute "to the blood" all who refused to take it, and drive them "root and branch" out of the kingdom. His violent and unconstitutional proceedings at length issued in his being arraigned for high treason before the English Parliament, and beheaded on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641, in the forty-ninth year of his age.