he fired had hit him; he, Lonnergan, said it did not; on which Mr. Power said, "I am glad of it, for it was at your back I fired, and if it hit you, it would have killed you." I know that Mr. Power is a magistrate for the county of Tipperary. Heard that after the prisoner was taken away, there was a mob collected; saith, he believes that Mr. Power, upon the occasion aforesaid, was acting in the capacity of a magistrate for said county. John Everard.

Richard Needham.

Edward Armstrong, Coroner.

Mr. Jephson, sixth witness, saith, he is a magistrate of the county of Tipperary, and saith, there were informations sworn before deponent, as a magistrate of the county of Waterford, against the deceased, for a capital felony, which informations were lodged by a person in the gaol of Waterford, who turned approver, and saith, that the crime was so very serious, and the parties concerned therein notorious, that deponent wrote to the Lord Lieutenant and Secretary, who by letter informed deponent that he might offer a reward of £100 for the apprehension of any of the gang concerned, and saith the deceased was at the head of the gang; deponent saith, that he gave Mr. Power the information to copy, with direction to him to act under them, and to apprehend any one of the said gang, particularly three of them, one of whom was the deceased. L. H. Jephson.

Richard Needham, D. L.
Edward Armstrong, Coroner.

INFORMATION OF PATRICK LONNERGAN (BROTHER OF THE DECEASED).

County of Tipperary-To wit. By one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the said County.

The information of Patrick Lonnergan, of Mullough, in the western division of the barony of Iffa and Offa, and parish

of Mullough, in the said county, farmer, who came before me this day, and being duly sworn and examined on the Holy Evangelists, deponent saith, he was in the employment of William Lonnergan, of Mullough aforesaid, Esq., on the 21st day of April instant, where deponent's brother, Joseph Lonnergan, late of Mullough, deceased, had been, and that he was also on the lands of Mullough aforesaid, and in the actual act of doing the business carefully appointed for him on said day, by William Lonnergan aforesaid, with this deponent, when then and there Edmond Power, of Clonmel, in said county, Esq., came on horseback, and on seeing the said Joseph Lonnergan, deceased, in distance from him about thirty-three yards, did instantly, wilfully, and feloniously, present a gun directed at the said Joseph Lonnergan, deceased, and discharged the contents thereof, with design to kill the said Joseph Lonnergan, and did hit him with a ball, which was the cause of the said Joseph Lonnergan's death; deponent saith, he also saw the said Edmond Power discharge a second shot at the deceased Joseph Lonnergan; deponent saith, said Edmond Power, Michael Power, and another man, whose name is yet unknown to deponent, did unmercifully take the deceased Joseph Lonnergan, and him then bleeding in his wounds, put him on horseback, and carried and guarded him to the gaol of Clonmel, in the said county; deponent saith, he did not know any cause that commissioned said Edmond Power to kill or murder the deceased, or commit him to the gaol of Clonmel, wherein the said Joseph Lonnergan died on the morning of Wednesday, the 22nd instant; also saith, the said Joseph Lonnergan, deceased, made no defence, opposition, resistance, or rescue, against any authority or order then in the hands or power of said Edmond Power against him the said Joseph Lonnergan, deceased; deponent saith, it was the aforesaid shot which he the said Edmond Power fired on him caused his death; thereupon desires jus

tice, and at trial he will make more fully appear. Sworn before me, this 29th day of April, 1807.

THOMAS PENDERGAST.

Informant bound to the King in the trust sum of £20 to prosecute the above information at the next General Assizes to be holden at Clonmel, for said Court.

PATRICK LONNERGAN.
His mark.

WE certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the information, &c., in the case of the Queen v. Edmond Power, tried at the Summer Assizes, 1807, for the wilful murder of Joseph Lonnergan. Dated this 9th day of August, 1854.*

PEDDER AND CARMICHAEL,
Per M. Harvey,

Clerk of the Crown, County Tipperary, L. R.

SUBSTANCE OF THE BILL OF INDICTMENT AGAINST EDMOND

POWER, ESQ., J.P., OF CLONMEL, FOR MURDER OF JOSEPH LONNERGAN.

Set forth that Edmond Power, of Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary, Esq., one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for said county, wilfully, feloniously, and of his malice prepense, assaulted Joseph Lonnergan and inflicted a gun-shot wound on the right side of the body, near the right breast of the said Joseph Lonnergan, of the length of two inches, and of the depth of three inches, of which said mortal wound he the said Joseph Lonnergan languished, and languishing lived, from the said twenty-first day of April until the day next following, and

*There is an error in the date of the trial above mentioned. It took place at the Spring Assizes of 1808, March the 16th, and is briefly reported in the Waterford Mirror of the 19th of March.

VOL. I.

I I

then, on the twenty-second day of April, in the said fortyseventh year of the reign of our said Lord the King, at Clonmel, died, and so the jurors aforesaid do say and present, that the said Edmond Power, in manner and form aforesaid, did kill and murder the said Joseph Lonnergan.

True Bill for self and fellow jurors,

J. A. PRITTIE.

The discovery of the above-mentioned documents, was made subsequently to the account given in the Introduction of this work of the occurrence they refer to.

On perusing these official documents, it can hardly fail to strike the reader with surprise, how little variance there is between the accounts of a transaction which occurred fortyeight years ago, derived from the recollection of various parties, and the judicial records above referred to in relation to it. The only discrepancies between them, of any importance, I have to notice, are the following

By the depositions, it appears that the deceased Joseph Lonnergan had a brother, who was present when Mr. Power fired at the former, not once but twice, taking deliberate aim at him, when he was in the act of running away from his assailant; that no provocation had been given by the deceased, but that he was employed, at the moment he was fired at by Mr. Power, on his lawful business.

By the evidence of Mr. Everard, of Mullough, farmer, it appeared, immediately after he saw the shot fired by Mr. Power at Lonnergan, who was in the act of running away, the deponent asked Mr. Power why he fired at the deceased, and Mr. Power replied, "The villain had thrown a stone at him two pounds weight."

Mr. L. H. Jephson, the brother magistrate of Mr. Power, who was produced at the inquest, deposed to informations sworn before deponent against the deceased for a capital felony (but Mr. Jephson did not state what the felony was); to those

informations being sworn by a person in the gaol of Waterford, who had turned approver (but the name of the party was not given); to the fact of writing to the government on the subject of them, and being authorized to offer a reward for any of the gang concerned, and subsequently, to directions. given to Power to apprehend any one of the said parties, particularly three of them, one of whom was the deceased.

The simple facts of the case were these:-Mr. Jephson refers to a communication he made to the government, stating some outrage which was said to have been committed in his neighbourhood. It is very plain that neither he nor the government knew who the offenders were, for the government found it necessary to offer a reward of £100 for the discovery of them, "for any of the gang concerned."

Mr. Jephson having been thus authorized, obtained some information which caused him to instruct Mr. Power to take measures for the arrest of some persons of the name of Lonnergan suspected to be of the gang concerned. And Mr. Power's act having rendered it necessary for him to attach suspicion to the unfortunate young man, whom in his frenzied recklessness he shot, had evidently given such reasons for those suspicions to his brother magistrate, that Mr. Jephson at the period of the inquest was satisfied, that the deceased was one of the suspected parties belonging to the gang concerned in the unspecified outrage he referred to. But it is quite clear if the evidence of the farmer Everard can be relied on, that Power's sole complaint against Lonnergan was that the latter had thrown a stone at him.

From the report of the trial, it appears that the aged father of Joseph Lonnergan was not dead at the time of the young man's murder, but the old man's death must have occurred immediately after that catastrophe, for the mother is invariably mentioned by those who speak of their remembrance of the inquest and trial-as the widow Lonnergan.