Deposition of Nora Donnelly, March 1880

NORA DONNELLY. - I am the wife of Wm. Donnelly, and was in the house the night that John Donnelly was killed; the first thing I knew I was awakened by the report of the shot; then I heard John say to Will, oh, Will! oh, Will! I'm shot, and may the Lord have mercy on my soul; then I heard Will call Hogan to get up, that John was shot; I turned out of bed and said, if he's shot I'm going to him; when I got up my husband was sitting up in bed looking out the window, at the north side; I went into the kitchen where John was; my husband said, pull him in; I tried, but I could only pull him in a little bit; I saw Hogan coming on his hands and knees, and he caught hold of John and pulled him in to my husband's bed-room: then I got a piece of blessed candle and put into his hand and he died in a few minutes; Hogan after he drew John in, got under my husband's bed and stayed there till morning; my husband told me after John died to tell him what time it was, and I looked and it wanted a minute or two to half-past two, (2);
[...]
[cross-examination by] MR. MACMAHON. - The first I heard was the shot; I went to bed between nine and ten o'clock that night; I put a fire in the stove in my room in the evening, and also more when I went to bed;

[...] I looked out of my bed-room window several times during the night; I think it was snowing; I didn't see it snowing; when I got up at two o'clock I noticed that it had snowed since I went to bed; I can't say whether it snowed between half-past two and five o'clock; I looked out but did not remember; I didn't go to bed again: I looked out of the window, from the end of the bed: there was no frost on the window; I could see out quite plainly: when I looked out first it was nice and bright, and I could see things quite plainly: I have no doubt of that: I didn't look until after John died, and I knew there was nobody there then; I could see that they were not there then; it was at one of the times that I looked out of the window, that I asked my husband who in the world did it: I looked out more than three times; the bed was close to the window, and I got on the bed to look out of the window: I also looked through the kitchen window; I looked through the bed-room window two or three times; I would not be there fifteen minutes at a time; Hogan was under the bed when I asked my husband who in the world did it; my husband was not angry for me asking him who did it; I don't remember him saying anything about a gang; he just said, I know some of them; I didn't ask him about this more than once; when he said I know some of them, I didn't make any reply; I didn't ask him who it was that he knew; I had no curiosity to know who it was; I didn't ask him and he never told me that it was some of the vigilance committee; I was anxious to know who shot my brother-in-law; I didn't ask him, and I just supposed it was some of the gang, and I don't remember his saying that it was one of the gang[...].

Source: Public Archives of Ontario, Irving Fonds, F1027, 82 08, MS 6500, Unknown, Deposition of Nora Donnelly, March 31, 1880.

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