Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	death_n	king_n	treason_n	2,352	5	9.2422	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25878	The arraignment, tryal and condemnation of Stephen Colledge for high-treason, in conspiring the death of the King, the levying of war, and the subversion of the government Before the Right Honourable Sir Francis North, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common-Pleas, and other commissioners of oyer and terminer and gaol-delivery held at the city of Oxon. for the county of Oxon. the 17th and 18th of August 1681. I do appoint Thomas Basset and John Fish to print the arraignment, tryal and condemnation of Stephen Colledge, and that no others presume to print the same. Fr. North.	England and Wales. Court of Common Pleas.	1681 (1681)	Wing A3762; ESTC R214886	159,379	148

will conclude to you Gentlemen and appeal to your consciences for according to the Oath that has been given to you you are bound in your consciences to go according to your Evidence and are neither to be inveigled by us beyond our proof nor to be guided by your commiseration to the Prisoner at the Bar against the proof for as God will call you to an account if you do an injury to him so will the same God call you to account if you do it to your King to your Religion and to your own Souls Lo. ch just Gentlemen I shall detain you but a little and shall be as short as I can for your patience has been much exercised already It is a burden and a necessary one that lies upon us all for there is nothing more necessary than that such Tryals as these should be intire and publick intire for the dispatch of them and publick for the satisfaction of the world that it may appear no man receives his Condemnation without Evidence and that no man is acquitted against Evidence Gentlemen there are these two considerations in all Cases of this nature the one is the Force of the Evidence the other is the Truth of the Evidence As to the Force of the Evidence that is a point in Law that belongs to the Court and wherein the Court is to direct you as to the Truth of the Evidence that is a question in Fact arising from the Witnesses must be left upon them whereof you are the proper Judges As to the Force of the Evidence in this case it must be consider'd what the Charge is it is the compassing the Death of the King and conspiring to seize the Person of the King which is the same thing in effect for even by the Common Law or upon the interpretation of the Statute of the 25. of Edw. 3. that mentions compassing the Death of the King to be Treason it has always been resolved that whosoever shall imagine to depose the King or imprison the King are guilty of imagining the Death of the King for they are things that depend one upon another and never was any King deposed or imprisoned but with an intention to be put to death they are in consequences the same thing Now Gentlemen in cases of Treason the Law is so tender of the Life of the King that the very imagination of the Heart is Treason if there be any thought concerning any such thing but then it must be manifested by some overt-Overt-act upon the Statute of the 25. of Edw. 3. but upon the Statute of the 13. of this King made for the Preservation of the Kings Person if it be manifested by malicious and advised speaking 't is sufficient This is as to the Charge and as to the Law concerning that Charge I must tell you there must be two Witnesses in the case Now then for the Force of the Evidence the question will arise there whether this Evidence admitting it to be true is sufficient to maintain the Indictment so that if there be two Witnesses you must find him Guilty Now as to this Gentlemen the Prisoner has before-hand called upon the Court and had their resolution and I hope you will remember what hath been said and I shall have occasion to trouble you the less There have been six Witnesses produced for the King there are two of them Sir William Jennings and Mr. Masters that are some way applicable to the Case though they do not go to the Treason they are only to infer the probability of the Treason This of Sir William Jennings was upon the occasion of the bleeding of the Prisoners Nose after his quarrel with Fitz-Gerald when he said He had lost the first bloud and it would not be long e're there would be more lost which shews there were some extraordinary thoughts in his Heart concerning some divisions quarrels and fighting that he expected should be That which Mr. Masters has said besides what he offered concerning his Principles in justifying the Long Parliament was this that when he called him Colonel Marry mock not said he I may be a Colonel in time that shews some extraordinary thoughts were in his Heart Coll. Will not that bear a more favourable interpretation my Lord Must that necessarily follow upon my saying I might be a Colonel in time and that more bloud would be lost if I had expressed it so L. c. j. I say you had some extraordinary thoughts in your Heart Coll. I am sure the fittest to explain my own thoughts L. c. j. You would have done well to have explained it which way you expected to be a Colonel Coll. It was not an expectation for a may be may not be my word was mocking is catching I thought he had called me Cozen. L. c. j. Well Gentlemen these are Witnesses I say that go not to the Treason but only relate and reflect somewhat to shew there were thoughts in his Heart but no body could tell what they were or know what he meant by them Coll. Then always they are to be taken in the best sence L. c. j. For the other Witnesses Stephen Dugdale John Smith Bryan Haynes and Edward Turbervile they are all of them taking what they say to be true very full Witnesses The Prisoner hath objected as to two of them because they speak to nothing that was done in Oxfordshire but Turbervile and Dugdale they speak to what was said in Oxfordshire Now for that I must tell you If you believe any one of these Witnesses as to what was said in Oxford and any of them as to what was said in London relating to the same Fact of Treason they will be two good Witnesses to maintain the Indictment tho' the one is in the one County and the other in another for if a Treason be committed in two Counties it is in the Kings Election where he will exhibit the Indictment and the Evidence from both Counties is good Evidence that I take for Law and these four Witnesses with that consideration that they are true as I think are full Witnesses to maintain this Indictment Why then the next Head is concerning the Truth of this Evidence of which you are to be Judges and you are the proper Judges whether the Witnesses speak true or no therefore you must have your own Consciences to direct you in that case and what I shall say about them shall be only for your Assistance Gentlemen I shall not take upon me to repeat the Evidence to you it has been long and for me to speak out of memory I had rather you should recur to your own Memories and your own Notes only I shall say something in general to contract your consideration of it And as I told you at first you must mind nothing of what the Kings Counsel said for nothing must have impression upon you but what they proved So you are not to consider any thing of the Facts the Prisoner spake of that

Statute of the 25 Edw. the 3d. and that of this King too For my Brother Holloway told you true That whereas the Imagining the death of the King is High Treason by the 25 of Edw. the 3d. so a seizing of the King and an endeavour to do that is a constructive intention of the death of the King for Kings are never Prisoners but in order to their death And therefore it hath been held in all times that by the Statute of Edw. 3d. that was Treason but then the Statute of this King in the 13th year of his Reign is more strong for there it says If any man shall by any words or malicious speaking shew the imagination of his heart that he hath any such intention that is Treason too Coll. My Lord the Foundation of this Indictment is said to be laid here in Oxford as I suppose pray my Lord here is only Mr. Dugdale and Turbervile that swear against me for what I should say in Oxon. all the rest speak to things said and done at London Now my Lord I desire to know whether they have proved any Treasonable Practices Conspiracy or Design against the Government I would feign know that whether there be matter here to ground an Indictment upon for the one says in one place the other in the other which may be distinct matters and none of them swear Facts against me but only Words Mr. just jones Yes providing Arms for your self and offering others Arms. Coll. That I shall make this Answer to I had only a case of Pistols and a Sword which every Footman and Horseman had that came from London I think But further my Lord I would ask your Lordship whether there ought not to be Witnessesdistinct to swear words at one and the same time Mr. just jones No no the Resolution of the Judges in my Lord Staffords case is contrary L. ch just Look you it hath been often resolved that if there be one Witness that proves one Fact which is an Evidence of Treason and another proves another Fact that is an Evidence of the same Treason though they be but single Witnesses to several Facts yet they are two Witnesses to an Indictment of Treason that hath been often publickly resolved particularly in the case of my Lord Stafford mentioned by my Brother And I 'le tell you my Opinion further if there be one Witness that proves here what you said at Oxford and another that proves what was said in London if they be in order to the same Treason it is sufficient for if you do conspire to commit such a Treason in London and you come with such an imagination in your Heart to Oxford to compleat this Treason tho your Design was not first formed there I think 't is enough to maintain an Indictment of Treason and they are two good Witnesses though but one speak to what was done at Oxford but I must tell you in your case there are two full Witnesses to that which was done at Oxford besides Sir William Jennings Colledge That which Sir William Jennings speaks of I told you before what it was I said It was the first Blood that was shed for the Parliament Mr. just jones The Parliament was dissolved before that which Sir William Jennings speaks of therefore you could not say it was to defend the Parliament Coll. Mr. Dugdale did say that I spake such and such words in the Barbers Shop in the Angel-Inne there I was indeed at the time that he does speak of and the Barber was by I do think indeed it were convenient to have him here but I knew not where he would charge me or what it was he would charge me with because I never said any thing in my life that was like Treason L. c. j. Mr. Colledge call any Witnesses you will Coll. But my Lord pray let me ask you one Question more You take these words distinct from any matter of Fact don't you L. c. j. No complicated with the Fact which was the overt-Overt-Act the coming to Oxon. with Pistols to make one if there had been any disturbance and to seize the King Colledge Then my Lord I would ask you whether any Act of Treason done at London shall be given in Evidence to prove the Treason for which I am now indicted and which was given in Evidence before the Grand Jury upon which the Tryal was there grounded L. ch just Any Act of Treason this is of the same kind And I 'le tell you that was resolved in Sir Henry Vanes case those that gave you that paper understand it But I speak now to your capacity and to satisfie your Question He was indicted for levying War against the King he conspired in Westminster the War was levyed in another County the Conspiracy upon the Tryal was proved in the County of Middlesex and the War in another place and yet it was held sufficient to maintain the Indictment in the County of Middlesex Colledge There was a War really levyed but God be thanked here is only bare words Mr. just jones Yes Actions too Colledge What Actions my Lord Mr. just jones Arming your self and coming to Oxford Lo. ch just Well I have told you my Opinion My Brothers will speak theirs if they think otherwise Mr. just jones That is not your case neither though I am of the same opinion with my Lord for here are two Witnesses have proved plain matter of Fact at Oxford the providing Arms your self and encouraging others to take Arms Colledge They name no persons Mr. just jones You will have my Opinion and yet you will give me no leave to speak I had patience to hear you You are told there are two Witnesses Turbervile and Dugdale that prove your providing and having of Arms at Oxon. and perswading others to take Arms particularly Turbervile He told you he had no Arms or but a case of Pistols and he had no Horse but you told him you would provide him an Horse And then there are two other Witnesses Smith and Bryan Haynes they do not tell you of any thing done at Oxford but they tell you what you said in their hearing of what you had done in Oxon. and so I think if the Witnesses are to be believed there is a very full proof against you Mr. just Raymond I am of the same Opinion truly and I cannot find but that there is proof enough by two Witnesses Turbervile and Dugdale of what was done at Oxford They swear matter of Fact not Words only but Actions also Coll. No Fact but that I had Pistols and a Sword and that I should tell Mr. Turbervile I would provide him an Horse which is still but Words Mr. just Jones But you shall hear anon for the full conviction of you and all others the Statute of the 13th of this King read to you and you shall there see that such words are made Treason Coll. But I beseech your Lordship to tell me whether there must not