will wonder at This Letter perhaps from a Person that has neither Directly nor Indirectly had any thing to do with you either by Word Writing or Message since October Last was Twelvemonth when upon your Enformation I was Question'd and Wrongfully Accus'd in many Particulars before the King and Councell I look upon it as my Duty to Forgive you and at This Good Time to tell you so and I have the Charity to believe if it had come into your Thoughts you would have found it your Part to have Desired it c. December 27. 1681. In Return to This of mine I receiv'd an Answer with the Copy of a Petition to his Majesty Enclosed in manner as follows Ever Honoured Sir I humbly thank you for your Charity in forgiving the Wrong I did you in October was Twelvemonth And I Assure you it hath been a Great Trouble to me and if I could have hoped for Pardon I should have begg'd it of you long since but I am Confident if you had known how I was Vs'd by my Unkle First and afterward by College and Otes to Force me to Accuse you Falsly you would sooner have Pity'd my Weakness and Forgiven me what I have done against you But This Generous Charity which you have now shewed in giving me the Pardon which I durst not Ask for hath Encouraged me to Intreat you to Intercede with his Majesty to Grant me his Gracious Pardon for the Great Offences which I have Committed against him and that he would be pleased to let me be brought to my Tryal and have the Perusal of my Fathers Papers to help to make my Defence And I hope to make out the Truth to ihe Satisfaction of All Honest Men and Discharge the Conscience of Honoured Sir Your veryest Commandable Servant Simpson Tonge To his Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Simpson Tonge Prisoner in the Kings-Bench Sheweth THat after your Petitioner had Declared the Truth to your Majesty concerning the Contrivance of his Father and Mr Titus Otes your Petitioner being in great want of Necessaries his Vncle Captain Tonge having sent for him was compelled to go to him for Relief and Captain Tong made your Petitioner Drunk and then Threaten'd and Forced him to deny the Truth and to Sign a Paper which the said Captain Tonge had Written your Petitioner not knowing what he did and afterwards when your Petitioner was Committed to Newgate Colledge came to him and by Threats and Promises forced your Petitioner to deny the Truth for the which your Petitioner hath been ever since under great Trouble of Mind for his great Wickedness and Cowardize to deny the Truth but your Petitioner doth protest in the presence of Almighty God that it is very true that the Plot was Contrived by my Father and Titus Otes when he reâ—urned the Second time beyond the Seas my Father and he writ much of it out of Houselife Queen Elizabeth and out of the Book writ by Hooper or Hocker that came from Rome and swore against Campian and the othâ—r Jesuits as will appear both by the said Books and by my Fathers Papers if your Majesty please to cause them to be Searched into They first Writ at Sir Richard Barkers where the Plot was Written by Otes in Greek Letters and afterwards went to Fox-Hall and one of the Iesuits Letters is in my Fathers Hand Wherefore your Petitioner doth most Humbly Pray 〈◊〉 Beseech your Sacred Majesty to pity the sad 〈◊〉 of your Petitioner and to pardon his great Crime 〈◊〉 going from the Truth and to let him be brought 〈…〉 Tryal and to have his Fathers Papers deliver'd 〈…〉 make his Defence and your Petitioner hopes 〈…〉 what â—e hath Written so clear that your 〈…〉 think him more fit for your Pitty then your 〈…〉 and forgive the great Wickedness of your 〈◊〉 for the which he is truly Penitent and will 〈◊〉 perâ—sh here in Prison then ever be Guilty of the 〈◊〉 as he hath shewed to those that have been with â—im since â—is great Poverty to pervert him further â—rom the Truth but your Petitioner would not Therefore your Petitioner doth most Humbly beseech your Majesty to pitty the Sad and Miserable Condition of your Petitioner and not to let him lie here and star ve for want of Cloth and Bread. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray c. Simpson Tonge Tong refers himself in the Foregoing Letter and Petition to Certain Papers that he would make use of for his Defence Upon which Point he Expounds himself in a Letter of Ian. 2. in these Words Some of the Papers says he which my Father left were taken at Colleges House and my Vncle sent one Mr Hill to me in the Kings-Bench and brought one who was a Stranger to me with a Paper to Administer on my Behalf and I Sign'd it and under Pretence of Administring for me hath seized on the rest of my Fathers Papers This same Hill was a French Man and his Name De Mont and a Pestilent Enemy to the Late King and his Government Tongs Fumbling in his Petition at the Names of Books he has forgot is a little better Expounded in a Letter to me of Ian. 5. 1681 2. My Father says he us'd to take Notes out of a Great Book a Supplement after Hollingshead left off and writ as I have heard him say by one How or Howes and Other little Books written by Hocker or Hopper that was the Witness and Prosecuted the Jesuits c. Now to the Credit of these Papers My Correspondence with Young Tong began December 27. 1681. and Brake off upon the 11th of Ianuary following I Publish'd his Letters in Print soon after the Receiving of them and with a Provocation to any man that would take up Otes'es Quarrel and call Simpson Tong to an Account for making the Plot to be only a Cheat and Dr. Tong and Titus Otes a Brace of Cony-Catching Impostors This Villany was Expos'd Barefac'd over and over People Invited nay Press'd and Challeng'd to undertake the Vindication of them even at a time when the Authority of the Plot was yet Rampant and when it was made Less Criminal and Dangerous to Conspire against the King then to Disbelieve Otes This was Certainly the most Desperate Evidence that ever was set afoot against the Sham of That Pretended Conspiracy 'till the Final Decision of the Main Cause that follow'd some years after at the Kings-Bench-Bar Westminster on the 8th and 9th Days of May 1685. The Faction was at That Time Flesh'd in Bloud Bold Violent and Successfull and yet not so much as One Mouth to Open in favour of the Forgery or to call Tonge to an Account for Ridiculing the Veracity of the Kings Witnesses or Affronting the Reputative Honour and Wisdom of the Nation I should have Scrupled the Use of Young Tongs Testimony after the Scandal of his Saying and Vnsaying and his going Off and On at the Rate that he
This Appeal from the Iniquity and Injustice of a Faction of the Last Edition Not as if the World were likely to Mend or the People that come After us to be One jot Wiser Iuster Honester or Better-Natur'd than Those that went Before them But All Passions Sleep in the Grave and as there 's no Place for Envy Calumny Partiality or Imposture on the One hand so there 's as little room for Corrupt Interest Mercenary Design or Servile Adulation on the Other The Dead do not Bite they say and the Living unless they be Hagg-Wolves will not Bite the Dead People are well enough pleas'd to see Abuses Stript and Whipt as George Withers has it provided that they be Lash'd upon Other-Folks Shoulders Now this can never fall out where the Parable or the Embleme is of One Season and the Moral of Another For in the One Case the Painter come to Me and in the Other I go to the Painter 'T is much as in a Nusance No body is to lay a Dunghill just under My Nose but if I 'le Carry My Nose to Another mans Dunghill I may thank my self Now 't is quite another business where the Man and the Satyr are both of a Time For the Guilty are Naturally Suspicious and He that 's Conscious will be apt to say to himself This Will or That Tom Points at Me. A Character in This Case Shoots Hail-Shot and Strikes a great many more than ever the Marks-man either Aim'd at or Dreamt of There is a great deal of Difference I know betwixt the Whipping of the Vice and of the Man and betwixt the Whipping of the Vice for the Mans sake and the Whipping of the Man for the sake of the Vice. But be it as it will 't is Nonsense to Imagine that a Man draws a Figure in the Air and Means No body or that he had not some One Man more in his Thought then Another toward the Instructing or the Finishing of the Piece Wickedness and Knavery can never be Drawn To the Life but From the Life And the most Genuine Images that we have of Virtue and Vice Wisdom and Folly are Gather'd and Wrought from the Practices and Habits of Humane Life This sort of Essay is no more then Nature taken in Short-hand and He that Treats of Good and Evil does but Common-Place Mankind onely the Difference is that the Same Writings that are Censur'd for the most Virulent Libels how True soever in One Age Pass many times for the most Excellent and Profitable of Morals in Another Plain-dealing Writers Meet with the Fate commonly of Publique-Spirited Projectors and Ruine Themselves for the Good of their Successors And therefore a Frank Clear-minded Man that stands Condemn'd to the Mortification of Rubbing-out his days in a False Daubing Narrow-hearted World cannot do better then to withdraw his Effects from among Parasites and Sharpers and to Deposite the Care of his Memory and Good Name in the hands of those that are yet Vnborn These are My very Circumstances My Iudges are Parties and as the Case stands both Witnesses and Iury in a kind of Combination against me Whither should I Fly now from the Tyranny of This Passion and Prejudice for Relief and Protection but to Those Times when the Biass of This Controversy shall be taken off The Intrigue and Interest of it Extinguish'd and All the Present Litigants on Both sides laid to Sleep Especially since the Cause it self and the Merits of it wiâ—l most Infallibly come â—hole to the Next Age For my Charge and Every Article of it being Founded upon Those very Papers that I do here Transmit to After-Times for my Defence the Fact lies Open to All men and Done or Not Done is the Question Wherein Every Soul that can Reade may Satisfy himself I have not the Vanity all this while to Contend with so much Formality of Pomp and Zeal for the Single Credit of the Observator or of his Trifling Papers But so it is that without Ostentation the Honour of the Government and of All the Kings Loyal Subjects The Light the Authority the Tradition and the Faithfull Memorials of Truth it self as to This Point are not a little Concern'd in the Issue of This Cause For with All Deference to the Works of many Abler Pens that have Asserted the Same Interest I may yet with Modesty Affirm that This is the Only Weekly Paper that has Stood at Mark now for almost Six Years together without so much as One Discontinuance And to what End but to Encounter Seditious and Republican Positions Scandalous Shams and Defamatory Imposturer so soon as ever they took Air And to set the People Right in the Truth and Reason of Matters And this has been done with so much Care and Effect that the most Shameless of my Enemies could never lay a Finger yet upon any One Falsity of Fact or Errour of Doctrine in the Whole Train of These Observators and all the Bussle about them has been only General Hear-say and Clamour Now upon the Credit of These Writings depends in a Great Measure the Credit of the History of These Times to the Extreme Hazzard of Misleading After-Ages when they shall find on the One hand so many Deposing Disinherâ—â—ing Excluding and Impeaching Nemine Contradicente's So many Forsworn Narratives So many Thousand of Treasonous and Slanderous Libels All Printed Published and Recommended under a Masque of Authority and on the Other hand little more then This Miserable Paper to Oppose them What will Future Times say of This Government and of This Nation when they shall Reade of a Prince in a Plot against his Sovereign and his Brother A Queen and a Wife in the Same Plot against her Husband Nay of a King in a Plot Against Himself and Subjects in a Conspiracy to Murder their Prince upon an Instinct and Principle of Religion What will Posterity Think I say when they shall find All These Diabolical Calumnies Confirm'd by so many Pestilent Votes Narratives News'es and Pamphlets with the Solemnity too of Parliamentary Testimonialls and Imprimaturs What will they Think I say when they shall find Dr. OTES Capt. BEDLOE Capt. DANGERFIELD Stephen DVGDALE Esq with a Hundred Worthies more of the Same Batch Canoniz'd for Saints forsooth and the SAVIOVRS of the Nation So many Mediations for Pardon and Preferment for e'm So many Pulpits and Tribunals Trouping along for Company with Their Hosanna's too What shall Charity it self be able to say to This Cloud of Authorities and Certificates to This Harmony of Lies and Defamations when they shall see so Black a Story pass Current without either Contradiction or Controll As if the Brains of a whole Nation had been Turn'd in their Heads like a Pancake Conscience fall'n asleep Truth Struck Dumb Humane R ason Degenerated into Brutality and not One man of a Thousand that had the Heart to stand up for Religion or Iustice. The Next Generation would have taken This History for Gospel if some body or
their Sovereign like a Pupil and turn off his Ministers like so many Footmen because they are of OPINION that they give him This or That Advice and that such Advice is Pernicious If Matters be thus Manag'd what 's become of the Imperial State of This Government Here 's Opinion and the Opinion of Subjects too without Proof without Power without Prerogative and shortly without any Foundation Taking upon it self to give Laws to the Majesty of a Sole Governour and if they could have Carry'd That Point it would have been as good as a Title Gain'd in the Account of the Multitude to the Government of the Three Kingdoms For nothing less then the Exclusion would serve their Turn and the Confounding of all Those that were Against That Exclusion Nay and That it self would not have Done at Last neither as we shall see by and by So that once for all having the Modelling the Iudging and the Discriminating of the Friends and Enemies of the State Themselves and in their Own Right as they pretended what betwixt Associating on the One side and Seizing Banishing Disarming Imprisoning Opining Suspecting Reputing and the Sweet Comfortable Methods of Swearing Hanging and Quartering on the Other there would have been little more for the Conspirators to Do then to Kill and Take Possession and to lay Violent Hands upon the King under the Colour of a Rescue BUt Religion and Loyalty was still the Burden of the Song A Company of Rogues to Blunderbuss his Majesty Burn Protestant Cities and Massacre Poor Innocent People This was the Voyce that was Lifted up and the Outcry that Caused so much Weeping and Wailing among us While the Witnesses in the mean time were All-to-be Colonell'd Doctor'd Captain'd and Squir d for the Credit of the Story It was a most Remarkable and an Auspicious Resolution taken to set a-part Gods Day for Gods Cause as it was Blasphemously Christen'd when they Postpon'd the Consideration of the Lord Chancellors Speech of Apr. 30. 1679. Time after Time untill Sunday the 11th of May following which was so Arrant a Forty-One-Banter that I presently told my Friends without going to a Wizzard the very Dunstable Meaning of it and the Plot-Leaders were so kind to me in That as well as in Other of my Predictions that they made a Prophet of me But I shall have another Touch upon this Particular by and by Upon Nov. 8. 1678. They Resolv'd upon an Address to Desire his Majesty that there might be a Particular Prayer or Prayers Composed for the Cities of London and Westminster relating to the Plot and Conspiracy Contrived and Carry'd-on by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government Upon Sunday the 10 th following they Complain'd That in the Prayer there was no mention made of the Papists who says the Vote are the Contrivers of These Damnable and Hellish Plots c. And they humbly Desire his Majesty to give Effectual Order c. After this and in the Next Parliament they had Another Tour of Passe-Passe of the Same Stamp with the Former which went a Great way toward the Moving of All Those Passions that might be Serviceable to the Project of That Season as will be better seen upon the Reading of that Address it self or which is all one of Another Address for a day of Humiliation on Nov. 25. 1680. in the Following Parliament which Address is within a very little of Word for Word with the Former We your Majesties most Dutifull c. being Deeply Sensible of the Sad and Calamitous Condition of This your Majesties Kingdom Occasioned Chiefly by the Impious and Malicious Conspiracies of a Popish Party who have not only Plotted and Intended the Destruction of your Majesties Royal Person but the Total Subversion of the Government and True Religion Established among us c. All which Our Many and Grievous Sins have Iustly Deserved and being now by your Gracious Favour Assembled in Parliament c. do in All Humility beseech your Majesty that by your Royal Proclamation one or More Days may be Solemnly set a-part wherein both our Selves and All your Majesties Loyal Subjects may by Fasting and Prayer Seek a Reconciliation with Allmighty God and with Humble and Penitent Hearts Implore him by his Power and Goodness to Infatuate and Defeat the Wicked Councils and Machinations of our Enemies c. HEre 's just the Style of the Old Blessed Times over again when Days of Humiliation were used to be set a-part for the Kings Success against the Rebells A Body would have thought by the Solemnity of the Wording of it that there had been Sword Pestilence and Famine Earthquakes and Fire and Brimstone in the Case Now Every Thing help'd to Move Terror Iealousie Mortal Animosities Indignation and Transports of Ardent and of Vindictive Zeal Even to the Degree of a Temptation to break through all the Barrs of Duty Shame Modesty Conscience and Respect Beside that upon the making of God Almighty a Party to the Quarrel Temporal Power Thrones and Magistrates are no better Accounted then Dirt under the Feet of Enthusiastique Bigotts To Conclude the Addresses for One Day of Humiliation should have put the Kingdom Methinks upon Petitioning for another for the Sin of the very Addresses At least if the Plot should in the End Prove False at the Bottom But after all this Dust and Scuffle now betwixt Petitioners and Ahorrers True-Protestants and Pensioners Whigg and Tory Observator and Trimmer there are several more Difficulties yet behind to be Enquir'd into It is a Thing Evident without Dispute that a Prince Cannot be more Affronted and Endanger'd then by Pinching him in his Revenue Paring and Cramping his Royal Prerogative and Power Lessening him in his Reputation and putting him out of Condition of Receiving the Servicâ—s of his Dutifull Friends and Those Friends out of Condition to Support and to Maintain the Honour and Dignity of their Master Now all this has been Attempted and Pursued with the Vttermost Industry and Bitterness Imaginable But here was a Dev'lish Plot it seems and for That Dev'lish Plots Sake the Heir of the Crown must be Disinherited and the Roman Catholiques in a manner Exterminated from off the face of the Earth and no other way in the World to Save our Prince and our Religion as the Infallible Oracle of St. Stephens Chappel gives us to Vnderstand but by a Fair Riddance of all the Kings English Subjects of That Persuasion which by Pursuivanting Messengering Sergeanting Cooping-up Squeezing Rifling Plundering and Oppressing they had well-nigh Effected already Only the Late King stuck at the Exclusion of the Duke But however the Faction had such an Offer made them by the way of a kind of Composition for the Exclusion as would certainly have put them into the Possession of Their Own Wishes If they had not been most Providentially Infatuated into the Neglect or Refusal of it to the Preservation of the Crown the Duke the Royal Line and the
a Martyr for the Meritorious Services he did in That Act both to Church and State. It is most Certain that he was a great stickler in 't and it is No less Certain that he was afterward as Violent for the Bill of Exclusion and for Stripping the Roman-Catholique Lords and Commons of the Vndoubted Privileges of their Birthright Nay and of the Common Benefits of Life Liberty and Property either as Reasonable Creatures or as Members of a Political Body As to his Protestant Zeal All the world knows that he was not a man to Burn at stake for his Religion and if he Propos'd to himself the same End in what he did for the Test and what he did some years after for the Plot the Association and Exclusion he had undoubtedly in his eye the Ruine of the King the Duke of York and the Monarchy from First to Last and Designed the One as well as the Other for an Expedient toward the Gaining of his Point It looks unluckyly too that Marvel should with the same Breath so much Extoll both the Lord and the Project for his Whole Book is a Train of Scandal upon the King and of Treason against him from End to End. The Scribler and the Peer were Both Men of Parts They Knew what was for their Turn and what Not and it was Impossible for any thing to please them in Government that was not Pernicious to the State. This appear'd abundantly by the Sequel For Marvels Pamphlets and This Peers Practices were the Main Incentives and Encouragements to the Following Rebellions To Close This Head It was the Removal of the Lord it seems that brought on the Desperate Apprehensions of Popery for in one and the same Year his Lordship found no Danger of it at All and yet No Living for Fear on 't without any Visible Cause of Change Intervening Now when Another Generation shall come to look into the Hurry and the Distraction of These Times they cannot but in Reason presume that there was some Mighty Bus'ness in 't to Produce such Wonderful Effects Little Imagining that Otes's Popish Monstrous Snake in the Grass should be found at last to be but a Glow-worm But now to the State of the Kingdom upon the coming of This Blasphemous Saviour of the Nation into the World. A Short View of the Miseries that this Plot brought upon us I am at a loss in the Infinite Variety of Miseries that I have now before me Where to Begin Here 's Soul and Body Life Liberty and Estate Peace of Mind Religion Reputation Charity Truth and Iustice All in fine that can be Dear to a Nation to a Christian or to a Man to the Present Age or to Posterity All This I say at stake and All these Privileges Interests Rights and Duties Swallowed up in a Licentious and Abandon'd Contempt and Violation of All Obligations Sacred and Prophane How many People had we that under the Temptations of Fear Avarice Malice Revenge Envy Ambition Sold themselves to Work Wickedness play'd the Hypocrites with God and the King and Betray'd them Both under the Masque of Loyalty and Religion How many Instances had we of people that had no Other Choice before them but either to Hang or Damn and of Persons that made their Election some the One way and some the Other Only so much Money Cast-in on the Swearing-side as if it had been upon an Estimate betwixt the Body and the Soul to make the Scales Even And so much for Soul and Body Now to Proceed How many Lives taken away by Perjury and Subornation And what Security had Any man for his Life when the Kingdom ran as Quick of False Witnesses as a Cony-Warren of Rabbets and Every mans Breath lay at the Mercy of a Couple of Reprobated Villains Where was the Free-born Subjects Liberty When the Kings Witnesses were only the Re-publicans Beagles to Draw Dry-Foot to the Door of Every Honest or but Suspected Honest Man When Priest-Hunters and Prince-Hunters were One and the Same sort of People What an Intelligence was there betwixt the Evidences and the Catch-Poles When Knights of the Post made More Rogues then the Government had provided Prisons to Receive them When the English of Resolv'd upon the Question was only Take him Iaylor When Mittimus-es ran without Cause shewn and Commitments as Arbitrary as their Keepers-Fees When men were Taken-up and Spirited away without Warrants and made Slaves contrary to Law. What Title had any man to his Estate when a Pair of Affidavit-Sparks Match't like Indentures could Swear him Out on 't When Guinneys pass'd for Popish Medalls Crucifixes for the Reliques of Superstition Choice and Historical Pictures in Honour and Memoriall of the Christian Profession When These Paintings I say went for the Remains of Idolatry When Ordinary Drinking-Plate pass'd for Chalices and men were Rifled Robb'd and Vndone by the Basest of Felons under the Masque of Zeal and Conscience This was Undenyably our Condition in the Matters of Life Liberty and Estate Now to the Next Point of Peace of Minde What could be more Miserable then to live in Perpetual Fears Ielousies Frights and Alarums In fear for the Kings Life the Protestant Religion The Peace of the Government Tyranny Popery Slavery In Fear for Souls Bodies and Fortunes Fires Massacres Portugal-Black-Bills and Smithfield-Faggots In Fear of All that it was Possible for us to Lose or to Suffer and under an Incurable Ielousie of our Governours and our Friends that they meant to Betray us and to bring All These Evils upon us And so for Frights and Alarums Our Danger was to come from All Quarters of the Heavens College Searches the Cellars in the Palace-Yard for fear of Gunpowder There was the Black-Heath Army The Purbeck-Invasion the City-Guards to be Doubled Shaftsbury and Tonge to be Murder'd as Godfrey was And what did they say for All This now Why the Pulpits are Wise and They tell of Squibbs and Fire-Balls to make Sport for the Philistins Such a Lord sat up all night with his Pistols and Blunderbusses about him for fear of a Rising The House knew what they Did when they Voted the Guards to be a Grievance and the Militia to be Rais'd at a Days Warning What Peace of Minde could there Be or rather What Horror of Thought did not they Endure that liv'd under the Continual Agony of These Terrours Neither were we one jot more at Ease in the Matter of Religion for they Bely'd the very Religion that they pretended to and the Practices of the Faction ran directly Counter to All the Precepts of the Gospel Treachery was call'd Truth and Faith. Slander was only Liberty of Speech Perjury was Hallow'd by the Lips and Credit of a Kings-Evidence Forgery if Detected was but a Mistake Rebellion a True Protestant Association A Shamm-Narrative pass'd for the Discovery of a Damnable Hellish Popish Plot and the People were Stirr d-up and Instructed to Hate and Persecute the
from Edward the Sixth or Henry the Eighth rather then from Cuneus or Habernfeld But Tong talks of Habernfelds Plot as if it were to serve to the end of the World like a Perpetual Almanack The Son says Tong after Cuneus was to follow the Fate of his Father Why did they not Dispatch him then in his Exile when they had him in their Power Why did they put it off so long after his Return How came This Malicious Determination to Sleep all this while Or where did it Rest The Most in fine that can be made on 't is that Tong might perchance Imagine a Plot and That Plot to be Everlasting too where in Truth there was None at all and a man may lye under a Mistake without Incurring the Scandal of an Impostor To which This is my Answer that I lay no Stress upon bare Likelihoods Possibilitieâ— or Peradventures But I shall Prove from his own Pen and Practice that he Meditated an Imposture from the Beginning and Assisted it with all his Might But why the History of Habernfelds Plot of Forty in the Year Seaventy Two Saving only to Frame a New Plot by it that should Answer the Features of the Old One At this rate he Made the Plot that he Pretended only to Divine or Foresee And instead of Tracing Habernfelds Plot down to Otes'es he Carry'd-up Otes'es Narrative to sit for the Picture of Habernfelds He did in short like your Prophetical Incendiaries That First Foretell Fires and then Kindle them It is well known among the Parishoners of St. Mary Staynings London that for some Years before the Alarum of the Pretended Popish Plot Tong was perpetually Calculating what Wonderfull Things they should soon See Hear from the Papists Insomuch that an Enformation of August 1681. was Deliver'd upon That Subject to Sr Leoline Ienkins in these Following Words These are to Certify whom it may Concern That the Parties Subscribed do Acknowledge and Declare that Dr Otes and Dr Tong were very well acquainted together in our Parish of St. Mary-Staynings London before Dr Otes went to St. Omers and afterward And further we do declare that we have heard Dr Tong say at a Publique Table to several of our Neighbours that if any Person or Persons would turn to the Roman Religion the said Dr Tonge would have them to a Place where the Persons so Turn'd should receive Fourteen shillings a Week or Words to the same Purpose which he said would be Paid without Loss of Time or Hindrance of Bus'ness Aâ—g 26. 1â—8â— Christopher Kemble Iames Morton It was well enough Judg'd of Tong that the Dread of Popery in Vision was the ready way to Introduce the Belief of a Popish Plot in Fact and that the Presage would Naturally Usher-in the Imposture He took his Text still out of Habernfeld made a New Narrative of an Old One Cut it out into Articles Got them Home Sworn which he calls making a Record of them and so brought his Own Predictions to Pass That this was his Aim Prospect and Intent no Mortal will be able to Doubt that takes â—long with him the Circumstances and the Manage of That Affair He had Otes all this while in his Eye and at his Elbow and Command So that he was his Tool his Witness and his Pensioner All in One A Fellow that had neither Brains Mony Friends Credit nor Conscience but a Shameless Hardness of Heart and Forehead to Qualify him for a Confident to This Execrable and Diabolical Secret. Tong 's Offer of Fourteen Shillings a Week to any man that should turn Papist was only a more Artificial way of Fishing for Witnesses For He that would go over or Pretend to go over for Fourteen Shillings would probably come back again for Four and Twenty This was the Course he took afterward with Otes And so the Project Advanc'd from Step to Step as Naturally as One Point of a Line runs into Another 'T is True that he Cross'd Shins a little with himself in First Frighting People with the Fear of Popery and Then playing the Part of a Popish Agent for the Promoting of it but he wanted Merâ—enaries to Assiâ—â— him in his Design and This was his way of Angling to Hook them In. Briefly Tong 's Heart was set upon a Plot and for want of Invention to Make a New one he Contents himself with the Counterfeit of an Old one He sets it afoot Otes Kisses the Book upon 't Collateral Evidences are Ferreted out and so soon as ever the Brat was in Condition to endure the Air who but Tong to lay it at the Door of St Stephens Chappel where he knew it would never want Fathers to Own it And from That time it was Adopted in Common Fame the Parliaments Plot and to follow the Allegory it was put out to the Kingdom to see it Nurs'd and Brought-up at the Charge of the Publique So soon as ever Dr. Tong found that his Neighbours were not to be Caught with That Bait he bethought himself of a Surer Chard yet nearer hand to Trust to Meaning Titus Otes But before I proceed to the Merits of the Cause and to Consider how far Ioyntly and Severally they were Both Concern'd in the Manage of That Intrigue it will do well to enquire First where Otes Was at That time And 2 ly How Tong and He came to be Acquainted The Dr. in One of his Papers has These Words Mr Otes says he had Hired a Lodging in the Barbican near Sr Richard Barker's House the more conveniently to Discourse with the Dr about their Common Purposâ— Which Common Purpose was no Other then an Agreement of Confederacy in the Common Cheat. The Occasion of their First Acquaintance was This. Sr Richard Barker Presented Otes'es Father to a Church in Hastings This brought Titus Otes to Sr Richards and There it was that Tong came first acquainted with him and shew'd him several Treatises that he had fitted for the Press This I have under Tong 's Own Hand in a Paper Entitled a Narrative Preface The same Paper says likewise that in 1675. Sr R. B. took the Dr into his House where he Continu'd 'till Mr Otes Returned from St. Omers in July 1678. And now we have Brought them together it will do well to see a little what they Did together and how they Concerted their Matters from One Imposture to Another The Preface above-mentioned says that the Dr shewed to Mr Otes then dessrous of Employment several Treatises in pursuance of the Advice he had taken with the Reverend Dr Beale c. And he says in Another Paper That his Royal Martyr was if not the Only nor Chief yet not the Least Incentive to Otes'es Adventure among the Jesuits He says again that the Jesuits had kept Otes so Close during his Abode in London in Attendance on Their Consultations in the Months of April and May that he by Providence only found Testimony of his being here and did
the Tuesday and his leading her to Church after the Corps and Declares That he went with the Godfreys to her House on the Sunday He acknowledges his telling Mrs. Pamphlin on Sunday Morning that Sir Edmund was gone Abroad Two Hours before she enquired for him and for the Reason of it he gives the Command of Secrecy Enjoyn'd him by Mr. Godfrey In short the Great Secrecy that he was all along obliged to by the Godfreys for which we could not get any Reason from him when we told him how much it had been the Interest of his Masters Brothers and all his Friends if they had suspected he had been Murther'd by any Person to have made the same Publique and obtained my L. C. Justice's Warrant to have searched all Places that they had suspected for him together with the Evasive Answers he gave us shews a Practice c. Dr. Nalson Writes thus He is a Cunning old Fellow as ever I saw and what you have is Extorted from him by a Thousand Cross Questions for we were upon him Five or Six Hours It is the Greatest Riddle as I told him that as he Averrs only He Himself and the Two Godfreys should know of Sir E. G's Absenting till the Tuesday and yet the Saturday Post sent it all over England that the Papists had Murther'd him or at least that there was such a Fear This Cavil about the Saturdays Post I have cleared over and over where the Subject led me to That Point And so I have the Other Pretence of the Worlds taking no Notice of Sir E's Absenting Himself till Tuesday for they went from place to place Enquiring after him to my Lady Prats to Captain Gibbons they told Parsons and Mason as much before and most of the Enformations Dated from the very day of his Absenting himself it being All over the Town upon the Sunday What was become of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey He went out Yesterday Morning and did not come home Last Night The First Thing Necessary was to Learn out the Truth of the Fact and the Next Thing in question was the Practice of the Instruments and Managers of These Plot-Matters and Principally how they dealt with their Pris'ners by the Force of Money Cruelty False-Witnesses Sham-Accusations Menaces Flatteries the Fear of Death or the Hope of Life And in fine by All the ways Imaginable of Hitting the Blind side of the Men they had to do withal 'T is no News at This time of Day what Arts Sollicitations were us'd to Carry people off and on according to the Biass of Those Times when the True Interpretation of Confess the Truth or you shall certainly be Hang'd was Forswear yourself and be Damn'd Now the Stories of This way of Tampering were so Rife while This Bus'ness of the Plot was in Agitation that His Majesty was pleas'd to Grant Another Order of Enquiry into any thing of This Kind that pass'd in the Prisons which I did accordingly And the Order runs in the Terms Following Whitehall Octob. 6. 1684. WHereas his Majesty hath lately received several Enformations concerning the Manage of Edward Fits-Harris and Miles Prance and several other Persons while they were Prisoners in Newgate the Gate-House and Elsewhere It is his Majesties Pleasure that you make a particular Enquiry by the Means of Captain Richardson Mr. Church and others into the Matters aforesaid concerning the Practices of Those that came to them and had to do with them by any unlawful and Unwarrantable Ways And you aro likewise hereby Authorized and Empower'd to assure the said Keepers or Others by them Employed of his Majesties particular Grace and Favour even in case of their own Failings or Misdemeanours upon a full and a clear Declaration of the Truth in or concerning this Affair And hereof you are forthwith to make a Report To Roger L'Estrange Esq It was a Great Advance that was made into the Cause of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and the Proceedings against Otes were by This time brought to the very Day of Issue when God Almighty took to Himself our Late Gracious and Blessed Soveraign which put a short Stop to the Prosecution both of the One and of the Other But however the Prosecution was Reviv'd and upon the 8th and 9th Days of May 1685. Otes was Convict at the Kings-Bench-Bar upon Two Indictments for Wilful Malicious and Corrupt Perjury and Miles Prance was also Convict of Perjury in the Case of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and Mr. Vernatti May 4. 1686. So that now there was a Fair Place left for a General Review But I was Concern'd however to secure my self under the Warrant and Protection of a Further Authority for a Continuation of the Scrutiny which his PRESENT Majesty was Graciously pleased to Grant me in the Form following JAMES R. IT is Our Royal Will Pleasure and Command that immediately upon Sight hereof you make a strict and diligent Enquiry into such Matters and Things as you shall reasonably conceive may give some Light concerning the Death of the Late Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that you forthwith send for such Persons of Probity and good Repute as you shall know hear or understand to have been privy to any Circumstances relating to the said End And that you Examine every such Person upon Oath touching the same more especially the Keeper of Newgate and such of his Officers and People as had the Care of Miles Prance while he was there a Prisoner And likewise one Boyce a Glass-Eye-Maker and such others as you shall have cause to believe may be able to give any Material Enformation thereupon You are hereby Required and Authorized to proceed upon the Matters aforesaid without any Delay and to give us a particular Account of the whole Affair And for so doing this shall be your Warrant Given at our Court at Whitehall the 19th Day of February 1685 6. in the Second year of our Reign By His Majesties Command Sunderland P. To our Trusty and well-beloved Sir Roger L'Estrange Knight Over and above These Authorities I had likewise the View of the Parliament-Iournals the Councel-Papers and All Publique Depositions that might be helpful to me upon This Subject and Occasion to say nothing of all the Printed Tryals and Narratives that are Extant So that in short there wanted only True Copies of the Enformations before the Coroner to put me in possession of the whole Matter to which End I was further Enabled by This Following Order Robert Earl of Sunderland Baron Spencer of Wormleighton President of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council and Principal Secretary of State c. WHereas upon or about the 18th Day of October 1678. You by Your Precept summon'd a Iury to Enquire how Sir Edmundbury Godfrey late of the County of Middlesex Deceased came by his Death And whereas you did Execute the said Inquisition and several Witnesses were Produced and Examined before you on the Behalf of the King whose Enformations upon Oath in Writing are in your Custody or
were manag'd while Sir E. B. Godfrey was missing toward the finding out what was become of him p. 202. VIII When How Where and in what Manner the Body of Sir E. B. Godfrey was found and what pass'd till the Coroners Inquest sat upon the View of it p. 212. IX A Jury Summon'd to sit upon the Body of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and some Difficulty startâ—d about it p. 220. X. The Subject of the Debate and first of the Position of the Body as it lay in the Ditch p. 226. XI The Jury found Sir E. B. Godfrey to be Strangled and Not Kill'd with the Sword. The Surgeons were of the same Opinion and gave their Reasons for it p. 231. XII The Jurors Reasons for the Verdict they gave upon the View of Sir E. B. Godfrey's Body p. 242. XIII The Jury Adjourn'd the Debate for want of Evidence Quaere What Better Evidence they had the Next Day when they came to a Verdict then was produced the Day before p. 251. XIV Bloud or No Bloud was the Main Point in Issue though the Least Part of the Question either at the Inquest or at the Tryals p. 262. XV. The Enformations before the Coroner Examin'd and not onâ— word in them to the Point in Issue p. 274. XVI The Coroners Enformations Further Examin'd and not one Word in them of Bloud the Posture or any thing else material to the Question p. 285. XVII Notes upon the Mysterious Examination of Henry Moor Clark to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey p. 290. XVIII A very pertinent Evidence of Joseph Radcliffe's made worse thâ—n nothing p. 298. XIX The Opening of the Body had certainly Discover'd the Cause of Sir E. B. G's Death and it was Advis'd and Propounded by Doctors Friends and Surgeons but Rejected p. 312. XX. Mrs. Gibbon's Enformation compared with the Coroners Report and the Matter submitted to All Indiferent Men whether the Design throughout was to Discover the Truth or to Stifle it with an Appendix for a Conclusion p. 320. THE MYSTERY OF THE DEATH OF Sir E. B. Godfrey UNFOLDED PART I. CHAP. I. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey did certainly Dye a violent Death and William Bedloe and Miles Prance took upon them to Discover the Murtherers and the Murther THERE never was perhaps such a Mystery made of a Plain Case as we have had in the Bus'ness of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey That is to say Concerning the Manner of his Death The Time The Place The Occasion of it and by what Hands He Fell And All This only for want of Taking right Measures in the Tracing and Timing of Things For Whoever draws Inferences Hand-over-Head from Bold Allegations to Certainty of Fact or from Positive Oaths to the Truth of every Thing that is Sworn without Further Enquiry or Examination will find himself Mightily Mistaken upon the Subject here in Issue To do This as it should be done there must a Regard be had to the Order both of Time and of Connexion the Date the Series and the Succession of Things Apart with the Reasons and Countenances of Affairs as they stand in the Context It will Need but a very short Deduction to bring down the Course of This Story into the Proper Channel by laying open the Naked Fact of Sir E. B. G's Dying a Violent Death By shewing Who they were that took upon them to Detect the Murtherers and to Prove the Murther and how Godfrey's Name came Originally into the Story which as they pretended was the Occasion of his Death This is it that I propose for the Argument of my First Chapter and Thence to Proceed Step by Step and in a Natural Method from one Point to another The First Question will be Whether or No the Murther was Committed in Manner and Form as the Witnesses Swear it was at Somerset-house The Second Point will be This. In Case it shall appear that he was Not Murther'd at Somerset-house or by such Persons or by such Means or upon such a Grudge as Prance and Bedloe swear he was In what Place by what Instruments in what Way and by what Instigation Was he Murthered These Two Considerations shall be laid indifferently before the Reader in a Distribution of this Discourse respectively into Two Parts without Bespeaking One Partial Word or Thought upon the whole Matter As to the Two Witnesses that gave Testimony in This Cause they had no more Skill in the Merits of it then the Next Cast of Parrots in the Price of Almonds But there was an Intrigue of State driven on under the Cover of a Iesuitical Confederacy which render'd it Necessary at That Time to make the Papists as Odious as they could and to lay all Iudgments and Calamities as well Publique as Private at their Door As among others This Unhappy Miscarriage of Sir E. B. Godfrey for One So that we are to Consult the Popish Plot for the Popish Murther The Latter being made so Essential a Part of the Former that there 's No Disbelieving the One without Ridiculing the Other But how These Two came to be Incorporated into One Interest and Design will Deserve a Place by is self Dr. Tong was hardly ever without a Plot in his Head and a Pen in his Hand The One Bred the Maggots and the Other Vented them As his Royal Martyr for Example His Iesuits Assassins and other Writings of his under the Title of Cases or Narratives which Narratives were Transform'd with One Breath of Otes's into Damnable Conspiracies Now Narrative in those Days was only a Modish Name for a Romantique Forgery This was the Rise of the Doctor 's Popish Plot He took the Idea of it from Habernfeld Sent Otes among the Iesuits for Hints and Materials and so away Trudges he to Valladolid and after that to St. Omers where he stays a while and then comes back again to his Principal Charg'd with Minutes of Names Times Places Customs c. Tong Pounds them into One Confection and according to the Text Exod. Ch. 32. ver 24. There came out this Calf The Project being now form'd and Distributed into Articles Tong presented a Copy of them in a Narrative to his Late Majesty upon the Thirteenth of August 1678. Plying the King with Fresh Informations and further Importunities till toward the End of September following but instead of gaining Credit by the Pretence of Additional Confirmations and Discoveries His Majesty came by Degrees to be Fully possest in the Conclusion That the whole Train of the History was no better then a Down-right Imposture The King's Hardness of Belief was quickly smoak'd by the Plot-master and his Advisers Insomuch that though they could not Totally take the Matter out of His Majesties Hand They did what they could yet by a Side-Wind to Transfer the Cause from the Privy-Council to the Parliament where they made themselves sure before-hand of a Majority to bid it Welcom In Order hereunto Sir E. B. Godfrey was Earnestly pressed and with much Difficulty prevail'd upon Sept. 6. 1678. to
and Five Pounds of Bedloe As to those I swore against about the Plot If I may take the Names as they lye in the Narrative I Accus'd one of the Townleys of Townley in Lancashire with saying That when his Brothers who were then at Doway came back from Flanders they expected to receive Commissions from the Lord Bellassis and other Catholick Lords concern'd for the raising of Men to carry on the Catholique Cause and that I had heard Adamson a Watch-maker several Times speak of this at the Club in Veer-street I do declare in the Presence of God Almighty that the Accusation is false in every Point of it both concerning Mr. Townley and Mr. Adamson See Narrative fol. 3. I do declare likewise That I was no otherwise put upon it then by a Paper that was brought to me in the Condemn'd Hole and by the Menaces of Hanging me if I did not confess more and more saying Hang him Rogue He thinks This shall save him I Accus'd Mr. Keightly also when the Earl of Shaftsbury c. was in the Tower with Rejoicing at their Imprisonment and the Differences amongst the Lords and if the Duke of York did but follow the Bus'ness close they doubted not but the Catholique Religion would be quickly settled fol. 3. I declare with the same Solemnity as aforesaid I never knew nor heard that Mr. Keightly said any such Words This Accusation was drawn up by Mr. B. from General Heads that I gave him and one drew up the Narrative wherein they both went further then I directed They did as the rest did If I spoke a Word they made Ten on 't I accus'd Mr. Singleton a Priest for saying He hoped to be settled in a Parish Church within a Twelvemonth and that he would make no more to stab Forty Parliament-men then he would do to eat his Dinner fol. 4. which Accusation I do declare to be utterly false and of my own Framing And so likewise was that of Mr. Ridley's saying that He hoped to be Surgeon to the Catholique Army in England and that he hoped to have the Lord Bellassis to Friend Ibid. My Accusation of Mr. Paston for saying That the King was a great Heretick but the Lord Bellassis Arundel Powis and Petres would have a gallant Army for Deposing the King and that they had already given out Commissions to divers Gentlemen as Sir Henry Beddingfield Mr. Talbot and Mr. Stoner as was suggested to me by my first Paper of Instructions but made much more in drawing up the Enformation and Narrative My Charge fol. 5. against Ireland for saying â—n the Presence of Fenwick and Grove That there would be shortly Fifty Thousand Men in Arms and Fenwick saying thereupon That they should be commanded by the Lords Bellassis Arundel Powis and Others is False in every part of it ond so is the following Article of Grove's saying That the Lords Bellassis Arundel Powis and Petres was to Command this intended Army and had Commissions for that Purpose I took Hints toward these Accusations from my first Paper of Instructions and they that drew up the Enformations made the rest I did falsely Accuse Le Phaire also for a Disscourse about the Catholiques Providing Weapons fol. 6. and likewise Mr. Moor. Ibid. for speaking of Ten Thousand Horse to be shortly rais'd for the Catholique Cause It was all false likewise and of my own Contrivance My Charge against Mr. Messenger ibid. for Boasting that the Heretiques would e're long be rooted out was false and my own too And in like manner that of Lawrence's speaking These Words I wish with all my Heart that half the Parliament were poyson'd for they will ruine us all which is utterly False and out of my own Head and so was my Accusation of my Lord Arundel's Butler for saying That Mr. Messenger was to have a vast Reward to kill the King fol. 7. And so was my Charge likewise upon Mr. Grove a Schoolmaster For being privy to the Levy of Fifty Thousand Men which were suddenly to be Raised fol. 8. I shall now speak to the Pretended Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey wherein I Charg'd Gerald Kelley Green Berry Hill Lewson and Vernatti to be either Actors or Confederates I do declare for my part I know nothing of such a Confederacy neither do I believe there was any such but that the whole Pretence of the Murther as well for the Persons as for the Place was all False The Particulars above Written are All True as I hope for Salvation And Begging your Worships Pardon for This Presumption I Rest Your most Humble and Obedient Servant Miles Prance Princes-street Ian. 17. 1677 8. CHAP. XIII The Relation of Godfrey's Murther as it stands in the Narratives and Tryals is one of the most Vnlikely Stories to be True that ever was made Publique and Believed THe Body was found in the Ditch Cary'd Thence to the White House And so they Proceeded upon it to a View and to a Verdict This was in few Words the Ground-Work of the History They began Effectually at the Wrong End and by an Inverted Way of Reasoning instead of Drawing Conclusions from Premises Their Bus'ness was Subsequently to Frame and Accommodate Premises to a Fore-laid Conclusion This Unhappy Gentleman was in Truth Miserably Haunted with an Hereditary and a Fore-boding Melancholy and it was the Manage of that Season to Improve Every Fit of the Spleen into a Popish Dagger at the Heart of him Insomuch that he was said to be Murther'd by the Papists as in Due Time and Place shall be made appear even while he was yet Alive Nay betwixt the Saturday when he went away and the Thursday Night Following when he was found it was in Every Bodies Mouth that the Papists had Kill'd Sir Edmundbury Godfrey The Resolution being already taken to make a Popish Murther on 't and so to make a Popish Conspiracy the Root of This Popish Murther Never was any thing more Ridiculously Order'd from One End of the Series to the Other First for the Place in General it was the Queens Palace and then in Particular where the Execution was done Prance's Evidence says it was by the Stables Bedloe swears it was by Shoving him out of the Vpper Court. But whether the One way or the Other it was in a Quarter so Publique that what with the Guards The Concourse of People The Grooms Watermen Passengers The Lights and the Windows thereabouts there might any Bussle have been seen or heard from Forty several Places and upon the Least Out-cry either at the One Place or the Other Sir Edmund had Infallibly been Rescu'd and the Assassin taken Beside that it was now but between Five and Six by Bedloe's Account and Nine a Clock at most by Prance's a Time when People were every where up and stirring and the Porters Window over the Water-Gate look'd directly All this While upon the Place where the Fact was said to be Committed And then the Dogging of him at the
the Book of Judges in the Case of a Murther too though of Another Nature Iudg. 19.30 The People said there was No such Deed Done Nor seen from the Day that the Children of Israel came out of Egypt And I may say There was Never such a Barbarous Murther Committed in England since the People of England were freed from the Yoke of the Pope's Tyranny And as 't is said There so say I Now Consider of it Take Advice and speak your Minds Ibid. A Man should have been very sure of his Point before he Lash'd out into so Bold a Figure for here is Scripture call'd into his Aid for the Illustrating of a Forgery Here 's One Notorious Murther in the False Witnesses That is Supported under the Colour of Arraigning Another And here 's the Actual the Treasonous and the Sacrilegious Murther of a Pious a Gracious and a Merciful King set in Ballance with the Fictitious Murther of a Malancholique Iustice and found Light upon the Comparison But be it as it will here 's Case against Case And so long as I have the Authority and Opinion of Sir William Iones on my Side as to the Legal Competency of Circumstantial and Presumptive Evidences I 'le make no Difficulty of casting my Reputation upon the Merits of the Cause Only a Word or Two by way of Preparatory that I may slide Naturally into my Bus'ness 'T is out of Doubt that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Dy'd a Violent Death but whether by Another Hand or by his Own is the Single Question Now One of the Two it must be though Which of them is not as yet Determin'd If by the Former there must have been some Notorious Grudge Quarrel or Controversie whereupon to ground so Mortal a Malice and Revenge If by the Latter 't is no New Thing for a Man that lyes under either the Load of a Hideous Melancholy or the Power of a Temptation that he has not Strength to Resist though otherwise of never so Fair a Life and Conversation to sink under the Horror of his own Thoughts and to Lay Violent Hands upon Himself Now how far any thing of This might appear in the Circumstances of his Temper and Condition is a Point that a Thinking Man would not on either hand wholly pass over without loooking both ways upon This Occasion First as to any Matter of Grudge Quarrel Controversie or Rancorous Animosity Private and Personal I cannot Learn that there has been any Thing of This either Observ'd Apprehended or Suggested Nor in Truth which was a wonderful Thing that any of his Family were ever so much as Examin'd to That Point But in a Word for want of a Personal Pretence they have turn'd it to the Spleen of a Party and Grafted the Murther into the Conspiracy However for Colour sake There were Two Reasons Assign'd The One Special and the Other General as the Inducements to This Barbarous Fact. The Former was the taking of Tong 's and Otes's Depositions which as I have it elsewhere would not have Signify'd a Single Hair of a Man's Head if Ten Thousand Lives had depended upon the Matter there Depos'd The Other Reason was as Groundless as the Former was Frivolous The Murther says the Kings Council was Committed upon a Gentleman and upon a Magistrate and I wish he had not Therefore been Murther'd because he was a Protestant Magistrate Greens Tryal fol. 7. And he was very Industrious in finding out the Principal Actors in this Plot. Ibid. This was the Song in all the Narratives Pamphlets and Tryals That the Papists Murther'd him and Principally for the Hatred he bore That Party Now This is so Notorious a Mistake that he Liv'd in a strict Confidence and Friendship with Divers Roman Catholiques of No mean Quality and Character He was so far from Promoting the Plot that he took it for a Cheat from the Beginning Gave his Royal Highness an Account of Otes's Depositions and so likewise to some Other Men of Honour of the Roman Communion upon the First Taking of them Nay he was so Tender of any Oppression That way that upon the bringing of one Mr. Burnet a Priest before him to be Examin'd and Proceeded against according to Law Sir Edmund made his Application to Dr. Godden then belonging to the Queen about him told him how it was and though at That Time a Stranger to him desir'd him to use what Means he could either by her Majesty or by a Secretary of State to Prevent his going to Prison and in the mean while he Himself would put the Bus'ness off as long as he could So that hitherto there appears neither Interest nor Provocation Private or Publique toward the taking away This Gentleman's Life but for want of a more Plausible Pretext there has been Objected over and over the Frequency of his Exclamations that he should be the First Martyr That he should be the first Man to suffer in the Cause and other various Readings upon Words of his to That Purpose according to the Rellish of the People's Fancy or Palate that Heard them Now this was an Expression that Carry'd the Best Countenance of a Favourable Insinuation of any that they made use of But there 's Nothing said in all these Fore-bodings from what Quarter it was that the Danger Threaten'd him only he told Otes if Otes does not Bely him That he was in a great Fright and went in fear of his Life by the Popish Party Greens Tryal fol. 12. Wherein Otes's Sagacity supply'd a Dark Text to speak in his own fine way with an Elucidating Comment worth Twenty of the Alexandrian Version of the Septuagint that he presented the Iesuits with But why he should be affraid of his Known Friends and of Those that knew him to be Their Friend And why should he be Affraid of the Papists for fear of Spoiling Their Plot when he had Already so much as in Him lay Spoil'd Otes's Plot by Discovering the Roguery of it upon the first Instance Why I say the Papists should Murther Sir Edmundbury Godfrey contrary to all the Rules of Morality Humanity Gratitude Iustice and Common Prudence and do All This to No Manner of Purpose too is a Mystery wholly Vnaccountable We shall speak to his Exclamations by and by But First to his Melancholy and Then Leave the World to Iudge whether These Ejaculatory Starts and Apprehensions took their Rise from Splenetick Vapours or from any Reasonable Fears In the Handling of This Subject I shall Range what I have to say under These Following Heads and Assign to every Head a Chapter by it self for the avoiding of either Prolixity or Confusion First What Humour was Sir E. B. Godfrey observ'd to be in upon the Morning and Day when he last left his House 2 ly What Notice was taken of Sir E. B. Godfrey 's Melancholy before he left his House And what Opinion or Apprehension had People of it 3 ly What Opinion or Apprehension had Sir E. B. Godfrey
Twelve or One And Great Vse was made of that Evidence to Induce a Verdict that he was Strangled for they Inferr'd that he was Not Kill'd in the Ditch because he was come back again Now that Inference would have held as good and consequently that Verdict in the Case of Mason who undoubtedly told the Jury the Story of his Coming back again before they Adjourn'd So that they got not one Grain of Intelligence to This Purpose at the Rose and Crown more then they had before at the White-House But to return to the Clerk again Moor took Notice of his Masters Great Discontent and Disorder in his Own VVords after the taking of Otes's Enformations He could not be Ignorant of the Freak of his Burning so many Papers upon Friday Night as he made express remarks upon his Distracted Starts Lookâ— Actions and Gestures That Last Saturday Morning He told Iudith Pamphlin one of the Family that he was affraid he was Murther'd His Wife Exclaiming O that ever it should be said that such a Man as Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Murther'd himself Pamphlin raving at the same rate and telling Captain Gibbon his Lady and his Daughters over and over that Moor knew a great deal and if Moor were examin'd he could say much He Declar'd it himself that he had been to Search for his Master and within a Few Rods too of the Place where the Body was found And he Deliver'd the same thing upon Oath before Two of his Majesties Iustices for the Isle of Ely It cannot be Imagin'd that the Brothers all this while were Strangers to these Circumstances Especially considering the Part they had in the Manage of the whole Transaction Upon the Monday after his going away they went to Mrs. Gibbons to enquire for him and upon her Relation of Sir Edmund's Wild Behaviour the Last time she saw him they both brake out into Violent Exclaymings Lord What will become of us Upon Sunday Morning Early Moor went to the House of Mr. Michael Godfrey and told him that his Master did not come home last Night God have Mercy upon as says the Brother Pray God we hear Good News of him And Enjoyn'd Moor not to tell any Creature of his Absence till he Himself or his Brothers should come to him in the Afternoon They came accordingly and Agreed to enquire every where after him but all under the Seal of Secrecy still And so he was to keep it close 'till Monday Morning and Then till Night and so 'till Tuesday Morning 'till the Brothers should have been with my Lord Chancellor and upon Tuesday Night they Divulg'd it at a Funeral These Repeated Injunctions of Secrecy would puzzle the Mayor of Quinborough and his Brethren to find a current Reason for They do as good as Cry Seek but do not Find And why Again Say nothing till we have been with my Lord Chancellor The Caution in Truth might be Prudential enough in case of his Laying Violent Hands upon himself but supposing him to be Murther'd by a Malicious Practice or by Assassins it would have been a Point of Publique Duty to Honour and Iustice and an Office of Humanity Natural Affection and Respect to the Defunct Immediately to have spread the Story of it as far as the Post and Common Fame could carry it But there 's Another Passage yet behind to the same Point that makes the Bus'ness still more and more Suspicious Mr. Wheeler Deposeth That on Wednesday October 16. 1678. being in Company with one Mr. Parsons Mr. Monk and others he asked Parsons What Discourse he had with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey in St. Martins Lane upon Saturday Last Parsons 'T is no matter Wheeler What a Justice Lost and You the Last Man in his Company and not declare what Discourse you had Parsons Let Mr. Monk tell To which Mr. Monk said What have I to do to tell your Discourse And thereupon this Enformant said to Mr. Parsons If you will not do it here you shall do it somewhere else And then Mr. Parsons said That Sir Edmund asked him three times whereabout Paddington Woods were And that he himself asked Sir Edmund if he were buying a Parcel of Land To which Sir Edmund replyed No. This Enformant asked the said Parsons What other Discourse Pass'd Who Answered him None For Sir Edmund was sparing in his Speech This Enformant putting it further to the said Parsons Why he was so Loth to tell the Discourse Parsons made Answer because Sir Edmund 's Clark Desired him to say Nothing on 't Upon the Whole matter The Brothers Ty'd up Moor to Secrecy and Moor Ty'd up Parsons and there appears No other Reason in Sight either for the one or for the other then a Desire to keep it Private which sounds just as much as an Vnwillingness to have it known what was become of him only the Brothers took care that he should not be Miss'd at Home and the Clark that he should not be found abroad for his Question to Parsons was the only Light they had so Early which way to Enquire after him and Moor took the Hint upon 't After All This said and Prov'd 't is not for Any Man to Doubt either that Moor Knew or was likely to know as much of This Private History as any Man Or of the Brothers knowing as much as Moor Could Tell them And This being taken for Granted a Man Methinks might Fancy such Interrogatories to be put to Moor as might Reasonably open the Way to a Discovery As for Example now Directing the Discourse To the Clerk. Here 's the Body of your Dead Master now upon the Table before us And the Question is How he came by his Death You have been Constantly near about him and in his Business Did You Observe Any Quarrel he had or Any Desperate Discontent upon him and for what Cause or Reason Have You Observ'd him to be more out of Humour of Late then he was formerly And Since what Time and upon what Occasion Your Master went away from his House upon Saturday Morning Last How was he the Day before Did You observe any Bussle of People more then Ordinary about him How did You find him the Morning that he went away Did You Gather Any thing from his Looks VVords or Actions to give you an Ill-Boding of him Mr. Parsons it seems Spake with him in St. Martins-Lane That Saturday Morning and Sir Edmund asked him the way to Paddington-woods And Mr. Parsons told You of it they say VVhâ—n did he tell you This And VVhat Did he tell you of it Did any body Else tell you of it before And VVhat did they tell You And what did You Do upon their Telling it Now we have reason to Believe that he went his Way to the Place that he Enquir'd for because Mr. Collins here one of the Iurors Saw him afterward talking with a Milk-woman thereabouts And here 's Another of the Inquest Mr. Mason that Saw him after This too going Back again And
and in Probability could have said more to the Purpose then All the Rest. We have had Ill Luck hitherto with these Enformations for they run all the same way All Suppressions and Misunderstandings are still in Favour of the same side But it is One Thing not to Emprove the Means of finding a Truth and Another Thing to Stifle or to Oppose Those Means As for Instance now in the Next Chapter CHAP. XIX The Opening of the Body had certainly Discover'd the Cause of Sir E. B. G.'s Death And it was Advis'd and Propounded by Doctors Friends and Surgeons but Rejected THE Allyance that was by this time Contracted betwixt the Pretended Murther and the Pretended Plot had made the Credit of the Story so Sacred that there was No Touching of the One without giving a Box o' th' Ear to the Other and consequently no Longer any Way or Hope left of Arriving at the Truth but by breaking in upon Principalities and Powers Under the Awe of This Influence it was that Evidences were Shorten'd or Stretch'd or Smother'd or Baffled in favour of the Imposture and No Relief in the Case but that of a Dutch Appeal from mine Host in the Inn to Mijn Heer upon the Bench where he does Himself Right in the Quality of both a Iudge and a Party in the same Person There will be the less Need of Amplifying in this Place upon Particular Instances of Persons Practices and Methods in Regard that I have already spent one Whole Chapter at Large upon This Subject Part. I. Cap. 10. But there was one Passage upon This Occasion that must not be either Omitted or Forgotten There was one General Rule to Walk by which was to make every Man a Papist that Cross'd the Designs of the Then Prevailing Faction and after the Fastning of That Brand upon him it was but the Lip-Labour of Kissing a Book to Swear him into a Traytor for they Manag'd their Treasons as Dyers do their Colours that first lay on one to make the Stuff take t' other This was the Snare that was set for Mr. Richard Wheeler a Man of Sense Credit and Estate but he was too Nimble for 'em and so they snapt Short. The Relation of it will be best in his own Words Richard Wheeler Deposeth That on Friday Morning October 18. the Day after Sir Edmund's Body was found Mr. Cowper having been as this Enformant heard to see the Body came into the Exchange and told how Sir Edmund was Wheedled out and Murther'd in such a Place For that Mr. Collins the Brewer had met him in Marybone-Fields Hereupon this Enformant Declaring what Cowper had said and What He Himself had Observ'd That upon the Monday Morning this Enformant going to his Shop one Mr. Templer said to this Enformant There are Rods in Piss for you To which this Enformant replyed For what Saying he had done no Man any Wrong The said Mr. Templer replying Sir Edmunds Brothers have been here to enquire what Religion you are of Vpon which this Enformant came into the Exchange and met Mr. Cowper telling him what Mr. Templer had said and saying that he the said Cowper must Clear himself For he this Enformant had Witnesses enough to prove what he had said Whereupon Cowper asked this Enforformant what he should do To which this Enformant asked him Do you know who told you so Cowper said Yes I do Why then said this Enformant I 'le go along with you to him being told it was an Ale-house-Keeper in So-ho So this Enformant and Mr. Cowper went to the said Ale-house-Keeper where this Enformant took Occasion to say that they were going to see the Place where Sir Edmund's Body Lay to which the Ale-house-keeper said That Sir Edmund was wheedled out and Murther'd for Mr. Collins said That he met Sir Edmund that Saturday in Mary-bone Fields Whereupon This Enformant Mr. Cowper and the Ale-house Keeper went All Three to Mr. Collins and found him at Home who told them that he did meet with him as aforesaid Talking with a Milk-woman And that he said Good Morrow Sir Edmund who reply'd Good Morrow Mr. Collins This Enformant then asked Mr. Collins being One of the Coroner's Inquest how he came to Find him Murther'd To which He reply'd that Mr. Radcliffe and his Servant and his next Neighbour's Servant swore him to be at Radcliff's Door at One of the Clock upon the Saturday This Enformant did then ask the said Collins Whether or No he Summon'd the Milk-woman who told him No. How should they find her This Enformant Objecting it to him that for a Crown or such a Matter he might have found her out This was according to the Scheme of the Politiques of That Season Will Wheeler be medling with Our Primrose-hill Matters What Religion is he of This is only Demurring to My Clyents Beard as a Lawyer of Famous Memory has it and not one Hair to the Matter in Question Had they been but Half as Inquisitive after Collin's Milkwoman as they were about Mr. Wheeler's Religion it would have been much more to Common Satisfaction But every thing was Distorted and Emprov'd if it may be said so the Wrong Way The Advice of Surgeons was not only Reasonable but Necessary in a Matter where there fell so many Important Circumstances under their Peculiar Cognizance But the Removal of the Body and the Drawing the Sword out had so Confounded the Signs and Accidents they were to have form'd a Iudgment upon that there was scarce Room for any more then the Bare Conjectural Suspicion of a Possible Strangulation But now as the Surgeons Opinion was taken upon the Main as to the Probable Cause of his Death it would have been Well if Those that had the Care and Power of the Body after the Verdict had found it as reasonable to Comply with the Council and Importunity of Friends as well as of Men of Art toward as Certain a Discovery of the Truth of the Matter as if they had been Eye-Witnesses of the Execution The Opening of the Body is the Expedient that I speak of which as I am Credibly Enform'd was Mov'd and Insisted upon by some of the Inquest upon the Debate however it come to be Carry'd in the Negative There was the King's Life the Peace of his Dominions An Imperial Monarchy The Prerogative of the Royal Family Religion Liberty and Property all in a Great Measure at stake upon the Issue of This Question Now it must be some Consideration of Mighty Weight sure some Greater Good on the One side then the Preservation of All These Sacred Interests was Worth Or some Greater Evil on the other then the Embroyling and Confounding of them All that could with any Colour of Iustice or Reason stand in Competition with the Consequences of Denying This Request We saw how Near the Mistake of This Matter came to the Destroying of Three Kingdoms And All for want of Clearing This One Point And now to Ballance all These Hazards let