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A51831
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An exact and true narrative of the late popish intrigue, to form a plot, and then to cast the guilt and odium thereof upon the Protestants ... faithfully collected by Col. Roderick Mansell.
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Mansell, R. (Roderick)
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1680
(1680)
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Wing M514; ESTC R20941
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61,355
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84
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one Mrs. Webb's at Peterley with a Letter to one Mrs. Jean and when he came thither he finds this Mrs. Jean not a Woman but a Man nay a Priest who immediately upon reading the Letter made him Confess and Receive the Sacrament to be true to the whole cause and this Jeane made up the Papers for the Plot against the Presbyrians which Paper was only the ground of it and was to be drawn up by the Lords and Mr. Nevil as he told Mr. Dangerfield And afterwards Mr. Woods told me the Lords had consulted together that before Oates was Indicted there should a Rumour be spread abroad of a Plot amongst the Presbyterians and something of it made appear and that I may not be tedious in a matter so acknowledged he further deposes That one Dowdel came to him with 27 Letters to be transcribed most of them written by Mr. Nevils own hand That Mr. Turner the Lord Powis his Priest desired Mrs. Cellier to get some Catholicks to write out several Copies which he then had accordingly she sent for one Singe a School-master who wrote there a week more or less The Contents of as many of them as I can remember says he are as follows ' That their business here at London went on very well and hoped theirs did the same in the Country and Commissions would shortly be ready mentioning in some Letters many Noble Persons Names and that we will now be our own choosers in matters of Government and take our own pleasures with Popery ' Many or most of them Importing the same sense with those taken by the Custom-House Officers c. These were to be sent into all parts of the Kingdom where any Presbyterians Lived to be put into their Houses privately and then by some other Persons the House to be searcht and these Papers produced in Testimony against them This is the fact so it was and so they projected the matter and judg'd themselves very politick in the projection for how readily would the sparks of such a suggestion take with great Multitudes against the Presbyterians when their old animosity did yet smoother nor could the old grudge be quenched And though many rayled at the Presbyterians out of custom because they had contracted an evil habit of rayling and could not leave it others from Example swearing and rayling because their Companions whetted their already too keen inclinations others perhaps out of Ignorance who neither knew what a Presbyterian nor Presbytery was yet it was a Common Theme to rail on and therefore were the more ready at it yet the Designers had a further reach to weaken the Protestant Cause by rendring so many of them unserviceable to the Interest of England which by such scandalous reflexions they must needs be 4. Another step I would make is this However the vogue carried it for a Presbyterian Plot yet the inside was a Protestant plot which if my proper Province were to Reason out the matter might be easily demonstrated for the Church of England is an object more adaequate to Papal Covetousness and Envy then the Dissenters and their Friends can show what great temptation is there in the Skins of a few half-starved Non-Conformists when the Revenues of the Church of England and fair Estates of the Nobility and Gentry of that Communion were a morsel that might awaken the dullest appetite but the fact is that I must clear let it therefore be noted of All those Noble Persons that they had nominated for a Council of State to manage this War against the Government not above one could be with any tolerable propriety of speech called Presbyterian none being more worthy Personages nor any more really and zealously devoted to the true Interest of this Church The Duke of Monmouth whom they created General over this terrible Army the Lord Grey the Lord Gerrard and his Son who with Sir Thomas Armstrong were Commissioned for Leiutenant Generals were none of them ever suspected of Presbyterianisme and should I look over the Clubbs where the Meal Tubb Intelligence informs us that the Persons who were there employed as Writers and Messengers into the Country when occasion should require were all to be Field Officers yet amongst these I cannot pick out half a dozen Presbyterians and its harsh to denominate an Army that must overturn the Government of three Kingdoms from so inconsiderable a Number but of this there will be further evidence when we come to exemplifie the platform of this design as it was laid in the above-mentioned Papers 5. Having got this general Idaea of the Plot in their Heads which yet was not a peice of exact proportion but left to more mature Counsels to be polished It was time to think and pitch upon fit Instruments for the executing of it that is to make it stick to those persons whose forward Zeal against the late Popish design against His Majesties Person Government and the Protestant Religion had made must obnoxious to their Malice and revenge And herein they proceeded with much caution as became their wisdoms who knew well that many well laid designes such as promised great hopes of a good issue had miscarried through the insufficiency of those to whose Hands the management was committed Madam Cellier by Calling a Midwife whose Employ chiefly was with Catholick Ladies and Gentlewomen was very serviceable in delivering the Catholick Cause of this birth wherewith it had gone so long and was now in the pangs and throws of bringing forth This Gentlewoman by the means of one Mrs. White was brought to Mr. Danger field than a Prisoner in Newgate She there examined his capableness for business and because Instruments may be used but cannot be formed for a trial of his Abilities Let me see says she how you can draw up Articles against Captain Richardson Hereupon she gave him Instructions who performed the first Essay of his Art to her satisfaction and then told him She had something of greater moment for him to undertake but Mr. Dangerfield being then a Prisoner some Expedient must be used for his Enlargement that he might enter upon his charge and to this end she advises him to Complain to Mr. Recorder in whom she would make such an Interest by Alderman Jefferies as to get his Petition granted Then she employs one Mr. Williams a Sollicitor to Bail him out which yet could not be effected in less then three weeks however Madam Cellier sent her Maid Margret every day to supply his wants with mony to support his Spirits with good words such as administred hope and not long after he was bailed after that this charitable Person through whose hands much of the Romish benevolence passed had cleared the Fees and expenses of the Prison But he was no sooner discharg'd from Newgate but he vvas Arrested and thrown into the Counter This surpriz'd Mrs. Cellier yet she sends her trusty Maid Margaret to assure him that if he vvould forthvvith be at Liberty she vvould purchase it
it makes it the more plain that I could not proceed in such weighty Vndertakings as I have managed without considerable Counsel and Direction which is agreeable to what I have affirmed The Narrator's Conclusion to the whole Work READER THe Net must be cunningly cast that takes all the Fish in the River and this Narrative though it can modestly mention its own industry yet dares not presume that nothing has escaped its diligence but besides it might seem uncivil to leave nothing wherein the Pen of another might travel to reap the Fields so clean that there should be no gleaning for the Poor is Cruelty to leave no Clusters after the Vintage would be interpreted Covetousness and yet I dare avow that he that complains of Penury in this Collection will hardly furnish out his Table with a more plentiful Treat But because there are some particulars which might have been crowded in before yet not without Incoherence which I thought the Reader would grudge if he knew they had escaped him I was willing to adde a few Remarkables which I rather purposely reserved for this place than carelessly omitted in the body of the Discourse § 1. Then it deserves a special Remark that this Mr. Dangerfield who whilst he was a servant to an Instrument in the carrying on their grand Intrigue was a man of great parts amongst them a gallant Gentleman as soon as he begins to be honest to reflect upon those Mazes of Villany wherein by their seduction he had trodden now all of the sudden hears nothing from them but an infamous person one of no Credit whose Testimony must not pass for any thing Strange that he who was thought a credible Witness to have fastned a Paramount Treason upon so many Noble Protestant Lords and worthy Gentlemen should lose his Credibility when he comes to recriminate and cast the Guilt where it ought to lie upon a small number of Catholicks 'T is a singular happiness that our Papists have that their Agents are all honest whilst they do mischief and presently Villains when they discover it Thus they dealt with all those whom remorse and a timely reflexion upon their own evil ways wrought upon to discover the late Plot used their Agency abased their simplicity to execute their Projects and then decryed them for debaucht Criminals when they could serve themselves and their Cause no longer of them from whence we learn that there 's no Crime so great amongst them as Repentance I will here give the Reader the Minutes of the Examinations before His Majesty in Council Tuesday November 4. 1679. relating to this one Remark 1. The Lady Powis saith She hopes the Oath of an infamous person shall not bring her in danger for that no body of common sense would ever confide any thing of Importance to such a Creature as he A very ingenuous Reflection first to make him infamous by his Ghostly Fathers Indulgence to be drunk and then to plead his Infamy to cover their own but let Mr. Willoughby answer for himself who gave this smart Repartee to her Ladiship That he was not so inconsiderable in their Opinion but that they were willing to get him out of Prison at the charge of Sixty pound which in all places it cost him as may appear by his Book which was taken out of his Closet by Sir Will. Waller 2. Mrs. Cellier to whom Mr. Willoughby was such a Croney that they were hand and glove she that used to admire his excellent parts and rare dexterity in the manage of business yet now says She never caused Willoughby or any body else to put forth Pamphlets but that indeed he did make some and put them forth which were very inconsiderable things That Willoughby did once read to her two Pamphlets wherein was no matter of hurt but the things were foolish and mere Chimaera's Then she rails at and reviles Willoughby c. And yet this good Gentlewoman when she came to introduce Mr. Willoughby to the Right Honourable the E. of P. gave a high Character of him that he had much improved himself abroad in the service of the Prince of Orange and the Duke de Villa Hermosa 3. The Lord P. called in saith That he gave his Servants charge to admit Willoughby whenever he came and that he did call him Captain Willoughby yet his Lordship tells the Board he cannot but be troubled to have his name mentioned by so infamous a person as this was 4. Mr. Nevile alias Payne called into the Council on Friday Nov. 7. 1679 saith That Willoughby had writ him a kind of a Challenge which he rejected upon knowledge of his infamous life besides that he was grown in his behaviour proud and as high as a Prince That the Commerce between Mrs. Cellier and Willoughby was very scandalous that she was suspected to defrand the Charity which came through her hands which by the collection of all sorts of Catholicks was about 22 l. per week § 2. I must apologize for the Non-appearance of the so-much-celebrated List of Names fixed or endeavoured to be fixt upon the Lodgings of the Narrator in Ax-yard which I have many cogent Reasons to conceal 1. Lest it should tempt the worthy persons therein to study some revenge upon the Catholicks which being so inconsistent with Protestant Principles those gallant Gentlemen will satisfie themselves with their own Innocency and willingly want what might have awakened even a just Indignation 2. I know not how far such a List might provoke any person against my self and yet I must say thus much I could be content to be half hang'd to save the lives or the longings of such honourable persons 3. I have a Reason worth two of these I did not because I could not publish it all my industry and interest not having been able hitherto to procure it It was once in my Chamber it seems when I was willing to be honestly rid of it but now I wish it there it will not come and I profess I will forgive Mr. Dangerfield from the beginning of the world to this day if he will once more come and pin it at my beds-head and the Key shall lie under the door against he is at leisure § 3. One particular omitted in the Information of Mr. Dangerfield must here be retrieved The next day says he I went to Lord Castlemain who demanded Why I was so unwilling willing to do that for which I was taken out of the Prison and frown'd much on me and sent his man down and I fearing his fury laid my hand to my Sword and came down stairs he not approaching and went away and told Mrs. Cellier my Lord Castlemain was angry with me Oh said she 't is his custom to fall out one hour and be good friends the next Then she advised me to go to Confession and Receive which I did of Mr. Sharp and he having notice of my Refusal to my Lord Powis and Lord Arundel would scarce let me come from him but told me I must do Penance for denying to serve God in that which the Scriptures taught Then I demanded If they taught me to kill my King He answered Yes if he were condemned thereby But I got from him and was then about to have discovered all But coming home I found the Lady Powis with Mrs. Cellier and when she saw me sent for me in and laughed I said Madam it is not a laughing matter I Then she said Know you what I laugh at I answered I did Well well said she Mr. Willoughby will be honest and do us no harm I am sure Then I sat down and had some discourse and she said The Duke of York was coming and that would somewhat qualifie the Rage of the Presbyterians What these Romish Zealots will be at next time must discover and when time shall discover it I wish the Protestants may make a good improvement of their Mercies FINIS