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A66539
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The legacy of John Wilmer, citizen, and late merchant of London humbly offered to the lords and commons of England.
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Wilmer, John.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing W2884; ESTC R9494
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27,537
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38
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exposed my self to all the Rage and Malice of the Popish Party that they would never leave pursuing me until by one way or other they had my Blood or ruined or removed me out of the way the first God prevented the latter they effected SECT II. IN a short time after the rejection of the Bill of Exclusion by the Lords the second Westminster Parliament being dissolved another is summoned to meet at Oxford upon the twenty first of March 1680 1 but in the interval Discovery being made of a horrid Conspiracy to sham the World with a pretended Protestant Plot Fitz-Harris a Papist who had been employed at VVhitehall to carry on that cursed Intrigue being detected was committed to Newgate but that the Villany might not be pried into by the Magistrates of London he is soon catch'd away and removed to the Tower The Parliament being assembled at Oxford the Commons fall upon this matter and draw up an Impeachment against Fitz-Harris but to obstruct their Enquiry into the Case they are also dissolved having first passed a Vote declaring That for any Person to try Fitz-Harris his Case being before the Parliament he should be deemed and taken for a Betrayer of the Liberties of the Nation Nevertheless Sir Francis Pemberton is instantly made Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench and undertakes to try him I being then returned upon the Pannel for his Trial but it was remembred at Court that I had lately brought in a Bill of Indictment against the Duke of York I must therefore be kept off from this Jury and was excepted against by Mr. Attorney General Sir Robert Sawyer without any Reason shewn for it Fitz-Harris being tried condemned and executed to the unspeakable Joy of the Papists and their Adherents who above all things dreaded the Discovery which he might and would have made they were no way discouraged at the unlucky Miscarriage and Disappointment or rather Delay of the Resolution taken to turn the Popish into a Presbyterian Plot but were found to prosecute it with all imaginable Application Reflections on the second Section WHat were Mr. Attorney's Reasons upon the King's Account to except against me are best known to himself but I had a strong Presumption one chief Reason was that I had brought the aforesaid Bill of Indictment in against the Duke of York and therefore might be likely also to puzzle this great and mighty Affair of the Papists upon the Wheel to take Fitz-Harris out of the way either by urging and insisting upon the Vote of the Commons or by bringing in a special Verdict and so have thrown it wholly upon the Judges But I had a Writ of Ease from this Trouble and so a Jury of honest Men I verily believe was sworn and Fitz-Harris was convicted condemned and executed which occasioned great Rejoycings and Acclamations at Court that such a dangerous Conspiracy of theirs against the Parliament and Nation should be no farther discovered SECT III. THE Popish Plot being laid aside the Witnesses who came out of Ireland to prove the part thereof which had been carried on in that Kingdom were in order to the new Intrigue tampered withal and the Relief and Support which the King had allowed them was withdrawn hereupon some of them listed themselves in the Plot-Office at Whitehall and were well fed and clothed others of them apply'd themselves to several Citizens making woful Complaints of their distressed Condition whereupon my self amongst many others commiserating their Distress esteemed it my Duty to relieve them that had discovered a Plot against the Lives and Liberties of Protestants and frequently gave them Bread in their Necessity Thus for some time they continued in the City but every day looking blacker and darker without any prospect of a Parliament to defeat the bloody Designs of the Popish Conspirators these Wretches not being Temptation-proof and observing that their Brethren at the other end of the Town had better Quarters and Entertainment they were also hereby carried over and listed there These Men had often intimated to me what large Offers were made them if they would come over and swear for the King as it was termed and four of them viz. John and Denis Macknamar Brian Haines and Bernard Denis being listed and entred into present Pay they watched an Opportunity at a Tavern which I mostly dined at and inviting me to a Glass of Wine complemented me with many Expressions of Thankfulness for my Kindness to them assuring me that they should always retain a grateful Sense thereof After the drinking a Glass or two of Wine John Macknamar did further enlarge to this effect Sir you have been a kind Friend to us all and helped us with Meat Drink and Money when we were slighted and cast off by others and your Kindness to us shall never be forgotten therefore we could not part with you until we had expressed as much and to let you know further there is a Business will shortly come upon the Stage which will make thousands be amazed and their Hair stand an end They then bid me not be troubled nor afraid and swore not a Hair of my Head should be touched for they would stand between me and danger for old Kindness-sake John Macknamar farther added the Scene will begin with Stephen Colledg my Lord Shaftsbury and others He having thus expressed himself I thanked them all for their Respect but thought it not prudent to ask them any Questions and therefore took my Leave civilly of them Soon after Colledg and then the Earl of Shaftsbury were taken up and committed to the Tower for High-Treason whereby I was confirmed in the Belief of the Villany of these Irish Men. The Midsummer-Quarter-Sessions 1681 approaching great was the Expectation of the whole Kingdom what Proceedings there would be had against the Prisoners in the Tower Mr. Bethel and Mr. Cornish being then Sheriffs and they well-knowing that honest and able Juries were the great Fence and Bulwark to the Lives and Estates of all Men they took special Care to return such to serve at this Sessions as in truth they did upon all other Occasions insomuch that in the End of their Year the Lord-Chief-Baron Mountague gave them this Encomium openly in Court That in all the Verdicts of the several Juries in Causes tried before him he never saw more equal distributive Justice in his Life and that he did in every one of them in his own Judgment both in Law and Equity concur with them and thanked the Sheriffs for their Care Reflections on the third Section MY Lord Shaftsbury and Stephen Colledg called the Protestant-Joyner with others being in the Tower upon the black Imputation of High-Treason it filled the City and Nation with Discourse every one speaking and giving their Judgments as they stood affected some decrying them at a strange rate blackning them as much as they could others were more mild and looked upon it as a Sham-plot And farther note by the way at this time by the
under or in your Name whereby the King or this City might or may lose their Customs or Advantages Ye shall know no Foreigner to buy or sell any Merchandise with any other Foreigner within this City or Franchise thereof but ye shall warn the Chamberlain thereof or some Minister of the Chamber Ye shall implead or sue no Freeman out of this City whilst ye may have Right and Law in the same City Ye shall take no Apprentice but if he be free-born that is to say no Bondman's Son nor the Child of any Alien and for no less Term than for seven Years without Fraud or Deceit and within the first Year ye shall cause him to be enrolled or else pay such Fine as shall be reasonably imposed upon you for omitting the same and after his Term's End within convenient time being required ye shall make him free of this City if he have well and truly served you Ye shall also keep the King's Peace in your own Person ye shall know no Gatherings Conventicles nor Conspiracies made against the King's Peace but ye shall warn the Mayor thereof or let it to your Power All these Points and Articles ye shall well and truly keep according to the Laws and Customs of this City to your Power So God you help Here follows the Common-Council-man's Oath YE shall swear that ye shall be true to our Sovereign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and readily come when ye be summoned to the Common-Council of this City but if that you be reasonably excused And good and true Counsel ye shall give in all things touching the common Weal of this City after your Wit and Cunning. And that for favour of any Man ye shall maintain no singular Profit against the common Profit of this City And after that ye be come to the Common-Council ye shall not from thence depart till the Common-Council be ended without a reasonable Cause or else by the Mayor's Licence And also that all secret things that are spoken or said in the Common-Council the which ought to be kept secret ye shall in no wise disclose As God you help By which Oaths all Citizens may see how far they stand obliged to the Community to defend and preserve the Rights and Privileges granted to them if at any time they are invaded or infringed SECT IX THE Warrant against me was as follows Whereas several Informations upon Oath have been this Day read at the Board against John Wilmer of High-Treason by him committed in conspiring the Death of the King and endeavouring to depose his Majesty from his Imperial Crown and Dignity These are therefore in his Majesty's Name to will and require you to receive into your Custody the Body of the said John Wilmer for the High-Treason aforesaid and him safely to keep till he shall be delivered by due Course of Law And for so doing this shall be your Warrant Dated at Hampton-Court the 15th of August 1681. To Thomas Cheeke Esq Lieutenant of the Tower of London or his Deputy Signed Canterbury c. 14 in all Reflections on the ninth Section AS in Section the 8th I gave the Relation of the King's Rage against me that he would have my Blood or ruine me now here he begins first he makes his Secretary Jenkins by his Warrant break over the Rights and Privileges of London and fetch'd me out thence and now he makes the Lords of the Council leap over Hedg and Stile of all Law to send me to the Tower As I take it the Law of England is No Man shall be by Warrant or Mittimus sent to Goal until first the Accuser cometh face to face and maketh Oath Secondly The Criminal shall be sent to the County-Goal where the Fact is committed and not where the Justice or Privy-Counsellor pleaseth For the first here is no Accuser face to face nor to this day know I mine Accusers Secondly Mention is made of several Oaths read but never a word by whom made or before what Justice taken neither can I guess before what Justice they should be taken or by what Witnesses sworn unless they were taken by Mr. Justice Warcupp and sworn by our Dear-Joys for I knew he was conversant with them I believe old Pious Memory himself was ashamed of letting either Justice or Witnesses be publick to the World they were so scandalous My Warrant of Commitment was signed by thirteen more Lords of the Council whose Names I omit to publish as having that Charity for some of them it was their Ignorance and Fear that made them set their Hands and others of them I have hopes God will give them Grace to repent and make satisfaction for their Wrongs done me I am sure some of them may do it with the lifting up of a Finger if they have a Will to it I will engage let them serve half the Merchants upon the Exchange as they did me they will forbid their being Merchants again SECT X. UPon this Warrant I was detained in the Tower fifteen Weeks and odd Days and not allowed in all that time Pen Ink and Paper for the space of six Weeks I was denied the sight of any Friend and not so much as my Wife Children Servants Doctor or Apothecary permitted to come near me though I was languishing under a violent Ague and Fever My Wife petitioned all that time to be confined with me but could not obtain it till six Weeks being clapsed when she procured it and also Liberty for me to walk with my Warder in the Tower In the time of my Imprisonment several Stratagems were used to destroy me diligent Enquiry was made in most of the neighbouring Counties about London to find whether I had been in any of them to the end that they might pack me out of London and get me indicted and murdered as Colledg was at Oxford they endeavoured to suborn English Witnesses against me the Irish being become infamous they also took some into a Messenger's Custody and threatned that they themselves should be hanged if they would not swear against me Moreover they had it under consideration to cut my Throat in the Tower for Major Hawley in whose House the Earl of Essex's Throat was cut being enquired of what would be done with Wilmer he made answer He is a stubborn Rogue his Throat must be cut During the time of my Imprisonment my Petition was put in by Friends at two several Sessions at the Old-Baily praying to be tried or released but that would not avail so that I was detained till the last Day of Michaclmas Term 1681 when being brought by Habeas Corpus to the Court of King's-Bench I was set at Liberty upon 9000 l. Bail my self in 3000 l. and four Sureties in 6000 l. to appear the next Term and then appearing I was discharged Reflections on the tenth Section WAS not here a denying and delaying of Justice and an absolute Breach of Magna Charta What shall I say All Designs of