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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34573	Stafford's memoires, or, A brief and impartial account of the birth and quality, imprisonment, tryal, principles, declaration, comportment, devotion, last speech, and final end, of William, late lord viscount Stafford, beheaded upon Tower-hill on Wednesday the 29. of December 1681 hereunto is also annexed a short appendix concerning some passages in Stephen Colleges trial.	Corker, James Maurus, 1636-1715.	1681 (1681)	Wing C6306; ESTC R20377	92,206	80

he I may perhaps shake for cold but I trust in God never for fear After some time spent in Spiritual discourses at length about Ten a Clock word was brought him That Mr. Lieutenant waited for him below upon which he sweetly saluted his Friends bidding them not grieve for him for this was the happiest day of all his Life then he immediately went down and walked along by the Lieutenants Chair who had the Gout through a lane of Soldiers to the Barrs without the Tower There the Lieutenant delievered him to the Sheriffs and they from thence Guarded him to the Scaffold erected on Tower-Hill All the way as he passed several thousands of People crowded to see him many civilly saluted him and few there were amongst that vast number whose hearts were not touched and mollified with Compassion for him Having mounted the Scaffold there appeared in his Countenance such an unusual vivacity such a Chearfulness such a Confidence such a Candor as if the Innocence of his Soul had shined through his Body Nothing of that Mortal paleness Nothing of those Reluctances Convulsions and Agonies incident to persons in his condition could in the least be perceived in him He looked Death in the face with so undaunted a Resolution as gave many occasion to say Grace had left in him no Resentments of Nature After a short pause viewing the People and finding them attentive to what he should say he stept to one side of the Scaffold and with a Graceful Air and intelligible Voice pronounced his last Speech as followeth My Lord's last Speech BY the permission of Almighty God I am this day brought hither to Suffer Death as if I were Guilty of High Treason I do most truly in the presence of the Eternal Omnipotent and All-knowing God protest upon my Salvation that I am as Innocent as it is possible for any Man to be so much as in a thought of the Crimes laid to my Charge I acknowledge it to be a particular Grace and Favour of the Holy Trinity to have given me this Long time to prepare my self for Eternity I have not made so good use of that Grace as I ought to have done partly by my not having so well recollected my self as I might have done and partly because not only my Friends but my Wife and Children have for several days been forbidden to see me but in the presence of one of my Warders This hath been a great trouble and distraction unto me but I hope God of his Infinite Mercy will Pardon my Defects and accept of my good Intentions Since my long Imprisonment I have considered often what could the Original Cause of my being thus Accused since I knew my self not Culpable so much as in a thought and I cannot believe it to be upon any other account then my being of the Church of Rome I have no reason to be ashamed of my Religion for it Teacheth nothing but the Right Worship of God Obedience to the King and due Subordination to the Temporal Laws of the Kingdom And I do submit to all Articles of Faith believed and taught in the Catholick Church believing them to be most consonant to the Word of God And whereas it hath so much and often been objected That the Church holds that Sovereign Princes Excommunicated by the Pope way by their Subjects be Deposed or Murthered As to the Murther of Princes I have been taught as a Matter of Faith in the Catholick Church That such Doctrine is Diabolical Horrid Detestable and contrary to the Law of God Nature and Nations And as such from my heart I Renounce and abominate it As for the Doctrine of Deposing Princes I know some Divines of the Catholick Church hold it but as able and Learned as they have Written against it But it was not pretended to be the Doctrine of the Church that is any Point of Catholick Faith Wherefore I do here in my Conscience declare that it is my true and real Judgement That the same Doctrine of Deposing Kings is contrary to the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Injurious to Sovereign Power and consequently would be in me or any other of His Majesties Subjects Impious and Damnable I believe and profess That there is One God One Saviour One Holy Catholick Church of which through the Mercy Grace and Goodness of God I die a member To my great and unspeakable grief I have offended God in many things by many great Offences but I give him most humble thanks not in any of those Crimes of which I was Accused All the Members of either House having liberty to propose in the House what they think fit for the good of the Kingdom accordingly I proposed what I thought fit the House is Judge of the fitness or unfitness of it and I think I never said any thing that was unsitting there or contrary to the Law and Vse of Parliament for certainly if I had the Lords would as they might have punished me so I am not culpable before God or Man It is much reported of Indulgences Dispensations and Pardons to Murther Rebel Lie Forswear and Commit such other Crimes held and given in the Church I do here profess in the presence of God I never Learned Believed or Practised any such thing but the contrary And I speak this without any Equivocation or Reservation whatsoever And certainly were I guilty either my self or knew of any one that were Guilty whosoever that were so of any of those Crimes of which I am accused I were not only the greatest Fool imaginable but a perfect Mad-man and as wicked as any of those that so falsly have accused me If I should not discover any ill Design I knew in any kind and so upon Discovery save my Life I have so often had so fair occasions proposed unto me And so am guilty of Self-Murther which is a most grievous and hainous Sin and though I was last Impeached at the Lords Bar yet I have great grounds to believe that I was first brought to Tryal on the belief that to save my Life I would make some great Discovery And truly so I would had I known any such thing of any ill Design or Illegal Dangerous Plot either of my self or any other Person whatsoever without any Exception But had I a thousand Lives I would lose them all rather then Falsly accuse either my self or any other whatsoever And if I had known of any Treason and should thus deny it as I do now upon my Salvation at this time I should have no hope of Salvation which now I have through the Merits of Christ Jesus I do beseech God to bless His Majestly who is my Lawful King and Sovereign whom I was always by all Laws Humane and Divine bound to Obey and I am sure that no Power upon Earth either singly or all together can legally allow me or any body else to lift up a Hand against him or his Legal Authority I do hold that the

Stafford's Memoires OR A Brief and Impartial Account OF THE BIRTH and QUALITY IMPRISONMENT TRYAL PRINCIPLES DECLARATION COMPORTMENT DEVOTION Last SPEECH and Final END OF WILLIAM late Lord Viscount STAFFORD Beheaded upon Tower-hill on Wednesday the 29. of December 1681. Published for Rectifying all Mistakes upon this Subject Wisd 4. Vitam illorum estimabamus insaniam Finem illorum sine Honore c. Hereunto is also annexed a short APPENDIX concerning some Passages in STEPHEN COLLEDGES TRIAL Printed in the Year MDCLXXXI The INTRODUCTION IT is a wonder to see how Passion and Interest predominate over Reason in Mankind Nothing is done nothing said without some tincture of either or both Even common Occurrences are usually related as Men would have them to be rather then as they are Plain-dealing is almost fled And all things now a days whether Private or Publick Sacred or Prophane are according to different Inclinations without regard to Truth promiscuously made the Subject of a Satyr or Panegirick An obvious example of this we have in the several accounts given of the Tryal Declaration Demeanor and Death of the late Lord Stafford concerning whose Tragedy though acted for the most part in the face of the whole Nation yet there have flown about in a manner as many and those contradictory Stories as there are Relaters and such as know least commonly talk most to compleat the Error It is true the Printed Tryal set forth by Authority is no wise liable to these gross mistakes But it hath swelled in the Press by forms c. To so vast a volume that few can spare either money to buy it or time to read it Besides it is in a manner silent of matters chiefly designed for the Subject of this Treatise viz. My Lords Comportment Declaration Devotion Last Speech and other Occurrences which happened inclusively from the time of his Tryal to his final end Having therefore attained to a most exact and certain knowledge of these particulars I shall for the satisfaction of the curious and manifestation of Truth give together with an abstract of the whole Tryal and some occurrences concerning it a plain and sincere relation of what I know and can by unquestionable Evidence justify to be true And herein I shall also totally abstain from any the les● moralizing upon transactions whereby to forestal the Readers Judgment But contenting my self with a plain and candid Relation of things as I find them leave every one to the freedom of his own censure and verdict upon them SECT I. My Lords Birth Education Quality c. William Howard Viscount Stafford was second Son to Thomas Earl of Arundel and Uncle to the now Duke of Norfolk In his youth he was educated with all care and industry imaginable to improve in him the endowments of Nature and Grace And to speak truth he was ever held to be of a generous Disposition very Charitable Devout addicted to Sobriety inoffensive in his words and a lover of Justice When he arrived to years of maturity he married Mary descended from the ancient Dukes of Buckingham Grandchild to Edward and Sister and sole Heiress to Henry Lord Stafford To whose Title he succeeded being created by the late King Charles of Glorious memory Baron Anno 1640. And soon after Viscount Stafford During the time of the last bloody Rebellion he suffer'd much for his Loyalty to the King Always behaving himself with that courage and constancy as became a Nobleman a good Christian and a faithful Subject After his present Majesties joyful restauration he lived in Peace Plenty and Happiness Being blessed with a most Virtuous Lady to his Wife And many pious and dutiful Children In which state he remained till the 66. year of his age when happened this Revolution of his fortune as followeth SECT II. My Lords Imprisonment Charge and Arraignment c. ABout Michaelmas Anno 1678. Mr. Titus Oates formerly a Minister of the Church of England accused upon Oath before the King and Council and not long after also before the two Houses of Parliament several Roman Catholicks some Persons of Quality and amongst the rest the Lord Viscount Stafford of High Treason for intending and designing the Death of the King the introducing of Popery and subversion of the Government My Lord though he immediately heard of this Impeachment yet relying as he said on his own Innocence never left his Family nor withdrew himself from his ordinary known Acquaintance and Affairs till the 25th of October 78. when by Virtue of a Warrant from the Lord Chief Justice he was sent Prisoner to the Kings Bench and from thence soon after to the Tower where he remained above two years before he could be admitted to Tryal During this interval the whole Nation was surprized and allarm'd with the noise of an horrid Plot contriv'd by the Pope Priests and Jesuits wherein the King was to be murthered Armies raised Protestants Massacred and the three Kingdoms destroyed by Fire and Sword the People were affrighted searches made Guards doubled and all in an uproar The King hereupon consulted the Parliament and both Houses declared it a Plot. Yet to strengthen the Evidence as yet but weak and make farther discoveries Indempnities are promised Rewards proposed and encouragements given by Proclamation to any who would make out upon Oath the particulars of what in substance was already declar'd By this and the like sedulity of the King and three succeeding Parliaments several new Witnesses came in First Captain Bedlow Next Dugdale Prance and two others Bolron and Mowbray out of the North Then Mr. Jennison Smith Seigneur Francisco Dangerfield Zeile Lewis c. Lastly one Mr. Turbervile who together with Oates and Dugdale gave Evidence against this Lord Stafford of whom we now treat After two years Imprisonment when many Roman Catholicks both Priests and others had been Executed and most of the rest Imprisoned or fled At length my Lord was brought to his Tryal on the 30 th day of Novem. 1680. at the Peers Bar in Westminster-Hall the House of Commons being present and the Lord Chancellor High-Steward of England The Impeachment was drawn in the name of the Commons of England wherein my Lord was charged together with other Papists for having imagin'd and contriv'd to murder the King to introduce Popery and subvert the good Government of Church and State established by Law To this Impeachment my Lord being thereupon arraigned pleaded Not Guilty Allegations in proof of the Plot in general ¶ 1. THen the Cause was opened and the Commons Learned Counsel who were appointed Managers of the Tryal set forth the Charge in most Copious and Eloquent Language And beginning first with the Plot in general they shew'd to the life the Wickedness the Malice the Horror of so Dreadful Bloudy and Hellish a Design They strongly insisted on the express Positive Oaths of the Witnesses upon whose Testimony the credit of this Plot chiefly depended They amply dilated upon the Letters of Coleman