hounty to either of them and the Town of Manchester in Lancashire hath likewise good cause to remember this Bishop who founded and endowed a School therein with large revenue for the education of youth in good literature Patronum faciunt dos aedificatio fundus A Patron 's be that doth endow with Lands Or builds the House or on whose ground it stands Regna Regum 9. Henry the 8. An. D. 1517. Mayors and Bayliffs Thomas Hunt Richard Duke Nicholas Staplehill John Richards Mathew Long Hugh Paige William Cotton In the Month of December Nicholas Staple-hill the eldest Steward died in whose place John Richards was chosen who also deceased in March following in whose stead Mathew Long was elected who continued in the said Office the residue of the year 'T was now an usage here that the Receiver and Bailiffs at the time of the election of the Mayor and Officers kept breakfasts and dinners yearly for them which proved chargeable and some exceeding their ability became thereby decayed and little advantage coming to any person Richard Duke the present Receiver with the advice of his Brethren discontinued the custom keeping no breakfast for which he was fined the like order did the succeeding Bailiffs observe the year following whereupon 't was ordered by the Mayor and Common Council that the succeeding Bailiffs should for ever yearly keep their respective breakfasts and dinners as formerly on pain of 40 s. some of them thought it better to pay the Fine than to spend 20 l. in a Breakfast but the major part of them whether by perswasion or standing in a vain and naked reputation received the old custom till the coming hither of the Honourable Lord Russel Lieutenanâ— of this County by whose advice an order was had bearing date 21. Sept. 4 Ed. 6. That no more such Breakfasts or dinners should be made but in lieu thereof every Receiver should pay 5 l. or 4 l. and every Steward 4 l. or 3 l. 6 s. 8 d. at the Chambers discretion which said Fines should be yearly bestowed on the reparation of the Walls of the said City Regna Regum 10. Henry the 8. An. D. 1518. Mayors and Bayliffs William Crudg Reynold Russell John Maris Negell Collin John Michell Bicton was given by William the Conquerour to William Porto one of his Servants Henry the â—irst gave it to one John sirnamed Janitor of his Office who by Tenure of these Lands was to keep the common Prison within the County of Devon Galfrid le Balstar held Land by the same Service in the time of King Edward the Second from which name by Sackvill this Land came to Henry Copleston Esquire whose Grandson sold it to the aforesaid Sir Thomas Dennis Ann one of his Daughters and Co-heirs being married to Sir Henry Roll Knight from whom to that worthy Gentleman Dennis Roll Esquire as by hereditary right this descended And now Sir John Roll Knight of the Bath enjoys the same in the right of his Lady Florence one of the Daughters and Co heirs of the said Dennis Roll here the Gaol of the County was wont to be kept but the place being of no great strength 't was removed within the Walls of this City at the lower part of the Castle-garden where it still continues This year the King added the word Octavus to his style as Henricus Octavus Dei Gratia c. Regna Regum 11. Henry the 8. An. D. 1519. Mayors and Bayliffs Jeffery Lewes William Shapton Richard Martin John Awells Richard Andrew The goods of one John Jones attainted for Murther being seized on for the Cities use were remitted to his Widow on the payment of a small Fine John Beblew dis-franchized for suing John Northbrook both Freemen of this City at the common Law and out of the Jurisdiction of this Court contrary to his Oath The pay formerly made for Queen Mawdt obit was at present respited and afterwards utterly abolished Regna Regum 12. Henry the 8. An. D. 1520. Mayors and Bayliffs John Broadmere Richard Russel Richard Verny John Harris John Blackaller All Freemen ordered to live within the City on pain of dis-franchisement John Moor Fined for breaking of the Cities Pipes and letting out of the water Richard Ratcliff Fined forty shillings for suffering strangers to sell Wares within his house and for colouring of Foraigners goods Regna Regum 13. Henry the 8. An. D. 1521. Mayors and Bayliffs John Nosworthy William Bennet Christopher Lambert Thomas Hunt John Buller This year the King added to his style Fidei Defensor This Mayor was a very wise Man professing the Laws of the Realm who governed the City so well as that none or few before him did better preferring the welfare of the publick before his own private affairs reformed many abuses and established many good orders herein First he rectified the great disorders of the Courts as well the King's Court as the Provost's Court the Attorneys whereof he caused to be sworn for their just dealings in their Clyents causes he caused a great Presse with leaves locks and keys to be made in the Council-Chamber for the safe keeping of the Records of the City which heretofore lay scattered abroad and thereby all of them from the Conquest to the Reign of King Henry the Third were lost he prescribed and set down the duties of every particular Officer within the City and saw the observation thereof There happening a dearth or scarcity of Corn for the ease of the poor Commons he made good provision and laid it up in a store-house which got him the love of the people all the days of his life thereafter He also reduced the Corn-market to be kept at certain hours and hanged up a Bell to be rung at the beginning and close of the said Markets and about the middle to be tolled First that the Citizens and Inhabitants hereof should supply their wants and then Foraigners should buy He was likewise very careful to see the Assize of Bread and Ale well kept and much delighted in Hospitality In all things he did so well demean himself as that he was honoured of the best reverenced of the Inferiour and generally beloved of all Regna Regum 14. Henry the 8. An. D. 1522. Mayors and Bayliffs Richard Duke William Hurst Robert Hooker John Way Robert Smith Notandum est quod nulla navis applicans inâ—ra portum Civitatis Exoniensâ—s potuit se exoner are absque licentia prius obtenta Majoris seu Receptoris Civitatis predictae sub poenâ forisfacturae omnium bonorum Merchandizarum Goods seised on as forfeited for non-payment of the Town Custom duties and composition made for the same A controversie happened between the Parishioners of St. Mary the Moor and one John Bonefant touching a Tenement in South-gate-street whereof one Richard Russel one of the Common Council of this City was a Feoffee in trust for the said Parish and when the cause came to trial Bonefant produced a Release made by the said Russell
Estates which we lost by not having the benefit of the Articles let hanging drawing and quartering be the denomination of Captain Crook's Articles Nevertheless I thank the Lord Protector for that he hath indulged me so far as to have my Head severed from my Body I should now give an account of my Faith but truly Gentlemen this poor Nation is rent into so many several opinions as that 't is impossible to give you my own without displeasing some of you however if any be so critical as to enquire of what Faith I die it is the same belief of the Apostles and of Athanasius Creed I have subscribed and do own the Nine and Thirty Articles of the Church of England if this will not satisfie I refer my self to this Reverend Doctor Short to whom I have unbosomed my self as to the particulars of my Religion And now having given you an Account concerning my self I hold my self obliged in duty to some of my Friends to take off some suspicion that lies upon them I mean as to some Persons of Honour with whom upon my examination I was charged to have a correspondency withal concerning this business viz. The Lord Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Winchester and the Earl of Pembrook I did then acquit them and do now second it with this protestation that I never had any correspondency with any of them in relation to this particular business or indeed to any that concerned the Protector or his Government As for the Marquess of Winchester I saw him some twelve years since and not later and if I should see him here present I believe I should not know him As for the Earl of Pembrook he was not a Man likely to whom I should discover my thoughts because I know not how he stands affected I was likewise examined concerning my Brother Freke my Cousin Hastings and Mr. Dorrington they are Men of very great Estates which may make them liable to this Inquisition and endeavoured to be brought into my condition but I do here so far acquit them as to give the World this protestation That I am confident they are as innocent as the youngest Child here I have no more to say to you now but that I am in Charity with all Men and I thank God I can forgive my greatest persecutors I can go on my bare knees to the greatest of mine enemics to forgive them And I do freely forgive all that ever had a hand in my Death I have offered the Protector good security for my future demeanour as I suppose he could have expected if he had thought sit to have given me my Life Certainly I should not have been so ungrateful as to have employed it against him I do humbly submit to God's pleasure knowing that the Issues of Life and Death are in his hands my Blood is but a small sacrifice If it had been saved I am so much a Gentleman as to have given thanks to him that preserved it and so much a Christian as to forgive them that takes it away but seeing God by his Providence hath called me to lay it down I submit to him Death is a debt a due debt owing by all it is terrible to nature but I look on it without terrour it pleased God to make me a good Husband and I am not come to pay this Debt before it be due I am not ashamed of the cause for which I die and I hope that none of my Friends or Allyants will be ashamed of it or of the Ignominy of my death seeing it is for so good a Cause I do not look upon it as the pulling down of my Family but the raising it up one story higher I am not so prodigal of Nature as to throw away my Life but have used all yet none but Honourable and honest means to preserve it These unhappy times have been very fatal to my Family Two of my Brothers slain and my self going to the slaughter it is God's Will and I must submit to that Providence I must render a due acknowledgement of the great civilities I have received from this City of Exeter and from some Persons of Quality and for the plentiful provision made for the Prisoners especially I thank this noble Sheriff for his many great favours and courtesies towards us and in particular to my self and I desire the Sheriff to present my due respects to the Protector and although he had no mercy for my self yet that he would have respect to my Family for the business I now die I look on it as an Individuum vagum I know not what they mean when they assert this to be Treason except they make it like the Wind in the Gospel to blow where it listeth I know not to what end it may come I pray God that my own and my Brother's blood who is now to die with me may be the last I am now stripping off my cloaths to fight a duel with death and conceive no other duel to be lawful but my Saviour hath pulled out the sting of this mine enemy he made himself a Sacrifice for me I do not account that man deserving a drop of his blood that will not spend all for him in a good cause As I now put off these garments of cloth so I hope I have put off my garments of sin and have put on the Robes of Christ's Righteousness here which will bring me to the enjayment of his glorious Robes anon I desire to see the Axe and he kissed it saying I am like to have a sharp passage of it but my Saviour hath taken away the sting of death and I hope he will sweeten it to me Thus I commit my Soul to God my Creator and Redeemer look on me O Lord at my last gasping hear my Prayer and the Prayers of all good people I will close with praying for the King I thank thee O God for all thy dispensations towards me Glory be to God on high on Earth peace and good Will towards Men Causa non poena seu passio facit Martyrem To dic in the defence and for the Testimony of any Divine Truth is truly to be a Martyr Memorable hath been the stedfast obedience and fidelity of this City to the Crown in the various succession of Ages and Times of the Britains Romans Saxons Danes and Normans which have been well remunerated by their several and successive Kings in their distinct Reigns as is manifested by the many and large Immunities Liberties and Priviledges from time to time conferred on their City Whatever the Antiquity of this City be I find that 't was built before London even at Brute's first landing here by his Nephew Corinaeus on whom Brute bestowed this Western Country Hooker Stowe Bale Anno Mundi 2855. The same being before Christ's Incarnation eleven hundred years and upwards And presently thereafter Brute built London calling it Troynovant This City is thought to be one of the first Cities that
year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth Annoque Domini 1549. the Gates of the City were again opened In remembrance whereof an Anniversary with much joy and solemnity is here kept and thankfully observed on every sixth day of August Of which good service thus worthily performed by the Citizens hereof a Learned Authour of late thus speaks Whoso example God grant all Cities may follow Boswell in his Armory of Honour for 110. and withal learn to be noble by Exeter A Modern Authour and Native of this City Dr. Vilvain of late wrote this Distich and translated the same Vrbs sitâ— Devoniae in Medie cui Excestriâ— nomen Cincta fuit decies obsidione gravi In mid'st of Devon Exeter City seated Hath with Ten Sieges grievously been sireitned 'T is well known what sufferings Persons of the best Quality within this City in the time of the late Rebellion did undergo by manifesting their Loyalty to their Soveraign Lord and King even by Fines Imprisonments by Sea and by Land Compositions Sequestrations Decimations and what not A Sequestrator was then found to be like the great Sultan's horse that where he treads the grass grows no more In a word they ruined the Father begger'd the Son and strangled the hopes of all Posterity in many flourishing Families as too sad experience hath informed too many now alive My Litany or supplication is stedfast Dii terris talem nostris avertite pestem Reform the wicked World most gracious God Heal our Back-slidings and remove thy Rod. And one Gentleman amongst sundry others for their Loyalty to the King here murthered being priviledged to be decently Interred in St. Sydwell's Church without the East-gate of the said City his Corps was thither attended by some thousand Persons of a depressed party of which number I then thought my self happy to be one In whose memory this ensuing Epitaph was Inscribed on his Tombstone viz. Hic jacet Hugo Grove de Enford in Comitatu Wiltoniae Armiger in restituendo Ecclesiam in asserendo Regem in propugnando legem ac libertatem Anglicanam captue decollatus decimo sexto Maii 1655. Whose Speech on the Scaffold at the time of his Execution here followeth Good People I Never was guilty of much Rhetorick nor ever loved long Speeches in all my Life and therefore you cannot expect either of them from me now at my death all that I shall desire of you besides your hearty prayers for my Soul is that you will bear me witness that I dye a true Son of the Church of England as it was established by King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles of ever blessed Memory that I die a loyal Subject to King Charles the Second my undoubted Soveraign and a Lover of the good old Laws of the Land the just privileges of Parliament and the right liberties of the people for the re-establishing of all which I undertook this engagement and for which I am now ready to lay down my life God forgive the Judges and Council perverting the Laws God forgive the bloody-minded Jury and those that procured them God forgive Captain Crook for denying his Articles so unworthily God forgive Mr. Dove High Sheriff of Will and all others fâ—â—â—wearting so maliciously against me God forgâ—â—â—ll mine enemies I heartily forgive them God bless the King and all that love him and turn the hearts of all that hate him and God bless you all and be merciful to you and my Soul The last Speech of John Penruddock Esquire on the same Scaffold and on the same day being Wednesday 16. Maii 1665. likewise beheaded Wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death I thank God who hath given me the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Gentlemen IT hath ever been the Custom of all persons whatsoever when they come to die to declare themselves in order to the satisfaction of the World whether they be guilty of the facts of which they stand charged the crime for which I am now to die is High Treason as 't is said I cannot deny but that I was at Southmolton in this County but whether my being there or my Actions amount to so high a crime as High Treason I leave to the Law and World to judge If I were conscious of any base end in this my undertaking I would not be so injurious to my own Soul or disingenuous to you as not to make a publick acknowledgement thereof I suppose that divers persons as they are byassed by their several interests and Relations will give their opinion to the World concerning us 'T is impossible therefore to express my self in those particulars as not to expose both my Judgement and Reputation to others on a breach of Charity concerning me or my Actions I thought sit to decline all discourse which may give them a capacity either to injure my self or cause My Trial was Publick Honourable and Eminent my several Examinations I believe will be produced when I am in my Grave I will refer you therefore to my first Tryal which I am sure some of you heard and to the latter which many of you in good time may see Had Captain Crook done himself and us that right that a Gentleman and Soldier ought to have done I had now enjoyed my own right and had not been here this day I forgive the Man with all my heart truly he did us an injury by enforcing those Articles upon us which his own Conscience tells him he had no intention to perform but truly Gentlemen his protesting against those Articles which he himself with so many protestations and importunities put upon us hath drawn so much dishonour and blood upon his head that I fear some heavy Judgement will pursue him although he hath been false to us I pray God I do not prove a true Prophet to him I am very glad that some of our party have enjoyed the benefit of his Articles though I am thereof deprived albeit I drew them with my own hand thus much I am obliged to say for the honour of the Soldiery who have been so far from the breaking of any Articles given to others that they have rather bettered them then otherwise 'T is now my misfortune to be made a Precedent and an example together but I will not do the Protector so much injury as to load him with this dishonour seeing that I have been informed that he would have made good our Conditions if Crook that gave them had not abjured them This is not a time for me to enlarge on any Subject seeing I am now become the subject of death my self but as I said that the Articles were drawn by my hand I thought my self obliged to a particular Justification of them I could tell you of some Soldiers that are turned out of his Troop for defending of those Conditions of ours but let that pass and for ever hence-forward instead of Life Liberty and