to consider calmly of the matter and this no doubt was very well known by those who order'd things in the manner before-noted But I say 't were to be wished for the Honour of the English Nation that this had been all the foul play in the case and that there had not been so many Thousand Guinea's imployed in this and other Tryals as the great Agitators thereof have lately confess'd to have been The Names of his Jury as I find them in Print are as follow John Martayn William Rouse Jervas Seaton William Fashion Thomas Short George Toriano William Butler James Pickering Thomas Jeve Hugh Noden Robert Brough Thomas Omeby When he found he must expect neither Favour nor Justice as to the delaying of his Tryal he excepted against the Fore-man of the Jury because not a Freeholder which for divers and sundry Reasons almost if not all the Judges having the happiness to light on different ones and scarce any two on the sâ—me was over-ruled and given against him though that same practice since declared and acknowledged one of the great Grievances of the Nation His Indictment ran in these words He did conspire and compass our Lord the King his Supreme Lord not onely of his Kingly State Title Power and Government of this his Kingdom of England to deprive and throw down but also our said Soveraign Lord the King to kill and to Death to bring and put and the ancient Government of this Kingdom of England to change alter and wholly subvert and a miserable Slaughter among the Subjects of our said Lord the King through his whole Kingdom of England to cause and procure and Insurrection and Rebellion against our said Lord the King to move procure and stir up within this Kingdom of England And lower He and divers others did consult agree and conclude Insurrection and Rebellion against our Sovereign Lord the King to move and stir up and the Guards for the preservation of the Person of our said Soveraign Lord the King to seize and destroy Now that all this was not intended as matter of Form only we may see by the Kings Councils opening the Evidence The first says He was indicted for no less than conspiring the Death of the Kings Majesty and that in order to the same he and others did meet and conspire together to bring our Sovereign Lord the King to Death to raise War and Rebellion against him and to Massacre his Subjects And in order to compass these wicked Designs being assembled did conspire to seize the Kings Guards and his Majesties Person And this he tells the Jury is the charge against him The Attorney General melts it a little lower and tells 'em the meaning of all these Tragical Words were A Consult about a Rising about seizing the Guards and receiving Messages from E. of Shaftsbury concerning an Insurrection Nor yet does the proof against him come up so high even as this though all care was used for that purpose and kind Questions put very frequently to lead and drive the Evidence but one of them Witnessing to any one Point The first of whom was Col. Rumsey who swears That he was sent with a Message from Shaftsbury who lay concealed at Wapping to meet Lord Russel Ferguson c. at Shepherds 's to know of them what Resolution they were come to about the Rising design'd at Taunton That when he came thither the Answer was made Mr. Trenchard had fail'd 'em and no more would be done in that business at that time That Mr. Ferguson spoke the most part of that Answer but my Lord Russel was present and that he did speak about the Rising of Taunton and consented to it That the Company was discoursing also of viewing the Guards in order to surprize 'em if the Rising had gone on and that some undertook to view 'em and that the Lord Russel was by when this was undertaken But this being the main Hinge of the business and this Witness not yet coming up to the purpose they thought it convenient to give him a Jog to Refresh his Memory Asking him Whether he found my Lord Russel averse or agreeing to it Who no doubt answer'd Agreeing But being afterwards in the Tryal ask'd Whether he could Swear positively that my Lord Russel heard the Message and gave any Answer to it All that he says is this That when he came in they were at the Fire side but they all came from the Fire-side to hear what he said All that Shepherd witnesses is That my Lord Russel c. being at his house there was a Discourse of surprizing the Kings Guards and Sir Thomas Armstrong having viewed them when he came thither another time said They were remiss and the thing was feizible if there were Strength to do it and that upon his being question'd too as Rumsey before him Whether my Lord Russel was there He says He was at that time they discours'd of seizing the Guards The next Witness was the florid Lord Howard who very artificially begins low being forsooth so terribly surprized with my Lord of Essex's Death that his Voice fail'd him till the Lord Chief Justice told him the Jury could not hear him in which very moment his Voice returned again and he told the reason why he spoke no louder After a long Harangue of Tropes and fine Words and dismal General Stories by which as my Lord complains the Jury were prepossessed against him he at last makes his Evidence bear directly upon the point for which he came thither And swears That after my Lord Shaftsbury went away their Party resolved still to carry on the design of the Insurrection without him for the better management whereof they erected a little Cabal among themselves which did consist of Six Persons whereof my Lord Russel and himself were two That they met for this purpose at Mr. Hambden's house and there adjusted the place and manner of the intended Insurrection That about ten days after they had another meeting on the same business at my Lord Russel's where they resolved to send some Persons to engage Argyle and the Scots in the design and being ask'd too that he was sure my Lord Russel was there Being ask'd whether he said any thing he answer'd That every one knew him to be a Person of great Judgment and not very lavish of Discourse Being again goaded on by Jeffreys with a But did he consent We did says he put it to the Vote it went without contradiction and I took it that all there gave their consent West swears That Ferguson and Col. Rumsey told him That my Lord Russel intended to go down and take his Post in the West when Mr. Trenchard had fail'd ' em Whose hear-say-Evidence being not encouraged Jeffreys ends very prettily telling the Court they would not use any thing of Garniture but leave it as it was As for Rumsey the first Witness As to his Person My Lord Candish prov'd on the Trial that my Lord Russel had a
so unjustly many ways from â—he Perjury of their Accusers or the Inequality of their Judges or corruption of Juries and that really because they would not yield themselves but made a vigorous opposition against Popery and Slavery For the VVestern Martyrs we intend a distinct account of 'em at the beginning of those Transactions One thing more â—â—at may choak such as have a mind to quarrel is the 〈◊〉 faults and in some or at least one Instance vicious habits and ill Life of those whom we give that high Character But if little Failures if Heats and Weaknesses were any valuable Objection against the Worth or Honesty of a Person 't would be impossible to make any tolerable defence even for many of those great Men who were the happy Instruments of our Reformation Tho it may seen an excuse dull and common yet there 's none who does not find it necâ—ssary on his own account That allowances are to be made for the best of Men. Cranmer and the rest of our Reformers as the Learned Dr. Burnet observes in his Letter to Mr. Thevenot Tho' we piously believe 'em Saints and Martyrs yet never pretended to be infallible They were Men and so were these tho' they suffer'd for the same Causes and almost in the same manner For such as liv'd ill if there is more than one instance this certainly will be sufficient that they dy'd well and gave all the tokens of a hearty repentance for their not having liv'd up to so good a Profession Let us then do 'em Justice now they are dead who so nobly defended the Cause of our holy Religion while they were living and at last so freely and joyfully at their Death seal'd it with their dearest Blood If in any accounts met with here some Persons shou'd find some particular Words or Phrases not so usual with 'em let 'em not be so weak or unjust to condemn them as Cant or Nonsense What reason is there why every Man should not express himself in that way which likes him best and with which he has been more acquainted And what matters it if I 'm discours'd to in Yorkshire or London Dialect so I talk with an honest Man and our Sentiments agree tho' our words may a little differ Especially when as before was remark'd all of 'em suffer'd for the same Causâ— and with this considerable Circumstance that the first and some of the last Victims of Popish Cruelty were entirely agreeable in their Judgments as to the manners and merits of their Death Sir Edmondbury Godfrey who begins the Rubrick having notoriously declared some days before his Death That he believed in his Conscience he should be the first Martyr And some of those who went last to Glory as will appear below mentioning this as one of their greatest Comforts that they should in after Ages be enrolled among the rest of the Protestant Martyrs Advertisement To make the Book Pleasant as well as Profitable there are inserted some Poems and Elegies made by an ingenious Person who was particularly acquainted with many of those who are the Subjects of ' em An Emblem of our late Martyrs Sr. Ed Bury Godfrey I. DUKE of Monmouth The Earle of Argile Arth Earle of Essex Wm. Ld. Russell Collonell Sydney Alderman Cornish Mr. wm Hewling Mr. Wm. Ienkins The Lady Lisle M rs Gaunt Sr. Tho Armstrong These all dyed in Faith Heb 11.13 A NEW MARTYROLOGY OR THE Bloody Assizes c. Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey HAD the Person who wrote that Scandalous Libel upon Sir E. B. G. which he calls The Mystery of his Death but always confin'd himself to as much Truth and Reason as we meet with in the very first Lines of his Preface to it he might have gone both through the World and out of it with more Reputation than now he is like to do There will saith he be a time when Truth shall be believed and the Witnesses of it justified But notwithstanding all his boasted Sagacity in winding Alterations at such a distance we may safely affirm that when he writ that Sentence he little thought 't would ever have been apply'd in this manner That Truth would come to life again after all the care he had taken to stifle it and the highest Judicatures in the Nation in one day remove all the black dirt which so many years he had been throwing on its Witnesses and in so Publick and authentick a manner justifie 'em again 'T was in the heat of those Mischiefs and Miseries which all thinking men cou'd long before easily foresee wou'd be the Consequences of such Notions as he broached and were too greedily swallow'd that he publish'd the book before mentioned at such at time when he knew 't was in one sense unanswerable wherein he pretends both to confound all the Evidence given in before the Parliament and Publick Courts of Justice for Sir Edmond's being murthered with Papists and over and above That he was a self-murtherer No better than a second running him through with his own Sword after his Death 'T is some plausible insinuations he has there heapt together which will make it necessary to be a little larger on him than those who came after especially since he led the way both to the Sufferings of the Protestants and Malice of their Enemies Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey was born of a good Family his Relations are sufficiently known and as justly respected in the City of London But 't is not the intention of this Piece to write the Lives but the Deaths of those who are the Subjects of it at least no more of one than is requisite for describing the other The occasion of his Knighthood is reported to be the good Service he did in giving Directions for quenching a Fire which happend some years past at St. James's which Honour the then Duke of York obtain'd for him having been under a great Consternation at the apprehension of the danger This very probably might be the beginning of his so great Intimacy with the Papists which Sir Roger so often hints in his History and which afterwards cost him so dearly He was a Person of known Vertues For the Instances of his secret Charity the World is oblig'd to that Reverend and Learned Person who preach'd his Funeral Sermon For his Piety and Integrity even his worst Enemy here gives us several Instances thereof that particularly when after those Prophetick bodings of his approaching Martyrdom he took care to settle all things and adjust Accompts exactly and even in Parish Matters to right such as he thought had formerly been injur'd Lastly how vigilant and careful he was in the Execution of that Office the Law had intrusted him with his Death as well as his Life may testifie One thing cannot without great Injury to his Memory be omitted 'T is his extraordinary Conduct and Courage in the time of the Plague in this City whence he never stir'd all the while it rag'd so dreadfully but reliev'd the Poor and fed
another place yet was not the indefatigable Zeal of that Party discouraged but Mr. Farewell a person intrusted in managing the Estates and Lands of the Jesuits and Pain Brother to the famous Pain who wrote St. Coleman's Elegy set a new Project on foot to the same purpose in some Letters sent to Prance and printed by N. Thomson which indeed if we look close into 'em will appear to be Sir Roger in little there being the self same Expressions in one as the t'other and his Mystery seeming to be hardly more than their Letters spread a little thinner The Blood gubling out of the Wound Bedlow and Prances East and West Contradictions The Wax dropt on his Clothes after he was found and several other things the self same in both of ' em And I remember at that very time 't was shrewdly suspected and rumour'd about Town that the same person lay behind the Curtain and thrust their Cats-feet into the Fire who has since appear'd publickly in prosecution of the same Cause Before their Trial they reckon'd their Witnesses by the hundred pretending to make his Self-murther as clear as the Sun When they came to it and had all the fair Play imaginable Pain 's heart fail'd him and he pleaded Guilty Farewell made so poor a Defence and the Matter was so clearly prov'd against 'em that Farewell and Thomson were both fined by the Court and sentenced to stand in the Pillory with this Inscription over them For Libelling the Justice of the Nation by makinâ— the World believe that Sir E.B.G. murther'd himself Where how abundantly they were honour'd by the Spectators all who know any thing of the Story can't but remember Thus it lay for some time and no person was so hardy to make any farther Attempts that way while there was any possibility of having Justice against 'em But when the Sheriffs Juries nay King and all were chang'd when that past which poor Oates and all the World have cause to remember when if Prance wou'd not unconfess he knew he must tread the same dolorous way that Oates had gone before him and had now done all that cou'd be desired Then Sir Roger took up the Cudgels and publish'd his Book call'd The Mystery of Sir E. B.G 's Death unfolded Or which wou'd have been a fitter Title The second Edition with Additions of Farewell and Pain 's Letters The main of what he advances there will be answer'd in clearing as was propos'd the Objections against the Evidence relating to that matter If the ill Character of the persons who gave it be urg'd to invalidate their Testimony as this does not reach all of 'em so it has been often answer'd Who but such were fit for such Villanies If their seeming Disagreement in some part of their evidence what greater Argument that 't was no Combination If Prance retracted we are told by Sir Roger himself That he was a white-liver'd Man and so might be frighted out of truth as well as into it And indeed on that very reason 't was long before suspected that if he shou'd ever be bore hard upon he wou'd not be able to stand it But the Papists wou'd never kill him because he had obliged'em As if Gratitude were a Popish Vertue or Charity any more than Faith were to be kept with Hereticks Those that think so let 'em look back and see if the last Reign be enough to convince ' em It may be urg'd on Here are several Testimonies in the Trial of the Murtherers and since that invalidate the Evidence there given Warner and his Wife and Maid about Green That he was at home all that Evening when he was accused for committing it ' Twou'd be enough to oppose to this their Confession to Captain Richardson That they cou'd do him no good But besides this Mr. Justice Dolbin's Observation on the Trial clears it effectually They swore to the Saturday fortnight after Michaelmas day which was says the Justice the 19 th of Octob. not the 12 th on which the Murther was committed If Broadstreet and others testifie they were in the Room where the Body was laid and Hills Wife so rubs up her Memory that after so many years she remembers what she cou'd not upon his Trial That she and he and their Child lay in the Room all that very time when the Body was said to be there ' Twou'd not be a shift but an Answer That they were Papists that swore it who can swear any thing But besides Broadstreet acknowledged before the Duke of Monmouth That Hill was gone from his Lodgings before this time as was prov'd on the Trial. Mrs. Tilden says There was but one Key to their Door Mrs. Broadstreet at the same time with what she own'd about Hill That there were six or seven Contradictions in others we see as well as the King's Evidence and these being much homer and more irreconcileable than theirs must of necessity destroy the belief of what else they testifie But the home thrust is The Centinels saw no Sedan carried out This the printed Trial easily sets right The Centinels were Trollop and Wright Trollop staid till Ten and saw a Sedan go in but none out again Wright till One but saw none go out It must be in Trollops time being as Prance says about Twelve The Centinels being then at Bury's Lodge smoking and drinking Trollop says on the Trial he was never at the Lodge but so does not Wright as any one may see by consulting it he being never ask'd the Question 'T will give a great Light into this Deed of Darkness in the next place to consider several Circumstantial Evidences which wou'd of themselves go very far to prove that Sir E. B. G. was murther'd by the Papists and that in the very place and manner which has been already described The first of these from Sir Edmond's own mouth which has been already hinted but shall here be farther clear'd 'T was indeed so notorious that Sir E. G.B had boding thoughts and a sort of a Prophetical Intimation of his Death and that by the Papists and discours'd of so publickly and generally that Sir Roger cou'd not deny all the Matter of Fact but endeavours to avoid the force on 't when he says as is witnessed by several On my Conscience I shall be the first Martyr This he interprets I doubt I shan't live long Sure though he says in one place The Man was no Fool yet he must be supposed to be no better any more than all the Readers if neither he nor they made any difference between being hang'd and martyr'd But the very reason of this â—nterpretation was for what Sir R. dearly loved that he might have opportunity for a Reflection on the Parliament He fear'd says he that the Parliament wou'd call him to account and that nothing wou'd satisfie 'em but his Life for not discovering it sooner In opposition to this any impartial man need but consider what follows Esquire Robinson on
business in a little dark Lane near the Temple as he was passing through it pretty late in the Evening and had no doubt dispatch'd him and either found some way to make the World believe he had done it himself as they wou'd have done in the former instance or started some other Sham to have remov'd the Odium from their own Party But the Gentleman having had apprehension of some such Accident made better use of it than Sir Edmond before him and having luckily a Sute of private Armour on receiv'd several Stabs the Villains gave him upon that and so sav'd his life But they finding their Attempts that way unsuccessful were resolv'd to take another course with him and having got him down with some desperate weapon or other fit for the purpose made several Trials to cut his Throat and gave him some dangerous wounds about that part which while he was strugling with them to preserve a Boy providentially goes by with a Light which their Deeds of Darkness not being able to endure they all ran away and left Mr. Arnold weltering in his Blood who yet by God's Providence recoverâ—d again and liv'd to see Justice done to one of the Villains that used him in that barbarous manner His name was Giles and was discover'd by a wound in his Leg which one of his Accomplices ran through in the scuffle as he was making a Stab at Mr. Arnold He was try'd for the Action found Guilty of it and Sentenced to stand in the Pillory for the same which was accordingly executed with a liberal Contribution over and above from the enraged Rabble who sufficiently made up for the Gentleness of his Sentence though as Severe a one as our mild Laws could inflict upon such Offenders Mr. COLLEDGE NO Body can doubt but that 't was now very much the Interest of the Papists to get off if possible that foul Imputation of a Plot which stuck so deep upon 'em which had been confirm'd by Sir Edmond's Murther Coleman's never to be forgotten Letters Arnold's Assassination and a great deal of Collateral Evidence which fell in unexpectedly many of those who gave it being utterly unacquainted with the first Discoverers After several unfortunate attempts they had made to this purpose after the Living had perjur'd themselves and the Dying done worse to support their desperate Cause after Attempts to blast and ruine some of the Evidence and buy off others of 'em in both which publick Justice took notice of and punish'd 'em being of a Religion that sticks at no Villany to serve an Interest and certainly the most indefatigable and firm People in the World when they set about any Design especially where Diana is concern'd not being yet discouraged they resolv'd to venture upon one Project more which prov'd but too successful to the loss of the bravest and best Blood in the Kingdom and that was to Brand all those who were the steddiest Patriots and so their greatest Enemies of what Rank soever they were with the odious Character of Persons disaffected to the Government or in the old Language Enemies to Caesar They pretended to perswade the World that after all this great noise of a Popish Plot 't was onely a Presbyterian one lay at the bottom This they had endeavour'd in the Meal-tub Intrigue the Names of most of the worthy Persons in England being cull'd out to be sworn into it But this miscarrying like the Mother on 't Mrs. Celiers Miscarriage in Newgate they had by this time taken breath form'd new Designs and procur'd new Witnesses which might do business more effectually and tho' they cou'd not write nor spell their Names and so were not very well skill'd in Book-learning yet at Buke-blawing they were admirable by which Character you may easily guess they were Irish-men Nor did they want Fools to believe any more than Knaves to manage this Design by their continued unwearied Contrivances a great many easie and some well-meaning People having by this time been wrought upon to believe almost as implicitly as they themselves whatever the Priests wou'd have ' em One thing whatever happen'd they were pretty sure of That whether this Plot were believed or no they shou'd carry on their Intrigue by it If 't was they had what they wish'd If it shou'd be discover'd 't wou'd yet confound and amuse Peoples minds and make 'em so sick of Plot upon Plot that it might make 'em almost stagger in their belief of the other They had besides all this a strong Party at Court to favour their Enterprizes The King was the Duke's and the Duke all the World know who 's T was necessary to flesh their Blood-hounds by degrees to bring People on by little and little to attempt some of inferiour Rank for a beginning and not split the Cause for want of good management And who so fit as poor Colledge to be the first Victim of their Perjury and Malice by whose Death besides being rid of a troublesom Fellow and breaking the Ice to make room for those to follow they might also expect this advantage That the middle sort of People wou'd be discourag'd in their just hatred of Popery and Papists and prosecution of the Laws against them 'T was by such Methods as these that Mr. Colledge began to signalize himself in the VVorld Being a Man of Courage Industry and Sharpness he made it much of his Business to serve his Country as far as possible in searching after Priests and Jesuits and hunting those Vermin out of their lurking Holes in which he was very serviceable and successful and for which no doubt they did not fail to remember him The first time we meet with him in Publick is I think in Stafford's Trial where he 's brought in for Mr. Dugdale as a Collateral Evidence But by that time the VVind was a little upon turning and the Tide of Popular Aversion not quite so strong against Popery being by the cunning of our common Enemy diverted into little Streams and private Factions and Arbitrary Power driving on as the best way to prosecute the Designs of Rome to which the City of London in a particular manner made a vigorous Resistance which displeasing the grand Agitators no wonder they endeavour'd as much as possible to do it a mischief their kindness to it having been sufficiently experienced in 66. and even since In order to which the K. was pleas'd by the advice of his Ghostly Brother to alter the common and almost constant course of Parliaments and call one at Oxford instead of London Many of the Members whereof and especiallâ— those of London were apprehensive of some design upon 'em there having formerly in the Gun-powder Treason and ever since sufficiently found the Love of the Papists to Protestant Parliaments and knowing very well what they were to expect from their kindness if they shou'd be attempted upon by 'em and found defenceless And more ground of Suspicion they had because as Colledge protests in
attempts to be made on the lives of their nearest and too tender Relations Would such as these stick at a single murther a small Venial Villany to advance their Cause and merit Heaven into the Bargain When pretence of Justice necessity of Affairs Reason of State and so many more such weights might be thrown into the Scales More than all this When such Persons as these were actually in the place where this Murther was committed at the very instant 't was done All these together with what is yet to follow amount to as strong Arguments and pregnant Circumstances as the nature of the thing will bear and mark out the Murtherers as plainly and visibly as if they had come out of his Chamber with white Sleeves and a long Knife in their Hands bloody all over And indeed there seems need of little more than relating bare simple indubitable matter of Fact and such as hardly any body will deny to satisfie any cool rational man in the business The Earl of Essex's Throat was cut in the Tower the 13 th of July about Eight or Nine in the Morning at which time the Duke of York a bigotted Papist his known bitter Enemy was there present This was reported at Andover sixty miles from London the 11 th of July the first day of his Imprisonment and as common Town-talk in every bodies mouth as Sir E. B.G's at the time of his murther and told a Person travelling on the Road near the same place which was witnessed before even a Jeffreys in a publick Court of Judicature A Deputy-Coroner present at the Inquest instead of a Legal one none of the Relations to attend the Inquest The Body remov'd from the place where 't was first laid stript the Clothes taken away the Body and Rooms washed from the Blood the Clothes denied the view of the Jury The principal Witnesses examin'd only Bomeny his man and Russel his Warder who might be so justly suspected of being privy to if not Actors in it That the Jury hasten'd and hurried the Verdict when so great a man a Peer of the Realm and such a Peer was concern'd who was the King's Prisoner When Sir Thomas Overbury had been before murther'd in the Tower and his Jury brought in an unrighteous Verdict when even Sir E. B. G's Jury so much cry'd out against for their ill management adjourn'd their Verdict and staid considerably before they brought it in This at a time when the Lord Russel was to be try'd for a share in a Plot in which the Earl was also accused of being concern'd One Branch of which Conspiracy and which 't was so much the Papists Interest to have the belief on 't fix'd was a barbarous Murther of the Duke and King when nothing cou'd so immediately and critically tend to that noble Gentleman's ruine when the News was instantly with so much diligence convey'd from the Tower to the Sessions-house Bench Bar and Jury and harp'd upon by the Lord Howar◠just then and by others in after Trials as the mor◠than a thousand Witnesses and the very finger of God After this the very Centinel who that Day stood near the place found dead in the Tower-Ditch and Captain Hawley barbarously murther'd down at Rochester and ill methods us'd to prevent the truth of all from coming to light Mr. Braddon harass'd prosecuted jayl'd and fined for stirring in it On the fair and impartial Consideration but of these things hardly one of which but is notorious Matter of Fact granted by all sides What can a man conclude from the whole but whether he will or no That this noble Lord was certainly murthered by the Popish Party But there 's yet more Evidence If he could not Murther himself in that manner who then should do it but those on whom the Guilt on 't has been justly charged And this from the manner of it His Throat was cut from one Jugular to the other and by the Aspera Arteria and Wind-pipe to the Vertebrae of the Neck both the Jugulars being throughly divided How often has it been ask'd and how impossible it should ever receive an Answer How could any Living Man after the prodigious flux of Blood which must necessarily follow on the dividing one Jugular as well as all those strong Muscles which lye in the way how cou'd he ever have strength to go through all round and come to the other without fainting One cou'd as soon believe the Story of the Pirate who after his Head was cut off ran the whole length of his Ship or that of St. Dennis which was no doubt grafted on the other Nor is it rendered less impossible from the Instrument with which those who did it wou'd perswade the World 't was perform'd by himself A little French Razor Had Bomeny held to the Penknife it had been much more likely But here was nothing to rest or bear upon in the cutting it having no Tongue to hold it up in the Haft And as 't is observ'd in the Prints on that Subject he must therefore supposing he had done it himself have held his hand pretty far upon the very Blade and so with about two inches and a half of it whittle out a wound of four inches deep and all round his Neck as if he had intended to have been his own Headsman as well as Executioner out of Remorse of Conscience for his Treason Lastly His Character makes it morally impossible he should be guilty of so mean and little an Action 'T is for Women and Eunuch's and Lovers and Romantick Hero's to kill themselves not Men of known Virtue Temper Wisdom Piety and Gravity who had formerly digested as great Affronts as cou'd be put upon à Man with a candor and calmness so worthy a Man and a Christian who had been so far from defending so barbarous and unmanly a thing as Self-murther as is suggested that he had rather express himself with Detestation concerning it And as he ought not and cou'd not be hurried into so fatal an Action by a false mistaken Greatness of Mind as no such thing or so much as the least Footsteps of it appear'd in the whole course of his Life so from all his Actions in the Tower before his Death we may fairly deduce the quite contrary to what his Enemies have asserted and by observing his Conduct there discover plainly that no such black Intention ever enter'd into his Mind This appears from his ordering his People to have his own Plate sent for out of the Country to dress his Meat as well as a considerable parcel of Wines bought and brought into the Tower for his drinking that he might not stand to the Courtesie of his Enemies and this sufficient to last him till he cou'd be deliver'd by due Course of Law I can foresee but one thing that can with the least plausibility be objected to this considerable Passage and 't is That this was when he was first Committed before he fell Melancholy which he
them and to avert the Evils that threatned the Nation to sanctifie those Sufferings to him and tho' he fell a Sacrifice to Idols not to suffer Idolatry to be established in this Land c. He concludes with a Thanksgiving that God had singled him out to be a Witness of his Truth and for that Good Old Cause in which from his Youth he had been engag'd c. His Epitaph ALgernon Sydney fills this Tomb An Atheist by declaiming Rome A Rebel bold by striving still To keep the Laws above the Will And hindring those would pull them down To leave no Limits to a Crown Crimes damn'd by Church and Government Oh whither must his Soul be sent Of Heaven it must needs despair If that the Pope be Turn-key there And Hellcan ne're it entertain For there â—s all Tyrannick Reign And Purgatory's such a pretence As ne're deceiv'd a man of sense Where goes it then where 't ought to go Where Pope and Devil have nought to do His Character THere 's no need of any more than reading his Trial and Speech to know him as well as if he stood before us That he was a Person of extraordinary Sense and very close thinking which he had the happiness of being able to express in words as manly and apposite as the Sense included under ' em He was owner of as much Vertue and Religion as Sense and Reason tho' his Piety lay as far from Enthusiasm as any mans He fear'd nothing but God and lov'd nothing on Earth like his Country and the just Liberties and Laws thereof whose Constitutions he had deeply and successfully inquired into To sum up all He had Piety enough for a Saint Courage enough for a General or a Martyr Sense enough for a Privy-Counsellor and Soul enough for a King and in a word if ever any he was a perfect English man Mr. James Holloway MR. Holloway was by Trade a Merchant but his greatest dealing lay in Linnen Manufacture which as appears from his Papers he had brought to such a heighth here in England as had it met with suitable encouragement would as he made it appear have imployed 80000 poor People and 40000 Acres of Land and be 200000 Pounds a year advantage to the Publick Revenues of the Kingdom The Return of the Habeas Corpus Writ calls him Late of London Merchant though he lived mostly at Bristol He seems to be a Person of Sense Courage and Vivacity of Spirit and a Man of Business All we can have of him is from that publick Print call'd his Narrative concerning which it must be remembred as before that we have no very firm Authority to assure us all therein contained was his own writing and perhaps it might be thought convenient he should die for fear he might contradict some things published in his Name But on the other side where he contradicts the other Witnesses his Evidence is strong since be sure that was not the Interest of the Managers to invent of their own accords tho' some Truth they might utter tho' displeasing to gain credit to the rest Taking things however as we find 'em 't will be convenient for method's sake to take notice first of the Proceedings against him then of some pretty plain footsteps of practice upon him and shuffling dealing in his Case and lastly of several things considerable in his Narrative He was accused for the Plot as one who was acquainted with West Rumsey and the rest and having been really present at their Meetings and Discourses on that Subject absconded when the publick News concerning the Discovery came into the Country tho' this as he tells the King more for fear that if he was taken up his Creditors would never let him come out of Gaol than any thing else After some time he got to Sea in a little Vessel went over to France and so to the West-Indies among the Caribbe-Islands where much of his Concerns lay But writing to his Factor at Nevis he was by him treacherously betray'd and seiz'd by the Order of Sir William Stapleton and thence brought Prisoner to England where after Examination and a Confession of at least all he knew having been Outlawed in his Absence on an Indictment of Treason he was on the 21th of April 1684. brought to the Kings Bench to shew cause why Execution should not be awarded against him as is usual in that case He opposed nothing against it only saying If an ingenuous Confession of Truth could merit the King's Pardon he hoped he had done it The Attorney being call'd for order'd the Indictment to be read and gave him the offer of a Trial waving the Outlawry which he refused and threw himself on the King's Mercy On which Execution was awarded tho' the Attorney who had not so much Law even as Jeffreys was for having Judgment first pass against him which is never done in such cases according to which he was executed at Tyburn the 30th of April It seem'd strange to all men that a Man of so much Spirit as Mr. Holloway appear'd to be should so tamely die without making any manner of Defence when that Liberty was granted him It seemed as strange or yet stranger that any Protestant should have any thing â—hat look'd like Mercy or Favour from the Persons then at the Helm That they should be so gracious to him as 't is there call'd to admit him to a Trial which look'd so generously and was so cry'd up the Attorney calling it A Mercy and a Grace and the Lord Chief Justice saying He 'd assure him 't was a great Mercy and that it was exceeding well Now all this Blind or Mystery will be easily unriddled by two or three Lines which Holloway speaks just after My Lord says he I cannot undertake to defend my self for I have confessed before His Majesty that I am guilty of many things in that Indictment Which was immediately made use of as 't was design'd Good Mr. Justice Withens crying out full mouth'd I hope every body here will take notice of his open Confession when he might try it if he would Surely none but will believe this Conspiracy now after what this man has owned So there 's an end of all tâ—e Mercy A Man who had before confessed in order to be hang'd had gracious Liberty given him to confess it again in Publick because they knew he had precluded all manner of Defence before and this publick Action would both get 'em the repute of Clemency and confirm the belief of the Plot. Now that there had been practice used with him and promises of pardon if he 'd take this method and own himself guilty without Pleading is more than probable both from other practices of the same nature used towards Greater Men and from some Expressions of his which look exceeding fair that way Thus in his Paper left behind him I had he says some other Reasons why I did not plead which at present I conceal as also why I
did not speak what I intended Other Reasons besides his Confession to His Majesty and Reasons to be conceal'd Now what should those be but Threatnings and Promises to induce him to silence and publick acknowledgment of all Which appears yet plainer from another passage I am satisfied that all means which could be thought on have been used to get as much out of me as possible If all means then without straining those before mentioned But if he made so fair and large an acknowledgment here 's more Mystery still Why wan't his Life spar'd Let any read his Confession and Speech or these Passages observed out of them and he 'll no longer wonder at it He was a little squeasie Conscienc'd and would not strain so far as others in accusing Men of those black Crimes whereof they were innocent nay as was before said vindicating them from those Aspersions cast upon them and for which some of them particularly my Lord Russel suffer'd Death He says The Assassination was carry'd on but by three or four and could never hear so much as the Names of above Five for it That he and others had declared their abhorrence of any such thing That Ferguson was not in it And besides speaks some things with the Liberty of an Englishman shews the very Root of all those Heats which had been rais'd Says what was true enough That the Protestant Gentry had a Notion of a Devilish Design of the Papists to cut off the Kings Friends and stirring men in both last Parliaments That they had long had Witnesses to swear them out of their Lives but no Juries to believe 'em That now the point about the Sheriffs was gain'd that difficulty was over That the King had bad Council about him who kept all things from his Knowledge That if things continued thus the Protestant Gentry resolv'd to get the King from his Evil Council and then he 'd immediately be of their side and suffer all Popish Offenders to be brought to Justice Hence 't was plain no Assassination no Plot against the King or Government intended only Treason against the D. of York and the Papists who were themselves Traytors by Law But â—et one bolder stroke than all this He prays the King's Eyes might be open'd to see his Enemies from his Friends whom he had cause to look for nearer home Was a Man to expect pardon after this no certainly which he soon himself grew sensible of and prepared for Death the Council as he says taking it very heinously that he should presume to write such things As for what Sheriff Daniel urges That what he says about the King were but Glossy Pretences He answers him very well That 't was far otherwise Here was plain matter of Fact The Kingdom in eminent danger the Fitt just coming on which has since so near shaken to pieces all the frame of Church and State which has so many years been rising to this Compleatness Ordinary ways and usual Remedies could not prevail these Protestants were forced to betake themselves to extraordinary in defence of the Government and Laws and not against 'em any more than 't would have been to have taken Arms and rescu'd the King from a Troop of Banditti who had got possession of his Person the Papists who had him being as visibly and notoriously obnoxious to the Government and as dead Men in Law most of 'em as publick Thieves and Robbers Thus much of Mr. Holloway the Popish tender Mercy towards him his Confession and Execution Mr. Holloway declared that Mr. West proposed the Assassination but none seconded him That he could not perceive that Mr. Ferguson knew any thing of it and Holloway said It was our design to shed no Blood He being interrogated by Mr. Ferguson's Friend Mr. Sheriff Daniel whether he knew Ferguson He answer'd That he did know him but knew him to be against any design of killing the King Sir Thomas Armstrong BUt the next had not so fair play because they knew he 'd make better use on 't They had this Lion in the Toils and did not intend to let him loose again to make sport lest the Hunters themselves should come off ill by it He had been all his Life a firm Servant and Friend to the Royal Family in their Exile and afterwards He had been in Prison for 'em under Cromwel and in danger both of Execution and Starving for all which they now rewarded him He had a particular Honour and Devotion for the Duke of Monmouth and pusht on his Interest on all occasions being a Man of as undaunted English Courage as ever our Country produced He was with the Duke formerly in his Actions in Flanders and shar'd there in his Danger and Honour His Accusation was his being concern'd in the General Plot and that too of Killing the King but he was indeed hang'd for running away and troubling 'em to send so far after him The particulars pretended against him were what the Lord Howard witnessed in Russels Trial Of his going to kill the King when their first design fail'd But this was there onely a Supposal tho' advanc'd into a form'd Accusation and aggravated by the Atturney as the Reason why he had a Trial denied him when Holloway had one offered both of 'em being alike Outlawed On which Outlawry Sir Thomas was Kidnapt in Holland and brought over hither in Chains and rob'd by the way into the bargain Being brought up and askt what he had to say that Sentence shou'd not pass upon him he pleaded the 6th of Edw. 6. wherein 't is provided That if a Person outlawed render himself in a year after the Outlawry pronounc'd and traverse his Indictment and shall be acquitted on his Trial he shall be discharged of the Outlawry On which he accordingly then and there made a formal Surrender of himself to the Lord Chief Justice and ask'd the benefit of the Statute and a fair Trial for his Life the Year not being yet expired If ever any thing cou'd appear plain to common Sense 't was his Case The Statute allows a years time the year was not out he surrender'd himself demands the benefit of it and all the Answer he could get or Reason to the contrary was the positive Lord Chief Justice's We don't think so and we are of another Opinion Nay cou'd not have so much Justice as to have Counsel allow'd to plead it tho' the Point sufficiently deserv'd it and here was the Life of an old Servant of the King 's concern'd in it When he still pleaded That a little while before one meaning Holloway had the benefit of a Trial offered him if he 'd accept it and that was all he now desired The Lord Chief Justice answers That was onely the Grace and Mercy of the King The Atturney adds The King did indulge Holloway so far as to offer him a Trial and his Majesty perhaps might have some Reason for it The very self-same some Reason no doubt on 't which
repent But ye who hallow with deserv'd applause A better Martyr for a better cause You who to fate and fortune scorn to yield Who still dare own you 're friends to Dangerfield And you dear partner of his Joy and Grief The worthiest him the best the tend'rest Wife Who most who best adore his memory Who only I must grant lov'd more than me Bring his dear all which at your bottom lies His fair remains which I shall ever prize Whose fathers vigorous soul plays round her eyes All all in a full ring together come And Join your Prayers and Curses round his Tomb. Curst be the wretch who did him first ensnare Too mean to let his name have here a share A double curse for them that thought it good Such a Wife shou'd sell such a Husband's Blood Still double double till I 'm out of breath On all that had a hand a finger in his Death My Curse a Friends a Wives an Orphans too For all of this side damning is their due The little plagues of Egypt to begin Ashwe'nsdays curses for each lesser sin With whate're angry heaven since could find To bait and lash impenitent mankind Gouts Feavers Frenzies Claps Consumptions Cramps Whatever may put out their stinking Lamps May kind Abortions in some lucky hour The fruit and hope of their vain lust devour Or if they 're born may the unwholesome fry Creep only like young Toads abroad and dye Heartily thus let 's curse and if vain pitty move Straight think agen on manly rage and love Swear by his Blood and better while we live This on our selves if we his blood forgive And may who e're his Murd'rers death deplore Feel all these curses and ten thousand more Dangerfield's Ghost to Jeffreys REvenge Revenge my injur'd shade begins To haunt thy guilty Soul and scourge thy sins For since to me thou ow'st the heaviest score Whose living words tormented thee before When dead I 'm come to plague thee yet once more Don't start away and think thy Brass to hide But see the dismal shape in which I dy'd My Body all deform'd with putrid Gore Bleeding my Soul away at every Pore Pusht faster on by Francis less unkind My Body swoln and bloated as thy Mind This dangling Eye-ball rolls about in vain Never to find its proper seat again The hollow Cell usurpt by Blood and Brain The trembling Jury's Verdict ought to be Murder'd at once by Francis and by Thee The Groans of Orphans and the pond'rous guilt Of all the Blood that thou hast ever spilt Thy Countreys Curse the Rabbles spite and all Those Wishes sent thee since thy long wisht Fall The Nobles just Revenge so bravely bought For all the Ills thy Insolence has wrought May these and more their utmost force combine Joyn all their wrongs and mix their Cries with mine And see if Terror has not struck thee blind See here a long a ghastly Train behind Far far from utmost WEST they crowd away And hov'ring o're fright back the sickly Day Had the poor Wretches sinn'd as much as Thee Thou shou'dst not have forgot Humanity Who ' ere in Blood can so much pleasure take Tho' an ill Judge wou'd a good Hang-man make Each hollows in thy Ears Prepare Prepare For what thou must yet what thou canst not bear Each at thy Heart a bloody Dagger aims Upward to Gibbets point downward to endless Flames Mr. NOISE AMong those who suffer'd innocently for Lea's Plot this poor young Gentleman was one tho' omitted in due place who tho' he lost not his Life immediately by it was yet put to such Extremities as both injur'd his Reason and ruin'd his Fortunes He was born of a good Family not far from Reading in Barkshire and being a younger Son was bound Apprentice to a Linnen-Draper in London In which capacity he was a great Promoter of the Apprentices Address intended to be presented to the King for redress of Grievances and further Prosecution of the Popish Plot. A Crime which those concern'd cou'd never pardon and which was now lookt on both by himself and all his Friends as the Cause of these his Troubles Lea swore against him that he was concern'd in this Plot which he absolutely denying tho' no other Witness came in against him and he was ne're brought to a Trial he underwent a long and severe Imprisonment loaded with Irons and kept from his Friends so long till his Trade was ruin'd before he was set free and he himself then rendred so unfit for business that he was forc'd entirely to leave it off and betake himself to Travel where never quite recovering himself he in a little time after fell sick and dy'd And here 't will not be improper to remind my Readers that about this time things running very high for Popery and Arbitrary Power the consideration thereof was very afflicting to Mr. Noise Yet notwithstanding all this he was silent a long while and minded onely the proper business of his Calling resolving not to concern himself with State-affairs as deeming them above his Sphere and Condition which Silence and Resolution he had still kept notwithstanding the great and ineffable Evils he saw impending over us which were much the more apparent upon the Prorogations and Dissolutions of so many Parliaments in so dangerous and so critical a Juncture but that casually reading one of the VVeekly Intelligences he happen'd therein to meet with something Entituled An Address from the Loyal Young Men Apprentices of the City of London To His Majesty The Title he thought concern'd him as being a Loyal Apprentice of the same City and therefore he deliberately read it over At first it seem'd to bear a fair aspect as it was a Tender of Thanks to His Majesty for His most Gracious Declaration but considering that this Declaration contain'd in it several severe Reflections on the Proceedings of the late Parliaments terming them Arbitrary Illegal and Unwarrantable Mr. Noise dreaded the coâ—sequence of such Reflections as believing that 〈◊〉 stood not with Modesty for Apprentices to charge the Great Senate of the Nation with Arbitrary Illegal and Unwarrantable Proceedings and resolv'd what in him lay to Vindicate himself and Fellow-Apprentices which is thought to have been the cause of all his Sufferings before-related and to satisfie the whole World that the far greater part of the Apprentices of London have too great a Veneration for Parliaments which under His Majesty are the Bulwarks of our Lives Liberties and Properties for to be concern'd in any thing tending to Reproach or Reflect upon them he advisâ—d with several sober Persons about it who did not disapprove of his Design but Advice therein they would not give Wherefore Mr. Nâ—ise thinking to Petition the Lord Mayor would be the most modest and proper way to demonstrate a dislike of and detestation to all such actions he caused the following Petition to be drawn up and Presented viz. To the Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London the humble Address
and give evidence of our Loyalty by our peaceable demeanour and conformity to the laws of the Land and to lay the foundation of our future happiness by being dutiful to our Masters and diligent in our business that so in time we might become good Citizens So they returned again in five Coaches to Russells and supped there altogether and so every one went home The twenty Presenters of this Address were Mr. B y Mr. A h Mr. S ns Mr. M d Mr. B th Mr. Evans Mr. Batty Mr. P le Mr. D n Mr. Noise one of the Persons who first set this design afoot Mr. C ll Mr. S s Mr. S y Mr. H ing Mr. B w Mr. P tell Mr. S th Mr. B n Mr. Mal s Mr. R t s A Letter sent August 19. 1681. thus subscribed To the truly Loyal and Protestant Apprentices of London that were the principal Managers of the late address to my Lord Mayor GO on Heroick Souls and faithful be Unto your God your King your Liberty Let your unbyast actions give the lie To such as scandalize your Loyalty To Caesar render what 's to Caesar due Earth merits Heaven expects no more from you Those rights defend which your brave sires sent down Inviolable as the Throne or Crown Tell supple Parasites and treacherous Knaves You 're humble subjects not degenerate slaves Bow low but scorn to creep for that 's as well Nor for a mess of Broth your Birth-rights sell. Pass by th'affronts that Hell and Rome can send Comfort yourselves when 't is at worst 't will mend But when the Church is shook by Potent foes For her defence your bodies interpose Of Popish mercy never run the risque A Crowned Serpent grows a Basilisk Vindicate then the Gospel and the Laws The cause is Heaven's Heaven will espouse the cause Undauntedly prop up your Churches Walls And joy to fall beneath it if it falls To perish thus who would not be content When mouldring Temples are his Monument THE INTRODUCTION TO THE Western Transactions AND GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM I Am sensible 't is a very invidious thing to defend any Action which has had the Publick Stream and cry long against it with which even men of Sense and sometimes Religion too tho' Pride or Shame perhaps seldom lets 'em own the very truth on 't are commonly hurried away as well as others But this is 't is hoped for the general an Age of Confession and Ingenuity and since so many of the greatest men upon Earth have gone before in acknowledging some Notions too far strain'd and others mistaken 't will be no real disgrace but an Honour to follow them when so much in the right And if once Principles and Notions are chang'd or limited we shall necessarily have other thoughts of Things and Persons than we had before and that Action we call'd Rebellion and those Men we thought Rebels while we had a wrong slavish Notion of Obedience when once that 's regulated and we believe with all the World and all Ages and Nations That we are to obey only the lawful Commands of Superiours and submit only to such unjust ones as will not much damage the Commonwealth but resist and defend our selves when all we have dear our Religion Liberty and Lives are visibly and undeniably attack'd and invaded either without all form of Law or what 's worse the wrested pretence of it Then we think truly that such men are so far from being Rebels that they are the worthy true Defenders of their Faith and Country and such an Action so far from Rebellion that 't is highly meritorious and praise-worthy Most men being now satisfied in these Points unless those whom insuperable Interest or Prejudice have poison'd and rooted incorrigibly in the contrary Belief And the truth and reasonableness of them having been undeniably prov'd by many worthy Persons from the Law of Nations the Ends of all Government and the Constitution of our Kingdom and the Practice of former Ages both Popish and Protestant All the Question now must be about Matter of Fact Whether Things were then brought to that Extremity that 't would probably be too late to make any Defence for Religion and Property if 't were not then made and whether or no the Fundamental Contract were then actually violated This is plain that the Protestant Religion and all our Liberties were then most eminently in danger publick Leagues being long before made between his Brittannick Majesty and the King of France for their Extirpation That he who had been voted in Parliament the main Head of the Popish Cause was now grown the Head of the Kingdom or indeed the Popish Deputy here as he is since the King of France's in our Neighbouring Island That for being reconciled to Rome he was actually a Traytor and besides of a Religion whose Oaths could not be depended upon as we were then and long before to be and have since sufficiently felt and experienced That on this account he hardly could keep his Contract as 't was plain he actually did not publickly and notoriously violating those Laws he swore to maintain both before and after he had done it by going to Mass himself setting up Mass-houses and encouraging Popery As for many Grievances and Oppressions he was then as really Guilty of 'em as ever after tho' not in such large and frequent and various Instances some of 'em are those very same which the Parliament inserted among the Proofs and Reasons of the Abdication particularly the issuing out Quo Warranto's for Cities and Corporations the great Cause and Counsellor of which no doubt he was even before he actually I mean publickly reigned In a word the securing the Protestant Interest in all Europe that and their own Liberties in England was the main Cause why many and most engaged in this Design If these were in no danger and not violated they were Rebels If the safety of 'em could be expected any other way but by the Sword they were no better Whether things were in that Condition or no at that time God and the World must be Judges If it were so they were not Rebels If the Case was not so bad and the Mystery of Iniquity not so far reveal'd as it has been since yet preventive Physick is necessary especially when Death is unavoidable without it If a prudent Man is to meet Mischief rushing upon him and not stay for 't till it overwhelms him and take the same Course against a certain Consequence as an actual Evil why then I think 't will be very hard to hang People in one World and damn 'em in another for having as little a Foresight and great a Faith as their Neighbours Others there were who embark't in that Action because they really thought how much mistaken soever they might be that the Duke of Monmouth was the King's Legitimate Son which such as had a personal Love for him might more easily believe Now altho' many who engaged on the former
account only did not believe this nor know any thing of his Intention of being proclaim'd King nor approved of it when 't was done and tho' had he been able to make out his Title or let his Pretensions alone he had not wanted in all likelyhood a sufficient Assistance from the Nobility and Gentry none of whom for those Reasons coming in to him yet on the other side 't is hardly doubted that these men who thought he had a right were really obliged to follow the Dictates of their Conscience though mistaken and do whatever lay in their power to the utmost Venture of their Lives to fix him on his Father's Throne to which they verily believed he had a proper Right and Title And these Men too acting on the same Reasons with the foremention'd for deliverance of their Country as well as defence of him whom they thought their King The earnest Zeal and Concern and Love which most of 'em manifested for the Protestant Religion being besides so conspicuous in their Lives and Deaths I know not how they can without impudence be branded with the infamous Name of Rebels nor think 't will be any Arrogance to honour 'em with the just and dear-bought Title of Martyrs One thing there is very observable in most if not all of those who laid down their Lives in this Cause both in England and Scotland that besides that extraordinary Divine courage and chearfulness with which they dy'd they had Expressions plainly boding that great Deliverance which Providence has since that miraculously accomplished for these Kingdoms 'T would be endless to give almost all the innumerable Instances of it Mr. Nelthrop says God had in his wonderful Providence made him and others Instruments not onely in what was already fallen out but he believed for hastning some other great VVork he had yet to do in these Kingdoms Mrs. Gaunt says God 's cause shall revive and he 'd plead it at another rate than yet he had done against all its malicious Opposers And speaks yet more strangely of those then uppermost and likely to be so That tho' they were seemingly fixt and using their Power and Violence against those they had now got under 'em yet unless they could secure Jesus Christ and all his Holy Angels they should never do their Business but Vengeance would be upon 'em ' ere they were aware Capt. Ansley whose Speech is as pretty a neat thing as close and Christian and couragious as perhaps any that ever was made by Man in his Condition after he had said He did not repent what he had done but if he had a thousand Lives would have engag'd 'em all in the same Cause adds just after Though it has pleased the wise God for Reasons best known to himself now to blast our Designs yet he will deliver his People by ways we know not nor think of Rumbold said just the same Mr. Hewling says I question not but in his own time God will raise up other Instruments to carry on the same Cause they dy'd for for his own Glory Mr. Lark That he was confident God would Revenge their Bloods Now it will be very harsh to say all these and several more to the same purpose were nothing but Enthusiasm since spoken by Persons of all Sexes and Ages in twenty different places in the most calm and serene Tempers and the Persons not wild or fanciful and their Words miraculously made good by the Event which shews God honour'd 'em with being Prophets as well as Martyrs To proceed to the Persons who suffer'd in this Cause here and in the West and other places chiefly under Jeffrey's Insulting Cruelty His dealing with 'em is not to be parallel'd by any thing but the new French Dragoons or the old Cut-throats and Lords Chief-Justices of the poor Albigenses or Waldenses at Merindol and Cutrices Had the Great Turk sent his Janisaries or the Tartar his Armies among 'em they 'd scaped better Humanity could not offend so far to deserve such punishment as he inflicted A certain Barbarous Joy and Pleasure grinn'd from his Brutal Soul through his Bloody Eyes whenever he was Sentencing any of the Poor Souls to Death and Torment so much worse than Nero as when that Monster wisht he had never learnt to Write because forc'd to set his Name to Warrants for Execution of Malefactors Jeffreys would have been glad if every Letter he writ had been such a Warrant and every Word a Sentence of Death He observ'd neither Humanity to the Dead nor Civility to the Living He made all the West an Aceldama some places quite depopulated and nothing to be seen in 'em but forsaken VValls unlucky Gibbets and Ghostly Carcases The Trees were loaden almost as thick with Quarters as Leaves The Houses and Steeples covered as close with Heads as at other times frequently in that Country with Crows or Ravens Nothing could be liker Hell than all those Parts nothing so like the Devil as he Caldrons hizzing Carkases boyling Pitch and Tar Sparkling and Glowing Blood and Limbs boyling and tearing and mangling and he the great Director of all and in a word discharging his Place who sent him the best deserving to be the late King 's Chief Justice there and Chancellor after of any Man that breath'd since Cain or Judas Some of the more Principal Persons who fell under his Barbarous Sentences 't is thought worth the while to treat distinctly and particâ—larly of throwing the reâ—t together after 'em and onely Reprinting the former Account if any are lest out it being necessary to hasten to prevent Shams If the Book be accepted and come to another Edition they shall be Inserted and if any Faults or Mistakes found acknowledged and regulated And the first whom we shall make especial Remarks on are The Hewlings IF any one would see true Pure Popish Mercy let 'em look on these two Gentlemen the onely Sons of their virtuous and sorrowful surviving Parents the Comforts Props and Hopes of their Name and Family carefully educated virtuously disposed both of them after all repeated applications if but for one of their Lives barbarously Executed A particular Care was taken by their Father in their Education forming their Minds by his own Example and constant Instructions and Prayers as well as other pains of Ingenuous Masters to the strictest Rules of Piety and Vertue Nor was their pious and very tender Mother less careful in that particular The Elder Mr. Benjamin Hewling had Tutors in the Mathematicks and other parts of Philosophy a course of which he went through successfully enough and so as to render him as compleat in his Mind as Nature had form'd his â—ody After which he went to Holland as his Brother Mr. William Hewling from whence this last returned with the Duke Both of 'em had Commands in the Army the Elder had a Troop of Horse the younger was a Lieutenant of Foot and discharged their Places with much more Conduct and Bravery than could
that intent nor did I believe there was any such design or ever heard of any disappointment in such an Affair or Arms or Time or Place save what after the Discovery of the General Design Mr. West spoke of as to Arms bought by him And as to my self I was in the North when the late King was at New-market and the first News I had of the Fire was at Beverly in Yorkshire As to my coming over with the late D. of Monmouth it was in prosecution of the same ends but the Lord in his Holy and Wise Providence hath been pleased to blast all our undertakings tho there seemed to be a very unanimous and zealous Spirit in all those that came from beyond the Seas And as to the D. of Monmouth's being declared King I was wholly passive in it I never having been present at any publick Debate of that Affair and should never have advised it but complained of it to Col. Holmes and Captain Patchet I believe the Lord Gray and Mr. F the chief Promoters of it As to the temptation of being an Evidence and bringing either into trouble or danger the meanest Person of his Life upon the Account for which I suffer I always abhorred and detested the thoughts of it both when in and out of danger and advised some very strongly against it except when under my Distraction in Prison that amongst other temptations did violently assault me but through the goodness of my dearest God and Father I was preserved from it and indeed was wholly incapable and could never receive the least shadow of comfort from it but thought Death more eligible and was some time asore out of my distracted and disquieted condition wholly free from it though not without other Temptations far more Criminal in the sight of men I bless the Father of all Mercies and God of all Consolations that I find a great Resignedness of my Will to his finding infinitely more comfort in Death than ever I could place in Life tho in a condition that might seem honourable every hour seeing the Will of God in ordering this Affair more and more cleared up to me God hath given God hath taken blessed be his holy Name that hath enabled me to be willing to suffer rather than to put forth my hand to Iniquity or to say a Confederacy with those that do so I am heartily and sincerly troubled for what hath happened many mens Lives being lost and many poor distressed Families ruin'd the Lord pardon what of sin he hath seen in it He in his wonderful Providence hath made me and others concerned Instruments not only for what is already fallen out but I believe for hastening some other great work he hath to do in these Kingdoms whereby he will try and purge his People and winnow the chaff from the Wheat the Lord keep those that are his faithful unto the end I die in Charity with all the World and can readily and heartily forgive my greatest Enemies even those that have been Evidences against me and I most humbly beg the pardon of all that I have in the least any way injur'd and in a special manner humbly ask pardon of the Lady Lisle's Family and Relations for that my being succoured there one Night with Mr. Hicks brought that worthy Lady to suffer Death I was wholly a Stranger to her Ladiship and came with Mr. Hicks neither did she as I verily believe know who I was or my Name till I was taken And if any other have come toany loss or trouble I humbly beg their pardon and were I in a condition I would as far as I was able make them a requital As to my Faith I neither look nor hope for merey but only in the Free-grace of God by the Application of the Blood of Jesus my dearest and only Saviour to my poor sinful Soul My distresses have been exceeding great as to my Eternal State but through the infinite goodness of God tho I have many sins to answer for yet I hope and trust as to my particular that Christ came for this very end and purpose to relieve the Oppressed and to be a Physician to the Sick I come unto thee O blessed Jesus refuse me not but wash me in thine own Blood and then present me to thy Father as righteous What tho' my Sins be as Crimson and of a Scarlet Dye yet thou canst make them as white as Snow I see nothing in my self but what must utterly ruine and condemn me I cannot answer for one action of my whole Life but I cast my self wholly upon thee who art the Fountain of Mercy in whom God is reconciling himself to the World the greatest of Sins and Sinners may find an All sufficiency in thy Blood to cleanse 'em from all sin O dearest Father of Mercy look upon me as righteous in and through the imputed Righteousness of thy Son he hath payed the Debt by his own own Offering up himself for sin and in that thy Justice is satisfied and thy Mercy is magnified Grant me thy Love O dearest Father assist me and stand by me in the needful hour of Death give thy Angels charge over my poor Soul that the Evil One may not touch nor hurt it Defend me from his power deliver me from his rage and receive me into thine Eternal Kingdom in and through the alone Merits of my dearest Redeemer for whom I praise thee To whom with thy self and holy Spirit be ascribed all Glory Honour Power Might and Dominion for ever and for ever Amen Dear Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen R. NELTHROPE Newgate Octob. 29. 1685. Mrs. Gaunt ONe of the great Reasons why Mrs. Gaunt was burnt was 't is very possible because she lived at Wapping the honest Seamen and hearty Protestants thereabouts being such known Enemies to Popery and Arbitrary Government that the Friends of both gave all who oppose it the Name of Wappingers as an odious Brand and Title She was a good honest charitable Woman who made it her business to relieve and help whoever suffer'd for the forementional Cause sparing no pains refusing no office to get them assistance in which she was the most industrious and indefatigable woman living Among others whom she had thus relieved who were obnoxious persons was one Burton whom with his Wife and Family she had kept from starving for which may the very name of 'em be register'd with Eternal Infamy they swore against her and took away her Life Tho she says in her Speech there was but one Witness against her as to any mony she was charg'd to give him and that he himself an Outlawed person his Outlawry not yet revers'd he not being outlawed when she was with him and hid him away That which she writ in the Nature of a Speech has a great deal of Sense and Spirit and some strange Expressions which were mention'd in the Introduction to all these matters which she concludes with these words addrest to her
which by vertue of the said Old Charters belonged to their several and respective Corporations and to deliver themselves from those late Parasites and Instruments of Tyranny set up to oppress them Moreover for the restoring the Kingdom to its Primitive Condition of Freedom and Safety we will have the Corporation and Militia Acts repealed and all Outlawries of Treason against any person whatsoever upon the late pretended Protestant Plot reversed and also all other Outlawries Banishments Warrants Judgments Imprisonments and Injurious Proceedings against any other persons upon any of the Penal Statutes made against Protestant Dissenters made null and void And we will have new Laws enacted for placing the Election of Sheriffs in the Freeholders of the several Counties for settling the Militia in the several Shires and for preventing all Military standing Forces except what shall be raised and kept up by Authority and Consent of Parliament And whereas several Gentlemen and others who have been worthy and zealous Asserters of the Protestant Interest and Laws of the Kingdom are now in custody in divers places within the Realm upon most unjust Accusations Pretences Proceedings and Judgments we do hereby further declare their said Imprisonments to be Illegal and that in case any violence shall be offered to them or any of them we will revenge it to the utmost upon such of our Enemies as shall fall into our hands And whereas the said J. D. of Y. in order to the expediting the Idolatrous and bloody Designs of the Papists the gratifying his own boundless Ambition after a Crown and to hinder inquiry into the Assassination of Arthur Earl of Essex hath poisoned the late King and thereby manifested his Ingratitude as well as Cruelty to the World in murthering a Brother who had almost ruined himself to preserve and protect him from punishment We do therefore further declare That for the aforesaid villanous unnatural Crime and other his Crimes before mentioned and in pursuance of the resolution of both Houses of Parliament who voted to revenge the Kings Death in case he came to an untimely end we will prosecute the said J. D. of Y. till we have brought him to suffer what the Law adjudged to be the punishment of so execrable a Fact And in a more particular manner his Grace the Duke of Monmouth being sensible of the barbarous and horrid Parricide committed upon his Father doth resolve to pursue the said J. D. of Y. as a mortal and bloody Enemy and will endeavour aâ— well with his own hand as by the assistance of his Friends and the Law to have Justice executed upon him And the said James Duke of Monmouth the now Head and Captain General of the Protestant Forces of this Kingdom assembled for the end aforesaid from the generousness of his own Nature and the love he bears to these Nations whose wellfare and settlement he infinitely preferrs to whatsoever may concern himself doth not at present insist upon his â—itle but leaves the determination thereof to the Wisdom Justice and Authority of a Parliament legally chosen and acting with freedom And in the mean time doth profess and declare by all that is sacred that he will in conjunction with the People of England imploy all the Abilities bestowed upon him by God and Nature for the Re-establishment and Preservation of the Protestant Reformed Religion in these Kingdoms and for restoring the Subjects of the same to a free exercise thereof in opposition to Popery and the consequences of it Tyranny and Slavery To the obtaining of which end he doth hereby promise and oblige himself to the People of England to consent unto and promote the passing into Laws all the methods aforesaid that it may never more be in the power of any single Person on the Throne to deprive the Subjects of their Rights or subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Government designed for their Preservation And whereas the Nobility Gentry and Commons of Scotland are now in Arms upon the like motives and inducements that we are and in prosecution of Ends agreeable with ours We do therefore approve the justice of their Cause commend their Zeal and Courage expecting their and promising our assistance for carrying on that glorious Work we are jointly engaged in Being obliged for avoiding tediousness to omit the recounting many Oppressions under which the Kingdom hath groaned and the giving a deduction of the several steps that have been taken for introducing of Popery and Tyranny We think fit therefore to signify both to our Countrymen and Forreigners that we intend a larger Testimony and Remonstrance of the Grievances Persecutions Cruelties and Tyrannies we have of late lain under and therein a more full and particular Account of the unparallell'd Crimes of the D. of Y. And we make our Appeal unto God and all Protestant Kings Princes States and Peoples concerning the Justice of our Cause and the necessity we are reduced unto of having our recourse to Arms. And as we do beseech require and adjure all sincere Protestants and true English men to be assisting to us against the Enemies of the Gospel Rights of the Nation and Liberties of Mankind So we are confident of obtaining the utmost Aid and Succour which they can yield us with their Prayers Persons and Estates for the dethroning the said Tyrant c. Nor do we doubt being justified countenanced and assisted by all Protestant Kings Princes and Common-wealths who either regard the Gospel of Jesus Christ or their own Interest And above all our dependance and trust is upon the Lord of Hosts in whose name we go forth and to whom we commit out Cause and refer the Decision betwixt us and our Enemies in the day of Battel Now let us play the Men for our People and for the Cities of our God and the Lord do that which seemeth good unto him ☞ Thus Reader I have given you a Copy of the Duke of Monmouth's Declaration which was disperst in the West of England in the year 1685. But it not being the part of an Historian to make Remarks I have satisfied my self with barely inserting it leaving every Reader to make what Reflections on it he thinks fit What follows concerning the late Lord Jefferys should have been printed in his Life next to the word Bribed in page 19 but was there Omitted JEffreys prosecuted Mr. Baxter for his Paraphrase upon the New Testament and sent him to Prison he coming out by an Habeas Corpus was fain to abscond in the Country in constant pain till the Term. Then his oft Waitings at the Bar where he could not stand and then to be ragingly treated by Jeffreys and Withins and called Rogue and Knave and not sufâ—ered to speak one word of Answer for himself and his Counsel being reviled that offered to speak for him was far harder to him than his Imprisonment And then going from the Bar he only said That his Predecessor thought otherwise of him Jeffrys reply'd There was not
that for which I am call'd to supper be silent and leave it to God I advise you to all Prudence in this case have your own reserv'd thoughts and let them concerning me support and comfort you if there never happen a time for you to Glory in my Sufferings it will be hereafter do you but walk with God though through Prudence you must hold your Tongue and be not asham'd you had such a Husband I thank God that gave it me whose Courage and Publick Spirit for the Protestant Religion the Civil Liberties of his Country even true English Liberties hath in this ignominious way brought me to the Conclusion and End of my time Mourn not my Dear as one without Hope let the World know you have something from me something from your self as a Christian but ten thousand times more from God to comfort and support you see Christ by an eye of Faith infinitely more lovely and beautiful than my self let him be married to your Soul let him be the chiefest of ten thousand and more dear and precious to you it is not long we shall be separated before we shall see one another in a Spiritual Enjoyment separated from all Fleshly Pleasures and Delights yet iâ—finitely mâ—re sweet and satisfying to Immortal Spirits as you and I us'd to see Sâ—reâ—ms from the Fountain and the largest Streams in the Ocean so let us see one another in God the ever-flowing and over-flowing Fountain of all Good the fathomless and boundless Ocean of Good Seâ—k much the things which are above live with your Affections set upon them and have your Conversation in Heaven whilst you are upon Earth I continue yet to pray for you as for my seâ—f and shall conâ—inue to do it until I die in my last Prayers you shall be interested with my dear Babes whom I hope God will take into Covenant with him and number them among his Adopted Ones and of that incorrupâ—ible Inheritance which is in Heaven I hope God will spare your Life to see them Educated and guide and assist you therein and theirs to be a blessing and comfort to you Coâ—sider your Condition is not single and alone this Country affords a multitude of the like sad and deplorable Instances let this make you more to possess your Soul with Patience and Humility calmly and quietly to submit to the good Will of God I have left a Paper behind me for you to read and our Friend can tell with what difficulty I write it therefore must have many Defects and Imperfections which must be over-looked and mended preserve â—he two Bibles for my dear James and Betty What shall I say more my Dearest I must break off with my Heart full of Love to thee and subscribe my self Thy most dear and Affectionate Husband till Death J. H. Octob. 3. 1685. Captain Abraham Ansley's Last Speech I Am come to pay a Debt to Nature 't is a Debt that all must pay though some after one manner and some after another The way that I pay it may be thought by sâ—me few ignominious but not so by me having long since as a true Engliâ—hman â—houâ—ht it my Duty to venture my â—ife in defence of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Arbitrary Power For this same purpose I came from my House to the D. of M's Army At first I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain and I was in all the Action the Fâ—ot was engaged in which I do not repent For had I a thousand Lives they should all have been engaged in the same Cause although it has pleased the wise God for reasons best known to himself to blast our Designs but he will deliver his People by ways we know nor think not of I might have saved my Life if I would have done as some narrow-soul'd Persons have done by impeaching others but I abhor such ways of Deliverance choosing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Life with Sin As to my Religion I own the way and Practice of the Independent Church and in that Faith I die depending on the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ for my Eternal Salvation His Blessing be with you all Farewell to thee poor England Farewell Abraham Ansley Mr. Annesley's Last Letter SIR I now send you my last Farewel being going to lay down my Life with joy and assurance of Life eternal for which blessed be the Holy one of Israel who never leaves nor forsakes those that put their trust in him and give you many thanks for your kindness to me the Lord make it up to you by pouring upon you a daily Portion of his most Holy Spirit and deliver you from your Bonds My Enemies have done what they could to afflict this Body but blessed be the most High who has given me Strength Patience and Courage to endure all they can lay upon me The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Fellowship of his Holy Spirit â—ttend you which is the Prayer of your dying Friend but living Brother in Christ Jesus ABRAHAM ANSLEY From Taunton Castle Sept. 21. 1685. Mr. Josias Askew's Letter to his Father Honoured Father I not having an opportunity to make my Gratitude known to you for all your Endeavours for the saving a poor vain perishing and troublesom Life and seeing it is all in vain I would desire you both to acquiesce in the Will of God and rejoyce with me for this happy day of my departure â—rom this State of Pilgrimage home to the Possession of those Heavenly Mansions which my God and Faâ—her hath provided for me in and through my Lord Jesus Christ It is â—n him alone I put my Trust and Confidence and theâ—efore can boldly sâ—y Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyâ—d yea rather that is risen again and is set down at the right hand of God making intercession for all those that have a well grounded Confidence in him My time is but short and by reason of Company I am disturbed therefore I conclude with my last Breath begging of God that he would keep you constant in his Fear in this day of great temptation and at last receive you to his Glory where we shall once more unite in praising without interruption or distraction World without end Amen Until which time the Grace of God the Father the Love of God the Son the comfortable Refreshings of God the Holy Ghost be with you all youâ—s and the whole Israel of God both now and for ever Which iâ— the hearty Prayer of your Son JOSIAS ASKEW Pray remember me to all with Joy Another Letter to his Friend MADAM YOU have been a Partaker with me in my troubleâ— I would also make you partaker with me in my Joys seâ—ing my Wedding day is come the day of the Bridgroom is at hand and I am this day to be stript of my Rags of Corruption to be cloathed upon with the white Robe of his Righteousness and Purity and to
King Charles the Second and the City of London beginning to raise her self out of her Ashes more stately and magnificent than before she sunk in Flames a Sacrifice to the Revenge and Malice of the Papists as by the late Inscription on the Monument and upon Record it appears This great City I say regaining her Trade her Priviledges and Customs were kept up with great exactness so that in the Courts at Guild-Hall there was much Business which being consider'd by this Person as more beneficial than that at Westminster by reason of its frequency and being carried on briefer and with less difficulty which induced him to give his Attendance as also at Hixes-Hall and other inferiour Courts and Places insomuch that he being of a bold Presence and having naturally a fluent Tongue an audible Voice and good Utterance he had not pleaded often before he was very much taken Notice of and gain'd so much Credit with the People that they prefer'd him before any of the younger sort of Barristers by which means he found his Stars begin to smile upon him so that he was in a manner Courted to take Fees and had Breviates thrust into his Hand frequently in the middle of a Cause by Persons when they perceived it went ill on their sides and was like to go against them Thus flush'd with success he now thought of nothing more than how he might climb nor did he want an Opportunity for the next Station we find him in is that of Common Serjeant to the great and honourable City of London and so much Fortune favour'd him at this time that Alderman Jeffreys the great Smoaker having often observ'd his Discourse and Actions took such a liking to him that being of the same Name tho' not in the least any Relation he back'd him with his Purse and Interest which was not inconsiderable and thereby not only enabled him to carry on his Grandeur but to purchase as he found a conveniency or advantage in order to his keeping it up in the World These I say being the Degrees by which he was climbing the slippery Stair of Honour to contract a firmer Alliance he Addressed himself to a brisk young Widow Daughter to Sir Thomas Bludworth then one of the Aldermen of the City and who in the time of the dreâ—dful Conflagration had the Chair as being then Lord Mayor and so far prâ—vail'd upon the Lady and her Father that he gain'd both their Consents and the Contract was made the Nuptials solemnized And soon after he had the pleasure to behold the Fruits of her Labour Sir John Howel the Recorder of London giving place the Recordership became vacant which made this Person lay hold of that Opportunity to use his own and the Interest of his Friends to acquire that Place of Trust and Honour nor did his Measures fail him for by the powerful influence he had by this time gain'd over sundry Persons who were best able to promote him to what he so earnestly labour'd to arrive at he was chosen and confirm'd Recorder of the Honourable City taking upon him the Charge and Care of the Writings Papers c. that belong to so great a Charge and Trust as that of a Recorder of the City of London By this means being become as himself declar'd The Mouth of the City and as we may term him Capital Judge in the Guild-Hall in Controversies at the Sessions held there c. and the Power of breathing forth Sentences of Punishment being put into his hands he found his Ambition enlarg'd aiming at nothing more than to become a Court-Favourite Nor was it long before an Opportunity offer'd it self to make him to be taken notice of For so it happened that some Persons had imprinted a Psalter and Entituled it the beter to shadow the Injury they had done to the Company of Stationers by invading their Property The King's Psalter which occasioning a Disputâ— it was referred to a Hearing before the Council at Whitehall the King being present and the Company the better to make out their Title and Claim carried with them this Person as their Counsel who in the opening of the Case and making the Complaint of the apparent Injury done to the Company in printing what was really their Propriety he had this Expression viz. They hâ—ve teem'd with a spurious Brat which being clandestinely midwiv'd into the World the better to cover the Imposture they lay it at your Majesties door c. This though the King might have taken it for sundry Reasons as a Reflection upon his Royal Person yet he was so far from resenting it that way that he only turned to one of the Lords that sâ—t next him and said This is a bold Fellow I 'll warrant him And indeed the Stationers had the Matter declar'd by the Honourable Board in their Favour About this time the Popish Plot being discovered by Dr. Oates and others the Nation was for a while in a Ferment and matters run extremely high in Disputes and Controversies and he sail'd with the Current declaring with much heat and violence against the Priests Jesuits and others of the Conspirators and Romish Faction as appeared not only by his vehement expressions in pleading against 'em but the alacrity and little concern that was visible in his Countenance when at any time as Recorder of London he past sentence of Death upon any of them which he frequently did with more or less reproach and became in a manner the terror of that Party But no sooner he perceiving the Wind tacking at Court and that there was some misunderstanding between King Charles the Second and his Parliament but he began to fall off and grow cold in prosecuting the ends of the Government being frequently at Court and labouring as much as in him lay to draw the Magistracy of the City after him as appears more especially by one passage viz. The King being recovered of an Indisposition that had for some time put the Kingdoms in a fear and doubt of his Life the Lord Mayor and Aldermen went to congratulate him upon his going abroad after which and a favourable reception it was proposed by this Person that they should in like manner wait upon his Royal Highness then Duke of York who was not long before returned from Flanders but perceiving no forwardness to be seconded he only with his Father-in-Law stayed behind to gain that Access These and other Proceedings created in the City a Jealousie that he had espoused an Interest to their prejudice which wrought so strongly in their Conceits that it was concluded in the Council-Chamber at Guild-Hall that he should resign his Recordership and accordingly they sent to him to deliver back the Papers and Writings they had entrusted him with which accordingly was done and Sir George Treby constituted Recorder in his stead This so netled him that he now openly declar'd himself to be what before was only suspected indulging his thoughts in nothing more than how he might
Party his name was Best and desired him to remember his Service to his Lordship upon notice of which he immediately caused him to be fetched back and committed him to York Goal from whence he was brought by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench and Imprisoned for a Fine of 500 l. c. And other instances of the greatness of his Stomach tho' in another nature is that which so remarkably happened at Kingstone upon Thames at the Midsummer Assizes held there for the County of Surrey 1679. At this Assize being Counsel in a Case upon Nisi prius before Sir Richard Weston one of the Baronâ— of the Exchequer and desiring to ingross all the Questions without suffering those on the other side to ask the Witness what was convenient in carrying on and managing the Cause he was desired by the Judges to hold his Tongue c. upon which some words passing this Person told him He did not use him like a Counsellor curbing him in the managing his Breviate c. to which the Judge fiercely replyed Ha! since the King has thrown his favours upon you in making you Chief Justice of Chester you think to run down every body if you find your self aggrieved make your complaintâ— here 's no body cares for it And this Person replying That he had not been used to make complaints but rather stopped those that were made when being again commanded to hold his Tongue he sat down and wept for anger c. And here by the way it will not be amiss to let the Reader have a taste of some passages that happened on the publick Stage of business in the Jocular part of this great Man's Life and the Repartees he met with of which I shall instance a few Once it happened upon a Trial that a plain Country Fellow giving Evidence in the Court and pressing it home moved this Person who was Counsel on the other side to pick a quarrel with the poor mans Leather Doublet and amongst other Interrogations bawl'd out You Follow in the Leather Doublet pray what have you for swearing The man upon this looking steadily on him replyeâ— Truly Sir if you have no more for Lying than I have for Swearing you might wear a Leather Doublet as well as I. This bluntly retorted moved at that time much laughter and filled the Town with the Discourse of it Another time it so fell out that some Musicianers brought an Action against a person at whose Wedding they had play'd for the money they were promised or expected when in the midst of the Evidence this Person called to one of them viz. You Fidler c. at which the man seeming to be disgusted he again upon the Parties alledging himself to be a Musicianer demanded What difference there was between a Musicianer and a Fidler As much Sir said he as there is between a pair of Bagpipes and a Recorder And he then being Recorder of London it was taken as a suitable Repâ—rtee A Country Gentleman having Marryed a City Orphan comes and demands her Fortune which was about 1100 l. but by all Friends that he could make could not procure it till he goes to Jeffreys then Recorder and gave him 10 Guineas to be his Friend to get out his Wifes Fortune upon which Jeffreys told him that the Court of Aldermen would sit such a day the Gentleman appearing was call'd in Jeffryes being present who ask'd him Sirrah what 's your business Upon which the Gentleman told him That he had married a City Orphan and desired he might have her Portion out o' th' Chamber upon which Jâ—ffreys askt him If he had askt the consent o' th' Court of Aldermen He told him No Upon which he call'd him Rogue Rascal Sirrah you should have ask't leave from the Court for such a Marriage He told him he understood not the custom o' th' City and begg'd their pardon being a Country Gentleman Upon this Jeffreys abus'd him again but afterwards gives him a Note for his Mony his Publick Railing upon him being only to blind the Court that they might not suspect him Bribed Being at a Country Assize as Judge an Old Man with a great Beard came to give Evidence before him and not doing it to his mind he began to cavil with his Beard and amongst other Expressions told him That if his Conscience was as large as his Beard he might well swear any thing This so netled the Old Blade that without any respect to his Greatness he briskly replyed My Lord If you go about to measure Consciences by Beards you Lordship has none Many more of this kind might be mentioned but not being greatly to the purpose they are willingly omitted Which the Reader will be apt to believe if he examines his Dealings with Mr. Moses Pitt Bookseller which that I may set in their true light I shall give 'em in Mr. Pitts own words which are as follows Among several Houses I built both in King-street and Duke-street Westminster I built a great House in Duke-street just against the Bird Cages in St. James's Park which just as I was a finishing I Lett to the Lord Chancellor Jeffreys with Stables and Coach-houses to it for 300 l. per Annum After which when he the said Chancellor came to see the House Alderman Duncomb the great Banker being with him and looking about him saw between the House and St. James's Park an idle piece of Ground he told me He would have a Cause-Room built on it I told him that the Ground was the Kings He told me that he knew it was but he would Beg the Ground of the King and give it me He also bid me make my own Demands and give it him in Writing the which I did and unto which he did agree and commanded me immediately to pull down the Park-Wall and to build as fast as I could for he much wanted the said Cause-Room My Agreement with him was That he should beg of King James all the Ground without the Park-Wall between Webbs and Storeys inclusive which said Ground is Twenty Five Foot in breadth and near Seven Hundred Foot in length to the best of my Memory for Ninety Nine Years at a Pepper-Corn per Annum which he the said Lord Chancellour was to make over the said King 's Grant to me for the said number of Years without any Altâ—rations with liberty to pull down or Build on the King's Wall and to make a Way and Lights into the King's Park according as I pleas'd In consideration of my Building on the said Ground of the Kings and the said Lord Chancellor's Enjoyment of it during his Occupation of the said House All which the Lord Chancellor Agreed to For that purpose sent for Sir Christopher Wren Their Majesties Surveyor and my self and Ordered Sir Christopher to take care to have the said Ground measured and a Plat-form taken of it and that Writings and Deeds be prepared for to pasâ— the Great Seal Sir Christopher ask'd