Bernard sometimes a Major under him by reason of his good parts and sober demeanor being in his good opinion frequently visited him and imparted to him such Occurrences as he met abroad in discourse and did intimate the discontents of the Levellers and Agitators and the proceedings of a certain Committee of Officers to which he was Clerk upon a printed charge against some of the Parliament for oppression c. By such discoveries he at last obtruded on the Colonel the acquaintance of one Capt. Helmes who soon after brought with him one Benson who pretended to have served under Sir John Gell who frequently produced Letters transcripts of Letters with the copying whereof he pretended to be intrusted by Mr. Rushworth which appeared to purport matters of State to be delivered to Mr. Bushel to be sent beyond-Sea These two insinuated what interest they had in the Reformadoes and the advantage would be done by them for the Royal Party and magnified Sir John Gells interest in his Country and his regret and reluctancie for what he had done for the Parliament Barnard then propounded that a design formerly in the War laid by him for the taking of the Isle of Ely might by the said assistance and Sir John's aid be revived and executed but this project failed In December 1649. Helmes brought the Col. instructions to draw up a Petition for Sir John Gell for his Arreares this procured a meeting where Sir John took notice of his ill requital for his Services and desired to be represented to his new Majesty as his Loyal Subject for the future and no more passed There coming out soon after an Act commanding Cavaliers to depart the City of London being in treaty about transplanting himself into Sir Edward Plowdens Plantation in New Album He was again visited by Major Barnard and Benson who gave him notice of a câ—nsiderable design laid ond friends and mony to back it and that he should have 200 pound and power to draw more by bills of Exchange if I would go over and promote the said design with the Prince and then in general terms acquainted him that it was an easie matter the Cavaliers going out of Town by correspondence in all Counties to surprize uhe Horse of the Army in their several Quarters the Col. answer was that if the mony were ready he would entertain the motion Next day after they came again and told him that the Gentlemen of Kent Buckingham and Dorset would presently be near the Town and would joyn in an Engagement and raise mony that Sir John Gell would engage likewise and might easily bring in his Friends Sir Andrew Knevela Sir Guy Palmes Mr. Fieqherbert c. and therefore desired the Colonel to draw an Engagement which he did in a loose Paper according to the sense they instructed him and to move Sir John Gell in the business but pressed not the Coll. then to joyn in the same Accordingly he spoke with Sir John who refused to joyn or meddle in the design not daring to trust Benson but renewed his desire to the Col. if he went over to possess the King with a good opinion of him This answer did not altogether unsatisfie Barnards who appointedâ—the same few days after a meeting at the Yhree-crane-Tavern in the Savoy for a meeting where should be present the Gentlemen of the aforesaid Counties but they met not only Barnard and Bâ—nson and one Capt. Ashley Barnard produced Letters that the Kentish Gentlemen were come to Rochester and would come but within 12 miles of London that night he durst go no further that day for fear of Col. Blunt and that they did the mony and had sent for him with a Guide to bring him to them so he departed to take Horse while the other two pressed him again to get Sir John Gell to seal an Engagement which Benson had engrossed which he refused and told them he was able to satisfie any body of Sir John Gel's reality though not actually engaged That same night comes a Messenger unknown to him from Barnard highly blaming the Col. and Sir John Gell of backwardness in with-holding their hands from the Engagement and that thereupon his Kentish friends would proceed no further as this Smith the Messenger took upon him to be informed from them but the Col. insisting that Sir John was not to be urged further This Smith and Ashley departedâ— and promised to pay the mony the next night at the Pals-graves-heads But failing of their promise and the next day the Colonel according to the Act being to depart the Town Ashley delivered him that night a Letter from Barnard pressing him to subscribe the Engagement which Benson engrossed and that done he would go the nextâ—day with him to Graves-end where the Kentish Gentlemen should not fail to meeâ— him Being come to Graves-end alone Barnard as Benson pretended being at Tattenham Court with the Bucking ham shire Gentlemen there were none of the Kentish Gentlemen come thither but two days after comes Barnard and Smith with a Letter from Benson intimating that if Sir John Gell would not engage with those whose names were subscribed they would go over to the King and spoil his Reputation and the Colonels both there and that he had Letters from Sir John to produce which should make him repent his refusal and therefore desired Col Andrews to write to Sir John Gell which he did laying the Case before him so they parted from the Colonel agreeing if they got Sir John's Seal to come down to Gravesend and so to Rochester for the mony and performance of the Confederacy or else to let the businesse fall and return the Col. his Seal and Engagement And while the poor betrayed Gentleman was in this suspense he was seized at his Inn in Gravesend by a party of Horse and brought prisoner to London This Narrative of his own was postilled with this Address to the three that examined him My Lords IN this Narrative you will see a believing Nature wrought upon by treacherous men such who cannot be true to any while false to Parties The pretended Design vanisht as never being more then a Phantasme and not worth the regard the real Design effected so far as they had power and opportunity that is to bring the Game into the Foil and there leave them entangled to be made a Quarry You will finde me passively Astive being prompted and enticed by their insinuation and not once but hearkening to them It lies in your Lordships power to cut me off by extending whereof you can arrive at no honour amongst men and possibly by an Act of Lenity you may do an Office acceptable to God Cujus fiat volunt as modo in mina mea Whosoever shall be present at my Tryal or into whose hands this Narratiue shall fall will easily conclude with me Quoâ— vult perdi Deus hos prius Dementat Euseb Andrews Shortly after he was called again and was confronted with Sir John Gell and avowed
my soul Amen And so meekly laying his Neck to the block and giving a sign his head at one blow and a draw of the axe was severed from his body Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr. Hewyt beheaded on Tower hill June 8. 1658. THis was the last Act of Cromwel's Tragedies Death putting soon after a period to his Usurpation and Epilogizing other mens fate with his own his life had been attended and his hours measured with stillation of blood now they were determined this full pomp of slaughter went before and ushered his long desired Funerals to his usurped Grace He never stirt'd a Plot but money stuck at the bottom He had an Army of Janizaries which without constant pay could never be kept at his beck and obedience and all the design he practised could not raise him money without the tricks of Jealousies and Fears that State-Device serving by fondness and force to bring in mony for the Cause from the beginning to the very ending and this was the original of this horrid Plot. For nothing else can be made out he had lately so frighted all men by his known intelligence at the Kings Court that none but mad-men except the condition of the Tyrannie were altered would venture upon any new Contrivance the Usurper being stronger and farther seated in his Domination then ever before and the severity of his Revenge against those whom he took in such practices was so fresh and recent in memory that nothing but Desperation could thrust men upon such Pikes Therefore ho had recourse to his old Artifices and because no body would be dealing with him he would be dealing with others to make the people believe and apprehend danger and afterwards pay for the delivery from that is to say for the perpetration of it The Design was laid in all quarters North East West and South but centred in the City of London 't was a General Conbination betwixt him and his Secretary and so â—e not dive in it further but leave those parties who are concerned in the death 's of these and some preceding persons to consider of the rest and proceed to the Narrative The first man that was produced in this Plot which was to subvert the Usurpation till the Tyrant introduce and restore our Sovereign with a particular kind reference to the City which should be fired by its former Incendiaties was Sir Henry Slingsby a Gentleman of a very Noble Family in York shire of an ample and large Revenue and Estate in York shire but exhausted and wasted in the Kings Service and afterwards wholly sequestred for the Parliament This Knight for some time before had been a prisoner in Hull in order to the security of the Peace as their Tyrannie termed it but for manyyeares together no stranger to such demeurances In that Garrison he became acquainted as the solace of misery and life necessirated him with some of the Officers they likewise insinuating and ingratiating with him but more particularly when instructions were given them of trapanning him into some design against their Sultan Cromwel This engaged them into a nearer famisiarity Sir Henry's case and hard usage is lamented the state of the Kingdome laid open and the oppression of the people aggravated with many the like overtures to feel if the pulse of Sir Henry would beat an Alarm to an insurrection which for their part truly they feared but should not draw a Sword against any who should so attempt the regaining and recovery of their liberty To these Discoveries Sir Henry gave some pleasant but not serious eare though he did not utterly disbelieve the discontents of those men knowing if it was absolute truth they spoke and might in time be accomplished and therefore let fall some words tending to that purpose on which they replying and professing their serious service to the King if occasion presented it drew some further matter from Sir Henry which was the offering of a Commission to them to secure that place for the King This was an old Commission and which had lain by him a long while â—oremote and distant were his thoughts from effecting any thing Before they had thus brought him on and had then produced upon the sudden and unexpected hopes of gaining that Town The producing of this Commission was enough for their Tyrants satisfaction who straight gave Order that he should be sent up to London who after some Examination he was sent to the Tower and finally brought before a High Court of Justice where he manifested the Juggle by which he was brought into the snare and demonstrated the impossibility of his doing any prejudice to the State but that was no Argument there so that he was sentenced to be beheaded by vertue of a late Act of one of Olivers Conventions whereby it was made Treason to hold intelligence with the Kings Majesty Much application was made to save his life by the Lord Viscount Fauconbridge his Nephew who had lately married one of the Usurpers Daughters but as Sir Henry said at the Scaffold he was inexorable the truth is the Tyrant supposed that his not sparing a person so related to him would make all the World believe there was a reality of some horrid design which could not be dispensed with without extream danger to the publique He said very sittle at his death not caring to busy the world with his concerns having spoken largely to his Charge at his Trial before the said High Court the substance on the Scaffold was this The fatal Execution of Sir Henry Slingsby on Tuesday the 8. of June 1658. upon Tower-Hill With the substance of his speech before his Death ABout Eleven of the Clock Sir Henry Slingsby was brought from the Tower to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill whither being come he fell upon his knees and for a short space prayed privately Then standing up he did with a very low voice address himself to that noble Gentleman Mr. Sheriff Robinson telling him that what he had to say he would speak to him which was to this purpose That he had received a Sentence to die upon account of his endeavouring to betray the Garrison of Hull But said All that be did in that businesse he was drawn into by others That the Officers of that Garrison did believe he had some greater Design in hand and therefore they would needs pump him to the bottom But what he spake to them in private was brought into evidence against him He likewise said That he did no more than any person would have done that was so brought on That he had made many applications by his Friends for a Reprieve but found his Highnesse was inexorable He did confess that he did deliver a Commission as it was charged against him But said that it was an old Commission and what he meant was well known to himself but what construction others had made of it might appear by his present condition He dscovered little sense of sorrow or fear of Death but
of Community where on behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my daies are shortned by this unexpected doom and shall he brought untimely to the Grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this land and cannot but blesse them all in the name of God and beseech God to blesse them all the blessing of the Almighty be upon them Colonel Edward Ashton John Bettely and Edward Stacy Executed July 2. 1658. THese persons being all Arraigned together at the same High Court with four more being concerned in one Sentence and one pretended Crime I have put together and briefly will give you an account of them They were charged to have conspired the raising of a new War the firing of the City and the Death of Cromwel to which they all pleaded not guilty as all the World did judge them who sensibly understood the detestable practice against them Colonel Ashton was then a prisoner for Debt in Newgate but by the Keepers favour having liberty to go abroad one day fell into Company with some of Cromwel's Trapan's who finding or perhaps knowing him to be a Cavalier uttered in his Audience such dangerous words as those and without amy more ado delated him to the Secretary as conscious and partaker to the design which was all his guilt as he justified it upon his Death which he suffered in Tower-street by being hanged drawn and quarrered where he declared his Loyalty to the King but took it upon his approaching salvation he was innocent of any the Crimes charged against him John Bettely suffered next being brought from the Tower to Cheapside in the same Sledge that drew Colonel Ashton from Nawgate their Executions being divided into several quarters of the City as their pretended Plot was of firing it the old Cheat of picking out places to attend the guilt and to collogue with the City by the dissembled care thereof and near the Crosse Executed in the same manner where he likewise protested his Innocency being meerly betrayed by those Ruffian Emissaries of Cromwels After he had hung a long while that every one concluded him dead in a strange miraculous way as might serve to the confusion of his Blood-thirsty Enemies he pulled off his Cap and held it in both hands staring with his eyes as if alive but the Executioner quickly after dispatcht him and concluded his Martyrdom Mr. Edward Stacy was hanged onely two dayes after where he said the like and suffered with patience the losse of this temporal to enjoy with unspeakable happinesse Life Everlasting The others Were Reprieved and by the Death of Cromwel soon after set at Liberty which was consummated at the Restauration of his Sacred Majesty whose benign Rayes of Peace and Security have dryed up all our Teares of sorrow and mourning into Teares of Joy and is leaving us to forget our past miseries and losses of our Liberties Estates and Relations CAROLO SECVNDO TER Maximo Britanniarum Franciae Regi Precibus Martyrum Revocato restituto Restitutori In sacrosanctam Beatissimam Memoriam TAM Pientissimi Patris ac Principis QUAM Fidelium Heroum ac Procerum Caeterorumque Subditorum Qui pro Rege Lege mortem sunt perpessi HOC OBLATUM Humillime vovet Dicatque F. H. To the most Illustrious TRIUMVIRATE The Heirs of Martyr'd LOYALTY and HONOUR Charles Earl of Derby c. William Earl of Strafford Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter c. and Arthur Earl of Essex c. My Lords THis Piece directs it self into your hands for without a greater presumption it could not pass them Your Noble Families were the resplendent Triones that accompanied the Devex of Charles his Wain his Morning and Evening attendants that portended and extended his Declination for in two of them He suffered beyond His own Fate being plunged with Him in the depths of the same Red Sea and are now risen again in a full and most radient lustre They were that Constellation that directed three wandring Kingdoms into their way of Loyalty and pointed out the due veneration to the King their Redeemer It was their all-powerful Influence of Duty and Obedience that hath serened these Times The dark Obscurity of that Cloud that hid them in their death soon revealed it self in Glory This storm which tempested these Kingdoms being laid by their Bloud which was poured out like water in the streets hath brought again our Halcyon dayes and turned our Miseries into Jubilees This is the supererrogated Merit of your Illustrious Parents whom this Age and Posterity shall reverence and admire That your Lordships may surmount their Vertues as well as their difficulties as you have exceeded their Titles that you may as the Branches of those Vines which being made to bleed produce more generous and abundant Fruits that you may be the delight and Joy of these Nations and flourish for ever is and shall be the incessant prayers of My Lords Your Honours most obedient and Devoted Servant James Heath THE AUTHOUR TO THE READER THis is only to inform you that I have used my best endeavors to be punctually true in these Collections but in such Distractions of the times and Divisions of the mind and opinion in which they were registred I hope to be excused if there be any uncertainty found therein If I have omitted any out of this Martyrology or have slightly passed them over it is for want of fuller Information I likewise desire all the Persons Related to them would be pleased to give me a better Account then our Re-searches could arrive at and I shall insert rectifie and enlarge their Narrative as occasion shall offer For the Confessors I acknowledge I have not been nice nor yet have I been uncurious in their Catologue I suppose I have set down the most Noted and Publick Persons but if there be more to add I shall be very ready to do their Memory the Honours that duly appertain to them Vale. Courteous Reader BE pleased to pass by the Errours of the Press where-ever you meet with them and Pag. 119. Title for Wesiminster read Winchester A CATALOGUE AND Brief Account of the Confessors of the Royal Cause I Should undertake a volumenous and as difficult a labour were it my purpose here to register all those gallant persons that have suffered in their liberty estates for their Loyalty But I confine my self to the chief of those only who by particular Orders of Parliament their pretended Courts of Law and High Courts of Justice were vexed oppressed and persecuted even to the brinks of death leaving the other to the reward of a good Conscience and the faithful record thereof in Heaven These ensuing illustrious and Noble Patterns as well for imitation as