Men wink hard that they may not be convinced who will not reasonably conclude from those very Reports only were there no other sort of Evidence that this Brave and Honourable but unfortunate Earl was indeed barbarously Murdered for you may observe all those Reports in many Places of England Agree in the Manner how and the Place where for all said that the Earl had cut his Throat in the Tower One Report doth not say the Earl had destroyed himself which might have comprehended any manner of death neither do any of those Reports say That my Lord had Poisoned Stab'd Hanged or Pistolled himself all which are common ways of Self-destruction and either might have been practiced by any Gentleman under Confinement neither do either of those Reports differ in the Place where Note though all those Places where the Report was before my Lord's death that my Lord had cut his Throat in the Tower could not at the time of this Report be presumed to have been informed of my Lord 's being in the Tower I say all these Reports jump in one and the same manner of Self murder and all agree in the Place where viz. the Tower. This clearly proves that some days before my Lord's very Commitment to the Tower it was concluded not only that my Lord should be murdered in the General but likewise the Particular manner how and the Place where resolved upon For how could Froome being a Hundred Miles from London hear Wednesday Morning the 11th of July of my Lords being Prisoner in the Tower when his Lorship was not sent to the Tower till the day before being the 10th in the Afternoon Or how could this Commitment be well heard of at Andover about Sixty Miles from London on Wednesday Morning Tuesdays Post not being there till Wednesday in the Afternoon when the Commitment was not till the Tuesday in the Afternoon and yet at both these Places this very Wednesday Morning was it reported that the Earl had cut his Throat in the Tower. L. 'To me 't is beyond all doubt from what before appears that the Tower must be fixed upon as the place where this perfidious Cruelty was to be acted before my Lord was Prisoner in the Tower and the particular manner concluded in or otherwise the Reports as to the manner how and place where would have differed G. But how could it be supposed to be sent from hence the Saturday before my Lord's death that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower when it was well known throughout this Town that my Lord was not then in the Tower nor committed till the Tuesday following T. Upon the best Inquiry I could make and the most probable reason I can give how this came so reported in the Country before it was indeed done is this It was resolved upon as D. S. deposeth Nine days before my Lord's death that my Lord's Throat should be cut Now those that were privy to the whole Secret and were willing to oblige their Country Correspondents and Friends with this to that bloody Party grateful resolution That the Earl's Throat was to be cut in the Tower and laid to his own Charge and this to be done either soon after his first Commitment or upon my Lord Russell's Tryal which was put off some short time such as had received so weighty Intelligence were likewise willing and ready partly out of a desire to oblige their Friends in the Country to whom this Design might be as acceptable and partly out of an Itch of telling News and of being the first in the Country that gave Information of this to them glad-tidings not doubting but my Lord's Throat was indeed cut when it was first resolved upon to be cut viz. either upon his first Commitment which they might suppose would have been before it was all things being so resolv'd upon or upon my Lord Russell's Tryal which was to have been before it was but put off of which these Country Intelligencers might not hear These I say being informed that the matter was thus laid concluded the thing was done as it was so designed to be done and so reported the thing as done before it was indeed done G. I took more particular notice of F's Information Note than of either of the Eight If I mistake not F. swears that the Wednesday before my Lord's Death it was reported at Andover That the King and Duke being in the Tower the Earl was afraid the King would have come up into his Chamber and have seen him but his guilt and shame was such in consideration of his great ingratitude to the best of Masters that he cut his Throat to avoid it I desire to see this Information again T. You are as to the Substance in the right G. This looks as though the Story were made after my Lord's Death for the King and Duke went not to the Tower till Friday Morning and their then going was altogether a surprize to the whole Town And after the Earl's Death their being then there occasioned very gross reflections seeing they had not been as I have been credibly informed above twice together in the Tower since the Restoration Now that this unfortunate Action the Earl's Death should be cloathed in the very same circumstances as afterwards pretended to be done not only as to the Manner how ☞ the Place where but likewise the Reason wherefore which Reason sets forth the King and Duke's being in the Tower when the Earl did it and done to avoid seeing his Majesty for the Earl as was said was afraid the King would have come up into his Chamber and seen him but the King and Duke's being in the Tower could neither be foreseen nor expected this I say makes F's Evidence scarce credible T. Neither the Cutting the Earl's Throat or the place where it was to be done or who was to be there viz. the King and Duke when it was to be done could be either foreseen or expected by any but those who either laid this bloody Scene or were privy by Information to its contrivance and such as well knew or had been informed how this matter was resolved upon may well be supposed capable of giving a particular Information of this cruel Tragedy L. I do well remember that the very Morning my Lord dy'd there was a small Paper cry'd about of the Earl's Death wherein it was so represented and the common report of the Town then was That the Earl cut his Throat for the same reason so long before assigned by the report at Andover I must confess this is very astonishing and whosoever believes F's Evidence only must from such a belief be fully assured not only that the Earl's Throat was designed to be cut but likewise that it was contrived to be done in the same circumstances it was afterwards acted under for else it could not possibly be so circumstantially reported before my Lords Death not only as to the How and the
is proved by Eight Witnesses L. Enough sure to one point G. If their credit be good none ought to doubt what is attested by so many L. The Scripture saith that in the mouth of Two Witnesses a thing shall be confirmed he that will doubt the truth of a Fact attested by Eight credible Persons is not to be argued with T. Pray read these Eight Informations G. W. T. declareth and is ready to depose that Wednesday being the 11th of July 1683 the second day before the Death of the late Earl of Essex one Mr. H. of Froom in Somersetshire told this Informant that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower. This Informant farther saith that about the 18th of the same Month of July in the Year aforesaid meeting some Clothiers then newly come from London the Clothiers declared to this Informant that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower Fryday before about Nine of the Clock in the morning upon which this Informant declared he had heard it from Mr. H. the Wednesday before my Lords Death This Informant farther saith that meeting the said Mr. H. soon after this Informant asked the said Mr. H. how he could inform this Informant the Wednesday before my Lord of Essex's Death that my Lord had cut his Throat in the Tower when it appeared that my Lord of Essex did not dye till Eryday morning after about Nine of the Clock Upon which the said H. answered that all concluded my Lord of Essex would either cut his Throat or be an Evidence against his Friend my Lord Russel and most believed my Lord would rather cut his Throat then turn Evidence against his Friend J. B. of Marlborough in the County of Wilts Pinmaker declareth and is ready to depose that he this Informant was at Froom about 8 in the morning about 100 Miles from London Fryday the 13th of July in the Year of our Lord 1683 and this Informant then heard at the Dolphin aforesaid that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower and the Person that informed this Informant then farther declared that he much feared it might go the worse with my Lord Russel which that day was to be try'd Mrs. M. declareth and is ready to depose that Thursday the 12th of July 1683 going with her Daughter into Barkshire her Daughter informed this Informant that the night before being Wednesday night a Gentleman declared it was reported one of the Lords in the Tower had cut his Throat Mr. P. H. Merchant and his Wife both declare and are ready to depose that these Informants were at Tunbridge-Wells about Thirty Five Miles from London the day of the Death of the late Earl of Essex My Lord is not known to be dead 〈◊〉 after Nine and about Ten of the Clock that very morning it was whispered nigh the Wells that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower but the same was soon contradicted and hushed up till Chappel was ended which was about or a little before Twelve of the Clock and then the same report was revived and so continued without any contradiction T. F. of Andover about 60 Miles from London declareth and is ready to depose that the 10th of July 1683 being the Wednesday next before the Death of the late Earl of Essex this Informant heard it reported at Andover aforesaid that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower and it was that same Wednesday likewise declared that the Earl cut his Throat for this reason ☜ viz. the King and Duke coming into the Tower where the Earl of Essex was a Prisoner for High Treason the Earl was afraid the King would have came up into his Chamber and have seen him but his Guilt and Shame was such that he could not bear the thoughts of it having been so ungrateful an Offender against so good a Master therefore his Lordship cut his Throat to avoid it This Informant farther saith that the same Wednesday night inquiring at the Coffee-house whether the London Letters made any mention of this he could hear of none that writ of it upon which this Informant concluded it was false though the same report continued at Andover This Informant further saith that by Friday Post he did expect a Confirmation of the same but could not upon inquiry hear of any London Letters that spoke of it upon which this Informant concluded all was false But Saturday being the 14th of July the very next day after the Earl's death this Informant was told that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower upon which this Informant declared he had heard the same repeating what he had as before heard the Wednesday before upon which this Informant was told that it was very strange seeing the Earl did not cut his Throat till the Friday after at or a little after Nine of the Clock in the Morning J. B. Declareth and is ready to Depose That he this Informant lay at Andover about Sixty Miles from London Thursday night the 12th of July 1683. the very next day before the death of the late Earl of Essex and as this Informant Fryday Morning about Four of the Clock was going out with the Ostler to catch his Horse the Ostler several times over-told this Informant that the night before it was reported at his Masters House that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower. This Informant further saith That the very same day in the Afternoon he came to his own House in Southwark in the County of Surry and was then Informed that the Earl of Essex that very Morning between Nine and Ten of the Clock had cut his Throat in the Tower upon which this Informant was much surprized having as before heard the same at Andover nigh Sixty Miles from London above Four hours before the Earl's death J. S. of Bolt and Tun Court is ready to Depose That at or before Six of the Clock that very Morning the late Earl of Essex dy'd in the Tower viz. July the 13th 1683. there came into this Informants House a Gentleman who with much concern told this Informant he had just before heard the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower but this Informant about a Eleven of the Clock the same day being informed that the Earl was not dead till about Nine of the Clock This Inforformant was much surprized at the Report of my Lord 's having cut his Throat so many Hours before the Earl's death G. Have any of these eight been sworn before the Lords T. I have been informed by all those Eight Witnesses that they have Deposed in Substance as you have before heard This previous Report can be prov'd by many more but if these eight will not satisfie eightscore will not convince L. I think no Man can well doubt the Truth of this Report before my Lord's death thus Deposed by so many Witnesses T. Those
own But they were both thought deserving of Death for their cruel Treachery and were Executed accordingly G. Had we not already been too troublesome to you in this particular and satisfactory Relation I should beg one favour further T. Your further Satisfaction in this Matter may command from me whatsoever is convenient to be told and beyond that I desire you not to move me G. More than you have already declared I don't now desire to know but I perceive there have been very many Persons in this Case Sworn to many Particulars so that the Relation of the whole Matter hath been long but to me not tedious because I have received full Satisfaction in that wherein before I was extreamly Abused by Misinformation Sir If it may not be too tiresome to you I would desire you to Abstract the most material Proofs before mentioned and give us as short as you well can the substance of what is before deposed T. In this I shall readily serve you but I shall not observe the very same Method as before but shall begin with the Disproof of my Lord's Self-murder by destroying those forged Informations which would prove him so and Secondly shall prove him barbarously Murdered First For the disproof of the Self-murder The Right Honourable Arthur late Earl of Essex was Committed to the Tower Tuesday the 10th of July 1683. and there were placed over his Lordship two Warders viz. Monday and Russel and one Servant viz. Paul Bomeny permitted to be attending on my Lord the very next Friday morning about Nine of the Clock his Lordship was found Dead in his Closet with his Throat cut through both Jugular Arteries to the Neck-bone Now seeing our Law presumes every Man destroyed by violent Hands is Murdered by others unless such Evidence appears as gives Satisfaction in the contrary and proves him a Self-murderer This Lord had been found barbarously Murdered had not Bomeny Monday and Russel appeared to prove otherwise and they endeavour to prove it shortly thus My Lord of Essex they say called for a Pen-knife to pare his Nails which Pen-knife not being ready he required a Razor which was accordingly delivered him with which his Lordship having pared his Nails he retired into his Closet and locks himself in and there cut his Throat the Razor before delivered to pare his Nails lying by the Body But that this Relation is forged and that there was First no Razor delivered to my Lord to pare his Nails nor had his Lordship pared his Nails with any Secondly Neither the Body locked into the Closet Nor Thirdly The Razor lying locked in by the Body when my Lord was first know to be Dead is evident from what follows which clearly detects this Forgery For the first of these that there was no Razor delivered to my Lord. This appears by the Contradictions of Bomeny Russel and Monday as to the time of the delivery of this Razor for Bomeny first Swears he delivered this Razor to my Lord to pare his Nails on Friday morning at eight of the Clock and within two hours positively swears in the Deposition himself writ that he delivered it on Thursday morning at Eight of the Clock being the day before his Death and this as to the Thursday he swears Positively and Circumstantially Positively for he doth expressly name Thursday as the day on which the Razor was delivered and Circumstantially for he doth swear the Razor was delivered the very next Morning after my Lord came to Captain Hawley's and his Lordship went to Hawley on Wednesday the 11th of July But Russel Swears a Point-blank Contradiction to Bomeny's Oath for Russel deposeth and now declares That on Friday Morning in less than half an hour before they found my Lord Dead in his Closet he stood as Warder at my Lord's Chamber-door Monday that Morning having first stood as Warder on my Lord and was then gone down to stand below Stairs and heard my Lord ask Bomeny for a Pen-knife to pare his Nails which being not ready his Lordship required a Razor which he did immediately see Bomeny deliver his Lordship But Monday doth as directly give the lye to Russel as Russel did to Bomeny for Monday the day may Lord dy'd declared he saw my Lord have a Razor in his Hand paring his Nails with it at Seven a Clock that Morning my Lord died and this about two hours before Russel came up to stand as Warder at my Lord's Chamber-door Wherefore unless it can be reconciled how this Razor should be delivered Thursday Morning at Eight of the Clock according to Bomeny's Oath and yet not delivered till Friday Morning Nine of the Clock within half an hour of the time his Lordship was found Dead and delivered whilst Russel stood Warder at the Chamber-door as Russel deposeth and notwithstanding this my Lord to have had the Razor and pared his Nails with it two hours before Russel came up Stairs to stand Warder at my Lord's Chamber as Monday declared the very day my Lord died I say Unless these Contradictions can be reconciled it can't be thought that any Razor at all was delivered And then whereas all declared my Lord pared his Nails with the Razor by strict Observation it appeared his Lordship's Nails were not newly before his Death either pared or scraped Secondly That the Closet-door was not locked upon my Lord's Body appears by the Contradictions of these three as to the opening the Closet-door Bomeny first swore He did open the Door when my Lord would not answer upon his knocking at the Door and there saw my Lord lying Dead in his Blood and the Razor by him and he then called the Warders but immediately swears in Contradiction to his first Oath that he peeped through a Chink of the Door and saw Blood and part of the Razor and then without opening the Door ran and called Russel who thereupon first opened the Door And at Mr. Braddon's Tryal Swears he knew not who opened the Door Russel deposeth he did first open the Door and makes no difficulty in it then comes Monday and gives the lye to both For Monday the very day my Lord died declared what he hath since often confirm'd That neither Bomeny or Russel could stir the Door my Lord's Body lay so close and hard against the Door and he being stronger than either put his Shoulders against the Door and pressing with all his might broke it open Whosoever there is that can reconcile these Contradictions in these three Mens Relations and make all appear credible Erit mihi Magnus Apollo A further Argument That the Closet-door was not locked upon the Body appears by my Lord's Legs lying upon the Threshold of the Closet-door when the Body was pretended not to have been stired from its first Posture Thirdly That there was no Razor lying locked in with the Body when the Body was first found appears by the bloody Razor 's being thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window which is about seventeen
Higher than the highest regardeth Etc. 5 8 He that 〈◊〉 the Eyes shall he not 〈…〉 〈…〉 me from the ground 〈…〉 vagabond shalt thou be 〈…〉 〈…〉 shall he not heare 〈◊〉 Throw him down Murder Murder Murder Put him to the Closâ—â—t Stop his mouth B. the Bed R where the razor was pretended to be found clerv the Closset window st the Close Stole E. the bloody foot an my Lords Stockin c. the only Chink of the Closset door ch the Chimney civ the Chamber window out of which the razor was thrown CD the Chamber door E the Earl of Essex as he was first found by those yt. saw the body before it was pretended to be moued C D Innocency and Truth Vindicated AN ACCOUNT Of what hath been or is ready to be deposed to prove the Most Treacherous and Cruel Murder Of the Right Honourable ARTHUR late Earl of ESSEX With Reflections upon the Evidence and the most material Objections against this Murder discuss'd and answered In a Conference between three Gentlemen concerning the present Inquiry into the Death of that Noble Lord and true Patriot Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed Gen. 9.6 For Blood it defileth the Land and the Land cannot be cleansed of the Blood that is shed therein but by the Blood of him that shed it Numb 35.33 Magna est Veritas praevalebat Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIX To the Right Honourable the LORDS of the late COMMITTEE appointed to examine into the Death of that Noble LORD and True PATRIOT ARTHUR late EARL of ESSEX My LORDS COuld I have manag'd the Evidence in Proof of the Murder of this Honourable Lord with that strength and efficacy they are capable of nothing would more plainly have appeared to the impartial Reader than this to me great Truth viz. That the Right Honourable Arthur late Earl of Essex was most Treacherously and Barbarously Murdered But such as it is I do with all Humility cast it at your Lordships Feet to whose great Judgments I shall with intire resignation submit My Lords Having long known and been lately much conversant with Mr. Braddon I have had often Opportunities of discoursing almost every Witness in this Case examined and such as I my self have not spoke with I have from him been informed what such have declared And though the Account I have here given of what these have related which have been examined before your Lordships be more large and particular than their Depositions because I have had repeated Opportunities of hearing their Relations yet if themselves say true nothing in these Papers is contradictory to or inconsistent with what they have deposed before your Lordships My Lords In the Account at large I have first stated the Case as to the pretended Self-Murder as it was and is endeavoured to be proved by those immediately attending on my Lord and then I have divided the Proofs for this Murder into three General Heads as they have relation to Time Whether First Before the Day of my Lord's Death Secondly The Day of his Death Thirdly Subsequent to the Day of his Death And after every Proof I have raised all such Objections I could in Conversation ever meet with or my self could object which carried the least colour of Argument against such Evidence and the Solutions with all humility are submitted to your Lordships Censures In the Abstract I have observed this Order First I have stated the Case as represented and sworn by those that would prove the Self-Murder and then detected the Falsity of every Part of those Relations After which I have briefly considered the other Proofs in the same Order of Time as the Discourse at large My Lords Several things here mentioned have not as yet been before your Lordships some of these Relations having not been known to Mr. Braddon before your Lordships Committee was dissolved But these after-Testimonies and some other things not here taken notice of will be brought before your Lordships as soon as your Lordships shall think fit to move that those Depositions and Examinations now sealed up may be taken out of the House by your Lordships and to those added such other Testimonies as have been taken before several Justices since the Report made or are ready to be taken and then that as well such as are now sealed up as those others which have been or shall be deposed may be reported by your Lordships in such Method as to your Lordships great Wisdom shall seem most meet After which I doubt not but all your Lordships and the whole World will be convinced of that Truth which the Interest of so many have industriously endeavoured to stifle But there is no Power of Earth and Hell when conjoined can make that Thing never to have been which was And therefore if my Lord was treacherously and barbarously murdered no Interest or Strength what-ever can make him a Self-murderer Truth may be destroyed in its Credit but never in its Being and the Measures that have been taken to discredit the Proof of this Murder have been sufficiently detected as false which hath not a little increased the Credibility of that which those Counter-Evidences would have rendered incredible and false My Lords No two Truths in Nature are inconsistent for then a Thing would be and not be at the same time wherefore when Men would subvert the belief of a Truth they do raise some Falshood which stands in opposition to such Truth but if once this Falshood appears in its true Colour then doth it give stronger credit to that Truth which before it was designed to prejudice My Lords every Man's Defence virtually concludes If my Defence be false my Charge is true This Conclusion the Law makes in all Civil Actions and it 's according to the Reason of the Thing For all Men presume that every Man accused will make use of the best Arguments especially in Matters of Fact he can for his Defence and if those appear false he falls under a Self-Condemnation My Lords tho this Discourse is printed it 's not published nor above 200 printed as is ready to be proved neither will one of these be communicated to any if your Lordships shall so order it for all are kept till Mr. Braddon receives your Lordships Commands as to their disposal My Lords I could wish I had not been so large in this Discourse seeing your Lordships whole time is so ingrossed by the Publick that I fear the State can scarce allow your Lordships any hours of perusal My Lords tho I can't but humbly beseech your Lordships Pardon for this Presumption yet I could not without being guilty of the greatest Injustice any otherwise dedicate this Discourse seeing what hath been already discovered is chiefly owing to your Lordships unwearied Diligence in those many Committees in which your Lordships have so often sat in search of a Truth which the Impenitency of some and the industrious Interest of others have strongly opposed But maugre
all Oponents the matter is as I do humbly conceive so far detected as Circumstantial Evidence is almost capable of and those that will not be convinced of the Truth of a Murder unless positively attested demand such Proof for their Conviction as no Law requires Now that the God of Wisdom Righteousness and Truth may direct and prosper your Lordships in this and all other Vndertakings is the Humble Prayer of My Lords Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant P. V. The CONTENTS p. for Page c. for Colume THE Introduction Pag. 1. Col. 1. False Reports to prejudice the Discovery p. 2. Two Orders of the Lords p. 3. c. 1. How this Case first came before the Lords p. 3. c. 2. My Lord of Essex's Commitment to the Tower p. 4. c. 2. Bomeny 's Information before the Coroner printed p. 5. c. 2. Russel and the two Chirurgeons Informations before the Coroner p. 6. c. 1 2. The Substance of what was sworn before the Coroner to prove the Self-murder p. 6. c. 2. What Monday declareth p. 6. c. 2. What Major Hawley declareth p. 7. c. 1. Bomeny Monday Russel and Lloyd denied the letting in any Men to my Lord that morning my Lord died p. 7. c. 1. The Order into which the Evidence is divided p. 7. c. 2. Do. Smith 's Evidence to prove the Papists Resolution nine days before my Lord's Death to cut my Lord's Throat p. 8 9. An Objection against this Evidence p. 9. c. 2. An Answer to this Objection p. 9. c. 2. D. Smith 's Evidence no new made Story but long since revealed p. 10 11 12. Farther Objections against D. Smith 's Evidence and these Objections answered p. 12. c. 2. p. 13 to 22. Many Reports in several Parts of England before my Lord's Death that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower p. 22 23. All Reports agree in the Manner how and Place where p. 23. c. 2. An Objection against the Reports p. 24. c. 1 2. An Answer thereunto p. 24. c. 1 2. F Evidence proves that the Report before my Lord's Death sets forth not only the Manner how and the Place where my Lord died but likewise the pretended Reason wherefore my Lord cut his Throat p. 22 24. An Objection against F Evidence p. 24. c. 2. p. 25. c. 1. An Answer to this Objection p. 25. c. 1 2. How the Earl's Death became so generally reported in so many Places and particularly as to Manner Place and pretended Reason before he was dead p. 26. c. 1 2. A short Inference from these Reports p. 27. c. 1. What passed the day my Lord died p. 27. c. 1. The letting in the Ruffians to my Lord just before his Death p. 27. c. 2. p. 28 29. An Objection against this Evidence p. 30. c. 1. An Answer to this Objection p. 30. c. 2. M. B. proves a great bustling between three or four Men in my Lord's Room just before my Lord's Death and one in this bustle crying out very loud and very dolefully Murder Murder Murder p. 31. c. 1. This Evidence of B. not now made but revealed by B. just after my Lord's Death p. 31. c. 1 2. The Reason that M. B. refused to depose what she knew in this Case p. 31 c. 2. p. 32. B 's Testimony confirms Loyd 's Confession p. 33. c. 1. An Objection against B 's Evidence p. 33. c. 1. An Answer thereunto Eodem The Sentinel a Confederate p. 33. c. 1 2. The D. of Y. sends the Ruffians to murder my Lord p. 33. c. 2. p. 34. c. 1. An Objection against this p. 33. c. 2. An Answer to this Objection p. 33. c. 1 2. Further Evidence of the Duke's sending the Men to my Lord's Chamber to murder my Lord p. 35. c. 1. An Objection against such Evidence p. 35. c. 1. An Answer to this Objection p. 35. c. 1. Further Evidence of these Ruffians being sent by the Duke to the Earl's Lodgings p. 35. c. 2. A further Answer to an Objection against what R. and M. declared the day my Lord died p. 36. c. 1. Major Hawley suspected to let in the Ruffians into my Lord's Lodgings p. 36. c. 2. An Objection against this p. 36. c. 2. An Answer to this Objection p. 36. c. 2. p. 37. c. 1. Sir C. sent to the Old-Baily to give notice of my Lord's Death but forgets who brought Orders from his then Majesty for his going p. 37. c. 2. p. 38. c. 1 2. Bomeny and Russel suffered to hear each others Examination before the Coroner p. 38. c. 2. Bomeny 's first Information taken by the Coroner p. 38. c. 2. p. 39. c. 1. Bomeny suffered to go from the Jury into the next Room and there to write his second Information p. 39. c. 1. Bomeny 's Information which he so wrote p. 39. c. 2. p. 40. c. 1. Bomeny 's Information which was printed by Authority is different from that which he swore to p. 40. c. 1. The Reason Bomeny 's Information was printed contradictory to what he had deposed before the Coroner p. 40. c. 2. Monday declared the day before my Lord died and confirmed it afterwards that he saw my Lord of Essex with the Razor in his Hand as soon as the Gentleman-Goaler had opened my Lord's Chamber-Door and this above two hours before my Lord's Death and long before Russel stood Warder at my Lord's Chamber Door p. 41. c. 1 2. No Razor delivered to my Lord appears by the Contradictions between Bomeny Monday and Russel p. 42 43. c. 1. An Answer to those Contradictions p. 43. c. 1. This Answer insufficient Eodem Bomeny Monday and Russel swore or declared that my Lord pared his Nails with the Razor that morning my Lord died p. 43. c. 2. This appears false p. 43. c. 2. The Closet-Door not locked upon my Lord as Bomeny Monday and Russel have sworn or declared p. 43. c. 2. p. 44. c. 1. For what Reason Bomeny Monday and Russel have sworn and declared that my Lord's Closet Door was locked upon the Body p. 44. c. 2. p. 45. c. 1. Further Evidence against the Closet Door being locked p. 45. c. 1. No Razor lying by my Lord in the Closet when my Lord was first discovered p. 45. c. 1 2. W E proves a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window before my Lord's Death was known p. 45. c. 2. An Objection against W E Testimony p. 45. c. 2. An Answer to this Objection p. 46 47. J. L. proves this bloody Razor being thrown out as before p. 48. c. 1. An Objection against J. L 's Evidence p. 48. c. 2. An Answer to this Objection Eodem Further Evidence of the bloody Razor 's being as before thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window p. 49 50 51. What might occasion the throwing out of the Razor before my Lord's Death was known p. 51. c. 1. Alice Carter supposed to take up this Razor and first to discover my Lord's Death Her Defence false
of what hath been materially deposed to prove that unfortunate Lord villanously murdered and further I have several Informations taken to strengthen my Lord's Evidence in Answer to those Depositions on the behalf of the Prisoner Of all which I have had an Opportunity to take Copies by being daily conversant with that Gentleman whose Misfortunes have made him of all Men the best acquainted with this Case Sir there is hardly a Witness herein sworn but what I have discoursed neither do I believe there is any Objection can be raised against the Proof of my Lord 's being murdered but what I can sufficiently Answer All which your Authority shall command from me who rejoyce in this Occasion of serving you But I question whether it may not be thought a divulging of what a Secret Committee hath had under Examination and ought still to be kept private L. You can't but know that this Secret Committee is dissolved by the Reports being made to the House where the Depositions having been read it can no longer be thought a Secret And it being for the Interest of the Kingdom it should be published if there be any Evidence to prove this Murder I can't imagine how your communicating this matter can in the least prejudice this Cause the just Success whereof no Man living can desire with greater impatience than my self who shall its probable by your now-Assistance be able to stop the Mouths of those Gainsayers which not so much out of Malice as Misinformation seem totally to disbelieve this matter of which number Mr. O. of Grays-Inn our Friend and old Acquaintance is one he did appoint to be here precisely at this time He is now come A Grays-In Gent. Gentlemen your most humble Servant T. Sir We are both cordially yours and rejoyce you are thus opportunely come G. I hope my Company doth not hinder private Business if so I will leave you till such your Discourse is ended and then shall esteem my self happy in the Injoyment of both your good Companies T. Sir the Business we are upon you are free to hear and I do very much rejoyce in this Opportunity of making you a Convert G. In what pray Sir for if I am in any Error I hope I am not thereto so wedded but upon good Cause shewn shall readily sue a Divorce and thank you heartily for my Conviction L. This Gentleman is about giving such Reasons as will convince not me for I do already believe it but you That the late Earl of Essex was treacherously and villanously murdered G. Pish there is not the least ground for such a Belief neither hath there been any colour of Evidence for it produced to the Lords Moreover all my Lord's Relations are so firmly possessed with the Belief that the late Earl of Essex did indeed cut his own Throat that neither of them hath thought fit in the least to move in this matter but all of them wish that this Cause had never been revived because it renews the Remembrance of that sad and deplorable Accident which hath been so great a Misfortune to that Honourable Family T. Sir I perceive you have been abused in every part of your Information for your Author scarce told you one Word of Truth As for the Families not appearing in but being very averse to this Prosecution I do assure you Sir this is far from being true for no Gentleman could shew more Honour and greater Zeal in a Cause than the Right Honourable Sir Henry Capel the late Earl's only Brother hath done in this and caused some to be taken up for endeavouring to abuse the World with the Belief that he had not engaged in this matter The now Earl of Essex was not returned from his Travels when this Prosecution was renewed but as soon as he came his Lordship approved of what was done and hath been at the Charge of this Prosecution in which you may believe there hath been no small Expence there having been in this Cause such a number of Witnesses examined and so many several Committees And whereas you say there was not the least Colour of Evidence produced to the Lords Did you ever hear what Persons were sworn before their Lordships and after examined by this Honourable Committee G. Not in every particular but in part I have and in general have been informed That the Witnesses produced by that Gentleman who pretended to prove it were looked upon as altogether insufficient for that end and therefore the House of Lords upon reading the Informations in this Case taken by the Committee immediately rejected them as frivolous thereupon ordering that all such as had been taken up as suspected concerned in this pretended Murder should be discharged T. I perceive in this also you have been misinformed as to both particulars for the House of Lords upon reading what was taken by the Honourable Lords of this Committee neither rejected the Evidence as insufficient nor ordered the discharge of such as in this case were taken up but the Depositions being read before the House when three of the four Honourable Lords of this Committee were out of Town viz. the Earl of Devon the Earl of Monmouth and Lord Delamere the Earl of Bedford being the first in this Committee the House ordered all those Depositions and Examinations to be sealed up and kept by the Clerk of the Parliament till these three Lords returned and in the mean time the farther Debate hereupon to be suspended To prove all which pray Sir read this Order made Die Jovis 23o. Maii 1689. Die Jovii 230. Maii. 1689. After reading several Papers and Depositions relating to the death of the late Earl of Essex It is Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled that the Consideration of this business shall be suspended until the return of the Lord Steward the Earl of Monmouth and the Lord Delamere who were of the Committee before whom they were made and who are now in the Country in His Majesties Service And its further Ordered that the said Depositions and Papers shall be Sealed up and kept by the Clerk of the Parliament in the mean time G. Then I find my Information in this Particular false T. As to the Second That the Lords have not ordered the discharge of such as were in this Case apprehended but contrarywise that all these should be bound over by the Court of Kings Bench to appear the first day of the next Term appears by an Order of the House of Lords made the 15o. June 1689. which you may read if you please Die Sabati 15o. Junii 1689. Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled that such Persons as are now under Bayl by Recognizance concerning the death of the late Earl of Essex shall be by the Court of Kings Bench bound over to appear the first day of Michaelmas Term next G. I thank you Sir for your Information herein and it s very probable those who gave me such
false Information as to the Lords Proceedings in this Matter may have likewise forged what Arguments they thought might sway with me to believe my Lords self Murder what those are I shall give you an Account But I first desire to hear what Evidence in particular hath been produced to prove my Lords being murdered by others T. Before I give you an Account of the Informations that have been in this Case taken I think it proper first to inform you how the Case came before their Lordships and what by them therein hath been done and how the Case now stands before the House G. Pray Sir use your own method T. The 21st of January last being the day before the Convention sat several Persons were taken up as suspected to be privy to my Lords Murder amongst whom was Major Hawley Major of the Tower in whose House my Lord was murdered and Thomas Russell one of the two Warders that stood upon my Lord at the time of his death these two belonging to the Tower and consequently under the Command of the Right Honourable the Lord Lucas Governour of the Tower were not taken up by any Constable but his Lordship having seen the Warrant out against them ordered both to be secured The next day being the 22d several Informations were taken before John Robins Esquire one of the Middlesex Justices who carried Coppies of these Informations to my Lord Lucas His Lordship the 24th moved the House of Lords for their Lordships Order as to the keeping discharging or removing Hawley and Russell as before secured by his Lordships Command and then produced to the House those Informations brought his Lordship as before by Mr. Robins upon reading which after some Debate the House of Lords ordered Mr. Braddon to be called in before their Lordships and after his Examination their Lordships constituted a Committee of Lords of which the Right Honourable the Earl of Devonshire now Lord Steward of His Majesties Houshold was Chairman After this Committee had several times met there was a secret Committee ordered to examine into the Matter which Committee consisted of these Four Honourable Lords viz the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Devon the Earl of Monmouth then Lord Mordant and the Lord Delamere after this Committee had many times sat and taken about Fourty Depositions and Examinations the Earl of Monmouth and the Lord Delamere were sent by His Majesty into the Country as two of the Lords Commissioners to regulate the Army After these two Lords were thus out of Town the Earl of Devon being Chairman of the Committee brought these Depositions and Examinations into the House but it being then late in the day none were read but an Order made that they should be read the next Morning but His Majesties Affairs Commanded likewise the Earl of Devon the next Morning to go into the Country so that when these Informations were read in the House not one of the four Lords of this Committee were there besides the Earl of Bedford Wherefore the House Ordered the Debate of the matter to be suspended as you have before heard And thus the Case came at first before their Lordships and so it now stands G. Sir I thank you for undeceiving me and desire you to proceed in such a Method as you think may give us the most Regular Notion of the Matter T. Before I give you any Information to prove my Lord by others barbarously Murdered I think it proper to state the Case as it was represented by those who would have the World believe my Lord a Self Murderer for without this you cannot understand what use can be made of many Informations that have been in this Case taken because you will not be able to see wherein they contradict what was sworn before the Coroner to prove my Lords self-destruction and whatsoever proves their representation of the matter to the Coroner false by a very natural Consequence proves my Lords being murdred by others L. Without doubt for what end I pray should any swear to a Lye but to conceal a Truth there being no other reason to be given for it T. I shall begin with my Lords Commitment to the Tower. The Right Honourable Arthur late Earl of Essex was committed to the Tower the Tenth of July 1683. and the first night lay at Captain Cheekes the then Lieutenant of the Tower but the next day was removed to Major Hawleys then Gentleman Porter of the Tower and the two Warders placed upon his Lordship were Nathaniel Munday and Thomas Russel one to stand at my Lords Chamber-door or in his Chamber and the other at the Stairs-foot and thus by turns Paul Bomeny my Lords Servant was permitted to be with his Lordship At Mr. Hawleys my Lord lay Wednesday night and Thursday night but Friday Morning about Nine of the Clock his Lordship was found with his Throat cut through both Jugulars and Arteries even to the Neck-bone on both sides the Neck The next day L. Sir Pardon this Interruption I find that my Lord first lay at Captain Cheeks one night and then was removed to Hawleys where after two nights his Lordship was found dead how came it to pass that my Lord had not continued to lye at Captain Cheeks it being very usual for Prisoners of his Lordships Quality to lye at the Leiutenants House as now my Lord Salisbury doth at the Lord Lucas's T. The true Cause of this Removal I cannot give you but the Colour I can It is pretended that Captain Cheek would not be troubled with any Prisoners in his own House for which reason as pretended his Lordship was removed but this I believe not to be the Cause but as I said the Colour only as for the true reason hereof I refer you to the Men of Secrecy in this Case But to proceed The next day being Saturday the Jury sate and before them were sworn the aforesaid Paul Bomeny Thomas Russel and the two Chyrurgeons Which Informations are as followeth according to the Print but that as I shall observe in its own proper place varies from the Original in Bomeny's Information The Information of Paul Bomeny Servant to the late Earl of Essex for about Three or Four Years now last past taken upon Oath the 14th day of July Anno Regni Caroli Secondi Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Defensor c. Tricesimo Quinto Annoque Domini 1683. SAith that when my Lord came to Captain Hawley's which was the 11th instant my Lord of Essex asked him for a Penknife to pare his Nails as he was wont to do to which this Informant answered being come in haste he had not brought it but he would send for one and accordingly sent the Footman with a Note for several things for my Lord amongst which the Penknife was inserted and the Footman went and gave the Bill to my Lords Steward who sent the Provisions but not the Pen-knife and he told the Footman he
would get one the next day When the Footman was come my Lord asked if the Penknife was come this Informant answered No but he should have it the next day and accordingly he on the 12th instant in the morning before my Lord of Essex was up this Informant sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward in which amongst other things he asked for a Penknife for my Lord and when the Footman was gone about or a little after eight of the Clock my Lord sent one Mr Russel his Warder to this Informant who came and then he asked him if the Penknife was come this Informant said No my Lord but I shall have it by and by to which my Lord said that he should bring him one of his Rasors it would do as well and then this Informant went and fetched one and gave it my Lord who then went to pare his Nails and then the Informant went out of the Room into the passage by the Door ☜ on Fryday the 13th instant and began to talk with the Warder and a little while after he went down Stairs And soon after came the Footman with the Provisions and brought also a Penknife which this Informant put upon his Bed and thought my Lord had no more need of it because he thought he had pared his Nails And then this Informant came up to my Lords Chamber about Eight or Nine in the Forenoon on fryday the 13th instant with a little Note from the Steward but not finding his Lord in the Chamber went to the Close stool Closet Door and found it shut and thinking his Lord was busie there went down and staid a little and came up again thinking his Lord had been come out of the Closet and finding him not in the Chamber he knocked at the Door with his Finger thrice and said My Lord But no body answering he took up the Hanging and looking through the Chink he saw Blood and parts of the Rasor whereupon he called the Warder Russel and went down to call for help and the said Russel pushed the Door open and there they saw my Lord of Essex all along the Floor without a Perriwig and all full of Blood and the Rasor by him And this Deponent further deposeth that the Rasor now shewed to him at the time of his Examination is the same Rasor which he did bring to my Lord and which did lye on the Ground in the Closset by my Lord. The Information of Thomas Russel one of the Warders of the Tower who had the Custody of the Earl of Essex taken the Fourteenth day of July Anno Regni Caroli Secundi Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Desensoris c. Tricesimo quinto Annoque Domini 1683. SAith That on Fryday the 13th instant about Eight or Nine of the Clock in the Forenoon he was present when he did hear the Lord of Essex call to his Man Mr. Bomeny for a Penknife to pare his Nails and then for a Razor which Mr. Bomeny brought him and then my Lord walked up and down the Room scraping his Nails with the Razor and shut the outWard door Mr. Bomeny half a quarter of an hour afterwards not finding my Lord in his Bed chamber ☞ went down Stairs again believing that my Lord was then private in his Closet Bomeny came up about a quarter of an hour afterwards and knocked at the Door Note then called My Lord My Lord but he not answering peeped through a Chink of the Door and did see the Earl of Essex lying on the Ground in the Closset whereupon he did cry out that my Lord was fallen down sick and then the Informant went to the Closet Door and opened it the Key being on the out-side and then did see my Lord lye on the Ground in his Blood and his Throat cut The Information of Robert Sherwood of Fanchurch-street Chyrurgeon taken the 14th day of July Anno Regni Caroli Secundi Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis Fidei Defensor c. Tricesimo quinto Annoque Domini 1683. SAith that he hath viewed the Throat of the Earl of Essex and does find that there is a large Wound and that the Aspera Arteria or Wind-pipe and the Gullet with the Jugular Arteries are all divided of which wound he certainly dyed The Information of Robert Andrews of Crutchet-Fryars Chyrurgeon taken upon Oath the 14th day of July Anno Regni Caroli Secundi nunc Regis Angliae c. Tricesimo Quinto Annoque Domini 1683. SAith That he hath viewed the Throat of the Lord of Essex and does find that it was cut from the one Jugular to the other and through the Wind pipe and Gullet into the Vertebres of the Neck both Jugular Veins being also quite divided Upon these Informations the Coroners Jury found my Lord Felo de se The substance of these Informations in short is That my Lord of Essex called for a Penknife to pare his Nails but the Pen-knife not being ready his Lordship required a Razor which was delivered him with which Razor his Lordship retired into his Closet and Lock'd himself in but soon after the Closet door being opened my Lord was found with his Throat cut through both Jugulars and Arteries to the Neck-bone and the Razor as before delivered lying by him Nathaniel Monday the other Warder on my Lord at the time of his Death now declares that assoon as my Lord of Essex's Chamber Door was opened by the Gentleman Jaylor about Seven of the Clock that morning my Lord died he stood Warder upon my Lord till about a quarter of an hour before my Lord was found dead and then he called up Russel and left him at the Door and then went down Stairs where he had not been a quarter of an hour before Bomeny cryed out My Lord is fallen down sick whereupon he ran up Stairs and found Bomeny and Russel endeavouring to open the Closet Door but neither could stir it because my Lords body lay so very close and strong against the Door wherefore he being stronger than either Bomeny or Russel put his Shoulder against the Door and thrusting with all his might broke it open Major Hawley at whose house my Lord was Murdered saith That about Five of the Clock that Morning my Lord died he went out to open the Tower Gates according to the duty of his place and came not home nor nigh his own house till about Nine of the Clock Note when Monday the Warder came to him and told him my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat whereupon Hawley going home found it true and immediately thereupon went to his Majesty Charles the Second then in the Tower and did inform his Majesty of the same Bomeny Russel and Munday and likewise Lloyd the Sentinel at my Lords Lodgings that Morning my Lord dyed Note did ever deny till January last that any men were let into my Lords Lodgings before his
Death any time that Morning my Lord dyed The two first upon their Oaths denied it before the Coroner and Bomeny Russel and Lloyd did at Mr. Bradon's Tryal pag. 55 56 57 upon their Oaths declare that no men were let into my Lords Lodgings that Morning my Lord dyed before my Lords Death was known Monday and Russel still persist in their denial of any mens being let into my Lord before his Death that Morning my Lord dyed This is the state of the Case as it was represented by those that were immediately attending upon my Lord at the time of his death I shall not in this place make any Observations upon the several Contradictions and Incoherences of these Relations nor yet say what is prov'd to falsify all that hath as before by these been declared and sworn but shall leave this to a more proper place and shall in my method begin with such things as were first in order of time The Informations and Examinations in this Case taken are nigh Sixty I shall range them in this order I shall place those First That have relation to what passed before the day of the death of the late Earl of Essex Secondly That that relate to what passed the day of his death And in the third and last place such as have relation to what was subsequent to the day of his death upon hearing all which I doubt not but fully to convince every unprejudiced person L. Such I am I do assure you for it s neither my interest nor desire that this Murder if such indeed it were should not be detected but I do heartily wish all such of whatsoever quality sex or condition as stood concerned in contriving privy to or acting in this Murder may be brought to condign punishment G. If this be proved to be a Murder I shall always think it the most villanous that was ever acted on our Stage and as soon as I shall be throughly convinced hereof shall as heartily desire with you that all Actors and Abetters herein may receive according to their demerit And indeed I shall hardly think any punishment too severe for such an Act or any thing too ill to be thought of any who were in the least concerned in this treacherous complicated Murder in Person and Reputation if it be proved to be any But pardon me if I think it not true but invented by heretofore Disloyal and Disaffected Men to raise an aversion against the most Unfortunate among Princes who was treacherously I had almost said Treasonably deserted by his Souldiers as well as others in the midst of the greatest dangers We have had much noise of this pretended Murder and as some falsly call it of the Murder of Charles the Second of the supposititiousness of the Birth of the Prince of Wales and of the Private French League but all this hitherto hath been but talk and I now think as I ever did there is not any good grounds for the belief of either for if there had we should long since for the Vindication of what is past which I shall forbear to call by its proper Name have had it made more publick T. Bona verba quaeso not this great heat G. But Passion is very natural to every honest Man that had any sparks of true Loyalty upon such Reflections as these T. Passion serves not but prejudices an Argument and generally speaking where there is the most Passion there is least Reason G. I will endeavour for the future to be more calm L. I shall tell you at our next meeting what I have heard concerning the Death of Charles the Second and the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and its probable may inform you in both of what you may have never heard nor as yet made publick by any but I desire not any longer to detain this Gentleman from proceeding in his intended Method G. I beg both your Pardons for this Heat and Interruption and I do impatiently wait to hear what can be said T. I shall proceed and First as for such Informations as have relation to what passed before my Lord's Death these are of two sorts the first proves a Resolution by Papists several Days before my Lord's Death to cut my Lord's Throat The Second Many Reports in several parts of England before my Lord's Death that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower. For proof of their previous Resolution to cut my Lord's Throat pray read this Paper which I have taken for my own satisfaction and the Information of some Friends from the Person 's own Mouth G. D. S. saith That a little before the Death of the late Earl of Essex as she was Servant in the House of one Mr. Holmes a Papist then living in Baldwins Gardens about Nine Days before my Lord's Death some Papists among which one Mr. Lovet whom this Informant knew met in her said Masters House she being then in the Kitchin with one W. A. then Apprentice with the said Mr. Holmes the said W. A. went a little up stairs and stopping beckoned to this Informant to come to him which this Informant accordingly did but the said W. A. soon went up stairs into the Garret as this Informant supposes to work and left this Informant on the Stairs and this Informant heard the aforesaid Papists discoursing in the Room just over the Kitchin concerning the said Earl of Essex and the substance of what she then heard was to the Effect following viz. one of them cursing the said Earl called him Villain and Dog or such with several such approbrious Terms saying He knew so much of their Designs Note and was so very averse to their Interest that unless he was taken off they should never carry them on Upon which it was then answered by another That they had been with his Highness and his Highness was for Poysoning the said Earl but his Highness was told that manner of Death would not look well to the World it was then also declared that one had proposed to his Highness Stabbing the Earl but that was likwise not agreed on at length his Highness concluded and ordered his Throat to be cut and his Highness had promised to be there when it was done but this Informant remembers not any Place mentioned where the Earl's Throat was to be cut This was the Substance of what this Informant heard the first meeting But about three Days after some of the aforesaid Persons met again at the said Mr. Holmes's House and this Informant listned as before to their Discourse and heard one of them say That the cutting the Earl's Throat was agreed on but they would give it out That he had done it himself and if any should deny it they would take them up and punish them for it This Informant further saith That being much troubled in mind for what she had heard as above related she was willing to have discovered to some Justice of Peace what she
man speaks of an action to be done about such a Year Month or Week certainly in common acceptation about a Year includes either the very Year or the Year before or after and about such a Month either the very Month or the Month before or after c. G. I am herein satisfied now this Information of D. S. thus strengthened would alone convince me of the truth of my Lords being Murdered were it not that I had heard some Informations read in the Court of King's Bench upon a Motion made for the Bailing of Mr. Holmes which with me and indeed with all men must totally destroy the Credit of this pretended Consult If I mistake not those Informations proved this D. S. for suspition of Theft to have been turned out of Mr. Holmes's Service in April before my Lords Death whereas she Swears her self a Servant with Holmes at the time of my Lords Death which was July the 13th I remember not the Names of these Deponents but I am almost possitive this was what was sworn and if I mistake not there was somewhat else deposed by a Countrey Parson which in some other particulars contradicted D. S's Information T. I will herein arm you against my self and produce you Copies of these Informations you speak of The first is of one Dorothy Hewit Sister in Law to Mr. Holmes a very violent Papist and otherwise not of the best Reputation The second is of one Elizabeth Christopher once reputed of a very loose Character And the third of Nathaniel Swan Clerk to whose Character I shall speak in a more proper time and place These are the names of the Informants and here are the Informations which you may read if you please G. Dorothy Hewit of Hatton-Garden in the County of Middlesex Widdow maketh Oath That one Dorothy now called by the name of Dorothy Smith was Servant to William Holmes of Baldwins Gardens in the County of Middlesex Varnisher and Brother-in-Law to this Deponent and lived with the said William Holmes as his Maid Servant about the space of a Month and went away from the said Service in the Month of April ☞ in the Year of our Lord 1683 and was turn'd away upon suspition of Stealing a Silver Spoon for which the said William Holmes's Wife refused to pay her any Wages and after a long dispute the said Mr. Holmes did detain 4 s. and 6 d. or 5 s. for satisfaction of the said Spoon upon which the said D. in the presence and hearing of this Deponent did give the said Mrs. Holmes very opprobrious Language and declared that she would be reveng'd of her or words to that effect And about Two or Three days after the said Dorothy was turned away as aforesaid one Elizabeth Cadman came into her place and lived with the said William Holmes for the space of Nine Months and upwards And this Deponant further maketh Oath that the 6th day of July in the said Year of our Lord ☞ 1683 this Deponent went with the said William Holmes from the said William Holmes's House into the Country and went that day to Wickam in the County of Bucks and the next day went to the City of Oxford where this Deponent and the said William Holmes continued till the 9th day of the said July and the said 9th day this Deponent and the said William Holmes went from thence to Alderminster in the County of Worcester to the house of one Mr. Nathaniel Swan Minister of the said Town and continued there till the 23d day of the said Month of July and then returned towards London and came to London the Six or Seven and Twentieth of the said Month of July 1683. Elizabeth Christopher late Elizabeth Cadman now Wife of John Christopher of Winford Street near White-Chappel Clothworker maketh Oath That she this Deponent was Servant to and lived with William Holmes Varnisher from the Month of April ☜ in the Year of our Lord 1683 which said Mr. Holmes then lived in Baldwins Gardens in the County of Middlesex and is now a Prisoner in the Gaol of Newgate and that this Deponent continued his Servant as aforesaid and lived in his House from the said Month of April for the space of Nine Months and upwards then next following and that there was not in that time any other Female Servant living with the said Mr. Holmes And this Deponent farther maketh Oath That the said Mr. Holmes in or about the beginning of the Month of July then next following did go into the Country with Mrs. Dorothy Hewit Widdow his Wives Sister and continued absent for about Three Weeks and she this Deponent hath heard the said Mr. Holmes his Wife and Sister declare that they went into Worcestershire and in their absence this Deponent did hear of the Death of the late Earl of Essex in the Tower of London Nathaniel Swan of Alderminster in the County of Worcester Clerk maketh Oath ☞ That about the 9th day of July in the Year of our Lord 1683 William Holmes of Baldwin's Gardens in the County of Middlesex Varnisher now a Prisoner in Newgate London with and in the Company of Dorothy Hewit of Hatton Garden in the said County of Middlesex Widdow Sister-in-Law to the said William Holmes and Grand-daughter to this Deponent came to this Deponents House in the said Town of Alderminster and continued there with this Deponent till about the Three and Twentieth day of the said Month of July 1683 and then departed thence towards London G. What can you say in Contradiction to these Depositions either of which being true your pretended Consult falls down to the ground and your first Evidence proved false Of the same nature are I believe all the rest though they may not be so happily detected as this Smiths Evidence is by these Depositions L. I believe these Depositions will be of but little service to you because your Adversary did so readily furnish you with them I am therefore apt to think he may be able to destroy the credit of these as these seem to do the credit of Smiths And if it shall appear that these Informations are false such a detection will add great force to the credibility of Dorothy Smiths Deposition for whosoever flies to Lyes for a Defence hath nothing of truth and innocence for protection G. I must confess there cannot be a greater Argument of Guilt than a false defence seeing every man in his defence doth virtually conclude If my Defence be false my Charge is true L. The Law concludes the same in all Civil Actions for instance he that is sued upon a Bond and Pleads non est factum or solvit ad diem or a Release or a former Recovery c. Whatsoever such general Issuable Plea is pleaded and the Plaintiff denies this Plea to be true and thereupon the truth hereof being tryed if what is pleaded appears false the Law immediately gives Judgment against the Defendant for it s to be supposed
she saw the said D. in Baldwins Gardens whilst the said D. was as she then declared a Servant to the said Mrs. Holmes The Information of E. M. E. M. Wife of R. M. of Vine-street in Hatton Garden Pavier deposeth That in July 1683. she lived next Door to Mr. Holmes's in Leopards Alley in Baldwins Gardens and she knew D. S. to be a Servant in the House of the said Mr. Holmes in the same Month of July 1683. Note after the Death of the late Earl of Essex but this Deponent knoweth not how long the said D. S. tarried with the said Mr. Holmes a Servant This Deponent further deposeth That the said D. S. in the same Month of July 1683. told this Deponent that her Mistress had lost a Silver Spoon and told her she should pay for it Whereupon this Deponent said it was well if the right Owner had not mislaid it to make her pay for it or Words to that effect This Deponent farther deposeth That the said D. S. remained a Servant with the said Mr. Holmes several days after the said Spoon was lost L. Here are five Depositions against your two and unless these five appear to be of very infamous Characters Mrs. Hewit and Christopher deserve a Pillory for swearing falsely in Protection of Murder What is sworn by these five seems very natural because most agree in this That D. S. was a Servant with Holmes in that time of the year when Green Pease were very plenty and cheap Now this is a natural Evidence that it was long after April for all men know Pease are not then a Groat a Peck nor indeed to be had for any Price G. These Depositions contradict Hewit and Christopher as to that part which proves D. S. to go from Mr. Holmes in April but how do you prove Mr. Holmes was in Town the 13th of July 1683 seeing Mr. Swan as well as Hewit prove him in the Countrey T. As for Mrs. Hewits Deposition in that point it is of no credit at all for if it be once disproved in any particular as I think it sufficiently is the credit of the whole is destroyed for perjured or foresworn in one thing believed in nothing But seeing Mr. Swan which by the way is fallen into ill Company in this his Evidence deposeth That Holmes came to his House about the 9th of July 1683 and tarried till the 23d Mr. Swan hath sworn very indeffinitely as to the first part for what allowance he will have made for about I can't imagine if he thinks reasonable that about shall include the 16th seeing the time is so long past to which he swears this objection falls of it self but if the Parson will be more certain and depose that Mr. Holmes was at his House before the 13th of July 1683 and tarried there till the 23d then will his Oath be some Objection which otherwise is none Nevertheless it appears by the Informations following that Mr. Holmes did not go into the Countrey with Mrs. Hewit till D. S. left Holmes's Service and it is Sworn by E. M. that D. S. did not leave Mr. Holmes's Service till after my Lord's Death therefore according to these Informations Holmes did not go into the Countrey till after the Death of the late Earl of Essex Pray read this Information G. W. A. Declareth and is ready to Depose that whilst D. S. was Servant to Mr. Holmes in the Year of our Lord 1683 this Informant being then Apprentice to the said Mr. Holmes remembers that Mrs. Holmes pretended she lost a Silver Spoon but this Informant saith that the said D. S. was not immediately hereupon turned away for she tarried sometime after to the best of this Informants remembrance about a Fortnight This Informant further saith That Mr. Holmes did not go his Journey into the Countrey with Mrs. Dorothy Hewit until after the said D. S. left his Service But this Informant at present can't be possitive what Month the said D. S. went from Mr. Holmes's Service T. This Information doth further prove that the said D. did remain a Servant with Holmes some time after this Spoon was loft W.A. is ready to depose that a little before D. S. left Holmes 's Service she was taken with Fits and in her Fits would cry out The Papists are Bloody People The Papists are Bloody People several times over repeating it D. S. saith that the fright she was in when she first heard of my Lords Death brought upon her those Fits. and was not immediately turned away as was pretended by Hewit But a stronger Evidence to prove Hewit in Town whilst she swears she was with Mr. Holmes in the Countrey then any you yet heard is a Taylors Book ready to be produced by which it appears that Mrs. Hewit had a Dust-Gown a peculiar Riding upper Garment made for her the Week next after she swore she went out of Town this Gown was made the Week my Lord Died the Gown appears to be made about the Wednesday which was the 11th of July the second day next before my Lord's Death but the Taylor can't be possitive what day of this Week he did deliver this Gown to Mrs. Hewit The Taylor 's Information is as followeth J. W. of St. Dunstans declareth and is ready to depose that in July 1683 he lived in Poppins Alley nigh Fleetstreet very near Mrs. Dorothy Hewit and often wrought for the said Mrs. Hewit and between Menday the 9th of July 1683 and Monday the 16th of the fame Month and Year this Informant made or caused to be made a Dust-Gown for the said Mrs. Hewit as appears by this Informants Book ready to be produced and the very same Week viz. between Monday the 9th of July 1683 and Monday the 16th of the same Month and Year but in the very Day this Informant is not certain this Informant carried the said Dust-Gown to the said Mrs. Hewit who did then pretend she was about going into the Countrey but how long after the Dust-Gown so delivered the said Mrs. Hewit did go into the Countrey this Informant knoweth not T. This entry before my Lord's Death is so clear an Argument of the falcity of Holmes's Defence L. And consequently of the truth of his charge T. That there can't be a more satisfactory Evidence in this part produced G. How came this entry to be found out T. When Mr. Braddon found that Holmes endeavoured to prove as before sworn by Hewit himself out of Town from the 6th of July 1683 to the 26th or 27th of the same Month Mr. B. did endeavour to enquire out all such as either Mr. Holmes or Mrs. Hewit were well known to or traded with and therefore he made inquiry after all those with whom in that Month and Year they bought of or sold to all Shopkeepers Taylors Butchers Fishmongers Shoemakers Hatters c. and such as upon inquiry he received such Characters of as he might expect fair satisfaction from he did
desire to see their Books in that Month of July to see whether any Goods were bought in Town by the said Mr. Holmes or Mrs. Hewit for proving Hewit in Town proves Holmes likewise in Town because it s sworn and can be prov'd they both went out of Town together or any Money paid between the 6th and 26th of July by either of these After a very long and tedious Inquiry all those Tradesmen being altogether Strangers to Mr. Braddon he providentially met with this Mr. W. who very readily shewed his Book wherein is entred as before 〈◊〉 This Book hath not been of any use to Mr. W. for almost five Years and it was a very great Providence this had not been torn out seeing the Book for some Years had been used as waste Paper and the very next Leaf to this torn out and lost L. Upon the smallest matters things of the greatest moment many times do depend who could have thought this entry so preserved would have been serviceable in so weighty and just a cause T. No one Providence is independent but the most considerable occurrences are often brought about by things of the least consideration Joseph's Dream preserved his Aged Father and all his Brethren and in them all that sprang from them from that pale Famine that otherwise might have devoured not these only but Egypt it self And Ahasuerus not being able either to Dream or Sleep not only saves the Jews from their Enemies but destroys their very Enemies themselves L. What can Holmes and Hewit say in Vindication of this notorious false Defence T. As soon as Mrs. Hewit understood such a Taylors entry was against her Oath she with Holmes's Wife went to this Taylor and desired to see his Book which being shewed Hewit first pretended that this Entry was forged and new but when Mr. W. declared he could safely and would depose that the Entry was real it was then pretended that the Gown was sent into the Country after Mrs. Hewit but when in answer to that Mr. W. declared he could depose that Mrs. Hewit was in Town when that Dust-Gown was made and delivered and that she then pretended she was about going into the Countrey but how many days after she did go he could not tell Mrs. Hewit told him if he did Swear that he would take off her Brothers life and Holmes's Blood would be upon his head L. This is a Villanous and False Suggestion to prevent the detection of Blood and evade the punishment for the vilest Murder I am sure of this if Mr. W. should upon Oath deny what he can with safety assert he would draw the guilt of Perjury on his Head. And not only so but this Perjury being in protection of a Murder to that Perjury he would add the guilt of my Lord's Blood seeing by that Perjury he doth endeavour to stifle the Discovery and prevent the Prosecution of the most Treacherous Barbarous and Cruel Murder in all circumstances consider'd our Nation ever knew If he that protects a Murderer being well assured that he is such in his House to avoid the common methods of Justice deserves in our Law to answer this Evasion which makes him accessary after the fact with nothing less than his Life How much more criminal before God is he that by Perjury endeavours to frustrate the Execution of Justice upon the the like offender the first doth an action in it self abstracted from the end hospitable nay it may be charitable and his intentions which argues his after assent to the Murder renders him a Criminal But the second commits one of the greatest Transgressions which in it self deserves almost Death with the same ill design as the first wherefore most certainly he is the greatest Criminal of the two by that addition of Perjury to the same offence And though our Law in this case punish not the second Offender with Death yet I am sure and I think all men will own that the second most deserves it That D. S. was a Servant at Holmes's the day of my Lord Russel's Tryal and my Lord of Essex's Death and that Mr. Holmes and Mrs. Dorothy Hewit were then in Town farther appears from the words of a Dying man who upon his Death-bed did several times declare he knew D. S. then there a Servant and Holmes and Hewit then in Town and both Holmes and Hewit that morning pretended they would go to my Lord Russel's Tryal This Person did often for several days before his Death declare this as what he could answer as a great truth before that God before whom he was shortly to appear and all this he did confirm with almost his very last breath This Person did farther declare that when D. S. was a Servant to the said Mr. Holmes and a little before she left Holmes's Service she told this Informant she was much troubled with somewhat which lay upon her mind upon which this Informant was desirous to know what it was but the said D. would not tell being unwilling and afraid upon which this Informant advised her to go to some Divine and disclose it L. If the positive Depositions of the Living and the last Breath of a Dying man then dropping into Eternity where this Relation had it been false would 〈◊〉 eternally tormented him may be credited Hewit and Christopher are most notoriously perjured and the Parson himself about being forsworn for about hath sav'd him from a flat Perjury and consequently Mr. Holmes's Defence thus Sworn to is false throughout T. Who then can otherwise conclude but that his charge is true L. It 's very probable that some or other that knew Mr. Holmes or Mrs. Hewit might see one or both of them at my Lord Russel's Tryal if they were there or might that night hear them confess their having been there for this was a very notorious thing and a sight which People of their Religion and Characters would rejoyce to see and delight much in the Repitition of G. It 's not unlikely but that others may remember they saw them that day and heard them give an account of both my Lord Russel's Tryal and the Earls Death for both these things are so remarkable as may fix the remembrance of Holmes's and Hewits being in Town in some of their acquaintance T. I think the Taylors Book before observed and the words of a Dying-man will be sufficient to convince all mankind Nevertheless I can't but say this that it 's the duty of every Person that can be positive in Hewits or Holmes's being in Town that day the Earl of Essex was murdered which was the same day my Lord Russel was try'd or their being in Town the day just before or next after for that Week proves Hewit Perjured who Swears she and Holmes went out of Town the Week next before and returned not till the 26th of the same month I say whosoever can be positive in this and reveals it not consents to the Death of my Lord and though
Humane Law reach him not the Divine Law-giver will one day lay it to his charge as consenting to this Blood. G. This Doctrine I do not well understand L. The Doctrine I think is both true and plain and I will give you an instance somewhat like this A Gentlman such a day very early in the morning was found Murdered between London and Highgate with one Glove lying by the Body and not any Person at the first by his Relations particularly suspected for the Murderer at length upon diligent Inquiry it was found out about Two Months after the Death that a certain Gentleman had sworn he would Murder the Deceased if he could ever meet with an opportunity Upon this suspition he was taken up the Prisoner denies the fact and in particular saith that he could make it appear by two then present how that two days before this Murder he went to Salisbury and tarried there till Ten days after and such a day he with his Two Friends return'd to London which Two Friends being then there declared they were ready to Depose the same A Gentleman just then coming in who knew and was very well acquainted with the Prisoner having been inform'd of his Defence immediately reflected upon this Defence and knew it to be false for this Gentleman with three others all knowing the Prisoner very betimes the very morning the Murder was committed which was of a remarkable day were walking out in Lambs-Conduit Fields there and then met the Prisoner with another Person a Stranger to them to whom they spoke and he to them and a little after the Prisoner was his Spaniel running with a Fringe Glove in his Mouth this Gentleman being well known to the Dog calls the Dog and takes from him the Glove puts it in his Pocket and carries it home This Gentleman therefore knowing this Defence to be false concluded as he naturally might that the charge was true and hereupon though with some reluctancy because the Prisoner was his acquaintance but not dearer to him then his love to Justice declares what you have before heard and fetches the Glove and his two Friends and all depose in contradiction to the Prisoners Defence what you have before heard related and the Glove appeared to be the Glove of the Person Murdered and Fellow to that found by the Body And now I desire to know of you what you think of this Gentleman who thus falsified the Defence did he do the duty of an honest man. G. Truly I believe he did and was to be commended for so doing though the Prisoner was his Acquaintance for Justice obliged him to it and Iustice knows neither Acquaintance Relation or Friend T. But do you not think that this Gentleman in foro Conscientiae had been consenting to this Murder had he suffered the Prisoner by such a forged Defence which he well knew to be false to baffle the Prosecution G. By his silence he would have consented to the Murder and negatively at least protected the Prisoner from that just Punishment which both the Law of God and Man justly inflicts for such an offence T. Upon the whole matter I think you have rather lost then got any ground by those Depositions upon which you so much rely'd to falsify D. S. Testimony and that which you have brought to destroy hath strengthened her Evidence and consequently gives credit to the truth of that most Barbarous Murder L. For my own part I am very well satisfied that D. S. hath deposed the truth for how can it be thought that she should declare so long since that she knew of this Consult if she had not indeed heard it her very saying it would have gone nigh as it would then have been managed per fas aut nefas to have cost her life and to believe that she would hazard her life to a Lye can't enter into my thoughts And therefore I am verily perswaded that nothing but the power of truth made her speak in this matter G. It appears sworn by Hewit that D. S. threatned Mrs. Holmes with Revenge when she was turned away L. For this you have the Oath of one who is sufficiently detected of a falsity in two other particulars and therefore not in this or any thing else to be credited T. Had she designed any Revenge she would have sworn more home upon Mr. Holmes for when she was asked whether she did remember that Mr. Holmes was in the Room either of the Two Meetings before my Lord's Death she declared she would not swear it because she remembred not that she had heard him there but all that she could positively swear against him was what passed after my Lord's Death viz. When Mr. Holmes came into the Room about Three of the Clock that day my Lord dyed one strikes him upon the Back and crys we have done the feat upon which Mr. Holmes said What is the Earls Throat cut to which the other replied yes and further said he could not but laugh to think how like a Fool the Earl looked when they came to cut his Throat upon Holmes's Question it was plain he well understood the meaning of that expression the Feat was done or otherwise he could not so readily have hit the thing G. Can it be supposed Mr. Holmes would at Three of the Clock that day my Lord Dy'd ask whether my Lord's Throat was cut when it had been from Eleven of the Clock that day in every mans mouth and consequently Holmes could not but believe without any further inquiry at that time of the day L. What Holmes here spoke by way of Interrogation might be intended as a strong affirmation of what seemed to be asked and this you can't wonder at Have you forgot that common Figure Quaerit Erotesis c. Is not this the Carpenters Son Is not this he speaking of St. Paul that destroyed them which called on his Name at Jerusalem c. in both these the thing is most strongly affirmed A Thousand such instances might be given Or it 's possible that D. S. might mistake for whereas she saith that Holmes said What is the Earls Throat cut which makes it an Interrogation the Expression might be What the Earls Throat is cut and this makes it a positive Affirmation Here the words are the very same only in the first the Copula is placed before the Subject and in the last just before the Predicate G. I must confess if either of these have sworn true or the dying man spoke truth this truth is a very strong confirmation of her Testimony and I cannot well disbelieve these Five seeing they do all so well agree in their Evidence for Five swear Smith was there about Peas time which must be after April I shall detain you no longer upon this particular but desire you to proceed T. Secondly the many reports in several parts of England before the Earls Death that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower. This
Where but likewise the Wherefore given out before it was done T. Gentlemen I perceive you are both extremely surprized with this particular Evidence of F. as what looks like an after made Story seeing the Earl's Death was here so long before reported as afterwards it was pretended to be acted both as to the Circumstances of the King and Duke's being in the Tower and the Consideration that was pretended then moved the Earl hereunto viz. fear of the King 's coming into his Chamber and seeing him which his guilt and shame as was pretended would not bear the thoughts of But to confirm this Deposition you will hereafter hear others depose the same in the mean time I desire you would compare this with that part of D. S. Evidence which declares That Nine days before the Earl's Death it was declared that the Duke had concluded and ordered his Throat to be cut ☜ And his Highness had promised to be There when it was done Now it would have looked more directly upon his Highness should he alone have gone into the Tower that Morning and therefore as a colour to that pretended reason for the self-murther and a Skreen to his Highness his Majesty must be perswaded to go down likewise so that if any should say the Earl was Murthered it should be esteemed a Reflection upon his Majesty who was then in the Tower as though his Majesty had gone to the Tower that Morning to Murther the Earl. Thus we find the matter managed by the Lord Chief Justice and Attorney-General at Mr. Braddon's Tryal almost throughout the Tryal L. I perceive then that you do not think Charles the Second had any Hand in contriving this Murther T. I do not I assure you but rather the contrary upon very good reasons which you will hereafter be satisfied in for I shall mention them in their proper place But I do verily believe that some short time before the King's Death his Majesty was perswaded the Earl was Murthered and had his Majesty lived six Months longer it 's very probable you might long since have seen this detection L. I have some reason for the same belief For I do well remember about six Months after the late King's Death I was credibly told this Story my Lord Chief Justice Jefferyes not long after that King's Death was at some publick place where he took an occasion to speak very largely in praise of his Majesty then lately deceased and after he had made a very long harangue in his praise his Lordship turned about and whispered a Gentleman in the Ear whom he thought his Confident saying If the King had lived six Months longer we had been all Hanged notwithstanding what I have said T. The measure of his Lordship's Iniquity was not then full L. It seems not but every Man must believe his Lordship's measure was very large or otherwise the great quantity of innocent blood therein powered by his vile Injustice had long before his Death made it run over G. I do very much wonder admitting the Earl was Murthered which I am now almost brought to the belief of how it should thus become generally reported in so many places before his Death L. This almost will shortly be an altogether and you will in this be throughly perswaded of the truth of this barbarous Murther for I have reason to think much more will be said to prove it because there are so many Witnesses of which we have as yet had no account T. The reason of its being so generally reported before it was done you will not so much admire at if you consider all the Circumstances of this Action This Murther was not acted out of any private Motive to some private End it was not done for the satisfaction of Personal revenge No this was a branch of that Cursed Arbitrary and Popish Design against our Civil and Religious Rights at that time carried on with all the fury imaginable under colour of supporting the English Monarchy and Church of England both which were then falsly said to be threatned with Ruin by that Party of which that truly Noble but unfortunate Lord was marked out as one of the Chief I say this was done to remove a Chief Obstacle to that Popish and Arbitrary end the true Enemies of both Church and State were then carrying on for you find it Sworn by D. S that several days before the Earl's Death the Papists curs'd him as one who knew much of their Designs which he could not be ignorant of observing though with hatred from those high Posts he had been imployed in and was so very averse to their Interest that unless he was taken off they should never carry them on The carrying on their Popish Arbitrary and Devilish Design you see was by themselves assigned as the reason of this most perfidious and barbarous Cruelty so that this Murther was a branch of their Plot and consequently might be supposed to be known to many All which have not been Men of the greatest secrecy witness their Reports of the Fire of London so long before it came to pass and their giving an Account of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's Death in the Country before we could be assured of the same in Town the Body not being then found Several the like Instances might be given L. For my own part I can wash my hands from the blood of any of those unfortunate Gentlemen which suffered for endeavouring to oppose those Arbitrary designs which the Charitable opinion most men had in the then Court could not at that time believe to be true but to our great Danger and Cost we have since seen them appear more bare-faced and those very men who esteemed it Damnable to draw the Sword in defence of our Religious and Civil Rights though never so grosly Invaded have since altered both their Opinion and Practice and could now weep over the Dust of those whose Persons they esteemed not deserving of life But blessed be God our Common Danger taught us to unite against the Common Enemy of all true Religion and Liberty and to joyn as one Man with that Hand from Heaven our present Soveraign sent to rescue us from what threatned the destruction of whatsoever was dear to any of us May God in mercy preserve us from these heats and animosities which being by our common Enemy once throughly enkindled may go nigh to end in the utter destruction of all that which of late hath been miraculously snatch'd out of the fire instrumentally by that hand which some of us ungrateful as we are by our actions seem neither to thank as our Benefactor nor acknowledge as our Sovereign though he seems to have a double Title to the Crown Jure Divino by that Miraculous success God was pleased to Crown him with and Jure Humano by that Election in common Gratitude made by the States of the Kingdom ◠From all these reports we may well conclude the Earl's Death was resolved upon by
that Bloody Party which Murdered him both in Person and Reputation and the manner how the place wher◠and the forged Reason wherefore agreed in These Bloody minded men would without doubt from the same motives and to carry on the same end destroy as many more were it once again as much within their power as it then was only they would do it with this difference that whereas therein they did act clandestanly we must expect that hereafter they would do it in the face of the Sun and justify it But from their Cruel Power and Bloody Malice Good Lord deliver us G. I desire not to detein you any longer on this particular for I am herein well satisfied and therefore pray proceed T. I am now come to the second general head viz. what passed the day my Lord Died you may observe it was denied by Bomeny Monday and Russel the three that attended on my Lord at the time of his Death the first as his Servant and the two others as his Warders that there was any man let into my Lord's Lodgings before my Lord's Death that Morning my Lord Died the like did John Lloyd the Sentinel that Morning my Lord Died at the door of Major Hawley's House wherein my Lord lodged I shall now prove that there were some Ruffians let into my Lords Lodgings a little before his Death to Murder my Lord. Pray read this Information G. S.S. Linnen-Draper declareth and is ready to depose that the 21th of January last this Informant was at the Goat Alehouse in the Minories where John Lloyd Sentinel upon the late Earl of Essex at the time of his Death as this Informant then was informed was that day brought Prisoner being taken up as suspected privy to the Death of the late Earl of Essex This Informant further saith that he this Informant discoursed the said Lloyd concerning the said Earl's Death and the said Lloyd did for some short time often deny that he had let in any men into the Earl of Essex's Lodgings that Morning the Earl dyed This Informant perswaded the said Lloyd to discharge his Conscience to God and Man and tell what he knew with relation thereunto lest by his denial or silence he should draw the guilt of that Innocent Blood upon himself but the said Lloyd for sometime persisted in his denial and whilst the said Lloyd was denying his letting in any men into my Lord that Morning my Lord Died before his Death there was brought into the Room one Major Webster as this Informant afterwards understood him to be then Prisoner for the same matter This Informant did thereupon ask the said Lloyd whether he knew the said Webster which the said Lloyd denied and said he never saw him before in his life upon which this Informant said it was very much that the said Lloyd should not know or remember to have seen the said Webster who was his Neighbour and very notorious in the place where he lived But the said Lloyd persisted for some short time in his denial of any knowledge of the said Webster but soon after the said Lloyd took this Informant by the hand and wringing this Informant's Hand with Tears in his Eyes spoke to this effect Master I give you a Thousand thanks for your good Advice ☞ and I do now remember by special order of Major Hawley I did let in two or three men but to the best of my remembrance three into my Lord's Lodgings that morning my Lord dyed and a very short time before his death and that man pointing to Webster was one of the three Men I did so let in upon which this Informant told the said Lloyd it was very strange he should pretend that Webster was one of three Men he had let into my Lords Lodgings just before his death when the said Lloyd had a little before pretended that he never saw the said Webster before that time This Informant further spoke to the said Lloyd to this effect That as the said Lloyd was consenting to my Lords Death in case he did endeavour to stifle any truth which might tend to the Discovery of my Lords Murder so would the said Lloyd be guilty of Webster's Blood if he should charge him in this particular with a Lye for what Jury soever should believe that Webster was one of those let into my Lord just before his Death it having been by all deny'd that any were so let in would likewise believe that Webster was one of the Ruffians that Murdered his Lordship and therefore this Informant advised the said Lloyd to be very careful in the matter Whereupon Lloyd replied that he could be very positive in the Man and if he were even then to dye he could safely and truly charge him upon his Oath with it This Informant further saith that Lloyd did then further declare that as soon as he had let in those men into my Lords Lodgings he did hear several and he did suppose them to be those he so let in go up Stairs into my Lord's Chamber where there immediately ensued a very great noise and trampling and thereupon somewhat thrown down like the fall of a Man not long after which it was cried out that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat Lloyd did further declare that he did not remember that he saw those men go out of Major Hawley's House but he did believe they might tarry some time in the House till the Croud came in upon the Discovery of my Lord's Death and then went out with the Croud L. Did any others besides Mr. S. hear this Lloyd thus confess the letting in these men T. Yes Besides Lloyd before the Justice confessed the letting in Two men into my Lords Lodgings a little before his Death as appears by the Coppy hereof The Examination of John Lloyd of Goodmans-yard in Aldgate Parish without in London Clothworker taken before John Robins Esq one of the Justices of Peace for the County of Middlesex the 22th day of January Anno Domini 1689. THis Examinant saith on the day whereon the Right Honourable the late Earl of Essex was found dead upon the suspition of having been Murdered in his Lodgings in the Tower of London he then being a Soldier was standing Sentinel at the Door of the said Earl's Lodgings and had order to let no body go up Stairs to the said Lodgings without leave from Major Hawley or the Warder then in waiting on the said Earl and that about half an hour after Eight of the Clock in the Morning of the said Day two Men to this Examinant unknown knocked at the Hatch-door belonging to the said Lodgings and by permission of the said Warder entred the said Lodgings but when they came out he can give no account and that about Nine a Clock he heard a struggling on the said Morning and a little time after heard a Crying my Lord is dead T. Read this likewise G. C. T. of the Minories Butcher declareth and is
if he were privy ☜ then he swore to save himself if he were not privy to the designed Murder or knew any thing of it till after the fact was done then could he not but expect that the same principles backed with the same power which Murdered my Lord would have likewise destroyed him should he have declared what he knew in the matter therefore the fear of being hanged in the one case and the danger of a stab or the like in the other were powerful Arguments with this Sentinel I do grant no man upon any consideration whatsoever ought to be influenced to Perjury but yet I desire never to fall under so strong temptations You can't therefore but confess this Sentinel at the time of Mr. Braddon's Trial was under a strong prejudice to deny what he might in this case know and that for the reasons before alledged wherefore compare the circumstances of his Confession with what he afterwards declared under a great Injunction of Secresy viz. ☜ That he was troubled night and day he had confessed the letting in these men for though it was indeed true he should not have confessed Consider truth becomes not a Lye by being deny'd though upon Oath nor a Lye a Truth by being sworn Wherefore all circumstances considered you have much stronger reasons to believe Lloyd's now Confession than his former Oath But that there were some Men let into my Lord and were bustling with his Lordship just before his Death appears more clearly from this Information following which I desire you to Read. G. M. B. Declareth that a little before the Death of the late Earl of Essex was discovered this Informant was walking up before the Earls Chamber Window and hearing a very great trampling and bustle in my Lords Chamber this Informant stood still and looking to the Window of the said Chamber saw Three or Four Heads move close together and heard one in the Chamber which seemed to be one in this bustle cry out very loud and very dolefully Murder Murder Murder This Informant not then knowing it to be my Lord's Lodging nor thinking any other of this Cry than what might be occasioned by some accidental quarrel walked up towards the Chappel but not out of sight of the Lodgings and about a quarter of an hour after or less it was first cry'd out in the house that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat upon which this Informant went down to the House and being shewed the Chamber where the Earl lay she found that was the Chamber where she saw the Men and heard the bustle and Murder thrice cry'd out as before related This Informant further saith that some few days after this telling Mr. P. and his Wife whom she then kept in her lying in of what she had seen and heard as before declared the said Mr. P. advised her not to speak of it for her divulging it in all probability would prove her ruine L. Is this Woman Sworn T. Yes and as she hath Informed me deposed the same G. But what is become of this Mr. P. T. His Information is ready which you may read G. A. P. declares that within a Week after the Death of the late Earl of Essex M. B. did give this Informant and his Wife the same Account as above related by the said M. B. and this Informant did then caution and advise the said M. B. not to reveal it lest it should prove her ruine L. Is this Mr. P. sworn T. Yes as he hath informed me and deposed the same T. This Mrs. B. was very unwilling at first to declare in this matter what she knew to be true L. Why there was no danger in the discovery upon this Revolution T. It 's true and it was not danger but what she thought her interest that would have deterred her L. Interest Is she a Papist T. No nevertheless she thought it not for her Profit this Murder should be discovered L. Certainly it 's both the duty and interest of all true Protestants that this Murder should be fully detected and I can't well foresee wherein it could be inconsistant with this Womans Interest if she were indeed a Protestant that this Barbarous cruelty should be laid open G. It may be she was afraid some Friend or Relation might be concerned T. That 's very true it was to save a Relation but not of Blood or Affinity but a Civil Parent the cruel Father of us all the late K. I mean. For the case stood thus this Mrs. B. had been Nurse to some Papists of Quality and others where that Infamous Madam Midnight Madam Wilks had been Midwife and this Mrs. Wilks had pretended a great kindness to this Nurse and had assured her she would get her into the Court to be Nurse to several Persons of Eminent Quality which this Woman thought might be much for her advantage and therefore when Mr. Braddon first spoke to her and asked her whether she was in the Tower that Morning the late Earl of Essex died she answered seeming under some surprise and disorder Yes Mr. Braddon then desired to know what she either heard or saw with relation to that unfortunate Lords death she very shortly replied Nothing whereupon Mr. Braddon who before had discoursed Mr. P. told her either she was a Liar or Unjust a Liar if she did not see and hear that which was material with Relation to my Lords Death seeing she declared the contrary just after my Lords Death to Mr. P. and his Wife or very unjust if what she had formerly declared were true and would not now reveal it she said she would have nothing to do with it and so flings up Stairs But Mr. Braddon being shortly after informed that this Woman had declared it was against her Interest this Murder should be discovered and prosecuted because it would be fixed upon King James whose return and settlement she desired for Madam Wilks had promised her as before declared and therefore seeing Mrs. Wilks would have no interest in case this Murder were discovered and so she should loose a very great Friend She was resolved not to tell what she knew nor would have any thing to do in the matter Mr. Braddon being thus informed desired once more to see this Nurse when he saw her he told her he did understand that there was somewhat which stood as a prejudice against her revealing what she knew but he declared that he would move the Honourable Committee of Lords that she might be brought to the Bar of the House of Lords and Sworn where she should either perjure her self in the concealing of what she knew in doing whereof she would not only be guilty of Perjury when sworn to discover the truth but to that Perjury would add Blood for which at the last day she must expect to answer for could she reveal any thing with relation to this Murder and stifled it she by such her silence consented to the Blood of my
Information viz. The Information of Paul Bomeny c. Saith That when my Lord came to Captain Hawley that was the 11th of July 1683 my Lord of Essex asked him for a Pen-knife to pair his Nails with as he was wont to do to which this Informant answered being come in haste he had not brought it but he would send for one and accordingly sent the Footman with a Note for several things for my Lord among which the Pen-knife was inserted and the Footman went and gave the Bill to my Lord's Steward who sent him the Provsion but not the Pen-knife and he told the Footman he would get one the next day when the Footman was come my Lord asked if the Pen-knife was come this Informant answered No but he should have it the next day and accordingly he on the 12th Instant in the Morning before my Lord of Essex was up this Informant sent the Footman home with a Note to the Steward in which among other things he asked for a Pen-knife for my Lord and when the Footman was gone about or a little after Eight a Clock my Lord sent one Mr. Russel his Warder to this Informant who came and then he asked him if the Pen-knife was come this Informant said No my Lord but I shall have it by and by to which my Lord said he should bring him one of his Razors it would do as well and then this Informant went and fetched one and gave it my Lord who then went to pair his Nails and then this Informant went out of the Room in the Passage by the Door and began to talk with the Warder and a little while after he went down Stairs and soon after came the Footman with the Pen-knife which this Informant put upon his Bed and thought my Lord had no more need of it because he thought he had paired his Nails and then this Informant came to my Lord's Chamber about Eight or Nine in the Forenoon on Friday the 13th Instant with a little Note from the Steward where there were three Lines writ but not finding his Lord in the Chamber went to the Close-stool Closet-door and found it shut and he thinking his Lord was busy there went down and staid a little and came up again thinking his Lord had been come out of the Closet and finding him not in the Chamber he knocked at the Door with his Finger thrice and said My Lord but no body answering he took up the Hanging and looked through the Chinck and saw Blood and part of the Razor whereupon he called the Warder Russel and went down to call for help and the said Russel pushed the Door open there they saw my Lord of Essex all along the Floor without a Perriwig and all full of Blood and the Razor by him And this Deponent further deposeth That the Razor now shewed unto him at the time of his Examination is the same Razor which he did bring unto my Lord and did lie on the ground in the Closet by my Lord. You find some of Bomeny's printed Informations writ in large Capital Letters and likewise some of this so writ L. I perceive it T. The first was inserted by my Lord Sunderland's Order the then Secretary of State or some under him And the third omitted for it was in the Original which you have just now read and the second was interlined by the Coroner after Bomeny had as before brought this Information to him what the Coroner interlined was as himself saith with Bomeny's Consent and truly I think very favourably of him G. I perceive that by comparing the Relation printed by Authority that next Monday after my Lord's Death with what you here declare to be the Original it materially differs for they added to it and took from it as they pleased so that this is in strictness speaking a forged Information that was printed L. As in a Deed or Bond the adding to or taking from either in Construction of Law is forging the whole So in an Information once signed and sworn to nothing can be added to it or diminished from it without being in Law a Forger of the whole G. What reason had the Secretary of State to print Bomeny's Information different from the Original T. My Lord Sunderland or some under Consident perceiving Bomeny had sworn the Delivery of the Razor and what thereupon happened to be of the Thursday the day before my Lord's Death which was not only contrary to his Instructions but a point-blank Contradiction to his Confederate Russel it was thought convenient either by my Lord Sunderland or such Confident under him that these two Informations should be reconciled in the Print how contradictory soever they were in the Original which could not be seen and compared with the Print by any but the Coroner in whose Custody they were and therefore on Friday the 13th Instant was to be by way of Forgery added to Bomeny's Informations but this done as hath been observed by an ingenuous Author on this occasion without the least Congruity either to Sense or Grammar for nothing can be more apparent than that the foregoing part of the Information relates wholly to Thursday but at last without any regard to what Bomeny had before sworn on Friday the 13th Instant is foisted in contrary to all Rules of Grammar and common Measures of Sense as well as Justice which justly esteems this printed Information forged This forged Reconciliation is done with the greatest Incongruity and Absurdness as well as Falseness imaginable and I know not whether the Folly of the Suborner for without doubt the Suborner and Reconciler in this case are the same or of the same stamp or the Perjury of the suborned in this Information be most conspicuous G. Sir I now perceive what was the reason of this Alteration or rather Forgery in this Information but as you have often observed God Almighty allots to the Knave such an Allay of the Fool that the Fool hangs the Knave up half way and in this that Observation is so Notorious that I never saw more of the Fool in the Knave in my Life Certainly this Gentleman that villanously in protection of the Murder thus turned Reconciler either did not understand Sense himself or else did believe none would read this Information that did c. T. Pray read these two Papers G. J. W. Painter saith That the very day the Earl of Essex died he went with one George Jones since dead to the Tower to discourse Nathaniel Monday concerning the Death of the said Earl and when they came to the Tower meeting with the said Monday he gave them this Account That as soon as the Gentleman Jaylor had opened my Lord's Chamber Door that very morning he the said Monday by Order went in to my Lord's Chamber and tarried there because their Orders were that one of the Warders should be in his Lordship's Chamber and the other at the Stair's Foot. And that they had this farther Order not
to suffer his Lordship to have a Knife or any thing like it but whilst he used it in cutting his Meat and that being done all Knives and such-like were to be taken from him To which his Lordship answered He should take nothing ill in them in observing their Orders This Informant further saith That the said Monday did then declare that he tarried with my Lord in his Chamber two hours or better that very morning and that whilst he was with my Lord in his Chamber he did observe his Lordship paired his Nails with the Heel of a Razor This Informant further saith that the said Monday did further declare Before he left his Lordship and went down Stairs to stand below he called up Russel his fellow-Warder to stand in the Chamber and as he went down Stairs he lighted his Pipe and sat at the Stairs foot but before he had half smoaked his Pipe he heard it cried above Stairs that my Lord had cut his Throat Hereupon he the said Monday ran up Stairs and pushed the Closet Door open and there found my Lord dead This Informant further saith that the said Monday did further declare That when he came up Stairs he asked Mr. Bomeny and Russel where they were whilst my Lord was in the Closet The said Bomeny answered he was sitting upon the Bed in my Lord's Chamber and the said Russel declared he stood at my Lord's Chamber Door just without the Door whereupon he the said Monday as the said Monday declared check'd the said Russel for not keeping in the Chamber according to Order Richard Jordan declareth That on the day Mr. Braddon was tried upon the account of the late Earl of Essex this Informant heard Nath. Monday declare That the very morning the late Earl of Essex died as foon as the Gentlemen 〈◊〉 open'd the Chamber Door which was about seven of the Clock the said Monday first stood as Warder above Stairs upon the said Earl and at the first opening the Door did observe the said Earl have a Razor in his Hand pairing or scraping his Nails with it and this the said Monday declared he saw a long time before Russel stood Warder above Stairs upon the said Earl. T. By these two Informations you may perceive what Monday declared My Lord had this Razor in his Hand about seven a Clock in the Morning long before Russel came up Stairs to stand Warder upon my Lord and that my Lord pared his Nails with the Heel of the Razor G. I find it as you say L. Monday I perceive tells W. the very day my Lord died that the very same morning about seven of the Clock Monday told my Lord that they his Warders had Orders not to suffer his Lordship to have a Knife or any thing like it whilst he was cutting his Meat and that being done the Knife was to be taken from his Lordship This looks as tho there were some Jealousies that my Lord would cut his Throat for otherwise why would they not suffer him to have a Knife T. It looks more like either a Suggestion of Monday's own Invention or a Lesson taught him to make others believe that there was such a Suspition for Monday now denies it I desire now to compare these three Mens Relations as to the Time of delivery of the Razor by doing which you will have reason to believe no Razor at all was delivered to his Lordship For the clearer understanding hereof I suppose Bomeny under Examination with the Jury and answering according to what he hath sworn Jury Did you deliver this Razor to my Lord ☞ Bomeny Yes Jury When did you deliver this Razor to my Lord Bomeny About eight of the Clock that morning my Lord died ☞ This according to what he first swore but he then withdraws to write his own Information which point-blank contradicts this his Oath in that particular for he is then examined and answereth as followeth Jury Do you remember the very Time that you delivered this Razor to my Lord Bomeny Yes Jury When did you deliver this Razor to my Lord Bomeny ☞ About eight of the Clock on Thursday morning being the day before my Lord's death This as you observe he swears in the Information himself writ and brought to the Coroner T. Bomeny then to withdraw and let Russel answer to this particular Jury Mr. Russel do you know when this Razor was delivered to my Lord Russel Very well for I faw it delivered to my Lord by Bomeny Jury When did you see this Razor delivered Russel Less then a quarter of an hour before wefound my Lord dead I stood Warder at my Lord's Door and I heard his Lordship ask for his Penknife to pair his Nails and Bomeny said it was not brought upon which my Lord required a Razor saying it would do as well ☞ and I saw Bomeny give my Lord the Razor it being then about nine a Clock Jury Who first stood as Warder at my Lord's Chamber Door or in my Lord's Chamber yesterday morning before my Lord dy'd was it you or Monday Russel Monday upon my Lord's Chamber Door being opened first stood at the Door and after he had been there as long as we use to stand he called me up and then went down and stood at the Stairs-foot at the House Door where I did before stand Jury Then this Razor you saw delivered to my Lord after Monday went down Stairs and whilst you stood as Warder at my Lord's Door Russel It 's very true for I am sure I stood by Bomeny when he delivered the Razor and saw it delivered to my Lord. Jury What distance of Time do you say there might be from the time this Razor was delivered to the time of my Lord's death Russel I am sure it could not be half an hour from the time of the delivery of the Razor to the time we found my Lord dead in the Closet T. Russel withdraws and Monday is examined Jury Mr. Monday did you see my Lord have any Razor in his Hand yesterday morning before his death Monday Yes I did Jury What time was it when you saw my Lord have the Razor in his Hand Monday About seven of the Clock as soon as the Gentleman Jaylor opened my Lord's Chamber Door for I first stood Warder above Stairs and as soon as the Door was opened I saw my Lord have the Razor in his Hand and observed him to pair his Nails with it Jury Was this before Russel came up to my Lord's Chamber door to stand Warder there Monday Yes almost two hours T. This is according to their own Informations and Relations Now can you believe that this Razor was delivered by Bomeny at eight of the Clock Friday morning according to his first Oath and yet not delivered till eight of the Clock Tuesday Morning according to Bomeny's 〈◊〉 Oath And can you also believe that the Razor was not delivered till about nine of the Clock Friday Morning according
but one Evidence T. It will be proved as far as a Negative can be proved That this Boy and Girl never spoke to each other till some time after the Earl's Death and the Relations of the Boy and Girl were altogether strangers to each other having never to their Remembrance heard or seen one another which might be well supposed for their Habitation was some distance from each other Mr. Edwards and his Son and Family living in Mark-Lane the Girl and her Relations at St. Katherines besides you may observe the Girl stood upon the high Ground over against the Earl's Chamber Window and the Boy in the lower Ground where the Girl stood she being but short could hardly see the Ground where the Razor fell but she declared she saw the Maid in the white Hood come thereupon out of Major Hawley's House which Description agreed exactly with that Description the Boy gave of the Maid L. Their Evidence thus agreeing can't well be doubted G. I have been informed this Maid is now reputed of a loose Character T. Admit it true she could not be so thought when she was but just past twelve Years of Age and it was then she first declared it and six Years since and more swore it Therefore her now Character can't in common Reason prejudice her then Testimony given in her innocent Chilhood and her now Testimony is but a Repetition of her former Oath Besides had this Fact been told by Persons of never so great Infamy that did appear to be altogether strangers to each other their Agreement in their Relations had given Credit to their Testimony ☜ being first reported when as is before observed there could be no end proposed by telling this Lie seeing when it was first declared it appeared not in the least inconsistent with the pretended Truth of my Lord's Self-Murder because this Razor after the Discovery out of Indignation might have been thrown out of the Window by some attending on my Lord. Now had this been sworn the next day after my Lord's Death which at the time it was first told by this Boy and Girl could not appear otherwise then this Story of the Razor 's being thrown out of my Lord's Chamber Window had fallen to the Ground and no way useful to prove the Murder But this I have already more at large insisted upon L. It 's an old and true Proverb Children and Fools tell Truth the Reason of this saying is because Children and Fools not being capable of that Invention which such as are of Years and Understanding may be supposed to have speak without design the naked Truth of the Fact. T. A farther Argument of the Truth of this is the Relation of R. and M. the two Souldiers before mentioned both which the very day of my Lord's Death declared in this particular the same with the Boy and Girl as appears by these Informations following Pray read them G. E. G. and S. H. further declare That about 11 of the Clock the very day my Lord dy'd the aforesaid R. did further say That my Lord was murdered but before his Death was discovered to any out of the House there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window and that a Maid took it up and carry'd it into my Lord's Lodgings J. B. and his Wife do both further declare That the aforesaid R. M. the very day of my Lord's Death did further say That after my Lord's Murder and before his Death was known there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window which a little Boy endeavoured to take up but there came a Maid out of Capt. Hawley's House and took it up and run with it into Capt. Hawley's House and then the Maid was the first that discovered my Lord's Death L. These two Witnesses agree with the Boy not only in the Main as you call it but in several Circumstances of the Story with the Boy 's Relation First in the Main that there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window before his Death was known Secondly Meake agrees with the Boy that the Boy did endeavour to take up this Razor but was prevented by the Maid who forthwith carried it into Major Hawley's House And Thirdly that this Maid was the first discovered my Lord's Death G. I must confess their Agreement in their Relations gives great Credit to the Truth of their Testimony L. Was it ever yet known that four Persons ☞ some very Young and others of Riper Years and all Strangers to one another should give the same Account of a Fact in all its Circumstances and the Fact not True T. For the farther Confirmation of this Truth I shall prove by three Witnesses more it was a general Report in the Tower that morning my Lord died That the Razor was as before related thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window Pray read these three Papers G. I. S. declareth That this Informant was a Souldier in the Tower that very morning the late Earl of Essex died in the Tower and about eight of the Clock in the same morning this Informant was sent as one of the Guards upon the Honorable Lord Russel to the Old Baily and as this Informant was returning to the Tower with several of this Guard one in great haste from the Tower met them and said the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat and thrown the Razor out of the Window Upon which it was Answered the Earl of Essex had great Courage first to Cut his Throat and then to throw the Razor out of the Window This Informant further saith That after he came into the Tower that very morning he heard it declared by several that there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window before my Lord's Death was known R. G. Declareth That he was a Souldier in the Tower that very morning the late Earl of Essex dy'd and after the Earl's Death this Informant heard it discoursed that very morning in the Tower that there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window before my Lord's Death was known and it was further said That the Razor was much broken and notched which some then attributed to the fall out of the Window but others said it might be against the Neckbone L. Against the Neck-bone That 's a pretty Business indeed that my Lord should so hack the Neck-bone as to break the Razor according to the description you have before given us of the Razor T. So Ridiculous as you make this it was the very same that the Surgeon the next day said to the Jury as you will anon find L. A Surgeon either Knave or Fool a Knave if he told them what he did not himself believe and nevertheless endeavoured when upon his Oath to speak the Truth to impose upon the Jury and a Fool if he did believe it But pray read the Third Information G. R. B. declareth That he this Informant was in the Tower that very
morning the late Earl of Essex died and immediately upon the first discovery of my Lord's Death this Informant went to Major Hawley's where my Lord then lay and by the Door of the said Major Hawley's House this Informant heard several then and there declare That there was a bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window before my Lord's Death was known some then and there asserting that they saw the Razor so thrown out L. Who now can doubt this Truth thus attested and confirmed T. But to put the Matter beyond all colour of contradiction or doubt read the farther Testimony of Mr. S. S. G. S. S. farther saith That the very day Major Webster and Lloyd were taken up viz. the 21st of January last as suspected concerned in the Death of the late Earl of Essex this Informant was in the Goat-Alehouse in the Minories where the said Webster and Lloyd were then in the Constable's Custody and this Informant did then and there hear the said Webster declare That he did nothing with relation to my Lord but pull off his Cravat and took the Razor up from the Floor and threw it out of the Window Upon which this Informant asked the said Webster What hurt the Razor had done him that he should throw it out of the Window To which the said Webster replied That when he did it he was under such a consternation as he knew not what he did This Informant farther saith That upon this Confession of the said Major Webster Lloyd the Sentinel then sitting by this Informant did declare That it was indeed true that the Razor was thrown out for it was thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window just over the said Lloyd's Head and the Razor fell just without the Pales The said Lloyd did further say That he did observe a little Boy and the Maid of the House to struggle for the Razor but the Maid took it and ran in with it into Major Hawley's House soon after crying out My Lord of Essex hath cut his Throat and the said Lloyd declared the said Maid was the first discovered to him my Lord's Death T. As a confirmation of this viz. that this Maid was the first that discovered to the Sentinel my Lord's Death read this Information G. J. N. declareth That he this Informant went into the Tower that very morning the late Earl of Essex died and just before the knowledg of my Lord's Death this Informant went to the Sentinel that then stood at my Lord's Lodgings and asked the said Sentinel how the Earl of Essex did to which the said Sentinel answered Very well T. Observe the Sentinel at this time pretended my Lord was very well and confessed not any knowledg of his Death But proceed G. Just as this Informant had asked this Question and been thus answered he did observe a Maid run in great haste into Major Hawley's House and as the Maid was come to the Stair-foot and going up Stairs he did observe a tall black Man a Warder and another Gentleman come down Stairs from my Lord's Chamber-Wards and neither of these two spoke one word of my Lord's Death as this Informant heard who stood about six foot from the Door but the Maid ran up in great haste and immediately in as great came running down Stairs wringing her Hands and crying out My Lord of Essex had cut his Throat which Discovery was the first this Informant heard of my Lord's Death who stood as before very nigh Major Hawley's House And this Informant did observe the said Maid to have a Razor in her Hand either as she ran up Stairs or as she came running down as aforesaid L. I wish we could but know who this Warder and another Gentleman was that came down Stairs as the Maid ran up for they could not be ignorant of what was done T. By description it must be Monday for there was but two Warders in the House at that time and this description agrees not with the other as for the other Gentleman a short time may discover him G. This Confession of Lloyd as to the Boy 's endeavouring to take up the Razor but the Maid's taking it up and carrying it into the House immediately upon which my Lord's Death was discovered I find agrees with the Boy 's Relation and with what M. and R. declared the very day my Lord died L. If you will not be convinced of the Truth of a Fact attested by such positive and circumstantial Relations agreeing in their several Accounts as to the material Circumstances of the Fact as was before observed and confirmed by two of the Persons accused the last whereof in his Relation gave the same representation of the Fact as was before related by so many I say if such Evidence as this will not convince you in in this Particular it argues you are under an invincible prejudice which moral Testimonies will not remove G. I can't but acknowledg my self in this Particular satisfied as to the truth of this Razor being so thrown out as before deposed but I am altogether to seek of the Reason of this Action what should make these Ruffians to throw it out L. You have the Reason Webster himself assigned for doing it for he was asked What made him throw it out he answered He was under such a consternation that he knew not what he did T. You did before observe the scituation of the Room and Closet and how the Chamber-Window out of which the Razor was thrown was about 17 foot distant from the Closet where the Body lay therefore it 's very probable after this bloody Ruffian had murdered my Lord and blooded the Razor as the pretended Instrument of his Death they having not finished the whole Scene and laid the Razor by the Body as was intended but this Webster who threw it out standing not far from the Chamber-Window with the bloody Razor in his Hand was surprised when a Person came up Stairs of whose coming he was not aware and under this consternation as is natural to a surprise in such horrid Villanies threw the Razor out of the Window but discovered nothing of my Lord's Death and then the Maid who it's possible was the occasion of this surprise went out and took it up and as soon as she returned into the House discovered my Lord's Death as you have before at large heard related G. This seems to be probable enough L. It may shortly prove more than probable G. What is become of this Maid that carried up the Razor T. She is under Bail. G. Doth she deny it T. Yes and saith she went out of her Master's House almost half an hour before my Lord's Death was known and returned not until my Lord's Death was publick and several People in the House to see my Lord For she tells this Story That about half an hour before my Lord's Death was known my Lord's Footman came to her and told her the Warder would not open the Wicket to let in
my Lord's Provisions that were brought and therefore begged her to go to her Master Mr. Hawley the Gentleman-Porter to desire him to go to the Warder that kept the Gate and order him to let in the Provisions L. It 's much the Footman himself could not go to Major Hawley for certainly the Major well-knowing whose Footman he was would soon go and give Orders to let in the Provisions upon the Footman's request as his Maids unless the Maid had some collateral consideration besides that of a Servant which might influence her Master T. There was no need of eithers going as you will immediately hear Upon this she declares She did accordingly go to her Master who thereupon ordered the Warder to let in my Lord's Provisions and as they viz. my Lord's Footman Will. Turner and one Sam. Peck and a Porter were bringing the Provisions a Sentinel told them They were come too late upon which this Maid declares she was surprised and asked Will. Turner what should be the meaning of that Expression You are come too late for she did not understand it Whereto Turner answered that he did suppose the Sentinel believed those Provisions to be my Lord Russel's who being gone to his Trial this Souldier might think he would never return again to the Tower and so the Provisions were brought too late This she declares she then believed but as soon as they came in sight of her Master's House they admired to see so great a Croud about the Door but were soon too well satisfied in the occasion for it was just before discovered that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat G. This looks as a made Story for can it be thought that the Warder would not let in my Lord's Provisions T. It is indeed a forged Lye throughout for William Turner Samuel Peck and the Porter do all three declare that the Maid was not with them whilst they were bringing in the Provisions neither did the Warder that kept the Gate in the least scruple the letting in my Lord's Provisions this they all say they are ready to depose G. Then this Maid is a Confederate for otherwise she would speak the Truth T. Surely she that endeavours by such a false villanous Invention to evade the Truth becomes consenting to my Lord's Murder and at the last day shall answer it L. Nay she may answer it before if it be once plainly made appear that she did carry up the Razor and was the first that discovered my Lord's Death for by what she then saw and hath since heard sworn by those who attended on my Lord she could not but be well satisfied my Lord was murdered and endeavouring thus to stifle it by her false Evasions T. To which she saith she did swear before the Secretary of State. L. That adds Perjury to the first Guilt Without doubt her endeavouring by Perjury to conceal and stifle the most perfidious and barbarous Murder our Nation ever knew shall render her culpable in no small degree T. Just as the Maid cried out My Lord had cut his Throat one Mr. B. then an Ensign ran into the House and was the first Man in my Lord's Chamber after my Lord's Death was known the Blood then seeming almost reeking hot this Mr. B. declared that as he ran in he did observe this Maid whose Name he knew to be Alice standing at her Master's Door wringing her Hands and crying and N. who saw the Maid run into her Master's House and up Stairs and then heard her cry out Murder and likewise in her hand the Razor declares that was the very Maid which stood at the Door when Mr. B. went into the House L. By all Circumstances this must be the Maid for had not this Wench been some way concerned she would never have invented this Lie for Innocence flies not nor needs a Lie for its Defence but is always supported by Truth and Innocence it self becomes justly suspected for Guilt when it makes use of a false Defence the Law and the natural Reason of the thing presuming that every one will use the best and consequently the truest Defence in Protection of his Innocence Pray proceed T. The Circumstances of the Razor in the top's being so broken and the many other Notches as before appears by the Razor are natural self-Evidence of the Truth of the Razor 's being thrown out of the Window for my Lord in cutting his Throat could not so do it notwithstanding an old Chirurgion to the Jury declared otherwise for the Jury asking him Whether my Lord in cutting his own Throat could so break and notch the Razor The Chirurgion answered that it was possible for my Lord to do it against his Neck-bone occasioned by the Tremefaction of my Lord's Hand when the Razor came to the Neck-bone L. Certainly there was a Tremefaction in the Chirurgion's Understanding or Honesty when upon Oath he gave this Answer for I do suppose he was sworn T. He was so As a further Argument against my Lord's cutting his Throat in the Closet the Circumstances of the Closet as found when my Lord was first found dead appear in Evidence You may observe the Closet is but three Foot and one Inch wide and seven Foot long in one side and about five Foot long in the other now it 's declared by those attending on my Lord that there was no Blood against the Wall a foot higher than the Floor nor any upon the Cloose-stool or any of the Shelves of the Closet whereas had my Lord cut his Throat standing on the Closet the Blood would have immediately gushed out of so large an Orifice five Foot at least wherefore that part of the Wall over against his Throat must have been very bloody but in this case there was none at all and therefore it could not be done standing neither did his Lordship do it kneeling for there was no Blood as high as his Throat as in that Posture would have then been and that his Lordship did it not lying along appears from the Position of the Razor for the Wound beginning on the left side and ending on the right the Razor must have been on the right side of the Body whereas it lay about fourteen Inches or more from the left G. All these self-Evidences might have appeared to the Jury upon their view and it 's very much they did not observe them T. What the Jury did and how they were managed you shall soon hear But I shall First take notice of the many Irregularities with respect to the Management of my Lord's Body the Chamber and Closet after my Lord's Death Secondly The false and malicious Suggestions by Major Hawley to the Jury to hinder the Discovery of the Truth and to influence them to the belief of my Lord's self-Murder And Thirdly The Oppressions Threats and Severities since used to avoid a Detection of this unparalled bloody Treachery First The Irregularities with relation to the Body Room and Closet after my Lord's
reasonably presumed to desire they should find therefore to remove this and corrupt them into a belief of a Lie viz. The pretended self-Murder Hawley tells Fisher that it was his Mistake in my Lord that made him believe his Lordship such a Man for all those that knew his Lordship well ☞ knew this of him That it was a fix'd Principle in my Lord that any Man might cut his own Throat or otherwise dispose of his Life to avoid a dishonourable and infamous Death so that this Action was not unlike his Lordship but according to his avow'd and fix'd Principles This false and malicious Suggestion of Major Hawley which the Jury then did suppose to be true did very easily incline them to believe that my Lord had pursuant to this Principle cut his own Throat to avoid that Dishonourable and Infamous Death which his Circumstances seem'd to threaten L. What is this Hawley Could his Condition pretend to any Intimacy with his Lordship that he seemed so well to know my Lord's Principles in this matter T. Hawley now denies all and protests to their Lordships of this Committee that he was not nigh the Jury in the Victualling-House all the time of their Inquisition nor ever heard it said to be my Lord's Principle That any Man might cut his Throat to avoid an Infamous Death till their Lordships in this Committee told him so L. Sure the Major's Memory must be very short for there is hardly any Man of conversation in Town but must have often heard it so said it being a general discourse immediately upon my Lord's Death that such was his Lordship's Principle G. This I have been very often credibly informed and have heard it reported in all Coffee-houses and used as one and not the least Argument of my Lord 's having indeed cut his own Throat I do much wonder the Major should pretend that he never heard of it especially when he himself did suggest the same to the Jury and press'd it as an Argument of my Lord's Self-Murder I do not well understand this T. Gentlemen to me the reason of this is plain For when Major Hawley found that such a Suggestion was used as an Argument of his Guilt to avoid this Charge he doth not only deny his suggesting it but as a good Reason had it been true that he could not declared he never heard it by any said before their Lordships charged him with it that such was my Lord's Principle L. Major Hawley's denying that he did suggest this to the Jury or ever heard it said to be my Lord's Principle when the Matter is positively sworn against him ☜ naturally argues that this was a false forged and malitiously-invented Story by that bloody Party and Hawley the Man by them pitched upon as the most proper Person to corrupt the Jury the then proper legal Judges of the Manner of my Lord's Death with this treacherous and villanous contrived Suggestion so that the Jury might be more easily inclined to believe my Lord's Self-Murder upon evidence as inconsistent as false G. I do much admire Major Hawley should deny he was with the Jury at the Victualling-house if he were indeed there seeing his being with them there was no Crime and therefore needed no denial T. His bare being there needed neither denial or excuse but to avoid the Charge of what he falsely and treacherously did whilst he was there which he could never excuse he thought best in general to deny that he was with the Jury at all in the Victualling-house G. But this was very Foolish because the Major being so well known and it may be to all the Jury his being there could not but be remembred by many of them T. Almost all the Jury do remember him there and likewise the Coroner and Surgeons can't but know he was there G. The Major's denial therefore looks ill for if he had been there upon any lawful or indifferent Account he might have lawfully and innocently justified the same but his denial when proved so very false looks as though his Charge were too true T. The Jury had another Reason to remember the Major's being there with them at the Victualling-house for when some of the Jury moved for the Adjournment of their Inqusition till some further time and in the Mean while notice to be given to my Lord 's Honourable Relations that they might bring what Evidence they thought good L. This had been proper and it 's very customary for sometimes the Jury do not bring in their Inquisition in many days T. It had been both proper and practised in this Case had not Major Hawley prevented it G. How could the Major hinder it T. Hawley enters a Caveat by another villanous and false Suggestion ☞ for upon this Motion of the Jury Hawley with great earnestness assures the Jury they could not adjourn their Inquiry but must immediately dispatch because his Majesty Charles the Second had sent an Express for their Inquisition and would not rise from Council where he was then sitting till their Inquiry was brought him wherefore they must make all haste possible This the Jury believing they made more haste than good speed and so sooner than otherwise they would finish'd their Inquisition G. Doth Major Hawley remember this Messenger sent by his Majesty T. Hawley totally denies this likewise and in answer saith as before that he was not nigh the Jury at the Victualling-house and so could not thus hasten them L. Denies it is it not sworn T. It is L. Certainly the denial of a Criminal shall not ballance the Testimony of the Accuser T. Especially when the Person accusing is of a much cleerer and better Reputation in all things considered than ever the Person Accused can justly pretend to G. I am sorry for the Major whom I did ever think very Loyal L. His Old Court-Loyalty Obedience without reserve qualified him as a fit Instrument in this perfidious and villanous though then Court-Loyal Service I remember that a Popish Captain about two Years since declared He looked upon himself ☜ bound to obey without reserve his King in all Commands and swore his Loyalty was such that he would cut his Confessor's Throat when under confession if his Prince should so command him T. A thro'-paced Loyalist upon my word G. A Loyalist a Loyalist for the Devil L. Even such Loyalty those Men had which were imployed in my Lord of Essex his last Service G. I have been informed that Major Hawley hath declared He would go forty and forty Miles bare-foot to discover this Murder if my Lord were indeed murdered by others L. Verba Credam cum facta Videam Shew me thy Faith by thy Works T. That this Hawley was a Man who still thirsted for the blood of those brave true English Champions that opposed the late Court-Arbitrary-Designs and could afford those honourable Lords and truly worthy Knights and Gentlemen no better Titles than Rogues appears by what he declared
the very day that a great Number of Honorable Lords amongst which this unfortunate Lord I hear was one and worthy Knights Gentlemen and Citizens dined together at Mile-end-Green for sometime that Afternoon Hawley told Mr. Bunch then a Warder that above 200 Rogues that very day dined together at Mile-end-Green ☞ but he did wish that he had forty of the biggest of them there in the Tower that they might be made the shorter by the Head for till then the Land would never be at quiet L. What is become of this Major Hawley G. He is Major of the Tower and likewise is as I think Gentleman-Porter his Place worth some hundreds a Year L. What is he now intrusted in the Tower G. Yes with almost if not altogether the greatest Trust next under the Honorable Governour that is now in the Tower and he is even my Lord Lucas's Right-hand in the management of the Tower-Affairs L. Is this which is here said to be sworn against Hawley known to the Lord Lucas T. I believe not L. It were well his Lordship were acquainted with it for most certain if what be sworn against him be true which it's reasonable to believe Hawley is very deep in this Matter and then we well know for what interest he must cordially act tho' in appearance he seem otherwise T. The 21st of January last when his Wife or some Gentlewoman in his House when he was taken heard of the Major's being seized upon as suspected concerned in or privy to this Fact ☞ she cry'd out God send us our good King again for he will soon put an end to this Matter L. And without doubt an End to those that inquired into it G. I must confess these false Suggestions for I can't believe them otherwise seeing Major Hawley denies his being with the Jury reflect upon the Major as too officious in this Matter and I fear this great officiousness of the Major was in order to a very ill End I can think no otherwise and am heartily sorry for him because I have heard many Loyal Men speak very well of him and to me he hath appeared no otherwise T. The Men of our late Loyalty will speak the better of him upon this very account and that which would make him odious in the sight of honest Men in the esteem of these renders him the more acceptable but as for these worthy Gentlemen who have had good Thoughts of this Man as soon as they find these things and somewhat else sworn against him they must either believe him not Innocent in this or discredit the Evidence to do which would argue Prejudice when the Accuser is of a clearer Reputation than ever this Gentleman can pretend to and besides in this stands Rectus in Curia neither his Person or Estate depending upon the Issue of this Cause nay if he stand under any Prejudice it is that my Lord should still appear a Self-murderer because should it prove otherwise the Coroner's Inquest of which this Gentleman is one must expect the lash of some Mens Tongues though I do think them to blame in nothing but some indiscretion for I am verily perswaded that these Gentlemen for the most part at least did not rejoice in that unfortunate Accident but did heartily wish they had received any Information to find it otherwise than their Evidence moved them to but nothing of that appearing from any Persons who came in to depose on my Lord's behalf and these Gentlemen being obliged to go according to Evidence they are not so much to be blamed as pitied for being so hurried into their Inquest L. I find you are an Advocate both for the Coroner and his Jury Think you they ought to be justified in all Particulars T. It 's one thing to justify and another to mitigate As I do not think them altogether excusable so neither do I believe them so Criminal as some would represent them and as far as in Justice I may I think it my Duty to clear them and all Men from any Aspersion L. You say the Jury ought to have proceeded according to Evidence Ought they not under that Notion to have comprehended the several Irregularites in the total Change of the Circumstances of the Body Room and Closet from the State in which they were when the Body was first found Ought they not to have considered as Evidence the palpable and gross Contradictions before at large observed between those attending on my Lord which argued the Falsity of the Evidence and that the truth of my Lord 's being murdered And ought they not to have considered as Evidence the several Cuts before observed to be in my Lord's Right-hand which argued his Resistance to put off the Instrument of Death Ought they not to have considered as Evidence the Gentlemens tampering with the Coroner in the next Room for I can believe these Gentlemen there for no other purpose and 'till the Coroner's Memory serves him to name these Men and their Business with him I shall not think the best of him Besides all which they ought to have considered as Evidence the Circumstances of the Razor the pretended Instrument of Death and compared the length of the Razor with the depth of the Wound and they would not have found an Inch difference Now the Razor as appears by your description being a French Razor and not having any Tongue or Spill this Razor in the use by my Lord could be held by nothing but the very Blade and not less than two Inches of that must be held in my Lord's Hand to cut with that steadiness and strength the making this large and deep Wound required so that the Jury would then have found not above two Inches without the Hand to make a Wound above three Inches deep this must have appeared such a Mathematical Impossibility as would have been comprehended by all and of it self had been sufficient to have proved the pretended self-Murder a Forgery To all which to clear the Jury from all Blame let us add their not examining those three attending on my Lord apart but suffering them to know one anothers Examinations so that they might agree in their Story and the better to help them herein to permit my Lord's Servant when he began to falter in his Relation which alone gave suspicion enough that he was telling a Lie for Truth would have readily occurr'd to go into the next Room to his Tutors without doubt and write his own Information and yet after all their Relations were incoherent and contradictory These your honest Jury-Men have in all this gone according to Evidence have they not Do they deny that they observed these things if they did not it argues either their great Simplitity or somewhat much worse T. Some of these they do confess to have observed but others they disown to have taken any notice of in particular they say they remember not to have observed any Cuts in my Lord 's Right-hand L. They
say they remember not These Gentlemen I perceive have likewise learn'd the Art of Forgetfulness so that they will remember nothing which may seem to reflect upon their Discretion or Integrity I would have some of these you have before mentioned set up a School to teach this Art never before found out by any T. I have heard of one of these Jury-Men who being asked what Cuts he did observe in my Lord's Right-hand answered Should he consess any it would reflect upon them L. And therefore this Gentleman was resolved to forget to reflect upon them I perceive this Gentleman doth not consider how his stifling in not owning what he can't but remember the Truth makes him in Foro Conscientiae accessory after the Fact to my Lord's Murder For whosoever there is that knows any thing which he believes in its Discovery might tend to the Detection of this most perfidious Murder and by his Silence endeavours to stifle it therein before God becomes consenting to that Fact as accessory to which at the last day he shall answer Our Law makes him accessory after the Fact that endeavours to conceal and convey any from Justice whom he knows guilty of such a Villany and for such his Crime he shall answer with the Forfeiture of his Life Now the reason of this Law I take to be this because such an Offender endeavouring to defraud Justice of its due by protecting his Life which by his Transgression became forfeited to the Law becomes consenting to the Fact and shall in his own Life become subjected to that Punishment the Person by him so conveyed away would have suffered when taken nay the Crime becomes not excused by the Person 's being apprehended after he is so concealed or conveyed away but the Person guilty hereof shall suffer the same Capital Punishment that is inflicted upon the Principal T. I wish all Men were such Casuists as to understand this and so good Men as to put it in Practice for you would then soon hear of new Evidence in this Case L. A Man needs not much Casuistical Learning to know so plain a Case T. In all your Heat you do not consider those Circumstances that might influence the Jury and deter them from doing what they ought in this Case L. What can plead their Excuse T. The great danger they had been under in finding my Lord murdered by others pleads for your and all Mens charitable Pity towards Men under such a Temptation L. Nothing ought to deter Men from an inviolable Observation of that Maxim before mentioned Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum T. The Observation of this is I must confess every Man's Duty but we find the fear of Death hath prevailed with the best of Men to swerve from their Duty to the highest degree He of the Disciples who in all appearance had the best natural Courage for he only wore the Sword and * John 18.10 used it in the greatest Dangers had the †Mat. 14.29 highest degree of Faith was the ‖ Mat. 16.16 first that explicitly owned our Saviour and declared when fore-warn'd of his Denial that tho all Men deny'd our Saviour he would not nay tho he were to die â—â—t 26.55 he would stick close to his Faith this very Man once under all these Advantages in the midst of his Presumption was at last hector'd out of his Faith by a poor silly Kitchin-Maid thrice denying the Lord of Life tho' even then before his Face and after his Reflection upon his Fault and his weeping bitterly he had not Courage enough to appear own and suffer with his Master as before he declared he would do rather than deny him Such Instances as these should teach us all Pity towards those that fail in their Duty under the like Temptations and likewise those that stand should take care lest they fall G. I have been often told by a Merchant who many Years lived in Genoa That when some young Noblemen upon a small provocation in the midst of the Street have murdered others they have upon the Spot immediately aloud declared That whosoever should say they did it should not long remain their Debtor By which the standers-by were given to understand that whosoever should discover them to be the Men must expect to fall Sacrifices to their Revenge or the Revenge of their Party and they fail'd not to perform what was so threatned T. Little less in this Case was done as some have felt by woful Experience who by their Expressions in detestation of this Murder had exposed themselves to the malicious fury of those Men who never stuck to add Blood to Blood to prevent a discovery of the first and carry on their devilish Interest And this brings me to the last general Consideration viz. The Backwardness of the then Government and the many Threats great Oppression and barbarous Cruelty that hath been used to prevent a Discovery of those barbarous and bloody-minded Men with other Particulars which seem to argue my Lord's being villanously murdered I shall first speak to the Backwardness and Oppression of the Government in this Case And Secondly To such other Particulars as may be used as Arguments of this treacherous Cruelty For the first viz. The Backwardness of the then Government and the many Threats great Oppression and barbarous Cruelty that hath been used to prevent a Discovery of these barbarous and bloody-minded Men. When Mr. Braddon went to the Earl of Sunderland then Secretary of State the very next Thursday after the Death of the late Earl of Essex and carried with him the Information of William Edwards and his Mother ready writ but not sworn my Lord Sunderland seemed much surprised upon reading of them and indeed he had reason to be surprised if he stands so related to the Matter as he is now suspected to be and then in some heat asked Mr. Braddon Who bad him bring those Things to him To which it was answered That Sir Henry Capel had desired it Upon which my Lord ordered Mr. Braddon to come the next morning and bring the Parties concerned saying If it were proper he would take them L. I can't but here observe that Anger and Heat you say my Lord Sunderland was in when these Informations were as above delivered as though it had been a Matter which did not properly belong to him and therefore unless it were proper he would not take them The Secretary is angry that he was troubled with the Business and yet the Court of King's-Bench at Mr. Braddon's Trial said That Mr. Braddon had done well if he had first gone to the Secretary of State. G. But Mr. Braddon first tried several Justices of the Peace T. That did not then appear to the Secretary of State wherefore the Secretary thought that an Impertinency in Mr. Braddon which the Court of King's-Bench called his Duty L. If it were proper my Lord Sunderland would take them Certainly the Inquiry after a Murder is proper
do believe that the same Power and Interest that hired those perfidious Villains to permit what was so barbarously executed had likewise given them Instructions what to Swear to give colour to the pretended Self-murder and therefore His Highness might be the best prepared to answer all Objections against these mens Depositions But I long to hear how His Highness endeavoured to reconcile them T. His Highness could not then turn Reconciler and therefore said nothing to this matter but delivered them to his then Majesty who said as little whereupon the then Lord Keeper North took those Informations and endeavoured to reconcile what was indeed irreconcileable Whereupon Mr. Braddon objected against his Lordship's Reconciliation and urged the former Objections further upon which his Lordship seemed though not much by his words yet by his very pale changed Countenance highly displeased with Mr. Braddon for making those Reflections L. What were these Depositions Printed for but to be observed did his Lordship think that every man would swallow such gross Contradictions as his Lordship's Corruption against his Judgment would have reconciled T. After a long Examination too tedious here to repeat Mr. Braddon was ordered to withdraw and then the Young William Edwards was called in the Child being then not Thirteen years of Age was very much afraid having as before been foolishly frighted by his Eldest Sister as though the King would Hang him and cry'd whereupon as the Sister hath reported the Child was stroaked upon the Head and bid not to cry and then asked Whether he had not invented that Lye to excuse his Truenting that day L. A proper Question by way of Instruction for such a Child to answer I suppose the Boy then answered as by this question he was in effect bid T. You are in the right for the Child to this question answered Yes The Sister was examined and she gave the same account you have before at large heard as to what the Boy had declared and how Mr. Braddon had discoursed them and then Mr. Braddon was the second time called in and by the Lord Keeper North told that he had instructed this Boy in a Lye and would have suborned the Child to Swear it To which Mr. Braddon answered It was impossible he could instruct him to say what the Boy had declared several days before he had ever seen the Boy or any of his Relations as appeared by what his Sister and the Boy himself must own L. Had not his Lordship's Honour and Interest suborned his Conscience in this matter he would have dealt more fairly Mr. Bradden then told his Lordship That being well satisfied in his Innocence and Integrity he seared not any Prosecution but would readily give whatsoever Bail his Lordship should require and accordingly that Afternoon gave Bonds with two Friends in 2000 l. a piece for his Appearance and hereupon continued the Prosecution with all Vigor imaginable for he was now obliged in Self-Justice to endeavor in what he could to corroborate the Boy 's Evidence which my Lord Keeper North corruptly called a Lye and to which his Lordship without any ground pretended that Mr. Braddon would have suborned the Boy to Swear for at the same time it appeared to his Lordship as far as Negative could appear that Mr. Braddon had not given offered or promised to the Boy or any for him or to any of his Relations one Farthing or Farthings-worth but did as you have before at large heard use such Arguments as might most naturally Influence the Boy to truth After Mr. Braddon had been about a month hurried up and down in both Town and Country upon several Inquiries and all People except one Gentleman who was ever ready to go with Mr. Braddon upon all occasions very unwilling in the least to concern themselves Crag L. It is very natural for men to be deter'd from engaging in that which was so roughly managed by the Council-Board and threatned the Ruine of him who first appeared for few men are for living a State-Confessor caged up within Iron Grates or dying their Countries Martyr but think themselves obliged to mind only their private Affairs leaving all Affairs of State to those that have the Command and Steerage of this great Vessel the Government lest by their Intermeddling in those ticklish matters themselves should have followed the unjust misfortune of those brave men who couragiously though to their Ruine opposed themselves to the usurpt Prerogative and Tyranny of the Times T. Had all men been like those men of Prudence as they falsly term their Cowardices what would long since have become of this Vessel wherein all with all we have are imbarqued The Commander in Chief with most of the Chief Officers had by a corrupt perjured Agreement amongst themselves resolved upon the Sale of both Men and Cargo to that Corrupt and Arbitrary Will which in a short time if not providentially prevented would have claimed all we are and have as though we had held neither Property Liberty or Life but as those Corrupt Judges did their places Durante bene placito Regis But to return About the 16th of August 1683. Mr. Braddon rid down into Wiltshire to Marlborough to enquire after a Report before my Lord's Death of my Lord 's cutting his Throat From Marlborough he was riding to Froom in Somersetshire and at Bradford about six Miles short of Froom he was stopt there being then strict Watching and Warding throughout that Country by a Vile Persecuting Fellow one Captain Beach an Attorney who was ever Zealous for the Ruine and Destruction of those that stood firm to the True English Interest and yet now pretends to be Zealous for his present Majesty and Government though he declared when His Majesty first Landed he did hope to see most of those Hanged that went in to him being here Examined and having given the Justice Satisfaction a Gentleman then there knowing Mr. Braddon and assuring the Justice he knew him to be the same man he declared he was the Justice was taken aside by Beach and as others declared who had heard this Beach told that he did not so strictly as he ought examine this Gentleman for the Gentleman was certainly Disaffected to the Government as might be seen by his wearing a Band and Cuffs L. A very strong Argument upon my word T. Hereupon the Justice came to Mr. Braddon and told him he must search him upon which Mr. Braddon before ever the Justice saw his Papers ingeniously declared the cause of his being then in the Country where he was going and upon what occasion upon which the Justice Commits Mr. Braddon to Wiltshire Goal by such an illegal Warrant in its conclusion as you never saw The Warrant ran as followeth viz. Wilts ss TO the Keeper of His Majesties Goal of Fisherton-Anger in this County or his Sufficient Deputy These I send you herewithall the Body of Lawrence Braddon apprehended in the Town of Bradford in the County
or rather repeated their Instructions for without doubt the Information to be given the Jury was likewise agreed upon before my Lord's Death so that these Forsworn Caitifs might not be to seek in their Information when they came to Swear which would have soon discovered this bloody Treachery I say repeated their Lesson and with this Forgery misled the Jury who were too easily impos'd upon Now though the Government is not so much to be blamed in this Coroner's Inquest which Inquest by the way in all respects can never be justified yet as to the Governments standing by this Inquisition as what was to remain like the Laws of the Medes and Persians without alteration This is what all the World justly condemns it for You can't but be so much a Lawyer and Historian as to know that the Coroner's Inquest is not conclusive and final but may be contradicted and almost dayly is sometimes the Coroner's Inquest finds Men to have died of a natural Distemper which after appear to have been barbarously Murdered To give you one Instance for many Sir Thomas Overbury whose Case in some respects runs parallel with this was by the Coroner found to have died a natural Death but as soon as that Faction which had treacherously Murdered him declined in their Interest it appeared this unfortunate Gentleman was treacherously Murdered by others When this Murder of Sir Thomas Overbery was first detected King James the First was far from thinking the Prosecution of that Murder a Reflection on the Government though there was the same reason in Law for that as this seeing in that the Gentleman died in the Custody of the Law and the Coroner found the Person to have died of a natural Death and in this a Felo de se Now seeing the Contradiction of the Coroner's Inquest was the Foundation of Mr. Braddon's Information there was the very same ground for the like Prosecution of those that did detect Sir Thomas Overbury's Murder but instead of prosecuting the Prosecutor King James the First at Royston laid the highest Injunction imaginable on all the Judges diligently and impartially to prosecute this Murder for in the midst of his Judges his Lords and Gentlemen then likewise surrounding him he used these words My Lords the Judges It 's lately come to my hearing that you have now in Examination a business of Poysoning Lord in what a most miserable condition shall this Kingdom be the only Famous Nation for Hospitality in the World if our Tables should become a Snare as none could eat without danger of Life and that Italian Custom should be introduced amongst us Therefore my Lords I charge you as you will answer it at that great and dreadful day of Judgment that you examine it strictly without Favour Affection or Partiality and if you shall spare any Guilty of this Crime God's Curse light on you and your Posterity and if I spare any that are found Guilty God's Curse light on me and my Posterity for ever Such was His then Majesties great Zeal for the Detection and Punishment and his just Abhorrence of this treacherous Murder which he then expressed upon the first discovery of that barbarous perfidiousness But this Case is under much higher Aggravations for That Gentleman was only charged and that in truth with a refusal of the King's Command in not going on that Honourable Embassy which would have been both for his Honour and Safety so that his was a Sin only of Omission But this Noble Lord was maliciously and falsly accused of the Blackest Treason viz. Conspiring the Death of the King c. That Gentleman's Reputation was not murdered with an Imputation of Self-murder But This Honourable Peer was murdered both in Person and Reputation and by the Perjury of the most perfidious Varlets corrupting the Law they villainously transferred the Guilt from those really Criminal and placed it on him whom they had before by their privity and consent treacherously and barbarously Murdered That Gentleman's Murder center'd in himself But the Murder of this Honourable Person was immediately appli'd to the Murdering of another Honourable Lord whom they were then by their Instruments not so much corrupted with Malice as blind Obedience villainously haranguing out of his Life under form of Law and colour of Justice and many more since murdered to avoid a Detection of this their first most cruel and barbarous Treachery Justice zealously espoused the Prosecution of that worthy Gentleman's Murder but Justice here became Corrupted and Retrograde for instead of encouraging and Prosecuting the Murderers it discouraged prosecuted and ruined the Prosecutor That Food which should have sustained the Natural Man was tainted with a natural poysonous Composition and became or at least was there designed for he was stifled between the Pillows and died not of the Poison the means of that worthy Knight's Destruction But Justice which supports the Moral Man was here twice vitiated first by Perjury and Treachery in those vile perfidious Caitifs before the Coroner and the second time by Perjury in the same cruel Miscreants in the Kings-Bench Court at Mr. Braddon's Tryal and the then bare-faced Wresting of Justice thorough the irreconcileable Malice of the Chief Author of this Murder and the groundless and illegal Prosecution Conviction and Punishment of him who did endeavour by proper legal Methods to detect this hellish complicated Villany I shall follow this Comparison no farther but appeal to all the World whether the latter of these two Murders is not aggravated with far higher Circumstances than the former And as Justice after some time overtook those that perpetrated that treacherous Cruelty so I doubt not but God in Justice will shortly bring to condign Punishment some though not all of those concerned in this not to be parallel'd piece of barbarous Cruelty L. The hard measure Mr. Braddon met with was more to deterr him and others from this Prosecution than to punish him for what he had done T. That I believe and my Lord Keeper North who wanted not Words and plausible Insinuations upon all occasions represented to Mr. Braddon the great Danger such Practices would bring upon him To which it was answered by that Gentleman That he hoped he had done nothing therein but what he could answer to God and his own Conscience and fâ—r the Danger he did not fear for he did hope that neither Danger nor Death should deter him in the way of his Duty in which he could as chearfully depart this Life at Tyburn in a Halter as in his Bed of a Fever L. I believe Mr. Braddon did not expect to be very kindly received by the then Court. T. He had no reason to believe he should by them be made very welcome and he was so told by many of his Friends which therefore disswaded him from proceeding But to such he did generally give such answers viz. That he could not but expect what they did seem to fear would befall him nevertheless it should not
of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey Such means as these would have been likewise in this case used if such who then misled Charles the Second and corrupted the State had not been the deepest in this black Contrivance G. This Letter I perceive mentions some other besides His Highness Pray who was else named T. In this I desire your Pardon but of the Name and Person you may hereafter hear G. Sir I desire to know nothing but what you are very free to tell T. Some things are not convenient to be spoken of till a more convenient Season G. I shall press to know nothing which may disserve this Discovery by being divulged What Religion was this Bomeny I have been informed he was a very good Protestant and one that my Lord had a great kindness for It 's much this Fellow if a Protestant could be prevailed with to connive at so Horrid a piece of Cruelty T. Bomeny's Religion was like many other Mens to be managed and changed in shew according to his Interest but cordially I do believe him still a Papist Whatsoever opinion my Lord might have of this Fellow as to his Faithfulness I am very well satisfied this Villain was engaged before my Lord was brought from his Country-house in this treacherous Murder for as my Lord was in the Custody of the Guard and bringing through Watford when all my Lord 's other Servants and even the whole Town were in Tears for his Lordship's Trouble this Judas rid smiling and talking of French with some of the Guards L. In hopes that within some short time he should receive more for his Perfidiousness than his Service might expect in many years But these Gains were his greatest Loss for what more ready way could he have taken to Destruction here I don't say against that he was secure enough but hereafter and what would it profit this Varlet to gain the World and lose his own Soul T. As for his Religion you may conclude it belonged to that Church whose Garments are dipped in the Blood of the Saints and that this Fellows Religion was really such tho in appearance he seemed otherwise may reasonably be concluded from this Story of which I have been credibly Informed The Protestant Minister where Bomeny lived in France after my Lord's Death prest Bomeny very earnestly to deal ingeniously in this Case for the Minister declared he was very well satisfied my Lord of Essex was Murdered and he was well assured that Bomeny must know it therefore the Minister protested he was not free that Bomeny should come to Church much less be admitted to the Blessed Sacrament till in this matter he had discharged himself Bomeny finding himself thus pressed by his Minister thought it best openly to profess what he was and the very next day declared himself a Papist L. That Priest to whom he should confess this Murder would be so far from enjoyning him a Penance that he would commend this action as Meritorious T. It was indeed for the Advancement of that Church so often drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs and the Stones of which Church are Cemented with the Blood of the Saints G. Then this traiterous Varlet who betrayed the best of Masters was only in shew a Protestant that thereby he might have the better opportunity of serving a Church which did ever by bloody means advance its Interest L. It 's very probable this vile perfidious Fellow was a constant Spy upon my Lord but when that Service was to have an end by the Destruction of his Person then was this barbarous Villain to finish his treachery in being Privy to the most astonishing Piece of complicated Cruelty and after that to Crown and Conceal this cursed Butchery Perjury was to be added so that this Murder might be laid to my Lord 's own Charge as well to destroy this Honourable Lord's Reputation as to protect those cruel Miscreants who had before perfidiously Murdered his Person G. Sir I am very glad you have thus given Mr. Bomeny's Character for I am very well satisfied that an Eminent Doctor for whom I am sure you have a very great Reverence believes quite otherwise of this Fellow for I have heard the Doctor give this Bomeny a very good Character which I do suppose he had only by Information and by what Relation this fellow did give the Doctor he was strongly perswaded that my Lord did it himself tho I am sure no Man would be more readily convinced upon good Ground than this Doctor would neither would any living be more zealous in a just Prosecution if once he had good Grounds to proceed upon which I can now soon furnish him with and Answer those very Objections which so much influenced the Doctor to a disbelief of my Lord 's being treacherously Murdered and one of his Reasons for the Self-murder was this Soon after my Lord's Death Mr. Bomeny that treacherous Villain of whom I cannot think with Patience gives the Doctor this Account That his Lord did use to be taken with sudden frenzical Passions and in particular with one that Morning just before his Death For said this vile Judas As soon as my Lord saw my Lord Russel go to his Tryal he struck his Breast and said himself was the cause of my Lord Russel 's Misery seeing he had vouched for that Gentleman whose Treachery would prove my Lord Russel 's Ruin c. and hereupon fell almost Distracted But I perceive this Story is intirely forg'd For the Jury here swear that this very Fellow to them the next day after my Lord's Death upon Oath declared My Lord was as chearful and the Night before eat an hearty a Supper as he did ever see him in his Life And gives them no Account of this treacherous Forgery nor any thing like it but all in Contradiction to it This appears by his first Oath T. It 's very probable at Mr. Braddon's Tryal he would have forgot this part of his Lesson had not the Attorney General whether out of any ill Design or according to Mr. Burton's false Instruction I know not put him in mind of this particular for when Mr. Attorney said Did you observe your Lord Melancholly Mr. Bomeny L. Without doubt Mr. Bomeny understood what Answer he was to give to this Question T. Yes And followed not the truth but in part tho very imperfectly his Instructions â—…don's â—… p. For Bomeny said Yes he was Melancholly but we took no notice of it for he did use to be so and we had no reason to suspect any thing more than ordinary L. Observe now how different or rather contradictory this Answer is to that Relation this perjured Villain gave this Doctor and both destroyed by that Account he upon Oath the vey next day after my Lord's Death gave the Jury for he then swore his Lord was very chearful had the Relation given the Doctor been true how ready would Bomeny to this Question have given it in answer and what an
How can this Reverend Doctor now give the least dram of Credit to this persidious Fellow G. Sir I do assure you I shall as in Justice bound do the Memory of this Honourable but unfortunate Lord what Justice lies within my Power and in particular shall endeavour rightly to inform this Learned Doctor with the whole State of the Case and if once he be convinced as he can't but be if he believe what is herein Sworn and so strongly confirm'd his belief will soon draw many Proselytes But I do admire Mr. Billingsly this unfortunate Lord's Steward should seem to disbelieve it T. This Gentleman of whom you now speak hath great reason from what himself knows to believe my Lord was Murdered G. What Reason in particular I pray Sir T. From what Bomeny told this Gentleman he might safely draw that Conclusion for Mr. B. the Sunday or Monday after my Lords Death asking Bomeny how long my Lord lay Dead before he was known to be Dead he declared above two hours upon which Mr. Billingsly as he justly might was very angry with Bomeny for leaving my Lord so long alone Now by comparing this Relation to what was Sworn he must have found it a point-blank Contradiction for Russell deposed it was not half an hour from the time of the Razor 's being delivered by Bomeny to the time of their finding my Lord Dead in his Closet so the one Swore it was not half an hour and the other said that it was above two hours and this declared within two days after the Fact and so may be supposed to be fresh in his Memory it 's plain that one of these two was false in his Information and seeing these Mens Ralations were to acquit themselves as well as charge my Lord it might be reasonably concluded that both were false and all forged as it now plainly appears by comparing these Mens Relations so full of Contradictions together G. I have Reason to believe That the Right Honourable the Countess Dowager of Essex hath been extreamly deceived by what this Mr. Billingsly informed her Honour for I have been told that this Gentleman pretended to the Countess that the very Night before my Lord's Death he being with his Lord his Lordship seemed extreamly disordered in his Mind and he took the more notice of it by his commanding him to sit down and drink a Glass of Wine with him which made Billingsly believe his Lordship was somewhat crazed and therefore he was inclined to think what he was sorry to say viz. That my Lord committed that Violence on himself If this report be false Mr. B. ought to vindicate himself and therein clear his Lord from this Suspicion of being delirious T. Sir I have little reason to give Credit to what this Steward saith seeing as I was informed by one of the Family he made Oath before my Lord Sunderland That he did believe my Lord did destroy himself whether this be true I know not but of this I am very well assured That this Mr. Billingsly tho he hath got so many thousands by this Family would not in the least engage with Mr. Braddon in this Prosecution nay at last was so far from it that he did refuse to see Mr. Braddon pretending that he did believe Mr. Braddon was a Court-Engin used by the Court for the further Ruin of that Honourable Family whose Misfortunes were before greater than could well be born so that the Court might have a farther opportunity to Prosecute and Ruin the Survivors of his Unfortunate Lord. This was the Substance of this Gentleman's Suggestion L. For this Suggestion Mr. Billingsly had not the least Colour and I do believe this he declared only to avoid being thought backward in that Prosecution which the highest degree of both Justice and Gratitude obliged him to engage in Tho this Mr. Billingsly by this Honourable Family had well feathered his Nest his Gratitude was not such as in Service to the Memory of his Murdered Lord and his Honourable Relations then surviving to hazard any part of the Estate he had got under them and that he might not be thought ingrateful he buried his Ingratitude in the Blood of his Lord by false disingenuous and base Insinuations T. If Mr. Braddon was the late Courts Instrument I am sure he was very ingratefully served to be so violently Prosecuted unjustly Convicted and Sentenced to his perpetual Imprisonment for such would it have been to him had it not been for this providential Deliverance L. There are a sort of People ingrateful as they are that will Sacrifice the Honour of their greatest Benefactors rather than themselves should be thought ingrateful And of this sort are many that have been preferred by this Great but Unfortunate Lord for I have heard of few that were imployed under him that would heretofore in the least seem to countenance this Prosecution But I think my self bound in Justice to vindicate one in particular from being thought ingrateful to the Memory of his Murdered Lord. The Gentleman I now speak of is one Mr. E. who in the worst of times hath gratefully endeavoured to rescue the Honour of his Lord from falling under this false Imputation of Self-murder and as I have heard Mr. Braddon often declare was very ready to assist him in any thing when this Murder was first Prosecuted T. Your naming this Honest Gentleman puts me in mind of one particular which I have heard him often aver the Truth whereof I do not doubt and this Truth seems to destroy that great Objection That my Lord was afraid he should according to his pretended Guilt be brought to Condign Punishment for the avoiding whereof he laid violent Hands on himself this was as before observed often in effect said at my Lord Russell's Tryal and likewise at several other times The Story is this When my Lord Shaftsbury my Lord Howard c. were last Committed this Gentleman â—â—e of General Conversation having heard the Court designed likewise to Commit my Lord of Essex and to take off many in form of Law or rather that which they falsely called so went to his Lordship and informed him of what he had been told and humbly submitted it to his Lordship's Judgment whether it were not proper for some time to withdraw till the Fury of the Court by time was a little appeased this Gentleman told his Lordship He found by the Papists that they did design to destroy several and his Lordship being to their Arbitary and Popish Designs as great and profest an Enemy as any he did fear his Lordship might not be safe from their pretended Justice when within their Power My Lord hereupon smiled and said very sedately and yet very resolutely That he would not stir tho he did expect the Court would proceed very far not only to the Imprisoning but against the Lives of many and if God in his Providence should think fit to suffer him to fall a Sacrifice to the Rage and
apply such Fears accordingly now her Honour being startled with these often Repetitions upon hearing of her Lord's death might suppose that such had been her Lord's Resolutions which gave Birth to those repeated Expressions But whereas it 's said my Lord spoke it in a sort of Despondency it 's probable that her Honour might mistake his Lordship's undaunted Courage which with a higher assistance kept him above the fear of what the Power and Malice of his greatest Enemies could inflict for Desparation This to me seems the most likely considering what his Lordship had before declared viz. That he did expect the Court would not only Imprison but take off several and if it should be his misfortune to fall a Sacrifice for his Country to the Court Malice and Rage the World should see he ceuld dye with as great Resolution as ever his Father did for he was ready at all times and upon all occasions to lay down his Life for his Country This Honourable Lord was not ignorant of the Popish and Arbitrary Designs of the Court and that there were small hopes of any Redress by Parliaments for such were not suffered to sit when they began to reform our Grievances and as for the then Judges they were purely Instruments and Ecchoes to the Corruption of the Court so that whatsoever Whitehall had resolved upon as fit to be declared Treason in Westminsterhail was declared not properly adjudged accordingly not adjudged I say for we found many of them more Knave than Fool and their Interest corrupted their Consciences and these their Tongues to pronounce what their Judgments in the Law could not but be satisfied was false and themselves well knew to be corrupt wherefore only the last remedy remained in case the Court proceeded as there was all reason to believe they would by such Vile Illegal Arbitrary Popish and Oppressive Methods to destroy what to every brave true English Spirit is much more valuable than Life Religion Liberty and Property I mean. My Lord of Essex had long stood in a true light wherein he could plainly see the most secret and ultimate end of the Court and this made him the more resolved to joyn with others such Patriots as himself in opposition to those Hellish Plots of St. James's for there indeed lived the true Plotters which were industriously plotting the total Destruction of our Religion and Liberties when such true Lovers of their Country as himself were designing nothing more than the Preservation of our Laws which the Corruption of the Bench had in Perjury sold to the Oppression of the Court. But this Bargain was never so plainly proclaimed as in that Never-too-severely-to-be-punished Judgment which gave as far as was within the Power of that perjured Bench such a Dispencing Power to the Crown under a necessity of which necessity the Crown was the sole Judge as by a natural Consequence dissolved all Law when a Royal Arbitrary Ipse Dixit should so pronounce it Wherefore as before observed we held our Laws and therein our Religion Lives and Liberties as these Forsworn Mercenary Judges did their Places durante bene placito Regis Had we in this Lord's days known those Popish and Arbitrary Court-Secrets which he plainly saw designed our ruine but no confiderarion could ever corrupt this Honourable Lord to ingage in those Cursed Cabals most certainly we should have rescued the Lives of those our best Friends and not by a corrupt Constructive Treason have Sacrificed those true Lovers of our Country for doing of that which we all ought as one Man to have cordially joined in Had not those brave Patriots our Church and State Confessors the most Reverend his Grace and the Reverend six Bishops met with an Uncorrupt Jury which were guided by Conscience not imposed upon by the Court but enlightned with the true State of the Case as most judiciously and truly Stated by those their Learned Council in the Law These Seven Champions for our Laws and therein for all by them we possess would most certainly have been offered up by the Bench as Victims of Expiation for that Guilt which would in a Court Sense have robb'd the Crown of its richest Jewel yea that Court Philosopher-Stone the Dispencing Power which at pleasure might have turned our Properties Liberties yea Lives into pure Gold for the Estates we possess the Liberty we enjoy and the Lives we live we have guarded only next under God by our Laws which this Leviathan at once would have swallowed and totally destroyed L. When I consider my Lord 's declared Resolution of his not stirring tho then under the like Danger as in this Case apprehended and with what Readiness Courage and Chearfulness he could lay down his Life for his Country and likewise the Knowledg that he may be supposed to have of their Designs which those Villains nine days before his Death declared ☜ for it 's Sworn they then said The Earl knew so much of their Designs and was so very Averse to their Interest that they could never carry them on unless his Lordship was taken off and his Lordship was therefore to be Murdered I say when I consider these things and that the more this Honourable Lord knew of the black Intrigues of the Court the more so good a Man and so true a Patriot must be supposed to hate them I can't but imagine that this brave State-Champion when he had been once satisfied that the Court under Colour of Law would have taken him off had resolved as to himself to lay open those Popish Arbitrary-Court Contrivances and justified that just Design of standing upon their Guard there was no other way under God to defend what was so grosly invaded Now tho his Lordship might suppose by dealing thus plainly he should the more exasperate the Court so that their Malice would be more inveterately bent in his Destruction yet that he declared he feared not but was ready chearfully to lay down his life in so just a Cause and should this daring true lover of his Country have thus expired by his State-Martyrdom he would have given such satisfaction in the truth of what he thus couragiously with his last breath should have affirmed as would have raised a general hatred against those Arbitrary and Popish-Court-Resolutions and this might so suddenly have given another so general a Resurrection to that just Cause as would have totally routed those our true and only Enemies of both Church and State. Our then Enemies under colour of Law were industriously endeavouring the total Subversion of our Laws and whilst in shew they seemed to maintain the Protestant Church they were secretly contriving its total Destruction by wresting those very Laws which were chiefly designed as Destructive to Popery and making them productive of what they were enacted to destroy for by a malicious and furious Prosecution of all Protestant Dissenters they did hope to raise so general Animosities between the Conforming and Non-conforming Protestants that they might
through such Division have an opportunity to fullfil that notorious Jesuitical Maxim Divide Impera T. God was pleased not to deliver us till he had made some sensible of the Danger of that which at a distance they did not so plainly perceive to be hurtful but Affliction soon made them wise and convinc'd them of their mistake and then some of them might truly have said of Our Law what the Psalmist did of the Divine Before I was afflicted I went astray â—al 119. but now have I kept thy word The general Danger that threatned all taught us all it was our Interest as well as Duty to joyn with that falsly called * Late Kâ—â—â— James's Proclaâ—â—tion Nâ—â— unnatural Invasion which in tender compassion was undertaken by our present Sovereign to rescue us from our * Mr. â—…cordeâ— Speech 〈◊〉 the Priâ—â—â— of Oraâ—… true Invaders L. Can any imagine that my Lord 's declaring As for himself he was resolved what to do could give rise to those many reports in such several and far distant places of the Kingdom G. But which is more plain I have been informed his Lordship should in some cases justifie Self-murder and particularly that Action of the Earl of Northumberland who Pistol'd himself in the Tower. T. As for those Judicious Divines which have been reported to be the men to whom the Earl should justify Self-murther in some Cases some of these have declared That they never heard any man more strenuously argue against it as what was unjustifiable under any consideration than my Lord hath done Nay farther I have been credibly told That when my Lord was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland an Eminent Citizen of Dublin cut his own Throat and his Excellency then declaared that Citizen ought to be found Non-Composmentis for it was his Opinion That no man in his senses did ever cut his own Throat But a stronger Argument to me is what is before at large observed of Major Hawley's suggesting Self-murther for the avoiding a dishonourable and infamous Death to be my Lord 's fixed Principle ☜ and yet this Gentleman now denies not only this suggestion but likewise declared That he never heard it said to be my Lord's Principle till their Lordships in this Committee charged him with it Hawley's Suggestion to the Jury I do not doubt for it 's positively sworn against him but the falsity of the thing suggested is plain from Hawley's now denying it and that this Story had its rise from the same Malice that contrived his Lordship's Destruction For had this Principle been true How readily would Hawley have justified it as of what he had been credibly informed and how serviceable might he have thought it to prove the Self-murther But this Gentleman being conscious where this pretended Principle was hatched ☞ and what villanous use he himself according to Instruction and Order made of it to the Jury thought it not safe to justify either his Suggestion or his having so much as heard it before my Lord's death to be his Lordship's Principle for should he have been forc'd to produce to him the Authors of this pretended Principle it would too plainly have appeared that these his Authors were the Forgers of the Story But I will for the present admit what I am well assured you can't credibly prove That before my Lord's death his Lordship had declared that Self-murther in some Cases was lawful it doth not from thence inevitably follow that his Lordship therefore must cut his own Throat for some have justified the Principle that never thought fit to put it in practice I will for Argument sake admit yet farther That Hawley's suggested Principle was true viz. That the Earl of Essex declared he would destroy himself rather than be brought to a dishonourable and infamous Death can it be thought that from this general Resolution wherein no particular manner of death is declared all those several previous Reports before observed should rise for to borrow almost the very words of an Ingenious Author upon this Occasion Though they were vented by several persons yet they not only agreed in the matter of the Earl of Essex 's Death but they accorded also in the way and manner of it and place where namely that he cut his Throat in the Tower which plainly shews that it was not vulgar Tattle vented at random but had its foundation in a previous and fixed Resolution that he should undergo that unhappy Fate both as to manner and place nothing but a determinate Cause can produce a steddy and determinate Effect Had the Report taken its rise in the Jealousies of his Friends or owed its breath to the fearful Apprehensions of the Common People they would have rather dreamed of his being poisoned as being more safe for the Actors to perpetrate and requiring the accession of fewer hands than have ever imagined that his Throat should be cut It 's impossible to conceive that the Reports of so many several Persons should not only agree in the matter of his Death but all harmonize and center in the very Circumstances and manner of it and Place where unless it had originally proceeded from such as had contrived and determined both the Murther it self and the way wherein it should be committed and the Place where it should be done For when Reports have their foundation only in Mens Fancies they will always vary according to the different Tempers Passions and Complexions of the Reporters how could so many Persons and at such distances from one another and betwixt whom there was never any correspondence agree and combine together to impose upon the World and to abuse the Faith of Mankind and as they all seem to be Persons who abhor Tricks and who would not be guilty of spreading much less of raising a false Report so it is beyond the Wit of Man to declare how it should come to the Interest of Gentlewomen Citizens and Countrey Tradesmen to be the Authors of such a Story that my Lord of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower before it was done or before knowledge of his Imprisonment in the Tower could arrive at some of these Places where it was so reported But that not only the how and where as to my Lord's Death should be the same in all those Reporters but the very wherefore two days before his Death be given for the having cut his Throat and the very same wherefore that the Papists publickly gave out and industriously spread just after my Lord's Death this proves beyond all doubt ☜ that the Matter was so particularly agreed upon by the Papists and this Reason by them resolved to be given out just after my Lord's Death it 's plain to all but those that wink hard that this pretended Reason must be hammered out of the Popish Forge For this Reason carried in it what none but the most secret in this Hellish Contrivance could before my Lord's Death give out for observe the Reason
declares That the Earl of Essex being Prisoner in the Tower the King and Duke came into the Tower to see the Tower of which the Earl having notice he was immediately afraid the King would have come up into his Chamber and seen him c. Now I would willingly know who besides the most intimately knowing in this matter could give information two days viz. the Wednesday Morning at Andover before my Lord's death that the Earl of Essex would cut his Throat in the Tower when the King and Duke were there because the King should not see him the King and Duke's being there was unexpected and a surprize to all but to the Men of Secrecy in this Murther because their being there together was so very rare that it happened but once in twenty five years But of this I have already spoken and also how this so particular a Report as to the Manner Place and Reason became thus reported in the Countrey so long before my Lord's Death L. Was you ever credibly told that his Lordship said he was resolved to destroy himself T. No I never heard that credibly reported L. Or which is more plain and particular Did his Lordship before his Imprisonment say that he was resolved to cut his Throat in the Tower when the King and Duke should come into the Tower to see him which his guilt and shame could not bear the thoughts of G. Certainly my Lord could neither foresee nor expect that the King and Duke should come into the Tower whilst he was Prisoner there L. But you find it depos'd That before my Lord's Death viz. the Wednesday at Andover As to his Death The manner how the place where and the reason wherefore are assigned Now had my Lord so particularly declared his Resolution in which by the way as to the King and Duke's being in the Tower he must have prophesied what could not be expected then it had been possible that this and those several Reports proved by eight Witnesses more far distant from and altogether strangers to each other all centering in the same manner how and the place where might have arisen from this Resolution of his Lordship so particularly declared T. It may be my Lord having heard the Papists had resolved to cut his Throat was afraid they would the more to torment him not do it like themselves but botchingly as they cut Mr. Arnold's and therefore that it might be done at a jerk and all perfectly finish'd at a stroak he was resolved to do it himself and did it effectually for though the Blade of the Razor without the Hand was not two Inches and a half he made a Wound about three Inches and half deep and therein did what by others was Mathematically impossible to be done and whereas before that Accident it was the Opinion of Doctors and Chyrurgeons that none could cut through both Jugular Arteries to the Neck-bone on both sides the Neck his Lordship was resolved to give the World demonstration of their mistake and after all his Lordship stopt the Orifice from giving issue to such a quantity of Blood and Spirits as would naturally have instantly killed him and out of malice to the living that others might be charged with his Death threw the Razor out of the Window and then sent the Maid down for it which having received from her he retired to his Closet lockt himself in and quietly laid himself down and the Razor by him and then gave free passage to that Blood and those Spirits which he thus miraculously kept so long in G. But to be serious for this is a Case of grave yea very doleful Consideration did you ever hear all those Reasons the Bishop then gave T. No but I could wish I had only this further Reason I think was given viz. what the Steward said concerning my Lord's desiring him to sit down and drink a glass of Wine with him the Night before his Death L. That I do totally disbelieve for the Reasons before mention'd T. But whereas you say Mr. H. did second my Lord Bishop I do assure you I did hear that Ingenious Gentleman declare the contrary and as a Gentleman told me desired one to vindicate him from that Report which he did totally deny G. What was then said by the Lords of the Committe after my Lord Bishop had given the Countess's Reasons of her Silence T. I have been told how true it is I cannot say that the Right Honourable the Earl of D. spake to the Countess to this effect Madam The belief or disbelief of a fact neither destroys the Existence nor alters the Nature of the Fact and we who are to proceed not according to private Opinion but legal Evidence have taken the Depositions of many Witnesses in this Case and unless many of these be villanously perjur'd which as yet we have no reason to believe my Lord must have been most barberously murthered G. Had the Countess or the Bishop before this seen what was sworn T. I suppose neither of these had either seen or been informed what was depos'd to prove this Murther neither could they then have heard what hath in this Case been depos'd because many Depositions have been since taken before the Lords and since their Lordships Committee was dissolved before several Justices of the Peace G. I cannot but believe that if the Countess once knew what you have now at large related her Opinion would soon be changed and her Zeal in this prosecution would be as great as could be expected from a Lady of her Honour and Quality and as for my Lord Bishop I am sure none would be more easily convinced upon such grounds as these neither would any more zealously ingage in this Prosecution T. Of this I doubt not for no Man can have a greater veneration for this Reverend Father in God than my self and I think this happy Revolution is under God and His Majesty not a little indebted to the Ingenuous and Indefatigable Pen of this Judicious and Learned Bishop The next Discouragement I shall mention was the strict Injunction with Threats laid upon many of the Soldiers to be secret in this matter J. B. and his Wife further declare That the very next day after my Lord of Essex 's Death the aforesaid R. M. told these Informants how that very morning their Officer called several Soldiers together and under very severe penalties enjoined them not to speak one word of what they had either seen or heard with relation to the Death of the Earl of Essex and therefore the said M. desired these Informants not to speak one word of what he had informed them with relation thereunto the day before lest it being discovered he should be severely punished for speaking any thing of this matter L. With what a degree of Impudence was this treacherous Cruelty stifled T. R. the Soldier before-mentioned that very day my Lord was murthered declawith very great earnestness That the Duke of York had so
a surprize amongst his Relations this great surprize would be as pleasing to the Person that withdrew as it would be astonishing to his Friends and therefore it was pretended to be believed by some that Mr. Hawley had privately withdrawn under this Consideration but six Weeks discovered his Person and time may likewise detect those Bloody and Barbarous Men that murthered him They were so very cruel in this Murther that his Face was so changed through violence that it could not be known to be his and there was nothing that did more if any thing did besides discover the Body to be his than his having three Stockings upon one Leg and two Stockings and a Seer-cloath upon the other as for his Cloathes they were stript off and nothing but Stockins and Shooes remaining on when the Body was found L. Certainly that God who requires Blood for Blood and who by this ordered the Discoveries of the Person will in his great Wisdom and Justice by some means or other of which His Wisdom is never to seek in the choice or His Power in the use discover these Instruments of Cruelty that in this Life they may receive their just Reward which is for the most part though sometimes after many years duly paid towards such vile Offenders T. Besides this addition of Blood other violent Methods were used to prevent a discovery by punishing such Soldiers as seemed to disbelieve upon very good grounds my Lord's Self-murther this appears by this Information following viz. Richard Jorden declareth That sometime that Summer the Earl of Essex dyed and not long after the said Earl's Death he saw a Soldier ty'd to the Wooden Horse in the Tower by order of Lieutenant-Collonel Nichols and whipt after a very cruel manner And this Deponent heard the said Lieutenant-Collonel tell the Soldier he ought to be hanged This Deponent further declareth That he was just after informed by the Marshal that whipt the said Soldier That by order of Lieutenant-Collonel Nichols he gave the said Soldier 53 Stripes tho' the usual number was but 12 and that the said Soldier had lain a fortnight before in close custody and been fed only with Bread and Wather and all only for the Offence following viz. Some short time after the Death of the late Earl of Essex a Divine * Dr. H. of Norfolk Prebend of Norwich coming into the Tower the said Soldier was sent with him to shew him the Tower and as the Doctor was almost over against Major Hawley's the Doctor asked the said Soldier which was the Chamber wherein the late Earl of Essex did cut his Throat whereupon the said Soldier pointing to the Chamber in which the Earl had been Prisoner declared That is the Chamber in which it 's said the Earl of Essex cut his Throat The Doctor then asked the Soldier what he did believe to which the Soldier answered That he did believe in God but being prest by the said Doctor to tell him whether he did believe my Lord cut his Throat the said Solder then replied He would not say he did believe it for which only saying the Punishment aforesaid was inflicted L. Such Extravagant Punishments upon so slight Grounds was enough to deter all other Solders from discovering what they knew for if this Soldier for only declaring he would not say he did believe my Lord did cut his Throat was thus barbarously whipt what must such Soldiers expect as should have asserted my Lord was by others murthered and gave their Reasons for such belief by telling what they saw and heard with relation to this Perfidious and Cruel Murther most certain this would have met with if possible worse whipping than Doctor Oates ever suffered or been punished by some private Stab or other destruction to avoid the Matter 's being brought upon the publick Stage G. I do remember Meake is said to have declared the day after my Lord's Murther that many Soldiers were enjoined to secrecy It were well if these would according to their duty appear and declare what they know and by whom they were thus basely commanded to be secret for this Officer could not but believe That whoever gave him Orders to lay that Injunction was privy to the Murther and therefore this Officer was grosly Criminal in being this Instrument to stifle the detection and most certainly are those Soldiers Criminal which shall not now appear and judicially declare what they know to be true so that Justice may have its due course against those most barbarous and vile Offenders For if the time of this bare-faced Cruelty against such Soldiers that knew any thing of this matter and revealed it was a time of silence most certain now the Government joins in the Prosecution is the time to speak and whosoever refuses now to speak becomes not a little Criminal in such his silence L. I have been informed the Father of William Edwards was turned out of his Place for what his Son had said T. That the Father was turned out about nine days after Mr. Braddon's Tryal is very true and this done by special Order under King Charles the Second's own Hand without any cause shown or any reason to be guessed at any other than his Son's Offence L. I do remember at Mr. Braddon's Tryal Mr. Wallop whose Courage and Zeal for the Liberty of the Subject hath been Notorious in the most dangerous times did suggest that the Father thought himself in danger of losing his place from what his Son had declared Whereupon my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies very sharply reproved Mr. Wallop for reflecting in this upon the Government as though the Father should be punished for the Son 's speaking what he knew If the suggesting the danger of the Place was a Reflection upon the Government most certainly the Government did strongly reflect upon its self in turning Old Edwards out and giving no reason for such Dismission which made him conclude and all the World believe that the Father was turned out only for his Son's Relation T. The old Jewish unjust Proverb was here inverted for The Son had eaten sower Grapes and the Father's Teeth were set on edge so that this Transgression in its punishment did directly ascend and the Father answered for the Son's Iniquity or rather for what the then Government falsly called so L. I think every Man 's own Transgression is enough for him to bear T. I shall conclude all with what after my Lord's Death passed as to Webster and Holmes which seems to confirm the Truth of their Guilt in this Matter I shall begin with Webster The very day of my Lord's Death Webster brought home to his House my Lord's Pocket-handkerchief all Bloody and shaked It seeming extreamly overjoyed saying There was the Blood of a Traytor and the very next day pulls out of his Pocket a Purse of Guineas and in great Joy shaked it one of his Neighbours told the Gold and found there was 49 Guineas and a French Pistole
Foot distant from the Closet-door where the Body lay and no noise of my Lord's Death till after the Maid carried up the Razor which Maid thereupon first discovered my Lord's Death And as yet other Arguments of the Perjury of these perfidious Villains add the Mathematical Impossibility of the Wound seeing not above two Inches of the Razor must be without my Lord's Hand had he done it himself and yet the Wound above three Inches deep Moreover by many Eminent Doctors and Chyrurgions the Wound is thought to be naturally Impossible to have been done by my Lord himself because upon cutting the first Jugular Artery such an Effusion of Blood and Spirit would have immediately thereupon followed that Nature would not have been strong enough for to cut through the other Jugular Artery to the Neck-bone on the other side much less to make so many and so large Notches in the Razor against the Neck-bone as an old Foolish or K Chyrurgion suggested to the Coroncis Jury Wherefore by what is before observed as to the many Contradictions it plainly appears that these three as it is said in the History of Susanna Verse 61. are convicted of false Relations by their own Mouths and those other Arguments before observed are further Detections of these three Men's Perjuries It then remains as at first viz. That here is a Body found Dead by violent Hands and the manner of the Death not discovered for it can't be according to these three Mens Relations for the Reasons before observed The Conclusion that the Law makes in such Cases in this therefore holds good viz. That this Honourable Lord was Murdered by the violent and cruel Hands of barbarous and bloody minded Men. Secondly For the Proof of the Murder In this I shall first consider what is most material which passed before my Lord's Death Secondly The day of his Death And then Thirdly and Lastly After the day of his Death The First Before my Lord's Death I shall consider First The previous Resolutions by Papists to cut my Lord's Throat And then Secondly The many previous Reports before my Lord's Death that his Lordship had cut his Throat in the Tower. For the first of these D. S. declares That about nine Days before the Death of the late Earl of Essex she heard several Papists consulting together concerning the said Earl And this Informant heard them say the Earl of Essex was to be taken off and that they had been with His Highness and His Highness was first for Poysoning the Earl but that manner of Death being objected against it was then said one did propose to His Highness Stabbing the Earl but this way His Highness did not like at length His Highness concluded and ordered his Throat to be cut and His Highness had promised to be there when it was done Some few days after some of the aforesaid Persons declared It was resolved the Earl's Throat should be cut but they would give it out that he had done it himself and if any should deny it they would take them and punish them for it Secondly For the previous Reports before my Lord's Death It 's proved by eight several Witnesses That before the Earl's Death or before it could be known it was Reported That the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower amongst the rest it was at Froome which is about an hundred Miles from London the Wednesday Morning and at the same time at Andover about Sixty Miles from London tho at neither of these Places especially the former could it then be known that the Earl was a Prisoner in the Tower his Lordship being not committed to the Tower till the Tuesday in the Afternoon All these Reports agreed in the manner How viz. cutting his Throat and the place Where viz. the Tower and which is further at Andover the Wednesday Morning before my Lord's Death it was reported not only in the manner How and place Where but likewise the pretendded Reason Wherefore was given for it was then and there said That the Earl of Essex being a Prisoner in the Tower and understanding that the K. and Duke were come into the Tower his Lordship was afraid the K. would have come up into his Chamber and seen him of which his Lordship's Guilt and Shame would not bear the thoughts and therefore he did cut his Throat to avoid it This being declared two days before my Lord's Death when it could not have been in the least fore-thought that the King and Duke would have come together into the Tower where they had not been above twice together since the Restoration I say This previous Report which so particularly cloathed this Action with the how where and wherefore clearly proves That all things were so resolved upon to be done or otherwise it is impossible it should have been reported under these three Essential Qualifications as to Manner Place and Reason before it was indeed done especially at Andover where it could not then be supposed to be known that my Lord was so much as a Prisoner in the Tower this Reason the Papists themselves gave out just after my Lord's Death Secondly What passed the day my Lord died These then attending on my Lord viz. Russel and Monday the Warders Bomeny the Servant and Lloyd the Centinel at the Door did all deny that day my Lord died that there were 〈◊〉 any Men let into my Lord's Lodgings that Morning before my Lord's Death But it now appears That there were some Ruffians a little before my Lords Death sent into his Lodgings to Murder him which they did accordingly R. M. a Soldier in the Tower that Morning my Lord of Essex was Murdered about one of the Clock that very day nigh Aldgate told B. and his Wife That the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but was barbarously Murdered by his Royal Highness's Order For the said Meake declared That just before the Earl's Murder His Highness sent two Men to the Earl's Lodgings to Murder him which after they had done they threw the Razor out of the Window Likewise a Soldier that Morning in the Tower about Eleven of the Clock that very Morning my Lord died in Baldwins Gardens informed G. and H. That the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but was barbarously Murdered by his Royal Highness's own Order For the said R. then declared That a little before the Earls Murder his Royal Highness parted a little way from His Majesty and then two Men were sent into the Earls Lodgings to Murder my Lord which when they had done they did again return to his Highness Mr. E. declares That he saw his Royal Highness just before the Earl's Death part a little from his Majesty and then beckoned to two Gentlemen to come to him who came accordingly His Highness thereupon sent them towards the Earl of Essex 's Lodgings and about a quarter of an hour after this Informant saw these very two Men return to His Highness
and as they came they smiled and to the best of this Informant's hearing and remembrance said The Business was done upon which His Highness seemed very well pleased and then went to His Majesty to whom the news was immediately brought That the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat Lloyd the Centinel at my Lord's Door the day my Lord dyed till the 21st of January last did deny the letting in of any men and Russel and Monday still deny it but now Lloyd doth confess That just before my Lord's Death two or three Men by Major Hawley's special Order were let in and immediately he heard them as he did suppose they were go up stairs into my Lord's Room where there was a very great bustle and stir so great that this Centinel declared he would have forced after them had not the first Door been made fast upon the bustle he heard somewhat thrown down like the fall of a Man which he did suppose was my Lord's Body soon after which it was cryed out My Lord of Essex hath out his Throat Here is not only these mens going in but a great bustle confessed immediately thereupon to ensue in my Lord's Room and the Body of a Man in this bustle to be thrown down this is in a Close Prisoner's Room where no one is admitted but his Servant and those that kept the Door deny'd upon Oath that any were in my Lord's Chamber that Morning my Lord died before his death But these Warders being supposed privy to the Fact would not own the admitting of those Men which themselves let in with such a murtherous Design and it is to be presumed that this Centinel was not a stranger to the matter but enjoined to secrecy for otherwise he would never have declared to a Friend under a repeated request of secrecy that this Confession as before laid upon his Conscience and troubled him night and day for tho' it was indeed very true that he did let in these Men it was what he should not have confessed This Confirmation to his Acquaintance under a great and repeated injunction of secrecy argues first That this Confession was indeed true And Secondly That there is some cursed Confederacy it's probable by Oath entred into to stifle this Murther for what other probable Reason can be assigned for that trouble of Conscience in this Confession ☜ seeing himself at the same declared it was true tho' he should not have said it There are some other Arguments that this Sentinel was particeps Crimines in the Privity first his Retraction in part of what he did confess for upon his being first apprehended he owned the throwing out of the Razor before my Lord's death was known but he now retracts and disowns it Another Instance of his Privity is his now prevaricating in his now pretending that these men were let in an hour or more before my Lord's death whereas at first he declared they were let in immediately before my Lord's death for as soon as let in he heard several go up stairs into my Lord's Room and heard the bustle c. as before A third Argument of this Centinel's Privity is his not declaring the whole Truth which he must know for one at a greater distance that saw these Russians as they were bustling with my Lord and heard the bustle did likewise hear one of these in the bustle as it seemed to be and therefore presumed to be my Lord cry out very loud and very dolefully Murther murther murther The Centinel who could hear the trampling or indeed the very walking in my Lord's Chamber could not but hear this Murther so loud and often repeated It appears by five Cuts in my Lord 's Right Hand viz. two upon his Fore-finger ☞ one upon upon the Fourth Finger another on the Little Finge and the fifth about two Inches long in the Palm of his Right Hand that his Lordship in this bustle made great resistance for these Cuts can be supposed to be done no otherwise than by endeavouring to put off the Cruel Instrument of his Death The next thing that I should observe which happened the day my Lord dy'd and gives us reason to believe the Murther is the Irregularities committed upon the Body before the Jury saw the Body the Body was stript and washed and the Room and Closet washed and my Lord's Cloathes carried away tho' all men know the Body should have remained in its first posture till the Coroner's Jury had seen the Body Sir T. R. as himself saith declared to the Lords That the Body was not stirred from its first posture till the next morning about Ten of the Clock to this Sir Thomas hath not sworn for he was not sworn before the Lords and it s well he hath not ☞ for herein he is so much mistaken that the contrary can be proved by almost twenty Witnesses Had the Body remained in its first posture by my Lord's Cravat's being cut in three parts the Jury would have plainly seen that his Lordship could not so do it with the Razor and then secondly they would have perceived the print of a bloody Foot upon my Lord ☞ as he lay in the Closet by which it appeared some one had been with the Body in the Closet and several other Material Circumstances might have been discovered which by the total illegal alteration of the Circumstances of the Body c. were destroyed About Three of the Clock in the Afternoon that day my Lord died some of those bloody Men who had been at the Consult met at Homes's House and one of them leaped about the Room as overjoyed and as the Master of the House came into the Room he strikes him upon the Back and cry'd the Feat was done or we have done the Feat upon which the Master said is the Earls Throat cut to which the other replied Yes and farther said he could not but laugh to think how like a Fool the Earl of Essex looked when they came to cut his Throat To destroy the Testimony of this D. S. Homes hath produced Two Witnesses who by many Witnesses appear to be forsworn in every part of their Depositions His Defence being false his Charge therefore may be concluded true Thirdly and Lastly What past after the day of my Lord's Death That very Morning several Soldiers which were presumed able to discover what was material with relation to my Lord's Death were called together as M. then said and enjoined to secrecy under very severe Penalties About Ten of the Clock in the Morning the next day after my Lord's Death the Jury met and were surprized to see all the Circumstances of my Lord's Body changed from what was first discovered After the Jury had seen the Naked Body at Hawleys the Coroner adjourned them to a Victualling-House in the Tower when one of the Jury demanded a sight of the Cloathes but the Coroner was immediately called into the next Room from which returning to the Jury
in some heat he told them It was the Body and not the Cloathes they were to sit upon the Body was there and that was sufficient One of the Jury then said My Lord of Essex was esteemed a very Sober Sedate and Good Man which Bomeny then confirmed saying His Lord was a very Pious Man and therefore it was improbable so Good a Man should be Guilty of the worst of Actions Upon which M. Hawley told the Jury They were misinformed in my Lord's Character for every Man that was well acquainted with my Lord well knew that it had ever been a sixed Principle in my Lord that any Man might cut his Throat or any otherwise dispose of his Life to avoid a dishonourable and infamous Death wherefore this Action which they thought unlike his Lordship was according to my Lord 's avowed and fixed Principles This made the Jury the more easie believe that my Lord had indeed done it Some of the Jury were for Adjourning their Inquisition to some further day and in the mean time to send notice to the Earl's Relations so that if any thing appeared on my Lord's behalf it might be produced Hawley hereupon assured the Jury That they could not adjourn their Inquiry for His Majesty had sent one for their Inquisition and would not rise from Council till it was brought him This the Jury believing immediately made all haste possible whereas otherwise they might have been more strict and particular in their Examinations Hawley ☞ in answer to this totally denies all and protests that he was not nigh the Jury in the Victualling-house all the time the Jury sate though most of the Jury can say the contrary and as for the suggesting Self-murder to be my Lord's Principle he did protest he did never hear it said to be my Lord's Principle till their Lordships in this Committee told him it had been so declared ☞ This clearly proves that the pretended Principle of Self-murder was a Forgery of that Bloody Party which murdered my Lord and Hawley pitched upon as the most proper Person to corrupt the Jury with the belief of it The backwardness of the then Government from examining into this Matter and their unjust Proceedings against the Prosecution for they Discouraged Prosecuted and Ruined him who did humbly offer the Matter to a Judicial Consideration though no Crime or Colour of Offence was proved against him is farther Evidence of this Murther The Government turned the Old Edwards out of his place for what his Son said in this Matter and hereby inverted the old Proverb For here the Son 's eating Sower Grapes had set the Father's Teeth on edge A poor Soldier was barbarously Whipt after he had been cruelly managed in Prison for only saying That he would not say he did believe the Earl of Essex cut his own Throat But a more barbarous Cruelty is justly suspected to have been committed in the After-murther of several viz. of Meake and Hawley c. to prevent a Detection of this Though the Government heretofore had received private Intimations and in Print publick Applications for a Pardon and thereupon a Promise of a full Discovery and in both these the Duke of York particularly charged as the chief Contriver of this Horrid Cruelty yet the then Government would never permit such an Inquisition to be made but punished those that dispersed those publick Challenges Had His Highness been really Innocent none would have been more Zealous for such a Proclamation of Pardon For Innocence desires a Tryal and it 's only Guilt that flies from Justice Another Argument of this Murder and likewise of Major Webster's Guilt therein is Webster's producing my Lord's Pocket-handkerchief all Bloody to some of his Neighbours rejoycing at the Blood of a Traytor and the very next day to some of the same Persons he produced part of the Price of Blood viz. a Purse of Gold wherein there was 49 Guinea's and a Pistole which he shewed in great Ostentation but all this was but a small part of that Villainous Reward for some time after my Lord's Death when his Wife was upbraided with her Husband's Poverty she replied Her Husband long since was not so poor for he had 500 Guinea's at which the other being startled answered most certainly he could not come by them Honestly To which it was said That he got them by his Trade But to that it was replied That his Trade could hardly get Bread Therefore there must be some other way L. The Wife might speak truth for his Trade viz. Murther in which it is supposed he hath been more than once concerned might get it which Trade the Wife might mean though the other misunderstood her T. That his Wife was not a Stranger to his Guilt appears by her often telling him upon her hard usage That he was a Fool as well as a Rogue to use her so very ill within whose power he well knew it was to Hang both him and another in the Tower. Another Instance of this kind there happened when Homes and his Wife some time after my Lord's Death quarrelled Homes abusing her she told him He was a murderous Rogue and he must well know that she could at any time hang him for it To which Homes answered with his usual Scurrilous Language You Bitch you Whore you of all the World have no reason to speak for do not you remember I bought you a good Sattin Gown and Petticoat Whereupon the Wife replied You are a murdering Rogue for all that G. When Thieves fall out Honest Men know what is become of their Goods L. We not this Woman of a loose Character and bigotted to that Bloody Religion which in such Cases esteem Murder Meritorious this Gown would have been a constant Memento of that Blood for the Concealment whereof this Garment in part was given T. Sir I have as briefly as I well could complied with your request and I hope you are now convinced of your former Mistake G. I do assure you I am and I give you many thanks for this great Satisfaction and I shall endeavour what in me lies to rescue the Memory of this Right Honourable Lord from that dishonourable undeserved Imputation of Self-murder by laying the Guilt at that door which seems most deserving and though herein I may displease some of my most intimate Acquaintance yet I think in Justice I stand bound to undeceive many of their mistake in this Self-murder Especially when these through what I have declared have been deceived in this Matter and whatsoever my former opinion may have been through Misinformation it is now such that none living shall more cordially Pray That the God of Justice who hath so many times remarkably appeared in the Detection and Punishment of Blood may eminently manifest himself in the full Discovery and just Punishment of all Contrivers Actors Aiders and Abettors herein and likewise that all Concealers of what they know in this matter and all such as endeavour to stifle or frustrate this Just Prosecution may be made exemplary in this World in order to which may that only Just and Wise God whose are every good and perfect Gift pour down upon our Senators such a Spirit of Wisdom as may conspicuously detect every Arcana of this Blood-thirsty and most barbarous Murder with all its vile and astonishing Dependences L. Amen FINIS