my Cloathes I am sure of it Executioner Will your Lordship please to give me a Sign when I shall strike And then his Lordship said you have room enough here have you not and the Executioner said Yes Bolton The Lord be your strength there is riches in him The Lord of Heaven impart himself to you he is able to save to the utter most We cannot fall so low as to fall below the everlasting Arms of God and therefore the Lord be a support and stay to you in your low condition that he will be pleased to make this an advantage to that life and glory that will make amends for all Holland Then the Earl of Holland turning to the Executioner said Friend do you hear me if you take up my head do not take off my Cap. Then turning to his Servants he said to one Fare you well thou art an honest fellow and to another God be with thee thou art an honest man and then said Stay I will kneel down and ask God forgiveness and then prayed for a pretty space with seeming earnestnesse Bolton The Lord grant you may find life in death Holland Which is the way of lying which they shewed him and then going to the front of the Scaffold he said to the People God blesse you all and God deliver you from any such accident as may bring you to any such death as is violent either by War or by these accidents but that there may be Peace among you and you may find that these accidents that have happened to us may be the last that may happen in this Kingdom it is that I desire it is that I beg of God next the saving of my Soul I pray God give all happiness to this Kingdom to this People and this Nation and then turning to the Executioner said How must I lie I know not Executioner Lie down flat upon your belly and then having laid himself down he said must I lye closer Execut. Yes and backwarder Holland I will tell you when you shall strike and then as he lay seemed to pray with much affection for a short space and then lifting up his head said where is the man and seeing the executioner by him he said stay while I give the sign and presently after stretching out his hand and the executioner being not fully ready he said now now and just as the words were coming out of his mouth the executioner at one blow severed his head from his body The Execution of Mr. Beaumont a Minister at Pontfract 15 Feb. 1648. and the like done afterwards to Major Morris and Coronet Michael Blackburn at York 23. August 1649. FOR the everlasting memory and the obliging Ruines of this Town and Castle together with the memory of these Persons we must repeat from the beginning and tell the world how far and how much beyond all other Fortresses and places this Garrison continued for the King and was valiantly defended prudently maintained couragiously and bravely rescued and freed and in conclusion made its own glorious Sepulcher and Monument This place infamous formerly for the death of King Richard the second for the Execution of Richard Woodvile Earl of Rivers and the rest of those unhappy relations to the Wife of Edward the 4th hath now redeemed it self by the price current of Loyal Blood and is consecrated in its demolitions and ruines to the veneration of an Altar whereon so many acceptable sacrifices to Heaven have been laid and offered Not to summon the Genius of that place to an account we will derive the cruelty of those sanguinary perpetrations upon the lives of these men from asstrange and hidden Notions Nothing but most unexpiable malice contracted from the hardned guilt of rebellion could have violenced the insolent Victor into so much inhumanity and baseness nay barbarous and detestable cruelty but some fierce and most compulsive Engines of merciless Tyranny and Ambition who in this noble and most loyal Garison reared and displayed their compleat Conquest In the defence hereof many noble persons were concerned at several times as the advantages and difficulties of that place successively required many brave exploits and attempts were often performed to the honour of themselves and the terrouâ— of their Enemies partic ularly in that memorable business of Col. Rainsborough who quartering ten miles from the Leager Pontefract being then besieged by Sir Edward Rhodes and other County Forces and being ordered to command in chief and finish that piece of service was by a resolute small party of Horse who sallied from thence in spight of the Besiegers killed in his Inne having first refused quarter and fell as an expiatory victime to the slaughter and murder of Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle shot to death a little while before at Colchester Among the rest of such gallant Spirits related to that Garison this Mr. Beaumont a Minister of the Orthodox Protestant Religion was much noted for his loyal resolute and constant adherence and maintenance of the Royal Cause This his loyaltie was employed as well without as within that Garison being by the venerable respect to this Order not so rudely profaned then in those parts of the Nation more freely permitted and unsuspectedly suffered to entertain and harbour and transact with all manner of men according to the unbounded and unlimited use of his Function but neither his heart nor his house were open to any but faithfull Subjects with such of whom upon the surprizal of Pontefract the third of July 1648. by Major Morris others this Gentleman held correspondency All this time every good man put to his helping hand to the restoring of the King and this being an Important Service making the Royal Interest considerable in the North much care was taken by the well-affected people adjacent thereto for a supply of that place with all manner of provision of Arms and sustenance The care whereof Mr. Beaumont resointely took upon himself and before any formal siege the Parliament-Forces being otherwise employed had several recourses thereto maintained a strict intelligence was often out upon Parties with them and had regulated and stated the Contribution from the places thereabouts which was either freely paid or as couragiously forced till after the defeat of Duke Hamilton at Preston in Lancashire they were wholly surrounded and block'd up This distress of his Friends further obliged him to their assistance so far was the danger from detering of him therefore he adventured in his own person to go and see in what condition they were and to take a view of the likeliest means of relief and give an account of the Enemies strength and advantages or weakness and most attemptible place of their Lines and entrenchment But in this design he was surprized and taken and immediately brought before a Council of War who enraged at the death of Rainsborough and insolenced by their late many Victories Flesh'd with the carnage and blood of so many preceding Sacrifices
you to be satisfied with the brief account of the principal persons here because it will be not only some trouble to write their particular stories involved in the general design of this Service but by reason the whole was transacted by these mens Purses Authority and more signalized by their life death I presume not neither to be punctual in the matter of Colonel Penruddock for that he himself was abused in the hopes of the publishing his Examinations and Tryal wherein the high injustice offered him would most plainly appear especially in the business of Capt. Crook and therfore shall transmit the memory of this noble and Heroick Royalist with as much honor solemn veneration as indignation zeal against those Times and Persons that envied us the Retrospect of this his glory by forbidding suppressing any account thereof to be published that they might thereby conceal their base treachery and unlawful proceedings Colonel Penruddock thus butchered Colonel Groves a somewhat antient and very grave man was brought upon the reaking Scaffold he had been an Officer of that Dignity and Command in the Kings Armies before and therefore that honourable solemnity of murther was afforded him He spoke at his Trial little to his Judges whose enjoyned business and meritorious Service with Oliver he well knew was to bereave him of his life but addrest himself wholly to the Jury who were a packt number of Schismaticks and who Serpent like were deaf to his Charmes of Reason and Law though pressed and tenacioufly urged by him As he said little at the Bar so he said less at the Block but piously and fervently recommended his Soul to God desiring him to forgive his Enemies and so laid down his life and slept in the Lord their Speeches follow After this Execution was past they proceeded not because they saw it pleased the people for the Royal people of Exeter never beheld the like detestable sight in their violence against others of the meaner sort who were taken in that same business at Southmolton who by their discriminating malice were destined to the Gibbet nine of whom suffered thereat averting their most righteous Cause and telling the Sheriff a Knight of Olivers that another account and estimate would not long after be made of them to the shame and confusion of their Enemies After they were dead they were all honourably buried in that City all sorts of persons in great numbers following them to their Graves which was highly resented and stuck deeply in Cromwels stomack but he knew not which way to punish the City for that piety no more then he could brook or prevent their charity the Citizens from the time of the imprisonment of them being above fourscore in number maintaining them with all necessaries even to abundance and superfluity But though he could not stop the giver he found a way to hinder the receiver for after the Assizes wherein many more were condemned besides them that were Executed and the others still kept in durance in expectation of future tryal he caused them to be transported to the Barbado's selling them as slaves to some of those Turkish Merchants who trade in the lives of men as this Butcher Crommwel in their deaths who sold and employed them in those Plantations where the Pagan clowns or more properly villains used and worked them beyond their strength and endurance which soon after the Tyrant was gone to his place came to a hearing in Parliament in Richards non-age The same Judges at their return back held another Assize at Chard in Somersetshire where Cromwells Scouts had gleaned up a few of those scattered persons two whereof they murthered there but Major Hunt whom they had principally designed for the gorge gave them the slip in the habit of one of his Sisters who staid behind in his Chamber in bed which they discovered not till morning to the unspeakable intolerable vexation of the tyrant who threatned all manner of deaths to the Jaylor I had almost forgot their errand at Salisbury where they likewise beheaded on Mr. _____ of Hungerford and one Mr. Kency and three others were hanged for the same matter much stir was made and many addresses were presented to Cromwel in the behalf of them but all proved ineffectual onely one Mr. Dean the only son of a widow and he not actually in arms was after sentence reprieved The sufferers dyed constantly and assured in their just actions as the rest and gave glory to God and received it again in their eternal recompence The Speech of the Honourable Colonel Penruddock the greatest part whereof he delivered upon the Scaffold in Exon. Castle the 16. day of May 1655. the whole he left with a Gentleman and friend of his written with his own hand which is as followeth Together with the manner of his being beheaded As he was ascending the Scaffold baring his knees and bowing himself he used these words This I hope will prove to be like Jacobs ladder though the feet of it rest on Earth yet I doubt not but the top of it reacheth to Heaven When he came upon the Scaffold he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God who hath given me victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Then with abundance of Christian cheerfulnesse he spake to the people as followeth Gentlemen IT hath ever been the custom of all persons whatsoever when they come to die to give some satisfaction to the world whether they be guilty of the fact of which they stand charged The crime for which they stand charged the crime for which I am now to die is Loyalty but in this age call'd high Treason I cannot deny but I was at Southmolton in this County but whether my being there or my actions there amount to so high a crime as high Treason I leave it to the world and to the Law to judge Truly if I were concious to my self of any base ends that I had in this underâ—aking I would not be so injurious to my own soul or disingenuous to you as not to make a publique acknowledgment thereof I suppose that divers persons according as they are biassed in their several interests and relations give their opinions to the world concerning us I conceive it is impossible therefore so to expresse my self in this particular as not to expose both my judgement and reputation to the censure of many which I shall leave behind me Because I will not put others therefore upon a breach of Charity concerning me or my actions I have thought fit to decline all discourses which may give them a capacity either to enjure themselves or me My tryal was publick and my several examinations I believe will be produced when I am in my grave I will refer you therefore to the first which I am sure some of you heard and to the later which many of you in good time may see Had Captain Crook done himself and
of Community where on behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my daies are shortned by this unexpected doom and shall he brought untimely to the Grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this land and cannot but blesse them all in the name of God and beseech God to blesse them all the blessing of the Almighty be upon them Colonel Edward Ashton John Bettely and Edward Stacy Executed July 2. 1658. THese persons being all Arraigned together at the same High Court with four more being concerned in one Sentence and one pretended Crime I have put together and briefly will give you an account of them They were charged to have conspired the raising of a new War the firing of the City and the Death of Cromwel to which they all pleaded not guilty as all the World did judge them who sensibly understood the detestable practice against them Colonel Ashton was then a prisoner for Debt in Newgate but by the Keepers favour having liberty to go abroad one day fell into Company with some of Cromwel's Trapan's who finding or perhaps knowing him to be a Cavalier uttered in his Audience such dangerous words as those and without amy more ado delated him to the Secretary as conscious and partaker to the design which was all his guilt as he justified it upon his Death which he suffered in Tower-street by being hanged drawn and quarrered where he declared his Loyalty to the King but took it upon his approaching salvation he was innocent of any the Crimes charged against him John Bettely suffered next being brought from the Tower to Cheapside in the same Sledge that drew Colonel Ashton from Nawgate their Executions being divided into several quarters of the City as their pretended Plot was of firing it the old Cheat of picking out places to attend the guilt and to collogue with the City by the dissembled care thereof and near the Crosse Executed in the same manner where he likewise protested his Innocency being meerly betrayed by those Ruffian Emissaries of Cromwels After he had hung a long while that every one concluded him dead in a strange miraculous way as might serve to the confusion of his Blood-thirsty Enemies he pulled off his Cap and held it in both hands staring with his eyes as if alive but the Executioner quickly after dispatcht him and concluded his Martyrdom Mr. Edward Stacy was hanged onely two dayes after where he said the like and suffered with patience the losse of this temporal to enjoy with unspeakable happinesse Life Everlasting The others Were Reprieved and by the Death of Cromwel soon after set at Liberty which was consummated at the Restauration of his Sacred Majesty whose benign Rayes of Peace and Security have dryed up all our Teares of sorrow and mourning into Teares of Joy and is leaving us to forget our past miseries and losses of our Liberties Estates and Relations CAROLO SECVNDO TER Maximo Britanniarum Franciae Regi Precibus Martyrum Revocato restituto Restitutori In sacrosanctam Beatissimam Memoriam TAM Pientissimi Patris ac Principis QUAM Fidelium Heroum ac Procerum Caeterorumque Subditorum Qui pro Rege Lege mortem sunt perpessi HOC OBLATUM Humillime vovet Dicatque F. H. To the most Illustrious TRIUMVIRATE The Heirs of Martyr'd LOYALTY and HONOUR Charles Earl of Derby c. William Earl of Strafford Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter c. and Arthur Earl of Essex c. My Lords THis Piece directs it self into your hands for without a greater presumption it could not pass them Your Noble Families were the resplendent Triones that accompanied the Devex of Charles his Wain his Morning and Evening attendants that portended and extended his Declination for in two of them He suffered beyond His own Fate being plunged with Him in the depths of the same Red Sea and are now risen again in a full and most radient lustre They were that Constellation that directed three wandring Kingdoms into their way of Loyalty and pointed out the due veneration to the King their Redeemer It was their all-powerful Influence of Duty and Obedience that hath serened these Times The dark Obscurity of that Cloud that hid them in their death soon revealed it self in Glory This storm which tempested these Kingdoms being laid by their Bloud which was poured out like water in the streets hath brought again our Halcyon dayes and turned our Miseries into Jubilees This is the supererrogated Merit of your Illustrious Parents whom this Age and Posterity shall reverence and admire That your Lordships may surmount their Vertues as well as their difficulties as you have exceeded their Titles that you may as the Branches of those Vines which being made to bleed produce more generous and abundant Fruits that you may be the delight and Joy of these Nations and flourish for ever is and shall be the incessant prayers of My Lords Your Honours most obedient and Devoted Servant James Heath THE AUTHOUR TO THE READER THis is only to inform you that I have used my best endeavors to be punctually true in these Collections but in such Distractions of the times and Divisions of the mind and opinion in which they were registred I hope to be excused if there be any uncertainty found therein If I have omitted any out of this Martyrology or have slightly passed them over it is for want of fuller Information I likewise desire all the Persons Related to them would be pleased to give me a better Account then our Re-searches could arrive at and I shall insert rectifie and enlarge their Narrative as occasion shall offer For the Confessors I acknowledge I have not been nice nor yet have I been uncurious in their Catologue I suppose I have set down the most Noted and Publick Persons but if there be more to add I shall be very ready to do their Memory the Honours that duly appertain to them Vale. Courteous Reader BE pleased to pass by the Errours of the Press where-ever you meet with them and Pag. 119. Title for Wesiminster read Winchester A CATALOGUE AND Brief Account of the Confessors of the Royal Cause I Should undertake a volumenous and as difficult a labour were it my purpose here to register all those gallant persons that have suffered in their liberty estates for their Loyalty But I confine my self to the chief of those only who by particular Orders of Parliament their pretended Courts of Law and High Courts of Justice were vexed oppressed and persecuted even to the brinks of death leaving the other to the reward of a good Conscience and the faithful record thereof in Heaven These ensuing illustrious and Noble Patterns as well for imitation as