Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	owe_v	parent_n	5,339	5	9.4563	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94853	The tryal of Philip Standsfield, son to Sir James Standsfield, of New-Milns; for the murder of his father, and other crimes libel'd against him. / Published by authority.	Standsfield, Philip, d. 1688, defendant.	1688 (1688)	Wing T2210; ESTC R217941	49,311	53

who is accused of it is to die however for either of the two former Crimes are so far prov'd beyond all doubt that though he should escape this he cannot these And as to the probation of this Crime I must first represent to you that in occult or atrocious Crimes the Law has relaxed and remitted much of its scrupulousness in probation because in these the ordinary probation cannot be had and to admit none but such were to reject all And therefore in Hamesucken which is the beating a man in his own house but much more the murdering a man by way of Hamsucken in his own house wherein all means are used to cover and few can be got for discovering you must not expect two witnesses who saw the Murder committed but only such probation as can before God convince you that this Murder was committed by that man no Inquest ever failed to find the Murder of Children to be clearly prov'd though there were no witnesses that saw it committed the murdering Parents is a more atrocious Crime because we owe more duty to our Parents than any Parent does to a Child and never Son ow'd more than this did nor can be more believ'd to have killed a Parent For clearing whereof you are to consider first that he did not drown himself as was pretended but was murdered by some persons And as the Law violently presumes that no man would Murder himself so without the help of this presumption it is prov'd most convincingly by ocular inspection that he was strangled the marks of strangling viz. the congeal'd blood the dislocation of one of the vertebrae in his neck c. being visible signs prov'd in the ordinary way and we have added to this the opinion both of the Chirurgions and Phycisians who at once declare that he was not drown'd and that he was strangled The outward marks likwise of his not being drown'd appearing as visibly as that he was strangled so you must conclude that he was strangled except you can think that after he had strangled himself and broke his own neck he drown'd himself In the next place who could have murdered this Innocent and obliging Gentleman except some Person who had access to his house wherein he was murdered and had malice against himself And these two can meet in no person but this unnatural barbarous Son for one of the things that hightens his guilt is that he should abhorre a Father who engaged meer strangers to love him as a friend And we have prov'd that he not only hated his Father and that he had done so for many years but that he vowed he would take away his life before Christmass next and that in many various but clear expressions and at many several times for sometimes he swore if he made a disposition to his second Son he should take his life sometimes that he should be master of all before Christmass and he should use the servants as they used him That though his mother was like to die that his Father should die before her And he scarce ever spoke of his Father without swearing he would strike a Sword to his heart nor would his passion so much as suffer him to dissemble this even to his mother And he who durst own it to her durst certainly do it when ever he had occasion I proceed now to clear to you that I have prov'd that he not only design'd and vow'd in passion that he would Murder his Father but that he actually attempted to Murder him and for this I have Led these witnesses who prove that when his Father came from the Leaden-mines he fled in to Culter as a trembling Partridge pursued by a Haulk telling some Gentlemen that he had been pursued seven miles by his unnatural Son who accordingly came to the house and shot several Pistols in at the windows whereupon the Gentlemen who now Depone were forc'd to watch with his Father all the night and were forc'd to convoy him the next day near to Edinburgh We have also produc'd other Gentlemen to whom his Father declared that he attempted against his life and who will not believe the best of Fathers deponing against the worst of Sons Nor could any thing have drawn this from the Father save the terrifieing danger to which he was hourly exposed All the supream Courts of Europe have found the attempt to kill sufficient to inferr Paricide this is a higher degree of guilt than cursing yet that inferrs death to attempt to kill a Father is more villanous than to kill a stranger what shall be said then of frequent and deliberate attempts And thus you have this Son again prov'd guilty of death and even of Paricide That which hastned the perpetrating this crime was that his Father wearied out with his vallanies was at last forc'd to dispone his estate to his second Son and tho there be nothing more ridiculous than to ask what reason the son had to kill his Father as he now does for there can be no reason for so barbarous an action yet this was a motive to him and may be a proof to you for so kind a Father who had tryed all means and methods to reclaim his licencious Son had never proceeded to this unless he had been driven to it by those frequent attempts made by his Son upon his Life in hopes to enjoy his Estate by the death that he was to give To disapoint which hopes his Father design'd to settle the estate on the second Brother after which Settlement he could gain nothing but the gallows by killing his Father Whereupon he to prevent the delivery of the disposition did associat to himself _____ Thomson whom himself used to call the devils taylour Thomsons wife Janet Johnston who was his own concubine and his Fathers known enemie whom he could never have frequented except upon so barbarous a design Thomson denyed that he was in the house for eight days before and yet it is prov'd he was in Sir James's house the night the Murder was committed Johnston deny'd also before the Council that she was out of her house after nine a Clock that night and yet it is prov'd that she stay'd abroad till after twelve so that her husband was forc'd to send for a stranger to give suck to her Infant Why did they both deny or she abandon her Child at so suspect a time And it is ridiculous to pretend as they do that they forgot so extraordinary a circumstance in so extraordinary a night especially being examined upon it within two or three days thereafter By their assistance the Murder was design'd to be upon Saturday the _____ day of January But God to discover and revenge a Murder which he thought fit to suffer to be committed for the punishment of so many preceeding horrid Crimes inspired Sir James to bring with him that night a devout Minister for preparing the Father and proving against the Son And this pious and