't is believed will be sent to the Tower for that the Duke of Monmouth will accuse him concerning the Testimony he hath given and the Papists and High Tories are quite down in the mouth their Pride is abated themselves and their Plot confounded but their Malice is not asswaged 'T is generally said the Earl of Essex was murdered The brave Lord Russel is afresh lamented The Plot is lost here except you in the Country can find it out amongst the Addressers and Abhorrers This sudden turn is an Amazement to all men and must produce some strange Events which a little time will shew And then he goes on further and says in another Letter these words I am to answer yours of the 27th and 29th past and truly I cannot but with great sorrow lament the loss of our good Friend honest Mr. John Wright but with patience we must submit to the Almighty who can as well raise up Instruments to do his work as change hearts of which we have so great an instance in the business of the Duke of Monmouth that no Age or History can parallel I am now throughly satisfied that what was printed in the Mondays Gazette is utterly false and you will see it publickly declared so shortly The King is never pleased but when he is with him hath commanded all the Privy-Council to wait upon him and happy is he that hath most of his favour His Pardon was sealed and delivered to him last Wednesday 'T is said he will be restored to be Master of the Horse and be called into the Council-Table and to all his other places and 't is reported he will be made Captain-General of all the Forces and Lord High Admiral c. He treats all his old Friends that dayly visit him with great Civilities they are all satisfied with his integrity and if God spares his life doubt not but he will be an Instrument of much good to the King and Kingdom He said publickly That he knew my Lord Russel was as loyal a Subject as any in England and that his Majesty believed the same now I intend shortly to wait on him my self It would make you laugh to see how strangely our High-Tories and Clergie are mortified their Countenances speak it Were my Shesorary to be moved for now it would be readily granted Sir George is grown very humble 'T is said Mr. Sidney is reprieved for forty days which bodes well And then he goes on further and in a third Letter says The late change here in publick affairs is so great and strange that we are like men in a dream can hardly believe what we see and fear we are not fit for so great a mercy as the present juncture seems to promise The Sham Protestant Plot is quite lost and confounded The Earl of Mackensfield is bringing Actions of Scandalis Magnatum against all the Grand Jury-men that indicted him at last Assizes And then in a fourth Letter are contained these Expressions Contrary to all mens expectations a Warrant is signed at last for beheading Col. Sidney at Tower-hill next Friday Great endeavours have been used to obtain his Pardon but the contrary Party have carried it which much dasheth our hopes but God still governs He pleaded Not guilty but the Jury found him Guilty without stirring from the Bar. April 14. he was brought to the Kings Bench-Bar to receive Judgment of the Court which was That he should pay a Fine of Ten thousand pounds to the King should find Sureties for his good behaviour during his life and should be committed to the Kings Bench Prison till the same was paid and done By that which hath been said it clearly appears how near a Correspondence there hath been between the Jesuit and Fanatick both in Principles and Practices and that the Government and Church established hath been the onely Bulwork against Popery that hath withstood all its assaults though assisted by the united force of the Fanaticks Yet all this notwithstanding we still suffer under the imputation of Popery our Worship is still calumniated as Popish and for any to return to our Communion is to make a step towards Rome the Ministers of our Church are accused as disguised Emissaries of the Romish Church and the Arguments used for Conformity are but endeavours to pervert men to the Papal Superstition our Common-prayer is but the Mass in English kneeling at the Sacrament worshiping of the Host our Bishops Antichristian and our Clergy Factors for Rome And by these slanders the Fanaticks have employed the aversion of the people against the corruptions of Rome to a direct opposition against the Church of England which above any of the reformed Churches hath most strenuously and successfully opposed it And it will easily appear that the leading Fanaticks have misled their Disciples with more invincible prejudice and implicit faith than any of the Popish Priests do their Proselytes who can perswade them that that Church which hath so peremptorily disclaimed the Popes Supremacy Infallibility Wilworship Prayers in an unknown Tongue adding to the number of Sacraments and detracting essential parts from those which they retain That the Church of England which in their Articles Homilies and Liturgie have exceeded all the reformed Churches in their detestation of Popish Doctrines that have still built on the foundations of Reformation laid by Cranmer Ridly Latimer which hath still been chiefly maligned and from its infancy assaulted by the Romanists as its greatest Adversary should now be reproached by those who in this serve the Romish interest more than their own as well-willers to the Church of Rome And in truth there needs no other Argument to prove how ignorant this sort of men are of the great corruptions of Rome that forsake our Church on a perswasion that we have embraced those corruptions for either they expect that we should renounce all things that they retain and then once more we must lay aside the Creed the Commandments the Lords Prayer c. or that we should retain and practise nothing that was practised in the Primitive Church long before Popery was known in the World And it is very apparent that we have not more displeased the Fanaticks by retaining those decent Ceremonies and ancient Orders of the Primitive Church than we have incensed the Papists by retaining of them for by these Apostolical Orders and Rules of Decency we have such a beauty added to Holiness as was in use in the most pure and primitive times free from the Innovations and Superstitions of Rome and this hath raised the envy of that Church as well as the causeless malice of Dissenters against us what these rail against as Popish viz. our Government Worship Discipline and Ceremonies the other behold with grief and envy to see a Church much nearer to the primitive constitution than their own I doubt not but the Reader will joyn with me in this Opinion that it is a necessary duty incumbent on all sorts of Fanaticks that have
Johnson for fear of being knockt on the head he desires the Knights directions in the management He says Mr. Braddon has been at great charge and trouble already and he knows few that would have undertaken it but himself And all this pains was taken to insinuate to the people that because the King and Duke were that morning walking in the Tower about the time this Murder was done therefore they designed it How base how devilish and hellish a designe is this as my Lord Chief Justice justly exclaims After a long and fair Tryal they were found guilty but continued under Bail till next Term when on April 21. Braddon was Fined 2000 l. and to find Sureties for good behaviour during life and be imprisoned till performed and Speke as being not so guilty being onely concern'd in the Letter 1000 l. with Sureties also for good behaviour during life and imprisonment till performed Among the rest of the late Conspirators was one James Holloway a forward busie young man Inhabitant of Bristol who having been acquainted with all the Methods and attended on all the motions of the Designe without effect blessed be God till its discovery then sensible of his guilt and danger thought it time to consult his own safety and leaving London in a disguise he ranged several parts of England as a dealer in Wool till he could find an opportunity to take shipping which having obtained he set sail and after some loss of time by stress of Weather he made Antegua in the West-Indies resolving to visit the rest of the Caribby Islands also and so to St. Christophers which he judging to be the safest place sent thence to his Factor at Nevis about some concerns he had there which Factor discovered him whereupon Sir William Stapleton sent to St. Christophers to apprehend him and thence brought him to Nevis where he was prisoner thirteen days and then sent for England where being come he was examined before the King in Council and committed to Newgate till Easter-Term 1684. he was brought to the Kings Bench-Bar to shew cause why he should not suffer death he having been Outlawed for High-Treason in his absence He told the Court he had nothing to say having told all he knew to his Majesty from whom he hoped mercy The Court told him they had nothing to do with the Kings mercy but they had leave to let him take a Tryal notwithstanding the Outlawry whereby he might have opportunity to make his defence if he had any thing to say for himself But he declaring that he had nothing more to say a day was set by the Court for his execution as is usual in Outlawries which was done at Tyburn on the 30th of April 1684. He had liberty to speak there what he pleased and held a long Dialogue with the Sheriffs delivering them a Paper which he acknowledged to be his own writing which is a kind of Epitome of what he had before deliver'd to Mr. Secretary Jenkins And so after a short Prayer he was hang'd drawn and quarter'd and his Quarters brought back to Newgate and sent thence to Bristol which should have been the Scene of his activity in this cursed Tragedy He says in his Paper delivered to the Secretary that asking one Tyly of Bristol What News July 1681 he told him All naught and if some speedy course be not taken we shall be all undone for they have got Sheriffs to their minds naming North and Rich who will find Jurors to believe any evidence against a Protestant and so hang up all the Kings friends by degrees He told him also that all the Protestant Gentry naming the Earl of Shaftsbury Lord Howard of Escrick and others were come to a resolution seeing fair means would not do but all things on the Protestant side are misrepresented to the King by such great Criminals and none more in favour than those to take the King from his evil Counsel and that by an Insurrection in London Bristol Taunton Exeter Chester Newcastle York and other places in the North and that there would be a considerable party in Scotland and another in Ireland Mr. West told him there was a designe to take off the King and the Duke coming from Newmarket to prevent bloudshed Holloway dislikes that saying the designe was onely to take the King from his evil Counsel He calls it a PROTESTANT PLOT He saith to the Sheriff I hope it will be a satisfaction that there was a Plot. Again I pray God that no other people may concern themselves with Publick affairs out of their own way and that the Scriblers might be put down for they do more to the Kingdom than any thing else Which was both the beginning and end of his discourse with the Sheriffs And he begins his Paper left with the Sheriffs with exclaiming against Pamphleteers and News-Scriblers And afterwards And did by some Scriblers and News-mongers constantly know most publick affairs which they undertook to represent according to their own humour He declares his hearty sorrow for yielding thereto or acting therein being satisfied it might have caused very much bloudshed in the Nation He concludes I repent not my Confession and could I discover more would do it throughly though I find not mercy with man On Thursday Feb. 14. 1684. Sir Samuel Bernardiston was Tryed and Convicted for High Misdemeanour at the Sessions of Nisi Prius holden at Guild-hall London It was upon an Information exhibited by the Attorney-General wherein is set forth That there having been lately a horrid Plot discovered Sir Samuel Bernardiston intending to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter containing these Sentences The return of the Duke of Monmouth to White-hall and his being received into extraordinary Favour of his Majesty hath made a strange alteration of affairs at Court for those that before spake of him very indecently now court cringe and creep to him His Grace complained to the King of the scandalous misrepresentation that was made of him in the Mondays Gazette upon which the Gazetter was called to account for it who alleadged for himself that a Person of great Quality sent him in writing the words therein recited commanding him to put them in the Gazette Testerday being the last day of the Term all the Prisoners that were in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were discharged upon Bail Mr. Braddon who prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex the Information put in against him in the Kings-Bench by Mr. Attorney for a pretended Subornation c. was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged And the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great applications are made to his Majesty for the pardoning Mr. Sidney in the Tower which is believed will be attained and that he will be banished The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men he is under guard at White-hall and
was forming some Villains were carrying on that horrid and execrable Plot of Assassinating his Majesties person and his dearest Brother And a Massacre was to follow wherein they principally designed for slaughter the Officers of State the present Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London and others that had been most eminent for Loyalty Upon which Discovery James Duke of Monmouth the Lord Melvin Sir Jo. Cockrane Sir Thomas Armstrong Robert Ferguson Richard Goodenough Francis Goodenough Richard Rumbold William Rumbold Richard Nelthorp Nathaniel Wade William Tompson James Burton Joseph Elby Samuel Gibbs Francis Charleton Joseph Tyley Casteers and Lobb two Nonconformist-preachers Edward Norton John Row John Ayloff and John Atherton fled from Justice Ford Lord Grey made his escape Arthur Earl of Essex killed himself in the Tower William Lord Russel Thomas Walcot William Hone and John Rous were on their Tryals convicted and executed And it is observable that each of them confessed enough to clear the Justice of the Nation The most that they could plead for themselves was that their Crime could amount onely to misprision of Treason Algernoon Sidney another of the Conspirators was tryed condemned and executed afterward who professed to die for the Old Cause wherein he had been engaged from his youth And indeed he was so far engaged that being named for one of the Royal Martyr's Judges he often appeared at his Tryal And Manus haec inimica Tyrannis was his Motto The Earl of Shaftsbury had been indicted of High-Treason 24 Novemb. 1681. for endeavouring to depose and put to death the King and levy war within the Kingdom he having declared That in a short time the Parliament was to sit at Oxford and that he had inspected the Elections and was satisfied that the Parliament would insist on three matters viz. The Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York The abolishing the Act of Parliament of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth and a new Bill for uniting Protestant Dissenters which he was confident the King would not consent to and if so that he and other Lords had provided strength to compel him under the command of Captain Wilkinson and John Booth he declared the King to be a man of no faith and there was no trust in him That he deserved to be deposed as well as King Richard the second And the said Earl further declared That 〈◊〉 would not desist till he brought this Kingdom 〈◊〉 a Commonwealth as Holland was That the King was a man of an unfaithful heart not fâ—â— to rule and govern being false unjust and crueâ— to his people and if he would not be governed they would depose him Though the Witnesseâ— swore positively to the particulars yet there was such a Jury provided as brought in an Ignoramus Sir Sam. Bernardiston being their Foreman who hath since been found guilty of Misdemeanors of a high nature During the late seditious Stirs and Tumults none was more active than one Stephen Colledge a Joyner of London a pragmatical person that pleased himself with the title of The Protestant Joyner he had been busie for a long time sowing Sedition and talking Treason so openly that his Friends advised him to forbear lest he came to the Gallows He made it his business to serve some dissenting Lords boasting of his acquaintance with the Earl of Shaftsbury Lords Gray Howard Clare Huntington Pagit Lovelace c. He had fitted his Raree Show and scandalous Songs and Pictures reflecting on the Royal Family The sole pretence for his treasonable actions was his zeal against Papists who he said had feigned seventeen or eighteen Sham-plots against the Protestants he affirmed that London was to be seized by the Papists and that they had a designe against the Parliament at Oxford and therefore he with some others whom he had perswaded came well armed thither Divers Ribbons were provided as a mark of distinction bearing this Motto NO POPERY NO SLAVERY one of which he gave to Turbervil and it was proved as the Lord Chief Justice said at the close of the Tryal whom he called Papists The King was a Papist the Bishops and the Church of England were Papists He was indicted for High-Treason the 17 and 18 of August 1681 it being proved that he said That nothing of good was to be expected from the King That he minded nothing but beastliness and the destruction of the people That he endeavoured to establish Arbitrary Government and Popery Dugdale Smith and Turbervil who had been Witnesses against the Lord Stafford were of the Evidence against him though there were enough if these had been laid aside to have proved him guilty Mr. Masters testified against him p. 31. That he said The Parliament in 1640. was as good a Parliament as ever was chosen To which Mr. Masters answered I wonder how you have the impudence to justifie their proceedings that raised the Rebellion against the King and cut off his head To which Colledge replied They did nothing but what they had just cause for and the Parliament at Westminster was of their Opinion p. 31. And being demanded what he had to say against this testimony he answers That Mr. Masters had said nothing material and that it was but a jocose discourse p. 39. To which Mr. Justice Jones replied Do you make mirth of the blackest Tragedy that ever was that horrid Rebellion and the murther of the late King Colledge answered I never justified that Parliament in any thing that they did contrary to Law One Mr. Jennings who was another Witness testified that on the bleeding of Colledge's Nose he said It was the first bloud that he lost in the Cause but it will not be long ere more be lost He saw him sell the Ribbons with NO POPERY NO SLAVERY to a Parliament-man as he supposed who tyed it on his Sword c. p. 32. It is observed in the Tryal that there was not one Papist that gave evidence against him and that they were such of whom Colledge had formerly given a good Character though now the case was altered The Jury were so well satisfied with the Evidence that they quickly agreed and brought him in guilty and so he was condemned and executed at Oxford on Wednesday 31 of August 1681. Captain Tho. Walcot was indicted for High-Treason at the Old-Baily July 12 c. 1683. for endeavouring to move and stir up War and Rebellion against the King to deprive the King of his Crown and to put him to death for which he conspired with divers other Traytors and had several meetings and consults to those ends and provided Blunderbusses Carbines and Pistols c. Which being proved by Col. Rumsey Mr. Keeling Mr. Bourne Mr. West and Captain Richardson he was found guilty sentenced and executed Then was William Hone arraigned on the like Indictment the Evidence against him were Mr. Keeling Mr. West Sir Nicholas Butler and Capt. Richardson upon whose testimonies he was found guilty and executed also July 13. the Lord Russel was tryed for
had not been as careful and diligent and as ready and forward to discover them a great while since I gave his Majesty says he an account to the best of my knowledge and he seemed to be well pleased and thankt me for it but before I had power to put it in writing the Council thought it fit that I should be committed to Prison That there was a designe to set up the Duke of Monmouth I will not say while the King reigns though some extravagant hot-headed men have taken upon them to discourse these things but not any worthy man I know those that have been worthy to be called by that name have declared in my hearing that in opposition to the Duke of York if the King be seized they would stand by the Duke of Monmouth There are others that were for a Commonwealth and some few for the Duke of Bucks He confesseth that Goodenough told him the King was to be taken off as he came from Windsor that they wanted a place of meeting in order to it and the place pitched on was Black-heath where Rous advised that a Ball of Silver worth thirty or forty pound might be thrown up and the people invited to come and drink a Bowl of Punch which would have gathered thirty or forty thousand in two or three days time That this Goodenough spake in base Language concerning the Duke of York calling him Rogue and Dog and that we will do his work and that after the Kings decease the Duke of Monmouth having a Vogue with the People must of necessity succeed And he confessed that it was just in God and righteous and just in the King that he died On the 6th of February 1683. in Hillary-Term John Hambden Esq was tryed at the Kings-Bench-Bar upon an Indictment of High Misdemeanour for assembling meeting consulting c. with divers ill-disposed Subjects of the King to disquiet molest and disturb and as much as in him lay to incite stir up and procure Sedition within this Kingdom of England and further to cause an Insurrection and to provide Arms and armed men for that purpose And also for that he did consult agree and consent that a person should be sent into Scotland to invite and incite divers ill-disposed people to come into England to consult and advise with him and others here concerning aâ—â— and assistance from thence to bring about their designes He pleaded Not guilty but upon a full and fair hearing he was found Guilty and Fined forty thousand pounds Which Sentence was given the 12th of February being the last day of the said Term. The Witnesses were James Duke of Monmouth but he did not appear William Lord Howard whose evidence is supported by Sir Andrew Foster Mr. Atterbury one Sheriff thaâ— lodg'd Aaron Smith at Newcastle and Beâ— that directed him the way into Scotland The Lord Chief Justice tells the Jury Thâ—â— if there were another Witness as positive against the Defendant as my Lord Howard the matter would amount to no less than High-Treason The next day being the 7th of February 1683. Lawrence Braddon and High Speke Gent. were tryed upon an Information of High Misdemeanour Subornation and spreading False Reports at the Court oâ— Kings-Bench for that whereas the Earl of Essex on the 10th of July in the thirty fifth year of the King was committed to the Tower for High-Treasons supposed to be committed on the 13th did there kill and murther himself as appear by an Inquest taken in the Tower the 14th day of July in the year aforesaid They not being ignorant thereof but contriving and maliciously and seditiously intending to bring the Kings Government into hatred disgrace and contempt did conspire and endeavour to make the Kings Subjects to believe that the said Inquisition was unduly taken and that the said Earl was murdered by some person in whose custody he was And to bring this to effect they procured false Witnesses to prove it And to perswade others to the belief of it they caused to be declared in writing that the said Braddon would prosecute the matter This is the sum of the Indictment To which they pleaded Not guilty How the Intrigue was managed in brief The 13th of February in the morning the King and Duke going to visit the Tower in the interim of their being there that dreadful accident of the Earl of Essex cutting his own throat happen'd The rumour of the one and the other caused a great concourse of people Among the rest there was one Edwards his son a School-boy of about thirteen years old that having played Truant in the Tower that morning upon this occasion thought it best to tell some strange story when he came home to Dinner to palliate his Truantry and accordingly goes home and tells his Mother and Sisters that he saw a hand throw a Razor out of the window of the Earl of Essex his Chamber They were surprised at this and charged the Boy to tell truth and not to tell lyes to excuse his play as he used to do He persisted in it Mr. Braddon being told of this Boy goes to his fathers house pretending he came from Sir Henry Capel and the Countess to examine the Boy which when he had done he writes a Paper and reads it to the Boy for him to signe The Boy refuses to signe it because he said the whole matter was a lye So Braddon went away but coming another time he got the Boy to signe it telling him it was no harm He also found out a Girl of about the same age that said she saw a hand throw out a bloudy Razor but from whose window she knows not and she said many others saw it but she could name none Braddon goes with this to Sir Henry Capel desiring his assistance in the prosecution of the Earl's murder but Sir Henry directs him to a Secretary of State it being of publick concern He goes to a Secretary has his little Witnesses examined before the King in Council and the business found false and frivolous Mr. Braddon would not rest here being in Conscience bound to prosecute the Murder as he alleadg'd but resolves for the Country and goes to one Mr. Speke desiring his Letter commendatory to Sir Robert Atkins in Gloucester-shire which was granted by that Gentleman who also sent his man along with him to defend him from Assaults To colour this it was pretended that Braddon had word sent him that my Lords death was discoursed the same day it was done at Marlborough and at the Posthouse in Frome nay at Andover two or three days before it happened Mr. Speke's Letter to Sir Robert Atkins concerning Braddon which he had about him when taken commends his great integrity and courage thanking the person 't was writ to for great kindness to him and his friends hoping to get my Lords Murder tryed before the Tryal of any in the Tower saying the Tyde run strong against them and he must not be called Braddon but