Motive it could be invented unless to palliate the Crime of those who had destroyed him But should it be granted that the late Earl of Essex used to speak with all Candor and Respect of the Duke of Nâ—â—thumberland who slew himself in the Tower it was no more than what might be expected from a Gentleman of Civility and good Breeding partly out of Decorum and Complacency to his Lady whose Grand-father the said Duke was and partly out of respect to that Noble Mans Personal Merit and Worth being upon many accounts a truly great Person For is it not enough to condemn a Fact without heaping Obloquy and Reproach upon him that hath been guilty of it It is sufficient to represent the Evil of a Thing in Thesi and to demonstrate the Sin as well as Dishonour in committing it but it neither agrees with the Rules of Religion nor the Measures of Conversation among Persons of Quality to be over severe in Hypothesi and to pronounce this or that Man wicked and infamous though upon the score of that which we have doctrinally and in way of Argumentation censured and condemned Nor was the Earl of Essex's Case parallel to that of the Duke of Nâ—rthumberland that the latter should make the former a President For whereas that Duke was not only accused but condemned for High Treason when he committed that Fact the Earl though accused and committed not only knew himself innocent of the Crime wherewith he was charged but was well assured that there was no Evidence upon which they could proceed to try and much less to condemn him For of all the Witnesses who had undertaken the Drudgery of swearing Men out of their Lives there was only my Lord H. that could pretend to so much as acquaintance with him Whose Testimony being but that of one Man and a very infamous one too it could not found an Indictment of Treason much less be esteemed a sufficient Proof in Law for the Conviction and Condemnation of the meanest Subject And this leads me to another Topick that the Earl of Essex did not destroy himself but was murthered by others For whereas it is not only sworn that he cut his own Throat but that he had ordered his Servants two days before to provide a Pen-knife for him on pretence of cutting his Nails but with an Intent as Bomeny insinuates in his Deposition of committing that fatal and tragical Act I doubt not but to make it appear that he was so far from any previous Intention of that nature that he took all imaginable care in reference to his Safety and being fully secure as to any hurt he might do himself was only apprehensive and jealous of what might be attempted upon him by others and was accordingly solicitous how to prevent it And therefore he had the very day before his Murther appointed his Servants to bring up out of the Country several Vessels of Silver necessary for the preparing and dressing of Victuals with an intent to have them brought into the Tower not so much because he would have his Diet provided and prepared by his own Cook by reason of being curious in what he eat but because he was jealous of his Safety whilst his Meat was made ready by any of the Officers of the Prison and was not without Suspition that some violent and illegal means would be used towards his Destruction Nor is it unworthy of our further remark that he was so far from having abandoned himself to despair or having entertained the least thought of being his own Executioner that the very day before the perpetration of the barbarous and horrid Fact upon him he had ordered a considerable quantity of the best sort of Wines to be bought and brought into his Lodgings for his own Drinking resolving out of a Regard to his Safety rather than his Health to taste none that was sold in or about the Tower And whereas he knew that they had no intentions at Court of bringing him to a Tryal nor indeed could having but only one Person that pretended to be a Witness against him he had accordingly appointed the providing such a quantity for him as would have sufficed some Months for his own drinking till he could have been delivered in a due Course of Law Nor can unbiassed and impartial Men make any other Inference and Deduction from these Circumstances than that the Earl of Essex instead of having designed any Violence upon himself was only suspitious of what might be attempted against and perpetrated upon him by other Hands But if we will allow our selves leave to observe what Ends the violent Death of that Earl hath been improved unto and what Designs his Majesties Justices and Ministers have studied to serve by it we shall both let our selves and the World into a fuller view and knowledge of this hellish Mystery of Darkness and be able to detect the Contrivers of it and by whose encouragement and Authority that excellent though unfortunate Person was brought to an untimely and bloody Death In order whereunto we are to recollect how that after diverse Contrivances and Essays of involving Protestants in Sham Plots against the Person of the King and the established Government they were at last possessed of a Pretence of a Conspiracy of this nature and had furnished themselves with some Witnesses who undertook the swearing the best and chiefest men of the Kingdom into a conjuration for levying war and destruction of his Majesty But being conscious that their witnesses were not of a reputation to win belief to what they had prepared in charge against the principal Patriots of our Religion and Laws they resolved to murther the Earl of Essex being one of these they had committed upon an accusation of being guilty of that pretended conspiracy and then to give out that he had destroyed himself from the shame and horror of being concerned in so treasonabl ' a design This they judged to be the most effectual way to support the credit of their witnesses and gain over the Nation to give faith to the truth and reality of the plot For as his Mejesties Ministers knew what infamous persons most of the witnesses were and how far from deserving that any thing should be received from their Testimony so they were very sensibl ' that the generality of the Kingdom were not over inclinabl ' to believe a Protestant plot there having been so many endeavours before of imposing upon them in this way and kind This was the design in order to which the murder of this honourabl ' and innocent person was contrived and resolved and to this end did the Attorney General and my Lord Chief Justice with all the Eloquence and Artifice as well as all the malice they are Masters of endeavour to make it useful and subservient The Lord of Essex being committed to the Tower for the Plot and killing himself there was more say's the Attorney General than a thousand witnesses to open the
eyes of the people and confirm the belief of the conspiracy There was Digitus Dei in it say's my Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes and enough to satisfie all the world of the Truth of the conspiracy that the Earl of Essex being conscious of the great guilt he had contracted in being concerned in it did rather than abide his Trial and for the avoiding the methods of justice in his own particular case destroy himself The improvement of the Murder of that noble Peer to the establishing the belief of a plot gives no small ground to suspect who were the contrivers of his death and upon what design they did first assassinate and then endeavour to cast and divert the infamy and guilt of it upon himself But I hope they will from their own way 's of argumentation allow us the liberty of inferring that in case my Lord of Essex was not Felo de se that then there was no such Protestant plot as they have filled the world with the noise of seeing the only motives upon which they suppose and alledg ' his having committed that unnatural fact upon himself were the reproach and horror of that conspiracy Nay we doubt not but that all the honest and disinterested part of mankind will upon conviction of their having destroyed that innocent Gentleman become fully satisfied that there hath been no such Treasonable combination as his Majesties Ministers have endeavoured to impose the belief of upon the Nation but that all his Court and Popish Sham and only devised and fram'd for subverting our liberties and Religion by cutting off those that had the integrity and courage to espouse the protection and defence of them And as the end whereunto the unnatural death of my Lord Essex is applied and improved shows by whom it was contrived and effected so the Tim'ing of that murder does further evidence and demonstrate where the guilt of it ought to be charged and what service it was calculated for the promoting of For as if it had not been enough to murder one innocent person in a way of the most barbarous violence imaginable they resolved to adjust it to such a juncture of time as that it might serve to facilitate and compass the ruine of an other Noble Person in the way of their Legal Form's And therefore no sooner was my Lord Russel entred on his Trial for life upon an indictment of being guilt of that pretended conspiracy for which the Earl of Essex stood committed but they assassinated the one in the Tower and immediately dispatched away the news of his having murdered himself to the Old Bayly thereby to amuse and prepossess the jury and byaz them to convict that other virtuous noble and innocent person And with what satisfaction in themselves as well as malice and artifice against the prisoner at the Barr did his Majesties Councel lay hold on the tyd'ings and apply them towards the begetting a belief of the guilt of that admirable person who stood then arraigned and whom they were at that very time harrangu'ing and pleading out of his life As if it had not been enough to impress the minds of a jury sufficiently prejudiced and which to all mens knowledge was grosly partial for the Attorney General to say That my Lord Russel was one of the Council for carrying on the Plot with the Earl of Essex who had that morning prevented the hand of justice upon himself Sir George Jefferys comes after him and adds in the winding up the evidence to the jury just before they went from the Bar and without all doubt the better to mould and determine them to find the arrained person guilty That there was nothing could be said in favour of my Lord Russel's innocency as to what he was accused of but what might be more strongly alledged in behalf of the Earl of Essex who nevertheless from a conciousness of being guilty of that desperate conspiracy had brought himself to an untimely end to avoid the methods of publick justice Yea so evident was it to all impartial persons who were then present at the Tryal that the Murder of the Earl of Essex was not perpetrated by himself but by others and that it was time'd and adjusted to that season in order to influencing the jury to give up my Lord Russel with the more ease as a sacrifice and victime to the rage of the Court that a very noble Lord who was always in the interests of Whitehall and who was then very zealous in the prosecution of those accused for the Plot being at that time on the Bench did upon the hearing of my Lord of Essex's death and who were then walking in the Tower when it fatally fell out and upon observing with what diligence care and artifice the news was brought into Court as my Lord Russel was at the Bar and how the Kings Council thereupon acted their parts rise up in great consternation from the Bench where he sat and pulling his hat over his eyes press out of Court saying he plainly saw the bottom of the business and all the Mysteries wrapt up in it And indeed such influence and success had the news of the Earl of Essex's having murder'd himself from the shame and horror he was under for being concerned in the Conspiracy whereof my Lord Russel stood then arraigned that diverse of the Inquest have confessed and acknowledged that the Report of the Earl's death especially as improved and managed by the Kings Council had greater power over their minds for the convicting him than all the other evidence which was given and that they do really believe they should never have sound him guilty without the intervention of that fatal stroke and the crafty application which the Kings Council at Law made of it But so far was the Earl of Essex from entertaining any foregoing thoughts of murdering himself or from calculating the perpetration of it to that unhappy season that the very day before my Lord Russel's Trial being also the day before his own Throat was cut he gave private directions to his Steward to place himself with all the conveniency in Court which he could at the said Trial the better to take the evidence in short hand instructing him withall how he might afterwards convey it to him for his perusal and to be made use of as he should have occasion And as the Earl of Essex was a person of that sedateness honor and vertue that no rational or good man can believe he would commit so horrid a crime upon himself so such was the entire friendship between him and my Lord Russel that we must renounce common sense and reason before we can admit that the Earl of Essex would be guilty of so heinous an injury to his dearest and best Friend as to calculate and adjust the murdering himself to such a season which he must needs know would be too probable a means to derive the destruction of a person whom he infinitely valued
For I remember that when the late Sr. Thomas Armstrong had come post from Paris to give his Majesty an account how Orleans had poisoned the Princess Henrietta that he only replyed Orleans is a Rascal but pray thee Tom do not speak of what he hath done Yet that his Majesty may not excuse himself hereafter from causing further inquisition to be made after my Lord of Essex's death by saying he never heard otherwise but that he murder'd himself I do therefore tell his Majesty and publish to all the World that if he will grant an indemnity and protection to three or four persons we shall fully and evidently prove a Great Man the Earl of S. my Lord F. c. to have been the contrivers and Authorisers of it and shall name the Ruffians in particular who were employed to perpetrate the hellish and execrable Fact with an account of the several sums of money which they had for the execution of it Nor ought his Majesty to be displeased that I arraign his Brother and principal Ministers of so enormous and bloody a crime for as I write nothing but what I can fully justify so I take the boldness further to tell both him and them that if ever there come a ParlJament in England this matter shall be laid fully open and justice demanded against these impudent and enormous Offenders And as if it were not enough to evidence the E. of Essex did not murder himself but was barbarously assassinated by others that no encouragement hath been given for the discovery of the Authors of that villanous Fact notwithstanding all the rumours and Reports which have run to and fro both of the Manner of his death and the Actors in it it receives both a further and a very convincing accession of proof from this that all means have been used to deterr men from enquiring into that matter and to prevent their detecting what they may know of it The passages to this purpose would fill a volume meerly to relate them and therefore I shall confine my self to two particulars which I shall endeavour to deduce and represent with all the brevity as well as clearness I can Nor can it in the first place but astonish the world to find the Judges with whom the administration of law and justice between the King and his people is trusted I say to find them contrary both to the nature and End of their office and the Oaths they have taken of acting impartially to brand the medling in the matter of the E. of Essex's death as a Reflection upon his Majesty an Affront to the Government and a design to involve and embroil the Nation in trouble For not only the Attorney General stigmatiseth the report and belief of the Earl's being murdered by villanous hands as the throwing that ill thing upon the Government which he had committed upon himself but my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies is pleased to stile it a libelling of it and to have been forged in order to beget heart burnings and jealousies in the Kings Subjects against the Government and to raise Sedition Whereas the Government would never have been charged with this horrid Guilt tho some at the head of affairs might possibly have been accused of it had not these Gown-men involved the Government under the infamy and aspersion of it and done all they can to teach others to lay the barbarous Fact at that Door For as it is not the first time that a Prisoner hath been murdered in the Tower so it was never till now called a Reflection on the Government to endeavour to prove that such or such a person was destroyed by â—iolâ—nt and bloody hands even of whose death the Coroners Inquest had upon their inquisition given an other verdict Nay when the chief Favourites of our Princes and first Ministers of State have been accused as guilty of murdering a Gentleman imprisoned in the Tower whom the Coroners Jury had on their Inquisition declared to have died a natural death yet it was not thought to be an impeachment of the Government or a devolving the guilt of that bloody crime upon the King Of this we have a famous instance in Sr. Thomas Overbury who being committed Prisoner to the Tower in the Reign of King James and there poisoned by the contrivance and instigation of the Earl of Sommerset c. that was then chief Minister as well as principal Favourite was brought in by the Coroners inquisition to have died a natural death And yet it was thought no dishonour to the Government to have the death of that Gentleman afterwards enquired into and to find it proved contrary to the Coroners Inquisition that instead of dying a natural death he was basely and treacherously murdered by Villanous hands through the accession and contrivance of him whom he had faithfully served and with the consent of those to whose care trust and custody he was committed Nay was it not a great Vindication of the honor of the Government and an eminent Declaration of the Justice of the Nation to have the Lieutenant of the Tower and four or five meaner persons executed and the Earl of Sommerset and his Countess convicted and condemned for that bloody and barbarous Fact which the Coroners Inquest had acquitted and absolved all the world from the suspition as well as the guilt of And what an injury will the Judges of the Kings Bench and his Majesties Councel at Law be found to have done the King and the Government by their foolish as well as wicked expressions if at any time hereafter it come to be proved as certainly it will that the Earl of Essex did not murder himself but was assassinated by a company of hired Russians We should be loath in that case to claim the right of their way of Argumentation and to inferr that because my Lord of Essex was murdered in the Tower and at a time when the King was walking there that therefore not only the Government ought to be charged with it but that the King himself had a hand in and had designed it Tho I must say that according to their method of reasoning it will be impossible in that case to avoid such a deduction However it is a convincing proof that the ignominy and guilt of this Noblemans death ought to be ascribed to others than himself that the Judges and the men of the long Robe can find no other way to stifle the suspition and silence the clamor of the People but by interposing the Government as a Skreen to shelter Malefactors from Accusation and abusing the Authority of the Kingdom to deter men from the duty which they owe to God and his Majesty in discovering so execrable a murder Nor is this the only way and method they have taken to frighten and discourage Persons from discoursing of the Earl of Essex's being destroy'd by others without any accession or contribution of his own to his death but they have laid their
know if possible the names of those who had related it But while he was going in the search and pursuit of this which his being obliged under the Penalty of 2000 l. to answer an Information of Subornation had made an act of Justice to himself as well as a duty of God and his Country behold the poor Gentleman was apprehended and committed to Fisherton Goal in Wilâ—shire by a Warrant the most illegal for the Form as well as the Matter that ever any man was sent to Prison upon For what could be more extravagant and illegal than to seise and commit a Gentleman travelleng peaceably on the road without an Oath or deposition of any witness against him meerly upon a groundless and naked suspition of being a dangerous and ill affected man to the Government and for having two Informations about him relating to a Razors being thrown out of my Lord Essex VVindow before the news of his death was divulged and for carrying two Letters whereof the contents of one he knew not and the contents of the other could administer no just offence But the Form of the VVarrant was more extravagant arbitrary and illegal than the matter carrying in express words this order and command to the Goaler namely That he should Lawrence Braddon safely keep till he should receive further Order from the King and Privy Councel Which VVarrant had the Goaler been as mad and foolish to obey as the officious and doating Justice was to write the poor Gentleman for any foundation of relief that was left him in the Mittimus might have lain in Prison all the days of his life unless the King and Councel should have ordered his Release and Discharge But Mr. Braddon knowing both his own Integrity as to the Business he was going upon and his Innocency as to any crime the malice of his Enemies could charge him with sued out a habeas corpus to be brought to London before some of the Judges in order to be Bailed But alass being arrived there none of the Judges of either Bench nor Barons of the Exchecquer were in Town so that he was necessitated to desire the Goaler to carry him before my Lord K. which the Goaler having accordingly done his Lordship instead of admitting the Prisoner immediately into his presence and allowing him the benefit of the Statute was pleased to adjourn the seeing him till the next day with a command that he should be then brought to the Councel Chamber at Whitehall Whither being in obedience to the said Order carried he was after an hours waiting called in before my Lord and sound together with him my Lord Priey Seal my Lord Duke of Ormond and Mr. Secretary Jenkins It would be both to enlarge these Papers beyond the bounds allowed to them and to depart too far from the essential part of the subject I am upon to relate the whole entertainment which I have been told Mr. Braddon did there meet with Only it may not be amiss to reminde my Lord K. of a Verse that he quoted out of Juvenal and to subjoin the Translation of it into English as a certain author hath rendred it For having upbraided the poor Gentleman as one that had a design to raise and advance himself by sinistrous courses which God knows the endeavouring to detect the Earl of Essex Murder was not as the present posture of Affairs stands a very likely method unto he quoted that of the Poet to give an edg to his Irony and Sarcasm Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris careere dignum Si vis esse aliquis Dare once but be a Rogue upon Record And you may quickly hope to be a Lord. But his bitter and contemptuous Language with all his other ungentile as well as illegal Treatment might have easily been dispensed with had not his Lordship refused him the benefit of the Statute of being admitted to be Bayled unless he would procure Sureties who together with himself might stand bound in 12000 l. for appearance A thing so exorbitant considering the quality of the Prisoner as well as unjust considering the nature of that which they stiled his offence that he had both acted unwisely should he have engaged himself and Friends in Bonds so much above what he was able to discharge and injuriously to others should he have condescended to so illegal a demand and which might afterwards be improved into a president Whereupon finding after diverse Applications that this Lordship was not to be wrought to a mitigation of the 12000 l and that he would not be prevailed on to take the 6000 l. Bail which was offered the Gentleman rather than be remitted again to Prison in the Countrey was forced to comply to stand committed to the Messenger Mr. Atterburys where he continued for five Weeks at the charges and rate of 4 l. 1 s 8 d. per week During which time he applied himself by way of petition to his Majesty in Council but alas without that success which he hoped for which most Men are apt to aseribe to the King 's being prepossessed by my Lord K. concerning his case so that despairing both of all Justice from my Lord K. and of all Favour from the Council Board and groaning as well under a close Confinement as the excessive charges he was at in the Messenger's House he judged it the best method he could take to endeavour the geting himself turned over to the Kings Bench Prison in Southwark reckoning that he should not only live there at a more moderate Expence which the Narrowness of his Fortune obliged him to consult than was extorted from him at Mr. Atterburies but likewise expecting that upon giving Security for his true Imprisonment he should have the Liberty of the Rules and thereby enjoy a more open and free Air than he did in the place where he was before But as it was with some Difficulty and after earnest Application as well to my Lord K. as to my Lord Chief Justice and the Attorney General that this small Kindness was obtained so after his removal to the Kings Bench by vertue of a Habeas Corpus from my Lord Chief Justice and after his having given 10000 l. Security for his faithful and true Imprisonment yet he was by an order from my Lord Chief Justice to the Marshal of the said Prison for his close Consinement denied the Freedom of the Rules which he had not only promised himself as a thing that was in course allowed but what the Keeper of the Prison had consented unto and without the granting whereof he could not according to Law demand Bayl and Security for his true Imprisonment Yea so arbitrary and illegal were they in all their actings against this poor Gentleman Mr. Braddon that notwithstanding his Imprisonment yet they refused to discharge him from the 2000 l. Bayl which he had given at his first Appearance before the Council to answer an Information of pretended Subornation and also notwithstanding his close Confinement they
Officers of Justice and partly not to expose men to that hazard which they must necessarily run by engaging in this affair affords us a new proof of my Lord's innocency from being Felo de se and that the infamy and guilt of his death ought to be devolved upon others There are cases wherein suspition of guilt may so wait on some men that others tho never so well perswaded of their innocency cannot without forfeiture of discretion and becoming Sharers in the reproach and dishonour which attends them give them either the least countenance or yield them any Testimonies of Favour and Kindness till they have vindicated and acquitted themselves from that whereof they are suspected and which common Fame accuseth them of And as all persons pretending to wisdom or who are regardful of their reputation will account themselves obliged to act under the conduct and guidance of this Rule and principle so of all men those in Authority are most concerned not to take upon them the sheltring of those that are aspersed with infamous crimes nor to countenance and advance such whom the cry of a Kingdom chargeth with a barbarous enormous and execrable Fact But to that impudence in Villany as well as contempt of honour and credit are the Gentlemen of the Popish Juncto and Cabal arrived that they not only cause secretly Murther such as would discover a great and heinous offence against God and Mankind but they dare openly and in the face of the Sun both protect and prefer the chief Miscreant and Ruffian whom all sober and impartial persons have in suspition for it It must necessarily be acknowledged that in case my Lord was assassinated by violent and and bloody hands his Valet de Chamber Romeny the only Servant who attended him in the Tower save a Footman must be acquainted with it and accessory to it And so many as well as weighty were the arguments of his being guilty of his Earl and Master's death that he was justly suspected for it both by the rest of my Lord's Servants and all the thinking impartial people about the Town And tho I shall have occasion hereafter to mention divers particulars and recount several circumstances which not only serve to lay him under a suspition but to convict him of being accessary to the death of his Lord yet I care not if I relate one at present namely the apprehension he was in and the trouble he expressed to one of the Lady Essex's Gentlewomen upon a Report which he had heard that my Lord's Murder was to come under a second Examination and that the Body was to be taken up in order to a review Nor was the Countess her self for all the impressions which some great men had endeavoured to possess her with of my Lord 's cutting his own Throat without strong apprehensions to the contrary nor void of jealousie of this French Fellow's being guilty of her Husband's death which made her discharge him her service and dismiss him out of the Family And as no Gentlemen in England would have after this done so foolish a thing or so unworthy of himself as to cherish and entertain such a Rascal so it least of all became the honour of the Court unless there were a further mystery in it than the world is aware of to take him both into their protection and to advance him to an employ and place Let us therefore a little observe and recount what favours this Rascal under all the suspition and infamy of being accessary to his Lord's death hath met with both from his Majesties Ministers of Justice and from the principal persons at Court and chiefest Officers of State Can it be less than a reflexion both upon the honour of the Government and an insinuation that great men were concerned in that horrid fact whereof Bomeny is so justly suspected that my Lord Chief Justice at Mr. Braddon's Trial after he had been affronting interrupting and hectoring all the Witnesses for the Defendant steps in not only to assist and rectifie Bomeny in his Deposition guiding him to say a Razor when the Rogue had said a Penknife but durst represent the Villain under the character of one whose integrity and fidelity to my Lord was confirmed by six years experience of his service and that he was not an upstart and wandering fellow Yea the esteem that this Ruffian was in with our Grandees and which by consequence proves that there is a Mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death which is not yet fully discovered seeing these who are deservedly suspected to have been accessary to it are favoured and befriended by them may be further enlightned and confirmed from the correspondence which Bomeny had with the Secretary of State when he lay concealed from others and the readiness he expressed to converse with any that pretended to enquire for him in Sir Lionel Jenkin's name when he was denied to every body besides For a certain person having occasion to call at his Lodging in order to Subpaena him to Mr. Braddon's Trial and being positively told that there was no such man there took the boldness to say he came from Sir Lionel upon which Bomeny immediately appeared and he who was said not to be there before stept forth with all imaginable readiness to receive the Secretaries Messenger and to know what his Honour's pleasure was And if these two passages which I have related be not enough to evidence the kindness which his Majesties Ministers had for this little and Infamous creature I shall subjoin a third importing the care which the greatest about the Court took of him and the respect they shew him For when he seemed to be abandoned by all others and knew not where to be admitted into a service by reason of the suspition he lay under of being either an instrument that murdered his Lord or who had consented to the doing of it behold a great man and the Officers of his Majesties Forces embrace him under all that ignominy and reproach and list him to ride in one of the Troops of Guards Nor is it possible for any man without renouncing his Reason to imagine that that Great Man as well as divers other persons of Figure and Quality should expose themselves to the censure of the world in entertaining a Fellow judged guilty of so enormous and abominable a crime unless they themselves had been accessory some way or other to that execrable wickedness and except they judged the Rascal to have merited by the Fact But to put it beyond all possibility of any rational contradiction that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but that he was massacred by others I shall demonstrate the impossibility of it as the manner of his death is represented in the Coroners Inquisition and declared in the Depositions of the Chyrurgions who view'd the Body and searched and examined the fatal wound And where there is a Natural Impossibility that a thing
Death I would not be thought to acknowledge that it was a Razor wherewith the mortal and deplorable Wound was given him being well assured that it was with an Instrument much more proper for the purpose than that would have been but that which I intend by the proof hereof is partly the overthrow and subversion of Bomeny's and Russel's Informations upon which the inquisition and verdict of the Coroner's Inquest was built and partly to establish and evidence that antecedently to the noise and report of my Lord's death there were some persons in the Chamber where he was kill'd Which last if once obtained it will I suppose be thence readily granted that they were not there to be idle Spectators of my Lords cutting his own Throat but that their business was to perpetrate themselves that barbarous Fact upon him tho' for the concealing their guilt and avoiding the justice and severity of the Law they have endeavoured to cast the reproach and infamy of it upon that innocent and injured person The first who reported and divulged the Story of a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of the E. of Essex's Window before there was any news of my Lord's death was one William Edwards a Youth between thirteen and fourteen years of age who having heard as he was going to School that the King and Duke were in the Tower went in to see them and continuing there sometimes in one place and sometimes in another all that morning came home about ten of the Clock to his Mother and told the Earl of Essex was killed and that while he the said Edwards stood near the Earl's Lodgings looking up towards his Chamber-window he saw a Hand cast out a bloody Razor which being going to take up there came a short Maid or Woman with a white hood on her head cut of Captain Hawley 's House where the Earl lay and took up the Razor which she immediately carried into the Captain's Hâ—use and run up stairs and that soon after he heard one cry out murder All this the Bâ—y hath frequently repeated and averred to his Father Mother Sister and to one Mrs. Burt as well as to Mr. Braddon as those four persons deposed upon Oath at Mr. Braddon's Tryal yea the very Bâ—y himself did confess and acknowledge in Court that he had said and reported it 'T is true that after he had often affirmed it he was at last by the flatteries of some and the menaces of others brought to say he saw no such thing as a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window but that the whole which he had reported relating thereunto was seigned and invented by himself For having been told by his Sister that through persevering in his first Report he would not only ruine his Father and the Family but that he would bring both himself and his Father to be hanged he thereupon under the influence of dread and fear retracted what he had before affirmed But whether there ought not more credit to be given to his Affirmation than to his Denial I dare refer it to the judgment of all impartial men who have either heard of the Methods used towards the Boy at the Council Board or who have read the carriage and behaviour of my Lord Chief Justice and the Court of Kings Bench in this matter at the Tryal of Mr. Braddon And as I was amazed my self on the perusal of the Tryal to observe with what impudence and barefacedness they not only discovered the means used by others to influence the Boy to forswear himself but the arts and tricks in hussing on the one side and cajoling on the other whereby the very Bench drew him into and cherished him in perjury to I never had the fortune to speak with a man that was wise or honest but he was forced to acknowledge that the Boy 's first Report in saying he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window seem'd natural plain candid and true whilst his denying what he had so often affirmed to have seen appeared evidently to be wheedled out of him or by reason of the dread and fear wherewith they had possess'd him wrested and extorted from him How gross as well as unbecoming was it for my L. Chief Justice when old Mr. Edwards had upon his Childs being sworn charged him in the presence of Almighty God to speak the Truth and nothing but the Truth I say for my L. C. Justice to bid the Child turn about and say Father be sure you say nothing but the Truth For as the Father's command to his Son does plainly intimate the jealousie he was under concerning the Boy 's being wrought upon to perjure himself so the Reply which my Lord Chief Justice advised the Child to make to his Father did besides the irreverence towards a Parent whereof it savoured directly insinuate the apprehensions he had lest the Father's Christian Counsel should fortifie the Child to assert the Truth How palpably as well as shamefully did my Lord Chief Justice betray and reveal their entangling the Boy to swear a lie by the rage as well as superciliousness wherewith he treated Mr. Wallop a person not only to whose age honour is due but who in all the qualifications of a Gentleman and the accomplishments of a Scholar in all other Learning as well as the Law infinitely transcends and exceeds his Lordship and for no other reason but because Mr. Wallop would have ask'd young Mrs. Edwards whether she had not told her Brother that the King would hang his Father if he did not deny what he had so often affirmed to have seen And tho' it was a Question the answering whereof would have unfolded and laid open the means by which the Boy was wrought to retract what he had formerly declared and would have confirmed the truth of his first Report yet my L. C. Justice instead of suffering any Answer to be given to it not only upbraided that ancient learned and worthy Gentleman as if he had intended to have charged the King with a design of hanging men or else of making them deny the Truth both which were far from his thoughts and the intention of the Question but having huff'd and hectored him did threaten him with the animadversion and correction of the Court for reflecting upon and aspersing the Government Nor is young Edwards the only one who hath declared that he saw a bloody Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's window before any noise or rumor of his death but there is also a Girl one Jane Lodeman of about thirteen years of age who being in the Tower that Morning the Earl of Essex was killed and standing over against his Lodgings came home and told both her Aunt and others about ten of the Clock that it was reported the Earl of Essex had cutt his Throat and that she had seen a hand cast a bloody Razor out of the window where the people said that
my Lord lodged And as this Girl had no acquaintance with or knowledge of the former Boy and consequently they could not agree together to form and invent a Romantick and fabulous Story nor to concert the particulars which they were to report so it is observable that their Relations do harmonise and accord in all the main heads and only seem to differ in one thing which the Girls unacquaintedness with the several parts of the house where my Lord lodged led her into a mistake about For they both agree that there was a Razor thrown out of the Chamber window before Murder cryed out and that this Razor was bloody and that immediately there came a short Maid or Woman out of the house with a white hood upon her head who went towards the place where the Razor fell which as they are all the material things requisite to the confirmation of the Fact so being wholly strangers to one another they could not before-hand concert them nor agree the things they should report Had one said it was a Knife that was thrown out of the window while the other had affirmed that it was a Razor or had one denyed it to be bloody while the other had reported that it was so or had the one mentioned a Man as having come out of the house towards it while the other spake of a Woman there would have been then some reason for the Ridiculing it as a Fiction seeing the contradicting one another in the essential circumstances of the Report would have detected the falshood of the Reporters And it must argue great perverseness as well as strange prepossession of Mind to pretend to disbelieve the Story because the Children seem to vary one from another in a little and minute thing when in the mean time there is the greatest harmony imaginable between them in all that is of moment for the establishment and assurance of he realty of the Fact And therefore whereas towards invalidating the Girls Testimony it was objected by my L. Chief Justice Jeffreys that she should say the Razor was thrown out of the Closet window when the Boy had said that it was thrown out at the Chamber window this pretended inconsistency between the two may be easily removed to the satisfaction of all rational men and the eternal reproach and infamy of Sir George Jeffreys For indeed she said no such thing nor did she know the Closet window from the Chamber window nor so much as which was my Lord's Chamber but as she heard declared by the Standers by All that the Girl did affirm was that she saw a hand throw a bloody Razor out of a window which as the people discoursed belonged to the house where the E. of Essex lodged Nor did the objection arise from what the Child her self deposed in Court but it was started from the Deposition of one Glasbrook who informed of the Girls having told her Aunt that the E. of Essex had cut his Throat and that she was sure of it because she saw him throw the Razor out of the window and that it was all bloody Now because the Closet was the place where my Lord was found dead they would infer that she meant the Closet window and thereupon conclude the Story to be false both because of the impossibility that himself should throw the Razor out and the contrariety which they would have supposed to be in this expression to what the Boy had reported Whereas the phrase does only shew the simplicity of the Child but does no ways argue the falsity of the Report And the account which She gave of the place where She stood namely in that part of the Tower called the Mount plainly shews that she could not mean the Closet window but the window of the Chamber And had the Court of the Kings Bench had but the justice and integrity which became men in their places one Question of the Judges and the Childs Answer to it would have clearly decided whether she meant the Closet window or that of the Chamber For had they but ask'd her whether the window out of which the Razor was thrown stood towards the Forestreet or the Back yard the Objection would have immediately vanished seeing considering the place where the Child was then standing she must have answered that it look'd towards the Fore-street nor was it possible for her to see any thing thrown out of the Closet window unless she had stood in the Back-yard which she neither did nor was so much as ever there But by the asking such a question Sir George Jeffreys would have lost the advantage not only of ridiculing the whole matter about the Razor and of devolving the murder of the Earl of Essex upon himself but of skreening the Malefactors from Justice and possibly of ruining Mr. Braddon which were things of too great concernment to St. James's to let an occasion and pretence of compassing them escape him especially at the cost of a little Meekness Patience and Justice in his Lordship in receiving a Deposition and examining a Witness Now this Objection advanced by my Lord Chief Justice against the Truth of the Girls Testimony being fully and to the satisfaction of all impartial men removed and taken off all that absurd and nonsensical stuff which through his having wrested the Childs words he superstructs upon his own Dreams and Fictions does of its own accord and without its being needful for me to interpose any thing by way of remark upon it fall to the ground Nor will any man of common sense henceforth imagine that the Coach which the Child says she saw at the Door must therefore have been in the Back-yard and consequently been droven through the narrow Entry and Door of the House seeing it is evident from what hath been here discoursed that she meant the Fore-door and not the Back and to that there was no difficulty of access And with the same ease may all that Captain Hawley and my Lord Chief Justice declare about the height of the Pales and the impossibility of throwing any thing out of the Closet window over them and especially of seeing it when thrown over and lying upon the ground be dissipated and blown away because it was not the Pales encompassing the Back-yard which the Girl 's Testimony referred unto but those to which her Deposition related are the Pales which face and sence the forepart and front of the House O the Chicanery and fraudulency of a mercenary Lawyer instead of the uprightness and integrity of a just and impartial Judge Nor could my L. C. Justice have taken a more expeditious and effectual course to proclaim his own Villany than he hath done by endeavouring to ridicule and expose this poor Child's Testimony in the foregoing particular And whereas Mr. Justice Holloway was pleased to except against the Deâ—oâ—tion of the Girl in another particular namely that whilst she swore the Razor fell within the Pales the Boy
had said that it fell without them I do return this by way of Answer to it First that the Reports of the two Children are much more easie to be reconciled than the Observation of Mr. Justice Hâ—lloway upon this point is to be reconciled with that of my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys concerning the same For whereas Justice Hâ—lloway would have the contradiction between the Informations of the Children to lie in this That the Girl said the Razor fell within the Pales and the Boy said it fell without my Lord Chief Justice will have it to lie in the Girl 's saying the Razor was thrown on the outside while the Boy had said it was thrown on the inside I am sure one of these two Judges must be mistaken seeing it is impossible that two accounts of the same thing so clearly contradictory the one to the other can be true And indeed the mistake lies with my Lord Chief Justice Jefferys whom passion had transported to that degree that he neither duly minded what himself or others said in affirming that the Girl should say the Razor was thrown on the outside the Pales when she had expressly sworn that it was thrown on the inside of them But then 2. as to the inconsistency between what the Boy informed and that which the Girl deposed I say that young Edwards had both in words and by imitating the posture and motion of the hand out of which the Razor fell frequently declared that it was cast on the inside of the Pales His Father Mother and several others are ready to depose that when he first told the Story of the Razor he expressed it by saying that it dropt out of a hand from the E. of Essex's Window which did plainly signifie that he meant it fell on the inside of the Pales And whensoever he used to imitate the motion of the hand from which the Razor fell he did put it into such a downright posture as that all who observed his imitating what he saw done concluded that the Razor fell on the inside the Pales Nor was he ever heard to say that it fell on the outside of the Pales save only that time that Mr. Braddon took his information in writing when his Sister by endeavouring to threaten him into a denial of the whole matter he saw had put him into such a fright that either he could not remember or did not mind every little circumstance of what he as well saw as had often reported before And it is remarkable that neither himself at Mr. Braddon's Trial where he repeated and acknowledged what he had formerly reported nor any other Witnesses who appeared at the said Trial to testifie what they had heard him say did in the least mention his having at any time said that the Razor fell on the out-side of the Pales but on the contrary his Mother does so word her Deposition as serves to prove that she believed he always meant the in side of the Pales for she sweares that he said he saw a hand out of a Window and a Razor fall down And as the whole matter of a Razor 's being thrown or let fall out of the Earl of Essex his Window immediately before the noise of his death will be attested by several other persons when there is occasion so the Sentinel Meak whom we have formerly mentioned not only reported it to divers persons both that Morning my Lord was killed and afterwards but he added two or three remarkable Circumstances some whereof the Boy had not taken notice of nor the Girl observed others That which Meak then declared to three persons the very day my Lord was killed and which they are ready to swear when called thereunto is That just before the Earl's death was publickly known there was a bloody Razor thrown out of his Chamber-window which was seen by some of the Souldiers as well as by others and whilst a little Boy who had seen the Razor thrown out run towards it to take it up a short Maid or Woman that came out of the house where the Earl of Essex lodged was to quick for the Boy and snatched up the Razor and having run with it into the house Murder was soon after cryed out Thus we have not only a confirmation from a third person that there was a Razor thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before any tidings of his death and that a Boy went to take it up but was prevented by a short Woman from Captain Hawley's house who took it up and run in with it the last passage of which the Girl had not observed but we have also a ratification of a passage the Girl swore which the Boy gave no account of namely that there were divers other persons standing by who saw this bloody Razor thrown out of my Lord of Essex's Chamber-window Nor is it strange that every little thing should not be equally minded by all but it is enough to set this business beyond the controul of all rational men that it hath been declared by two besides the Boy whereof as none of them can be supposed under any prevalent temptation to feign such a Story so it was impossible that three persons altogether Strangers to one another should at one and the same time and in three different places conspire and agree to report the same thing But to all these proofs drawn from the testimonies of several persons concerning a Razor 's being thrown out of the Earl of Essex's Window before the news of his death There is another evidence as convincing as any of them which may be derived from the Razor of it self And that is the several Gaps or Notches which were sound in it when the Jury saw it and had the account of its being found by my Lord's Body and of its being the Instrument wherewith as they said he had cut his Throat For besides one large Gap or Notch at the point into which a man might almost lay the end of his little Finger it was for about two inches towards the handle so gapp'd and notch'd that the edge was wholly broken off and yet all that part of the Razor which extended from the Notch at the point till within two inches of the handle was so far from being gapp'd that it remained very keen and sharp And this of the Notches in the Razor was so remarkable that some of the Jury not only observed it but asked one of the Chyrurgeons who was by Whether my Lord by cutting his Throat could have made these Notches in the Razor To which the Chyrurgeon answered he might but whether it was from his being Fool or Knave or both I leave others to judge For I am sure the reason he assigned from the Tremefaction that was in the hand by that time the Razor reached the Neck-bone is ridiculous in it self and can satisfie no rational man And had this ignorant or suborned fellow considered the position and site of the notches
desire the world should know who I am yet I judg it absolutely needful that they should understand who I am not least others come into trouble for that which ought not to be charged upon them and which none but my self can with any equity or justice be made accountable for And seeing Mr. Braddon hath been singled forth as the object of some men's indignation for the service he was willing to have done his Majesty in the detection of this Murder I reckon my self bound to publish to all the world that I know not the Gentleman and that to the best of my remembrance I never saw him much less have ever conversed or had any communication with him I will not deny but that he is a person whom I do infinitely esteem for his integrity zeal and courage in this matter yet I will not be so far injurious to him as to commence an acquaintance with him during the transaction and dependence of this affair and while he is under the power of those that will be ready to declare him criminal for the least intercourse with a person that is likely to become so obnoxious to the rage of St. Jame's and Westminster-Hall as I may come to be for this service to the King and Kingdom But besides the common tyes which I lye under equally with the rest of mankind for endeavouring to detect so horrid and barbarous a Murder there are some special obligations upon me by which I esteem my self more particularly bound than others are to do all the right and justice I can to the memory of this massacred Lord and to redeem his Name from the infamy with which they have aspersed him of being Felo de se. For I had not only the honour to be known to him which Mr. Braddon pretends not unto but besides the favouring me with diverse Testimonies of his respect he did me the kindness to own and befriend me at a juncture when I was in no small hazard from the malice of very Powerful as well as considerable persons And seeing that honourable Peer has been so unhappy as to find nothing but ingratitude as well as injustice from those of the highest and sublimest quality whom he had most effectually served and infinitely obliged it is not amiss that the world should understand there are some remains of vertue and gratitude among the mean and little people and that tho their condition does not inable them to recompence favours conferred upon them by great persons yet they have that ingenuity which others want viz. to sense and acknowledg them And as I reckon it no small honour to have been known to the deccased Peer so I thereby enjoyed an advantage which others wanted namely an opportunity of learning the principles and observing the Temper of that excellent person Whom as I found to be one imbu'd with the most vertuous and religious as well as heroick and generous principles of any Noble Man in the Kingdom so I observed him to be a Gentleman of the greatest sedateness of mind least subject to the undue agitation of unruly passions and most under the conduct of a calm steady strong clear and well poised Reason of any Man of Quality I ever had the happiness of access unto And if either the succors of Nature Education or Grace were sufficient to fortifie and preserve a person from such an enormity and crime then must the Earl of Essex above all men be acquitted from the guilt of so execrable a fact as being contrary to the Frame and constitution of his Nature as well as to all the intellectual and moral habits of his Mind So villanous a Deed was inconsistent with his Temper as well as repugnant to his vertue As he was an excellent Christian he durst not allow a thought that might give encouragement to so heynous a sin and as he was a well accomplisht Gentleman he scorned to render himself guilty of a thing that was so mean and base Nor was the folly of the Assassinates less in hoping to obtain credit to a report that the Earl of Essex cut his own throat than their wickedness was in contriving and perpetrating themselves that bloody murder upon him Yea as if it had not been enough to have first cut the throat of this innocent tho unfortunate Earl and then to have fastned the guilt and infamy of their own Fact upon his untainted vertue and spotless Soul they have sought to gain credit to their calumnious accusation and to reconcile unthinking people to their opinion by assuming that he used to commend and justifie self Murder in case there remained no other way to escape a capital punishment and the being made a spectacle to the little and gazing part of mankind And to give the better gloss to this malicious fiction they report that he used to extol the action of his Ladies Grandfather the Duke of Northumberland who being prisoner in the Tower for Treason shot himself in the head with a Pistol Put as the Earl of Essex had he entertained so ungedly and corrupt a sentiment was more prudent and discreet than to publish and avow an opinion so contrary to the Rules of Religion the principles of honor and the common sense and persuasion of mankind so it is enough to detect the falsehood as well as the malice that is in this report that the Authors and dispersers of it either dare not declare the persons to whom the Earl should have discovered and revealed his mind in this matter or else such as they have named for vouchers of the truth of this story have not only denyed their having at any time heard him express the least word in favour of self murder but do affirm with all the sacredness imaginable that he used to speak always of it with the utmost abhorâ—ency and to brand it as the greatest and most heynous sin For whereas they have had the impudence to affirm that this report either proceeded originally from his own Lady or was at least assented unto and attested by her she hath upon application to her Laâ—â—ship for the knowledge of the truth or falsehood of this Story not only with all the solemnity requisite in a matter of this importance vindicated my Lord from having ever spoken a word that might induce the Lawfulness of self murder or give countenance to a person's being Felo de se but she hath further assirmed that he used to speak against it with an emotion beyond what was customary to him and that he hath often declaned that no circumstances whatsoever could extenuate the guilt or lessen the infamy of so unnatural and wicked a Fact So that this Story which hath been so maliciously and industriously spread to gain belief to the Report of my Lords having murthered himself may upon this detection of its Falshood be very justly improved for the establishing an Assurance that he was assassinated by others For it is impossible to imagine upon what other
say in reference to Mr. Braddon namely that he was ravelling into such a business but that he was resolved to ruine him if all the Law of England would do it makes every man affraid as well as sensible what he may encounter if he have the boldness to interest himself in this affair O degenerate off spring of brave and heroick ancestors were it not much more eligible to run hazard by acquitting your selves as persons of honour in discharge of your duty than to seek for safety by involving your persons and posterity under the guilt of that abominable and villanous Fact And besides can they otherwise hope than that through conniving at so horrid a murder committed upon another person and one who was of a rank and condition equal to themselves they shall at last undergo the same or the like fate whensoever they have the unhappiness and misfortune to fall under the wrath of a certain Gentleman at St. James's But over and above the two Letters that were sent to noble persons very near the King to be communicated to his Majesty there was another Letter addressed to the Countess of Essex and in order to the being conveyed to her Ladyship directed to be left with one Mr. Cadman a Bookseller in the New Exchange in the Strand the Tenor whereof was that if her Honour would prevail with the King for a pardon to one that would discover how my Lord came by his death or obtain of his Majesty a proclamation assuring forgiveness to any who should come in and detect by whom and after what manner my Lord was murder'd that upon either of those securities the way of the Earl of Essex's assassination should be revealed and laid open with all its circumstances This Letter was in August last brought by a young woman to Mr. Cadman's Shop who finding him sleeping on the inside of his Counter told him that she had brought him a Letter directed to my Lady Essex concerning my Lords death which she desired he would read being to that end left open and unsealed But Cadman being drowsie and still inclined to sleep instead of taking notice what she said thrust her from the Counter as an officious and troublesome person and commanded her to goabout her business Yet having after his being throughly awake both perused the Letter and considered the importance and consequence of it he judged himself in prudence obliged to carry it to a Magistrate which accordingly he did to one Hinton a Justice of Peace in Covent Garden who as I have been credibly informed went with it to one of the Secretaries of State This Letter as is most justly conceived was written by Bomeny forasmuch as he not only seemed about that time to be under some Remorse in reference to the death of my Lord but because some of Bomeny's handwriting being shewed to Mr. Cadman it appeared to him according to the best of his remembrance and judgment to be the same hand or at least very much like unto that which the letter was written in This much is plainly evident that it must have been written by one that was willing to be known seeing it was both sent open and by a person that was able to declare of whom she had received it For had the writing of this Letter been only a contrivance to avert the infamy of my Lord's death from himself and deliver those Gentlemen accused for the Plot from the consequences unto which the Earls imagined murdering himself was improved against them it would never have been left unsealed for Mr. Cadman to read nor seat by a person that was acquainted with the contents of it as it plainly appears the bearer was but would both have been sealed to prevent Cadman's looking into it and conveyed by a porter or some such hand that would have been less lyable to be questioned either about the contents or the Author of it Nor does any thing more amaze and astonish thinking people than that notwithstanding the many Reports as well as Universal jealousies of my Lord of Essex being murder'd in the Tower yet all this time his Majesty hath not published one word to encourage an inquisition into the manner of his death or to secure a pardon to such as shall be able to discover whether he was assassinated and by whom and after what manner he was brought to an untimely End For considering the obligations which the King and the Royal Family lay under to the late Earl of Essex as well as to his Father my Lord Capel and considering the many aspersions thrown upon the Court in relation to the death of the said Earl it hath been expected that his Majesty as well in justice to the Family of the Capels as in vindication of his own honour from the infamy of having a person of my Lord Essex's merit and figure assassinated in his Majesties prison and Palace would have issued out a proclamation ascertaining forgiveness to any that should be able to prove his being murdered by others and that he did not destroy himself as some people have been industrious to give out And that which encreaseth the surprise and wonder is the consideration of the forwardness which the King hath expressed in some other cases for the detection of murders of this nature For besides the tender of a pardon there was the promise of 500. l. to any who should discover the murder of Sr. Edmondbury Godfrey and reveal the miscreants by whom he was assassinated And I would be loth to think that his Majesties proceeding so differently in that case from what he hath done in this was rather to be ascribed to his apprehensions of a ParlJament which was then in Being than to his love of justice or the desire of delivering the Nation from the guilt of innocent blood But I am willing to believe that the reason why the King doth not encourage the discovery of this late murder of my L. of Essex ariseth from the fear he is in of the persons that were accessory to it For in case he would authorise the detection of the Assassinates of this Noble Earl he will find himself obliged not only to bring the Earl of S. and my Lord F. but his Royal and dearly beloved Brother I D. of Y. to punishment And who knows but that he dreads left in calling these Gentlemen to account for cutting the E. of Essex's throat He too much hazard and expose his own Nor is it at all surprizing that the King who had not courage to resent the poysoning his own Sister by her husband the Duke of Orleans at a juncture when He might have made France feel the effects of his justice and displeasure should not have the boldness to question his Brother and other principal persons of the Popish Faction for the assassination of Essex especially at a time that he hath divested himself of all power to hurt them and by seeming offended may only stir up their wrath against himself
withheld from him and positively denied to give up the 10000 l. Bonds which he and his Sureties had entred into for his being a true Prisoner nor would they so much as restore him the Fees he had payd upon the sealing of them And it being now the long Vacation and there remaining no way of helping and relieving himself till the Term he was forced both to continue a close Prisoner under no less Expence than two l. Sterl per week and to lie under the Weight and Terror of the 12000l Bayl which they had wrested from him But tho he was denied the Succour and Benefit of the Law and sound neither Justice nor Mercy in Men yet he could not be rob'd of the Comforts of a good Conscience nor deprived of the Refreshments and Supports which the Knowledg of his own Integrity and Innocency administred unto him And I have been fully informed by credible Hands that neither the troubles and oppressions which he lay then under nor the further Persecutions and Sufferings he was in prospect of were able to give him any Discomposure or create him any vexation Grief in himself nor yet to transport him to a behaviour in word or deed that could furnish his Enemies with an advantage against or yield them matter of insulting over him In this state and Condition he continâ—â—d till Michaelmass Term which being come and the Westminster Courts begun to fit he caused move the Court of Kings Bench the very first day for a Rule to the Marshal to bring him up the next morning in order to discharge the Bayl he had given by Appointment of the Council Board about the answering an Information of pretended Subornation Which Rule being granted by the Court and obeyed by the Marshal his Appearance was recorded and his Bayl discharged Now having succeeded in this which my Lord K. had refused in the time of the Vacation to grant him the next step he took was for the obtaining his own Liberty in order to which he did on the fifth day of the Term move the Court for a Habeas Corpus to be brought up and bailed Which being also immediately granted he was after a few days and a little delay which I shall not complain of the occasion of brought up to the Court of the Kings Bench and there discharged from his Imprisonment upon he giving 3000 l. Bayl whereof himself stood â—ound in a Bond of a 1000 l. and his four Sureties in 500 l. a Man From all which we may not only collect the Hardships and Oppressions which this honest and worthy Gentleman met wit meerly for enquiring into the Truth of some Reports which if admitted do clearly prove that the Earl of Essex was assassinated by others and did not murder himself but we may also observe and infer after what an arbitrary and illegal manner his Majesties Subjects are treated by some of his judicial Officers as well as prime Ministers for attempting to discover a most execrable and barbarous Murder wherein a great Man and the chief Heads of the Popish Faction would have been found deeply concerned and involved Nor did Mr. Braddons troubles upon this account issue here all these things being only Praeludiuars to what he was further to encounter from the Rage and Malice of St. James's and therefore the next Scene that opened was the bringing him to a Trial for endeavouring in the Earl of Essex's Death to cast Aspersiens upon the Government and defame the King And all I would desire of any unprejudiced and impartial Person is only to read the said Trial being fully confident that he will thereupon not only acquit the Gentleman from the Guilt of any such thing but that he will find himself obliged in conscience to acknowledge that there was barbarous villany used in bringing my Lord of Essex to that Fatal and untimely End And the first thing remarkable as an Introduction to that Trial is that my Lord Chief Justice was not only that morning for some time at Whitehall before he went to Westminster but was attended upon by Lord F. whom we have reason to accuse of being one of the Contrivers and Authorisers of the Earl of Essex murder at the lighting out of his Coach in Westminster and discoursed with both as he was conducted through the Hall and in a corner near unto the Court before his Lordship ascended to the Bench. Which hath given many men ground to suspect that his business at the first place was to receive such Instructions as he was to follow and attend unto in the work of the day and that the reason of the others according and discoursing him where he did was to impress him with a fresh sense of the business that was to be before him and to represent the dreadful consequences which would ensue to a great Man and His Majesties Ministers in case Mr. Braddon should come to be acquitted And whosoever did either observe the behaviour of the Bench at that time or hath since read the Trial where tho what was said on all sides may be related yet the Gesture Countenance Passion Heat and Air with which many things were spoken cannot be represented must be forced to acknowledge that my Lord Chief Justice and his Brethren were rather sworn parties against the Defendant than equal Judges in a Cause betwixt the King and him I should be obliged to transcribe most of the Trial did I undertake to give an account of the ungentile slanderous and malicious language vented against himself or the interrupting menacing and hectoring of his Counsel or the imposing upon prescribing unto as well as byassing the Jury against him and therefore instead of that I entreat and desire the world to do both themselves and Mr. Braddon that right as to peruse the Trial and if in their hearts they subscribe not to what I say I am contented to undergo the character both of a person that understands nothing of the Rules and Measures which ought to be observed in Courts of Judicature and of one who is not sufficiently regardful of his Credit and Fame in the things which he delivers And if I be not wonderfully mistaken there is nothing more needful but an impartial reading and weighing of that Trial for the vindication of Mr. Braddon's enquiring into the Reports which seem'd to imply that the Earl of Essex had not killed himself nor to justify his innocency as to the crime whereof he was accused namely of maliciously conspiring and endeavouring to defame the Government and as Justice Withins was pleased to express it of charging the King with taking away an innocent mans blood and of murdering an innocent man and as it was layd in the Indictment of his procuring and suborning false Witnesses to prove that the Earl of Essex was not a Felon of himself but was killed and murdered by unknown persons For admit that all which was sworn concerning a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of my Lord Essex's
of bloody and hired Ruffians Nor indeed was a Razor the Instrument which they made use of upon this villanous occasion but it was done by one of another kind as well as form and figure and which as they had prepared and provided on purpose so it was much more convenient for the perpetration of the Fact But it would have too palpably betrayed the Actors to have suffered that to have lain by the massacred Body or to have let it be seen by any honest and indifferent persons who might throng in among others to view and look upon the bleeding Corps And of all the Instruments which they could have thought upon a Razor especially of the fashion which that was that they threw down by my Lord's Body after they had Murdered him was the most unfit for an incision in the Throat of those dimensions as the wound whereby they treacherously killed him evidently appears to have been A certain Gunner in the Tower who may be supposed not altogether a stranger to this affair pitched upon a more convenient and proper Instrument for the doing of it when about Nine of the Clock that morning he reported the death of my Lord in a place not-far distant from thence saying the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat with a Case Knife wherewith he had been carving a Pidgeon for his Breakfast And had they not been infatuated they would have rather ordered such an Instrument to have been laid by the Body in order to blind and deceive the World about the manner of his death than the small French Razâ—r which I have described and by which they have endeavoured to make men believe the gastful and fatal wound was made But if a ParlJament come to sit again in England or if His Majesty will grant a Pardon to such Witnesses as we are ready to produce and allow a Writ of Melius Inquirendum concerning the death of this Noble Peer before equal and imparâ—â—al Judges we shall both describe the Instrument he was killed by and prove the truth of what we say by persons who saw the whole Bloody and Tragical transaction and are as Accessories too far concerned in that horrid Murder Nor want there proofs of my Lords being treacherously Assassinated by others and that he was not a Felon of himself from the Testimonies of these very Witnesses which were produced both before the Coroners Inquest and at Mr. Bradden's Trial to Swear that the Earl of Essex had cut his own Throat And tho it may be pardonable in the Coroner upon the Inquisition into the manner of my Lord's death to have admitted the Depositions of Bomeny and Russel there being not then so just suspitions of their guilt in this matter as afterwards there were yet for my Lord Chief Justice to allow them as competent Witnesses in that affair when the presumptions of their being accessory to that Murder were so strong as they plainly appeared from the whole scope and tendency of that which was sworn said and alledged in Mr. Braddon's behalf at the foresaid Trial was the greatest affront imaginable to Justice and argued a most criminal partiality For with what equity could Bomeny's Testimony be admitted to destroy either the Truth or probability of my Lord 's being assassinated by others seeing it must be granted that in case the Earl of Essex was treacherously Murdered Bomeny being the only Servant who then waited upon him must be an Actor in or at least an Accessory to it And what is this but to admit a fellow under the highest presumptions of guilt to be a witness in his own Cause and to allow his Testimony as a sufficient vindication from the most perfidious as well as barbarous Crime that could be committed and which to have acknowledged would have derived upon him the severest punishment And the same may be said of my Lord Chief Justice's partiality and unreasonableness in suffering Russel's Testimony to pass for good and legal evidence in the matter and case that we are discoursing of For Russel being the Person who that morning my Lord was murdered attended upon him as his Warder must likewise have been either an Actor in or Accessory to the cruelty that was committed on him Nor can it be otherwise thought than that he who contrary to the Duty of his Place and the trust reposed in him instead of assisting and defending my Lord when forcibly assaulted would consent unto or at least connive at the Violence committed upon him should also for the saâ—ing himself as well as others from the Punishment of the said Crime transfer thâ— Murder from himself and charge it upon my Lord. For as Russel was set â—t my Lords door to prevent any endeavours which might have been used by himself or others for an escape so one main end of his being posted ther 〈…〉 was to see that no Violence should be committed upon the Prisoner B 〈…〉 to dismiss this without further enlarging upon it I shall in proof that my â—ord of Essex did not Murder himself but was assâ—ssinated by others observe the Contradictions that are in the Informations of the Witnesses about the manner of his Death and the Circumstances relating to it and how they disagree not only one with another but gainsay themselves in their Testimonies It hath always been admitted as a sufficient ground of disbelieving Winesses and of judging them to Swear falsely when their Testimonies instead of being either harmonious and coherent in themselves or consonant and agreeable one to another do both interfere with and contradict themselves and each other For as Truth is always uniform and consistent so Falshood is contradictious and various Now that this may the better appear and that all Men may see I do neither impose upon the Witnesses nor endeavour to deceive the world I shall transcribe the two Informations which were Sworn by Bomeny and Russel before the Coroner and the Inquest when they sat on my Lords Body upon an Inquisition after the manner of his Death and by what means he came to his fatal End Paul Bomeny in his Deposition made upon Oath the 14 of July 1683. saith That when my Lord came to Captain Hawley 's which was the eleventh of that month my Lord ask'd him for a Penknife to pare his Nails as he was wont to do to which the Informant answered being come in hast he had not brought it but he will send for one and accordingly sent the Footman with a Noâ—e for several things for my Lord amongst which the Penknife was inserted and that the Footm 〈…〉 went and gave the Bill to my L 〈…〉 ds Steward who sent the Provisions but not the Peâ—knife only told the Footman he would get one the next day That when the Footman was come my Lord ask'd if the Penknife was câ—me to which the Informant answered he should have it the next day and accordingly on the â—2 in the Morning before my Lord of Essex was up the Informant
Russel and made appear my Lord's being murthered by others instead of perishing by his own hands To all that we have hitherto said in vindication of the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having been a Fâ—lon of himself and in proof that he was most treacherously as well as barbarously murdered by others we shall in the next place give an account of some remarkable passages which were observed in the Tower that Morning my Lord was kill'd which will not only inform us there was something requiring great secrecy then transacting but will conduct us home to the Authors and Authorizers of that villanous and ever to be abhorred Assassination The first thing then remarkable was That the Gate at the lower end of those Apartments in the Tower where the Earl of Essex and all the other Gentlemen committed for the late pretended Plot were lodged and secured and which always used to stand open from Morning to Evening was all that Morning kept shut till after my Lord of Essex was dead except that it was once opened to let out my Lord Russel to his Trial being immediately after he was gone lock'd up again And as this could not escape the sight of the persons who were then confin'd so it gave that surprise to some of them being a thing which had not fallen out before that one Gentleman in particular called to his Warder and ask'd him the meaning of it and receiv'd for answer That there was special Order given for it Nor is it difficult to guess the reason of the Order and upon what Motives and in reference to what end command was given for keeping the said Gate shut up all that Morning till after the Earl of Essex was kill'd For the Stage and Theater upon which the bloody Tragedy was to be acted being within that Gate it was needful to keep people out as much as they could to prevent the discovery of the Actors unless it were such as had their parts in some of the Scenes or would be sure to give their Plaudite to the whole A second passage very remarkable which was observed in the Tower that Morning and which speaks as loud to the matter we are upon as the former was that the King and Duke having been at the Lieutenant's house which is about the middle of the Alley where my Lord of Essex and the rest were imprisoned and having stood in a Balcony with a few attending them to see my Lord Russel pass by to his Trial the Duke did soon after with several waiting upon him withdraw from the King down into the Alley the Gate whereof was still kept shut Surely it could not be the pleasure of the walk that made the Duke leave his Majesty at that season but he had something to give Order about and to see the managing of which was of more moment than his Prince's company and which his heart was infinitely more set upon The Third and last thing which fell under the observation of divers then in the Tower was That the Duke having withdrawn from the King there were several persons immediately sent and dismissed from his very side towards the Earl of Essex's lodgings whâ— returned not till after the death of that Noble person that they came and gave an account of the obedience they had paid to his Highness's commands and that the Earl of Essex was kill'd pretending he had cut his own Throat thereby murdering his Memory after they had assassinated his Person It may be expected that I should here mention the Names of those that were sent upon that barbarous errand but there being some of them who may be improved and made serviceable to detect the villanous crime they were assisting to commit it is but Justice to our selves as well as to them to conceal their Names And to publish the Names of the rest were but to set a mark upon the former and expose them to the rage and power of St. James's by not proclaiming them in conjunction with the others But this offer I renew again both to his Majesty and his Ministers of Justice that if a melius inquirendum into the manner of my Lord Essex's death may be ordered and an Indemnity granted to such as shall be willing and able to detect by whom and how he was murdered then shall the Names not only of the Russians who committed the bloody Fact but the Names of the Conspirators who were the Contrivers Authors and Encouragers of it he both discovered to his Majesty and judicial Officers and published to all the World The only thing which remains to be discoursed of in confirmation of the Earl of Essex's being murdered by others and that he was not Felo de se is that of a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of his chamber Window before any noise of his Death or the least intimation that he was killed And indeed this of a bloody Razors being thrown out of his Window has already made a great clamor in the World and was the first thing which raised a suspicion that my Lord had not destroyed himself but that he was assassinated by others For as it was impossible that after his Throat was cut he should throw it out himself so it could not be cast forth by others before the body is pretended to be found or any declaration made that he was killed unless it was by such as were present in the Room when he was slain and who were instrumental in his Murder Nor can any account be given why they did it but that God infatuated them thereby to detect the villany they had committed And it seems they had no sooner recollected themselves but they were sensible it would not serve the end they had design'd it unto namely of making the world believe he had cut his own Throat and in revenge upon the Instrument wherewith it was done thrown it away after the deed was performed and therefore they immediately both caused it to be taken up and carried back into the Closet and have had the impudence ever since to deny that ever such a thing was done Nor can the Story which a certain Gentleman at Whitehal had formed for them stand them in any stead viz. That Bomeny finding my Lord dead in the Closet and the Razor which had been the Instrument of his Death lying by him and that thereupon being struck with Surprize and Astonishment at so unexpected and deplorable an Accident he took up the Razor being acted by Grief and Indignation and not minding what he did threw it out of the Window For besides that the Razor was thrown out of the Window before there was the least noise of my Lord's death this Gloss and Qualification was invented too late to serve the end it was designed unto seeing Bomeny's and Russel's Examinations with which it is inconsistent were publick before Now in proving that a Razor was thrown out of my Lord Essex's Window before the news and tidings of his
him Nor according to the measures of Wisdom or in consistency with the Principles of true Reason can any Man be a Friend to Religion and Natural Rights without being an avowed Adversary to that great Man himself as well as to his Contrivances But what do you think O ye Peers and Gentlemen of England are not all your Lives threatned in the destruction of this one Nobleman The Laws that could not protect him will be as unable to defend you If the Tower of London which is his Majesty's Royal Palace as well as the State Prison could not secure the Earl of Essex from the irruption and violence of Assassinates Can you either hope for or promise your selves safety in your Country Dwellings For if they want Pretences of destroying you by Persons in Ermine and Scarlet they have no more to do but commissionate and arm Russians and Banditti against you And when it may not be found convenient to assault your Lives by Strangers and hired Rascals whom you do not know they understand the Art of debauching your Valet's de Chamber and the Servants into whose hands you commit the care of your Persons to stab or poison you Into what a deplorable condition are English Gentlemen reduced being exposed if they stay in the Nation to be either sworn out of their Lives by false Witnesses or murdered by bloody Assassinates or if they withdraw and retreat into Foreign Countries made liable to be pursued to Outlawries And which was never known in any Kingdom of the World till Sir George Geffry's had given us a President an Outlawry does as certainly destroy a Man if the outlaw'd Party once fall into their hands as if he had drunk Poison or were stab'd through the heart with a Stilleto Of this the unfortunate Sir Thomas Armstrong is an Example of the first impression who albeit apprehended within the twelfth Month which is the time the Statute allows for a Person to come in and have the benefit of a Trial notwithstanding an Outlawry was yet executed by a Rule of the Court of King's Bench without being allowed a Trial tho he most earnestly demanded it as a right of the Subject and what the Law of the Land gave him a just claim unto And which is worthy to be remarked as shewing the different treatment which Protestants meet with beyond what was measured out to the worst and most criminal Papists The same Attorny General who opposed Sir Thomas Armstrong's having the liberty and benefit of a Trial and who required a Rule of Court for his Execution upon the bare Outlawry did but a few Years before in the case of Levallian and Don O Carney two of the Ruffians who in the Popish Conspiracy were to have killed the King at Windsor not only plead for the Reverse of their Outlawry tho they had been above two Years outlaw'd and came not in till they knew there was but one Witness could swear against them Mr. Bedloe the other Witness being dead but he withal told my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton that there being an Error in the Fact through their absence beyond Sea when the Outlawry was issued out against them the Reverse of it was a thing of course which they had a Right to demand and which the Court was bound by the Duty of their Office and Place to grant Seeing therefore that those of you O English Peers and Gentlemen who remain either faithful to God in the matter of Religion or true to your Country in the business of Civil Rights can neither hope to escape the Malice and Rage of your Enemies by staying at home nor by going abroad is it not time to be at last so far awakened out of your Lethargy as to demand Justice upon those bold and enormous Malefactors that were the Contrivers and Perpetrators of this horrid Murder upon this Noble and Innocent Lord. Can you believe you have discharged your Duty either to your Maker your Prince your Country your Selves your Posterity or to your murdered Friend till you have fill'd the Ears of his Majesty with a cry of innocent Blood barbarously shed and till you have demanded melius inquirendum into the manner of that Noble Man's Death and have brought the Authors and Instruments of his Assassination to undergo the Justice and Severity of the Law Let me tell you O Peers and Gentlemen that this is both what Heaven and Earth do expect from you And if you continue to neglect it you will in the account of God be reckon'd amongst Accessories to that Guilt and in the Esteem of Men be held for a dastardly and degenerate People But if all Men shall either prove so intimid or so supine as to be regardless of the Command and Authority of God their own Personal Safety the Wrath that impends over the Nation upon the cry of innocent Blood Awake then and stir up thy self thou All-seeing and Righteous Lord who beholdest Mischief and Spite to requite with thy hand and make thy Wisdom known in the Detection and thy Justice in the Punishment of this horrid Crime For thou hast not only devolved the Inquisition after Murder upon those who are trusted with Rule among Men but hast charged thy self with it and hast said The Blood of your Lives will I require at the hand of Man and at the hand of every Man's Brother will I require the Life of Man and whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And we do the rather make this Appeal unto thee O Lord not only because they who are advanced unto the Seats of Judgment are either unaccessable or Patrons of what they should search out and punish but because they who take upon them to minister in thy holy Things have prophaned thy Name made contemptible thy Ordinances and deceived thy People whom they should have informed both by vindicating the Authors of this bloody Murder from the Guilt and Suspition of it and by defaming and wounding the Memory of an innocent and guiltless Person While the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws have been like Wolves ravening to shed Blood and to get dishonest Gain these Mercenary Men have daub'd them with untempered Mortar making the King glad with their Wickedness and the Princes with their Lies 'T is to them that the Enemies of Protestancy and English Rights owe the success of all their Attempts and it is they whom the Nation ought to accuse of being the Instruments that have betray'd us to Popery and Slavery For to omit their other Villanies by which they have fought as well to ruine the Nation as oblige the Popish Faction they have endeavoured to ingratiate themselves with that traiterous Party by becoming Advocates for Assassinates and Concealers of Massacres The aspersing this Innocent and Noble Person whose Spittle some years ago they were ambitious to lick up with the Infamy of being Felo de se and they managing that wicked Fiction to the involving others in the Guilt of a Plot hath been a Year's employment for some of the Clergy to exercise their Talent upon hoping thereby to pave their way to rich Benefices Nor is there any thing so base which some of the Clergy will not prostitute themselves unto and glory in if it may but serve the Designs of St. James's and prevent the detection of the Crimes whereof a great Man is guilty A Fresh example we have of this in an Ecclesiasticks turning Informer and causing a Souldier to be made run the Gantlet and to be cashier'd For a certain high flown Tory being viewing the Tower did with a kind of pleasure on the remembrance that the Earl of Essex had there fatally ended his days ask'd a common Sentinel where the Chamber was in which my L. of Essex had cut his Throat To which the Souldier who was neither a Stranger to the Reports that went concerning the Death of that Noble Person nor to divers Circumstances importing by what means and hands he had fallen reply'd pointing at the same time to the Room that is the Chamber where the Earl of Essex was killed And because the honest Fellow would not own to that inquisitive Person that my L. of Essex had murder'd himself but persevered in saying he was kill'd in such a place therefore did the Divine inform against him and brought him to suffer what I have related Which as it represents unto us the Principles of the present Clergy so it confirms the Assassination committed upon that Noble Peer O therefore thou holy One to whom Justice belongeth shew thy self yea lift up thy self thou Judg of the Earth cause their Mischief to return upon their own Heads and for the Violence of their Hands and the Sin of their Mouth let them be taken in their Pride that all Men may know God hath not for saken the Earth but that he ruleth in Jacob even unto the Ends of it FINIS * Braddons Trial p. 4. * Braddon's Trial p. 45. 55. * Braddon's Trial p. 3. ibid. pag. 63. * My Lord Russels Tryal p. 38. †Ib. p. 59. * See Mezerny's Life of Henry 4. * See the Information exhibited to the Committie of ParlJament p. 5. 〈◊〉 13. * See Braddox's Trial p. 48. * Bradd Trial p. 38. 39. * See Braddon's Trial p 37 49 50 51. * See Braddons Tryal p. 3 20 6â— * Braddons Tryal p. 4. 60. * 〈◊〉 Trial p. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. * â—â—â—â—ders Trial p. 1 2. * Braddons Trial p. 2. 70. * Braddon's Trial p. 2 70. * Braddons Trial p. 55 61. * Braddons Trial p. 45. * Braddon's Tryal p. 17. * Braddon's Tryal p. 43. †Braddon's Tryal p 69. * Bradd Tryal p. 47 48. * Braddon's Tryal p. 47. †Bradd Tryal p. 58. 69. * Braddon's Trial p. 45. †Bradd Trial p. 45. compared with p 69. * Trial p. 40.