Michaelmas where tho' above ten to one were found against Rich yet the Common Serjeant who was deeply engaged in the Intrigue makes report to the Mayor as was before concerted that Mr Rich was Elected and so without more to do he is declared Mr North's Partner Upon the day for swearing the new Sheriffs being Michaelmas-Eve 1682. The Citizens went in a very great Body to Guild-hall to present Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to be sworn but were with-stood by Souldiers Armed with Pikes and Musquets then in possession of the Hall By these means and in this Military Arbitrary and most Illegal way were Mr North and Rich constituted Sheriffs of London and Middlesex to the unspeakable joy of the Conspirators and their insipid Adherents in the City These new Sheriffs to gratifie their Faction and to oblige the World with notice of what must be expected from them At the publick Feast upon their entring upon the Office They entertain their Crew with these Rhimes Sung at their own Table Thanks to Sr John our good Lord Mayor ' Gainst Sheriffs tricks he kept the Chair Then to the famous Sr John Moore May after Age that Name Adore For Ropes and Gibbets the next year The Whigs we hope need not despaire If Rich find Timber give 'em scope Brave North will never grudg 'em Rope Then to brave North a double Dose Who the strong Factions did oppose Then to brave Rich a Health off hand Who the loud Tumults did withstand Well to be serious and after a too tedious digression to return to the matter proposed These Sheriffs being thus settled and by consequence Juryes to serve the turn at hand They set themselves to a vigorous prosecution of the Quo Warranto brought against the City Charters and of an Information exhibited about this notorious and horrid Riot and to make sure work herein they cast an Eye into Westminster-Hall and finding Sr Francis Pemberton Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench would not serve this purpose He is thrust down into the common-Common-Pleas with a Complement from the Lord Keeper North that no Man's services were more eminent nor better accepted than my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton's And Mr Saunders the Counsel against the City upon the Quo Warranto and Adviser of the Lord Mayor's most extravagant proceeding in the matter of the Sheriffs is upon the 23d of January 1682 promoted to be Lord Chief Justice being then told by the Lord-Keeper That the King's People might not suffer in the want of so good a Magistrate as his Predecessor his Majesty had taken care in the choice of him to succeed in that great and important Office he being a Person of manifest Integrity and Affection to the King's service And that his Lordship might say without flattery that he came into the Seat of Lord Chief Justice with as few Passions and personal Frailties as any that had been before him Methinks Sr Matthew Hale or Sr William Scroggs might have been excepted That the Age was so degenerate and full of Faults ☞ Faults of Irreligion Immorality Debauchery c. that it required more than a Man to censure them And his Lordship added That the temper of the present Age required his Severity in cases of Sedition Which he said was â—…lly grown to that height and Insolence and managed with that Malice that it was very near breaking out into open force All things being now thus well prepared upon the 8th of May 1683 the matter of the Riot is brought to Tryal at Guild-hall before this vertuous Lord Chief Justice Saunders upon an Information to this effect That upon the 24 th of June 1682. in Guild-hall there was a Common-Hall summoned by Sr John Moore Lord Mayor for the Election of Sheriffs and that on that day the Lord Mayor in a lawful manner adjourned the Court till Tuesday following That after the Adjournment the Lord Mayor made Proclamation for all persons to depart That the Defendants intending to disturb the King's Peace did unlawfully meet together and riotously assault the Lord Mayor And that after the Adjournment Mr Pilkington and Mr Shute by colour of their Office as Sheriffs and the rest of the Defendants did continue the Poll and affirm to the People that Sr John Moore had no power to adjourn them and that they continued this great Tumult three hours to the terror of the King's Subjects and against the Peace The Prosecution of this Information was managed by The Kings Atturney General Solicitor General Sr George Jefferies Mr Dolben Mr Jones and Mr Molloy And defended by Mr Wallop Sr Francis Winnington Mr Williams Mr Thompson Mr Holt Mr Sommers and Mr Freke Mr Sommers and Mr Thompson upon calling the Jury offered a Challenge of the Array and pressed to have it read which being done Sr George Jefferies called it a Tale of a Tub But Mr Thompson persisted Vrging that Sheriff North was interessed in the matter and if Sr John Moore had not Authority to Adjourn the Poll Mr North was not duly chosen Sheriff and so ought not to return a Jury the very Title to the Office of Sheriff being in question This point was further pressed by Mr Williams Sr Francis Winnington and Mr Wallop but opposed by the Atturney and Solicitor General and Jefferies and over-ruled by the Lord Chief Justice Then Mr Thompson prayed the Benefit of a Bill of Exceptions but that was also over-ruled and the Jury returned by the Sheriffs who were forced upon the City by the true Rioters were Sr Benjamin Newland Sr John Mathews Sr John Buckworth Sr Tho. Griffith Sr Edmund Wiseman Percival Gilburne Henry Wagstaffe Barth Ferryman Tho. Blackmore Samuel Newton William Watton George Villers Then Mr Dolben opened the Information and Mr Atturney followed saying That the Information was brought for settling the Peace of the City and to shew who is the Supream Magistrate there That the Lord Mayor in all times was the Kings Lieutenant and no publick Assemblies could ever meet without his Summons That the question was about the Election of Sheriffs That the Lord Mayor adjourned the Court and the Sheriffs proceeded and made Proclamation that it was not in the power of the Mayor and continued the Poll in a Riotous manner and when the Mayor attempted to go out of the Hall they struck him struck his Hat off and pressed several of the Aldermen That if the others had made opposition all had been in Confusion upon this Usurpation To this Mr Solicitor added That after my Lord Mayor commanded them to depart they continued their Assembly there in a very riotous manner and as my Lord came down they offered Insolencies to his Person Then comes Sr George Jefferies the main Contriver and Abettor of the Lord Mayor's most daring and unjustifiable attempt and tells the Jury That the Rabble came upon my Lord Mayor had him down upon his Knees and if some Gentlemen had not come in they had trod him under feet He
the Church of England and who are now for calling him back These were Men who would have finished the Ruin of the Nation in the Dissolution of its antient and well Established Government and in the Blood of its best Patriots They gloryed in calling themselves Tories their Guide and Patron did in their name thrust out stigmatize all the sober and moderate Men of the Church of England with the Name of Trimmers bestowed upon them this Apothegme That a Trimmer is worse than a Rebel Whoever recurs to the Original of that Name in the Observators will find that it pointed at first at two honourable and never to be forgotten Protestants of your Neighbour County the late Lord Townshend and Sr John Hobart of Norfolk and quickly after Dr Fowler Mr Smithee and many other Reverend Divines of the Church of England fell under that Denomination Now surely 't is not a Crime to call such Men as these by the name which they appropriated to themselves and 't were Foolish to esteem Men of their practices to be of any Religion In some cases a Man ought not to be over-patient and it must move any one to hear a Learned Lawyer at the Bar at the time when Popery had actually ascended the Throne in this manner to caress a Tory-Jury Gentlemen I cannot but with much Sorrow remember to you and I know you all remember it too well that there was a time when the City of London was so far corrupted that it was become a Refuge and Sanctuary for high Treason when there was no Justice to be had for the King there when Men lodged themselves within those Walls as a Protection for their Conspiracies We all remember the time when Indictments were perferred and a plain Evidence given to a Grand-Jury even to the publick satisfaction of all that heard it and yet they have refused to find the Bill and not only so but were so abetted by the Rabble that it was scarce safe for the Judges to sit upon the Bench These are things none of us can forget but must be perpetually remembred to the shame of the Authors and Contrivers of them And must it not provoke a Man to hear the following Doctrine from the Pulpit upon the sad occasion of the good Lord Russell's death of whom one of the best Divines now living did truely say that an Age would not repaire that loss to the Nation viz. Cuting of Throats would have been counted only a Scotch way of Triming and the destruction of Princes to be no more but a perfecting the History of the Reformation They who cannot rise up to all the heights of Conformity can yet strain a point upon occasion and rise up to all the heights of Rebellion and Barbarity and had not God marvelously interposed these squeamish Conscience Traytors would have shewed the truth of this Is it not astonishing at this day when the Parliament hath declared that my Lord Russell Colonel Sidney and Sr Thomas Armstrong were murdered to heare an Irish Arch-Deacon who fled hither upon the score of Religion and is a Principal Manager of our Charity to the Irish Protestants publickly ridicule the death of the first two by telling us in an upbraiding way these are your Martyrs and affirm that the last dyed justly and according to Law Would such men as these satisfie the World of their Ingenuity and Repentance these extravagancies undoubtedly ought to be put into utter Oblivion now that Heaven has wrought for us a most signal and miraculous deliverance but which is to be lamented those very Men who carryed us to the very brinck of destruction are not onely remorseless but many of them do make it their business by drinking Popish Healths wishing success to their Arms and spreading false Newes to infect and debauch the Kingdom especially the City and to traduce maligne and undermine the Government under which the divine Providence has so mercifully placed us and therefore they who have given such high provocations and done so much mischief and do still remain impenitent ought not to esteem themselves unkindly used by some tart expressions Sr That I may be justâ—…ied with you who I am sure would believe the best of every Man and make the best of all things I have said much more then I did intend upon this occasion and hope you will forgive it You have very signally and heartily lent and laid out your self in your Countries service that service was not onely difficult and hazardous but it had proved fatal had not Heaven interposed for your deliverance and therefore all true Lovers of old England's welfare must wish that no false Insinuations may lessen you in the esteem of Good Men you have been a publick Good and that obliges me to be Sir Your Honourer and Most Obedient Servant February 10. 1689. The CONTENTS REmarks upon Dr Otes his Tryal pag. 1. Vpon the Tryal of Reading p. 38. Vpon the Tryal of Knox and Lane p. 45. Vpon the Tryal of Tasborough and Price p. 53. Vpon the Proceedings against the Earl of Shaftesbury p. 64. Vpon the Tryal of Stephen Colledge p. 92. Vpon the Tryal of Thompson the Printer Payne and Farwell p. 117. Vpon the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot p. 127. Vpon the Tryal of my Lord Russell p. 155. Vpon the Tryal of Colonel Sidney p. 185. Vpon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston p. 207. Vpon the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong p. 215. Vpon Mr Papillon's Tryal with Sr William Pritchard p. 228. Vpon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish p. 245. REMARKS upon the Tryal of Dr Titus Otes upon an Indictment for Perjury at the King's Bench Bar at VVestminster before Sr George Jeffryes Baron of Wem Lord Chief Justice Whom the House of Commons had recommended to the King by this Vote and an Address thereupon November the 13th 1680. Resolved That Sr George Jeffryes Recorder of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the sitting of this Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove Sr George Jeffryes out of all publick Offices Mr Justice Wythens Who was advanced to a Seat upon that Bench by the following Vote of the House of Commons October 29. 1680. Resolved That Sr Francis Wythens by promoting and presenting to his Majesty an Address expressing an Abhorrence to Petition his Majesty for the calling and sitting of Parliaments hath betrayed the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England And this Order thereupon Ordered That Sr Francis Wythens be expelled this House for this high Crime and that he receive his Sentence at the Bar of this House upon his Knees from Mr Speaker Which he received accordingly Mr Justice Holloway late Recorder of Oxford whose part in the dispatching Stephen Colledge advanced him to this station And Mr Justice Walcot the best of all the four but as poor as Sr R. Wright and by consequence a fit Tool to serve the
purposes of that Juncture THat the Conspiracy to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Government in England took life in the Year 1660. and was from that time carried on is now little doubted by any English-man who was not a well-wisher to it We are not to question the late King Charles the second 's dying a Papist and 't is as true that he so lived but upon his Restoration that the Duke's turn might be served he must not then declare An Act of Parliament was made to forbid our talking of it under most severe Penalties Then another Act put the Sword into his Hands by Vesting the Militia solely in him The Pulpits of the Kingdom generally speaking were filled with Gentlemen who had imbibed the Doctrine of passive Obedience and Non-Resistance An Oath was imposed That it was not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King or against any commissionated by him About two thousand sober and pious Ministers were thrust from the Churches and Corporations and many of them into loathsome Goals for Non-conformity to that Oath and to a few slight and as they judged unwarranted Ceremonies and the best Members were thrown out of all the Corporations of England by a pretended Regulation much more early then that of the late King James Matters being thus ripened and the Nation sufficiently dehauched by the Court-Example what was wanting but an actual execution This the Conspirators well knowing as they did that the famous City of London was the chief if not the only obstacle to their Hellish design a Resolution was taken to destroy it which they effectually accomplished discovery of this horrid Villany being made not to mention anything of the worthy Sr Robert Brookes Chair-man of the Committee of Inspection into the firing of London Hubert a poor French Papist being thereof Convict the House of Commons knowing that such a contemptible Varlet was not alone in that Fact resolved to take him the next day into Examination for discovery of his Accomplices and Directors but to prevent it that Wretches Mouth was stopt at Tyburn in the Morning before the House met I am conscious that there are Persons now in being who do not only pretend to doubt of this part of the Popish Plot the burning of London but of the Plot it self I shall therefore here subjoyn the Sence of one of the best Houses of Commons which ever met at Westminster January the 10th 1680. Resolved That it is the Opinion of this House that the City of London was burnt in the Year 1660 by the Papists designing thereby to introduce Arbitrary Power Popery into this Kingdom It may also be here observed that at this as at every other juncture when any Popish Plot was near the point of Execution The Papists had constantly the Fanaticks at hand to answer for their Villanies without doubt the Burning this Nest of Hereticks had been concerted both at Paris and at Rome and the time for puting it in execution approaching In April 1666 a Fanatick plot is brought upon the Stage seven or eight were Condemned at the Old-Bayly for Ploting to kill the King and to Burn the City upon the 3 d day of September then following For a more full account of this the Reader is referred to the London Gazette of April the â—0 th 1666. Numb 48. The whole Kingdom bring alarmed and put into a serment by this accursed Enterprize the Plot was post-poned however it was kept alive and the unwearied Conspirators carried it on and in the Year 1678 the blow was ready to be given but then by the Providence of the Almighty Dr Otes detected their Machinations He gave his first Information thereof to that worthy and never to be forgotten Justice of the Peace Sr Edmundbury Godfrey of which the Conspirators having notice for the stifling so fatal a discovery they in a most barbarous manner hurried him out of the World and did with effronted Impudence attempt to perswade the World to believe that that Gentleman was Felo de se but Heaven bringing that matter to light and his Murderers to justice The Plot maugre all oppositions and discouragements began to be searched into and was made out beyond contradiction by some loose Letters and Papers found in the House of Colman the Duke of York's Secretary who had early notice of the discovery and thereupon had carried his most material and as it may be reasonably concluded he thought all Papers which might endanger him or his Master's Cause to the Chamber of Mr Wright a Profligate Lawyer of Lincoln's-Inn where they were burnt for which assistance and good service Wright was afterwards preferred to sit by turns in every of the Courts of Westminster and at length to the place of Lord Chief Justice of England then whom a Person more scandalous and ignorant was never in any Age placed there Well Colman was indicted the Plot proved by Dr Otes and other Witnesses thereby by his own Papers he was convicted and executed as were by degrees several others but for the sake of the Duke and of the Roman Catholick Cause the game must be retrived in order thereto fit Engines were employed some of the Clergy who had long asserted that Popery was more tolerable than Presbytery with their guide the Observator made it their business to decry the Evidence of the Plot impudently affirming as in particular did one Scotred a grand Jury-Man in the Isle of Ely who at the time of the Assizes there began the Pope's health to his Brethren of the Grand Jury That there was no Popish but a Presbyterian Plot. A great part of the unwary and loose Church of England Men throughout the Kingdom appeared to be infected with this mad Doctrine so that to offer Instances thereof may seem impertinent however I shall take the liberty to inform the Reader that upon complaint to the Judge sitting in Court in September 1679. of the above-named Scotred's discourse and drinking the Pope's health a Justice of the Peace then upon the Bench fell upon the Person who made that complaint with great rage and swore By the Name of God there is a Presbyterian Plot. To this I shall only subjoyn that which will be a more authentick Evidence of what is above asserted viz. October the 28th 1680. In the House of Commons Resolved That it doth appear by the evidence this day given to this House that Sr Robert Can is guilty of publickly declaring in the City of Bristol in October 1679. That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. Ordered That Sr Robert Can a Member of this House be committed to the Prison of the Tower and that he be expelled this House Ordered That Sr Robert Yeomans be sent for in Custody to answer for publickly declaring in Bristol That there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot. These easie mis-guided Gentlemen were Disciples of famous Parson Thompson of Bristol whose Breath infected that great City
reproachful manner retorted No they are all of them no doubt of it very good People Good-Wife Mayo and her Companions excellent Protestants without all question Object 3. The Statute 27 Eliz. cap. 2. entituled An Act against Jesuits Priests and other such like disobedient Persons Which Act makes it Treason for any Jesuit or Ecclesiastick Person of the Romish Church to come into England And the Statute 3. Car. 1. Cap. 2. whereby it is enacted That in case any Person shall go into parts beyond the Seas and be resident or trained up in any Priory Abby or Popish University or School he shall be disabled to sue or to be an Executor or Administrator or capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift or to bear any Office and shall forfeit his Goods and also his Lands for his Life Object 4. The Judgments of Papists in case of Conscience whereby they maintain the vilest Wickedness to be lawful for the Churches Service and they own They have Dispensations to swear Lyes for promoting the Catholick Cause Object 5. What was said and done in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Case at the Sessions in the Old-Bayly and Hickes-Hall It was there moved for Liberty to bring Indictments of Perjury against the Witnesses who accused him of Treason but those Motions were over-ruled because they would not have the King's Witnesses indicted of Perjury nor the Popish Plot called in question These Objections receiving no other answer from the Bench then that all was trifling and idle and being so huff'd off the Defendant proceeded to speak to this effect My Lord this I say The Evidence upon which I am indicted is the same which was delivered six Years ago at Whitebread 's and Langhorn 's Tryals where were sixteen Witnesses against me but what credit did they then receive Now if my Evidence was then to be believed though opposed by so many Witnesses what new objestion doth rise against it which was not then hinted and answered I do avow the Truth of the Popish Plot and will stand by it whilst I live I have called some Noble Lords to testifie for me but I find either the distance of time has wrought upon their Memories or the difference of the Season has changed their Opinion Was ever Man dealt with as I am or had such Evidence offered against him Who are the Witnesses to prove this Perjury but Youths out of a Seminary My Lord of Castlemaine and Sr George Wakeman known Papists As for Castlemaine all the World knows he was acquitted because there was but one Witness against him and that without any reflection by the Lord Chief Justice Scrogs upon my Testimony Then Wakeman swears all I said against him was false whereas had it not been for two dishonest Persons one of them meaning Graham I have now in my sight we could have proved 5000 l. of the Money paid to him and that he gave a Receipt for it But my Lord this I am sure of if I had been a VVitness against those who suffered in the late Fanatick Plot as 't was called I had never been called in question if my Evidence had been false but 't is apparent the Papists have now a turn to serve and these St Omers Youths are brought to falsify my Evidence and to bring off the Lords who stand impeached of high Treason for the Popish Conspiracy My Lord 't is not me they indict but the whole protestant Interest is aimed at in this Prosecution For my own part I care not what becomes of me the Truth will one time or another appear Then Mr Solicitor in a long Harangue gave great Reputation to the St Omers Witnesses and then told the Jury that the Defendants Witnesses were these four Cicely Mayo Butler Page and Walter the Parson and that he would first mention Page and Walter and set them out of the way Page says he remembers to have seen Otes in a disguise at Sr Richard Barker's but he is not certain as to the time and he cannot take upon him to say what time of the Year or what Year it was only he believes it was in May and therefore that can be no sufficient evidence to contradict Witnesses that with great particularity speak to certain times As for Walter he cannot remember the time when neither Nay the remembrance he has of it goes rather to another time then the time in question for being ask'd what circumstance he knew the time by he said it was about a year and a quarter before the Plot was discovered which must be in April or May 1677 and that will do the Doctor no service at all upon this question thus Mr Solicitor For tryal of this learned Gentleman's Sincerity I shall review the Evidence given by these two Persons that the Reader may make his Judgment how fairly they were set out of the way Page did indeed declare that he could not be positive to the Year or Month but that to the best of his remembrance 't was in the Year 1678 and in the beginning of May this was like an honest conscientious Witness but what he further testified did evidently shew the time to be in the beginning of May 1678. For besides his mentioning the Doctors coming in disguise according to the evidence of Mrs Mayo and Butler he declared that it was at the time when Sr Richard Barker was ill at Putney and that Sr Richard came to Town soon after and Mrs Mayo and Butler swore expresly that the time of the Doctors coming in disguise was when Sr Richard was sick at Putney and that that was in the end of April or beginning of May 1678. As to Mr Walter his evidence was that he met the Doctor in disguise and did upon that very day observe the Elm Trees budded forth so that by that token he thought it might be between Lady-day and the latter end of April and as to the Year that it was near a Year and Quarter before he was examined about this matter at the Tryal of the five Jesuits which was the 13th of June 1679 but Mr Solicitor to the end this Man's Testimony might not serve the Doctor as he himself worded it represents it quite otherwise and tells the Jury that Mr Walter said the time was about a year and a quarter before the Plot was discovered and so makes the time to be April or May 1677 though Mr Walter in speaking for himself being ask'd about the time of the discovery of the Plot said that he could not tell when the Plot was discovered or whether it be found out yet or no. Where is the Candor or Ingenuity of this proceeding Now comes the Scandal of the Law Jeffryes that mortal Enemy to the Liberties of England and all true English-men He foaming vomits a flood of Malice and Rage First he caresses Sr William Dodson and his Brethren of the Jury with the complement that to his knowledge they are Persons of great understanding and abilities and adds that
Mr Solicitor had shortened his Labour by the pains he had taken to sum up the Evidence to them which he concluded he had without doubt done with all faithfulness to his Master He then proceeds to blacken the Defendant with all the foul Language that Malice could suggest and tells his old Friends of the Jury whose acquaintance with him disposed them to credit him that the Popish Plot was a sham and that under the pretence thereof another black and bloody Conspiracy was carried on Then he magnifies the evidence against the Defendant both from the number of the St Omers Sparks no less then twenty but also their harmony and he affirms that against the credit of their Testimony there was no objection really made but only Impudence that the Defendant had produced but two positive Witnesses that they were likewise positive in their contradiction of one another that they swore according as their humour led them and not according to any remembrance they had of the thing and that he rather believed it because the third Witness Page gave an evidence contrary to both of them how notoriously false these malitious Suggestions are will evidently appear upon the perusal of what these three honest and plain-dealing Witnesses swore Then he comes to the Defendants fourth Witness Mr Walter and positively affirms that he says nothing to the matter for that it did plainly appear the time which he speaks of was about a year and a half before the five Jesuits Tryal which must be in 1677 before the Defendant went to St Omers Mr Solicitor told the Jury that Mr Walter spoke of a year and a quarter before the discovery of the Plot had that been true it had run it back to the year 1677 and to a time before the Doctor went to St Omers His Lordship makes Mr VValter to speak of about a year and a half before the Jesuits Tryal which runs it back to December 1677 and then the King 's celebrated Witnesses and Mr VValter are agreed but Mr Vvalter speaking for himself says the time was near a year and a quarter before the Tryal of the Jesuits which brings us to April 1678. Though the Chief Justice and Solicitor were not agreed in this matter yet they would not quarrel about it provided the understanding Jury would credit either of them against Mr Walter and so serve the turn they aimed at the baffling the credit of the Popish Plot and not allow this Witness to be serviceable to the Vindication of Dr Otes Upon the following day after this Tryal Dr Otes was tryed upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury but that prosecution being of the Complexion with what is here presented I shall not trouble the Reader with any thing further upon this subject then to present him with the Names of the Jury viz. Sr Thomas Vernon Nicholas Charlton Esq Tho. Langham Esq Thomas Hartop Francis Griffith John Kent George Tory Ano. Hen. Loades Tory Also John Midgley John Pelling Thomas Short and George Peck The Juries having according to the direction of that Man of Blood Jeffryes brought in the Defendant guilty of both the Perjuries Comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments the tender-hearted good natured Protestant Judge VVythens to pronounce the Sentence This very Person Wythens being Counsel for Knox did declare openly in the Court of King's Bench that Dr Otes had served the Nation too well to be vilified in that Court. previous to it he tells the Defendant That no Christian 's Heart can think of the innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath without bleeding That every knowing Man believed and every honest Man grieved for it He proceeds God be thanked our Eyes are now opened You had not one Word to justifie your self from that great and heinous Perjury you were accused of transcendant Impudence The Judgment of the Court inter alia is You shall upon Wednesday next be VVhipt from Algate to Newgate Vpon Friday you shall be VVhipt from Newgate to Tyburn by the Hands of the common Hangman This I pronounce to be the Judgment of the Court upon you and I must tell you plainly If it had been in my power to have carried it further I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgment of Death upon you I shall sum up all with the sense of the present House of Commons upon this whole proceeding which take in this Vote Martis 11th die Junij 1689. Resolved That the Prosecution of Titus Otes upon two Indictments for Perjury in the Court of King's Bench was a design to stifle the Popish Plot and that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt and that the Judgments given thereupon were cruel and illegal Notes upon the Tryal of Nathaniel Reading Esq for attempting to stifle the King's Evidence as to the horrid Popish Plot upon Wednesday the 24th of April 1679. before the Lord Chief Justice North c. THe Conspirators against our Religion Laws and Liberties being struck with astonishment and the Imprisoned and Impeached Traytors with no small Terror at the most providential and happy accession of Captain William Bedloe's Testimony to the discovery made by Dr Otes of the hellish Popish Plot in which he had stood single much discouraged we do quickly find their thoughts at work how to remove this newly acquired Witness Their way of taking off Sr Edmundbury Godfrey having so highly dis-served their Cause that is not to be again practised therefore the resolution taken in the present case is to tamper with and buy off Captain Bedloe they pitched upon Mr Reading to carry on this Intrigue whose parts and principles did very well qualifie him for such an undertaking but Mr Bedloe being above the reach of very powerful Temptations he very honestly detected the villainous Attempts upon him and the Suborner was brought to Justice as follows The Indictment sets forth the Plot against the King the Government and the Protestant Religion and that Colman Ireland and Grove were tryed condemned and executed for the same That several Lords viz. the Earl of Powis Lord Viscount Stafford Lord Bellasis Lord Arundel of Wardour Lord Petre and also Sr Henry Titchbourn stand impeached of the said Treason That Reading well knowing these things and to obstruct and stifle them and to retard the prosecution of Justice against the Lord Powis Stafford Bellasis Petre and Sr Henry Titchbourn did on their part the 29th of March last solicit suborn and endeavour to perswade Mr VVilliam Bedlooe whom he knew to have given Information of those Treasons against the said Persons to lessen stifle and not to give in evidence the full truth against them and to give such evidence as he should direct and to that purpose did give him fifty six Guineas and promised him other great Rewards to the hindrance and suppression of Justice The Jury were these Sr John Cutler Thomas Cass Joshua Galliard Rains. Waterhouse Edw. Willford Mathew Bateman Tho. Henslow Walter Moil Thomas Earsby
Richard Pagget John Serle John Haines Esquires The King's Counsel were Sr Creswell Levens The Attorney General Mr Ward The evidence of this practice subornation was very clear and full particularly Mr Bedloe witnessed that Reading had often treated with him about mincing his Evidence for the bringing off the Lords and Sr Henry Titchborne and gave him Money at several times and did draw up a Paper of what Bedloe should Swear and did carry it to the Lords in the Tower to be viewed and corrected by them Mr Speke testified that Bedloe had from time to time informed him how the Treaty was carried on that upon the 29 th of March 1679. Mr Speke and VViggins Bedloe's Servant being concealed in his Chamber Mr Reading came and in the first place asked whether any body could hear their discourse and being assured that he was secure and secret he told Mr Bedloe upon his demand what the Lords in the Tower said and what my Lord Stafford said that as to my Lord Stafford he should be sure of the Estate in Gloucester-shire which had been promised to be setled upon him for my Lord had ordered him to prepare a blank Deed which within ten days after his Discharge should be perfected and the rest of the Lords did assure him that after they were acquitted in proportion to the service he did them in lessening of his Evidence he should have a plentiful Reward That Bedloe did then demand to have something under their hands but Reading said that they think that not convenient but I do take their Words and you must take mine and then promised to go to the Lords in the Tower against Munday to prepare and bring him the Instructions from them for his Evidence Mr Speke added that upon the Munday morning he was to watch and see the Delivery of the Paper and did see Reading put it into Bedloe's hand in the painted-Chamber who immediately delivered it to Mr Speke This Paper was all of Mr Reading's writing and being read in Court was found to contain the purport of the Evidence to be given against the Lords and was so ordered that the whole was only hear-say and could no way touch them Wiggins agreed with Mr Speke in the Evidence given of the Transactions between Mr Bedloe and Mr Reading in Mr Bedloe's Chamber Reading coming to make his Defence offered nothing against the credit of the Witnesses but did in effect confess all they had testified and the whole matter charged in the Indictment and in truth he was the greatest witness against himself as was well observed after he was found guilty by the Right Honourable Sr Robert Atkyns then one of the Judges of the Common-Pleas but soon after thrust out for non-Compliance with Sr Francis North then Chief Justice and is now most deservedly Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Lords The Jury having brought him in guilty he was fined 1000 l. adjudged to a years Imprisonment and to be set in the Pillory upon the munday following for the space of one hour in the Palace-Yard in VVestminster When the late King James ascended the Throne he was a particular Favourite and his Suffering in this matter was well rewarded It may not seem impertinent to present the Reader upon this occasion with so much of Captain Bedloe's solemn Death-Bed Declaration as the Lord Chief Justice North allowed the World to see His Lordship was pleased to acknowledge that he took Captain Bedloe's Examination upon Oath at Bristol upon the 16 th of August 1681. And that he declared that the Duke of York had been so far engaged in the Plot that there was no part that had been proved against any Man that had suffered but he was to the full guilty of it all but what tended to the Kings Death from the trouble whereof the Jesuites had undertaken to deliver the Duke And his Lordship added that Mr Bedloe told him he lookt upon himself as a dying Man and that he must shortly appear before the Lord of Hosts to give an account of all his Actions and that because many persons had made it their business to baffle and deride the Plot He did for satisfaction of the World there declare upon the Faith of a dying Man and as he hoped for Salvation that whatever he had testified concerning the Plot was true and that he had many Witnesses to produce who would make the Plot as clear as the Sun. That the Jesuites had resolved the King's Death and would spare him no longer than he continued to be kind to them And that they resolved to set up an Head for their Cause here whatever came of it and said that if they should slip the opportunity they then had they should never have such another Notes upon the Tryal of Thomas Knox and John Lane for a Conspiracy to Defame and Scandalize Dr Otes and Mr Bedloe thereby to discredit their Evidence about the Popish Plot At the Kings-Bench Bar at VVestminster upon the 25 th of November 1679. The Judges then upon the Bench were Sr VVilliam Scroggs Lord Chief Justice Sr Francis Pemberton and Sr Thomas Jones THe unlucky miscarriage of Reading's attempt to corrupt the King's Evidence or to overthrow the credit of their Testimony deterred not others from prosecuting so pious a work for that is instantly succeeded by the cursed Conspiracy of Knox and of Lane and Osborne the one lately the other at that time a Servant to Dr Otes but Justice overtook them as the following Scheme of their Tryal shews The Indictment being read upon their pleading not guilty the following Jury was sworn Sr John Kirke Kt. John Roberts Thomas Harriot R. Waterhouse Henry Johnson Thomas Earsby Simon Middleton Joseph Ratcliffe Hugh Squire James Supple Francis Dorrington Richard Cooper Esq. The King's Counsel were Mr Attorney General Mr Solicitor General Mr Serjeant Maynard Sr Francis VVinnigton Mr VVilliams Mr Thomas Smith Mr Trenchard For Knox Mr Saunders Mr VVithens and Mr Scroggs For Lane Mr Holt assigned by the Court. The Indictment opened by Mr Trenchard was that whereas Colman Ireland Pickering and Grove conspired to destroy the King and change the Religion Established by Law to introduce Popery and were thereof Convicted Attainted and Executed And whereas the Lord Powis Lord Arundel of VVardour and others were accused of those Treasons and Impeached for the same in Parliament c. The Defendants knowing Mr Otes and Mr Bedloe had given Information of these Treasons to stifle the Evidence and scandalize them did conspire to represent them as wicked Persons and of no credit And the Indictment further sets forth that Knox with the agreement of Lane and Osborne caused Letters to be wrote with contrivance to accuse Otes and Bedloe that they had conspired falsly to accuse the E. of Danby And that Otes had attempted to commit Sodomy with Lane that to effect those wicked designs Knox gave several sums of Money to Osborne and
into the bargain but that Mr Justice Pemberton checkt it by holding up his hands in Admiration this persons Crime was the publishing a Book called An Appeal from the Country to the City in which this passage was contained We in the Country have done our parts in chusing good Members for Parliament but if they must be Dissolved or Prorogued when-ever they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject we may be pittied not blamed if the Plot takes effect as in all probability it will Our Parliaments are not then to be condemned for their not being suffered to sit occasioned it But now when we come to Judgments for Misdemeaners on the other side We shall perceive great Compassion and Mercy appearing in that Court indeed Reading who was Convicted for the first attempt upon the King's-Witnesses was adjudged to pay 1000 l. to be Pilloried and Imprisoned for a year and one would have thought that more severe Judgments would have past upon such as should dare to repeat the same Crimes after such an Example but we see the contrary About six Months afterwards Knox and Lane being Convicted of the same Offence accompanied with much blacker Circumstances Knox the principal was only Fined 200 Marks and condemned to a years Imprisonment and to be bound to the good Behaviour for three years And Lane Fined 1â—… Marks and adjudged to stand once in the Pillory and to be Imprisoned a year And now in the Case before us Mr Tasborough a Gentleman of a good Estate who had treated about so great a Villany in the name of the Duke of York was only Fined 100 l. And Mrs Price 200 l. But who can admire at this notorious departure from the rules of Justice and Equality in the assessing of Fines that remembers that the Chief Justice Scroggs did in this very Term declare in open Court in the Case of Dr Jessop a very honest and worthy Protestant of Norfolk that he would have regard to Persons and their Principles in imposing of Fines and would set a Fine of 500 l. on one person for the same offence for which he would not Fine another 100 l. And accordingly Fined Dr Jessop 100 l. for reporting false News as they called it and at the same time Fined the Doctor 's Author of that News a right Tory no doubt only five Marks Now surely will the Reader say this Jessop was undoubtedly a very naughty Man but to undeceive him I can affirm he is as true a Church of England Man as can be found and the bad principle which made him to be thus marked was that he was an avowed Enemy to Popery and true to the Liberties of England and did upon every occasion exert himself to a degree hardly to be equalled by any Gentleman of Norfolk for the chusing deserving men for Knights of the shire and particularly for Sr John Hobart then whom none ever deserved better of that County and whose name will always be remembred there with great Honour For this extravagant Partiality and Injustice in imposing Fines the Court of Kings-Bench was deservedly marked with this Vote of the House of Commons December the 23 d 1680 Resolved That the Court of King's Bench in the Imposition of Fines on Offenders of late years hath acted Arbitrarily Illegally and Partially Favouring Papists and persons Popishly affected and excessively Oppressing Protestants Reflections upon the Proceedings in the Old Baily before the Lord Chief Justices Pemberton and North. November 24 1681. upon an Indictment for High Treason framed against the Right Honourable Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury for conspiring the Death of the King and Subversion of the Government THe Names of the Grand-Jury returned by Sheriff Filkington and Sheriff Shute and who were Sworn upon that occasion were Sr Sam. Barnardiston John Morden Thomas Papillon John Dubois Charles Herle Edward Rudge Humphrey Edwm John Morris Edmund Harrison Joseph VVright John Cox Thomas Parker Leonard Robinson Thomas Shepherd John Flavel Michael Godfrey Joseph Richarson VVilliam Empson Andrew Kendrick John Lane and John Hall. A sort of people called Tories wedded to their own blindness having loudly clamoured of this great Jury I shall here add the names of those who were returned upon the same Pannel Alderman Ellis Mr Mellish Mr Tho. Gardener Samuel Swinnock Mr Ben. Godfrey Mr John Pollexfen Mr John Smith Mr John Gardener Mr Peter Delence Mr Peter Hubland Mr William Ashurst Mr John Deagle Mr Thomas Western Mr Bonnel Mr Gabriel Wheatley Mr Tho. Carpenter Mr L. Baskervile Mr George Marwood Mr John Smith And now let all who know the City of London judge whether a more substantial Pannel in every respect was ever returned to serve at the Old-Bailey The King's Council for the management of this Intrigue were The Attorney General Sr Francis Wythens the Abhorrer of Parliaments And Mr Saunders afterwards the Quo Warranto Lord Chief Justice Mr Graham the Solicitor of all the late Sham Plots upon Protestants and pay-master of corrupt Juries and perjured Witnesses solicited this Prosecution and hence took his first step to such Preferment as enabled him to give Eight or ten thousand Pounds with a Daughter 'T is to be lamented that he hath lived to this day without further Preferment in the way which at that time the then Lord Chancellor promised to honest Captain VVilkinson The magnified Evidence of this horrid Treason and that which the King's Council relying upon begun with was a Paper proved by Secretary Jenkins Mr Blaithwaite and Mr Gwin to have been found in the Earl's House of which such noise has been made in the World by the virulent Observator and the Popish News-Writers as well as from too many of our Pulpits that it may not be ungratful to the Reader to be here presented with the very words thereof which follow The Association WE the Knights c. finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Jesuites with the Papists and their Adherents and Abettors have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gratious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery And it being notorious that they have been highly incouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by James Duke of York and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through Crafty Popish Councils his Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependants upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State. It appearing also to us that by his influence Mercenary Forces bave been levied and kept on foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazard of his Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the Danger had not been timely fore-seen by several Parliaments and
disband the mercenary Forces raised and kept up to advance arbitrary Power but such a mistake may be remitted to Sr F. Wythens and also to that smooth Lord Chief Justice North who in suming up the Evidence to the Grand Jury did wilfully no doubt of it make the same mis-representation of that matter Mr Saunders added that the design of the Paper was pretended to oppose Popery and Arbitrary Power and destroy the Papists which seemed not so much in it self but that their Witnesses would shew who those Papists were that were to be destroyed And now the Witnesses are called who were John Booth a most notorious and scandalous Villain who had been guilty of several Felonies Edward Turbervile and John Smyth an Irish Priest who were manifestly perjured in the Tryal of honest Colledge Brian Haynes John Macnamar Dennis Macnamar Edward Ivey and Bernard Dennis Profligate Irish Witnesses who according to every season had traded in Swearing and Counter-swearing It may suffice to present the Impartial Reader with the Names of these scandalous Fellows for 't would be nauseous to detain him in reading the non-sensical incredible contradictory stuff sworn by them as That the Earl would raise the Kingdom to compel the King to give Haynes a Pardon That the Government was to be changed to a Common-wealth and the Duke of Buckingham to be King. That the Earl should tell Macnamar and Ivey that he would bring the King's Head to the Block That a Person of the Earl of Shaftesbury's extraordinary caution should talk Treason or any thing else with so infamous a Fellow as Haynes for an Hour together in a Cook 's Shop in Ironmonger-Lane It seems here worthy of Observation that the Conspirators clap'd this Noble Lord into the Tower in the beginning of July 1681 but the Term coming on when they must prosecute him or he would be bailed out they were then to seek for English Witnesses to back the trusty Irish so Booth and the rest were rak'd together and Captain Wilkinson one of the honestest Men then or now living was tempted and threatned at a more then ordinary rate to come in to back and credit their Testimony as was evidently made out by his Information which to his eternal honour he published before this prosecution an Abstract whereof I do hereunto subjoyn to evince the cursed practises of those dayes and to mind an ungratful Generation of the merit of that worthy upright Person It may also deserve Remark that the Treasonable discourses Sworn against his Lordship by these Varlets were fix'd by them to February and March before the Instructors of these Witnesses well remembring that that was a time when the Nation was in no small ferment upon the trifling with Parliaments for the introduceing Popery and Tyranry yet most of these Witnesses upon their examination were forced to acknowledge that they gave or rather sold their Informations after my Lord of Shaftesbury was committed in July upon a Warrant for high Treason which Secretary Jenkins who managed this whole Intrigue and the Witnesses thereof gloried that he had the honour to sign I shall here take occasion to declare what I have long believed that the amusing us in England with the Irish Popish Plot did proceed from the depth of the Jesuits Counsels with design to trip up the Heels of their execrable Plot here that they sent us these wretches on that very errand I do also think that the Conspirators then at Whitehall did in the management of this Intrigue over-reach this great and wise Lord the Earl of Shaftesbury and that his zeal to extirpate Popery in both the Kingdoms disposed him to be too credulous in that matter of the Irish Plot at least as to the honesty of the Witnesses thereof But what Man endued with the least grain of Honesty and Sense could ever credit the Evidence against this Noble Peer after the reading Mr Colledge's Tryal and the Information of worthy Captain Wilkinson about this very affair As to the Paper found in the Earl's House and upon which so great stress was laid I shall here note that at this time it was notoriously known even in every Coffee-House that an Association and very probably this now given in evidence had been resolved upon and read in Parliament and the Fore-man of the Grand-Jury who was a Member well knowing that the Plot-Secretary was then of the House of Commons examined him strictly about it but he appeared very reserved and cautions in his answers and could not at first remember that he had heard of the Association but as Town-talk but being closely followed with Questions by the worthy Fore-man he very unwillingly went a little further saying That to the best of his remembrance he was not present in the House at the Reading the Association though 't is notoriously known that he did there make Speeches against it To evince that the project of an Association was no new thing I cannot hinder my self from a small digression to shew that one of this formal Secretary's Confidents Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer had published the news of this Association near two Years before this prosecution it is in his Intelligence of December the 9th 1679 in these Words A form of an Association is preparing for People to subscribe for the defence of the King 's sacred Person the present Established Form of Government and the Protestant Religion paralel to that in Queen Elizabeth's time which was afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament This seems to take its Rise from the Resolve of the late Parliament This very Advertisement may be well supposed to put such as were curious to know the transactions of that time to get a sight of the Association so notified to be on foot and 't is very probable that by that means it might as news be handed to the Earl of Shaftesbury and so come to be thrown by amongst his old Papers however had not an upright understanding English Jury interposed it had as certainly destroyed the Honour Estate and Life of this never to be forgotten Noble Lord as the Westminster Carpenter in disguise with his little Presbyterian Band and his eleven Brethren did destroy the brave Colonel Sydney upon the evidence of old loose Papers found in his House enforced with a Maxim in three cramp Words Scribere est Agere as unintelligible in all probality to that pack'd Jury as was the Treatise of that great Man or as the Maxim it self is to learned Lawyers Well to conclude after much contrasting between the Jury and the Court whether the Jury might consider the credibility of the Witnesses which the Chief Justice denyed and Mr Papillon with much tugging having gained a great point of the Court viz. That they were within the compass of their own Vnderstanding and Consciences to give their Judgment Which is in truth no more than the giving them leave to see with their own Eyes hear with their own Ears and judge by their own
unfortunate in his private Concerns yet he was not blemished in his Credit That Baines then told him if he would not go to Whitehall the Marshal had a Habeas Corpus to carry him and so they parted That about four in the afternoon the Marshal came with Booth and Baines and compelled him to go to Whitehall That there Secretary Jenkins and my Lord Conway did strictly examine him about the Lord of Shaftesbury and what he knew of any design against the King who told them he knew nothing That the King then came and honoured the Infornant by saying that he knew him well and that he had served his Father and him faithfully and he hoped he would not decline his Obedience to which the Informant answering that he deserved not to be suspected the King told him that he had not had an opportunity to serve his Friends but hoped he might and promised to consider the Informants Sufferings but told him that what kindness was intended him was not with a design to invite him to speak a word but truth it self and then demanded what he knew of a design against his Person and Government that he thereupon told the King that he knew nothing of any Plot or Design against his Majesty or Goverment that the King seemed not to be satisfied but still pressed hard upon him and he not being able to give any satisfactory answer to the questions put to him by the King his Majesty told him if he would say as he hoped to be saved he knew nothing of any design against his Person he would believe him which the Informant did say in those very words at which the King seemed to wonder That then he was left to Secretary Jenkins who used such Arguments as he thought fit And then he was carried into another Room before the King the Lord Chancellour Lord Hallifax and Lord Hide the two Secretaries and Chief Justice Pemberton and Examined there Graham Burton and Baines being present That the Chancellour was sharp upon him with several Questions which the Informant could not answer and would not believe but that he must be guilty of knowing great things against the Lord Shaftesbury That thereupon the Informant told him if they would not take his Word he would declare his Knowledge upon Oath if they brought the Lord Shaftesbury to Tryal and that without any hopes of Gain or Advancement upon which the Chancellour told him there were two sorts of Advancement and he need not give himself that trouble for he himself was like to come to Tryal before the Lord Shaftesbury That then the Chancellour demanded of the Informant whether he had not a Commission for the new Service against the King which being denyed he told the Informant that he was to have a Troop of Fifty Men and that Booth who stood by gave that Information and was Listed under him which Booth affirmed 〈…〉 true and that he had made Oath of it that the Informant knowing his Innocence was unconcerned and told the Council if they had such another Witness they might do his Business The Information of Gervas James Gentleman THat Captain Wilkinson upon the 11 th of October 1681. and daily afterwards acquainted him with the Treaties and Transactions between him and Bains Booth and Graham and the other persons mentioned in the fore-going Information and that they were in substance the same with what is therein set forth the Informant at Captain VVilkinson's request and for his own satisfaction having kept a daily journal during the said Treaties The Information of Mrs Susannah Wilkinson Wife of Captain Wilkinson THat upon the 12th of October 1681 she found her Husband at VVeaver's House with Booth and Baines who were very largely treating him with Wine That her Husband stepping out Booth told her that he was a most obstinate man and desired her to perswade him to be guided by him and said the King would do more for her Husband then ever the Ld. of Shaftesbury would and was sensible of his Service and Sufferings And if her Husband would be perswaded by him the said Booth to appear against the Ld. of Shaftesbury he should have 500 l. per annum settled upon him and his Heirs forever That upon the 14th of October 1681 she being with her Husband at the King's Bench-Prison Booth came and desired her for God's sake to perswade her Husband to be ruled by him and that if he would he might be a happy man and the Duke of York would settle 500 l. a Year in Ireland upon him and his Heirs Having in the fore-going Abstract shown what mighty Temptations honest Captain VVilkinson withstood I shall now intimate something of the manner how the Irish VVitnesses were corrupted and wrought upon to Swear against my Lord of Shaftesbury Mr Robert Boulter of London Stationer and Mary Cox of Stoke-Newington in Middlesix Spinster upon the 8 th of July 1681. gave Information in writing upon Oath before Sr John Fredrick a Justice of the Peace for London That upon the 7 th of June 1681. Bernard Dennis told them that David Fitz. Gerald had made him great proffers to retract his Evidence about the Popish Plot. Bryan Haynes made Oath before the Council the 5 th of October 1681. that David Fitz. Gerald one of the King's Evidence about the end of last February told him that he had possessed the King that the late Plot was a Presbyterian Plot and invented by the Earl of Shaftesbury to extirpate the Family of the Stewarts and turn England into a Common-wealth or set the Crown upon the Earl's Head. That Fitz. Gerald did diverse times tamper with the Deponent to retract his Evidence concerning the Popish Plot and that Fitz. Gerald told him that he wanted but John Macnamar to come in and joyn with him and he would have the Earl of Shaftesbury's Head off and Sham the whole Popish Plot. This Information of Bryan Haynes is still extant and certified to the World by Mr Blathwayte then one of the Clerks of the Council in these Words A true Copy of a Paper remaining at the Council Board attested in pursuance of an Order in Council dated the 5 th of October 1681. William Blathwaite Now Is it not a most astonishing thing and not to be believed in the next Age that the King's Council should without blushing produce these very Men Dennis Haynes Macnamar c. as Witnesses against this Noble Lord and that Mr Secretary Jenkins and Mr Blathwaite and Mr Gwin Clerks of the Council could stand in the Court and hear them give their Evidence without Exclamation But they may say as the Poet hath it Aetas Parentum peior Avis Nos tandem protulit Progeniem Vitiosorem Notes upon the Tryal of Mr Stephen Colledge at Oxford upon an Indictment for High Treason the 17 th of August 1681. THe Conspirators having been disappointed of many 〈◊〉 hopeful Plot and to this time not getting one to bear They now resolve to content
Justice he hath endeavoured to take off the credit of our Witnesses and he would have you believe that he is a very good Protestant though he does the Papists work I think it a great piece of arrogance for him to take upon him the Title of a Protestant when he hath abused that title by such unsuitable Practices I cannot but reflect upon the condition of this Man whose onely hope is that you should now forget your selves and become as ill as he is But as that cannot be presumed so I shall not need to say any more to you After the making of very long Speeches to the Jury by Sr George Jeffryes and also by the Lord Chief Justice North to the same effect with the Solicitor's The Prisoner minded the Lord Chief Justice that he had omitted to mind the Jury of several material things evidenced for him but his Lordship answered That he had repeated to them as much as he could remember And so the Jury having been for a short time sent out and returning it being about three in the Morning they brought in the Prisoner Guilty The Lord Chief Justice North coming to pronounce Sentence said I think the Court were all very well satisfied with the Verdict and the Jury did according to Justice and Right I thought it was a Case that as you made your own defence small proof would serve the turn to make any one believe you Guilty and so he was sentenced to dye as a Traytor At the place of Execution upon the 31st of August 1681. he behaved himself with great Courage and Constancy and expressed himself to this effect He professed in the presence of the Living God That he was so far from being Guilty of those Treasons falsly sworn against him by the wretched and mercenary Men Dugdale Turbervile Smyth and Haynes that he never spoke so much as one single word of those Treasons to them or either of them or ever heard them spoke till sworn in the Court. He declared that Haynes had discovered to him that the Parliament was to be destroyed at Oxford and that Fitz. Gerald and his party had a design to murder the Earl of Shaftesbury and that they did endeavour to bring Macnamar over and said that then it would be well with them And they would not be long before they had Shaftesbury's Life That as for what Arms he and others had they were for their own defence in case the Papists should make any attempt by way of Massacre He took it upon his Death that he was never engaged in any manner of Plot or Conspiracy against the King the Laws or Government or knew of any except that of the Papists That if it had been true that he was to have seized the King he knew not of so much as one single Person that was or would have stood by him in that attempt That Masters was unjust in what he swore in omitting the material part of the discourse about the Parliament of 1640 for when Masters cursed them and the last Westminster-Parliament and charged the Parliament of 1640 with beginning the War and cutting off the King's Head he denyed both and told Masters that the Papists begun that War and that the death of the King was the fatal consequence of it That Sr William Jennings also did him wrong for his words were that he had lost the first Blood for the Parliament and wish'd it might be the last That he was reported to be a Papist but he declared he detested Popery and that he had lived and dyed a Protestant That Secretary Jenkins my Lord Killingworth and Mr Seymour when they committed him did interrogate him to many things that he should be privy to against the King Mr Sevmour saying that Colledge did know the Lord of Shaftesbury the Lord Howard and Mr Ferguson were also engaged but that he answered were it to save his Life he could not accuse a Man of them nor any other Person whatsoever That upon the 23d of August the Messenger who brought him the message of his Death told him he might save his Life if he would confess who was the Cause of his coming to Oxford and upon what account And that he answered him that he came voluntarily of himself rode his own Horse spent his own Money and neither was invited nor had dependency on any Person whatsoever and had only one Case of Pistols and a Sword and that had the Papists offered to have destroyed the Parliament as was sworn they would that he was there to have lived and dyed with them That when he had said this to the Messenger though the very truth he found it was not that he wanted and so left him with a Curse He concluded I dye by the Hands of the Enemies of the great God his Christ his Servants his Gospel my Country to which I willingly submit and earnestly pray mine may be the last Protestants Blood that murdering Church of Rome may shed in Christendom And that my Death may be a far greater Blow to their Bloody Cause than I either have or could have been by my Life The Lord God Almighty save England from Popery and Slavery bless the City of London and unite all good Protestants in the Nation Amen Amen Notes upon the Tryal of Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer William Paine Brother of the famous Nevil Paine and John Farwell upon the 20 th of June 1682. before the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton upon an Information for Writing and Publishing Libels importing that Sr Edmundbury Godfry Murdered himself THe Conspirators from the very first discovery resolved that the Popish Plot should be turned to a Presbyterian Plot pursuant thereto the credit of the Evidence especially from the time of the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament in the beginning of the year 1681. had been with matchless Impudence and Virulence traduced and run down by the scriblings of L'Estrange and of Heraclitus ridens and the Intelligences of this Thompson now before us so that by this time a multitude were infected with the poison of their Works and seduced into a belief that the Popish Plot was a Sham nothing but a thing raised by the Protestants against the Papists however it still remained upon them to wipe off the Blood of that Martyr the worthy Sr Edmundbury Godfry which was more then One Thousand Witnesses against them and now they judging matters to be ripened for it with effronted fore-Heads set to the Work as will appear by what follows The Information against these notorious Criminals Thompson Paine and Farwell was to this effect That they well knowing that Green Berry and Hill were Convicted Attainted and Exâ—…uted for the Murther of Sr Edmundbury Godfry and that Prance Bedloe Brown Curtis Skillarne and Cambridge were Witnesses for the King against them and that by the Coroners Inquest taken upon view of the Body it was found that he was Strangled and Choaked they to subvert and elude the due course of
Law and to defame the Justice of the Kingdom and to render as well the Witnesses as the Coroner contemptible and to deter others from detecting the Designs of Papists and to induce a belief that Green Berry and Hill were unjustly Executed and that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Felo de se they did most impiously Compose and cause to be Printed and Published two false Scandalous and Defamatory Libels entituled Letters to Mr Miles Prance and three other Scandalous Libels called the Loyal Protestant and true Domestick Intelligence and did by these Libels suggest that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Felo de se and did reflect on every of the said Witnesses as if they had contradicted themselves and Insinuate that the Coroner's-Jury did at first declare that he was Felo de se and that the Coroner used much Art and Skill to procure their Verdict to the contrary The Jury which tryed this Cause were Peter Houblon John Ellis William Barret Joshua Brooks Gervas Byfeild Jonathan Lee George Widdows William Sambrooke William Jacomb John Delinee Samuel Bayly and Samuel Howard The Counsel for the King were Mr Serjeant Maynard Mr Solicitor General Sr Francis Winnington Mr Williams Mr Thompson Mr Saunders and Mr Gooding Council for Paine Mr Yalden for Thompson Mr Osborne for Farwell Mr Thompson having opened the Indictment Mr Serjeant Maynard spoke to the Crime and declared it to be as impudent a thing as ever was done in that it scandalized the publick Justice of the Nation undertook to vindicate the Murtherers and to accuse the Proceedings of the Nation and then calling the Witnesses Sr John Nicholas Sr Philip Loyd and Mr Bridgman Clerks of the Council proved that the two Letters set forth in the Information were shewed to the Defendants at the Council and that Thompson owned the Printing both of them and that Farwell owned the carrying the first and Paine the carrying the second to Thompson After reading these Letters in Court Thompson's Intelligence of the 17 th of March 1681 was produced wherein it is contained as follows There is not in the said Letter meaning the said first Letter the least Item or Circumstance but what will be by undeniable Evidence made out to be Truth so that Mr Prance having not as yet vouchsafed an Answer to that Letter he will speedily receive a further Letter relating to that Murther wherein the further truth will be set forth and other Circumstances set out Another of those Intelligences of March 11 th 1681. given in Evidence ran thus Whereas Dick Janeway in this days Mercury promises an Answer to the late Letter to Mr Prance c. This is to give him and all the World notice that such an Answer is impatiently expected by the Author of that Letter who questions not but to prove every tittle of that Letter to the satisfaction of all Mankind and then it proceeds to challenge the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council to inspect the truth of that Letter and says That then the Fraud and Blindness put upon the World in Relation to the Murther of Sr Edmundbury Godfry will be manifestly proved A third of these Intelligences took a further step glorying in an imagined victory in this matter for it sayes Last Wednesday Nathaniel Thompson upon Summons appeared before the Lords of the Council about the Letters to Mr Prance concerning the death of Sr Edmunbury Godfry where he justified the matter and produced the Authors who are ready to prove by undeniable and sub stantial Witnesses c. that every tittle and jot a of these Letters are true And after adds Mr Thompson and the Gentlemen his Friends are to attend the next Wednesday at Council where they do not doubt but that honourable Board will put them into a Method to prove the whole or any particular which their Honours in their great Wisdom shall think convenient to be brought to the Test or Examination An honest English-man can never better express his admiration and detestation of the transcendent impudence of these vile Miscreants then in the Language of the late famous Baron of Wem upon another occasion with a small alteration of Words Good God! whither were we runing when many easie People were so strangely wrought upon by these Impostors and when the villainous and black Designs of some evil Instruments among us were so powerfully abetted and countenanced that they were arrived to this degree of assurance that they could beguile and delude not only some of the Shepherds of our Church of England with their silly innocent Flocks but even the King and his Privy-Council into the belief of so horrid a falshood and that at a time when not a hidden but a deeply contrived and detected Treason was carryed on amongst us for extirpating our Religion termed the Northern Heresie our Laws and Liberties The Conspirators had a fair Game of it whilst these Fellows were believed and they needed no other means to compleat their design I cannot but say my Blood does curdle and my Spirits are raised to see fellows so impudent as to brazen it out as these monstrous Villains do the blackness of their Souls the baseness of their Actions ought to be lookt upon with such horror and detestation as to think them unworthy any longer to tread upon the face of God's Earth But to return to the matter in hand from which I have digressed It being as aforesaid made out that the Defendants had published that what was testified against the Murderers of Sr Edmundbury Godfry was a lye Mr Saunders and Mr Gooding Counsel for Paine declared it was a rash and unadvised Act but not out of Malice and that he was sorry for what he had done and had offered to give any Satisfaction To whom the Lord Chief Justice replyed To me he said he would make it out by five hundred Witnesses they would make it as plain as the day and Counsellor Thompson added since the last time that was appointed for the Tryal they have printed that they would prove it by sixty Witnesses and were very sorry it did not come on Mr Yalden Counsel for Thompson said that he thought his Client was unfortunately drawn into the business by Paine and Farwell who turn all upon him now Mr Osborne Counsel for Farwell said It was a foolish thing to do as he had done but that his Client said he had several Witnesses who being called it was manifest that Farwell designed to have even then raised a doubt whether Sr Edmundbury Godfry was murthered or not but it appeared that of the eleven or twelve Witnesses he called there was not one but was as much against him as could be for they did plainly evince it that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Killed and that by Strangling and so confirmed the evidence given against Green Berry and Hill. It being thus manifested that this was a cursed combination to affront the publick justice of the Nation and that done to the end to perswade the World there
was no Popish Plot. The Jury without stirring from the Bar found them all three guilty of the Information and the judgment was that Farwell and Thompson should stand in the Pillory in the Palace-Yard for one hour the last day of the Term and each of them pay 100 l. Fine and to be Imprisoned till paid and that Paine should only pay 100 l. Fine and be imprisoned till paid Upon the 5th of July 1682. according to the judgment Thompson and Farwell stood in the Pillory with this Writing over their Heads For Libelling the Justice of the Nation by making the World believe that Sr Edmundbury Godfry murdered himself Tho' this bold and daring Contrivance of these Champions for Holy Church was thus happily defeated and their own Counsel did not only declare that it was an unadvised undertaking but some of their own Gang began to say that the Devil owed them a sham yet no doubt of it the design was better laid then some imagined But what fence for ill luck They did confidently relie upon the Council-Board to cherish the undertaking and to instruct the prosecution thereof and nothing disappointed them there but an unlucky mistimeing the matter They also knew full well that the credit of Popery must be restored and that by suppressing the evidence of their Plot and that if one thing failed another would hit they remembred the Prophecy of one of the Guides of the hare-brain'd Toryes Heraclitus Ridens who fore-told soon after the election of Sr John Moore to be Lord Mayor that at or before 1683. they should have Juries for their turn and that then talking to the Whiggs about hanging that Author with great assurance told them They must come to 't and should come to 't so that all had been Cock-sure if they had tim'd it so as to have had it tryed before any one of the corrupt and murdering Juryes which that year of 1683. furnished for my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney and others Reflections upon the Tryal of Thomas Pilkington Esq and Samuel Shute Esq Sheriffs of London And of Ford Lord Grey Alderman Cornish Sr Thomas Player Slingesby Bethel Esq Mr Francis Jenks Mr John Deagle Mr Richard Freeman Mr Robert Key Mr John Wickham Mr Samuel Swinnock Mr John Jekyl and Mr R. Goodenough Vpon an Information for a pretended Riot at Guild-hall at the day for Election of Sheriffs being the 24th of June 1682. THe Conspirators having in the beginning of the Year 1681 delivered themselves from the danger of Parliaments They well knew that there then stood nothing in their way but the old fashioned abhorred way of Tryals by Juryes Therefore they must now to cut off all who stood in their way have Jury-Men as they had already Judges at their own Nomination and Devotion so In October 1681 Sr John Moore is made Lord Mayor of London than which to the discerning part of Mankind nothing was more portentous nor of worse Omen and the dire effects with that foreboded were quickly felt For now the Lord Mayor giving himself up intirely and implicitly â—o the dispose and conduct of Sr Leoline Jenkins all things went according to the Will of the Conspirators The great care now is how to get such Sheriffs as would furnish proper Juryes to serve the turn for securing this great point the Mayor is closely plyed by their little Engines in the City and directed to insist upon a pretended Prerogative to elect one of the Sheriffs This point being gained upon him they bethink themselves of a fit Man and incline to Sr Benjamin Newland but at length they pitch upon Mr North lately returned from Turkey Brother to the Lord Chief Justice North He readily embraces the Employment and before the day for election of Sheriffs was come a thing never before known he seals a Bond to the Court of Aldermen to hold Sheriff and the Gazette proclaims it to the World that the Lord May or had elected Dudley North Esq Sheriff of London The Conspirators and the Mayor having thus acted the matter by concert Midsummer-day the accustomed time for Election of Sheriffs being come the Mayor insists to have Mr North admitted as one of the Sheriffs and his Party put up Mr Box to be joyned with him But the Citizens withstood the Mayor's Usurpation upon their undoubted Rights and proceeded according to immemorial Custom to Elect their Sheriffs and fixed upon those well-deserving and eminent Citizens Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois who were chosen upon the view by a very great majority of Voices Hereupon to gain time for Consultation how to trick this Election the Accomplices of the Conspiracy demand a Poll that being yielded to them the Sheriffs went upon the takeing the Poll and it being far proceeded upon and it appearing that there were two to one of the Electors polled for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois the Mayor was sent with a Rabble in a Tumultuous manner to interrupt the finishing the Poll by Adjourning the Court. The Sheriffs Mr Pillington and Mr Shute well knowing the Managment of the Election to belong to them continued for some time to proceed in takeing the Poll and then adjourned to the Tuesday following The Conspirators call this a Riot as in truth it was of their own side and the Council at Whitehall commit the Sheriffs to the Tower and there lock them up till by an unlucky English Instrument called an Habeas Corpus the Tower Gates were forced open they nevertheless with undaunted resolution persisted to assert their own and the Citizens Rights and declared Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to be Elected Sheriffs Then it was proposed and consented to that a new Poll should be taken which being done it appeared that Mr North had 170 Voices Mr Box 1353. and Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois upwards of 2700. and they are a second time declared to be Elected Sheriffs Thereupon upon the 20 th of July divers eminent Citizens attended the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen and for themselves and on behalf of the rest of the Citizens demanded that they would cause Proclamation to be made for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to appear and seal Bonds according to Custom to take the Office of Sheriffs And at the same time they entered a Caveat to Mr Wagstaffe the Town-Clerk against the swearing and admitting Mr North and Mr Box Sheriffs However the Lord Mayor by the direction of Sr L. Jenkins and the influence of Saunders and of Jefferies both declared Enemies to the City Rights and at that time of Council with the Conspirators for the overthrow of their Antient Charters assumes the boldness to declare both Mr North and Mr Box Sheriffs and so ravishes from the Citizens the right to Elect either of the Sheriffs But Mr Box appearing to be endued with a better stock of Discretion than to undertake the Office upon that Title declined it Whereupon 't is resolved that Mr Rich shall be the Man and a Common-Hall being called a little before
them to safe retirements and so were clap'd into the Tower and afterwards in different wayes butchered It was resolved that my Lord Russell the Honour of his Age should be cut off in a seeming way of Justice and as he was a Person of inestimable value so the art used to destroy him was extraordinary in the first place The Conspirators to introduce a belief of his Lordship's guilt procure two Persons charged with Keeling's Plot to be convicted just before my Lord is brought to Tryal reserving other two of them of whose Conviction they more doubted to be tryed after his Lordship Then a well prepared Pannel of Jurors many of them train'd and disciplin'd under L'Estrange and some Inferiour Clergy-Men his Prostitutes was returned by Sr John Moore 's Sheriffs Matters being thus prepared He is brought upon his Tryal at the Old-Bayly upon Friday the 13th of July 1683 At the instant of entring upon it the Conspirators cut the Eaâ—l Essex's Throat in the Tower and to facilitate the dispatch of the Lord then at the Bar they immediately intimate by an express to the Old-Bayly that the Earl of Essex had murdered himself from hence a wicked and unquestionably a premeditated Inference is raised of the good Lord Rassell's guilt and by this diabolical contrivance the Blood of the Earl of Essex is made a main Evidence towards the Prisoner's Conviction that being accomplished upon the day ensuing the Verdict of his guilt is made an Argument to seduce and delude the Coroner's Inquest into a belief that the Earl of Essex had destroyed himself The Jury being called his Lordship was over-ruled in his Challenges of those of them who were not Freeholders though the learned in the Laws did and do say that he was entituled to those Challenges not of Grace but Right and the same was allowed to others by my Lord's Prosecutors at such Seasons when it would not disserve their turn thus the Estate Honour and Life of this Noble Lord are put into the Hands and Power of Tradesmen and Shop-keepers He being charged with an Indictment for high Treason the right of my Lord 's Challenging for want of Freehold was argued and insisted upon by his Council Mr Pollexfen Mr Holt and Mr Ward But was opposed by The Attorney General The Solicitor General Sr George Jeffryes and Mr North. And was over-ruled by the Judges upon the Bench who were The Lord Chief Justice Pemberton The Lord Chief Baron Justice Jones Justice Wyndham Justice Charleton Justice Levins Baron Streete and Justice Wythens Then the following Jury were sworn Jahn Martin William Rouse Gervas Seaton William Fashion Thomas Short George Tory Ano. William Butler James Pickering Thomas Ieve Hugh Noden Robert Brough and Thomas Oneby Then Mr North the King's Counsel opened the Indictment to this effect That the Prisoner stood charged with no less than conspiring the Death of the King and that in order to it he with other Traytors the second of November 1682 conspired to raise War against him and to Massacre his Subjects and to seize his Guards and Person The Attorney General being so hot upon this bloody pursuit that he had before positively refused to defer the Tryal till the Afternooon * 'T is probable that he might imagine that by the Afternoon the suspition of the Earl of Essex's Assassination might reach the Ears of the Jury as it did in a few hours many about the Town and then Mr Attorney had lost that which he made a mighty part of his Evidence and imposed upon the Court to go instantly upon it did now apply himself totis viribus to impress the Jury telling them that the Prisoner was one of the Council of State as he in a scornful way expressed himself to give forth directions for the general Rising that as had appeared was to be in the Kingdom That the Rising was of great concern and expence and must be managed by Persons of Interest Prudence and Secrecy That they consulted in October and November how to seize the Guards and at several meetings they received Messages from my Lord of Shaftesbury touching the Rising That this was the great Consult and moved all the Wheels That there were Vnderlings who were to manage the Assassination who were an inferiour Council of seven That there was a great Council of six who were the Prisoner the Earl of Essex whom he pretended he was sorry to name he having that Morning prevented the hand of Justice upon himself * Note this was spoken within an hour or two after the Earl's death before any Inquisition taken or it could possibly be known how he came by his death but right or wrong this Jury must now pass upon him and find him Felo de se to facilitate and justifie the Murder they are now to commit and four others That they debated how they should make the Rising Resolved that before they fell upon it they would have an exact account of the time Method of the Scotch Rising and thereupon Colonel Sidney sent Aaron Smyth on purpose to invite Scotch Commissioners to treat with these Noble Lords that pursuant to this just before the Plot broke out several came from Scotland to treat how to manage the Work They demanded at first 30000 l. then fell to 10000 l. and at last to 5000 l. but they not coming to their terms it broke off the Week the Plot was discovered He concluded that they should shew that all the Inferiour party still look'd upon these to be the Heads I shall not here trouble the Reader with the particulars of the Evidence given against this Noble Lord by the Lord Howard Colonel Romsey and Mr Shepheard nor offer at any Remarks thereupon much less to touch upon the many Hardships and great Injustice put upon his Lordship in this Prosecution in point of Law all that having been admirably well done by the Learned Pens of the right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns and of Mr Hawles of Lincolns Inn My purpose not only in extracting these Notes in my Lord Russell's Case but also in this whole Tract being only to present the World with some matters of History which they did not put down or remark upon and which indeed invited me to this work to gather together for publick use Abstracts and Remarks upon some memorable Tryals in the late unhappy Reigns upon which they never touched I shall therefore now proceed to represent something further of the carriage and exasperating Speeches of the King's Council c. against his Lordship The Solicitor General sum'd up the Evidence in this manner That the Prisoner stood Indicted for High Treason in conspiring the Death of the King That the Overt Act laid to prove that Conspiracy by is the assembling in Council to raise Arms against the King and to raise a Rebellion and that they had proved that by three Witnesses He then proceeded to state the substance of the Evidence which having done as
still believe that Popery was breaking in upon the Nation and that those who advance it will stop at nothing and declared his sorrow that so many Protestants gave their helping hand to it But he declared his hope that God would preserve the Protestant Religion and the Nation though he feared it would fall under very great Tryals and sharp Sufferings That the bare-fac'd Prophaneness and Impiety in the Nation gave Reason to fear the worst things that could befal a People He prayed God to prevent it and give those who shewed concern for the publick good and appear'd hearty for the Protestant Religion Grace to live so that they might not cast a reproach on that which they endeavoured to advance which he declared had often given him many sad thoughts As to his condition he said he had no repining in his Heart at it and did freely forgive all the World particularly those concerned in taking away his Life and conjured his Friends to think of no Revenge but to submit to the holy will of God. He declared as to his appearing in the business of the Bill of Exclusion that he thought the Nation in such danger of Popery and that the expectation of a Popish Successor put the King's Life in such danger that he saw no way so effectual to secure both as that Bill and that he thought his earnestness in that matter had no small influence in his present Sufferings As to his conspiring to seize the Guards the Crime for which he was condemned and which was made a constructive Treason to take away the King's Life to bring it within the Statute of Edward 3. His Lordship gave this account That he never was at Shepherd's but once and that there was no undertaking then of securing or seizing the Guards nor none appointed to view or examine them Some discourse there was about the feasableness of it and he heard it several times by accident in general discourse elsewhere but never consented to it as fit to be done That the Duke of Monmouth exclaimed against it and his Lordship said that he ever observed in him an abhorrence of all base things He thanked God that his part was sincere and well meant he observed that it was inferred that he was acquainted with the Heats and ill Designs of some great Men and did not discover them but that that was but misprision of Treason at most and so he dyed innocent of the Crime he stood condemned for and hoped that no body would imagine that so mean a thought could enter into him as to go about to save his Life by accusing others The part that some had acted lately of that kind had not been such as to invite him to love Life at such a rate He declared that he could not but think the sentence upon him very hard for nothing was sworn against him whether true or false but discourses about making some stirs That by a strange fetch the story of seizing the Guards was construed a design of killing the King and so he was cast in that He prayed God not to lay it to the charge of the King's Counsel the Judges Sheriffs or Jury That for the Witnesses he pittied and wished them well and should not reckon up the particulars wherein they wronged him but had rather their own Consciences should do that to which and the mercies of God he left them His Lordship added that from the time of chusing Sheriffs he concluded that the heat in that matter would produce something of this kind and that he was not much surprized to find it fall upon himself and wished that his Blood might satiate some Peoples Revenge He wished those Gentlemen of the Law who have great readiness in speaking would make more Conscience in the use of it and not run Men down by strains and fetches and impose on easie and willing Juryes to the ruin of innocent Men for to kill by forms and subtilties of Law is the worst sort of Murder He further wished that the rage of hot Men and the partiality of Juries might be stop'd with his Blood and said he should offer it up with more joy if he thought he should be the last to suffer in such a way He then concluded thus The Will of the Lord be done into whose Hands I commend my Spirit and trust that thou O most merciful Father hast forgiven me all my Transgressions The Sins of my Youth and all the Errors of my past Life and that thou wilt not lay my secret Sins to my Charge but wilt graciously support me during that small part of my Life now before me and assist me in my last Moments and not leave me then to be disordered by Fear or any other Temptation but make the light of thy Countenance to shine upon me For thou art my Sun and my Shield And as thou supportest me by thy Grace so I hope thou wilt hereafter crown me with Glory and receive me into the Fellowship of Angels and Saints in that blessed Inheritance purchased for me by my most merciful Redeemer who is I trust at thy Right hand preparing a place for me Into whose Hands I commend my Spirit Notes upon the Tryal of the honourable Algernon Sidney Esq upon an Indictment for conspiring the Death of the King and intending to raise a Rebellion Before the Lord Chief Justice Jeffrys Justice Wythens Justice Holloway and Justice Walcot at the King's-Bench upon the one and twentieth of November 1683. THis honourable Person Colonel Sidney having been long Imprisoned in the Tower without any prosecution brought his Habeas Corpus for the obtaining his liberty upon which being brought to the King's-Bench upon the 7th of November the Atturney General upon the sudden clapt an Indictment of Treason upon him to which he was instantly compelled to plead Upon the 21st of November he was brought to Tryal and this Jury pack'd by Graham and Burton was sworn upon him viz. John Aunger Carpenter Richard White William Lyn Laur. Wood Adam Andrews Emery Arguise Josiah Clerk George Glisby Nicolas Baxter Horse Rider William Reeves William Grove Cheesmonger John Burt. The King's Counsel were Sr Ro. Sawyer Attorney General Mr Finch Solicitor General Mr North Mr Dolben and Mr Jones The Indictment opened by Mr Dolben was to this effect That the Prisoner with others conspired the death of the King and to levy War in the Kingdom and sent one Aaron Smyth into Scotland to excite some to come from thence and to consult upon assistance to carry on those designs And that the Prisoner to perswade the People that it was lawful to raise Rebellion did cause a seditious Libel to be written containing expressions That the power is originally in the People c. Note the Indictment did not charge the Prisoner with publishing the Papers which was ever till now done when Libels have been made Criminal but their proof in this case would not come up to publishing Then the Attorney
Howard's Testimony is single As to the Consult he talks of What could six Men do Can my Lord Howard raise five Men by his credit By his Purse For my part I knew not where to raise five Men. That such Men as We are that have no Followers should undertake so vast a design is very unlikely And this great design thus carried on had neither Officers nor Souldiers no Place no Time no Money for it This is a pritty Cabal and a very deep maintaining of the Plot. Then the Prisoner called the Earl of Anglesey the Earl of Clare Capt Philip Howard Dr Burnet Mr Joseph Ducas Lord Paget and Mr Edward Howard who all testified that the Lord Howard had frequently with great asseverations and calling God to Witness affirmed that he knew of no Plot and that he was confident of Colonel Sidney's Innocence Mr Blake proved that my Lord Howard told him that he could not get his Pardon till he had past the drudgery of Swearing Mr Ducas Grace Tracy and Elizabeth Penwick proved that the Lord Howard came to the Colonel's House and being told that he was taken away to the Tower for the Plot He took God to witness he knew nothing of it and believed the Colonel did not and he then desired that the Colonel's Plate and Goods might be sent to his House to be secured Then Mr Wharton offered to imitate those Sheets of paper so that they should not know which was which but the Court did not regard it Now Mr Solicitor in his wonted luxuriant way of talking Men to Death falls upon the Prisoner and jumbles things thus together in his Address to the Jury Gentlemen We go about to prove the compassing and imagining the Death of the King by the Prisoner's consulting how to raise Armes and by plain matter in writing under his hand where he does affirm it is lawful to take away and destroy the King A strange Suggestion no way warranted by the reading the Papers and he then proceeds in the same way to insinuate many things against the Prisoner which no way affected nor reached him by the Evidence given He then comes to the Papers and sayes Compassing and imagining the Death of the King is the Act of the mind and when once there is an Overt Act that is a thing that manifests such intention Then the Law takes hold of it Now after this Evidence which the Reader will remember was only the Lord Howard's Swearing I think no Man will doubt whether it was in the heart of the Prisoner to destroy the King here is an avowed principle of Rebellion Establisht upon the strongest reason he has to back it Gentlemen speaking to the Carpenter and his Fellows most competent Judges of such a Book This with the other Evidence that has been given will be sufficient to prove his compassing the Death of the King This Book is another and more than two Witnesses against him you have heard one Witness prove it positively to you that he consulted to rise in Arms against the King and here is his own Book says it is lawful to rise in Arms if the King break his Trust and in effect he has said the King has broken his Trust therefore this will be a sufficient demonstration what the imagination of the Heart of this Man was that it was nothing but the Destruction of the King and of the Government Some Men may by passion be transported into such an offence in them it is less dangerous but it is this Gentleman's principle Gentlemen This is the more dangerons Conspiracy in this Man by how much the more it is rooted in him and how deep it is you hear when a Man shall write as his principle that it is lawful to depose Kings they breaking their Trust and that the Revolt of the whole Nation cannot be called Rebellion It will be a very sad * But late Experience refutes his Opinion and we now see 't is a very happy Case Case when People act this according to their Consciences and do all this for the good of the People as they would have it thought but this is the Principle of this Man We think We have plainly made it out that is was the Imagination of his heart to Destroy the King. Hereupon Colonel Sidney said My Lord We have had a long story I desire Mr Solicitor would not think it his Duty to take away Mens Lives any how My Lord Coke and Lord Hales were both of Opinion That the Overt Act of one Treason is not an Overt Act of another Hales saith Compassing by bare words is not an Overt Act Conspiring to levy VVar is no Overt Act. Then the Chief Justice concluded with a long Repetition of what he pretended had been given in Evidence and said that though some Judges had been of opinion that Words of themselves were not an Overt Act yet my Lord Hales nor my Lord Coke nor any other of the Sages of the Law ever questioned but that a Letter would be an Overt Act sufficient to prove a Man guilty of Treason for Scribere est Agere Gentlemen I must tell you that in Case there be but one Witness to prove a direct Treason and another to prove a circumstance that contributes to that Treason That will make two Witnesses to prove the Treason Here is a most trayterous Lybel if you believe that Colonel Sidney writ it No Man can doubt but it is a sufficient Evidence that he is guilty of Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King I must mind you that this Book contains all the Malice and Revenge and Treason that Mankind can be guilty of This is made use of by him to stir up the People to Rebellion yet by the way it was not so much as pretended that Colonel Sidney had published the Book or shown it to any Mortal So 't is not upon two but upon greater Evidence then two and twenty if you believe this Book was writ by him Next I must tell you upon I think a less Evidence the Lord Russel was Convicted and Executed An excellent Argument that having then tasted Noble Blood they must go on to drink their fill of it 't is to be lamented that such Miscreants have not been dismissed the World as the famous Scythian Queen Tomyris did the Persian Tyrant with a Satiate vos Sanguine quem sitistis Proditores Patriae et dedecus humani generis This Doctrine thus powerfully insinuated to the well disposed Jury a pack of meer Tools to eccho back the pleasure of the Judge procured a Guilty to be without difficulty brought in upon this Great and Noble Person It being hereupon demanded of him what he had to say why Judgment of Death should not be given against him He said that he had had no Tryal he was to be Tryed by his Country and he did not find his Country in the Jury that tryed him There were some of them that were not Freeholders and there is
having in his forementioned Paper mentioned the Opinion of King James the first delivered in his Speech to the Parliament in the Year 1603. I shall here to gratifie the Reader 's Curiosity transcribe a Paragraph or two of that Learned King's Speech viz. I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightful King and an usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for the satisfaction of his Desires unreasonable Appetites The righteous and just King doth on the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal Worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity That I am a Servant it is most true That as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body Then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him Wherefore I will never be ashamed to sonfess it my principal honour to be the great Servant of the Common-wealth To this I shall subjoyn a few Words to the same purpose out of that King's Speech to the Parliament in 1609 Every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And therefore a King governing in a settled Kingdom ceases to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to the Laws Notes upon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet at Guild-Hall London Before Sr George Jefferies Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench upon the 14 th day of February 1683. upon an Information to the effect following viz. THat there having been a Horrid Plot lately discovered the Defendant to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter to this effect viz. That the return of the Duke of Monmouth and his being received into Favour with the King had made a great alteration at Court and that those who before spoke indecently of him did now court and creep to him Yesterday being the last of the Term all the Prisoners in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were Bailed The Information against Mr Bavddon who Prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex for a Subornation was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged and the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great Applications are made to the King for the pardoning Mr Sidney The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men The Papists and high Tories are quite down in the Mouth Their Pride is abated and themselves and their Plot confounded but their Malice is not Asswaged It s generally said the Earl of Essex was Murdered The brave Lord Russel is afresh Lamented The Plot is lost here except you in the Country can find it out amongst the Addressers and Abhorrers And that he wrote in another Letter to this effect The King is never pleased but when the Duke of Monmouth is with him His Pardon was Sealed and delivered to him last Wednesday 't is said he will be restored to be Master of the Horse c. He treats all his old Friends with great Civility they are all satisfied with his Integrity and if God spare his Life doubt not but he will be an Instrument of much good to the King and Kingdom he said publickly that he knew my Lord Russel was as Loyal a Subject as any in England and that his Majesty believ'd the same now it would make you laugh to see how strangely our high Torys and Clergy are mortified their Countenances speak it Sr George is grown very humble It s said Mr Sidney is reprieved for forty days which bodes well And that in a third Letter he wrote thus The late change here in publick Affairs is so great and strange that we are like men in a Dream and fear we are not fit for so great a Mercy as the present Juncture seems to promise the Sham Protestant Plot is quite lost and confounded And that in a fourth Letter there are these expressions Contrary to all mens expectations a Warrant is signed for beheading Colonel Sidney at Tower-Hill next Fryday great endeavours have been used to obtain this Pardon but the contrary party have carried it which much dasheth our Hopes but God still governs The King's Counsel to prosecute this matter were The Recorder of London Mr Herbert quickly after made Lord Chief Justice Mr Jones Counsel for Sr S. Barnardiston were Mr Williams Mr Thompson and Mr Blackerby The Jury pick'd out to try this Cause were Thomas Vernon Knighted soon after the Service done in this Cause and then made Fore-man of a Jury to convict Dr Otes of Perjury Percival Gilburne one of the Jury upon the Guildhall Riot Edward Bovery William Withers senior A well qualified Jury-Man for this Cause James VVood Robert Masters A principal Witness against Colledge Samuel Newton Another of the Riot Jury George Toriano One of the Lord Russell's Jury Kenelm Smyth Thomas Goddard Thomas Amy and Richard Blackburne The Rocorder of London and Mr Herbert having aggravated the charge in the Information Mr Blaithwait Atterbury the Messenger and Nehemiah Osland Sr Samuel's Servant gave evidence of the writing those Letters and sending them by the Post for Sr Philip Skippon Mr Gael and Mr Cavel in Suffolk Then Mr Williams Counsel for Sr Samuel applied to the Jury to this effect That the question was Whether Sr Samuel were knowingly guilty of the Writing and publishing the four Letters That as to his publishing them he saw no evidence and he put it to the Court whether the sending them to the Post-House could amount to the publishing a Libel and he added to the Jury that he supposed they would not take it upon their Oaths that he was guilty of what he was there accused of many things being laid in the Information to inhanse the Crime of which there was no proof The Clamorous Chief Justice proceeding to dierct the Jury expressed himself to this effect That the Information took notice of a horrid Conspiracy lately hatcht for the destruction of the King and subversion of the Government and that the Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney who were ingaged in that damnable Conspiracy were convicted and executed That the Defendant being dissaffected and a man of ill Principles to disturb the Government did cause the four Letters to be writ and published That the Letters were Factious Seditious and Malitious and as base as the worst of mankind could have invented That it was a work of time and thought fixt in his
very Nature and shewed so much Venom as would make one think the whole mass of his Blood were corrupted Here is malice against the King malice against the Government malice against both Church and State malice against any man that bears any share in the Government indeed malice against all mankind that are not of the same perswasion with those bloody Miscreants Here is the sanctifying of Traytors justly executed Here is the Sainting of two horrid Conspirators the Lord Russell that blessed Martyr my Lord Russell that good man that excellent Protestant he is lamented and here is Mr Sidney Sainted and what an extraordinary man was he 't is a shame to think that such bloody Miscreants should be Sainted and lamented 'T is high time for all mankind that have any Christianity or sense of Heaven or Hell to bestir themselves to rid the Nation of such Caterpillars such monsters of Villany as these are These Letters tell you God would be sure to raise up Instruments but what Instruments do they mean Instruments of Rebellion and Faction and Sedition which they most falsly call his own Work. The question is whether the Defendant be guilty of writing these Venomous Malicious Seditious Factious Tumultuous Letters of which you have as full and plain proof as can be made And as to his publishing them can you think that he would write all this Malitious Stuff to put them in his Pocket but you have it sworn that the Defendant said they were sent to the Post-House Then the Jury immediately gave in their Verdict that the Defendant was Guilty of the Offence and Misdemeanor charged in the Indictment as no doubt they resolved to do before they heard one word of the matter The Judgment upon this Verdict was that the Defendant should pay 10000 l Fine and be Imprisoned till paid and to find Sureties for the good Behaviour for Life Accordingly he was committed for the Fine to the King's Bench and continued a Prisoner four or five years which satisfied not but Graham and Burton those Instruments of Rapine and Oppression broke in upon his Estate and besides the Waste and Destruction made they levyed to their own Use and the King 's about 6000 l. Notes upon the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong at the King's Bench the 14 th of June 1684. Before the Lord Chief Justice Jefferies Justice VVithens Justice Holloway and Justice VValcot SR Thomas Armstrong having been Out-lawed upon an Indictment of high Treason and betrayed and brought from Holland was Committed to New-gate upon the 10 th of June 1684. by the Warrant of Sidney Goldolphin Esq principal Secretary of State And upon the 14 th of June being brought to the King's Bench Bar Sr Robert Sawyer Attorney General moved the Court for an award of Execution upon the Outlawry Whereupon he was Arraigned on the Outlawry viz. that he had been Indicted of high Treason for conspiring against the King's Life and the Government That for not appearing to plead and try that Indictment he stood Outlawed and thereby Attainted of the Treason And it was demanded of him what he had to say why Execution should not be awarded against him Sr Thomas urged that he was beyond Sea at the time of the Outlawry and desired that he might be Tryed To which the Chief Justice answered We have nothing to do but to award Execution Sr Thomas desired that the Statute 6. Edward 6. might be read which gives the Person Outlawed for Treason a year to reverse it if he were beyond Sea and desired that Counsel might be assigned him The Chief Justice ordered the Statute to be read to which the Attorney General assented but said Sr Thomas would not find it to his purpose it was read to this effect That all process of Outlawry for Treason against Offenders being beyond the Seas shall be effectual in the Law but it provides that if the Party shall within a year yield himself to the Chief Justice and offer to traverse the Indictment he shall be received to traverse and being found not Guilty he shall be acquitted of the Outlawry and of all Penalties and Forfeitures by reason thereof Then the Attorney General said Sr Thomas now I suppose will shew he yielded himself to your Lordship and added that before he went out of England he might have rendred himself and been Tryed if he had pleased Sr Thomas Armstrong answered I have been a Prisoner the year is not yet out I now render my self and do conceive I am within the Benefit of the Statute and do desire it The Chief Justice replyed we are of another opinion we cannot take notice of it there is no doubt nor difficulty at all in the thing and applying to Richardson said Captain Richardson you shall have a rule for Execution on Friday next Then Sr Thomas offered to the Court that one in that place had the benefit of a Tryal offered him and that was it that he desired for he thanked God his Case was quite another then his That he knew his own Innocence And so did They too otherwise he had not been denyed a Tryal and desired to make it appear by a Tryal To this the Chief Justice answered that which you speak of was the Grace and Mercy of King who may if he please extend the same to you but we are satisfied that according to Law we must award Execution upon this Outlawry Thereupon Mrs Mathews Sr Thomas's Daughter said My Lord I hope you will not Murder my Father for which being Brow-beaten and checkt she added God Almighty's Judgments light upon you Then the Attorney General said that he would acquaint the Court with one thing in reference to what Sr Thomas had said That the King did indeed indulge Holloway so far as to offer him a Tryal and perhaps might have some reason for it but affirmed that the Prisoner deserved no sort of Indulgence or Mercy and then in effect went on to give Evidence against him saying that it appeared that after the disappointment to the meeting at the Rye by the New-market fire Sr Thomas was one of those who engaged to destroy the King by the way upon his hasty coming then to Town and affirmed that this did appear upon a full and clear Evidence and that when he was taken beyond Sea Letters of Communication with Foreign Ministers and other people were found about him The Chief Justice knowing a more expeditious way of murdering this Gentleman said he would not meddle with evidence telling the Attorney that that was not their business and no doubt they were both conscious that they had not evidence where with to convict him and said we have nothing more to do but to award Execution Sr Thomas still insisted that he was within the Statute that he was Out-lawed while he was beyond Sea and that the twelve Moneths not being past he ought to have the Law and demanded no more Thereupon the Bloody-Monster in a most insolent and
charged against them touching the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong Then Mrs Mathews Sr Thomas Armstrong's Daughter was called in and examined what she knew of the Prosecution against her Father And Sr Robert Sawyer then Attorney General being named by her as one of the Prosesecutors After she was with-drawn he was heard in his place to what was objected against him and then he withdrew and upon debate of the matter it was Resolved That Sr Robert Sawyer 's name be put into the Bill as one of the Prosecutors of Sr Thomas Armstrong Resolved That Sr Robert Sawyer be expelled the House for the same Saturday the 25th of January 1689. The House being acquainted that according to their Order Sr Francis Wâ—thens Sr Richard Holloway Mr Graham and Mr Burton attended at the Door thâ—y were severally called in and examined touching the Prosecution and Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong And also the Executors of the late Lord Jeffryes that were attending at the Door were likewise called in and asked what hey had to say why Reparation should not be made out of the Lord Jeffryes Estate to the said Sr Thomas Armstrong's Family No Persons appearing as Executors to the late Justice Walcot the House was acquainted that he dyed Intestate and had not left an Estate sufficient to pay his Debts After the Persons before-mentioned were heard and with-drawn Mr Blaney was called in who gave the House an Account of the Proceedings in the Court of King's-Bench upon the Awarding Execution against Sr Thomas Armstrong And then the House proceeded upon the Amendments made by the Committee to the Bill for annulling the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong And after having inserted the Name of Sr Robert Sawyer as a Prosecutor and resolved That the sum of five thousand Pounds should be paid by the Judges and Prosecutors to Sr Tho. Armstrong's Lady and Children as a Recompence of the Losses they had sustained by reason of his Attainder the Bill was recommitted upon the debate of the House to the same Committee Notes upon the Tryal between Sr William Pritchard Alderman of London and Thomas Papillon Esq. at Guildhall upon the 6th day of November 1684. before Sr George Jeffryes Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench THat Mr Papillon was second to none in his zealous and undaunted opposition to the wicked attempts of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Government is very well known and deserves to be for ever remembred with honour None out did him in a diligent and faithful discharge of his Trust in several Parliaments In the Year 1681 there appeared a Race of Men fond of Vassalage and Slavery to that degree that they made Addresses of Thanks to the King for breaking two Parliaments in the compass of three Months meerly upon the score of their steady Resolution to extirpate the Popish Plot and Popery One of these fawning Addresses with promise of venturing their Lives and Fortunes to maintain this Violation of the Constitution of the Government having been presented to the King by Sr William Pritchard Sr George Jefferies and others Mr Papillon in abhorrence of it promoted and personally prosecuted a Petition to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council praying that the Thanks of the City might be returned to Sr Robert Clayton Sr Thomas Player Alderman Pilkington and Alderman Love their worthy and well deserving Representatives in the Oxford Parliament and shewing That as matters then stood the Papists being animated in their Bloody designs by the hopes of a Popish Successor a Declaration to have frequent Parliaments could not attribute to the safety of the Kingdom and the composing the minds of Protestants but that it must be the sitting of a Parliament so as to search the Plot to the bottom to Prosecute the Conspirators and provide suitable Laws against the impending Evils and that nothing else could be effectual Further This Gentleman having in the same year 1681. greatly added to his guilt by baffling the Popish designs upon the Lives Liberties and Estates of all Protestants in the attempt upon the Earl of Shaftesbury He exerts himself in the year 1682. in the defence of the great and undoubted Right of the Citizens to chuse their own Sheriffs but now arbitrary Power being by the aid of ill Men become rampant and uncontroulable he must be sacrificed to their Revenge Mr Papillon having been duly elected one of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex he brought a Writ of Mandamus out of the Court of King's-Bench to command the Mayor Aldermen to swear him into the Office that being disobeyed he is advised by his Counsel that he is entitled to an Action at Law for the wrong done him he sends in a respectful way to the Mayor and Aldermen requesting them to give voluntary appearances to his Action that being refused he proceeds by a legal process to bring them to answer him at Law whereupon Sr William Pritchard being arrested by the Coroner of London to whom the King's Writ was directed and detained some hours upon his refusal to give an appearance to Mr Papillon's Action Sr William brings an Action against him for thus arresting him and demands 10000 l. damages wherein he committed a great over-sight for had he ask'd 100000 l. the usual damages given in that day he had not failed of it with the following Jury which tryed the Cause Bartholomew Ferryman an old Informer one of the Jury of the Guildhall Riot Thomas Blackmore One of Dr Otes's Jury and also of the Riot Jury Thomas Symonds William Whatton One of the Riot Jury John Greene Thomas Amy One of Sr S. Barnardiston's Jury Joseph Baggs Daniel Chandler John Reynolds John Allen. Joseph Caine and Will. Wythers junior Fathers own Son. Mr Mundy opened the Declaration to this effect That the Plantiff being Lord Mayor and to attend that Office in the diligent Government of the City The Defendant envying the happy Estate of the Plantiff and contriving unjustly to disturb him in the Execution of his Office did to vex him not having any probable Cause of Action against him maliciously prosecute the King 's Writ out of the Court of King's-Bench against him directed to the Coroner of London commanding him to take Sr William Pritchard at Mr Papillon 's suite in an Action of Trespass and did procure Mr John Brome The Coroner to arrest him and that he was detained in custody six hours To the disgrace and scandal of the Plantiff and of his Office Whereas in fact he had not any just Cause of Action against him to his damage 10000 l. Then the Attorney General told the Jury that the action was brought to vindicate the honour of the Chair from such Affronts as these which in no Age till our times of faction and confusion it ever met with and he said We shall shew you that there lay a further Malice in this case and that there was a design in it against the Government This design was laid to carry on the great
Sr John Peak Sr John Chapman Sr Sym. Lewis Sr John Mathews Sr Benj. Newland Sr William Dodson Sr John Buckworth Lt. Colonel John Steventon Thomas Cowden Edward Beaker John Wallis John Nicolls William Parker Henry Loads Peter Aylworth John Short Richard Aily Benj. Skut Humphrey Stroud William Carpenter Remarks upon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish at the Old-Bayly upon Munday the 19th of October 1685. Before the Lord Chief Justice Jones the Lord Chief Baron Justice Wythens Justice Levins Justice Streete Baron Gregory and Jenner the Recorder WHen the Reader remembers what part this Eminent and Worthy Citizen acted in the mighty Struglings between Christianity and Popery English Liberties and Tyranny he will not be surprised to see him overwheml'd when by the Aid of the worst of men the Banks of our Security were broken down and the Torrent of Popery and Arbitrary Power carried all before it That from the time of the discovery of the Popish Plot the Conspirators did with indefatigable Industry apply themselves to shift it off to the Protestants is most undoubtedly and beyond contradiction true This alarming the City and it being well known that the Lives Liberties Estates of English-men against Arbitrary Attempts upon them Lay in Tryals by Juryes The Citizens in the Year 1680 rouz'd out of the Lethargy in which they had long lain and bethink themselves how to secure substantial honest Juryes knowing that that could only be accomplished by proper Sheriffs They pitched upon and elected Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to serve in that Office By so doing and by a like Election of Mr Pilkington now deservedly Lord Mayor and Mr Shute in the succeeding Year 1681 the Popish design of murdering Protestants under colour of Law was Post-poned until the Ancient Right of Electing Sheriffs was ravish'd from the City in the year 1682. However the Conspirators impatient of delay made their attempt in the Sheriffalty of Mr Bethel Mr Cornish The Earl of Shaftesbury and divers others are now clapt up upon pretence of a Plot and an experiment is made upon Mr Stephen Colledge a Man of great Honesty and who wanted nothing but a Figure to make him every way valuable But these Sheriffs not furnishing a Jury to cut him off The Earl of Shaftesbury and the rest who were imprisoned are reserved for the next Sheriffalty When they hoped tho' as Heaven would have it without ground to get Sheriffs and by them Juryes for their purpose And the Conspirators being enraged at the disappointment and baffle put upon them by an honest City-Jury in the Case of Mr Colledge They hurry that poor man to Oxford and there by most unpresidented illegal Practices basely murder him Further it cannot be forgotten that the honest endeavour of these worthy Sheriffs Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to have the Sham-Plot of Fitz. Harris throughly searched into did greatly contribute to their future Sufferings The mentioning this Wretch forces a Remembrance of the Stratagems then used to present his discovery of the Authors of his Trayterous Libel and of the design for which it was framed That that matter might not be pryed into by the Magistrates of London he is removed from Newgate to a most close Confinement in the Tower Then he being Impeached in the Oxford Parliament in March 1680 to hinder the Examination of it there that Parliament is dissolved Quickly after he is tryed and condemned in the Court of Kings-Bench Then tho' a Papist he is left solely to the management of Dr H. of the Tower and without controversie was held to the last Moment of his Life under the hope and expectation of a Pardon if he would confess or to speak more properly say as he was directed But being deluded and his Mouth stop'd The Doctor in his Name emits to the World a Mock Confession inconsistent in it self and most notoriously void of truth but most wickedly contrived to render these Sheriffs and also those worthy Gentlemen Sr Robert Clayton an Alderman and Sr George Trâ—by Recorder of London infamous and odious to the highest degree and all this with design to create a belief of a Protestant Plot particularly the Doctor 's Paper charged the Sheriffs that they came to Pitz. Harris in Newgate with a Token from the Lord Howard which he knew to be true and told him nothing would save his Life but discovering the Popish Plot and gave him great encouragement from the Lord Howard that if he would declare that he believed so much of the Popish Plot as amounted to the introducing the Roman Catholicks or if he would find out any that would criminate the Queen or the Duke or make so much as a plausible story to confirm the Plot that the Parliament would restore him to his Father's estate with the profits thereof since his Majesty's Restoration How idle false groundles and villanous soever this Story was it highly irritated the Conspirators against these Gentlemen About this time God for the Scourge of the Nation had sent into the City that common Nusance to Mankind a Race of blind sensless Creatures who hardly deserved to be called Men and therefore took to themselves the Name of Tories These Animals seeming to delight in Fetters of Iron rather than Chains of Gold were the Champions for Arbitrary and Despotick Power They set themselves to betray the Rights and Liberties of the City and to bring all Free-born Englishmen to live at the Will of an Absolute Prince These by Addresses of Thanks for the Violation of the Laws and of Abhorrence of those who endeavoured to maintain them invited the Conspirators to attempt the overthrow of the Antient Priviledges and Government of London Nay their Solicitation Backt with assurance of a Surrender procured the bringing a Quo Warranto against the City Charters But the Wretches failing their Principals herein as they ever did in all things but Noisy Huzza's and a Committee of Aldermen and Commoners true English-Men being appointed to guard the City Franchises against the Quo Warranto Attack New Measures must be taken hereupon The Tories now perceiving that their Quo Warranto must pass the Formalities of Westminster-Hall witb bended Knees supplicate the aid of that Tool of State Secretary Jenkins He readily espouses them and having the Ascendant of Sr John Moor at this time most unluckily Lord Mayor directs him to constitute Mr North and Mr Rich Sheriffs of the City which he as obsequiously as daringly undertakes Many worthy Citizens whose names deserve eternal remembrance boldly withstood these Arbitrary Illegal Attempts Amongst them Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish were not the last and they felt with the first the rage of the Conspirators and their Adherents Their honest innocent and peacable appearing to Vote for the Election of Shâ—riffs in 1682. according to the undoubted right of the Citizens was termed a Riot and in Mr Cornish's Tryal now before us a Branch of the Plot. and most certainly is was the greatest Plot and Treason
in which these most deserving Gentlemen ever engaged themselves For this imaginary Riot they were with others brought to Tryal The Sheriffs made by Riot Force and Arms returned upon them some of the true Rioters for Jury-Men Others of them were made the Witnesses and so they were found guilty and most extravagantly Fined Mr Bethel after about two years Imprisonment for non-payment of the Fine against all Law and Reason imposed upon him Obtained his Liberty by payment of his Fine he having wisely observed that the Juries of that day did Kill as sure as Death every Man whom the Conspirators marked out to them and being thus at Liberty and also at leisure resolved for a time to take his leave of England as he did and so very happily lives at this day to be further servicable to this famous City and his Generation But Mr Cornish's Family and great Occasions having detained him within the reach of the Conspirators The wise disposer of all things now permits him to be made a Sacrifice to the Tories Rage They charge him with an Indictment of High Treason for Conspiring the death of King Charles the second and the raising a Rebellion The Jury sworn upon him were Thomas Rawlinson Thomas Langham Ambross Isted of Fleetstreet Thomas Pendelton John Grice Thomas Oneby of Aldermanbury William Clowdesly of Fishstreet of whom it is generally and very credibly reported that he was killed about three years after with a piece of Wood called the Cornish of an House upon the blowing up some Houses at the Fire at Paul's-VVharfe Richard Holford of Breadstreet-Hill Cheesemonger VVilliam Long-boat Stephen Colman of Leadenhall-street at the Corner of Limestreet Robert Clavel Book-seller in St Pauls Church-yard and VVilliam Long. The King's Council were The Attorney General The Solicitor General Mr North and Mr Phipps The Attorney General aggravated the matter charged in the Indictment thus Gentlemen of the Jury the Prisoner stands Indicted for Conspiring the death of the late King and for raising Rebellion and consenting to be assisting to the Rebellion then designed I need not tell you what part he acted when he was Sheriff that that was the ground-work of the Rebellion setting the Commonality against the Government of the City Hereupon Mr Cornish said that he was as Innocent as any Man in the Court and the Attorney ironically replyed So was my Lord Russel to his Death Mr Cornish do you remember that Then Colonel Romsey who to the certain knowledge of the Judges and King's Council had perjured himself in the Tryal of my Lord Russel testified that about October or November 1682. he went to Mr Shepherd's House to the Duke of Monmouth my Lord Russel Lord Gray Sr Thomas Armstrong and Mr Ferguson That they were just going away when he came That before they went Alderman Cornish was brought in by Shepherd and made his Excuse that he did not come sooner and said he could not stay with them That thereupon Mr Ferguson opened his Bosome and pull'd out a Paper and read it to him Mr Shepherd holding the Candle and after it was read he said he liked it well That he the said Romsey did not hear all the the Paper read but it was a Declaration to have been dispersed when the Rising was to have been That there were as he well remembred two points in it One was Liberty of Conscience and the other That all who would assist in the Insurrection that had any Lands of the King 's or Churches in the late War should have them restored Mr Goodenough who to capacitate him to be a Witness brought a Pardon for one Treason for which he had been Outlawed and stood awed with the guilt of another He testified that being with Alderman Cornish in the beginning of the year 1683. He said to him Now the Law won't defend us tho' we be never so innocent some other way is to be thought on and that upon this the Alderman said he wondered the City was so unready and the Country so ready That he thereupon told him that something was thought of to be done here but in the first place the Tower ought to be seized That the Alderman after a little pause said I will do what I can or what good I can That some time after the Alderman met him upon the Exchange and asked him how Affairs went which he understood to relatc to what they had discoursed and that he answered him Well But he acknowledged that he had other matters with him about the defence of the Riot Upon this mention of the Riot Justice Wythens reflected saying Mr. Cornish I tell you that was a branch of the Plot take that from me and quickly after he told him something as true viz Mr Cornish you have this Happiness that you will be Tryed by your Fellow Citizens of very good Quality and Understanding I must tell you On behalf of Alderman Cornish there appeared Sr VVilliam Turner Alderman Love Mr Jekil and Mr Gosfright who testified that the Prisoner had great aversion to Goodenough and did oppose his being made Vnder-Sheriff but the Chief Justice slighted their Evidence and Wythens said Mr Jekyl was in a Limb of the Plot one of the greatest of the Rioters Note a Person under the guilt of Treason is allowed for a good Witness but this Learned Judge seems to doubt in the Case of a Rioter Then Sr Thomas Lane testified that in my Lord Russel's Tryal Romsey swore that he did not hear the Declaration read it being done before he came Dr Calamy Mr Carlton Mr Cooke Mr Knap and Mr Smart then spoke to the Life Reputation and Loyalty of the Prisoner It deserves to be noted that after the Evidence given Mr Solicitor did here omit the drudgery which in all other Cases of this nature he underwent by a long florid Speech to impress the Jury in the matter here it sufficed that Judge Wythens had just before passed his word that this Jury was composed of Citizens of very good quality and understanding therefore they might be trusted well enough knowing what they had to do The Lord Chief Justice Jones who had in the whole proceeding of the Tryal discovered sufficient tartness sumed up the Evidence to the Jury Then The Jury being withdrawn the Prisoner informed the Court that he had omitted to call one material Witness whereupon the Jury being returned Mr Shepherd testified That Mr Cornish came into his House to speak with the Duke of Monmouth or some other person he could not positively after so many Years say whom and did not stay half a quarter of an Hour That Shepherd went up Staires and came out of the Room with him and that there was not one Word read or Paper seen while Mr Cornish was there That he was not look'd upon to be one of the Company But before he came Mr Ferguson had pull'd off his Shooe and took the Declaration out there and read it and Mr Cornish knew nothing of
viz. April the 13 th 1681. The virulent and envenom'd Pen of L'estrange was set to work upon it and to vilifie the Evidence of the Plot Parliaments nay the Protestant Religion it self Addresses with thanks for the violation of our Rights in the Dissolution and likewise abhorring Parliaments our Bulwark against Tyrany were obtained and most graciously received The Presenters thereof being usually honoured with Knighthood and rewarded with Perferment to places of Trust and Profit By this art the common Cry of a profligate party in every corner of England was Popery is better then Presbytery at least the Papists and Dissenters are equally dangerous if not all one 't is therefore more then time that a Colledge be hang'd against a Pickering And the Nation was almost put besides it self by the doleful Cry of Blood Blood Associations Conspiracies Rebellion Treason and what not that was frightful and terrible Rome it self could not possibly have ordered matters better for the service of Holy Church â—…e Protestant Religion is now mocked â—…rliaments derided the Witnesses of the Plot vilified and the belief of any other then a Presbyterian Plot vanishes This proceeding gave new life and heart to the Popish Conspirators and stroke no small damp upon their Prosecutors of the Witnesses some were bought off and others terrified from their Testimony of which I should recount Instances but that I have dwelt too long upon the fore-going Melancholy Contemplations To proceed therefore to the matter intended and from which I have too long digressed Dr Otes the first discoverer of the Popish Plot being no way shaken but bearing with most undaunted Courage and Constancy innumerable Reproaches and Slanders from the Pulpit and Press nay and from the Stage also Hell it self seemed to be engaged to discredit and batter down the belief of his Evidence Knox and Lane to blast his Reputation were employed to accuse him of an unusual but most hainous Wickedness that Plot not obtaining and matters being prepared for placing unmasked Popery upon the Throne he was condemned in One Hundred Thousand Pounds for words spoken of the Duke of York and thereupon secured against the desired season for the Conspirators taking their full revenge upon him Upon the 8 th of May 1685. he was brought to Tryal in the Kings-Bench Court upon an Indictment to the effect following viz. that Whitebread Ireland Fenwick Pickering and Grove five Jesuites were Indicted of high Treason for conspiring the Death of King Charles the second and that Ireland Pickering and Grove were Tryed December the 17 th 1678. And that the Defendant gave Evidence that there was a treasonable Consult at the White-Horse Tavern in the Strand the 24 th of April 1678. at which Whitebread Fenwick and Ireland and the Defendant were present and that they there came to a Resolution to Murder the King and that the Defendant carried the Resolution from Chamber to Chamber to be Signed by the Jesuites whereas in truth he was not present nor carried any such Resolution to be Signed and so committed wilful Perjury The Jury upon this Tryal were Sr William Dodson Sr Edmund Wiseman Richard Aley Thomas Fowles Thomas Blackmore Peter Pickering Robert Bedingfield Thomas Rawlinson Roger Reeves Ambrose Isted Henry Collyer and Richard Howard And the Tryal was managed against the Defendant by Mr Attorney General Mr Solicitor General The Recorder of London Mr North Mr Jones Mr Molley and Mr Hanses L'Estrang's Assistant and Brother Burgess in Parliament for Winchester both of them being chosen by the direction of Mr Bernard Howard a noted Papist Brother to Cardinal Howard In the first place Mr Foster one of Ireland's Jury swore what the Defendant evidenced at that Tryal viz. his being at the White-Horse Consult the 24 th of April 1678. Then the King's Counsel produced about twenty Jesuites and Students of St Omers these all testified that the Defendant came to St Omers in December 1677. and went not from thence until June 1678. Whosoever reads this Tryal cannot but observe some things worthy noting as First The rage of the Chief Justice and extraordinary zeal of the King's Counsel both against the Defendant and the belief of the Popish Plot of which more in its due place Secondly The Caresses and tender usage of these Jesuited Sparks both by the Court and Counsel their Evidence was received without the least Interruption not one cross thwarting or doubting question being put to any one of them nay there did not appear so much temper as to permit the Defendant to propose his questions to them which made him with undaunted Courage cry out That his defence was under a very great prejudice and that there was a turn to be served and therefore he was not admitted to ask the Witnesses questions And said I do verily believe That at this rate it is more safe for Papists to be Traytors than for any Protestant to discover a Popish Plot. Thirdly The harmony and uniformity of their Evidence which was so extraordinary that any indifferent Reader must judge that they were instructed by their Tutors before they came from St Omers and had oft conn'd their Lessons by the way for they did to admiration agree in swearing to particular days and to most minute and trivial things as to the day of playing at Nine-Pins of a Ball being stroke over a Wall and the like In the next place to insinuate that the Defendants Evidence was not always true and credited the King's Counsel produced the Earl of Castlemain and Sr George Wakeman who decreed that what he swore against them at their Tryals was false Here the Chief Justice observing the Defendants undauntedness said I wonder to see any one that has the face of a Man carry it at this rate when he hears such Evidence brought against him To which the Defendant reply'd very well I wonder Mr Atturney will offer to bring this Evidence Jefferyes whose Character with King Charles the second was that he had the Impudence of ten Carted Whores in a raving fit retorted such Impudence was never seen in any Christian Nation you are a shame to Mankind to which the Defendant's Reply was No my Lord I am neither a shame to my self nor to Mankind what I have sworn is true and I will seal it with my Blood if occasion be Ah Ah my Lord I know why all this is and so may the World but this will not do the work to make the Plot to be disbelieved things are not to be done by great Noises I will stand by the Truth The Defendant in his defence observed that the Indictment against him was six years after the pretended Perjury That the Witnesses against him were some of those who gave Evidence at the Tryal of the five Jesuites and tho' there were some fresh Witnesses that they did evidence the same thing that was then offered but the Testimony rejected tho' then and also at Langhorn's Tryal sixteen St Omer's youths were brought to falsifie his
Evidence He further observed very pertinently that Whitebread and Fenwick were present and heard the whole of the Evidence given by him upon the Tryal of Ireland that they were Tryed six Months after and in that time might have provided Witnesses to falsifie his Evidence they knowing what it was He urged that his Case was hard his Testimony having been received with credit And the Jury upon convicting the Jesuites being told by the Court That they had found an unexceptionable Verdict That all the Objections against the Evidence were then fully answered that there was nothing that the Prisoners had been wanting in to object which could be objected and that the thing was as clear as the Sun And that yet after six years he must be called to an account for Perjury in that Testimony of part of the Popish Plot with which the King and Kingdom four successive Parliaments all the Judges of the Land and three Juries were so well satisfied He further observed the several attempts to baffle his Testimony viz the Murther of Sr Edmundberry Godfrey who took his first Depositions and the contrivance of Payne Farewell and Thompson to make Sr Edmund Felo de se Then he produced these Witnesses viz. Cicilia Mayo who swore that she saw Dr Otes at Sr Richard Barker's House in Barbican the latter end of April or the beginning of May 1678 and that he came again thither within a few days and was frequently there That she remembred the time by a particular circumstance viz. her Master Sr Richard Barker's being sick all the Month of April All imaginable art was employed by the Chief Justice and the King's Counsel to perplex and confound this and all other the Witnesses for the Defendant by impertinent and puzling cross questions but she honestly and very boldly stood to it telling Jefferies that her Evidence was the Truth and nothing but the Truth to which he in a scoffing taunting way replyed Ay no doubt of it thou swearest nothing but the Truth She further added that the Defendant came in a disguise in a white Hat and coloured Clothes and went to Sr Richard's Ladies Sister Madam Thorold now in Wales who said to him Mr Otes I hear you are turned Jesuite and We can have no Society with you now That a Servant of Sr Richard's one Benjamine Turbet since dead law him at those times and told her that he was turn'd Jesuite That he Dyned with Dr Cocket and Madam Thorold both now in Wales and with her two Sons since dead and two Daughters now in Lincolnshire at Sr Richard Barker's House three or four days after his first coming to the House in the latter end of April John Butler Servant to Sr Richard witnessed that Dr Otes came to his Masters in disguise in the beginning of May before the Plot broke out hereupon Jefferies demanded how he could be able to swear to the precise time and vexed him with repeated questions the demand of reasons for his remembring the month tho by the way no such question was put to any one of the twenty St Omers Witnesses to which Butler answered that he was called to witness it about six or seven Months afterwards at Ireland's Tryal that he remembred the time by the token that in May Sr Richard was sick at Putney whether he went the latter end of April and stayed a fortnight The Solicitor General endeavoured to confound this Witness with abundance of Questions very little to the purpose and Jeffryes with little reason called his Evidence a wild Story without Reason Upon which the Defendant said Truly my Lord I do not find you were so strict in the examination of the St Omers Witnesses or bore half so hard upon them as you do upon my Witnesses Mrs Mayo being again and again interrogated and thwarted with apparent design to confound her did declare that she did see Dr Otes in May 1678. and that she spoke nothing there but as in the presence of the Lord Upon which Jeffryes said We are all of us in the presence of the Lord always and she retorted And shall answer before him for all that we have done and said all of us the proudest and the greatest here Philip Page swore that he could not remember the precise time but that Dr. Otes came to Sr Richard Barker's in a disguise when Sr Richard was sick at Putney whereupon the Defendant did well observe that the St Omers men did swear through-stitch but that his honest Witnesses were cautious it being so long ago Mr W. Walter a Minister swore that he met Mr Otes between St Martins Lane and Leicester-Fields in a strange disguise and that he did then observe the Elm-Trees in Leicester Fields budded forth as big as Hazel-Nuts so that by that token he reckoned it was between Lady-day and the latter end of April and that it was near a Year and a Quarter before the time when he was examined about this matter at the Tryal of the five Jesuits which was the 13th of June 1679. The Attorney-General called these Canting Witnesses that beat about the Bush and spoke of Uncertainties Then the Defendant proceeded in his defence and offered these Objections to the Validity of the Evidence brought against him 1. That a Papist in a Cause of Religion is not to be received and believed as a good Witness and this case did surely require Witnesses above all possible Objections against their Testimony But. Here Judge Wythens interposed saying Is not a Papist as good a Witness as a Dissenter Which was answer'd by citing Bulstrode's Reports part 2. 155. viz. A Popish Recusant is not to be admitted a Witness between party and party which was also my Lord Cok's opinion Wythens replyed May a Presbyterian be a good Witness Mr Otes and Holloway who had help'd the Blood-hounds to murder Stephen Colledge said Or would Mr Colledge have been a good Witness Mr Otes Most certainly by the rules of Law the Testimonies of these Persons ought not to have been offered in this Case to delude the People And it may be well observed here as it was lately in relation to the Popish Witnesses about the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales That the Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the Cause of their Enemy that it denyes credit to what they may testifie in the cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Encharist That is the general Conclusion of the Doctors of the Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in Articulo mortis constitutus accipisset Encharistiam repellitur a Testimonio Causae sui Inimici Objection 2. To the Testimony of the St Omers Witnesses was their education bred up in a Seminary against Law. To which Jeffryes answered Every Man that is bred a Dissenter is bredup against Law. Whereupon the Defendant saying My Lord I have not offered any Dissenter as an Evidence for me Jeffryes in a
for it and to accomplish it they incited him to withdraw and retire himself and produced a Note which he was to sign which follows in these words Being touched with a true Remorse of Conscience and hearty sorrow for the great e'l I did in coming in a VVitness against the Catholicks and there speaking things which I know in my Conscience to be very far from the Truth I think my self bound in duty both to God and man and for the safety of my own Soul to make a true declaration how I was drawn in to this wicked action But being very well satisfied that I shall create my self many powerful Enemies upon this account I have retired my self to a place of safety where I will with my own Hand discover the great wrong that hath been done the Catholicks and hope it may gain belief and likewise I protest before Almighty God that I have no motive to induce me to this Confession but a true Repentance for the Mischiefs I have done and hope God Almighty will forgive me And they promised him great Rewards to sign this Note To this Indictment they pleaded not Guilty The King's Counsel were Mr Serjeant Maynard Mr Attorney-General Solicitor-General Mr Belwood For Tasborough Mr Pollexfew Mr Scroggs Mr Thompson For Price Mr Saunders Mr Serjeant Maynard observed to the Jury that this practice was not new and minded them of what Reading and what Knox and Lane did and that this was the third Cause of that Kind and it went somewhat further then the two former for this was to be done in writing and subscribed by Dugdale to be produced upon occasion to defame all the Evidence the Witnesses being then called Dugdale testified that he had been long acquainted with Mrs Price and that before Harcourt's Tryal she desired him to be kind to Harcourt because he had been her Confessor and Mr Wright testified that he over-heard her make this request to Dugdale and that Dugdale upon their parting told him upon his enquiry what she said to him that it was to take off his Evidence against Harcourt Dugdale further testified that she treated with him for to retrct his Evidence and to be gone and to leave the Paper behind him to signifie the trouble in his mind for the wrong done in his Testimony To this he is invited by the promise of 1000 l. of a Pardon for Body and Soul and assurance of Security abroad That Dugdale acquainted my Lord of Shaftsbury Mr Hambden and Mr Charleton with this who advised him to get some Persons to be by when they further treated about this business which he did That Mrs Price told him that the Duke of York had a wise Council and contrived it so that if he would come over to them there would not a Papist more suffer that the Witnesses should in a short time be hanged * Note this of Hanging the Witnesses is the same Argument used by Knox in his tampering with Lane and Osborne and it evinces that by the common consent of the Conspirators some of the Witnesses were to be corrupted those who were temptation proof to be scandalized and hanged The Plot should be turned on the Protestants Popery should be established in half a Year That Mrs Price brought Mr Tasborough to him who told him that all that Mrs Price had proposed promised to him should be perform'd that he must sign the Paper be gone and give no more evidence and he should have protection pardon and security and That Tasborough transacted all this in the Duke of York 's Name Dr Chamberlain testified that he was in a Closet in Dugdale's Chamber and that Mrs Price came into the Chamber and he heard their Discourse and she told him that the Spanish Ambassadour was unwilling to treat with him because he must use an Interpreter which would be dangerous That she perswaded him to be gon and the Duke of York would protect him pardon him and give him 1000 l. and that then Dugdale said to her You know Mrs Price that I began not this Intrigue with you but you proposed it to me which she owned That upon Dugdale's demanding of her how the 1000 l. should be secured She said she would in a Weeks time bring a Person of quality who should secure it to him Mr Cleave who was in the Closet at the same time testified to the same effect with Dr Chamberlaine and added that Dugdale asked her when he should go to the Spanish Ambassadour and that Dugdale told her he well liked her offer of bringing a person of Quality to secure the 1000 l. and she then said you shall have the Duke of York's Protection and a Pardon not only for your Body but your Soul a large Proffer That Dugdale told her that his coming over to them and going away would signifie little there being Dr Otes and others to go on with the Evidence To which she answered We do not care so much for them for the Duke's Eye is only upon you Sr Robert Southwell Sr John Nicolas and Sr Thomas Doleman Clerks of the Council testified that Mrs Price being examined before the Council the 23 d of October and being demanded who fram'd the Paper for her set forth in the Indictment she said that she studied it and indicted it her self That Mr Tasborough being asked about the Paper spoke very cautiously that he did not positively say he had pressed Dugdale to sign it but told him unless he signed it he could not proceed to get any favour for him for that was to testifie him to be a Penitent Mr Crosse testified that Mrs Price spoke to Dugdale not to proceed further against Parson 's a Priest in the Gate-house than he had done The guilt of the Defendants being thus clearly made out and nothing material offered in their defence the Jury without stirring from the Bar found them both guilty of the Charge in the Indictment It might have been reasonably expected that the reiterated attempts to suborn the Witnesses of the Popish Plot would have irritated the Justice of the Nation to more severity upon these Offenders but 't is evident that the Plot did daily grow and gain ground even upon our Courts of Justice I shall here take occasion to observe what Fines had been formerly imposed upon Protestants for Offences very slight compared with this Mr Joseph Brown in the Term before the Popish Plot broke out in 1678. was adjudged to pay 1000 Marks fine to find Sureties for the good Behaviour for seven years and to have his name struck out of the Roll of Attornies and what was his Crime Why the Superscribing a Pacquet to the East-Indies wherein was only inclosed a very good Book called the Long Parliament Dissolved Benjamin Harris a Book-seller in the year 1680. adjudged to pay 500 l. Fine to stand in the Pillory and to be bound to the good Behaviour for three years and Chief Justice Scroggs would have had him Whipt
General thunders thus against him The Prisoner is indicted of the highest Crimes the conspiring the King's Death and the overthrow of the Monarchy There is no English-man but does believe that for several years a Design was laid and to that end secret Instructions were made use of and Libels spread to perswade the People that the King was introducing Arbitrary Power Ay so he was and so were his Judges and Council at Law that he subverted their Rights and Liberties c. a sad truth They endeavoured to make the World believe the King was a Papist So they did and his Dear and Royal Brother cleared up that Point soon after his Death And then there was a Design of an open Rising This Gentleman's Head and Heart was entire in this Service he was at this very time preparing a most Seditious and Trayterous Libel To perswade the People that it is Lawful nay that they have a Right to set aside their Prince in case it appears that he hath broken the Trust laid upon him by the People He uses great Reason in the Case That the Power of the Prince is Originally in the People and that the King's Power was derived from the People upon Trust most horrid Heresie and they might assume the Original Power they had conferred c. After this Harangue to pre-possess the Jury Mr West Col. Romsey and Keeling were called and told long Stories of Consultations Plots and Resolutions without offering one Word of Evidence against Colonel Sidney Then the Lord Howard told his long History of the Plot that being ended They gave in Evidence some scraps of a Manuscript found in the Colonel's Study and read three or four Paragraphs to the judicious Jury whereof I shall here give the Reader a touch When Pride had changed Nebuchadnezar into a Beast what should perswade the Assyrians not to drive him out amongst Beasts until God had restored unto him the Heart of a Man When Tarquin had turned the Legal Monarchy of Rome into a most abominable Tyranny Why should they not abolish it And when the Protestants of the Low-Countries were so grievously oppressed by the Power of Spain under the Proud Cruel and Savage Conduct of the Duke of Alva Why should they not make use of all the means that God hath put into their Hands for their Deliverance Let any Man who sees the present State of the Provinces that then united themselves judge whether it is better for them to be as they are or in the condition into which his Fury would have reduced them unless they had to please him renounced God and their Religion Our Author may say They ought to have suffered The King of Spain by their Resistance lost those Countries and that they ought not to have been Judges in their own Case To which I Answer That by resisting they laid the Foundation of many Churches that have produced multitudes of Men Eminent in Gifts and Graces and Established a most glorious and happy Common-Wealth that hath been since its first beginning the strongest Pillar of the Protestant Cause now in the World and a place of Refuge unto those who in all Parts of Europe have been oppressed for the Name of Christ Whereas otherwise they had Slavishly and I think I may say Wickedly as well as Foolishly suffered themselves to be Butchered they had left those Provinces under the Power of Anti-Christ where the Name of God is no otherwise known than to be Blasphemed If the King of Spain had desired to keep his Subjects He should have Governed them with more Justice and Mercy When contrary to all Laws both Humane and Divine He seeks to destroy those He ought to have preserved He can blame none but himself if they deliver themselves from his Tyranny And when the matter is brought to that That he must not Reign or they over whom he would Reign must perish the matter is easily decided As if the Question had been asked in the time of Nero or Domitian whether they should be left at Liberty to destroy the best part of the World as they endeavoured to do or it should be rescued by their Destruction And as for the Peoples being Judges in their own Case it is plain they ought to be the only Judges because it is their own and only concerns themselves The general Revolt of a Nation from its own Magistrates can never be called Rebellion The Papers being read Mr Solicitor doubting surely the Capacity of the intelligent Jury to judge of these Notions upon the first hearing said that no time was mis-spent to make things clear and that the Jury might have the Words read again if they had a mind to it and he repeated that offer to them but the Gentlemen better understanding the work of the day then the Treatise did not desire a repetition of the Words The Prisoner here said They have proved a Paper found in my Study of Domitian and Nero that is compassing the death of the King is it Whatever my Lord Howard is of whom I have enough to say by and by he is but one Witness and there ought to be two Witnesses to the same thing Let my Lord Howard reconcile what he has said now with what he said at my Lord Russell's Tryal if he pleases there he swore he said all he could and now he has got I know not how many things that never were spoken of there He hath accused himself of divers Treasons and is under the terror of punishment for them and would get his own Indempnity by destroying others He owes me a great sum of Money and when I should take the advantage of the forfeit of his Mortgage he finds a way to have me laid up in the Tower this is a point of great cunning at once to get his Pardon and save his Money He was desirous to go further and would have got my Servants to put my Plate and Goods into his hands He made affirmations in the presence of God that I was innocent in his opinion and he was confident of it I know in my Lord Russell's Case Dr Burnet testified something like this and when my Lord Howard came to answer it he said he was to face it out Now he did face it out bravely against God but was very timerous of Man I am to give an account of these Papers which they would piece and patch to my Lord Howard's discourse and by a strange kind of construction and imagination make to have relation to this PLOT as they call it I know of none They offer no proof but similitude of Hands Some years ago the Lady Car was indicted of Perjury and as evidence some Letters of hers were produced that were contrary to what she swore in Chancery and it was proved to be like her hand but Chief Justice Keeling directed the Jury that this was the smallest and least of proofs in Civil Causes but in Criminal it was none at all So that my Lord
neither Law nor President of any Man Tryed by a Jury in a County that were not Freeholders So he had had no Tryal at all and if so there could be no Judgment To this Jefferies replyed that he had had the Opinion of the Court in that matter and that they were unanimous in it And so they were in all murdering work at that day Colonel Sidney then said that there was nothing of Treason in the Words said to be written in the Papers if the nature of the thing were examined To which the Chief Justice retorted There is not a line in the Book scarce but what is Treason The Sentence being passed the Prisoner expressed himself in these Words Why then O Lord Sanctifie I beseech thee these my Sufferings unto me Sanctifie me through my Sufferings Sanctifie me through thy Truth Thy Word is Truth Impute not my Blood unto this Nation Impute it not unto the grand City through which I shall be led unto the place of Death Let not my Soul cry tho' it lies under the Altar make not Inquisition for my Blood or if innocent Blood must be expiated let thy Vengeance fall only upon the heads of those who knowingly and maliciously Persecute me for Righteousness sake Upon the 7th of December 1683. He was Beheaded upon Tower-Hill when he delivered to the Sheriffs Daniel Dashwood a paper the substance whereof is here presented to the Reader Men Brethren and Fathers Friends Country-men and Strangers We live in an Age that maketh Truth pass for Treason I dare not say any thing contrary to Truth and the * * Sheriff Daniel's c. Ears of those that are about me will probably be found too tender to hear it West Romsey and Keeling brought to prove the Plot said no more of me than that they did not know me The Lord Howard is too infamous by his Life and his many Perjuries not to be denyed or rather sworn by himseif to deserve mention and being a single Witness would be of no value though he had been of unblemished Credit or had not seen and confessed that the Crimes committed by him would be pardoned only for committing more This being laid aside the whole matter is reduced to the Papers said to be found in my Closet If I had been seen to write them the matter would not be much altered They plainly appear to relate unto a Treatise written long since in answer to Filmer's Book which is grounded upon wicked Principles equally pernicious to Magistrates and People If he might publish unto the World his Opinion that all Men are born under a necessity derived from the Laws of God and Nature to submit unto an absolute Kingly Government which could be restrained by no Law or Oath and that he that hath the Power hath the Right and the Persons and Estates of his Subjects must be indispensably subject to it I know not why I might not have published my opinion to the contrary without the breach of any Law. I might as freely as he publickly have declared my thoughts and the Reasons of my belief That Magistrates were set up for the good of Nations not Nations for the honour or glory of Magistrates That the Right and Power of Magistrates was that which the Laws of the Country made it to be That those Laws were to be observed and the Oaths taken by them having the force of a Contract between Magistrate and People could not be violated without danger of dissolving the whole Fabrick That few would be so gentle as to spare even the best Magistrates if by their destruction a wild Usurper could become God's Anointed This seems to agree with the Doctrines of the most Reverend Authors of all Times Nations and Religions The best and wisest of Kings have ever acknowledged it King James in his Speech to the Parliament Anno 1603 doth in the highest degree assert it The Scripture seems to declare it If the Writer nevertheless was mistaken No Man for such matters hath ever been referred to the Judgment of a Jury composed of Men utterly unable to comprehend them But there was little of this in my Case The extravagance of my Prosecutors goes higher The Treatise was never finished nor could be in many Years So much as is of it was written long since never reviewed nor shewn to any Man. Whatsoever is said of the expulsion of Tarquin The Insurrection of Nero The Slaughter of Caligula or Domitian c. is applied by Innuendo unto the King. They have not considered that if such Acts of State be not good no King in the World has any title nor can have any unless he could deduce his Pedigree from the eldest Son of Noah and shew that the Succession had still continued in the Eldest of the Eldest Line and been so deduced to him But I was long since told that I must dye or the Plot must dye Lest the means of destroying the best Protestants in England should fail the Bench must be filled with such as have been Blemishes to the Bar. None But such as these would have advised with the King's Councel of the means of bringing a man to death Suffered a Jury to be pack'd by the King's Solicitors and the Under-Sheriff Admit of Jury Men who are not Freeholders Receive such evidence as is above mentioned refuse a Copy of an Indictment or to suffer the Statute of 46 Edward 3. to be read that doth enact It should in no case be denied unto any Man upon any occasion whatsoever over-rule the most important points of Law without hearing And whereas the Statute 25 Edward 3. upon which they said I should be tryed doth reserve unto the Parliament all Constructions to be made in point of Treason They could assume unto themselves not only a power to make Constructions but such Constructions as neither agree with Law Reason or Common Sense By these means I am brought to this place The Lord forgive these Practices and avert the Evils that threaten the Nation from them The Lord sanctifie these my Sufferings unto me and tho' I fall as a Sacrifice unto Idols suffer not Idolatry to be established in this Land. Bless thy People and save them defend thy own Cause and defend those that defend it Stir up such as are saint direct those that are willing Confirm those that waver Give Wisdom and Integrity unto all Order all things so as may most redound to thy own Glory Grant that I may dye glorifying Thee for all thy Mercies and that at the last thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a Witness of thy Truth and even by the Confession of my Opposers for that old Câ—use in which I was from my Youth engaged and for which thou hast often and wonderfully declared thy Self Thus for Innuendo Treasons and by a barbarous prosecution fell this never to be forgotten Champion and Martyr for the English Liberties the honourable and valiant Colonel Algernon Sidney This great Man
inhumane manner concluded thus That you shall have by the Grace of God see that execution be done on Friday next according to Law. You shall have the full benefit of the Law. It may seem proper in this place to note to the Reader the reason why the Grace and Favour as termed by the Chief Justice and Attorney General of being admitted to Tryal was offered to Holloway upon the one and twentieth of April before and now denyed to Sr Thomas Armstrong which cannot be better done then by casting an Eye to the proceedings upon Holloway whereby it manifestly appears that that unhappy person had been wrought upon by the fear of Death and hope of Pardon to be very prodigal in his Confessions it being most evident that what he had declared was more then a thousand Witnesses against himself and that he had put down a multitude of Hear-says and Reports of others the truth whereof never did nor will appear Hereupon they who had before wheedled deluded him do now caress him Mr Attorney told him that at Law he was gone but if he had any thing to say to defend himself the King would not exclude him but extend his Mercy so far as to admit him to Tryal Upon which the Chief Justice said Mr Attorney it is exceeding well and told the Prisoner that the King was pleased to signifie his gratious Intention towards him in that he was contented to wave the Out-lawry and allow him to try the matter if he thought he could defend himself The Prisoner finding himself snared and that this Grace would serve him as it did all others that fell into their power at that time did only answer that he could not undertake to defend himself he having before thrown himself upon the King's mercy and confessed himself guilty of many things in the Indictment So he was sentenced and dyed without Mercy At the place of Execution Sr Thomas Armstrong deported himself with Courage becoming a great man and with the Seriousness and Piety suitable to a very good Christian Sheriff Daniel told him that he had leave to say what he pleased and should not be interrupted unless he upbraided the Government Sr Thomas thereupon told him that he should not say any thing by way of Speech but delivered him a Paper which he said contained his mind he then called for Dr Tennison who prayed with him and then he prayed himself In his Paper he thus expressed himself That he thanked Almighty God he found himself prepared for Death his thoughts set upon another World and weaned from this yet he could not but give so much of his little time as to answer some Calumnies and particularly what Mr Attorney accused him of at the Bar That he prayed to be allowed a Tryal for his Life according to the Laws of the Land and urged the Statute of Edw. 6. which was expresly for it but it signified nothing and he was with an extraordinary Roughness condemned and made a precedent tho' Holloway had it offered him and he could not but think all the world would conclude his case very different else why refused to him That Mr Attorney charged him for being one of those that was to kill the King He took God to witness that he never had a thought to take away the King's Life and that no man ever had the Impudence to propose so barbarous and base a thing to him and that he never was in any design to alter the Government That if he had been tryed he could have proved the Lord Howard's base Reflections upon him to be notoriously false He concluded that he had lived and now dyed of the Reformed Religion a Protestant in the Communion of the Church of England and he heartily wished he had lived more strictly up to the Religion he believed That he had found the great comfort of the Love and Mercy of God in and through his blessed Redeemer in whom he only trusted and verily hoped that he was going to partake of that fulness of Joy which is in his presence the hopes whereof infinitly pleased him He thanked God he had no repining but chearfully submitted to the punishment of his Sins He freely forgave all the World even those concerned in taking away his Life tho' he could not but think his Sentence very hard he being denyed the Laws of the Land. I shall here for the Readers more full Information in this matter subjoyn the Sence of our Present House of Commons of this Proceeding against Sr Thomas Armstrong and the Censure they have most justly passed upon it Martis 12. November 1689. A Petition of the Lady Armstrong and her Daughters was Read Whereupon a Committe was appointed to examine the matter and make their Report to the House Resolved That it be an Instruction to the Committee That they examine who were the Judges that gave the Sentence against Sr Thomas Armstrong and who were the Prosecutors of him and who had his Estate and how the Petitioner may have Reparation And also to examine what Proceedings were in order to a Writ of Error by him desired and how it came to be denyed and by whom And they are to make their Report with all convenient speed Martis 19. November 1689. Mr Chrisly reported from the Committee to whom the Petition of the Lady Armstrong and the Daughters of Sr Thomas Armstrong was referred An account of the whole Proceedings against him And that thereupon they had come to these Resolves 1. That Sr Thomas Armstrong's Plea ought to have been admitted according to the Statute of Edward 6. and that the Execution of him upon the Attainder by Outlawry was illegal and a Murder by pretence of Justice 2. That the Executors and Heirs of Sr Thomas Armstrong ought to have a Reparation of their Losses out of the Estates of those that were his Judges and Prosecutors 3. That a Writ of Error for the Reversal of a Judgment in Felony or Treason in the right of the Subject and ought to be granted at his desire and is not an Act of Grace or Favour which may be denyed or granted at Pleasure To all which Resolves the House agreed Resolved That leave be given to bring in a Bill to Reverse the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong and to make Reparation to his Widow and Children out of the Estates of the Judges and Prosecutors And the same to be without Fees. Munday the 20th of June 1689. Mr Chrisly reported from the Committee to whom the Bill for the annulling the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong was recommitted some Amendments to the Bill as also who were his Prosecutors also what Losses Sr Thomas Armstrong's Family had sustained by reason of the Attainder and thereupon it was Resolved That Sr Richard Holloway Sr Francis Wythens the Executors of the late Lord Jefferies and of the late Justice Walcot Mr Graham and Mr Burton do attend the House on Saturday morning next to answer to such matters as are
Plot against the Lives of the King and the Duke and for subversion of the Government The end of this business was to have had a commotion for the accomplishing their great Conspiracy but Parturiunt Montes For after this Tragical Out-cry their own Witnesses only proved that Mr Brome the Coroner went to my Lord Mayor and told him that he had a Writ against him at the suite of Mr Papillon and another at the Suite of Mr Dubois and prayed him that he would please to give an appearance and that upon his refusing to do it his Lordship went in his own Coach to the Coroner's House Mr Serjeant Maynard then offered to the Jury That my Lord Mayor if he mistake in his Office and doth not that which belongs to him to do he is as much subject to the process of the Law as any private Citizen That the question they were to try was Whether Mr Papillon had probable Cause of Action against the Mayor That the Case was thus Vpon the contest about the choice of Sheriffs the Judges of the Election certifie to the Mayor and Aldermen that Mr Papillon had most Suffrages thereupon he conceived himself rightly chosen and that surely gave him a probable cause to proceed upon it and if so no doubt he might well take the course he did here is no Arrest without legal Process nay their own Witnesses say there was an offer to take an appearance without an Arrest but that being refused the process of the Law was executed He had no other course to take but to bring his Action against the Mayor This course he took here is a great deal of stir made that a Coroner of London should Arrest my Lord Mayor he might do it lawfully doth this prove that this was malitiously done Have they proved any particular discontent and malice that was between them No the quite contrary appears did he Violently Arrest him That he might do and no offence in Law no but he did it not but only desired from time to time that he would give an appearence that would have put a Conclusion to this dispute Besides the Sheriffs having made a return of Mr Papillon's Election to the Aldermen they being of another opinion gave order that those who thought themselves agrieved should take their remedy at Law which has been pursued in the regular course the Law prescribes Here is a great noise of Damage and Disrepute and Disgrace and the Plaintiff has been pleased to reckon his own Damages at 10000 l. We say he has sustained no Damage The very Court of Aldermen and the Lord Mayor bidding them take their course at Law We sure shall not be punished for doing it Mr Williams then insisted that the Plaintiff's Action must fall if they shewed that it was not Malitious and that Mr Papillon had a probable cause to bring his Action Mr Ward then observed to the Jury that Mr Papillon had been greatly reflected upon That by way of Crimination against him there was a most unjust reflection as if he were privy to an intended Insurrection and Conspiracy against the King's Life and procured the Mayor to be Arrested to promote an Insurrection That this was only insinuated for Reflection sake and not one word of any such thing proved He then added that the Case before them depended upon this point Whether Mr Papillon had a reasonable cause or probable ground to bring an Action against Sr William Pritchard If so all that was desired was only an Appearance but that would not be given That the Jury had been told of the great dangers in the Case as to the Infringment of the Peace c. but had Sr William Pritchard complyed with the reasonable and oft repeated request of ordering an Appearence the Peace of the Kingdom had been in no peril from such a design as this Arrest Here the Chief Justice told Mr Ward a Person never esteemed to come short of Sr George Jefferies in any thing but Insolence and Impudence That he had made a long Speech and nothing at all to the purpose and that he did not understand what he was about and that made him ramble in his Discourse and did then in a raving and most impetuous manner repeat his expression six or seven times that Mr Ward did not understand the Business Mr Brome the Coroner being called to give an account of the manner of his Arresting my Lord Mayor testified That he had a former Writ in Hillary Term and went to my Lord Mayor and desired him that he would appear to it but he said he would give no Appearance That he gave his Lordship a week or ten days to consider of it and then waited upon him at the Court of Aldermen and had his answer that he had considered of it and would give no appearance That a little before Easter Term the Attorney brought him another VVrit and threatned to complain to the Court of him for neglecting the Execution of two of the King's VVrits That thereupon he went again to my Lord and told him that the VVrit was renewed and he was pressed to make a return and desired that his Lordship would please to give an Appearance and that he told him that he was ready to submit to the King 's Writ but would not give an Appearance and thereupon the Officers named in the Warrant Arrested him by his Command Then Mr Crisp the common Serjeant aiming at Alderman Cornish falls to interrogating Mr Brome who were present at the meeting when the Arresting the Mayor was agreed upon he having named two or three the Common Serjeant further pressed him to name others and then the Chief Justice explained the Common Serjeant's meaning by demanding whether Mr Cornish was there Alderman Cornish and Mr Serjeant testified That Mr Papillon and Mr Duboiâ— being at the Alderman's House their At orney came to them and told them that he had addressed himself from time to time to my Lord Mayor to get him to give an Appearance but he would not and that thereupon they told him it was fit the matter should be brought to an Issue and ordered him to get an Appearance if he could and to remember that the Lord Mayor was the Chief Magistrate of the City and that he should carry it with all imaginable respect and regard to him Here the Chief Justice and Attorney General made long and extravagant excursions running upon Alderman Cornish with abundance of Questions wholly foreign to the matter in Question and Jefferies told him that he had as much cause as any Man to remember the manner of his own being chosen Sheriff for several reasons that he knew A plâ—… Indication of what he designed against this honest Gentleman And then his Lordship added that he only asked things by the by to satisfie the World what sort of Men these are that pretend to Saintship and with his wonted blustering Impudence said Do you think the Government will ever suffer it self to be
snivelled at and overthrown by a Company of such Whining Fellows Do you think to sham People into Offices No I tell you Villany was the Foundation of it and Knavery the Superstructure Neither Bethel nor that very Fellow that stands there Cornish would have taken the Oaths and Sacrament till they found it would contribute to the design of subverting the Government then these Rascals could qualifie themselves for an Office only to put the Kingdom into a Flame Mr Gilbert Nelson then testified That upon the holdling up of the Hands at the Election of Sheriffs the 24 th of June 1682. there were upon the view most for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois and that upon the casting up the Poll Books there was the greatest number for Mr Papillon Mr Wightman added that in the Poll-Books there were 2400. and odd for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois Mr Leonard Robinson added that by the Hands the majority was much more for Mr P. and Mr D. than for the other two and the Sheriffs did so declare their opinion and a Poll being demanded and granted after it was closed in the Evening the Sheriffs declared the Numbers upon the Hustings Mr P. and Mr D. had above two thousand and Mr North and Mr Box some hundreds under two thousand Mr Baker testified that the Action was brought by the advice of Mr Wallop Mr Pollexfen and Mr Thompson Then the Chief Justice comes to sum up the Evidence and after a most tedious Introduction proceeds to discharge his Spleene thus Come Gentlemen it is best to be plain Tho' it is true a Man may lawfully sue for such an Office and it is no offence yet it looks somewhat extraordinary 't is for some strange purpose or other It is notoriously known that for several Years the Government has been beset and which is a baser thing than ever was thought of or acted in the highest times of Villany the very Methods of Justice have been corrupted and all to serve the main design of subverting the Government Gentlemen this is so black a Wickedness that no honest Man that has any sense of Loyalty Religion or common Justice but must tremble at the very thoughts of it When we see such Fellows as are common Reproaches to the Government shall get into Office to make Ignoramus Juryes When men begin to take Oathes to sanctifie Villany what shall we say And all this you all of you Gentlemen know to be true Was it not more safe to conspire the death of the King his Brother than to give the least frown upon one of these snivelling Saints Did not we know that Men were sanctified to be Jury-men that before were never thought fit to be trusted with the common Society of honest Men Mr Papillon knows all this to be true eminently When pack'd Jurys were grown to that heighth that when seven or eight Witnesses swore down-right Treason The Traytor could not by these Men so much as be accused by an Indictment To that stupidity in Villany were things brought by these Fellows So far were the proceedings in Courts of Justice tainted that cropp'd Hair and a demure Look were the best signs of a good Evidence Gentlemen There was not a pursuit of right in this case It was a designed piece of Villany on purpose to affront the Government nay to destroy it and if he were ten thousand times Mr Papillon I would tell him so It is plain Gentlemen that the design from the beginning to the end was to cause a tumult and confusion in the City in order to put that damned hellish Conspiracy for destroying the King and his Brother and every man that was honest and loyal in execution This Gentlemen is plain English We all know Mr Papillon to be a wealthy Man one that had rather have minded his Affairs than the expensive Office of Sheriff but that something was to be done to wreak a damned Malice and Revenge upon the Government This I tell him openly and let him and his party make their Remarks upon it as they please There was questionless a devilish Malice fixed in his heart and mind and he wanted an opportunity to effect it and he thought it best for his own security to take this course and nothing else was in it Alack-a-day as Mr Pilkington said I am for the preservation of the Liberties and Properties of the Subject but I find the City is strangely run down in their Rights and Priviledges I will rather take a troublesome Office than let all run thus and immediately sets himself a Cock-a-hoop as if there were none to take care of the City but himself He and Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish forsooth are the only Men of the times the Men Men for the Liberties of the Subject and the Rights of the City Gentlemen the Government is infinitely concerned in this Case that puts a weight upon your enquiry into the damages your severity in this Case will deter all People from entring into Clans and Cabals to affront the Government That I may not further nauseat the Reader with the foul Language venomous Malice of this Insolent arrogant and intolerable Slanderer I shall transcribe no more of his virulent discourse though he run on to a strange length at a most wicked and infamous rate of Falshoods and Defamations against the best Men of the City without any manner of colour for the truth of what he said The Jury thus directed found for the Plantiff and assessed Damages to 10000 l. The Chief Justice said Gentlemen you seem to be Persons that have some sense upon you and consideration for the Government and I think have given a good Verdict and are to be greatly commended for it By this extravagant and most unrighteous Verdict was this upright and Wise Citizen Mr Papillon drove into Exile till Heaven vouchsafed him with the Nation a most Miraculous and happy deliverance by the glorious Vndertaking of our now Soveraign then Prince of Orange That it may not be forgotten how this Plantiff Sr William Pritchard came to be Lord Mayor I shall subjoyn the Account of the Poll taken when he was brought on Sr Thomas Goold had 2257 Votes Alderman Cornish had 2227. Sr William Pritchard had but 2144. Sr Henry Tulse had 236. Being conscious that in the foregoing Account of the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot I forgot to intimate to the Reader that Lieutenant Colonel Quiney had a Warrant for what he did tho' he did not condescend to show it to such Men as Sr Robert Clayton and the other Aldermen upon whom he put the Indignity before mentioned to do him right and to shew that though he might act too headily 't was not upon his own Head I shall in this place insert the Names of those who ordered him and the Forces he then commanded to that Post They were The Lord Mayor Sr John Moore Sr George Waterman Sr James Edwards Sr Will. Pritchard Sr Hen. Tulse Sr James Smith
withal That they complained they were in Poverty They confessed they were tempted to come over to swear against Protestants and now the Lord knows they have closed with it and they begin with me There is never a Man that has sworn against me but has been sufficiently confuted by Persons of Integrity Honesty Men of Principles and Men of Religion such as make Conscience of what they say I have been Lover of the Church of England I never had a prejudice against any Man in the Church in my Life but such as have made it their business to promote the Interest of the Papists and such there are amongst them who divide the Protestants and allow none to be true Protestants but those that are within the Church of England established by Law I have been an hearty Man against the Papists and for Parliaments the Bulwark of our Liberty I have ever since the discovery of the Plot endeavoured with all my Heart and all my Power to come to the very bottom of it These Men that swear against me used to follow me and would say that they came to save our Lives and yet We let them want Bread and the Argument was so fair that I thought it unreasonable to see them starve The Prisoner afterwards speaking to the Judges said My Life and your Souls lie at stake to do me Justice My Witnesses have spoken materially to contradict what has been said against me to prove that this was done for Money and that every one of them have confessed they were hired to it and that they did it for a Livelyhood And Haynes said It was a good Trade Damn him he would do any thing for Money I need insist upon this no further The whole Nation is sensible what is doing and what this does signifie They have begun with me in order to the making of a Presbyterian Plot which they would carry on to stifle the Noise of the Popish Plot and this is not the first the second nor the tenth time that they have been at this Game how many Shams have they endeavoured to raise I only desire the Jury to take all into their serious consideration I expect a Storm of Thunder from the learned Counsel to fall upon me and I must defend my self without Counsel I know not whether it be the practise in any other Nation but certainly 't is hard measure that I being illiterate and ignorant in the Law must stand here all day They being many and taking all advantages against me and I a Single Person and not able to use one means or another either of writing or speaking Then applying to the Jury after a solemn Protestation of his Innocence said I beseech you be not frightned nor flattered you are to acquit me or condemn me and my Blood will be required at your Hands Now comes Mr Solicitor to bestow his Rhetorick upon the Prisoner saying Here has been a great deal of time spent and truly I think for no other Reason but to divert from the matter before you and that you might forget the Evidence and therefore to refresh your Memories I shall repeat it The Fact charged upon the Prisoner is a design to Kill the King the manifestation of that design is by preparing Armes to that purpose and by coming down to seize the King here the proof of it has been by Witnesses that I think by and by you will have no Objections against Then having recounted the Stories of the Witnesses he proceeds thus The Objection made to this proof by the Prisoner is That this is a Popish design to raise a new Plot and cast it upon the Protestants And that these Witnesses are now to deny all the Evidence they have given of the Popish Plot This is that he would perswade you to believe but I think it will be impossible for you to have such a Thought For what are the Evidence that have proved this Men of Credit that have been Evidences against the Popish Plotters Men that still stand to the Evidence they have given And yet forsooth these Men are going about to stifle this Plot. Gentlemen These are the Men the whole Nation has given Credit to My Lord Stafford dyed upon the Credit of these Men These are the Witnesses Gentlemen that this Man thinks ought to be blown off with that srivolous Objection that they are persons he would have you believe Who are guilty of a design to throw the Plot upon the Protestants Now Gentlemen If Colledge have all this while under the name of a Protestant acted the part of a Papist I may say he is not that good Protestant he pretends to be I must do him right and repeat the Evidence he hath given against our Witnesses Mr Hickman says he over-heard Haynes say it was his Trade to Swear and he must get Money by it Lun says that Haynes declared the same thing to him Whaley says that Haynes stole a Silver Tankard but he was never prosecuted for it I think the Nature of this Evidence hath not that weight as to take off the Credit of what this Man hath said upon his Oath especially being backt with the Evidence of Dugdale Smtyh and Turbervile whose credit has not been impeached Indeed Dr Otes is produced against them and he must vilifie their Credit whose Testimony at first of the Popish Plot received Credit by being seconded by these Men A thing much more monstrous was put in practice by the King's Council when they produced the very persons â—…om Dr Otes had charged with the Popish Plot to coâ—vict him of Perjury in the Evidence which he gave of their Plot. It is a strange thing that this Man comes now to vilifie the Testimony of those who have been Credited by the whole Kingdom This looks as if the Doctor were again returning to St Omers There are two Witnesses Bolron and Mowbray who testifie That Smyth would have suborned them to swear against Sr John Brookes But I think I need say no more to these Men but only to desire you to weigh their Credit They have I confess been evidence against several that have been accused of the Popish Plot but they have been so unfortunate that they were never yet believed though they have been sworn in their own Country Note This by the way was not true for at Summer Assizes at York in 1680 Thwyng was convicted of the Plot and afterwards executed and that upon the Testimony of these very men Bolron and Mowbray in their own Country Mr Solicitor then closes thus I think Gentlemen this is the substance of what has been offered against the King's Witnesses except that of Mr Everard who says something against Haynes that he should say he swore for self-preservation And against Mr Smyth he says that he heard him say he did not know of any Presbyterian Plot. By these things And by a great many others which had slip'd the Memory of the Solicitor and also of the Chief