the matter will permit And without any Jesustical Equivocations Shifts or mental Reservations This Trimmer I find is an honest foresighted Fellow he knows this sly Gray-bearded youth the Observator is much given to tell meer Tales and long ones season'd for Fools-Palates to make them to go merrily down with Jesustical Sawce Observ. Why then be it known to all men That Miles Prance Silver-Smith Screws and Nails-maker Sacrament-protester Old Dog Blasphemer and Evidence for the cutting of the Duke of York ' s Picture Thes shews you the Rhetorick of an Observator only as to the last words 't is fit to acquaint the Reader that some time after the grand insolence committed in cutting the Picture of His Royal Highness in Guild-Hall I being in company with several others there happened to come in one John Brooks formerly if not still a Papist who in discourse own'd and avow'd more than once That he cut the said Picture now I appeal to all the World what I could do less in respect of the Publick and His Royal Highness my Soveraigns Brother than to take notice of it that the matter on a fair legal Tryal might be further examined and discussed Accordingly I and another person present gave Information thereof viz. that such an one had to said and acknowledg'd and thereupon Brooks was bound over and I and the other person attended at Sessions to Evidence his Words and a third Witness present was ready to have deposed the Words if it had proceeded to a Tryal But when we desired an Indictment to be drawn could not procure it And so the matter was pass'd tho' the party accused did not as far as I could understand deny the Words but only pretended he was drunk when he spoke them Upon which whole matter whether I did any thing unbecoming a Loyal Subject tender of the honour of the Royal Family is left to Consideration Go on Did in February 1679 accuse Mr. Richard Fincham of being a Priest he means Popish which said Mr. Fincham was taken into the Custody of a Messenger upon that Information Here are several falsities I did not accuse Mr. Richard Fincham of being a Priest nor secondly was he taken on my Information but as he was apprehended upon suspicion so I was examined whether I knew him and what account I could give of him brought before the Council to answer the Charge and Mr. Miles Prance Silver-Smith there present to make good his Information The Council askt him how became to know Mr. Fincham to be a Priest The Silver-Smith did there upon his Oath declare That John Fincham the Brother of the said Richard told him so upon this the Earl of Essex demanded of what Religion and what sort of man the said John Fincham was Prance replyed that he was a good Church of England man and a very honest Gentleman and a Justice of Peace in the Isle of Ely whereupon she said Richard Fincham was continued in Custody This is a whole scheme of of untruths twisted up and to unravel it I must rightly state the matter of Fact The Question before the Council was whether Richard Fincham was a Popish Priest And I was examined to it and tho' with a common-knowledge grounded on the most violent presumptions I did not question but he was so as having made him a Chalice and other Priestly Utensils and knew he was generally reputed amongst Catholicks to be my Lady Savils Priest tho' passing as 't is common under the notion of her Steward yet not being able positively to swear him to be a Priest because I had never been present when he officiated the Mass I was so justly tender in a Case where a man's Life was concern'd that I only deposed as to my belief grounded on hear-say and that his Brother acknowledged it to me which is most true and if the Gentelman have a bad memory I cannot help it And being hereupon interrogated by some of the Honourable Lords that it was by the Earl of Essex may be true but do not remember it touching the said Brother Mr. John Fincham I answered That he was a Justice of Peace in the Isle of Ely and 't is possible I might add a very honest Gentleman as far as I knew But whereas the Observator averrs that I then deposed he was a Good Church of England-man though for ought I know or ever said he may be so yet that I then swore it is false for how should I assert such a thing that never had an opportunity to see him in a Protestant Church in my life And besides it thwarts that Evidence which I then truly gave and which I should not but upon this provocation recite for my own Vindication not to cast any Scandal on the Gentleman according to the Copy as it was taken and delivered to me soon after I was examined by one of the Sub-Clarks belonging to the Honourable Board viz. That not long before the Plot was Discovered I went to one Mrs. Halls in Eagle-Court about some business to Mr. Jeremy Jennings a Priest belonging to Mr. Ramsey living near Norwich where I met with Mr. Fincham a Justice of the Peace for the life of Ely and one Mr. Poulton a Jesuit and some others whom I knew to be Priests though I knew not their Names after Mr. Fincham was gone I asked Mr. Jennings what he came thither for and how he durst trust himself with him being a Justice of the Peace Pough said he he is acquainted with many Priests in that Country as their Friend and will do us no harm but what good he can being a Catholick in his Heart and will shew himself so if the times turn but now cannot in respect of his Place yet says he he does us all the kindness he can Then speaking to Mrs. Hall the Landlady of the House thereof she replyed He comes often hither when he is in Town But whether Mr. John Fincham knew these Persons that he then was there in company with to be Popish Priests or whether what they said of him were true I know not they being Men of Intrigue who often love to cast Scandals on the most Zealous Protestants to render them suspected all the intent I recite for is to shew how improbable it was that at the same time I swore this I should also swear as Mr. Observator says the same Gentleman to be a good Church of England man though still as aforesaid for ought I know or ever said he may be such My acquaintance with Mr. Richard Fincham was very intimate for besides the work I had done for him I have yet several Letters of his by me though more or less which I am ready to shew his Brother or any Gentleman that desires it Dated from Red-Hall in Yorkshire Subscribed Your Friend Servant and Country-man Richard Fincham and the like obliging Terms and particularly one Dated January 25 77 whereby having ordered me the Receipt of some Money he has these
words I have by the bearer hereof a Protestant Gentleman and Neighbour of mine sent you c. Which Parenthesis Protestant Gentleman will I think to any unbyassed understanding signifie no less than an Item given me that I should not take notice to him of the Writers being a a Priest or to call him Father Fincham as amongst Roman Catholicks is usual and without such Precaution I might have done Now this Gentleman that paid me the Money was as I understand a Justice of Peace near Leeds though I have forgot his Name if he be still living he cannot but remember it In a word whether Mr. Richard Fincham be a Popish Priest or no if Mr. L'Estrange that seems so intimate with the Family will be pleas'd to tell the World his Lodgings at present 't is odds but somthing more may be said In the interim here his Apologist the Observator Mr. Richard Fincham immediately upon this proceeding gave his Brother John Fincham an account of what had passed by the very next Post Who applyed himself forthwith upon the receipt of the Letter to Francis Bell Esq a Justice of the Peace in the said Isle before whom he swore this following Affidavit John Fincham of Outwell within the Isle of Ely and County of Cambridge Esquire did upon the 5th of March 1678 make this following Affidavit before Francis Bell Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace of the said Isle That whereas the said John Fincham is informed that one Mr. Prance hath lately declared upon Oath to the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council that he the said Mr. Prance was told by the said John Fincham that Mr. Richard Fincham his Brother was a Priest He this Deponent doth Swear and Aver that the same is wholly false and untrue and that he is and hath been so far from ever saying so that he doth depose he doth not know any such thing as his Brothers being a Priest nor did he ever know the said Mr. Prance or to his knowledge ever see him in his whole life This Affidavit being sent up to the Lord Chancellor the King and Council thereupon ordered Mr. Fincham's Discharge As to this Affidavit of Mr. Richard Fincham's as far as it contradicts mine I avow mine still to be true and if I am not misinform'd by the Civil Law at least a Domestick Witness that is one so near related is scarce allowable or at least lyes under suspicions but leaving that I shall only remark That the Gentleman swears he doth not KNOW any such thing as his Brother 's being a Priest which signifies no more than that he did not see him take Orders now can it be imagined especially at such a juncture as that was but the Gentleman had he not believed his Brother to be a Priest would have added nor believes him so to be or some such words Note also that the Observator says what I deposed was in February 79. And this Affidavit of Mr. John Fincham's he dates March the 5 th 1678 almost a whole year before which would intimate that Mr. John Fincham swore prophetically or by way of prevention But the Observator Numb 10. having recollected himself pretends 't was a mistake for want of a fraction and if it were so I believe it was the first Affidavit in England that e're was Dated with such a Fraction as 1678 9 but since he is pleased to lay the blame on the Sot of a Compositor as young Princes in Schools are whipt by Proxy and perhaps old Authors have the like priviledge let it pass But whereas Mr. John Fincham Swears he never knew Prance to his knowledge or saw him in his life I must remembeâ— that Gentleman besides my being in his Company at Mrs. Hall's afore-mentioned and else-where in London I once went to his House at the Request of his Brother the Goldsmith then living in the Strand to see a Child of his there and was Civilly entertained by Mr. John Fincham and did eat and drink there and another time before that he procured me a place at the Court holden at Wisbitch to hear the Tryals and Proceedings there where I stood just behind his back as he sat on the Bench. Trimmer Well-And here 's one Oath against t'other Ay and let the Readers impartially Impanell'd give their Verdicts Observator Patience I prithee in August 1679 Prance being in the Isle of Ely and finding that his Credit was sunk from Silver to Brass by the confounding a Deposition of Mr. John Fincham of which Prance never heard word or syllable till in this Observator January 26 1683. he burst out presently into Invectives against the said John Fincham and said he was a Papist and that he had a Priest in 's House and that he had sometimes 4 or 5 Priests and Jesuits and that he had seen him in the Company of as many in London All which he was ready to prove And these words were made out by the Informations of two Gentlemen of the Neighbourhood as they were taken before Francis Bell and Thomas Edwards Esquires Justices of the Peace within the said Isle on the 11 th and 12 th of August 1679. The Information of Edward Squire Gent. Chief Constable of the North part of the Hundred of Witchford taken before us Francis Bell and Thomas Edwards Esquires Justices of the Peace within the Isle of Ely c. August 11 1679. This Informant saith That on Fryday the 8th Instant he happened in the Company of one Miles Prance where discoursing about the next Election to be of Parliament-men Prance was very earnest for the Chusing of one Mr. Partherich for Knight of the Shire for Cambridg-shire declaring that he was a fit Man for that purpose And presently after he began to discourse of one Mr. Fincham a Justice of the Peace and said that he would prove him a Papist and that he hath a Priest now in his House and sometimes he hath four or five and that he the said Prance had seen the said Mr. Fincham in the Company of as many Priests and Jesuits in London and told this Informant that he wondered the Justices of the Peace should be so much Fools or had so little wit as to make him this Informant Chief Constable and said he would have most of the Gentlemen in the Country up with several other Reflecting and Scandalous Discourses upon as well the said Mr. Fincham as the Gentlemen in the Country Edward Squire The Information of William Gent of March taken ut Supra August 12 1679. This Informant saith that upon Fryday at Night the 8th of this instant August one Mr. Miles Prance and another person to this Deponent unknown came into the Company of him this Deponent He this Deponent having then some Neighbours in Company with him at the House of one William Phillipson in March aforesaid and after some familiar Discourse had passed between him the said Mr. Prance and this Deponent the said Mr.
most Wicked Oaths and Imprecations denyed that I sent for him This he undertakes to prove by the Testimony of three Boys of the Wonder-Tavern how they were induced to give it I will not enquire at present but can prove some of them have since disowned it But the Truth of the matter was thus I and one Thomas Jennings a Cloth-drawer a very Honest man and Ingenious above most of his Quality but frolicksome and apt to Droll went to the Old Dog Tavern and having seated our selves in the Kitchin no very fit Room for carrying on an Intrigue Jennings having an occasion to speak with one whom he thought might be at Sam 's Coffee-house ordered one Thomas Harris a little Boy in the House who has since own'd himself not to be above 12 years old tho' Thompson advanced him to 20. to go thither to Ask for him and knowing Mr. L'Estrange frequented that Coffee-house and what a kindness he had for me merrily added If he be not there Inquire for Mr. L'Estrange and tell him here are one or two would speak with him And tho' he spoke it with such an Air of Droll that it might be easily known to be wholly Jest nor was it imaginable a person of Mr. L'Estranges figure would on such a slight Invitation without sending any Name regard it yet the Messenger being a raw Boy not finding the Person he first ask't for there very formally it seems dispatcht the latter part of his Message and Mr. L'Estrange being in the Coffee-house and perhaps understanding from the Lad I was in the Company presently after several Persons came to us from Sam 's and began to quarrel with me for sending for Mr. L'Estrange which I being wholly innocent of as earnestly as justly denyed I having never had the least thought of any such matter For as I had no Business with the Gentleman so I had little reason to desire his Company but that I used any such Oaths and Imprecations is false And tho' of all mankind the Observator may be the unfittest to upbraid any body with swearing I shall here subjoyn the Affidavit of the said Jennings who sat close by me during all this time Thomas Jennings Citizen and Haberdasher of London maketh Oath that on Friday the 16 th of June Last about ten of the Clock in the Evening this deponent went with Mr. Miles Prance to the Old-Dog Tavern within Ludgate and sate down in the Kitching with him and this deponent sent one Thomas Harris Servant to Mr. Allen that keeps the said Tavern to Sam 's Coffee-house to enquire for a friend of this Deponent that he heard was there and if he was not there to enquire for one Mr. Roger L'Estrange to tell him there was one or two would speak with him and some time after there came three or four persons from Sam 's Coffee-house into the aforesaid Kitching where Mr. Miles Prance and this Deponent were and began to quarrel with Mr. Prance and using provoking words to him to know his Reason why he sent for Roger L'Estrange which he denyed he did but not with such Imprecations as by God's wounds and by Gods Blood and God dam ' me as this Deponent to the best of his knowledge heard who was in the same Kitching with Mr. Miles Prance all the time this deponent saith further that he Enquired twice of the aforesaid Thomas Harris that he sent whether he ever heard Mr. Miles Prance swear such Oaths who denied he ever did as I this deponent can prove by witnesses Thomas Jennings Jurat 8 die Augusti 1682 Coram Job Charlton For further Confirmation hereof if the Attestation of a dying man may add any weight this Mr. Jennings being since dead in May 1683 during his sickness he voluntarily Endors'd the aforesaid Affidavit with his own hand which is known to hundreds for the man was acquainted with Persons of most Conditions in this City and ready to be produced to any that desire it in these words March the 7 th 1682 3 I Thomas Jennings being in a weakly state of Body not knowing whether I shall live a week do Attest all that I have sworn on the other side before Sir Job Charlton is truth witness my hand Thomas Jennings Written in the presence of John Horton Robert Pimm And on this Issue I must leave this matter there 's no sence against a Flail 't is plain we were in a Tavern Kitching the Boys say I sent for Mr. L'Estrange the most improbable thing in Nature and then deny'd it with Oaths Mr. Jennings swears that he sent for him and not I and on his death-bed Confirms that he who sat next to me heard me not Use such Lew'd Oaths as they pretend and that the Chief witness disown'd it afterwards which is further probable in that none of the Persons sent by Mr. L'Estrange and whom I discoursed who might sure have taken notice of it as well as 2 or 3 Ubiquitary Drawers have appeared to Attest it And this I think enough at present for that Business Another thing that Mr. L'Estrange often harps upon is That I should Swear he was a Papist and this he makes to be the ground of his quarrel with me Now if I never Swore nay never so much as Said any such thing 't is then plain that either Mr. L'Estrange has some other deeper and important design in his continual Out-cries and baiting me thus or else that he has troubled the World with so many sheets of Railing upon no Provocatiom and to as little purpose The words of my Affidavit were as follow Midd ss THe Information of Miles Prance taken upon Oath the 25 th of October 1680 before the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl of Craven two of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said County This Deponent saith That about three years since he saw Mr. Roger L'Estrange three or four times kneeling at Mass in the Queens-Chappel Miles Prance Here 's not one word of his being a Papist for he might have come out of Curiosity to observe whether the Ceremonies here were the same with those in other Mass-Houses beyond the Seas where he acknowledges he has been at that Idolatry forty times or it maybe being a Lover of Musick he came only to hear the delicacy of the Voices whatever brought him in thither there he was let him protest never so much and write a thousand Observators to the contrary He says indeed I could not say I saw him receive 't is very right and so I told His Majesty and the Honourable Lords of the Council for I saw no such thing and therefore I Swore to no more than I saw 't is the fairer Argument that what I Swore was Truth But as I never Swore so neither did I ever Say he was or is a Papist for I must avow I do not know what Religion the Gentleman has been is or may be of nor whether he have any
Religion at all I Confess I have seen him sometime since he was questioned about being a Papist at his Parish-Church and once met him at the Blessed Sacrament to which he came under such Circumstances as might justly make any sensible man tremble but I have not met with any of the Parish that can say That they ever saw him at Sacrament or Church in times past though he had liv'd I believe a dozen years before the Discovery of the Popish Plot in that Parish But it will be objected There is a Book with my Name to it and wherein this Affidavit of mine is recited and the Title L'Estrange a Papist The Matter of the Book I own but that Title was added by the Book-Seller for all the Title I intended was Depositions and Animadversions upon Roger L'Estrange Esq as evidently appears under my Hand on the left-Hand Page of the Title and in the first Page of the Book and in several places of the Animadversions and expresly fol. 18. in these Words Whether Mr. L'Estrange be a Papist or no I will not determine The other Affidavits there mentioned are as follow Midd. ss THE Information of Lawrence Mowbray taken upon Oath the 25 th of October 1680 Before the Right Honourable the Earl of Clarendon and the Earl of Craven two of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said County This Deponent saith That about the first or second Sunday in June 77. An Acquaintance of one Anderson which Anderson was Servant to Mr. Allabon in Grays-Inn being with him in the Queens-Chappel saluted immediately after Mass a Person whom he told this Deponent was Mr. L'Estrange who Licensed Books This Deponent saith that he hath once since seen the said Mr. L'Estrange at Mass in the Queens-Chappel and saw him to be the same Man he formerly saw there This Affidavit was voluntarily made by Mr. Mowbray and I knew nothing that be would or could swear it till he had done it The Information of Richard Fletcher of St. Vedast alias Foster London Physician Who saith That about 3 years ago he met Roger L'Estrange Esq at the Half-Moon Tavern in Cheap-side about Licensing a Book Intituled The Works of Geber an Arabian Prince and Philosopher and gave Mr. L'Estrange a Guiney for his License and a Discourse happening about Religion Mr. L'Estrange asked of what Religion this Informant was Who answered A Catholick L'Estrange Replyed Are you a Roman Catholick This Informant answered That was Nonsence Catholick being Vniversal and not to be Circumscrib'd Then L'Estrange bid this Informant explain himself I answered That Faith that wrought the Fear of God and to do Righteously doth declare those that are of the Catholick Church which I take to be the Church of England Mr. L'Estrange then declared himself to be a Catholick of Rome and to believe the Faith of that Church and told this Informant that his Definition was too large This Informant then asked the said L'Estrange Whether the Pope were the Head of that Church of which he acknowledged himself a Member Who answered He was and hoped e're long many others would return to that Church or to that effect and further saith not This Mr. Fletcher was to me altogether a Stranger nor can I imagine why he should come in to Testifie such a thing if it were not true but for my own part 't is plain I swore no such matter as that Mr. L'Estrange was a Papist nor will I trouble my self about it at his own everlasting Peril be it There is yet another Scandal brought Observator Numb 226 with this Title Prance Cures the Kings-Evil where he tells a Story That I offering a Woman a Pint of Wine should tell her she had the Evil and Sware by G I had Cured several Families my self of that said Evil by the great Faith I have in the King that I could do any thing at Court and that if she had ever a Neighbour she would oblige I would see it done And then should say to her Come prithee let me stroke thee a little c. Now suppose it had been true that I had play'd the Fool to talk at this rate yet I conceive it would not have been absolutely necessary to the preservation either of Church or State that Mr. L'Estrange should take the pains to Print it But the whole Truth was thus I and my Wife and some Neighbours being at the Horse-shoe a Woman that was also a near Neighbour happening to come in I askt her to drink she began to complain to my Wife how she was troubled with the Evil I advised her to be touched by his sacred Majesty which she said had been done I replyed then I doubted you have not Faith but for my own part I verily believe that thousands by that means have received Cure and thereupon told her how once an acquaintance of mine that was of a contrary Opinion and had argued against me as if there were nothing in it but conceit it pleased God soon after to visit Him his Wife and Child all with the same Disease then he was willing to apply himself to His Majesties healing Hands and I was an instrument to facilitate their access and they were all three in a very short time after Cured which Relation is a known Truth and the Parties still living to justifie it Therefore I told the Woman she should have Faith this was all that pass'd my Wife and several others being all the while there There was no swearing no boasting that I had Cured several Families my self or that I would do any thing at Court nay nor no Kissing nor no stroking in the case so that here are at least five notorious Lies all on a heap in one Column and yet the Challenges the World to instance his mistakes in 470 Papers But it may be the Informer was to blame for a dull Tool of a Razor-maker happening to be in Company tho' he drank most of the White Wine call'd for by the Woman yet refusing to pay his Club was taxt for spunging who in revenge 't is like ran to Mr. L'Estrange with a Tale and added as much as his sorry invention could furnish and the Man of Observations the rest Now who can but blush to see a Gentleman of his Parts and Figure a man of the Age of threescore and ten or thereabouts if not upward a Person that besides Quevedo and Politicks has read Seneca's Morals and Cardinal Bona to see I say such an one spending the last minutes of his Life in blowing of Sope bubbles in exercises more Childish but only somewhat more mischievous than Taw and Span-farthing and in making himself a Common Pack-Horse to bring to Town two or three times a Week in Form and Method the idle Tales of every malicious Cockscomb and in Printing Stories that carry neither Truth nor Salt with them but would be a Disgrace to the very Conversation of a Gossiping And now I thought as in pag. 35. I had done