of Winchester Henry Lord Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold James Earl of Salisbury John Earl of Bridgewater Robert Earl of Sunderland one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State lately made in the room of Sir Joseph Williamson Arthur Earl of Essex first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury John Earl of Bath Groom of the Stole Thomas Lord Viscount Faulconberg George Lord Viscount Hallifax Henry Lord Bishop of London John Lord Roberts Denzil Lord Holles William Lord Russel William Lord Cavendish Henry Coventry Esq one of his Majesties principle Secretaries of State Sir Francis North Kt. Lord Cheif Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Henry Capel Kt. of the Bath first Commissioner of the Admiralty Sir John Earnley Kt. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Thomas Chicheley Kt. Master of the Ordnance Sir William Temple Baronet Edward Seymour Esq Henry Powle Esq The 30th of April His Majesty made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament wherein he recommended three things to them The prosecution of the Plot The disbanding of the Army and the providing a Fleet which was followed by a larger signification of his Majesties mind by the Lord Chancellor That His Majesty had considered with himself That 't is not enough that his Peoples Religion and Liberty be secure during his own Reign but thinks he ows it to his People to do all that in him lies that these Blessings may be transmitted to Posterity And to the end that it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any change in Church or State his Majesty would consent to limit such Successor in these points 1. That no such Popish Successor shall present to Ecclesiastical Benefices 2. That during the Reign of such Popish Successor no Privy Councellors or Judges Lord Leiutenant or Deputy Leiutenant or Officer of the Navy shall be put in or removed but by Authority of Parliament 3. That as it is already provided That no Papist can sit in either House of Parliament so there shall never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to die but that the Parliament then in Being may continue Indissoluble for a competent time or the last Parliament Re-assemble c. But it seems all these Provisions were not thought a sufficient Fence for such dear and precious things as Religion and Liberty and that in the progress of their Debates upon this most important Subject they could not resolve upon any certain Expedient of safety less than the Exclusion of his Royal Higness For on Sunday April the 27th 1679. It was Resolved by the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Encouragement and Countenance to the present Conspiracies and Designs of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion And on Sunday May the 11th the better Day the better Deed we use to say but whether it will hold here will be the Question they Ordered That a Bill should be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm which was brought in accordingly and twice read in the House the preamble thereof being to this effect That forasmuch as these Kingdoms of England and Ireland by the wonderful Providence of God many Years since have been delivered from the Slavery and Superstition of Popery which had despoiled the King of his Sovereign Power for that it did and doth advance the Pope of Rome to a Power over Sovereign Princes and makes him Monarch of the Universe and doth with-draw the Subjects from their Allegiance by pretended Absolutions from all former Daths and Obligations to their lawful Sovereign and by many Superstitions and Immoralities hath quite subverted the Ends of the Christian Religion But notwithstanding That Popery hath been long since Condemned by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm for the detestable Doctrine and Traiterous Attempts of its Adherents against the Lives of their lawful Sovereigns Kings and Queens of these Realms Yet the Emissaries Priests and Agents for the Pope of Rome resorting into this Kingdom of England in great numbers contrary to the known Laws thereof have for several Years last past as well by their own Devilish Acts and Policies as by Counsel and Assistance of Foreign Princes and Prelates known Enemies to these Nations contrived and carried on a most Horrid and Execrable Conspiracy To destroy and Murther the Person of his Sacred Majesty and to Subvert the ancient Government of these Realms and to Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Massacre the true Professors thereof And for the better effecting their wicked Designs and encouraging their Uilainous Accomplices they have Traterously Seduced James Duke of York Presumptive Heir of these Crowns to the Communion of the Church of Rome and have induced him to Enter into several Negotiations with the Pope his Cardinals and Nuntio's for promoting the Romish Church and Interest and by his means and procurement have advanced the Power and Greatness of the French King to the manifest hazard of these Kingdoms That by the descent of these Crowns upon a Papist and by Foreign Alliances and Assistance they may be able to succeed in their Wicked and Uillainons Designs And forasmuch as the Parliaments of England according to the Laws and Statutes thereof have heretofore for great and weighty Reasons of State and for the publick Good and common Interest at this Kingdom directed and limited the Succession of the Crown in other manner than of Course it would otherwise have gone but never had such important and urgent Reasons as at this Time press and require their using of their said Extraordinary Power in that behalf Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same And it is hereby Enacted accordingly That James Duke of York Albany and Ulster having departed openly from the Church of England and having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion which hath notoriously given Birth and Life to the most Damnable and Hellish Plot by the most gracious Providence of God lately brought to light shall be Excluded and is hereby Excluded and Disabled c. On the 19th of May the House of Commons attended his Majesty with this following Address Most Dread Sovereign WEE your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled do with all humble gratitude acknowledge the most gratious assurances your Majesty hath been pleased to give us of your constant Care to do every thing that may preserve the Protestant Religion of your firm resolution to defend the same to the utmost and your Royal endeavours that the security of that blessing may be transmitted to posterity And we do humbly represent to your Majesty That being deeply sensible that the
to be given by Contract or subornation it was no Objection for that allowance of sustenance was usually given of old to Approvers c. 2. He mustered up again their baffled Evidence from St. Omers of whom one P. 33. being askt how he came to take notice of Mr. Oates being at St. Omers all April and May and not in June and July as well plainly answered being not well instructed or more simple than the rest It was Because the Question he came for did not fall upon that time Which gives more light to the suspicion that they came with their Lessons in their Mouths to save these mens lives and their Churches sinking Credit not to speak truth but only right or wrong confront the Kings Evidence but in vain for Dr. Oates sufficiently asserted his Testimony by seven Witnesses who now again proved as they had done the day before his being in London at the time controverted 3. Then Mr. Langhorn produced the Woman at the White-horse Tavern where P. 46. Mr. Oates had said the Consult was held and she boldly averred that there was never a room in her House would hold above a dozen people and therefore there could not meet 50 or 18 or 20 persons at a time This was an Objection Doctor Oates could not fore-see not thinking any body would have had the confidence to alleadge it and so was not provided with any Witnesses to confute it but as Providence ordered it no less than three several strangers stood up in Court that knew the House well and being sworn Attested The first that he had known sixteen to dine often in one Room of that House the second that he knew two Rooms one backwards and the other forward where Thirty might Dine at a time and the third that at a Wedding he knew of above Twenty that Dined together in one Room next the street Nay farther there was a Gentleman of good Quality in Court who declared there have been fifty in a Room there so that this Evidence by such a peremptory falshood did but add to the suspicion already too apparent on the rest of his Witnesses The matter being thus plain the Jury did not find any difficulty that might require a tedious Consultation and therefore returning after a short retirement into Court pronounced the prisoner Guilty and then Whitebread and the other Four Convicted the day before being brought to him to the Bar Mr. Recorder proceeded to pass Sentence of Death upon them all Six But Mr. Langhorn either in consideration of the affairs of others in relation to his Practice which it might be convenient to adjust or rather in hopes he might have been wrught upon to make some ingenuous Confession was Reprieved for a Month and then Executed on Munday the Fourteenth of June persisting in the most solemn and studied expressions of his Innocence which that they might be home and full and consequently the more taking with the people he had written down in a paper whether of his own penning or prescribed unto him by some Priest is uncertain and this he delivered to the Sheriff referring himself thereunto as the last Expressions of his mind and desiring it might be seen CHAP. XX. The Occasion and manner of Mr. Robert Jennison's first Discovery and the Apprehension of one Caryl alias Blunden and his Letter beyond the Seas concerning the Execution of Whitebread c. WE have before related how Mr. Ireland insisted that he was in Staffordshire when Dr. Oates Mr. Bedloe and one Sarah Pain attest upon their Oaths that they saw him in London And this he not onely alleadged at his Tryal and brought Witnesses to prove it but made solemn Asseverations at his death That he never was in London from the 5th of August to the 14th of September And knowing that such a failure in circumstance of time and place if they could get it believ'd would much depretiate the Evidence they not content with what had pass'd revive it again at Whitebread's Tryal as you have heard offering fresh people to confirm it And though the contrary was sufficiently attested by three Witnesses on Oath enough to convince an impartial Jury or any body else that considers the nature of a Papists Religion and how far he may lawfully nay is bound to stretch his private Conscience when it may be for the publick Emolument of their Church yet it pleased Providence as well for the Vindication and further Illustration of Truth as to shame these false Dissemblers and expose their fallacious dealings soon after to make a further Discovery and detect their Lyes in this behalf by one that had been no small Zealot of their Party For presently after that Tryal Charles Chetwind Esq upon some discourse concerning the same was accidentally inform'd That one Mr. Robert Jennison of Grays-Inne a person of good Quality and formerly a strict Romanist had affirm'd That he was with the said Ireland about the middle of August in Russel-street in Covent-garden whereupon Mr. Chetwind resolv'd to enquire further after it being thereunto encouraged by the Earl of Shaftsbury to whom he had communicated what he had heard Then tracing the business he went to Robert Bowes Esq who own'd that Mr. Jennison had signified so much to him formerly in a Letter from Reading dated the 19th of December Hereupon several of these Gentlemen repaired to Mr. Jennison who after some unwilling Evasions ingenuously owned the same and testified it upon Oath before Edmund Warcup Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex viz. That coming up from Windsor on the 19th of August he went to visit the said William Ireland with whom for some time he had been well acquainted as being Related unto him and found him at his Lodging in Russel-street who told him he was then newly arrived by Post from Wolverhampton in Staffordshire and in discourse enquired how his Majesty and the Court were diverted To which Mr. Jennison replied That he heard his Majesty took much delight in Hawking and Fishing but chiefly in the latter which his Majesty follow'd early in the mornings accompanied onely with two or three Lords Whereupon Ireland replied He wondred his Majesty should be so thin guarded he were easily taken off or removed or words to that effect At which Mr. Jennison saying God forbid Ireland began to qualifie it saying I do not say it is lawful and some such Expressions which made him take little notice of it at that time but afterwards hearing of the Plot and that the King was to have been kill'd at Windsor he began to reflect upon the former words more seriously and related them to his Father and one Mr. Smith his Fathers Confessor being then at Wallworth his Fathers Mansion-house in the Bishoprick of Durham This and some other Depositions confirming the same with the true Copy of the said Letter have since been published in print and Mr. Jennison publickly attested the same at Wakeman's Tryal
and particularly that whereas Mr. Bedloe carried a Letter from the English Monks to le Chese at Paris wherein they acquainted him that all things were in readiness within a year or two to put the design in practice and subvert the oppression and Tyranny which the Catholicks were under in England c. when he brought back an Answer thereunto Mr. Marshal carried a Copy of it to Sir Francis Ratcliffe 1. As for the Defence made by these two Marshal with a long starcht Oration would undertake to perswade the people there was no Plot and that Whitebread and the rest dyed Innocent and all because they did not confess it at their death 2. Corker denyed his being at Lamspring but that was nothing to the purpose for Mr. Oates swore onely that he said he would go thither and that it was usual with them to give out they go to one place and go clear another way and the Letter he mentioned was not dated from any place 3. He alleadged that he was not President of the Benedictines so that Mr. Oates was mistaken therein and consequently his consent not necessary to the Consult for raising the 6000 l. To prove this though p. 65. he saith he could bring no body yet at last a good while after he called three women that all said that not he but one Mr. Stapleton was President of the Benedictines But as to this it is to be noted That Doctor Oates being taken very ill was gone out of the Court and did not hear this Objection and though he was called for by Mr. Recorder yet when he came by I know not whose negligence he was not acquainted with it nor Examined about it who otherwise might probably have cleared the point But however 't is not at all impossible that the Prisoners might find three Women in this Town kind enough to tell so small a Lye for them which considering they were under such Circumstances might by their Votaries be counted not onely venial but exceeding meritorious 4. They both urged that when Pickering was taken at the Savoy they were there in Bed and yet Doctor Oates and his Company did not apprehend them but rather said they had nothing to do with them and to prove this they produce a woman that was the Monks House-keeper or Bed-maker Nell Rigby who you might be sure would speak a good word for her Masters But Doctor Oates at that time came purposely for Pickering and 't is possible in the night and hurry and such disguises as they might have might not know them but indeed we may conclude he did not see them for the Prisoners offer no proof of that no not Nelly Rigby her self who onely says she nam'd them all to them when they askt who else was in the house 5. This Nell Rigby starts another Objection against Dr. Oates and says That in the Summer 78 she saw him come a begging to Mr. Pickering for Charity and that Pickering bid her shut the door and never let that man come in again Whence Marshal observes how unlikely it was they should suffer him to be in such want and use him in that manner in the very heat of the Plot when they most employed him and when he could gain such advantages by discovering them if indeed there had been any such Conspiracy as he pretends But as to this we are not obliged to take all that Nell Rigby the Monks Bed-maker to say no worse tells us for an Oracle and prefer it to positive proof upon Oath for undoubtedly this begging story was a meer flam for if true why was it not offered before why was it not set up at Pickerings Tryal whom it as much concerned or more than these and who could never have been so careless as to omit so material an Evidence if he had known any such thing Besides 't is plain Mrs. Nelly is a common Voucher and says she knows nor cares what if she think it will make for her beloved Masters for she positively avers p. 73. That Mr. Bedloe was with Mr. Oates at the taking of Pickering which was on Michaelmass Eve upon the very first publick notice of the Plot whereas that must needs be a notorious Lie for all the world knows that Bedloe was then wholly amongst the Jesuits and did not come in till many weeks after And had this been well enough observed this scandalous Objection would have left no impressions Lastly Marshal made a great stir about Bedloe's not knowing him but was confuted though not at all ashamed in his Lies by Sir Wil. Waller upon Oath and afterwards with an impudence that none but a Monk could own said That he would be content to be hanged if Mr. Bedloe could prove That he viz. Mr. Bedloe himself was ever in the Savoy in his life And though it hapned Bedloe had none ready by him to prove that for who should dream of such a question being askt yet by a sufficient circumstance he proved not onely that he had been in the Savoy but also that he was well acquainted with their Convent and Affairs there in that he gave Sir Will. Waller directions where to search in the most material places describing them and in particular he desired him to look under such a Bench in P. 45. Irelands Apartment where he should find the Gun that was to kill the King which was there found accordingly all which was confirmed by the said Sir William Waller now present in Court These were all their Objections that seem'd to have any colour of weight or argument in them the rest of their tedious talk being nothing but either railing at the Witnesses certain flashes of Rhetorick and some long set-speeches ad faciendum Populum to amuse the People or else down-right Impertinence as Marshal's trifling that he had Witnesses here to prove that he had Witnesses in the Country but sixty miles off that could say something for him when he had had a months notice to get them ready for this time of tryal As for Rumley Dr. Oates testified that he was privy to the Consult of the Monks wherein the 6000 l. was agreed on and he judg'd did consent to it for he did pray God it might have good success and that the Catholick Cause might once again flourish in England But he being but a single Evidence and Mr. Bedloe not being able to speak any thing material as to that Prisoner he came off on course Thus after a tedious full and most favourable hearing of all that the Prisoners or their Witnesses had to offer the Lord Chief Justice Sir William Scroggs came to sum up the Evidence to the Jury which he performed in a long Speech See the Tryal p. 77. to which we refer the Reader some material heads whereof as his Lordship was then pleas'd to observe them were as follows 1. That as to Rumley there was but one Witness which not being sufficient Evidence according to Law to condemn him therefore
Assemblies and Consultations wherein it was Contrived and Designed amongst them what means should be used and what Persons and Instruments should be employed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poisoning Shooting Stabing or some such like ways or means and offered Rewards and promises of Advantage to several Persons to Execute the same and hired and employed several Wicked Persons to go to Windsor and other places where his Majesty did reside to Murther and destroy his Majesty which said Persons or some of them accepted some Rewards and undertook the Perpetrating thereof and did actually go to the said places for that end and purpose That the said Conspirators the better to compass their Traiterous Designs have consulted to Raise and have procured and raised Men Money Horses Arms and Ammunition and also have made Application to and Treated and Corresponded with the Pope his Cardinals Nuncio's and Agents and with other Foraign Ministers and Persons to raise Tumults within this Kingdom and to Invade the same with Foraign Forces and to surprize seize and destroy his Majesties Navy Forts Magazines and places of Strength within this Kingdom Whereupon the Calamities of War Murthers of innocent Subjects Men Women and Children Burnings Rapines Devastations and other Dreadful Miseries and Mischiefs must inevitably have ensued to the Ruin and Destruction of this Nation That the said Conspirators have procured accepted and delivered out several Instruments Commissions and Powers made and granted by or under the Pope or other unlawful and usurping Authority to raise and dispose of Men Money Arms and other things necessary for their wicked and Traiterous Designs and namely a Commission to the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord High Chancellor of England and to the said William Earl of Powis to be Lord Treasurer of England another Commission to the said John Lord Bellasis to be General of the Army to be raised and the said William Lord Petre to be Lieutenant General of the said Army and a Power to the said William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army That in order to encourage themselves in prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment the Conspirators aforesaid and Confederates have used many wicked and Diabolical Practices viz. They did cause their Priests to Administer to the said Conspirators an Oath of Secrecy together with their Sacrament and also did cause their said Priests upon Confession to give their Absolutions upon condition that they should conceal the said Conspiracy And when about the Month of September last Sir Edmundbury Godfrey a Justice of Peace had according to the Duty of his Oath and Office taken several Examinations and Informations concerning the said Conspiracy and Plot the said Conspirators or some of them by Advice Assistance Councel and Instigation of the rest did incite and procure divers Persons to lie in wait and persue the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey several days with intent to Murther him which at last was perpetrated and effected by them for which said horrid Crimes and Offences Robert Green Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill have since been Attainted and Dominick Kelly and Gerald are fled for the same After which Murther and before the Body was found or the Murther known to any but Complices therein the said Persons falsely gave out That he was alive and privately Married and after the Body was found dispersed a false and malicious Report that he had Murthered himself Which said Murther was Committed with design to stifle and suppress the Evidence he had taken and had knowledg of and to discourage and deter Magistrates and others from acting in the further discovery of the said Plot and Conspiracy for which end also the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey while he was alive was by them their Complices and Favourites threatned and discouraged in his Proceedings about the same And of their further Malice they have wickedly contrived by many false Suggestions to lay the imputation and guilt of the aforesaid horrid and detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so thereby they might escape the Punishments they have justly deserved and expose Protestants to great Scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Roman Religion is received and professed All which Treasons Crimes and Offences above mentioned were Contrived Committed Perpetrated Acted and done by the said William Earl of Powis William Lord Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis every of them and others the Conspirators aforesaid against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and against the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom Of all which Treasons Crimes and Offences the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled do in the name of themselves and of the Commons of England Impeach the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves that liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusations or Impeachments against the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them and also of replying to the Answers which they and every of them make to the Premises or any of them or to any other Accusation or Impeachment which shall be by them exhibited as the Cause according to course and proceedings of Parliament shall require do pray that the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them may be put to Answer all and every of the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon them and every of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and Course of Parliament To these Articles of Impeachment the said Lords soon after put in their several Answers as follows The several Answers of William Lord Petre now Prisoner in the Tower to the Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other Crimes and Offences exhibited to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled Whereas the Lord above named stands Impeached by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled in the name of themselves and all the Commons in England THE said Lord in the first place and above all other protesting his Innocency The said Lord doth with all humility submit himself desiring above all things the Tryal of his Cause by this Honourable House so that he may be provided to make his just Defence for clearing of his Innocency from the great and hainous Crimes charged against him by the said Impeachment this being prayed as also liberty to correct amend and explain any thing in the