Godfrey enjoyn'd Secrecy as aforesaid And that on the Same Day after Evening Service Mr. Michael Godfrey and Mr. Benjamin Godfrey came to their Brothers House to this Deponent as Mr. Michael Godfrey had Promis'd and then they did agree to make Enquiry at all Places where they knew the said Sir E. Godfrey did use to frequent to make Discovery of him but withal did then likewise Oblige this Deponent to Secrecy And amongst the Places where They with This Deponent did make Enquiry they went to the House of one Captain Gibbons and did enquire of Mrs. Gibbons for him as This Deponent believes for as soon as they came out from Mrs. Gibbons they told this Deponent that Mrs. Gibbons said he had not been there That Day and the same Day they went to my Lady Prats living near Charing Cross and several other Houses but could not hear any thing of him upon which Both the said Mr. Godfreys commanded him This Deponent to keep his Masters Absence Secret untill the Next Morning being Monday when they would come to this Deponent again and so they continued their Search and Enquiry after his said Master all That Day and at Night they return'd home charging him this Deponent still to keep it Secret But that Night after their Departure he this Deponent hearing of a great Funeral that was to be Next Night he writ to Mr. Michael Godfrey to know whether it would not be convenient to have his said Masters Absence Divulg'd abroad amongst that Number of People which would be there together to which he return'd for Answer That he should Divulge it at the Funeral but the next morning being Tuesday he was Countermanded by a Messenger from the said Mr. Michael Godfrey not to Divulge it till they both had Communicated it to my Lord Chancellor which after they had done he this Deponent did make known the Absence of his said Master at the said Funeral Here are Five Several Injunctions of Secrecy And Nothing to be Divulg'd 'till the Brothers had been with the Lord Chancellor Now there may seem to be Another Secret yet even in the Mystery of This Secrecy for they were enquiring after him all This while and the Town Rung on 't that he was Gone and that the Papists had Murther'd him So that the Secrecy seems to look rather toward a Concealment of their Opinion what was Become of him then to the Concealment of his Absence But it hangs very strangely together for People to run up and down Enquiring after Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and yet not so much as Own that he is Missing And a Man might as well Suppose the Publishing of a Proclamation or a Hue and Cry upon the Caution of making No Words on 't as such an Order given to Enquire up and down after him upon the same Condition which looks like a Design rather of Concealing One thing then of Discovering Another But however as to the Inquisitive Part Heark'ning after him was a Thing Natural and Proper to be done and as much as Could be done upon That Occasion Mrs. Gibbon speaks to the Same Effect Mrs. Gibbon Senior Deposeth That upon Tuesday Morning as she was going down Stairs from Mrs. Pamphlin she met Henry Moor desiring him to tell her the Truth how Sir Edmund did and whether he was Alive or Not the said Mr. Moor Swearing that he was as well in Health as he himself It was Order'd That at the Funeral this Enformant should be led to Church by the said Sir Edmund's Clark And This Enformant asked him by the Way Why he made such Protestations to her as aforesaid that Sir Edmund was Alive Who reply'd that Sir Edmund's Brothers had commanded him to keep All Things Private and Charg'd him to say so to Save the Estate Iudith Pamphlin Deposeth That upon Tuesday Morning after Sir Edmunds Going away she ask'd Henry Moor what was become of his Master To which the said Moor reply'd To tell you the Truth We are affraid he is Murther'd and his Brothers have been with the Lord Chancellor and my Lord Privy Seal about it and they are to attend the Council this Morning Mr. Aaron Pengry Deposeth That about the Time of the Prosecution against Mr. Payne Mr. Farwell and Thompson about the Letters pretended to be written to Prance upon the Account of the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey he This Enformant being in Company of Several Persons where mention was made about the said Prosecution one of the said Company to the best of This Informants Knowledge said That the Brothers of the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had been to Wait upon the late Lord Chancellor Nottingham about Saving their Brothers Estate But this Enformant not well remembring who it was that said those words and discourse about two Months since upon that account being had between This Enformant and several others in Company among whom was Mr. William Fall who was formerly related to the said Lord High Chancellor as one of his Gentlemen attending him This Enformant asked the said Mr. Fall before the said Company Whether he had not Vtter'd such or the like Words who Answer'd to him this Enformant and the rest of the said Company then present that he had Declar'd as much and would at any time Testify the same if occasion should be given or Words to that or the like Effect Mr. William Fall Deposeth That at the Time when Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Missing from his House Two of his Brothers came several times to the Lord Chancellor Notinghams and that it was a Common Talk in the Family that their Bus'ness with the Lord Chancellor was to beg his Lordships Assistance to secure their Brother's Estate in case he should be found to have made Himself away And then again there 's an Enformation of Mr. White 's the Coroner of Westminster that looks a Little This way too Robert White Deposeth That this Enformant hearing that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Missing went to Mr. Weldens to Enquire after him where he found Sir Edmund's Clark Sitting by the Fire-side in Mr. Welden's Private Room Smoaking a Pipe of Tobacco This Enformant reproving him for spending his Time There since there was such an Uproar in the Town about his Masters Absence To which he gave very little Answer And further That this Enformant then discoursing with Mr. Welden about the said Sir Edmunds Absence The said Welden said He could not tell what to think of it And This Enformant Frequenting the House of the said Welden afterward to hear what News of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey the said Mr. Welden at the last told This Enformant that he did very much suspect him to be Murther'd by the Papists And That between the Pall-Mall and Arundel-House And that if there were a Search made he the said Welden doubted not but it would appear so Vpon which This Enformant told the said Welden That if Sir Edmundbury Godfreys Brother This Enformant knowing but of One Brother had a Desire to
in Preparation and bringing to Perfection it is our Resolution and we do Declare that in Defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will Stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge any Violence Offered by them to your Sacred Majesty It is to be noted that the Vote was Soften'd in this Address For as it was Worded at first Whoever had Kill'd the King the Papists should have Gone to Pot for 't which Hint did as good as say Get but over This Iobb my Masters and y 'ave done your Bus'ness But the Conspirators found a way however to Supply That Restrictive Distinction by Murdering him Themselves and giving it out that the Papists had done it according to the Evidence of the Republican Conspiracy which says it was so Determin'd if the Rye House Project had Succeeded The Conspirators were to go to several Persons and Ask them Supposing that the Papists should Rise or that there should be a General Insurrection or a French Invasion Are you in a Posture of Defence This was the very Practice and the Imposture in the Case of the Militia the Double-Guards and the Rout they made among the Papists But Keeling a little Lower in the same Tryal puts it into somewhat Plainer English. These Men says he where to be in a readiness and it was Design'd that the Thing should be laid upon the Papists as a Branch of the Popish-Plot Which may serve for an Excellent Commenâ— upon the Present Text. Upon the 15th of Dec. 1680. There was no way with 'em but immediately to Banish All the Considerable Papists in England out of the Kings Dominions And it is to be Suppos'd that they would not have Forgotten his Royal Highness in the Number Especially Considering how Mindfull they were of him in Other Cases Insomuch that there was hardly any thing done by the Conspirators that had Worm'd themselves into the House but for Countenance-sake and to While away Time that had not the Ruine of the Duke and consequently of his Royal Brother in the Bottom of it and they were so Eager upon 't that all they could do without it was to no purpose Resolved Nemine Contradicente that so long as the Papists have any Hopes of the Duke of Yorks Succeeding the King in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto Belonging The Kings Person the Protestant Religion and the Lives Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects are in Apparent Danger of being Destroy'd And then follows Another Resolve upon the Necessity of such a Bill Excluding and Proroguing Two Great Points THE Refusal of This Bill and the Last Refuge that the King had left him of Proroguing Parliaments were Two Terrible Rubbs in their way For with the Help of the One they could have done the Bus'ness of the Roman Catholiques at pleasure and made as many Reputed and Suspected Papists of the Rest of his Majesties Subjects as they found Averse to the Popular Design And Then under the Countenance of a Sitting Parliament they had a Thousand Tricks and Devices by their Printed Votes Papers and Intelligences to make their Principals Fall down and Worship them as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion the Heroes and Patriots of the Common Cause and the Saviours of the Nation But the Cunning Snapps of the Faction finding that the King would not let go his Power of Calling them and sending 'em away again as he pleas'd and that Prorogations and Dissolutions were but as Sentence and Execution to them They had the Wit to make a Provision of Parliamentary Guards for the Oxford Meeting under Colour of Securing the Protestant Members from having their Throats Cut there by the Papists And it is more then Probable that if his Majesty had not very prudently taken Two Steps at a Time and Dissolv'd them upon the very Spot and Instant without the Antecedent Ceremony of Proroguing them they would have found under the Colour of a House of Commons yet in Being Another Game to Play. There had been a Heavy Cry made upon all their Former Disappointments in Pamphlets Papers Discourses Addresses upon Surprizing Prorogations Popish and Amazing Prorogations c. which humour they did Notably set forth in an Address to his Majesty of No. 11. 1680. IN relation to the Tryalls of the Five Lords Impeached in Parliament for the Execrable Popish Plot we have so far Proceeded as we doubt not but in a short time we shall be ready for the same But we Cannot without being Vnfaithfull to your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are Intrusted Omit upon This Occasion humbly to Enform your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryalls are much Increased by the Evil and Destructive Councels of those Persons who Advised your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the Last Parliament at a time when the Commons had taken great pains about and were Prepar'd for those Tryalls And by the like Pernicious Councells of those who Advised the Many and Long Prorogations of the Present Parliament before the same was permitted to Sit whereby some of the Evidence which was prepared in the Last Parliament may possibly during so long an Interval be Forgotten or Lost and some Persons who might probably have Come-in as Witnesses are either Dead have been Taken-off or may have been Discourag'd from giving their Evidence But of One Mischievous Consequence of those Dangerous and Unhappy Councells we are Certainly and Sadly Sensible Namely that the Testimony of a Material Witness against every of Those Five Lords and who could probably have Discover'd and brought-in much Other Evidence about the Plot in General and Those Lords in Particular cannot now be given Viva Voce forasmuch as That Witness is Unfortunately Dead between the Calling and the Sitting of this Parliament To prevent the Like or Greater Inconvenience for the Future we make it our most Humble Request to your Excellent Majesty that as you tender the Safety of your Royal Person The Security of your Loyal Subjects and Preservation of the True Protestant Religion you will not suffer your self to be prevail'd upon by the Like Councell to do any Thing which may Occasion in Consequence though we are Assured never with your Majesties Intention either the Deferring of a Full and Perfect Discovery and Examination of This most Wicked and Detestable Plot or the Preventing the Conspirators therein from being brought to speedy and Exemplary Justice and Punishment and we humbly beseech your Majesty to rest Assured Notwithstanding any Suggestions which may be made by Persons who for their Own Wicked Purposes Contrive to Create a Distrust in your Majesty of your People that Nothing is more in the Desires and shall be more the Endeavours of us your faithfull and Loyal Commons then the Promoting and Advancing of your Majesties True Happiness and Greatness NOW to Observe a little upon
This Lamentably-Complaining Address the Old Vein I perceive of Popery and Calamity Conspiracy and Destruction runs quite thorough it And what Misery soever has either Threatn'd or Befall'n the King the Government the Church or the People is All-Charg'd upon the score of This Almighty Plot as the First Cause and Mover of it And which was the spite on 't no Averting of Those Impending Miseries but by the Kings Parting with his Honour his Crown Natural Affection Humanity Gratitude In short His Ministers His Friends His Prerogative Reasâ—n and Iustice 'T is Urg'd that the Councels were Evil and Destructive that Mov'd his Majesty to a Prorogation and Then to a Dissolution of the Foregoing Parliament How could it be Evil and Destructive in the Advising and not so in the Doing too Or what matters it whether it be done Without Advice or With it so long as the Venom of This Address Wounds the King Equally under the Cover of his Ministers The Want of That Advice and Resolution in the Parliament of One and Forty Cost the Royal Father his Life and the Son Probably upon such a Concession would not have come-off much Cheaper Unless it shall be Imagin'd that he might have found Better Quarter in the House then in the Field from the very same Persons that were Now in Councell and Afterwards in Arms against him It is pretended that the Commons were ready for the Tryal of the Five Lords at the Dissolution of the Last Parliament Now This was only Bubbling the Multitude for the Commons Themselves would not Yield to 't unless the Earl of Danby might be Try'd First But to say All in a word The King was Vndone if he did Not Prorogue and the Republicans if he Did. As to the Possibility of more Witnesses Coming in it cannot be Deny'd that according to the way of Summons that was then in Fashion the Common Iayles nay Newgate it Self in the Case of Prance were Consulted for Evidence and they could not well fail of as many Witnesses as either Malice Faction Countenance or Reward could Prevail upon to Forswear themselves But a Material Evidence it seems was lost by 't Bedloe they mean. A Fellow known for a Blasphemous Atheistical Wretch A Thief a Cheat and in fine a Scandal to the very Alms-Basket What a Dismal VNFORTVNATE Loss was This now of so Material an Evidence in Good Time upon the Plot in General which Material Evidence in the True Intent of it is no Other then a Rogue that would Swear any thing But against the Five Lords they say in Particular And if there had been Five times Fifteen Hundred more of them he should have Sworn against 'em All at the Same Price I can hardly look back upon the Parting Complement without Thinking of the Addresses and Declarations of One and Forty for the making of Charles the First a Glorious King they are so Very Very Alike But so much for the Bus'ness of Prerogative And now for the Other Great Point the Matter of Exclusion let the Bill Speak for it self 'T is Long But it Carries the Heart in the Face on 't and 't is Pity but Posterity should have it Entire The Bill amended as the House had order'd was read Intituled An Act for securing of the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging WHEREAS James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest then that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the prevention whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Iurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Iurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Iurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the pains penalties and forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of November 1680. return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of High Treason and further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such return of the said James Duke of York that then every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and suffer as in cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Noli prosequi
their Sovereign like a Pupil and turn off his Ministers like so many Footmen because they are of OPINION that they give him This or That Advice and that such Advice is Pernicious If Matters be thus Manag'd what 's become of the Imperial State of This Government Here 's Opinion and the Opinion of Subjects too without Proof without Power without Prerogative and shortly without any Foundation Taking upon it self to give Laws to the Majesty of a Sole Governour and if they could have Carry'd That Point it would have been as good as a Title Gain'd in the Account of the Multitude to the Government of the Three Kingdoms For nothing less then the Exclusion would serve their Turn and the Confounding of all Those that were Against That Exclusion Nay and That it self would not have Done at Last neither as we shall see by and by So that once for all having the Modelling the Iudging and the Discriminating of the Friends and Enemies of the State Themselves and in their Own Right as they pretended what betwixt Associating on the One side and Seizing Banishing Disarming Imprisoning Opining Suspecting Reputing and the Sweet Comfortable Methods of Swearing Hanging and Quartering on the Other there would have been little more for the Conspirators to Do then to Kill and Take Possession and to lay Violent Hands upon the King under the Colour of a Rescue BUt Religion and Loyalty was still the Burden of the Song A Company of Rogues to Blunderbuss his Majesty Burn Protestant Cities and Massacre Poor Innocent People This was the Voyce that was Lifted up and the Outcry that Caused so much Weeping and Wailing among us While the Witnesses in the mean time were All-to-be Colonell'd Doctor'd Captain'd and Squir d for the Credit of the Story It was a most Remarkable and an Auspicious Resolution taken to set a-part Gods Day for Gods Cause as it was Blasphemously Christen'd when they Postpon'd the Consideration of the Lord Chancellors Speech of Apr. 30. 1679. Time after Time untill Sunday the 11th of May following which was so Arrant a Forty-One-Banter that I presently told my Friends without going to a Wizzard the very Dunstable Meaning of it and the Plot-Leaders were so kind to me in That as well as in Other of my Predictions that they made a Prophet of me But I shall have another Touch upon this Particular by and by Upon Nov. 8. 1678. They Resolv'd upon an Address to Desire his Majesty that there might be a Particular Prayer or Prayers Composed for the Cities of London and Westminster relating to the Plot and Conspiracy Contrived and Carry'd-on by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government Upon Sunday the 10 th following they Complain'd That in the Prayer there was no mention made of the Papists who says the Vote are the Contrivers of These Damnable and Hellish Plots c. And they humbly Desire his Majesty to give Effectual Order c. After this and in the Next Parliament they had Another Tour of Passe-Passe of the Same Stamp with the Former which went a Great way toward the Moving of All Those Passions that might be Serviceable to the Project of That Season as will be better seen upon the Reading of that Address it self or which is all one of Another Address for a day of Humiliation on Nov. 25. 1680. in the Following Parliament which Address is within a very little of Word for Word with the Former We your Majesties most Dutifull c. being Deeply Sensible of the Sad and Calamitous Condition of This your Majesties Kingdom Occasioned Chiefly by the Impious and Malicious Conspiracies of a Popish Party who have not only Plotted and Intended the Destruction of your Majesties Royal Person but the Total Subversion of the Government and True Religion Established among us c. All which Our Many and Grievous Sins have Iustly Deserved and being now by your Gracious Favour Assembled in Parliament c. do in All Humility beseech your Majesty that by your Royal Proclamation one or More Days may be Solemnly set a-part wherein both our Selves and All your Majesties Loyal Subjects may by Fasting and Prayer Seek a Reconciliation with Allmighty God and with Humble and Penitent Hearts Implore him by his Power and Goodness to Infatuate and Defeat the Wicked Councils and Machinations of our Enemies c. HEre 's just the Style of the Old Blessed Times over again when Days of Humiliation were used to be set a-part for the Kings Success against the Rebells A Body would have thought by the Solemnity of the Wording of it that there had been Sword Pestilence and Famine Earthquakes and Fire and Brimstone in the Case Now Every Thing help'd to Move Terror Iealousie Mortal Animosities Indignation and Transports of Ardent and of Vindictive Zeal Even to the Degree of a Temptation to break through all the Barrs of Duty Shame Modesty Conscience and Respect Beside that upon the making of God Almighty a Party to the Quarrel Temporal Power Thrones and Magistrates are no better Accounted then Dirt under the Feet of Enthusiastique Bigotts To Conclude the Addresses for One Day of Humiliation should have put the Kingdom Methinks upon Petitioning for another for the Sin of the very Addresses At least if the Plot should in the End Prove False at the Bottom But after all this Dust and Scuffle now betwixt Petitioners and Ahorrers True-Protestants and Pensioners Whigg and Tory Observator and Trimmer there are several more Difficulties yet behind to be Enquir'd into It is a Thing Evident without Dispute that a Prince Cannot be more Affronted and Endanger'd then by Pinching him in his Revenue Paring and Cramping his Royal Prerogative and Power Lessening him in his Reputation and putting him out of Condition of Receiving the Servicâ—s of his Dutifull Friends and Those Friends out of Condition to Support and to Maintain the Honour and Dignity of their Master Now all this has been Attempted and Pursued with the Vttermost Industry and Bitterness Imaginable But here was a Dev'lish Plot it seems and for That Dev'lish Plots Sake the Heir of the Crown must be Disinherited and the Roman Catholiques in a manner Exterminated from off the face of the Earth and no other way in the World to Save our Prince and our Religion as the Infallible Oracle of St. Stephens Chappel gives us to Vnderstand but by a Fair Riddance of all the Kings English Subjects of That Persuasion which by Pursuivanting Messengering Sergeanting Cooping-up Squeezing Rifling Plundering and Oppressing they had well-nigh Effected already Only the Late King stuck at the Exclusion of the Duke But however the Faction had such an Offer made them by the way of a kind of Composition for the Exclusion as would certainly have put them into the Possession of Their Own Wishes If they had not been most Providentially Infatuated into the Neglect or Refusal of it to the Preservation of the Crown the Duke the Royal Line and the
Monarchy it self And here comes the Expedient My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons THat Royal Care which his Majesty hath taken for the general quiet and satisfaction of all his Subjects is now more evident by those new and fresh Instances of it which I have in Command to open to you His Majesty has Considered with himself that 't is not enough that your Religion and Liberty is secure during his own Reign but he thinks he owes it to his People to do all that in Him lies that these Blessings may be transmitted to your Posterity and so well secured to them that no Succession in After-ages may be able to work the least Alteration And therefore His Majesty who hath often said in This place that He is ready to consent to any Laws of this Kind so that the same extend not to Alter the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line nor to defeat the Succession hath now Commanded this to be further Explained And to the end it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any Change either in Church or State I am Commanded to tell you that his Majesty is willing that Provision may be made first to distinguish a Papist from a Protestant Successor then so to limit and circumscribe the Authority of a Popish Successor in these Cases following that he may be disabled to do any harm First In reference to the Church His Majesty is content that care be taken that all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Benefices and Promotions in Gifts of the Crown may be conferred in such a manner that we may be sure the Incumbents shall always be of the most Pious and Learned Protestants And that no Popish Successour while he continue so may have any power to Controul such Presentments In reference to the State and Civil part of the Government as it is already provided that no Papist can Sit in either House of Parliament So the King is pleased that it be provided too That there may never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to Dye But that the Parliament then in Being may continue Indissolvable for a competent time Or if there be no Parliament in being then the last Parliament which was in being before that time may Re-Assemble and Sit a competent time without any New Summons or Election And as no Papist can by Law hold any place of Trust so the King is content that it may be further Provided That no Lords or other of the Privy Council no Iudges of the Common Law or in Chancery shall at any time during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put in or displaced but by the Authority of Parliament And that care also be taken that none but sincere Protestants may be Iustices of the Peace In Reference to the Military part the King is willing That no Lord-Lieutenant or Deputy-Lieutenant nor no Officer in the Navy during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put out or removed but either by Authority of Parliament or of such Persons as the Parliament shall intrust with such Authority 'T is hard to invent another Restraint to be put upon a Popish Successor considering how much the Revenue of the Successor will depend upon consent of Parliament and how impossible it is to raise Money without such Consent But yet if any thing can else occur to the Wisdom of the Parliament which may further secure Religion and Liberty against a Popish Successor without defeating the Right of Succession it self His Majesty will most readily Consent to it Thus Watchfull is the King for all your safety and if he could think of any thing else that you do either want or wish to make you happy he would make it his Business to effect it for you God Almighty Long continue this Blessed Vnion between the King and his Parliament and People NOt to Descant beyond Good Manners upon this Wonderfull Offer The Government seem'd now Cross or Pile whether it should be a Monarchy or a Common-Wealth But all Treating and Propounding pass'd with them for Dodging So that they put-off the Consideration of it Day after Day till the 11 th of May following and Then upon a Sundays Uote they came to a Resolution of having A Bill brought in to Disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of This Realm Which was follow'd with the Revenging Vote in the Tayle on 't Now this was rather a Mockery then an Answer and a Proceeding that had more of Haughtiness and Insolence then of Prudence for it was their Interest to have been more Mannerly and Modest But their Bus'ness was Matter of Power and Command not Grievance and Redress and the Kings Complyances in this Matter were Worse then Flat Denyals For the more He Yielded the Harder They Press'd him and the Inference was Reasonable Enough from the Gaining of One thing after Another by Importunity to the getting of All at Last In short they had set their Hearts upon the Exclusion and their Reputations too were so far at Stake upon 't that the Carrying of That Point Either way was a kind of Victory on the One side or on the Other They had said they Would have it they had Tun'd the People to the Expectation of it and therefore Have it they Muâ—t Insomuch that More any Other way seem'd Less to 'em For to be Refus'd and to sit down with That Repulse would have been to Lose Ground And they were upon Any Terms to Uphold the Credit of their Authority and rhe Reason of their Demands as well as the Opinion of their Power Delays are Hazzardous and they were rather for One Kingdom in Hand then Two or Three in Reversion upon the Emprovement of the Project But they reckon'd without their Host it seems for that Bout and so left the Stage and the Debate Re Infecta UPON the Meeting of the Next Parliament they Open'd a little Wider Declaring in an Address of December 21. 1680. That in Truth the Exclusion Alone would not do the Bus'ness without an Association to Back it Nay and This was not sufficient neither for As some further means says the Same Address for the Preservation both of our Religion and Property We are humble Suitors to your Majesty that from hence-forth Such Persons only may be Judges c. And so it proceeds to the Purging and Regulating of Courts of Iustice the Choice of Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Leutenants and Iustices of the Peace Military Officers both at Sea and Land with an Express Exception all this while to Men of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery c. That is to say Always Excepted the Pernicious Advisers of Proroguing Parliaments and Rejecting Bills of Exclusion So that in fine the Devil a Dram of Popery was here to be found upon the Foot of This Account nor any thing else but Sedition under a Masque
draw from This Preposterous way of Proceeding is that the Whole Story from End to End was a Practice that the Suborners of the Perjury were also the Protectors and the Patrons of it Both under One And that they had their Accomplices in the House of Commons upon This Crisis of State that play'd the same Game which their Fore-fathers had done upwards of Forty Years before The Earl of Shaftsbury a Busie Man in our Late Troubles BUt after the History of the Wickedness of These People it will be Needfull to look a little into the Woe they Wrought us Or at least to Compute upon the Calamitous Infelicities of That Season and Whence they took theâ—r Rise The Man knows little of the Histoâ—y of Our Troubles that 's a Stranger to the Life Practice and Character of the Late Earl of Shaftsbury who had the Wit in All Changes and Revolutions of State still to Turn Tail to the Weather and Swim with the Tyde And he did This too by Nature as well as by Application for beside the Advantages of a Mercurial Humour a Ready Tongue And a Dext'rous Address he had none of Those Vulgar Barrs upon him of Honour Shame or Conscience to put any Checque to the Impetuous Course of his Ambitious Lusts I am not upon the Story of his Life but it shall serve My Purpose to say that thorough All the Vsurpations from Forty to Sixty he came Sailing down still before the Wind and so from that time forward steer'd by the same Compass ON November 17. 1672. His Lordship being already Chancellour of the Exchequer and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury was further Advanc'd by his Majesty to the Keeping of the Great Seal with the Title of Lord Chancellour of England And upon the 8th of November 1673. He was Discharg'd of That Commission Upon the Opening of the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. His Lordship in a Large and Elegant Speech Blesses God and the King as follows LEt us Bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which Rages in our Neighbours Countrys our Garners are full and there is no Complaining in our Streets c. Let us Bless God that he hath given This King Signally the Hearts of his People and most Particularly of This Parliament Let us Bless the King for taking away All our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies for those Assurances and Promises he hath made us Let us Bless God and the King that our Religion is Safe That the Church of England is the Care of our Prince That Parliaments are Safe That our Properties and Liberties are Safe What more hath a Good Englishman to Ask but that This King may Long Reign and that This Triple-Allyance of King Parliament and People may never be Dissolv'd HIs Lordships Matters as yet went Merrily on and his Good Humour kept pace with his Good Fortune But so soon as ever the Wind came about All these Blessings were thrown over the Left Shoulder The Clouds began now to Gather and soon after Discharge themselves in a Storm upon Papists and Publique Ministers In This Mood they brought-on the Bill about the Test whereof Andrew Marvel for the Honour of his Noble Patron gives This Account The Parliament having met the 5th of Feb. 1672. Prepared an Act before the Mony-Bill Slipt thorough their Fingers by which the Papists were Obliged to Pass thorough a New State-Purgatory to be Capable of Any Publique Employment Vpon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellor of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of That Act and of the Protestant Religion that in due time it Cost him his Place and was the First Moving Cause of all Those Mis-adventures and Obloquy which since he lies ABOVE not UNDER IT deserves a Note the Libellous Deduction Marvel gives the World of the Kings Administration of Affairs as well Before as After This Celebrated Exploit of my Lord Shaftsbury's in a flat Contradiction to his Lordships Character of the King and to his Report of the Happy the Safe and the Peaceable State of the Government For whoever reads That Pamphlet will find it only an Artificial Scandal Imposture Cast-out to the Multitude upon set Purpose to make his Majesty Odious to his People One would have thought that the Gaining of the Test-Bill should have set their Hearts a little at Ease but That was not sufficient without calling for Fast upon Fast Raising the Militia Voting down the Guards Enquiring into Publique Grievances c. which being Said and Done with a Noverint Vniversi in the Eyes and Ears of the Nation is all one in many Cases with Ringing the Bells Backward and Firing the Beacons as if the Town were a Burning or an Enemy Landed and as far as Black-Heath in their March to London And all upon the Old and Everlasting Ground of Iealousie and Apprehension still That is to say BECAVSE The Restless Practices of Popish Recusants threatn'd the subversion both of Church and State. The Wheel was now in Motion and they drove like Iehu 'till they Dropt at last into Otes's Bottomless Plot. Shaftsbury had been a long time at the Trade of Fast and Loose and what with Industry Craft Malice and Experience the Fittest Man perchance in the Three Kingdoms to be the Head of a Faction And he was the Fitter for 't because his very Inclination prompted him to Mischief Even for Mischiefs sake It was his Way and his Humour to Tear All to pieces where he could not be the First Man in Bus'ness Himself And yet All this while his Faculty was rather a Quirking way of Wit then a Solidity of Iudgment and he was much Happier at Pulling-down then at Building-up In One Word He was a man of Subtlety not of Depth and his Talent was Fancy rather then Wisdom His Arts were Popular and after All his Politiques he was as great an Hypocrite in his Vnderstanding as in his Manners But the Best Incendiary yet upon the Face of the Earth for he had an Excellent Invention and a Protesting Face without either Faith or Truth Now when the Common People are to be Couzen'd One Imposture puts off Another and False Conclusions follow Naturally upon False Premises This is the Brief of his Character from those that knew and understood him Best and a man cannot do Right to the History without giving the Next Age a True Account of a Person that had so Great a Hand in the Confusions of This 'T is with the Mobile as with the Waters the very Blowing upon them makes them Troublesom and Dangerous and in the End to Overflow their Banks His Author sets him forth as the Great Advocate and Champion for the Bill of the Test and makes him Effectually
is This Let him be Detected of a Thousand Falsities A man is Pop't in the Mouth with this Answer Where 's your Record Why You might have Indicted him If you can Produce a Record you say Something when yet to my Certain Knowledge Means have been made by Application and Petition for Leave to Prosecute him for Perjury according to the Ordinary Methods of Common Iustice and there was no Obtaining of it This in one Instance for All was the Case of Mr Cox a Linnen-Draper in Covent Garden who Frankly and Honestly made the Attempt and he was only Brow-Beaten Repuls d and Baffled for his Pains I would fain get over This Topique but the Nature the Reason and the Importance of the Subject in hand forces me to be yet a little more at Large It will now come into Course to see what Quarrel it is that SrWilliam Iones had to the Testimony of Mr. Lydcot First as he was Secretary to the Earle of Castlemain he was True to his Lord. 2 ly In the Honour and Freedom of a Companion to Him He was Iust to his Noble Friend 3 ly In taking Notes for my Lords Service who was himself Concern'd in Otes'es Accusation He did no more then what in Generosity Good Faith Common Humanity Tenderness and Prudence he was Bound to do He took Notes that he might be able upon any occasion in the Future to bear Witness to a Truth which Truth would have been as much Against my Lord if he were Guilty as For him if he were Innocent and the Service he Intended my Lord by These Notes was only the Attesting of a Truth on his Behalf in Confidence of his Integrity The Want of an Evidence in This Case would have been Just as Mortal as the want of a Record in the Other before Spoken of and mens Lives were Lost both ways in This Controversy for want of a Legal Proof of an Indubitable Truth So that here 's a short Result of the Stress of the Exception First Block-up the way to an Enformation of Perjury against a Forsworn Varlet and Then Hang-up an Honest Man for Want of one Make it a Misdemeanor and a Scandal High enough to Incapacitate any man for a Witness that shall Presume to take Notes in a Popish Cause and then Truss-up the Pretended Traytor though never so Innocent for want of an Evidence to Prove what was Said or Sworn upon such a Tryall Why This looks like Lying in Wait for Bloud when they find they Cannot reach a Man upon a Guilt of Fact to Ty-him-up by Surprize for either Ignorance or Neglect upon a Formality of Proof But in One Syllable now From a General Contemplation or Supposition of the Case to the Real Condition and Quality of that Case as it was found afterwards before a Court of Iustice in Truth and in Effect No man was More Press'd or Harder put to 't and no man put himself more Franckly upon his Iustification then my Lord Castlemaine I remember what Pains was taken upon his Lordships Tryal to make a Witness of Dangerfield A Wretch of a Character to bring an Infamy upon a Common Iayl. And I remember an Oath of Otes'es there in a Flat Contradiction to what he Swore in my Lord Staffords Tryal I have a Charge of High Treason says Otes against That Man one Mr. Hutchison an Evidence against him for Seducing me from my Religion My Lord I will Swear he Turn'd me to the Church of Rome and I desire it may be Recorded Lord Castlemain's Tryal fol. 51. Upon the whole Matter his Lordship was acquitted with Honour and to the Confusion of his Enemies and it is but a Bare Iustice Abstracted from All other Considerations to say that no Man Lâ—ving perhaps has given a more Vncontestable Proof of his Faith and Affections to the Crown then Himself And as to Mr Lydcot now Sr Iohn Lydcot and Worthily advanc'd to a more Honourable Station It is beyond Question that he Behav'd himself in This Office toward both the Government and my Lord Castlemaine with a Resolution and Integrity Answerable to the Character of a Man of Honour There have been so many Hares Started in my way and the Change of Subject has Carry'd me into so many Digressions that I had almost forgot one Passage which though formerly Cited Cannot be well Pass'd over in this Place There were Certain Quaeries offer'd to the House of Commons by the Sheriffs of London and Midl Dec. 23. 1680. about the Kings Prerogative in Dispensing with any part of the Sentence upon My Lord Stafford upon which occasion Sir W. I. Deliver'd his Opinion and Advice in These Words It is probable that the Royal Power hath always Dispensed with such Sentences formerly and if so This House Lyeth not under any Obligation to offer at any Opposition nor Concern themselves herein Especially at This Time when such a Dispute may End in Preventing the Execution of the said Lord Stafford And Therefore I humbly Conceive you may do well to give your Consent that the said writ be Executed according to its Tenure Collections p. 215. Here 's an Indubitable Prerogative subjected to a Question The Resolution given is that It is Probable c. Mr Attorneys Advice is Not to Offer at any Unseasonable Opposition for fear My Lord Stafford's Life might be Sav'd by 't Theâ—efore says he 〈◊〉 Give your Consent For the Avoiding of Confusion I have Interjected where there was Room Convenient for 't Some Remarques and Reflexions upon the Attorny Generalls State of the Evidence and upon the Progress of his Animadversions in the Further Prosecution of that Pretended Popish Cause as well in the Quality of a Kings Councel upon the Tryals of Green Berry and Hill as in That afterward of a Principal Manager of the Evidence against my Lord Stafford This did not yet Hinder the Saving to my self the Liberty of a Word or Two more upon the Whole Matter at Last There are Three General Points that fall Naturally under Consideration in This Place First Did the Kings Witnesses as the Law Terms them Agree in their Evidence or Not 2 ly If they did Not Agree Where and How does That appear Did they Swear One Thing at One Time and Another Thing at Another Was not their Evidence in Court the Same with that before the King and Councel The Kings Iustices of the Peace the Two Houses and the Committees 3 ly Was Sir W. I. Sufficiently Arm'd and Instructed with All Necessary Powers and Papers for the Perfect Vnderstanding of the Matter both in the Whole and in Every Part To These Three Questions I return These Three Answers First That there are Disagreements and Inconsistencies in the Evidence both Ioyntly and Severally that are Utterly Impossible to be Reconcil'd 2 ly I appeal for the Proof of This to the Council-Books The Lords Iournal and the Printed Tryals even under All their Partialities where their Depositions many times are no more
the Plot-Masters had not been Conscious and thoroughly Satisfy'd that the Five Letters were a Downright Cheat they would Undoubtedly have Serv'd them up in Evidence but the Forgery was so Gross that the very Producing of them would have broke the Neck of the Whole Design for the Practice lay as Open as the Sun and out of the Power Reach nay and Possibility of any False Oath to Cover it The Party I say would have Insisted upon 'em if they Durst So that they Suppress'd them Wilfully and upon Prepense Purpose and Deliberation and whenever any man living shall furnish but the Least Shadow of any other Reason for the Suppressing of them then an Inhumane Thirst of Bloud or a Manifest Partiality to one of the most Impious Practices that ever was under the Cope of Heaven I will Submit to have Here lies a fool and a Knave Written upon my Grave-Stone These Letters says Sir William Iones in his Report if they can be so Prov'd as to be Believ'd to be the Hands of the Several Persons by whom they are said to be Written do â—ully make out the Guilt of the Writers Sir W. Iones in his Report upon These Letters with the Rest of the Evidence does yet Want a Second Testimony to Back Otes'es If he had given Credit to these Letters the Proof would have been Full. If he had but Doubted the Forgery he would have made some Essay upon Proving the Hand But out of all Dispute it is that he Desponded of them at First Sight and so they were let fall never to Rise again In One Syllable more now to Expound my self upon This Matter I speak only of those that Officially had the whole Affair under that Care and Consideration without Expecting that Other men should Divine upon Things that they were Strangers to and that lay out of their Province Here is as much said as is Needfull upon the Subject Matter of These Two Chapters That is to say concerning Sir William Iones'es Opinion both of the Plot and the Plot-makers from the Stating of the Evidence in October 1678. to the Death of my Lord Stafford in December 1680. And there is as much done as is Needfull too Since That Time to the Proving of the Whole History of That Pretended Popish Conspiracy that Cost so many Innocent Lives and wrought so much Mischief both to King and People to have been only a Scandalous Imposture Bolster'd-up with Perjury and Subornation But How That Sham came to be Started What it Was and Who was the Founder of it is to be the Subject of the Next Chapter CHAP. III. The Pretended Popish Conspiracy was a New Plot made of an Old One and Dr. Tong not Otes was the Founder and Contriver of it IT Fell-out that some short Time after the Broaching of the Pretended Popish Plot One Boulter a Bookseller brought me Tong 's Royal Martyr for a License I could not Pass it and the Bookseller went Mumbling away with a kind of Menace betwixt his Teeth for the Refusal Upon This I went and told Tong at Whitehall that I could not give it an Imprimatur and so Pointed him out over and above Certain Scandalous Reflexions and Historical Mistakes to some Unlucky Hints in the Preface that People I said would be apt to take Offence at You tell the World said I that you have with Great Care Drawn-up the History of the Old Popish Plot meaning the Bus'ness of Andreas ab Habernfeld and that shewing it to Dr. Otes who very much Approv'd of the Draught You did as Good as tell him Titus it were worth the while to know if This Plot does not go on still Wherefore do you go and put your self among the Jesuites and see whether it does or No. You say further that Dr Otes Did go among them pretending to be One of them and that when he came back he told you that the Bus'ness went-on and that it was no New Plot but the Old One Continued Well says Dr. Tong All This is True and where 's the Offence So I up and told him that it might be look'd upon as a Strange Councell either to Give or to Take The Advice Given said I is This Titus do you go over and pretend to be a Papist Take All their Oaths and Tests Ioyn with them in an Idolatrous Worship for so Tong Reputed it and Swear your self to the Devil through Thick and Thin only to see whether it be Cross or Pile This seems to Me to be the Advice Given and the Following of This Advice upon Fore-thought and Consideration may be taken for as Extraordinary a Resolution The Doctors Answer was to This Purpose God Allmighty will do his Work by his Own Way and Method This Account was Printed in 1681. in The Shammer Shamm'd p. 8. together with several Letters and Papers of Young Tong 's Confirming every Particular and though they were Publish'd in the very Heat of the Republican Conspiracy and my Name at Length to the Edition there was not One Syllable Objected to the Truth of it There was as little said too in Exception to an Advertisement of May. 15. 1682. Obs. 138. Vol. 1. Wherein was Notify'd that Simpson Tong Endeavour'd to Destroy the Credit of Otes and of his Evidence and that if any Man would Prosecute him I my self would find Materials to Proceed upon Thâ—re are Five or Six Passages in the Matter above that upon the Tacking of them together will Naturally leade us into the Train of the Story that I am now upon First It was an Odd kind of Bus'ness Tong 's Stumbling upon the Old Popish Plot of Habernfeld which was only the finding out of a Modell to make Another Plot by 2 ly What did he shew the Draught of it to Otes for but to set him his Lesson 3 ly There 's Otes'es Approbation of it As who should say I 'm of your Mind whatever it is 4 ly Tong 's sending Otes away among the Iesuits to see if the Old Plot of allmost Forty Year standing went on still or Not. Now This was not so much to Tell him what he was to Look for as what he was to Find 5 ly Consider Otes'es Adventure upon That Errand The Blockhead went first for Spain and after a while came back again not One jot the Wiser Tong finding that he was not Thoroughly possest of the Hint was forc'd to be a little Plainer with him and not only Advis'd him to go Over-Sea again but gave him the very Reason and his Business i. e. If he could but get the Names of the Jesuits Learn their Ways and make Acquaintance among them the People might be Easily stirr'd up to Fear Popery and it would be the Making of him for ever Now This Making of him Tong call'd putting him in a way This shall be Expounded by and by 6 ly 'T is Remarkable how Otes Edify'd upon the Second Handling by the Discovery he made to Tong at his Next
61. Order'd to Manage the Fire at the Hermitage 71. To carry the White-Horse Consult from Company to Company fol. 18. And was not Our Discoverer Privy to Wakeman's Poyson Conyers'es Dagger Pickerings Screw'd-Gun and the Silver Bullets The History of the Black-Bills the Pilgrims Ruffians and the Levies of Men and Mony c. Was not Otes privy to a matter of Eighteen Commissions Military and Civil under the Hand of Ioannes Paulus De Oliva by Vertue of a Brief from the Pope as he Swore before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs One of them to Iohn Lambert to be Adjutant-General to the Army and Nine or Ten of them Deliver'd with his Own Hand Was he not Privy in fine to the Price of the Whole Villany to a Single Six-Pence So that as to the matter of Privity the Privity of Habernfeld and his Principal is quite Out-done by the Privity of Tong and Otes who according to their Narrative and Pretensions were Vndoubtedly Privy to Fifty times more then ever any Two men upon the face of the Earth were Privy to before them The Discoverer says the Preface again was Troubled in Conscience and Therefore Disclosed the Conspiracy Renounc'd That Bloudy Church and Religion though Promised Greater Advancements for his Diligence in This Design Ib. And what was it but Horror of Conscience too if we may believe Oaths either Iudicial or Extrajudicial that made our Converted Discoverers whether Papists Bred-up or Proselyted to Disclose This Popish Treason and to Renounce That Bloudy Religion in Defiance of All Offers of Rewards and Advancement Was not Dugdale to have 500 l. Lord Staffords Tryal p. 43. And to be Sainted Ib. 44. Was not Bedloe to have 4000 l. in the Case of Godfrey Greens Tryal p. 30. And might not Otes and all his Fellows have come in for Their Snips to if their Consciences would have Touch'd But This Plot was Discover'd under an Oath of Secrecy says the Preface and the Discoverer Offer'd his Own Oath too in Confirmation of the Particulars Ib. What was Bedloes Sacrament of the Altar Twice a Week to Conceal the Plot Greens Tryal fol. 33. but an Oath of Secrecy Dugdale took at least Ten Sacraments of Secrecy Sr George Wakemans Tryal p. 10. Otes an Oath of Secresy at Weld-House-Chappel Irelands Tryal p. 28. And then there was Another Oath of Secrecy taken at Fox-Hall too And so for the Rest Our Discoverers did not only Offer but Deliver their Own Oaths in Confirmation of Every Article Habernfeld Discovers Persons Places and Times of Meeting too Ib. And does not Otes Discover the Lords in the Tower and such Others of the Nobility and Gentry as are in the Conspiracy See his Narrative from fol. 61. to the End. Their Priests Iesuits and Papists of All Sorts The Times and Places of their Meetings Even to the Year Week Day Nay and sometimes to the very Hour One while at the Savoy Another while at the White-Horse Russel-Street Weld-Street and the like Well! But Habernfeld's Principal Conspirators are known to be Fit Instruments for such a Design Ib. And are not Otes'es as Fit Instruments as Habernfelds The Principals are most of them Men of Quality Brains Interest and Estate and Consequently better Qualify'd then other People for the Execution of any Mischief they have a Mind to Beside that as 't is a Popish Plot they are not only to be All Roman Catholiques but All made Principals too without leaving so much as One Soul of them to Witness for Another Now as there 's no Means of Clearing them on the One hand saving by Palpable Blunders and Contradictions on the Part of the Accusers So if any of 'em will Swear to the Hanging-up of his Fellows on the Other Hand he is presently made Sacred under the Character of a Kings Evidence and Touch not his Majesties Witness carries more Authority along with it then Touch not the Lords Anointed The Preface says further that Sir W. Boswell and the Arch-Bishop if not the King Himself were fully Satisfy'd that the Plot was Reall Ib. Men may be Satisfy'd in the Reality of a Thing and yet Mistaken about it As we have found many Men in Both Plots that have Seem'd to be Satisfy'd and yet afterward abundantly Convinced that they were Abus'd So that the Belief of a Thing does not Necessarily Inferr the Truth of it but it must be the Work of Time and Scrutiny to Perfect the Discovery Neither do I find Effectually that there was so much Credit given to Habernfelds Plot as is here Suggested A Nemine Contradicente is No Article of my Faith Though it says that There Is and Hath been a Damnable and Hellish Plot Contriv'd and Carry'd on by Popish Recusants for Assassinating and Murdering the King for Subverting the Government and Rooting-out and Destroying the Protestant Religion Commons Iournal Oct. 31. 1678. Though I must Confess they had One Powerfull way of Convincing Men by the Argument of Swearing them out of their Reputations Lives Liberties and Fortunes if they would Not Believe it The Parallel holds thus far Exactly and we 'le see now how it Suites with the Minutes of Habernfelds Letter to the Arch-Bishop which I have made as short as I can for the Readers Ease and for my Own. The Minutes of Habernfelds Letter Beside Expectation This Good Man says Habernfeld speaking of the First Discoverer became Known unto me p. 1. By the same Providence it was that Otes Bedloe Prance and Twenty more of our Plot-Merchant-Adventurers came Acquainted Bedloe Swore to the Lords that he did not know Otes 'till it came out by Providence that he knew him as Ambrose but not as Otes And so Otes to requite his Kindness knew Williams though he did not know Bedloe 'T was such another Wonderfull Providence Bedloes knowing Prance over a Pot of Ale at Heaven after he had Enquired and been Told which was Prance in the Commons-Lobby Damme says Bedloe That 's one of the Rogues that Murder'd Sr Edmundbury Godfrey As to the Scottish Stirs he speaks of p. 1. Otes'es Missionaries Answer Habernfelds Scotch Lords of whom hereafter The Factions of the Iesuits thorough England and Scotland p. 2. and the Discoverers Descant we have in Dr. Beale's Readings to Tong upon them Otes'es Narrative â—its the Adjacent Writing there spoken of Ib. Habernfeld got Free Liberty to Treat Ib. And so did Tong. There must be No Delay says Habernfeld Ib. Make Otes'es Enformation a Record Immediately says Tong And so away goes the One to Sr William Boswell Ib. the Other to Sr Edmund-bury Godfrey And now forward As Some Principal Heads in Habernfeld's Relation were purposely Pretermitted p. 3. So Bedloe shorten'd his Evidence against Whitebread and Fenwick in the Iesuits Tryal and Swore Further after he had Sworn All Before And so did Otes and the rest Purposely Pretermit many things
an Impeachment a Tryal and after That a Verdict By Vertue of which Verdict all the Mistakes that led to 't are made Sacred and Authentique and Then 's the Time for Declamatoryes and Exaggerations And when the Conscience at Last the Wisdom and the Iustice of the Nation come to be all Concern'd in the Espousing of such an Error the Lord have Mercy upon that People untill Time that is the Mother of Truth and Experience that is the Daughter of Time shall put Mens Heads and Hearts in their Right Places again There was in sooth so much Application and Artifice us'd to give This sad Accident the face of a Popish Contrivance Design and Execution that they broach'd the Report of it as a Thing Resolv'd Pass'd and Done even while Sir Edmund was yet living to prepare People for the Fiction that was to Follow. Of this we shall say something hereafter Upon the First Rumour of his being Missing there were several Surmises of Fancy and Conjecture put about what might be Become of him One while he was Murthered in Arundell House Another while in My Lord Bellasis Cellar And then again the Duke of Norfolk's Coach was seen to come from Prim-rose-Hill the Saturday that he went away But in fine Somerset-House was the Place they pitch'd upon and That They Stuck to It was but Requisite that it should be a Popish Place to Answer a Popish Conspiracy and Reconcile it to a Popish Intelligence For the Plot was at that Time Almost Cold in the Mouth and they were fain to take in the Murther to get Credit to the Treason It was a Thousand Pitties that when the Devil had Furnished them with so plausible an Argument to work upon they could find no better Pretence for the Strangling of him then to get the Enformations out of his Hands Bedloe swears indeed that They Treated with him about those Enformations before the Smothering of him betwixt two Pillows But Prance swears that his Bus'ness was done with a Twisted Handkerchief without so much as the Ceremony of by your leave Sir Edmond which was much the Courser way of the Two But a Note by the By Now Why should they expect to find the Enformations still in his Pocket that he had Taken Some of them a Fortnight and Others Five Weeks before Or what would it have availed them if they had taken the Papers too when they Dispatched the Iustice Could not Tong and Otes that they left behind them have Sworn the same Enformations Forty times over again and have made them Fifty times stronger then they were at First Beside that they had been in the Kings Hands Already above Two Months before To draw toward a Close when Bedloe had once Declar'd himself for their Turn they wanted another Witness yet to Second Bedloe but Principally for the Tacking of the Murther to the Plot To which End they Swore Prance into the Noose and left him This Choice before him Whether being Innocent he would Confess Himself to be a Murtherer and so Scape or Deny it and Hang But Charity began at home and he Chose the Perjury By This Time they were a Gleek of Knaves strong to the Two Great Points and every one of the Three Seconded the Other Two both to the Plot and to the Murther which was a Point well enough Order'd by the Contrivance of making the same Persons as Walsh Pritchard Le Phaire Parties to Both. The Authority of This Imposture was Established in such a Manner that there was no Touching the Murther without an Indignity to the Plot nor any Touching the Plot without Grating upon the Murther Nay the Somerset-House Relation was held to be so Authentique that there was nothing to be Bated on 't to the very Spright and the Piss-pot They had an Excellent way too of Breaking into their Particulars by a Previous Proof of the General Plot which Enrag'd the Multitude before ever they came to the Cause in Hand to such a Degree that the Prisoner at the Barr was as good as Condemn'd before he was Heard And Truss'd-up by the Sentence of the Rabble for the Sins of his Fore-Fathers This may suffice to shew the Reason and the Manner of making Godfrey's Murther a Branch of the Popish Plot. It follows next to see how far Bedloe and Prance gave Evidence to them both in one CHAP. III. Bedloe and Prance Swore to the Plot as well as to the Murther THE Question is not in This Place whether Prance and Bedloe upon the Matter of Fact swore True or False but how far they Swore to the Murther and to the Plot Both under One and how far They took upon them to Swear to the Plot over and above the Murther And not to a Plot at Random neither but Catechistically if a Body may so say to the Parts Branches and Articles Directly or Indirectly of Otes's Narrative Every Body knows that Bedloe came-in with a Cry only of Murther in his Mouth but for the Conspiracy he Declared that he knew nothing at all on 't though 't is likely enough that another Five-Hundred-Pound-Proclamation for the Discovery of the Plot might have refreshed his Memory without Need of a Prompter And who knows but his Compunction might have wrought as Heartily upon him in That Case for fear of the Kings Life as his Remorse of Conscience did in the Other for the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey But I am now to bring my Chapter to my Text and in the First Place to take a short View of the Evidence that These Two Iustice-Killers Deliver'd upon the History of the Plot. The Informations I know are Many Intricate and Tedious but a brief Abstract of the Whole will serve my Present Turn Every jot as well as Copies at Large So that I shall Content my self to make the Matter as Short and as Orderly as I can without more Trouble either to the Reader or to my Self then needs must To take the Thrid of the Story along with me Upon the 5 th of November 1678. Bedloe came from Bristoll upon This Adventure directly for London where he was Examin'd on the 7 th by the Two Principal Secretaries of State in the Presence of His Late Majesty touching the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Declaring upon his Oath at the same Time that He could say Nothing at All to the Plot that was Then in Question And the Lords Iournal does Effectually hold forth as much as That comes to upon the said Examnation Nov. 8. 1678. THe Lord Treasurer Reported by His Majesties Directions that Yesterday one William Bedloe was examin'd at Whitehall concerning the Discovery of the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that his Majesty had given Order he should be brought to give This House an Account thereof Who being brought to the Barr and having his Oath given him made a Large Narrative to This Effect That he was born in Monmouthshire and was of the Church of England till within these Two Years
that by Persuasion and Promises from the Jesuits he was drawn over to them that he is not in Orders He KNOWS that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murthered in Somerset-house c. Lords Journal From hence it appears that he had been Examin'd about the Murther and that he was now to give an account to the Lords of what he knew Concerning that Matter But when his Hand was once In he was pleas'd out of a Superabundant Zeal for the Safety of the King and his Government and for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion to Launch out into the Depths of the Plot with a New and Supplemental Evidence Wherein he says further that Walsh and Le Phaire Enform'd him that the Lord Bellassis had a Commission to Command Forces in the North the Earl of Powis in South-Wales and the Lord Arundel of Warder had a Commission from the Pope to grant Commissions to whom he pleased that Coleman had been a great Agitator in the Design against the King and that he asking the Iesuits why they had not formerly told him what they had Design'd concerning the Kings Death they Answered that None but whom my Lord Bellassis gave Directions for were to know it Desired he might have Time to put the whole Narrative in Writing which he had Begun And being asked If he knew Titus Otes he Deny'd it Lords Iournal Nov. 8. 1678. But he had a Salvo for This afterwards which was that he knew him by the Name of Ambrose not by the Name of Otes Journal 29. 1678. And such another Fetch he had in the Case of Whitebread I speak it with a Caution says he That I never heard of Whitebread that he was so very much Concern'd And indeed I had No Reason to say so because I heard him my self and could not so well speak from the Hear-say of Another Five Jesuits Tryals P. 32. Immediately upon This Evidence an Order was Pass'd to make a Strict Search for Charles Walsh Le Phaire and other Suspicious Persons c. and an Address the Day following for a Proclamation against Conyers Simmonds Walsh Le Phaire Pritchard and Cattaway as Persons Guilty of the Damnable and Hellish Plot c. Nov. 12. 1678. The Lord Marquess of Winton reported that the Committee appointed to take Examinations for the Discovery of the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey have spent Many days therein and do present the House Two Examinations of Mr. William Bedloe and some Examinations of several other Persons His Lordship said that the Lords Committees did Conjure William Bedloe to speak Nothing but Truth and he did in the Presence of God as he should Answer it at the Day of Iudgment assure All to be true he had Depos'd Lords Journal Then the Examinations taken November the 8th 1678. at the Committee of Lords for Enquiring into the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey were read Lords Journal After he had spoken to the Murther he proceeds as before to the Plot but not without Intermixing here and there a Word even in the Depositions touching the Murther that Skew'd upon the Plot too There was a Man to be Kill'd he says that was a great Obstacle of their Design And then he speaks Afterward Of the Principal Plotters of that Design against the King and so Passes-on to his Evidence about the Conspiracy under the Title of The Further Examinations of William Bedloe being Sworn at the Bar. THe Monks at Doway told him the Design he said and after Four Sacraments of Secrecy they sent him to Harcourt a Iesuit in Duke-street who Provided for him and sent him to Paris c. Le Phaire Walsh Pritchard and Lewis told him what Lords were to Govern What Men to be Rais'd Forty Thousand to be ready in London What Succours to be Expected Ten Thousand from Flanders Twenty or Thirty Thousand Religious Men and Pilgrims from St. Iago Hull to be Surpriz'd But just in the Godspeed the Plot was Discover'd Le Phaire gave him a Sacrament of Secrecy They told him Who and Who were to be kill'd and the Men that were to do the Work. Le Phaire saâ—d further that Conyers was My Lord Bellassis's Confessor and Communicated his Orders and that they were resolv'd if any Plotters were Taken to Dispatch 'em before they could be brought to a Tryal or to Burn the Prison And he Deposes moreover that Le Phaire Pritchard Lewis Keines Walsh and others had often told him That there was not a Roman Catholique in England of any Quality or Credit but was acquainted with this Design of the Papists and had râ—ceived the Sacrament from their Father-Confessors to be Secret aad Assistant in the Carrying of it on Lords Journal Nov. 12. 1678. On the 18th of November 1678. He Deliver'd an Enformation upon Oath concerning the Plot to the Lord Chief Iustice in the Speakers Chamber which was in Effect but so much over again adding only that the part assign'd him was to bring and carry Orders and Counsels and all other Intelligences from One Army to Another upon All occasions he knowing every Part and Road of England and Wales That about the Latter end of April or the beginning of May last was a Twelvemonth about Six a Clock in the Afternoon there was a Consult held in the Chappel-Gallery at Somerset-House where were present the Lord Bellasis and he thinks the Lord Powis Mr. Coleman Le Phaire Pritchard Latham and Sheldon and Two French-men in Orders whom he took to be Abbots and two other Persons of Quality but did not see their Faces and Others Amongst Them the Queen And further that Coleman and Pritchard told him that after the Consult the Queen Wept at what was propos'd there but was Over-perswaded to Consent by the Strength of Two French-men's Arguments That he was below walking in the Chappel at the Time of the Consult with others c. That after the Consult the Queen came through the Room where the Priests Dress'd Themselves and that he then observ'd some Alteration in her Majesties Council Chamber Nov. 27. 1678. And so he runs on into a Ramble of his carrying Letters for France and Treasonous Discourses betwixt Stapilton and Himself at Cambray c. All of the same Batch with the other Presently upon This Enformation there Follow'd an Address for Removing the QUEEN and all her Family and All PAPISTS and REPVTED or SVSPECTED Papists from his Majesties Court at Whitehall There is one remarkable Deposition yet behind that was taken before the Council Iune 24. 1679. upon the Subject of the Consult last above mentioned which is not upon any Terms to be Pass'd over for Reasons to be given hereafter He brings the Queen into the Plot of Poysoning the King her Husband by the Hand of Sir Geo. Wakeman And says that He Himself being the Latter Part of the Last Summer in Harcourt 's Chamber Sir Geo. came in there in a great Huff saying Why should I be so Drill'd on and Slighted when I have Vndertaken so
on the 8 th he gave the Lords Committees a General Touch of the Popish Lords Commissions Armies to be rais'd of Coleman's being a Great Agitator in the Design against the King The Iesuits in the Conspiracy c. Desiring Time to put the Whole Narrative in Writing which he had Begun Now to Explain the Amusement of This Wild and Uncertain Generality the Revelation was but of One Days standing and they had not as yet Time enough to Concert the Particulars so that the Bare Naming of the Lords and their Commissions The very Hinting of Armies to be Rais'd and the simple Mention of Coleman for an Agitator was as much as Bedloe durst venture Upon without further Lights and Instructions Coleman's Accusation was then upon the Anvil and the Plot the Ground-Work of the Whole Transaction but there was No want of Heart and good Will All this While to the Emproving of This Occasion and his desire of Time to put the Whole Narrative in Writing carry'd the very same Countenance as if he should have said Pray My Lords spare us but Three or Four Days to Confer with the Managers of the Intrigue and let us alone for a Damnable Hellish Popish Plot ready Cut and Dry'd and a Second Witness to support it This is so fair and Reasonable a Gloss upon the Text That the Lords Committees were not without some Jelousies of it even in the very First Instance as appears upon the same Journal by their asking Bedloe Whether he knew Otes or not And why should Bedloe then Deny the knowledge of him if he had not been Conscious that the Owning of an Acquaintance with him would have made the Evidence smell too Rank of a Confederacy But to Touch This Matter to the Quick It will appear by and By upon the Comparing of Notes and Resemblances that Bedloe and Prance were Initiated into This Mystery by the same Lesson of Instructions only with This Difference in the Motives to what they did that the One Forswore himself for Fear and the Other for Mony. Bedloe as I have sayd gave Evidence to the Murther upon the 7 th of November 1678. Prance was Committed on Saturday the 21. of December following for Assisting in the Murther of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey He was Examin'd the same Night and stood stiff in 't that he knew Nothing either of the Death of Godfrey or of the Popish Plot and Bedloe was as Positive upon the First Examination that He knew Nothing of the Plot neither Now the Plot was a Thing so Necessary that the Five-hundred-Pound-Murther would not have been worth Fifty Farthings without it and though the Bait was thrown out for the Discoverers of the Murther the Anglers were yet secur'd before-hand that upon a sound Bite they should draw up a Discoverer of the Plot for the Matter being Equally Both ways a Perjury the One they knew as I have noted before would be as Cheap as the other They had both of them however only One Night and no more to Sleep upon 't And it was Impossible in that Pinch of Time to bring their Matters to Agree in Every Point like a Pair of Tallyes And therefore Bedloe was fain to Content himself at Present with a Tale of a Cock and a Bull Just as the Journal sets it forth without any Pregnancy of Likelyhoods or Particularity of Circumstances to give it Credit Now Prance was upon his Peril to speak out at Four-and-Twenty-hours-warning too for on the same Day that he was taken up and Examin'd Damning himself to the Pit of Hell if he knew any thing either of the Death or of the Plot he was Committed to the Condemn'd Hole in Newgate Loaden with Heavy Irons And for That Night left to Chew upon 't whether he would venture his Soul or his Carcass which was the very Choice Before him In This Condition he lay both of Body and of Mind till Early next Morning being Sunday when Up comes a Person to him Wholly Unknown Layes down a Paper upon a Form just by him and so goes his way Soon after This Comes Another with a Candle sets it down and Leaves him By the light of that Candle Prance read the Paper Wherein he found the Substance of These Following Minutes So many Popish Lords mentioned by Nameâ— Fifty Thousand Men to be Rais'd Commissions given out Officers Appointed Ireland was acquainted with the Design And Bedloes Evidence against Godfrey was Summ'd-up and Abstracted in it too There were Suggestions in 't that Prance must undoubtedly be Privy to the Plot with Words to This Purpose You had better Confess then be Hang'd Prance fancy'd This presently to be a Contrivance of Shaftsburyes and Design'd for Hints of what he was to Swear to Novv These vvere the very Points also of Bedloe's Depositions And as Bedloe vvas to second Otes in the One So Prance was to second Bedloe in the Other Prance Ponder'd for some hours upon the Heads of his Paper and the Circumstances of his Condition and what with the Noisomness of the Place the Cold of the Season the Weight of his Chains the Sense of his Misery Want of Health and the Dread of Death upon the laying of things together he took the right Quene and desired the Master of the Prison to Carry him to my Lord Shaftsburys under Pretence of Matters of Great Moment to Communicate to his Lordship Captain Richardson gave his Lordship an Account of it and Thereupon received An Order for Bringing of Miles Prance to Shaftsbury-House to be farther Examin'd He vvas Carry'd thither betwixt Five and Six the same Evening and there Continued till about Eleven that Night So soon as he came thither he was Call'd into a Low Parlour where was Shaftsbury and Three more And there Examin'd strictly upon the Points of the Paper and Threatned with Hanging if he did not Confess Upon these Menaces Prance Yielded and so fram'd a Pretended Discovery in Part with a Promise to speak out more at Large if he might have his Pardon VVhereupon there was a Paper drawn up vvhich Prance Sign'd and he vvas then return'd to the Place from vvhence he came By this time they had secured Three Strings to their Bovv and it is vvorthy of a Note that Bedloe and Prance like a Couple of School-Boys of the same Form had in Effect the very same Lesson given them and the very same Allovvance of Time to get it by Heart in But to come now to the Matter Bedloe was upon his Oath as I have said Already to Deliver the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth And the Lords Committees did over and above Conjure William Bedloe to speak Nothing but Truth And he did in the Presence of God as he should Answer it at the Day of Iudgement assure All to be True he had Depos'd Lords Journal Nov. 12. â—678 It was upon the same Terms too and Under the same Conditions that he gave his Evidence upon all Tryals of the Pris'ners
in Question The Next Point will be how far he was True to his Matter and to Himself without either Stretching Shortning Suppressing or Clashing with his own Testimony but with a Charitable Abatement of and a Christian Allowance still for Humane Frailty The Point in Issue was a Plot or No Plot upon the Life of the King c. So that all Omissions upon That Mortal Article are Mightily to be suspected of Malice and Iniquity where they carry the Face of a Direct Tendency to That Execrable End. CHAP. V. Notes upon Certain Omissions Enlargements Disagreements and Contradictions in the Evidence of Bedloe and Prance concerning the Plot together with the True Reasons Thereof WE have Already given a General and a Sufficient Account in the Last Chapter but one of the Evidences Deliver'd by Bedloe and Prance upon the Subject of the Plot And we are now to take into Consideration the Competency the Fairness the Fulness and the Consistency of Those Depositions In the First Place the Omissions and Enlargements that appear in the several Enformations upon Comparing them One with another Now this is a Point not to be Cleared without References Repetitions and Recitals So that there 's No help for 't but by making them as Few and as Short as may be 1. I find it upon the Lord's Journal that the Monks of Doway gave Bedloe the Sacrament Four Times upon a Charge of Secrecy Nov. 12. 1678. 2. And again That Bedloe Demanded of Mr. Gage the Rector of the English College what they would do with the King. He Answered They would keep him well in a Convent 3. Bedloe then Demanded who should Govern in Chief He told him there should be a Tender made to ONE of the Crown if he would Acknowledge it from the Church but they did believe he would not Accept of it and then the Government should be left to some Lords that the Pope would appoint which Lords he would not tell me but said I should know it from the Monks at Paris Lords Journal Ib. 4. He says again in the same Deposition as is Already hinted in the Third Chapter Who were to Govern Who Told him so Ten Thousand from Flanders to Land at Bridlington-Bay The Lord Powes Petres c. to Rendezvous in South-Wales with Another Army and They to Ioyn Twenty or Thirty Thousand more that were to Land at Milford Haven from the Groin in Spain which Army was to be RELIGIOVS Men and PILGRIMS from St. Jago in Spain c. Lords Journal Ibid. 5. Forty Thousand Men ready in London Beside Those that would on the Alarum be Posted at Every Ale-House Door to have Kill'd the Soldiers as they went out of their Quarters 6. Le Phaire told him also that when any Plotter was taken up he should be kill'd before he was brought to his Tryal or the Prison Burnt 7. And That Guernsey and Jersey were to be surpriz'd by a Power from Brest and other Places of France and that several French Ships have layn in and about the Channel All This Summer upon the same Occasion 8 And further Le Phaire Pritchard c. as before had often told him that there was not a Roman Catholique in England that was not Privy to the Design and had not Received the Sacrament from their Father Confessors to be secret and assistant to the carrying of it on To Pass a Note or Two upon the Particulars above they are of so great Importance to be Thoroughly Sifted and made out that the Plot it self the Credit and the very Being of it stands or falls upon the Truth or Falsity of these Enformations But the Stress does not lye so much upon True or False as whether this be the Whole Truth or Not For All these Heads and Circumstances of the Story upon the Lords Iournal and the Four Evangelists over and above are utterly Forgotten in the Evidence upon the Tryal of the Pris'ners Now if Bedloe Deliver'd the Whole Truth at First how came he afterwards to Enlarge his Evidence But to Expound this Riddle now he swore before the Lords to the Generals only of Otes's Plot for Otes himself was not yet Resolv'd upon the Particulars So that which way soever Titus Led William was bound to Follow and the Point of his Oath in Westminster-Hall was not Levell'd at the Plot it self but at the Persons of the Pretended Conspirators Now to trace Things in order as they lye before us We hear Nothing of Four Sacraments The Convent The Tender of the Crown and the Pope's Resolution upon 't The Ten Thousand and the Twenty or Thirty Thousand the Pilgrims and the Religious The London Forty Thousand The Posting of People at Ale-House Doors The Killing of Plotters or the Burning of Prisons The Surprizing of Guernsey and Iersey Every Roman Catholique of Quality under a Sacrament to serve the Design We have not one Syllable of All this in the Printed Tryals though upon the same Oath and froâ— the same Lips that swore to the Whole Truth upon the Lords Iournal But here 's the Scheme of Otes's Plot yet upon the whole Matter And then for the Tender of the Crown as it is Pointed at in the Third Article it is so exactly the Drift and the Case of a Whimsey set forth in Otes's Narrative only in other Words viz. The Pope hath ordered says Otes That in case the Duke of York which is the ONE he speaks of will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignitaries in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned as above Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in Order thereunto Ex post Facto consent to the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then HE be also Poysoned or Destroyed after they have for some time abus'd his Name and Title to strengthen their Plot Weakned and Divided the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland thereby in Civil Wars and Rebellions as in his Fathens Time to make way for the French to seize These Kingdoms and totally ruine their Infantry and Naval Force Otes's Narrative p. 64. This Paragraph comprizes in few Words a General View of the whole Project and it was but Swearing so many Men to such and such Parts and Offices in this Fiction of a Conspiracy to Compleat the Reputation of the Discovery that is to say some were to have Publique Charges and Commissions Others to carry on the Massacres Murthers Assassinates Poysoning and Conflagrations And after the Digesting of the Treasons they could not well fail of Discovering the Traytors especially when the same Oath that made the One made the Other It is not to be Imagin'd that Bedloe upon his repeated Oaths before the King and the Lords could Honestly forget so many remarkable Instances of
a matter of Two Year before 't was Committed He says again That He did not see Le Phaire from Sunday to Monday Night pag. 31. And yet before the Lords he met him by Accident upon Sunday in Fleetstreet The Iesuits he says that were about the Body and had Employ'd him to Insinuate himself into Godfrey 's Acquaintance thought he had not known them fol. 32. though it was Le Phaire Pritchard and Walsh that set him to insinuate Himself into Godfrey's Acquaintance Le Phaire Himself that now shew'd him the Body Tryal pag. 29. And that were present as he Swears before the Lords at the same Time in the Room with the Body Prance says That they run him through with his own Sword and then threw him into a Ditch Bedloe says upon the Journal That they had made a Wound in his Body and lay'd his Sword by him Upon the whole Matter This Story was certainly one of the Rankest Forgeries that ever pass'd so much and so long Current for a Truth But we shall now take a Summary View of Prance's Evidence upon the same Subject and Pretext CHAP. VII How Prance came to be Taken up How he was Managed with the Sum of his Evidence about Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and a General Reflexion upon the whole THE Intrigue of Prance's Affair must be Methodically Open'd or it will never be Clearly Vnderstood and the Truth of the History it self will suffer without the Light of an Orderly Introduction Prance had the Ill Fortune to have a Lodger in his House one Iohn Wren that was behind-hand with him for Fourteen Months Rent and Pressing him for his Mony he was observ'd to cast out Threatning Words against his Landlord Soon after This there was a Tankard gone and a Squabble about it but in short Prance never heard more of his Tankard He had his Rent Paid him on St. Thomas Eve 1678. And was Taken up Next Morning upon a Warrant bearing Date the Day before at the Instance and Complaint of This Wren and others upon a Suspicion of being Privy to the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey This VVarrant was Deliver'd to the Officer by one Hill and there it was suggested in the Enformation That Prance lay out of his House some Nights while Sir Edmund was Missing His Dealings with Grove His Hiring a Horse to go out of Town His Brother being a Priest Pickering and Ireland having been at his House c. It came to This in fine that Iohn Wren Ioseph Hill and Another put in for the Five Hundred Pound Promis'd in the Proclamation as being the First Discoverers of the Murther and obtained a Certificate to That End Dated December 27. 1678. upon Prance's Taking upon Himself to have had a Hand in the Action He was Carry'd away in Custody into a Little Room within a Lobby by the House of Commons and While they were There Attending in comes Bedloe staring up and down and Enquiring Privately which was the Pris'ner They shewed him the Man and so soon as Ever he had got sight of him he went his way Now the Truth of this Matter is quite Another Thing from the Bus'ness of the Lobby as Bedloe has Reported it in his Evidence Tryal 33 34. for Bedloe did not Apprehend Prance as he says but he was in Custody already No such Question asked by the Constable as Mr. Prance will you see Mr. Bedloe No Plucking his Hat over his Eyes Not one Word sayd Bedloe to Prance No Bidding of his Guards to take Charge of him And so for the Bus'ness of his going to Bristoll in such Trouble of Mind forsooth for the Murthers that had been Already Committed and the Greater One's that were Daily intended and his being at last Convinc'd and Writing to the Secretary c. Green's Tryal p. 33. 'T is all a Sham as appears Already for he Wrote from Newbery upon his way to Bristoll and had the Cheat the Perjury and the Reward at That Time in his Eye After the Officers had Waited for some Hours with Prance in the Lobby they Carry'd him to an Eating House call'd Heaven Into a Room as by Chance where Bedloe was Planted by Sir William Waller and some Others by Manifest Design when of a sudden Up starts Bedloe and with an Oath VVorthy of That Mouth cry'd out This is one of the Rogues that I saw with a Dark Lanthorn about the Body of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey but he was then in a Periwig Prance was Carry'd from Thence to the Committee of Lords and VVhile he was VVaiting to be Call'd Wren came to him and told him Now is your Time to Confess or you are Ruin'd speaking of the Murther of Sir Edmund B. Godfrey Bedloe Charg'd him before the Lords with the Murther and Wren with being out of his House while the Body was Missing but he Deny'd All upon his Examination Affirming that he knew Nothing of the Murther neither did he know Bedloe and objecting against Wren as an Incompetent Witness This was December 21 1678. And the Heads of his Depositions were as follows That he had been a Papist but was now a Protestant and had taken the Oaths That he had wrought in his Trade for Groves Pickering Fenwick and Ireland That the Sunday after These Persons were Taken up He sayd in a Coffee-house they were very Honest Men which some People took offence at He kept out of the Way for fear of being Question'd He never lay out of his House but Three Nights in Two Year He had not seen Rawson of the VVhite-house This Twelvemonth Nor did he go to the Queens Chappel once a Month. He Deny'd the Hiring of a Horse at First but Confess'd it afterward and that it was to Avoid the Oaths That an Arrest stayd him in Town That his Wife was a Papist That he Chang'd Guinneas for one Mr. Owen a Layman That he had nothing to do with the Death of Godfrey That he sent a Halbert over the Way once when they were searching for Arms That he lay at a Neighbours House on Monday when Sir Edmund was Missing That he had made a Light Flaxen Periwig of his Wive's Hair but he never Wore it That he had Dealt with Grove for Guinneas and had Money of him for Work That he knew Pickering and had been lately in his Company but Neither VValsh nor Prichard That Pickering was a Clark in the Queens Chappel That he did not know Le Phaire and thinks he did not know Captain Pugh And that he was at Home from Five the Last Night to Eleven I have been the more Particular in This in Regard of the Relation it has to All the Rest but to come Round now to my Bus'ness Here 's the short on 't Upon Saturday December 21. Prance Denyes All. His First nights Lodging in the Condemn'd Hole and a Paper of Instructions next his Heart on Sunday Morning Mollify'd and made very Wax of him to Yield to Any Impression That Sunday Night by the help of
towards the Court the Chamber belonging to some of the Servants of Sir John Arundel where it remain'd until Nine or Ten of the Clock on Wednesday-Night and then thinking it fit to remove it to the Little Room where first it Lay this Examinant happened to come as they were lifting it up the said Eight Steps whereupon Hill and Berry fled as supposing him to be some Stranger but Gerald Green and the Irishman stood still and so he helped them to Lift up the Body into the former Closet and There it continued till after Twelve of the Clock the same Wednesday Night Hill and Berry came to them when their Fright was over and Hill having got a Sedan and placing it in the long dark Entry at the Foot of the said Eight Stairs they put the Body thereinto The Examinate Prance and Gerald first took up the Chair and convey'd it through the Upper-Court Berry the Porter open'd half the Gate and let them out and they rested not till they came to Covent Garden where Green and another Irish-man took their Turns and so carry'd the Sedan and Body in it as far as the New Grecian Church in the So-ho and there Hill met them with a Horse whereupon they took out the Body and forcing open the Legs they set it upon the Horse Hill Riding behind to keep the Body up while Green Gerald and the Irish-man went to accompany him Berry the Porter did not depart from the Gate and the Examinate Prance fearing to be missing return'd home when the Body was set on Horseback and the Sedan which was left in one of the New Unfinished Houses they took it up and brought it home as they came back He further saith That the Body lay in Somerset-House about Six or Seven Days before it was Carry'd out but he is not certain in the Number of the Days He was very Positive as to the Place where the Murther was Committed and the Manner of it as also for the Room where the Body was first laid but being desired to conduct us to the Room next the Garden he led us to the Corner of the Piazza on the Left hand and so down a Pair of Stairs and so far seem'd to be assured he had been Led and did think that he pass'd through the Great Court Below But when from Thence we went up and down into several Rooms he seem'd very Doubtful and could not ascertain the Places saying He had never been there but that Once when Hill convey'd him thither with a Dark Lanthorn but that it was some Chamber towards the Garden In the House where the Body was first layd we found a Woman whose Deposition we have taken She was House-keeper to Dr. Godwin and the said Hill had been a Servant to the said Doctor in this House for above Seven Years and continued to live there since the Doctor 's Departure until Michaelmas Last but that he hath been there Three several Times since and she also knew the Examinate and call'd him by his Name All which is humbly submitted to your Majesty 24. Decemb. 1678. Monmouth Ossory Vpon reading which Report it appear'd that the Particulars were very Consonant to what he had spoken at the Board in the Morning before his going at which time being also further asked Why he gave so different a Relation to the Commitee of the Lords from what he now so freely Confess'd He made Answer He was in much Confusion before the Committee being not sure of his Pardon but now being Sure of it and also upon his Oath he did Speak the whole Truth according to his Knowledge And being then further Asked Why he came not in upon the Proclamation and the Reward thereof He said He was affraid to Trust thereunto And being further Asked What Reward he had receiv'd from those that Employ'd him He said He had yet received no Reward nor had he sought for any but only the Promise of Gerald that there should be a Reward by the Lord Bellassis He said that he wrought in the way of his Trade to the Queens Chappel and was a Roman Catholick but that about Eight Weeks ago he had taken the Oathes Being Asked Whether there were no Guards in the usual places at the time of Carrying on this Work He saith He did not take Notice of any And being asked Whether he saw Bedloe when he was Carry'd to see the Body when it lay in the Back-Chamber near the Garden He Answered He could not tell whether Bedloe was There or No but doth remember that Gerald and Green were then Present He adds that Hill Green and Gerald told him that they had at Primrose-hill Thrust Sir Edmund's Sword through his Body till it came an Inch out of his Back and that he strugled very much at the time they strangled him but that Green punched him with his knees upon his Body to hasten his Death The Council sate again in the Afternoon and Prance was Confronted with Green Hill and Berry who Deny'd every Syllable of the Charge and Prance stood as stoutly to every Point of the Accusation On the Following 25 26 27 28 December there pass'd little more then the same thing over again from some Members of Both Houses who were often with him in Newgate and still telling him when his Evidence did not agree with Bedloe's that he was a Rogue and had a Mind to spoil All with Menares if he did not Confess Upon Sunday the 29 th he was Examin'd before the King in Council And Denying All he was asked what Inducement he had to the story Why he swore against Those Persons Who put him upon 't He said No Body Prompted him He only knew the Men that he swore against He never saw Bedloe before he was taken up He knew Nothing of the Plot nor of the Murther All he had Sworn was False He never was Guilty of any Man's Bloud and could not Rest for the Story he had told But Wren ought him Mony and Threatned him because he Press'd him for 't and so Hair'd him into 't Some there were that Call'd him a Thousand Villains and Apostates and Threatned to shew him the Wrack but he was in the Conclusion Remanded to Newgate It should have been Premis'd that the Keeper being Order'd to Attend the Council with his Pris'ner Prance made it his request that he might Wait upon his Majesty before he Carry'd him to the Council Captain Richardson Enform'd the King of his Earnest desire and he was Order'd to Carry Prance to Mr. Chiffinch's Lodgings which accordingly he did and stayd there together with him 'till his Majesty came into the next Chamber and Beckon'd Prance to come to him and the Door was shut after him He had been a very short time there When his Majesty Open'd the Door Prance being then upon his knees and bad Mr. Chiffinch and Captain Richardson to take Notice of what Prance sayd VVho being call'd upon to speak what he had to say Declar'd
th of Ianuary following what with the Deadly Cold and Nastiness of the Place the Distress of his Condition the Agony of his Thoughts under the Horror of Drawing upon himself the Guilt of Innocent Bloud and the Galling Weight of his Irons he lay in such Torments both of Body and Mind that he spent his Hours in Roaring and Groaning and Restlessly Exclaiming and Crying out Not Guilty Not Guilty No Murther And so the same Out-Cryes or Clamours at least to that Effect Over and Over that they had no way to Cover the Scandal and the Inhumanity of his Usage but either by Imputing the Anguish of a Wounded Conscience to the Ravings of a Distemper'd Brain or else to make a worse Matter on 't by Ridiculing a True Repentance into the Story of a Counterfeit Madness But when Things were at the worst Miles Prance was now and then by Fits as the Good Humour Prevail'd Eas'd of his Irons Comforted with Good Words and nothing of Manage Omitted for the bringing Him to Understand Reason Upon the 8 th of Ianuary 1678 9. Captain Richardson attended the Lords Committees about the Safe Custody of Miles Prance according to an Order of the Day before He was call'd-in to give some Enformation in Writing concerning him as Also the Enformation of his Servant Charles Cooper and it appearing to the Lords that Prance strives what he can to Counterfeit being Mad and that he spake Plainest when he was in Irons their Lordships therefore Direct Captain Richardson to return him to the Condition he was first in hoping by some Streightness he may be brought to stand to the Truth Their Lordships further Order'd that Dr. Lloyd the Dean of Bangor be Desired to Discourse with Prance in order to settle his Mind if there be any real Occasion for it and that Mr. Dean do attend their Lordships to Morrow to receive Directions therein On the Day following Dr. Lloyd Attended the Council-Chamber according to Order And thereupon a Letter of Instructions was sent to Richardson as folows Sir THe Lords of the Committees have This Morning Discoursed Dr. Lloyd the Dean of Bangor concerning Miles Prance and the Various Tempers he hath appeared in and their Lordships have Desired the Dean to try whether he can Compose his Mind by such Methods of Discourse and Persuasion as he shall think fit to use Wherefore the Lords Direct that you do from Time to Time permit Mr. Dean to have Access to him as he shall desire and as well All the Papers of Mr. Prance's Evidence here Depending as also what your Man Cooper hath Certify'd touching his Behaviour there have been sent to Mr. Dean for his Better Enformation c. It appears likewise upon the Council-Books that a Servant of Captain Richardson 's Attended their Lordships the same Day Cooper a Servant from Captain Richardson acquainted the Lords that he sate up last Night with Prance who is according to Directions put in Irons He says that he slept very Little and used much Raving Talk but having Drink by him and pretending to have spilt it by Flinging down the Vessel there did not appear one quarter of the Drink to be spilt That when he put on his Stockings having Stirrups within and one of them Tore he layd the Pieces over each other before he drew the Vpper Stocking on and having put on his Shoes with the Buckles Wrong he presently Alter'd them to Rights The Next day Ian. 10. Captain Richardson had another Letter about giving Boyce Liberty to Visit Prance in the Words following SIR THE Lords of the Committee did think fit This Morning to send for William Boyce who was an old Friend and Acquaintance to Miles Prance and believing that he may do much toward the Composing of the Mans Mind the Lords have Discoursed with him at Large and would have you also Enform him in what you can and to permit him from time to time to have Access to the said Prance and he will come and Enform the Lords how things do Pass which is all I have in Command from the Lords to signifie and am c. On the Next Day came Cooper again with Another Report from Newgate about Prance Charles Cooper Servant to Captain Richardson gave their Lordships an Account how that Prance had Yesterday Rav'd very much but in the Afternoon grew more Mild and desir'd to speak with Captain Richardson which he did and soon after Dr. Lloyd came to him That he rested well till Midnight but then fell to Rave Crying out frequently that it was not He Murther'd him but They kill'd him He having long forborn to Eat Cooper told him he would lose his Stomach if he did not Eat whereupon he fell to Eat very Heartily and having the last Night thrown in to him a Flock-Bed with a Piece or Two of Blanket to cover him he made use of all to his Conveniency rather than to Continue on the Boards On Ian. 11. Captain Richardson receives Another Letter as follows about Prance SIR THE Lords of the Committee having put into the hands of Dr. Lloyd his Majesties Warrant for Prance's Pardon and Instructions how to make use of the same you are to follow such Direction as the said Doctor shall give you either to the taking off Mr. Prance's Irons or for his Better Accomodation notwithstanding their Lordships former Order to the Contrary And the same Day Mr. Dean of Bangor tells their Lordships that having been several times with Prance he first found him very Sullen and Denying all but at last his Speech was Consistent and he desired the Doctor to come the next day as if then he would say more which the Doctor doing he appear'd very well compos'd and in good humour saying that he had Confess'd Honestly before and had not Wrong'd any of those he had Accus'd This Report of the Doctors is follow'd with another of Boyces of the same Date William Boyce who had also been with Prance tells the Lords That he Enquir'd for his Wife and was glad to hear she was not in Prison That he fear'd he should be Hang'd by what my Lord Shaftsbury told him That if he did not Confess and Agree with Bedloe in what Concern'd the Murther that he should be Hang'd He also seem'd to fear that Those Three whom he accus'd meaning Green Berry and Hill were set at Liberty That he would Confess All if he were sure of his Pardon That he desired to speak with the Lord Shaftsbury about Four Men that had a Design to Murther him Captain Richardson tells the Lords that Prance sent Yesterday for him while he was in his good Temper told him that Four Persons Named in the Following Warrant together with Young Staley and Himself were lately Drinking at the Cross-Keys over against Staley's Shop and that their Discourse was how that the Lord Shaftsbury was a great Persecutor of the Catholiques and must be taken off by shooting or some Other way and that he would have told
Made Rogues There and so to be moulded for the Use they were Taken-up for A great Difference I say betwixt a Criminal of Law and an Instrument of State And in This Latter Case the Keepers were Effectually under the Direction of a Certain Ambulatory Committee When and in what Degree to Squeeze to Pinch to Ease to Shackle to Comfort or to Torment their Pris'ners and Little or Nothing was done but according to the Order and Disposition Either General or Particular of the Cabal I am now Entr'ing upon so Copious a Subject that I Cannot do it Right without being Tedious And therefore though the Matter may seem all of a Piece with the Head that I am now upon I shall yet assign it a Section by it self And after the Narrative I have Already Exhibited out of Authentique Entries and Papers of what pass'd Back and Forward concerning Prance produce such Further Authorities and Depositions to the same Effect as will leave Envy and Diffidence it self No Place for a Cavil CHAP. IX Prances Ill Vsage with a Brief Account of Himself How he came to Depart from his Evidence The Bishop of St. Asaphs Commission to Examine him and several Passages Clear'd in the Proceeding THE History of the Last Chapter has layd the matter here in Question so open that it Needs neither Enlargement nor Comment But the Reverend Dean of Bangor now Lord Bishop of St. Asaph having been Assigned so Great a Part in the Transaction I find my self Obliged in Duty Iustice Common Prudence and Good Manners to make use of That Reverend Name upon This Occasion There are some years now past since I had a Commission to look into This Case of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and finding the Bishops Name so often mentioned in Records and Iournals concerning it I took the Freedom to Trouble his Lordship with Several Papers about it to which I had the Honour to Receive very Particular and Satisfactory Answers But of This By and By. And so we 'le pass on to the remaining part of our Secret History beginning with several Enformations referring to Prance's Condition in Newgate till he went off from his Evidence William Boyce Deposeth That upon Fryday Jan. 10. 1678 9. some time after Christmas while Miles Prance was a Pris'ner in Newgate going to the said Prance by Order went into a Room to him on the Left hand of the Entrance into the Lodge where he found the said Prance in Irons and brought him down into the Lodge where the said Prance said to This Enformant to this Effect Here I am in Prison and I am like to be Hang'd I am falsly Accus'd This Enformant after some stay with him went his Way and Dr. Lloyd went in to him This Enformant staying at Captain Richardson's House 'till the said Dr. Lloyd return'd again And saith That the Next Morning to the Day aforesaid This Enformant was sent to by Captain Richardson to come to the said Prance again whither This Enformant went and found the said Miles Prance in his Irons in the same Room where he found him the Day before The Captain and his Servants telling him This Enformant that the said Prance had a Raving Night of it And This Enformant going to the said Prance found him Lying at his Length upon the Boards and Crying Guilty Guilty Not Guilty Not Guilty No Murther Crying so Loud that some of the Neighbourhood told This Enformant that they had heard the Noise into the Street in the Night Mary Preston Deposeth That this Enformant going frequently to visit her Husband who on the First of November 1678. was Committed to Newgate upon the Oath of Titus Otes for a Priest she This Enformant in or about Christmas in the year above being in Company with one Mrs. Bridgman Mrs. Medbourn and Mrs. Medbourns Sister with some others coming down the Stairs of the said Prison into the Lodge heard a Loud and a Constant Groaning of a Man as in great Torment which was Taken Notice of also by the Company which at that Time was with This Enformant The Noise seeming to come from a Place call'd the Condemn'd Hole because the nearer this Enformant went that way the Plainer it was heard Whereupon This Enformant or some of her Company ask'd the Keeper who it was one of them replying it was a Woman in Labour But This Enformant and her Company Concluded it to be a Mans Voice after which the said Keeper hastned This Enformant and her Company out of the Lodge and so they Departed But staying a while without the Door under the Arch they heard the Noise and Groaning very plainly still And This Enformant came the next Morning to the said Prison again and waiting longer then Ordinary for the Keepers Coming to turn the Key for her to go to her Husband she This Enformant walking in the Lodge about a Quarter of an hour heard the Groaning of a Man from the same Place as the day before though much Weaker This Enformant heard afterwards a Discourse in the Prison that Prance was Mad and she remembreth that within a few days after the hearing of these Groans she This Enformant enquired how Prance did receiving for Answer that he was Pretty well And that they had given him a Flock-bed This Enformant referring her self upon the Contents of this Enformation to the Best of her Knowledge and Memory Catharine Wallis and Elizabeth Newens do joyntly Depose That these Enformants having been to visit Mr. Medbourn in Newgate Coming down Stairs and staying at the Door 'till the Turn-Key Vnlock'd it heard a Dreadful Groaning and Noise out of a Place they call the Condemn'd Hole and heard it likewise in the Lodge and so out in the Street 'till they came to the Old Bayly-Corner Divers Passengers stopping in the Street to hear the Noise were Chid away by the Keepers They say likewise that the Keepers were asked what the Noise was but they desired to be Excus'd they must not Tell Only it was said in the Prison that it was the Cry of Miles Prance Elizabeth Newens Deposeth apart That the time above-spoken-of in the Ioynt Enformation of this Deponent and Mrs. Catharine Wallis was some very few days before the Saturday whereupon Miles Prance as this Enformant heard in the Prison was Remov'd from the Condemn'd Hole into the Press-yard and that there was Present one Mrs. Preston and several others who all took notice of the same Cry. Philip Cook Deposeth That this Enformant was Committed to Newgate by the Lord Mayor of London upon the First publique Fast-day for the Plot where he This Enformant Continued a Prisoner near the space of a year And that this Enformant in or about the time of Christmas next Ensuing the Commitment of This Enformant He this Enformant heard the Strong Groans of a Man which this Enformant Iudged to be in the Place call'd the Condemn'd Hole and several of his Fellow-Pris'ners declarâ—d themselves to be of the same Opinion divers of them hearkning after
it And this Enformant hearing it passing up and down the Stairs and at the Grate of the Lodge for the space as he Believeth of at least half an Hour And that This Enformant Enquiring what the Matter might be the Pris'ners in the House said that they were Torturing of Prance and this Enformant asked some of the Keepers likewise but he doth not particularly remember who they were only he remembreth that some one or more of them told this Enformant softly That it was Prance that made That Noise seeming unwilling to have any Notice taken of it They refusing to tell it to some Others that asked the Question The Enformant Delivers all the matters in this Enformation contained according to the best of his Knowledge and Memory Many more Instances might be added but upon the whole Matter Prance was made Guilty when he Deny'd the Murther though Innocent of it and no way to save his Life but by Confessing it whether Guilty or Not. The Pain that made him Roar made him Counterfeit himself Mad and no way but loading him with Fresh Irons to bring him to his Wits again But after all This How did it appear that he was come to his Senses again Why first he pretended to have Spilt his Drink when he had Drunk Three Parts of Four on 't 2 ly He found out an Expedient to draw-on his Vpper Stocking though the Stirrup was torn 3 ly He found that the Buckles of his Shoes were put on wrong and Presently set them to Rights again I shall lay no stress upon any Testimonials that are not Current but keep my self to the Lords Iournals The Entries of the Council-Books Enformations formally taken upon Oath and such other Evidences as Morally speaking are of Equivalent Certainty with any of the Rest. Let me not be thought to reckon any thing that Prance says of Himself among these Credible Testimonials tho Truth is Truth still Whoever Delivers it I shall only Condition that Men of Probity may not Suffer where Prance Agrees with them in the Point of Fact and This without Prejudice to the Reputation of any Man where they Differ As to the Enformation and the Enformers against Prance The Day of his Seizure being Saturday December 21. 1678. his Charge Examination and Commitment Wren 's Sham-Advice to him in the Lobby The Imposture of Bedloe's Story there and the Trepanning of him into the Devils Mouth The loading him with Irons in the Condemn'd Hole The Carrying of him to be Tutour'd and Curry'd by Shaftsbury the Next day and the Hammering of him by Shaftsbury again and other Examiners in the Prison the Day following His Perjury for fear of Death His Enformations before the Lords and the Promise of his Pardon upon That Discovery The Dance he led the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Ossory at Somerset-House upon Tuesday the 24 th The remanding of him to Newgate His Denyal of his Evidence to the King and Council December 29. and 30. His Raving in Newgate and Denying the Murther The Turning of him back out of a Convenient Lodging into the Hole again Boyce's coming to him by Order and his Privacies with him and Dr. Lloyd's being sent to him both by the King and the Lords Committees The Doctors Reports upon the Matter as well of Conscience as of Health The Killing Cold and Nastiness of the Place The Misery of his Condition The Shewing him his Pardon The Effects of it and his Change of Resolution to the very Time of his Removal into Better Quarters These Circumstances are All Punctually Reported by Prance and Confirm'd by other Witnesses He speaks also of his Horrible Pains and Extreme Weakness upon Thursday Friday and Saturday which agrees both with the Doctor 's Report and several Affidavits But for what Now follows though Prance affirms every Syllable on 't to be True the Reader is yet at Liberty whether to believe it or not He says he had a Paper of Instructions brought him into the Condemn'd Hole with Hints and Minutes of the Plot as is set forth Already with these Words in 't You had better Confess then be Hang'd He says further That the Lord Shaftsbury told him particularly that there were Great Ones concern'd and he must discover Them too for the Little Ones should not serve his Turn calling him Rogue and Rascal several Times for Crossing Bedloe 's Evidence and saying there must be Great Persons in it reflecting upon the Queen and the Duke of York bidding him not to spare the King Himself saying likewise That the Body was layd under the Altar and that he was Carry'd in a Coach to Primrose-Hill and that Bedloe said he was stifled under a Pillow and that he meaning Prance would have it anohter way He says That some of the Keepers upon his Crying-out in the Anguish of his Affliction took him to that Part of the Room that was furthest from the Street and Chain'd him down to a Staple over Night and Loosen'd him again in the Morning and that one time as he was lying with his back upon the Ground and Roaring in the Extremity of his Pain Two of the Keepers took him by Neck and Heels and cast him Three or Four Times against the Ground We have now got over the Dark and Doleful Period of Prance's Conflict betwixt a Whole Skin and a Good Conscience and brought him from the Sordid Necessities of the Condemn'd Hole to the Comfort of Meat Drink Lodging and Clean Linnen again I had no sooner Promised says Prance upon my Assurances of Pardon that I would stand to my Former Evidence but my Irons were Immediately knockt off I was removed to a very good Room and a Curious Bed in the Press-Yard where I had Varieties of Meats and Drinks as good as I could wish This was the 11 th of Ianuary 1678 9. So soon as Prance had compounded for the Wages of Vnrighteousness and Rock'd his Conscience Asleep in Attending and Providing for the Security of his Carcase he call'd for Pen Ink and Paper and had his Lesson given him to Provide for the Tryal of the Pretended Murtherers Green Berry and Hill who were Convicted on Monday February 10. 1678 9. Sentenc'd the Day following and Green and Hill Executed on the 21 th and Berry Respited till the 28 th There is Annex'd to the Printed Tryal a most Vnchristian an Vncharitable and an Inhumane Reflexion upon the Truth and Conscience of Hill's Dying Words which is not only the Killing of a Man over again but the Ridiculing of the most Sacred Test of Truth in Nature I shall have occasion to Insert a Piece of the Poor Man's Letter to his Wife in his Extremity which will do some sort of Right to his Memory The whole Course of the Story is a Mystery but This shall suffice for the Present Time Place and Occasion I am now to Proceed in Course to the Honour of the Correspondence which the Right Reverend Bishop of St. Asaph was Pleased to
to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and No Creature more his Confident then This Lady was as will be further seen hereafter But at Present I have only to observe that when This Matter was at the Hottest before the Lords Committees This Mr. Gibbon Deliver'd a Paper the Contents whereof she hath since Attested upon Oath to a Person of Quality Sir I. B. who deliver'd the Paper to the Earl of Shaftsbury And upon This Paper Mrs. Gibbon was sent for to Attend the Committee where to speak the Words of the Enformation The Lord Shaftsbury call'd to her saying You Damn'd Woman what Devillish Paper is This you have given us in Putting her upon her Oath to Declare who Wrote it calling her Bitch and other Vile Names and Threatning her That if she would not Confess that Sir John Banks Mr. Pepys and Monsieur de Puy set her on to write that Paper she should he Torn to Pieces by the Multitude Threatning her to have her Worry'd as the Dogs Worry Cats insomuch that she fell into Fits upon 't and thought she should never have got home Note that the Enformation above spoken of was Deliver'd to Sir Leoline Ienkins several Years before ever I had the Knowledge of her Person and that she Deliver'd me a Copy of the said Enformation with This following Postscript at the Bottom of it I Mary Gibbon am Indisposed in Health but whether I Live or Dye in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels I do make Oath that this is every Syllable True And I have left the same and made Oath of it to a Worthy Gentleman a Secretary of State very Lately and if I Live till 't is Questioned I will Witness it There remains yet a very remarkable Instance of the Faith and Generosity of a Poor Hackney Coach-man his Name Francis Corral And if I could Contribute as â—uch to the making of his Fortunt as I may to the Advantage of his Name and Reputation it should be the first Thing I would do for they wanted but a Second Evidence against the Lords in the Tower and Forty other Persons of Eminent Quality that were laid up in Lavender to be in readiness for the Providence of a Further Discovery and if this Poor Fellow had but Yielded Bedloe's Coach would have done the Iobb of carrying Sir Edmund to Primrose-Hill every Jot as well as Prance's way of Horsing him Thither And so for Brumwell and Walters too Either of them would have serv'd some Way or Another to the same Purpose This Bus'ness of Corrall is a Barbarous Story but I 'le be as easie in the Telling of it as is Possible with a Respect both to Decency and to Common Iustice. The Truth of it is The Severity of his Imprisonment could not well Exceed the very Direction of the Orders that the Keeper had for the Mortifying of him and Corrall Himself does likewise Charge many Cruelties upon the Vnder Keepers which he cannot say the Master was Privy to But be it as it will we shall here Deliver Corrall's Enformation for so much as concerns the matter before us in his own Words Giving only to understand by the way that he was taken into Custody some a Fortnight or thereabouts after the Body was found upon an Officious Enformation of Some Words he had spoken concerning the Carrying of it to Primrose-Hill Whereupon he was had to Newgate and next Day to Wallingford-House where he was Sworn and Examin'd of which Examination he gives This Account Francis Corral Deposeth That The Lord Shaftsbury with others asked this Enformant if he carry'd Sir Edmundbury Godfrey to Primrose-Hill in his Coach or knew who Carry'd him To which This Enformant Answered That he did Not and that he Knew not who did The Lord Shaftsbury said to this Enformant That if he would swear the Truth he should have Five Hundred Pound The said Lord Shaftsbury laying down some Mony upon the Table saying that this Enformant should have a Room near the Court if he was affraid of any Body that set him to Work and should Command a File of Musquetiers at any time when he had Occasion to go abroad to Guard him for fear any of Those that employ'd him should do him any Mischief This Enformant asked him my Lord Who should those be No body set me at Work Nor do I know for what I am brought hither To which the Lord Shaftsbury reply'd We are the Peers of the Land and if thou wilt not Confess there shall be a Barrel of Nails provided for thee to put thee in and roul thee down a Hill. The Enformant made Answer What would you have me to say my Lord I know nothing of the matter would you have me to accuse other People to bring them into the same Condition I now am The Lord Shaftsbury Answering Then thou shalt Dye Whereupon a Mittimus was Drawn and this Enformant carry'd back and Committed to Newgate This Enformant was laid in Huge Heavy Irons and thrust into the Dungeon where after he had continued about three or four Hours he was Taken out again by Lyon one of the Keepers who likewise was the Man that put this Enformant into the Dungeon And this Enformant was so faint with the Closeness and Nastiness of the Place that he swounded away and that they were fain to give him Brandy to keep Life in him This Enformant Recollecteth that before his coming from Wallingford House the Lord Shaftsbury said to This effect The Papists have Hir'd him and he will not Confess He was now remanded to Prison and about Three in the Afternoon they had him to a House in Lincolns-Inn-Fields where the Lord Shaftsbury Examin'd him again Saying to this Enformant Now you Rogue Here 's one that will Justifie he saw you speaking of one that stood there to bear Witness The Lord Shaftsbury saying to the said Person Did not you see him Whip his Horses and go down by Tottenham-Court The Man saying Yes my Lord Sirrah said the Lord Shaftsbury to This Enformant What 's the Reason that you will not confess but put us to All this Trouble This Enformant speaking hastily said What would you have me confess my Lord I know no more than your Lordship does and it may be not so much Then said the Lord Shaftsbury If thou wilt not Confess Richardson take him away and let him be starv'd to Death which made this Enformant to weep Whereupon the Lord Shaftsbury reply'd Ah Rogue There 's never a Tear comes down This Enformant with Imprecations telling my Lord that he knew no more than the Child that was unborn That 's a Popish Word says my Lord Shaftsbury He has consulted with the Papists and will not Confess bidding Richardson take him away and punish him sâ—verely This was Thursday and this Enformant was kept in Great Irons in the Condemn'd Hole till Sunday Noon without any thing to Eat or Drink which put This Enformant into so great Despair that if his Knife had not
dropt out of his Hand he had Kill'd Himself On Monday Morning this Enformant was led into the House of Lords where one of the Lords bad Richardson bring this Enformant into the Committee where this Enformant saw the same Lords as before and the Lord Shaftsbury spake after This Manner to this Enformant Come says he thou lookest like an honest Fellow tell us the Truth and thou shalt have the same Reward that was promised thee at Wallingford-House and then thou shalt go presently home to thy Wife and Children and we will secure thee from any Harm What dost thou say to us all Now speak Then This Enformant fell down upon his Knees and said I know nothing of it and before I wrong any Man I will Dye Immediately The Lord Shaftsbury replying Thou art such a Peremptory Rogue thou shalt go back to Newgate and lye and Rot there a while And then thou shalt be brought to be tryed at the Sessions and then there will come enow against thee and thou shalt be Hang'd Hadst thou not better Confess the Truth and have that Mony then be brought before the Barr of the Judges and be condemn'd to be Hang'd It will be a Dreadful Hearing for Thee Yes my Lord said this Enformant I know it will be a Dreadful Hearing But my Lord It will be a more Dreadful Hearing for me at the Lord's Bar if I should wrongfully accuse any Man it will be a more Dreadful Hearing when it shall be said Take him away Devil for he hath falsly Accus'd those he knew no hurt by Whereupon the Lord Shaftsbury said I see we can do no good with him take him away and let him lye there and Rot. This Enformant Pleading that he had a Wife and Children the Lord Shaftsbury Answered Let his Wife and Children starve This Enformant lay in the Condemn'd Hole with Heavy Irons Six Weeks and Three Days and afterwards Seven Weeks on the Common Side upon Bords without Irons This Enformant saith also that He Complaining at a Time uncertain of his Ill Usage one Richard and one that was commonly call'd John-Come-Last said that their Master had Power from my Lord Shaftsbury and the Committee to torment this Enformant if he would not Confess This Enformant saith likewise that a Tall Man in a Ministers Habit was with him in the Condemn'd Hole Pressing him to Confess and Pressing him This Enformant several times to Confess after that he had Imprecated himself that he knew Nothing of the matter And saith That this Enformant as he was reading the 20th Chapter of the Revelation aloud in the Hole He this Enformant heard of a sudden the ratling of Chains and Roaring like that of a Bear Believing it to be an Evil Spirit and that the Door had been Open In this Fright This Enformant let his Candle fall and in the Dark he was more affraid the Noise continuing near a Quarter of an Hour This Enformat had been now about a Fortnight in the Hole and afterward telling one Harris and some others of the Keepers how this Enformant was Terrify'd They made him Answer If you do not Confess the Devil will have you There are so many Instances of this Kind that the Proceedings at length would make rather the History of a Persecution then the Narrative of a Conspiracy But in one Word He had Two Great Holes worn in his right Leg One in his left He was Eight Weeks after his Discharge before he was able to Drive a Coach again He got Salve for These Wounds at Sir Thomas Witherley's and likewise of Mr. Knolles the Surgeon He is able to produce Forty Witnesses that saw These Wounds But it must not be omitted that his Misery gave the Earl of Clarendon a great Tenderness for him insomuch that he Viewed his Vlcers himself took Compassion of the Man and gave him Mony. There are Two Objections that I expect will be made to This Account of the Hard Usage both of Prance and Corrall The Former while he was under the Power of the Lying Spirit and went on without either Fear or Wit was brought a Witness at Mrs. Celier's Tryal where his Evidence in the Colloquy or Context was as follows Mr. Bar. Weston Mr. Prance Pray were you ever Tortur'd in Prison Mr. Prance No I never saw any such Thing there in my Life Mr. Bar. Weston How were you used Mr. Prance Very well I had every thing that was fitting Captain Richardson did take great Care of me c. And a little after Mr. Prance again Dr. Lloyd was with me many times for half an hour together and if any such thing had been he would have seen it Celiers Tryal p. 25. Now This was a Cast of Mr. Prances Civility and Good Nature but he was Mightily Overseen to Appeal to Dr. Lloyd in 't who found him Roaring under his Pains and Allmost Kill'd with the Misery of his Condition but all this while the Keeper had his Orders how to use him Corrall was Also to be made use of for the same Iobb but This shall Suffice Unless I shall be Absolutely Forc'd to say more on 't that the Marks he Carries to This Day are Ten Thousand Witnesses of the Hardship he Endur'd But in the End when Prance came to stand to 't that the Body was Carry'd a Horse-back Corrall upon very Good Security was Discharg'd for not Carrying him in his Coach. This was their Way of Compassing Witnesses where People were not Wicked Enough to go to the Devil of their own Accord And the same Method went thorough the Whole Tract of their Proceedings in All such Cases and with all Persons therein Concern'd The Choice was short Either Stand out and be Hang'd or Confess and be Damn'd But to take up where we left We brought Prance to his New Lodgings on the 11 th and there we find him with Mr. Boyce at his Bedside on the 12 th of Ianuary 1678. According to his own Relation and upon the Preparatory for the Tryal of the Persons whom he had Accus'd He had even at That Time some Grudgings of Another Relapse Exclayming sometimes by Fits that he had Sworn False and that he was Vtterly Ruin'd But being still Ply'd with the Memory of what he had Confess'd Allready and the Hammering of it into his Head that he would be Hang'd if he went off And that if either Green Berry or Hill should come to Confess Before him he was a Lost Man beyond Recovery His Heart would not serve him to go thorough with his Resolution He had several Messages from Bedloe about the Periwig and that if he did not Own the Periwig the Three Men would not Dye He was seldom without an Ammanuensis or a Dictator rather in the Chamber with him And the way was This He was asked what Papists he knew where they Liv'd and what he could say of them and so the Most was made of Those Minutes 'till they came to be Emprov'd into Narratives He is positive that
Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Murther Why Truly if there were no more in 't then a bare Curiosity the very Memorial would be worth the Ink and Paper that 's bestowed upon 't Beside that in This Place it falls in most Naturally with my Purpose and Text First as it is Another Branch of Roguery apart from the Plot and shews them to be Pick-pockets as well as Knights of the Post which may serve to Illustrate what Credit is to be given them in Other Cases 2 ly It gives any Man to understand that at a Time when such Fellows and such Nonsensical Impostures could keep a Government in Awe it was not for any Private Man with a Single Voice and Reason to oppose an Epidemical Madness for the Reck'ning carry'd Fraud and Insolence in the Face on 't and the Witnesses knew before-hand that it would be no more Believ'd by Others then They Believ'd it Themselves But they Push'd on the Affront never the Less and though I never heard of a Tally struck upon that Account it was yet a kind of Victory to come off Gratis But Thirdly The Timing of it was the Great Point of All for the whole Nation was then at Gaze upon the Tryals of the Pretended Murthers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and most People were of Opinion that the Suppos'd Popish Plot was to Stand or Fall upon That Issue But for my own Part I was never of that Persuasion If the Verdict went against the Pris'ners it was Reasonable Enough to expect that it would make a Horrible Noise Especially considering the Pompous Solemnities that had Prepar'd Men Already for Wild and Dangerous Impressions And then on the other hand if they had been Acquitted it was but Arraigning the Bench the Iury and the Witnesses as they did in other Cases Afterwards to make All whole again This does not Hinder but that Otes and Bedloe did very Prudently strike while the Iron was hot for the Tryal bears Date the 10 th of February 1678 9. the Day of the Conviction of the Three Pris'ners And these Two Blades put in their Bills the very same Week with the Tryals Otes on the 11 th and Bedloe his on the 15 th And if ever such a Reck'ning was to pass Muster That Nicking Minute was the Time for 't As to Prance's Character All that I shall say of it is This that he had a good Will to be Honest but not the Heart to go thorough with it and that he took more Care of his Carcase at First then he did afterward of his Conscience I shall do him This Common right yet to say that he had not the Brand upon him of an infamous Course of Life to Blast his Evidence as his Fellow-Witnesses had And This may serve in some sort to Colour the Easiness of Those that gave Credit to him In one VVord more If the Murther and the Plot were the only Two Points in Dispute upon the Credit of his Testimony his Iustice and Faith in other Cases might Induce a Charitable Softness toward the Believing of him in This But from his Swearing False in Every Thing Else as That 's the Case to Infer that in One Single Point or Two he swears True would be a very Perverse way of Reasoning To shorten the Bus'ness now I have a Letter of Prance's upon This Subject and I cannot better Dispose of it then in This Place And there can hardly be a Better Testimony then that of an Ill Man who without either Hope or Fear of being the Better or the Worse for 't bears Witness against Himself SIR HEaring that you are about to Publish something concerning the Death of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey I think it my Duty to take Shame upon me and to make a Publique Declaration to the World of my Confession and Repentance of the Heinous Sins that I have committed against God and my Offences against his Sacred Majesty my most Gracious Mistress the Queen Dowager the Noblemen Gentry and All others that I have wickedly and wrongfully Accus'd about the Death of That Gentleman I cannot hope or expect that any thing I say should find Credit in the World but it will be some Ease to my Conscience if I may obtain the favour of a Place for this Declaration any where among your Papers if you shall commit any upon This Subject to the Press From the time of taking off my Irons and changing my Lodging which was upon my Yielding Basely to Forswear my self against those Innocent Persons Green Berry and Hill that Dy'd upon my Wicked Evidence Mr. Boyce was the Man that Acted for me and writ many Things which I Copy'd after him I found by his Discourse that he had been several Times with my Lord Shaftsbury and with Bedloe and he told me that I would be certainly Hang'd if I did not agree with Bedloe's Evidence and own the Periwig the Men would not be Hang'd I would not yield to 't so he yielded to mine and the Periwig was spoke no more on and bidding me consider what a Condition I should be in if any of them should confess first He got me out of Newgate some few Days after the Tryal of Green c. But before any of them were Executed Mr. Boyce told me how much some of Sir Edmund's Relations were troubled that I was out so soon for fear I should deny all again and so Mr. Boyce took me to his own House and watched me and went with me â—heresoever I went till the Innocent men were Executed I would fain have had Berry sav'd but Mr. Boyce said he was Guilty of the Murther and could not be sav'd and that if the King had a mind to pardon him he might do it without my Troubling my self It was purely the fear of Death and the Misery of my Condition that wrought upon me to For swear my self without any thought of reward although I was told several Times that Great Things would be done for me My Lord Shaftsbury told me my Trade should be Better then ever it was and bought some Plate of me Himself part whereof was for Otes This brings to my Mind that in the Time while I Deny'd the Murther or any Knowledge of it I was taken out of Newgate and carry'd to Two Eminent Lawyers where I was Vpbraided for departing from my Evidence One of them wondring much what should make me do it and speaking to me to this Effect You were affraid perhaps of Losing your Trade that lay mostly among the Papists or else perchance you did not think your self sure of your Pardon c. which Words were spoken in such a way that I took them for Hints to me what Excuse I might make upon going off again and as I am a Christian This was it that first put That Excuse into my Head. My Lord Shaftsbury gave me Two Guinnea's once to help off a Man that I had Sworn against for Dangerovus Words against the King. I received Thirty Pounds by his Majesties Order
and Five Pounds of Bedloe As to those I swore against about the Plot If I may take the Names as they lye in the Narrative I Accus'd one of the Townleys of Townley in Lancashire with saying That when his Brothers who were then at Doway came back from Flanders they expected to receive Commissions from the Lord Bellassis and other Catholick Lords concern'd for the raising of Men to carry on the Catholique Cause and that I had heard Adamson a Watch-maker several Times speak of this at the Club in Veer-street I do declare in the Presence of God Almighty that the Accusation is false in every Point of it both concerning Mr. Townley and Mr. Adamson See Narrative fol. 3. I do declare likewise That I was no otherwise put upon it then by a Paper that was brought to me in the Condemn'd Hole and by the Menaces of Hanging me if I did not confess more and more saying Hang him Rogue He thinks This shall save him I Accus'd Mr. Keightly also when the Earl of Shaftsbury c. was in the Tower with Rejoicing at their Imprisonment and the Differences amongst the Lords and if the Duke of York did but follow the Bus'ness close they doubted not but the Catholique Religion would be quickly settled fol. 3. I declare with the same Solemnity as aforesaid I never knew nor heard that Mr. Keightly said any such Words This Accusation was drawn up by Mr. B. from General Heads that I gave him and one drew up the Narrative wherein they both went further then I directed They did as the rest did If I spoke a Word they made Ten on 't I accus'd Mr. Singleton a Priest for saying He hoped to be settled in a Parish Church within a Twelvemonth and that he would make no more to stab Forty Parliament-men then he would do to eat his Dinner fol. 4. which Accusation I do declare to be utterly false and of my own Framing And so likewise was that of Mr. Ridley's saying that He hoped to be Surgeon to the Catholique Army in England and that he hoped to have the Lord Bellassis to Friend Ibid. My Accusation of Mr. Paston for saying That the King was a great Heretick but the Lord Bellassis Arundel Powis and Petres would have a gallant Army for Deposing the King and that they had already given out Commissions to divers Gentlemen as Sir Henry Beddingfield Mr. Talbot and Mr. Stoner as was suggested to me by my first Paper of Instructions but made much more in drawing up the Enformation and Narrative My Charge fol. 5. against Ireland for saying â—n the Presence of Fenwick and Grove That there would be shortly Fifty Thousand Men in Arms and Fenwick saying thereupon That they should be commanded by the Lords Bellassis Arundel Powis and Others is False in every part of it ond so is the following Article of Grove's saying That the Lords Bellassis Arundel Powis and Petres was to Command this intended Army and had Commissions for that Purpose I took Hints toward these Accusations from my first Paper of Instructions and they that drew up the Enformations made the rest I did falsely Accuse Le Phaire also for a Disscourse about the Catholiques Providing Weapons fol. 6. and likewise Mr. Moor. Ibid. for speaking of Ten Thousand Horse to be shortly rais'd for the Catholique Cause It was all false likewise and of my own Contrivance My Charge against Mr. Messenger ibid. for Boasting that the Heretiques would e're long be rooted out was false and my own too And in like manner that of Lawrence's speaking These Words I wish with all my Heart that half the Parliament were poyson'd for they will ruine us all which is utterly False and out of my own Head and so was my Accusation of my Lord Arundel's Butler for saying That Mr. Messenger was to have a vast Reward to kill the King fol. 7. And so was my Charge likewise upon Mr. Grove a Schoolmaster For being privy to the Levy of Fifty Thousand Men which were suddenly to be Raised fol. 8. I shall now speak to the Pretended Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey wherein I Charg'd Gerald Kelley Green Berry Hill Lewson and Vernatti to be either Actors or Confederates I do declare for my part I know nothing of such a Confederacy neither do I believe there was any such but that the whole Pretence of the Murther as well for the Persons as for the Place was all False The Particulars above Written are All True as I hope for Salvation And Begging your Worships Pardon for This Presumption I Rest Your most Humble and Obedient Servant Miles Prance Princes-street Ian. 17. 1677 8. CHAP. XIII The Relation of Godfrey's Murther as it stands in the Narratives and Tryals is one of the most Vnlikely Stories to be True that ever was made Publique and Believed THe Body was found in the Ditch Cary'd Thence to the White House And so they Proceeded upon it to a View and to a Verdict This was in few Words the Ground-Work of the History They began Effectually at the Wrong End and by an Inverted Way of Reasoning instead of Drawing Conclusions from Premises Their Bus'ness was Subsequently to Frame and Accommodate Premises to a Fore-laid Conclusion This Unhappy Gentleman was in Truth Miserably Haunted with an Hereditary and a Fore-boding Melancholy and it was the Manage of that Season to Improve Every Fit of the Spleen into a Popish Dagger at the Heart of him Insomuch that he was said to be Murther'd by the Papists as in Due Time and Place shall be made appear even while he was yet Alive Nay betwixt the Saturday when he went away and the Thursday Night Following when he was found it was in Every Bodies Mouth that the Papists had Kill'd Sir Edmundbury Godfrey The Resolution being already taken to make a Popish Murther on 't and so to make a Popish Conspiracy the Root of This Popish Murther Never was any thing more Ridiculously Order'd from One End of the Series to the Other First for the Place in General it was the Queens Palace and then in Particular where the Execution was done Prance's Evidence says it was by the Stables Bedloe swears it was by Shoving him out of the Vpper Court. But whether the One way or the Other it was in a Quarter so Publique that what with the Guards The Concourse of People The Grooms Watermen Passengers The Lights and the Windows thereabouts there might any Bussle have been seen or heard from Forty several Places and upon the Least Out-cry either at the One Place or the Other Sir Edmund had Infallibly been Rescu'd and the Assassin taken Beside that it was now but between Five and Six by Bedloe's Account and Nine a Clock at most by Prance's a Time when People were every where up and stirring and the Porters Window over the Water-Gate look'd directly All this While upon the Place where the Fact was said to be Committed And then the Dogging of him at the
have Search made that He This Enformant did not Doubt but forthwith to Procure a Warrant from the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs being at That Time at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bayly And then left the said Welden And soon after This Enformant repairing to the said Welden He asked the said Welden Whether he had acquainted Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Brother of What he had told him touching a VVarrant to Search and the said Welden Answered to This Effect You talk of Searching but they are Searching more after something else then Him. After which This Enformant heard no more of the Matter It is now High time to go off from This Point and the Matter is so Plain there will need no Explanation upon the Text But to do Things in Order Harry Moor says they were upon the Search and it would do well to Enquire in This Place what Discoveries they made and we shall afterwards see how far they Emprov'd These Discoveries Henry Moor Deposes That He by the Order of Mr. Michael Godfrey did go to a Great Funeral on the Tuesday Night next after the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Absent from his House to Divulge his Absence and to hear if any Person among the Number of People that were there could make any Discovery or give any Account of him And when he was at the said Funeral and Discovering of the said Sir Edmunds Absence there was one Parsons amongst the said Company who did then and there Declare that he met with the said Sir Edmund on the Saturday Morning before Nine in St. Martins-Lane who then enquired of him the said Parsons the way to Primrose-Hill saying further that he had been Searching within a Little of the Place where the Body was found Judith Pamphlin Deposes That upon the Next Tuesday after Sir Edmund was Missing to the Best of This Enformants Remembrance Henry Moor the Clark of Sir Edmund told This Enformant that one Parsons said to the said Moor that upon the Saturday Morning then last Past He the said Parsons met Sir Edmund in St. Martins Lane who Asked the said Parsons the Way to some Woods which This Enformant doth Not remember somewhere about Primrose Hill. Mary Gibbon Senior Deposeth That she had it from Judith Pamphlin that One Mr. Parsons a Coachmaker told Sir Edmund's Clark that he met Sir Edmund the same Saturday when he went away and Sir Edmund asked him the way to Primrose Hill. And saith that Mrs. Pamphlin told This Enformant that the Clark told her that he was within Few Rods of the Body at Primrose Hill the Day before being Monday when he was in the Search of Sir Edmund Now to take These Pieces as they lye a Body would think by Moors Enformation that the First News of his Master had been the Account he had from Parsons at that Funeral whereas it Appears both by the Enformation of Iudith Pamphlin from the Mouth of Moor and of Mrs. Gibbon from the Relation of Pamphlin that the Clark had been Searching for his Master about Primrose Hill the Day before Nay and from the Clarks own Mouth too that he had the very Direction from Parsons Himself which is most Particularly Confirm'd and Enlarg'd upon by Mr. Wheeler Mr. Richard Wheeler Deposeth that on Tuesday October 15th This Enformant went about Noon to the House of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey He having been Missing ever since Saturday to enquire if They had heard of him while the Mace-Bearer to the Lord Chancellor was talking to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Clark at the same time And as it appear'd being there upon the same Errand The Clark making answer that they had heard Nothing of him but what they had from Mr. Parsons a Coachmaker then Church-Warden of St. Martin's and from a Fellow that was us'd to Light him home that was sawing a Piece of Timber in So-Ho Fields The same Clark said also the same Tuesday that Parsons said at the Burial that he walked with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey up St. Martin's Lane the Saturday Morning Octob. 12. 1678. between Eight and Nine of the Clock and that much about the same time the Sawyer saw Sir Edmund in So-Ho And Described his Cloaths and his Band. And further that Mr. Cooper and his Sister-in-Law Mrs. Lowen now Leeson coming out of Mr. Cook 's door in St. Martin's Lane met Sir Edmund and spake to him Now the Evidence of Thomas Mason serves to Illustrate and strengthen All the Rest. Thomas Mason of Marybone Deposeth that he knew the Person of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey very well And had Custom'd Him and one Kemp that was his Partner for Coles and that he This Enformant saw the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey upon the Saturday whereon This Enformant heard the said Sir Edmund was first Missing That is to say That He This Enformant as he was going from London to his own House met the said Sir Edmund about Ten a Clock the Saturday Morning aforesaid The said Sir Edmund coming toward London in the Fields betwixt Mary-bone Pound and Mary-bone Street This Enformant likewise giving the said Sir Edmund the Time of the Day Who as This Enformant Remembreth was All in Black Cloaths And saith that as This Enformant was walking with his Wife Vnder a Hedge near his House upon the Monday Morning next after the Saturday abovesaid about Ten of the Clock there came a short Man in Black Cloaths in Appearance about Fifty Years of Age to Enquire of This Enformant whether he had seen his Master Sir Edmundbury Godfrey in the Fields since Saturday Last for he had Lost his Master and knew not what was become of him The said Person being very sad and teâ—ling This Enformant that he was Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Clark. This Enformant giving the said Person this Answer That He This Enformant did see him upon Saturday as aforesaid and had not seen him since He was by Ten a Clock upon the Monday Morning gotten as far as the Half-way House to Enquire for his Master about Those very Fields where afterwards his Body was found Mason told him as above that he met him upon Saturday going towards London and had not seen him since but This did not Hinder Moor yet as appears by his own Relation from Going-on and Prosecuting his Search Now there were No Arundel-Houses No Somerset-Houses in That Walk but his very Fancy wrought upon him even Contrary to the Direction of his Reason for he would have come back else and turn'd his Thought Another way But the Ghastly Impression of his Last Farewell upon Saturday Morning stuck so Close to him that he thought it more likely to find him in a Ditch then any where else His Bus'ness into Those Fields was out of All Dispute to search the Ditches for him upon a strong Apprehension that he had kill'd Himself It was but Coasting the Mounds to make the Discovery And There Undoubtedly he Look'd for him and There 't is Forty to One he Found him This Collation of Testimonies makes
have had Such a Superabundance of more Pregnant and Convincing Arguments and Evidences that I should not so much as have Mention'd This Particular but that there 's somewhat of Curiosity in it as well as of Use. We have now pass'd through the Several Points in order as they were laid down in the Course of our Distribution concerning the Sufficiency of the Proofs Produc'd The Sincerity of making the Best of them in Matters whereof the Examiners had Certain Knowledge the Competency of the Witnesses that were Summon'd and the Best Emprovement also of what they Did say and of what in Likelyhood and Reason they might be able to say More I shall pass now to a Consideration of some Witnesses that were not Summon'd and might have been more Serviceable in Common Probability to the Satisfaction of the Iury upon the Enquiry they had Then before them then any of the rest CHAP. XX. Mrs. Gibbon's Enformation Compared with the Coroners Report and the Matter submitted to All Indifferent Men whether the Design throughout was to Discover the Truth or to Stifle it With an Appendix for a Conclusion HEre 's a Subject a Magistrate a Master a Friend a Relation and an Acquaintance Lost in the Person of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and All these Circumstances are to be Consulted toward the finding out what is become of him Now in Order to such a Discovery a Man Naturally Bethinks himself somewhat to This Purpose What Confidences had he What Haunts What Persons were Most Privy to his Affairs his Ways and Humors What Servants Who saw him when he went away from his House Who saw him Afterward In whose Company was he Last c. There 's Nothing more Familiar or Reasonable then such Enquiries as These provided they be made in the Proper Place and Apply'd to the Right Persons So that the Brothers were well advis'd upon the First Missing of him to go to Coll. Weldens his Common Baiting-Place to hearken after him His Servant Pamphlin goes the Next day to Mrs. Gibbons upon the same Errand and so did the Brothers on the Munday as one of Sir Edmunds Ancient and Particular Friends It is to be taken for Granted that they did not Forget to Examine Sir Edmunds Domestiques What They Knew What they Thought What they Observ'd and it is as Little to be Doubted that the Servants gave them All the Lights they could upon such Questions The reason of the Thing Carry'd them still forward upon the same Train of Likely-hoods to Enquire of Parsons Mason Collins and the Milk-woman to Learn what he said What he Did How he Look'd Which way he Went c. and who knows but Such a Trayle might have brought them to the Ditch where he was found But to the Admiration of All People we do not find that any One of All These Persons Harry Moor only Excepted with his Lac'd Band was Formally and Publickly Examin'd about This Matter Nor so much as one Question put with any sort of Tendency or the Least Appearance of Good-will toward an Effectual Discovery as we have already Set forth in an Orderly Series of Observations upon This Topique And there Needs No Better Proof of This Assertion then the Testimony of the Enformations Themselves I find 't is true an Enformation of Mrs. Gibbons among the Coroners Papers but the Verdict was over before it was Taken It was by Command not by Choice and how it was Manag'd will appear upon a Collation of other Circumstances with the Enformation It was it seems by the Special Order of my Lord Chancellor Nottingham that Mr. Cowper the Coroner took This Enformation of Mrs. Gibbon and his Direction as he told her was to Examine her upon Oath what Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Said to her about a Fortnight before his Death As we shall see by and by This gives to Understand that the Matter in Question was a Thing of very great Importance for his Lordship would never have thought the Cause worth a Review if he had not been told something very Extraordinary concerning That Encounter Now to Expound the Story there was a very remarkable Passage upon a Visit that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey made to Mrs. Gibbons on Tuesday the First of October 1678. And That 's the Busness the Coroner was now to take an Account of But This Enformation has had the Fortune I perceive of the rest of it's Fellows to come into the World Lame and Imperfect to the Degree of Defeating the very Intent of the Examination But briefly Whatever it was the Coroner Undoubtedly Attended my Lord Chancellor with a Copy of the Enformation and an Answerable Report upon the Whole Matter as here under-follows Midd. ss The Enformation of Mary Wife of Thomas Gibbon Esq taken upon Oath before me SHE saith That about a fortnight last past in an Afternoon Sir Edmundbury Godfrey came to her House in Old Southampton Buildings and upon Discourse with her Ask'd her if she did not hear that he was to be Hang'd for not discovering the Plot against his Majesty for that He the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had taken the Examination of one Otes and one Tong touching the same the 6th day of September and had not Discover'd it to any Person living whereupon this Enformant asked the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey why he had not acquainted the Duke of York or the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Treasurer with the same and Then This Enformant told the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey that she Suppos'd that what he then said was but in Jest touching his being Hang'd Whereupon he reply'd that he had not told Sir William Jones thereof although he had been at the said Sir William Jones his House Several times since and then told this Enformant that the King and Councel knew of the Plot before his Majesty went to Windsor which was about a Month before he took the said Examination Whereupon this Enformant ask'd him if he thought there was Really any Plot intended against his Majesty To which he reply'd that surely there Was but that Otes had Sworn Somewhat more then was True and therefore the Papists would find so much favour as to have All things that Otes had Sworn to be thought Lyes and Then This Deponents Brother Coll Rooke came into the Room and then the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey took his Leave of This Enformant saying that he was to Go to the Lord Chief Iustice about Bus'ness and said that he would Call on This Enformant some other Time and Tell her More and Since That Time she hath not seen Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and farther saith not Jo. Cowper Coroner Mary Gibbon There will be no great need of a Key to uncypher This Mystery if the Reader shall but duly Consider the Matter before him upon Comparing other Enformations of Mrs. Gibbons with This before the Coroner There 's One that Speaks Almost peculiarly to This Subject and Another that 's more General and at Large but I shall take so much