trayterously assemble consult and agree with the Lord Brandon and other Traytors to raise Money and procure Armed Men to make a Rebellion and to seize the City and Castle of Chester with the Magazines and that upon the 27th of May he took a Journey from London to Mere to accomplish his Treasonable intentions and that upon the 4th of June he incited divers to joyn with him in his Treason To this Indictment his Lordship pleaded Not Guilty Jeffryes then addressed himself to the Lords to this effect Note my Lord Delamere was at that time in the House of Commons and a great Promoter of the Bill of Exclusion That their Lordships could not but remember the insolent Attempts made upon the unalterable Succession to the Crown under the spetious pretence of Religion by the fierce froward and Fanatical Zeal of some of the Commons which had been often found the occasion of Rebellion That that not prevailing the Chief Contrivers of that horrid Villany consulted how to gain the advantage by open force and in order thereto had several Treasonable Meetings made bold and riotous * The Duke of Monmouth's progress into Cheshire the West Progresses in several parts of the Kingdom to debauch the minds of the well-meaning tho' unwary part of the King's Subjects That God frustrated their evil purposes by bringing to Light that cursed Conspiracy against the Life of the late King and his present Majesty That one would have thought these hellish and damnable Plots could not have survived the just Condemnation and Execution of some of the †Innuendo Lord Russel Col. Sidney c. Chief Contrivers of them especially considering that no sooner the present King was seated in his Throne but he endeavoured to convince the world that he had quite forgot those impudent and abominable Indignities that had been put upon him only for being the best of Subjects and best of Brothers and also gave the most benign Assurances imaginable that he would approve himself the best of Kings And to evince the reality of his gracious Resolutions he called a Parliament and there repeated and solemnly confirmed his former Royal Declarations of having a particular care of maintaining our Established Laws and Religion And yet at that Juncture that wicked and unnatural Rebellion broke out and thereupon the Arch-Traytor Monmouth was by a Bill brought in the lower House and passed by the general consent in both Houses and I could wish my Lords for the sake of that Noble Lord at the Bar that I could say it had passed with the consent of every particular * The Lords are here told that my Lord Delamere opposed the Bill to attaint the D. of Monmouth Member of each House justly attainted of High Treason After this harangue he concluded thus My Lords what share my Lord at the Bar had in those other matters I must acquaint you To what end then was this malitious Tale told is not within the compass of this Indictment for which you are to try him for that is a Treason alledged to have been committed in the present King's Reign Then Sr Tho. Jenner the Recorder of London opened the Indictment The Attorney General then aggravated the Charge saying We crave leave to give a short Account of a former * The Plot in 1683. design Cheshire the Province of this Noble Lord was one of the Stages where that Rebellion was principally to be acted and preparatory to it great Riotous Assemblies and Tumultuous Gatherings of the People were set on foot by the Conspirators We shall prove that a little before the Rebels came over this last Summer the Duke of Monmouth dispatched one Jones into England to let his Friends know that tho' he had intended to go into Scotland and begin there he was resolved for England with this he was to acquaint some Lords particularly the Prisoner And also to acquaint them that they should have notice four or five days before of the place of his Landing and that then the Lords should repaire immediately into Cheshire there to wait for the News We shall give you an account that the late Duke of Monmouth lookt upon Cheshire as one of his main supports and upon my Lord Delamere as a principal Assistant there Jones was to communicate his Message to Captain Mathews who was to transmit it to this Lord and those concerned with him Jones arrived upon the 27th of May but Mathews nor Major Wildman to whom he was to apply in the absence of Mathews was not to be found Thereupon he sends for one Disney since executed for Treason and one Brand whom your Lordships will hear of and communicates his Message to them and they undertake to deliver it to the Persons concerned That very night My Lord this same Brand Disney met this Noble Lord and give him an account of the Message and as soon as ever he received it upon the 27th of May at ten at Night my Lord dispatches out of Town with only one Servant and two other Friends that he had pick'd up With all these Badges of Plot and Design does my Lord Delamere set out the same night Jones came to Town he chose to go all the By-Roads and went with great speed to repair into Cheshire by the name of Brown by which he was known among all his own Party by that name several of the late Duke of Monmouth's Trayterous Declarations were sent for to be sent to him or by him into Cheshire When he comes into Cheshire he actually sets about the work to put that County in a forwardness This means the impudent but ridiculous story of Saxon which could never obtain upon any but the Credulous Prosecutors of this Noble Lord who were disposed to believe any thing to assist in the Rebellion endeavours to stir up the People to joyn with him and acquaints one that he employed in that Affair that he was engaged to raise so many Thousand Men and so much Money to be ready by such a day My Lords We shall plainly shew you all this in plain proof Then Mr Attorney called their old Drudge at swearing my Lord H. of E. and demanded of him his oft repeated History of a design of an Insurrection that was to have been in the late King's time and what share Cheshire was to have in it The Lord H. told his thrid-bare history of the Plot in 1682 and 1683 but not a word of Cheshire and said that he knew nothing concerning my Lord Delamere The Lord Grey was then called and said That about the time of the contested Election of Sheriffs The Duke of Monmouth and Earl of Shaftesbury resolved that they would make what interest they could to procure a Rising in three several parts of the Kingdom at once one in Cheshire whether the Duke of Monmouth was to betake himself and there to be advised by my Lord Macclesfield my Lord Brandon my Lord Delamere that then was
six more of the honourable and most valuable Gentlemen of that County p. 268. Heads of Informations before the House of Lords about the Murders of my Lord Russell Col. Sidney Sr Tho. Armstrong Mr Cornish c. p. 273. An Account of Charters Dispensations and Pardons passed between October 1682 and the late King's Abdication p. 312. Copies of some Papers relating to the fore-going Informations p. 316. Copy of Colonel Sidney's Plee p. 320. The Names of the Grand and Petty Juries return'd upon my Lord Russell p. 324. The Grand and Petty Juries return'd upon Alderman Cornish and Mrs Gaunt p. 328. The Pannel of Jurors returned upon Colonel Sidney p. 331. The solemn dying Declarations of seven Persons executed for the Conspiracy against the Life of King Charles the second and the Duke of York p. 335. REMARKS Upon the Tryal of Mr Laurence Braddon Mr Hugh Speke Upon an Information about the matter of the Murder of the late Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Essex THis Excellent Person and right Noble Peer the Earl of Essex did to say no more equal the best and most deserving of his Contemporaries in zeal and resolution steadily to assert and defend our Religion Laws and Liberties in the day in which they were most highly threatned and most dangerously invaded His Lordship and that sure and never shaken Friend to the right English Government and to the Interest of his Country His Grace the Duke of Bolton then Marquess of Winchester were usually if not always in the Chaire of the secret Committees of the House of Lords which inspected the business of the damnable Popish Plot and which was a Consequent of it the horrid Murder of Sr Edmundbury Godfrey who was made the first Sacrifice to the Popish rage for prying into that Arcanum His Lordship the Earl of Essex added also greatly to his Crimes in being Chaire-man of that Committee of Lords which prepared matters for the Tryal of that great Conspirator Colman the Duke of York's Minion and Secretary And he contracted a further and never to be forgiven Guilt in that soon after the astonishing dissolution of the Parliament in January 1680 and the King's Declaration of his Resolution to hold the next Parliament upon the 21st of March 1680 at Oxford several Noble Lords agreed upon a Petition to advise the King against that Resolution and their Lordship 's pitched upon the Earl of Essex to present it as he did upon the 25th of January 1680 and then made a Speech to his Majesty which deserves eternal Remembrance it was to this effect ☞ That the Lords there present with other Peers observing how unfortunate many Assemblies have been when called remote from London particularly the Congress at Clarendon in Henry the second 's time Three Parliaments at Oxford in the time of Henry the third and the Parliaments at Coventry in Henry the sixth's time with divers others which have proved fatal to those Kings and brought great mischief on the Kingdom And considering the Jealousies and Discontents amongst the People They apprehended the consequences of a Parliament at Oxford might be as fatal to the King and the Nation as those were to the then Reigning Kings and therefore they conceived they could not answer it to God to his Majesty or to the People If they being Peers should not offer him their advice to alter that unseasonable resolution The Petition was to this effect That whereas the King by Speeches and Messages to both Houses had rightly represented the dangers threatning his Majesty and the Kingdom from the Plots of the Papists the sudden growth of a Foreign Power which could not be stop'd unless by Parliament and an Vnion of Protestants That the King in April 1679 having called to his Council many honourable and worthy Persons and declared that being sensible of the evil Effects of a single Ministry or private Advice or foreign Committee for the direction of Affairs That he would for the future refer all things unto that Council and that by their constant advice with the frequent use of the Parliament he was resolved hereafter to Govern They began to hope to see an end of their Miseries But They soon found their expectations frustrated and the Parliament dissolved before it could perfect what was intended for their relief and security And tho' another was called yet by many Prorogations it was put off to the 21st of October past That though the King then acknowledged that neither his Person nor the Kingdom could be safe till the Plot was gone thorow yet the Parliament was unexpectedly prorogned on the 10th of January before any sufficient Order could be taken therein That all their just and pious endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown The good Bills they had been industriously preparing to unite Protestants brought to nought The Witnesses of the Plot discouraged Those foreign Kingdoms and States who by a happy Conjunction with us might check the French Power disheartned even to such a despaire as may induce them to take Resolutions fatal to us The strength and courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad encreased And our selves leftin the utmost danger of seeing our Country brought into utter Desolation That in these Extremities they had nothing under God to comfort them but the hopes that the King touch'd with the Groans of his perishing People would have suffered the Parliament to meet at the day to which it was prorogued and no further interruption should be given to their Proceedings in order to the saving the Nation But that that failed them too for the King by the private suggestions of Wicked Persons Favourers of Popery Promoters of French designs and Enemies to the King and Kingdom * Innuendo Some Body their Names are even at this day worth the knowing lest any of them should creep into their present Majesties Councils without the Advice against the Opinion of the Privy-Council dissolved that Parliament and intended to call another to sit at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons could be in safety but would be exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents of whom too many were crept into the Guards That the Witnesses against the Popish Lords and Impeached Judges could not bear the charge of going thither nor trust themselves under the Protection of a Parliament that is it self evidently under the power of Guards and Souldiers The Petitioners out of a just Abhorrence of such pernicious Council which the Authors dared not to avow and their direful apprehensions of the Calamities and Miseries that may ensue thereupon Most humbly prayed and advised That the Parliament might not sit at a place where it would not be able to act with that freedom which is necessary but that it might sit at Westminster This Petition was signed Monmouth Kent Huntington Bedford Salisbury Clare Stanford Essex Shaftesbury Mordant Eure Paget Grey Herbert Howard Delamer This humble Application and most necessary and seasonable Advice found
delivered it on Thursday morning at eight of the Clock being the day before his death and this as to the Thursday he swears positively and circumstantially positively for he doth expresly name Thursday as the day on which the Razour was delivered and circumstantially for he doth swear the Razour was delivered the very next morning after my Lord came to Captain Hawley's and his Lordship went to Hawley's on Wednesday the 11th of July But Russell swears a point blank contradiction to Bomeney's Oath for Russell deposeth and now declares that on Friday morning in less then half an hour before they found my Lord dead in his Closet he stood as Warder at my Lord's Chamber-Door Monday that morning having first stood as Warder on my Lord and was then gone down to stand below Stairs and heard my Lord ask Bomeney for a Pen-Knife to pare his Nails which being not ready his Lordship required a Razour which he did immediately see Bomeney deliver his Lordship But Monday doth as directly give the Lye to Russell as Russell did to Bomeney for Monday the day my Lord died declared he saw my Lord have a Razour in his Hand paring his Nails with it at seven a Clock that morning my Lord died and this about two hours before Russell came up to stand as Warder at my Lord's Chamber-door Wherefore unless it can be reconciled how this Razour should be delivered a Thursday Morning at eight of the Clock according to Bomeneys Oath and yet not delivered till Friday Morning at nine of the Clock within half an hour of the time his Lordship was found dead and delivered whilst Russell stood Warder at the Chamber-door as Russell deposeth And notwithstanding this my Lord to have had the Razour and pared his Nails with it two hours before Russell came up Stairs to stand Warder at my Lord's Chamber as Monday declared the very day my Lord died I say unless these Contradictions can be reconciled it can't be thought that any Razour at all was delivered And then whereas all declared my Lord pared his Nails with the Razour by strict observation it appeared my Lord's Nails were not newly before his Death either pared or scraped 2dly That the Closet-door was not locked upon my Lord's body appears by the contradictions of these three as to the opening the Close-door Bomeney first swore he did open the Door when my Lord would not answer upon his knocking at the Door and there saw my Lord lying dead in his Blood and the Razour by him and he then called the Warders but immediately swears in contradiction to his first Oath that he peeped through a chink of the Door and saw Blood and part of the Razour and then without opening the Door ran and called Russell who thereupon first opened the Door and at Mr Braddon's Tryal swears he knew not who opened the Door Russell deposeth he did first open the Door and makes no difficulty in it Then comes Monday and gives the Lye to both For Monday the very day my Lord died declared what he hath since often confirmed that neither Bomeney nor Russell could stir the Door my Lord's Body lay so close and hard against it and he being stronger then either put his Shoulders against the Door and pressing with all his might broke it open Whosoever there is that can reconcile these Contradictions in these three mens Relations and make all appear credible Erit mihi magnus Appollo A further Argument that the Closet-Door was not locked upon the Body appears by my Lord's Legs lying upon the Threeshold of the Closet-door when the Body was pretended not to have been stirred from its first posture 3dly That there was no Razour lying locked in with the Body when the Body was first found appears by the bloody Razour's being thrown out of my Lord's Chamber-Window which is about seventeen Foot distant from the Closet-Door where the Body lay and no noise of my Lords death till after the Maid carried up the Razour which Maid thereupon first discovered my Lord's death And as yet other Argument of the Perjury of these perfidious Villains add the Mathematical impossibility of the Wound seeing not above two Inches of the Razour must be without my Lord's hand had he done it himself and yet the Wound above three Inches deep Moreover by many eminent Doctors and Chyrurgions the Wound is thought to be naturally impossible to have been done by my Lord himself because upon cutting the first Jugular Artery such an effusion of Blood and Spirit would have immediately thereupon followed that Nature would not have been strong enough for to cut through the other Jugular Artery to the Neck-Bone on the other side muchless to make so many and so large Notches in the Razour against the Neck-Bone as an old foolish or K Chyrurgion suggested to the Coroner's Jury VVherefore by what is before observed as to the many Contradictions it plainly appears that these three as it is said in the History of Susanna vers 6. are convicted of false Relations by their own mouths and those other Arguments before observed are further Detections of these three mens Perjuries It then remains as at first viz. That here is a Body found dead by violent Hands and the manner of the Death not discovered for it can't be according to these three mens Relations for the Reasons before observed The conclusion that the Law makes in such cases in this therefore holds good viz. that this honourable Lord was Murthered by the violent and cruel Hands of barbarous and bloody minded men Secondly For the proof of the Murder in this I shall first consider what is most material which passed before my Lords death Secondly The Day of his Death And then Thirdly and Lastly after the Day of his Death In the First Before my Lords death I shall consider 1st The previous Resolutions by Papists to cut my Lords Throat And then 2dly The many previous Reports before my Lords death That his Lordship had cut his own Throat in the Tower For the first of these D. S. declares that about nine days before the Death of the late Earl of Essex she heard several Papists consulting together concerning the said Earl And this Informant heard them say the Earl of Essex was to be taken off and that they had been with his Highness and his Highness was first for poysoning the Earl but that manner of Death being objected against it was then said one did propose to his Highness Stabbing the Earl but this way his Highness did not like at length his Highness concluded and ordered his Throat to be cut and his Highness had promised to be there when it was done Some few days after some of the aforesaid Persons declared it was resolved the Earl's Throat should be cut but they would give it out that he had done it himself and if any should deny it they would take them and punish them for it Secondly For the previous Reports before my Lords
death It s proved by eight several Witnesses that before my Lords death or before it could be known it was reported that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat in the Tower amongst the rest it was at Frome which is about one Hundred Miles from London the Wednesday Morning and at the same time at Andover about sixty Miles from London though at neither of these places especially the former could it then be known the Earl was a Prisoner in the Tower his Lordship being not committed to the Tower till the Tuesday in the Afternoon All these Reports agreed in the manner how viz. cutting his Throat and the place where viz. the Tower and which is further at Andover the Wednesday Morning before my Lords death it was reported not only in the manner how and place where but likewise the pretended Reason wherefore was given for it was then and there said that the Earl of Essex being a Prisoner in the Tower and understanding that the King and Duke were come into the Tower his Lordship was afraid the King would have come up into his Chamber and seen him of which his Lordships guilt and shame would not bear the Thought and therefore he did cut his Throat to avoid it This being declared two days before my Lords death when it could not have been in the least fore-thought that the King and Duke would have come together into the Tower where they had not been above twice together since the Restoration I say this previous Report which so particularly cloathed this action with the how where and wherefore clearly proves That all things were so resolved upon to be done or otherwise it is impossible it should have been reported under these three essential Qualifications as to manner place and reason before it was indeed done especially at Andover where it could not then be supposed to be known that my Lord was so much as a Prisoner in the Tower this Reason the Papists themselves gave out just after my Lords Death Secondly What passed the day my Lord Dyed These then attending on my Lord viz. Russell and Monday the Warders Bomeney the Servant and Lloyd the Centinel at the door did all deny that day my Lord died that there were any Men let into my Lords Lodgings that morning before my Lords Death But now it appears that there were some Ruffians a little before my Lords death sent into his Lodgings to Murder him which they did accordingly R. Meake A Soldier in the Tower that morning my Lord of Essex was Murdered about one of the Clock that very day near Algate told B and his Wife That the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but was barbarously Murdered by his Royal Highnesses Order For the said Meake declared That just before the Earl of Essex's Murder his Highness sent two Men to the Earls Lodgings to Murder him which after they had done they threw the Razour out of the Window Likewise a Soldier that morning in the Tower about a eleven a Clock that morning my Lord dyed in Baldwines-Gardens informed G. and H. that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but was barbarously Murdered by his Royal Highnesses town Order For the Soldier then declared that a little before the Earl's Murder his Royal Highness parted a little way from his Majesty and then two Men were sent into the Earl's Lodgings to Murder my Lord which when they had done they did again return to his Highness Mr E declares That he saw his Royal Highness just before the Earl's Death part a little from his Majesty and then beckned to two Gentlemen to come to him who came accordingly his Highness thereupon sent them towards the Earl of Essex's Lodgings and about a quarter of an hour after this Informant saw these very two Men return to his Highness and as they came they smiled and to the best of this Informants hearing and remembrance said the Business was done upon which his Highness seemed very well pleased and then went to his Majesty to whom the News was immediately brought that the Earl of Essex had cut his Throat Lloyd the Centinel at my Lords door the day my Lord died till the twenty first of January last did deny the letting in of any men and Russell and Monday still deny it but now Lloyd doth confess that just before my Lords Death two or three men by Major Hawley's special Order were let in and immediately he heard them as he did suppose they were go up Stairs into my Lord's Room where there was a very great bustle and stir so great that the Centinel declared he would have forced after them had not the first door been made fast upon the bussle he heard some-what thrown down like the fall of a man which he did suppose was my Lords Body soon after which it was cryed out my Lord of Essex hath cut his own Throat Here is not only these mens going in but a great bustle confessed immediately thereupon to ensue in my Lords Room and the Body of a man in this bustle to be thrown down this is in a close Prisoners Room where no one is admitted but his Servant and those that kept the door denyed upon Oath that any were in my Lords Chamber that morning my Lord dyed before his Death But these Warders being supposed privy to the Fact would not own the admitting of those men which themselves let in with such a Murtherous design and it is to be presumed that this Centinel was not a stranger to the matter but enjoyned to secrecy for otherwise he would never have declared to a Friend under a repeated request of secrecy that this Confession as before laid upon his Conscience and troubled him night and day for tho' it was indeed very true that he did let in these men it was what he should not have confessed This Consirmation to his acquaintance under a great and repeated injunction of secrecy argues first that this Confession was indeed true Secondly That there is some cursed Confederacy its probable by Oath entred into to stifle this Murther for what other probable reason can be assigned for that trouble of Conscience in this Confession seeing himself at the same time declared it was true tho' he should not have said it There are some other arguments that this Centinel was particeps Criminis in the Privity first his retraction in part of what he did confess for upon his being first apprehended he owned the throwing out of the Razour before my Lords Death was known but now he retracts and disowns it Another instance of his privity is his now prevaricating in his now pretending that these men were let in an hour or more before my Lords Death whereas at first he declared they were let in before my Lords Death for as soon as let in he heard several go up Stairs into my Lords Room and heard the bussle c. as before A third argument of this Centinels
That if any Judge Justice or Jury proceed upon him and he found guilty that you will declare them guilty of his Murder and Betrayers of the Rights of the Commons of England Hereupon the House came to these Resolves That it is the undoubted right of the Commons in Parliament assembled to impeach before the Lords in Parliament any Peer or Commoner for Treason or any other Crime or Misdemeanour and that the Refusal of the Lords to proceed in Parliament upon such Impeachment is a denyal of Justice and a violation of the Constitution of Parliaments That in the Case of E. Fitz-Harris who by the Commons has been impeached for High Treason before the Lords with a Declaration That in convenient time they would bring up the Articles against him For the Lords to resolve that the said Fitz-Harris should be proceeded with according to the course of the Common-Law and not by way of Impeachment in Parliament is a denyal of Justice and a Violation of the Constitution of Parliaments and an Obstruction to the further discovery of the Popish Plot and of great danger to his Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion That for any Inferiour Court to proceed against him or any other Person lying under an Impeachment in Parliament for the same Crimes for which he or they stand impeached is an high breach of the Priviledge of Parliament This matter thus agitated in the House of Commons was countenanced by a Protestation of many Temporal Lords which was to this effect That in all Ages it had been an undoubted Right of the Commons to impeach before the Lords any Subject for Treasons or any other Crime whatsoever That they could not reject such Impeachments because that Suit or Complaint can be determined no where else for an Impeachment is at the Suit of the People but an Indictment is at the Suit of the King As the King may Indict at his Suit for Murther and the Heir or the Wife of the Party Murthered may bring an †Which was always to be preferred and upon notice thereof all Prosecutions at the Kings Suit were to stop till the Prosecution at the Suit of the Party was determined Appeal And the King cannot Release that Appeal nor his Indictment prevent the Proceedings in it It is an absolute denial of Justice in regard it cannot be tryed any where else The House of Peers as to Impeachments proceed by vertue of their Judicial Power and not by their Legislative and as to that act as a Court of Record and can deny Suitors especially the Commons of England that bring legal Complaint before them no more than the Judges of Westminster can deny any suite regularly commenced before them Our Law saith in the Person of the King Nulli negabimus Justitiam We will deny Justice to no single Person yet here Justice is denyed to the whole Body of the People This may be interpreted an exercise of Arbitrary Power and have an influence upon the Constitution of the English Government and be an encouragement to all Inferiour Courts to exercise the same Arbitrary Power by denying the Presentments of Grand-Juries c for which at this time the Chief Justice stands impeached in the House of Peers These Proceedings may mis-represent the House of Peers to the King and People especially at this time and the more in the particular Case of Edward Fitz-Harris who is publickly known to be concerned in vile and horrid Treasons against his Majesty and a great Conspirator in the Popish plot to Murther the King and destroy and subvert the Protestant Religion Monmouth Kent Huntington Bedford Salisbury Clare Stamford Sunderland Essex Shaftesbury Macclesfield Mordant Wharton Paget Grey of Werke Herbert of Cherbury Cornwallis Lovelace Crew This Protest was no sooner made upon Munday the 28th of March 1681 but the Parliament was instantly dissolved Well The Parliament being dismissed Fitz-Harris must be Hang'd out of the way and the Term approaching Scroggs the Chief Justice who lay under an Impeachment for Treason in Parliament is removed with marks of Favour and Respect being allowed a Pension for Life and his Son Knighted and made one of his Majesty's Learned Council and Sr Francis Pemberton being advanced to the Seat of Lord Chief Justice the Business of Fitz-Harris is brought before him and Justice Jones Justice Dolben and Justice Raymond and proceeded upon in the manner following UPon the 27th of April 1681 an Indictment for high Treason was offered to the Grand-Jury for the Hundreds of Edmonton and Gore in Middlesex against Fitz-Harris whereupon Mr Michael Godfrey the Foreman in the name of the Grand-Jury desired the opinion of the Court whether it were lawful and safe for them to proceed upon it in regard Fitz-Harris was Impeached in the late Parliament at Oxford by the House of Commons in the name of all the Commons of England Mr Attorney General then said That Mr Godfrey and two more were against accepting the Bill but the body of the Jury carryed it to hear the Evidence and that thereupon himself and Mr Solicitor went on upon the * A new way of dealing with Grand-Juries to procure the finding Bills of Indictment Evidence and spent some time in opening it to the Jury and We thought they would have found the Bill but it seems They have prevailed to put these scruples in the others heads Then The Lord Chief Justice Pemberton said your scruple is this here was an Impeachment offered against Fitz-Harris to the Lords which was not received and thereupon there was a Vote of the House of Commons that he should not be Tryed by any other Inferiour Court We do tell you 't is our Opinion that If an Indictment be exhibited to you you are bound to enquire by vertue of your Oathes you cannot nor ought to take notice of any such Impeachment nor Votes and We ought to proceed according to Justice in Cases that are brought before us This We declare as the Opinion of all the Judges of England Then the Jury went away and afterwards found the Bill Upon Saturday the 30th of April Mr Fitz-Harris was brought to the King's Bench-Bar and Arraigned upon the Indictment whereupon he offered a Plea in writing to the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Chief Justice said We do not receive such Pleading as this without a Counsels hand to it Upon which the Prisoner desired the Court to assign Sr Francis Winnington Mr Williams Mr Pollexfen and Mr Wallop for his Council which was accordingly done Upon Monday the 2d of May the four Council moved the Court to have longer time for drawing the Plea and that they might have a sight of the Indictment as necessary to the drawing it but they were opposed therein by Mr Attorney and the Court denyed both Then Sr George Treby and Mr Smith were also assigned as Council for the Prisoner at his request Upon Wednesday the 4th of May Fitz-Harris being brought from the Tower to the King's Bench-Bar
found the 12th of July and Mr Glover proved a Copy of the King's Proclamation against Sr Thomas dated the 28th of June 1683. Then Ezekiel Everis was sworn and testified that in August 1683 he was at Cleve in Germany with the Lord Grey who went by the name of Thomas Holt and Sr Tho. A. came thither by the Name of Mr Henry Laurence and shew'd him a Bill of Exchange from England upon Mr Israel Hayes in Amsterdam for 160 l. odd Money and that it was for 150 Guineas paid in England and he told him it was drawn by Joseph Hayes and it was signed Joseph Hayes and the Bill was accepted and he saw Israel Hayes his Letter to Sr Thomas by the Name of Laurence which mentioned the sending the said sum to Cleve The Common Serjeant Crispe then delivered a parcel of Letters into the Court and swore that he received them of the Lord Godolphin and they had been ever since in his hands The Lord Godolphin then testified that he received three Letters produced in Court from Mr Constable Mr Chudley's Secretary who told him they were taken about Sr Thomas that one of them without any Name mentioned 150 Guineas returned to Henry Laurence Constable testified that he was present when the Scout of Leyden apprehended Sr Tho. A. and that the Letters were taken out of his Pocket and he himself delivered them to Mr Chudley who sealed them up and sent them by him to the Lord Godolphin Charles Davis testified that taking Boat from Amsterdam to Rotterdam he met Israel Hayes and Sr Tho. A. coming to take Boat and Sr Thomas went with him in the Boat and he told him his Name was Henry Laurence Davis added that he lodged a Month in one Briscowe's House at Amsherdam where there was a Club every Thursday There were Mr Israel Hayes Mr Henry Ireton one Wilmore Emerton Dare and some other English Merchants and he heard them several times abuse the King at the Table The Attorney General then shewed Mr Hayes a Letter saying It may be he will save us the labour of proving it but Mr Hayes disowning it Mr Walpoole was called and Mr Hayes said he was my Servant and went away after a rate that possibly would not be allowed Walpoole testified that he served Mr Hayes almost four Years and three quarters and did believe the Letter to be Mr Hayes his hand Mr Hayes said My Lord in matters of Treason I hope you will not admit of comparison of hands and belief for Evidence The Chief Justice answered Yes no doubt of it Mr Hayes replyed It has not been so in other Cases that have not been Capital as particularly in the Lady Carr's Case The Chief Justice said that is a mistake you take it from Algernon Sidney but without all doubt it is good Evidence Judge Wythens said Comparison of Hands was allowed for good Evidence in Colman's Case Mr Hayes answered That with submission vastly differs Those Letters were found in his own Custody This was not found in my possession but in another Man's and in another Nation Sr John Trevor Counsel for the King said This Gentleman was a Trader with the East-India-Company and made Contracts with them which are entred in their Books We will compare them with the Writing in this Letter The Common Serjeant then called Harman and Brittle and demanded of them where the Books were and they produced them Harman testified that he knew Mr Hayes and that he made several Contracts in 1683 and that he saw him in September 1683 subscribe his Hand to a Book of the Companies shewn to him Brittle testified that he is Porter in the Street to the East-India-Company and that he saw Mr Hayes write his Hand to a Book shown to him Capt. Piercehouse produced a Note Query if not the same Peircehouse in the Pannel of the Jury which he said was Mr H. his and that he supposed it to be his hand and compared it with the hand in the Book and said that he delivered the Goods upon it and Walpoole then said he believed it to be Mr Hayes his hand Then Mr Sturdivant was called and they shew'd him the Letter and he said Here is Joseph Hayes writ but I do not know it to be his Hand The Common Serjeant warmly said that Mr Sturdivant swore he did know Mr H. his hand before the Grand Jury but Mr Sturdivant affirmed the Common Serjeant was under a mistake Then Sr John Trevor called for Mr Hardresse but the * The Common Serjeant as hath been elsewhere observed upon the discovery of Keeling's Plot in 1683 boasted what work that Plot would make when it came into the City We now have him pulling it into the City by Head and Shoulders and find him in this Case appearing and exerting himself in a three or four sold capacity viz. the Manager if not Contriver of this prosecution and a Counsel Solicitor and Witness against the worthy Citizen now designed to destruction Common Sejeant answered That he was out of Town before he could be served with a Subpena Then the Letter was read it was subscribed Joseph Hayes and dated the 31st of August 1683. directed to Mr Henry Laurence senior at Amsterdam and began thus Sir at your desire I have sent you a Bill c. The Letter and the East-India-Books were then shewn to the Jury and to the Prisoner Mr Hayes denyed the Letter to be his Writing and said 'T is very strange I should not know my own hand May not Counsel be admitted to plead Whether comparison of hands and belief are any evidence in Criminal Causer I have been informed it hath been denyed to be evidence The Ch. Justice told him he was under a mistake some body has put it into your Head and pussed you up with a vain Story there is no such thing 'T is a Fiction a meer Whim only said by Mr Sidney and no ground in the World for it Mr Hayes replyed Was it not so in the Case of my Lady Carr there is a Record of that I suppose The Chief Justice affirmed it was not so and said Don't talk of it * It was in Trinity Term 1669. Anno 21 Car. 2. there was no such thing at all Comparison of hands was allowed for good proof in Sidney's Case We must not alter the Law for any Body Mr attorney General said Besides this comparison of hands We shall give an account of the Correspondence of the Prisoner's Brother and that he received the Money of him and then said Mr Common Serjeant Where had you this Papery The Common Serjeant to show his care and zeal in this matter said Pray have a care of the Papers and then gave evidence that he had them from my Zord Godolphin and said This is an Account of the Receipt and Disbursement of the Money Shew it Mr Constable Constable said This is one of the Papers was taken out of Sr T. A's Pocket It being shewn
of Vices and is a prophane lewd debauchee This Keeling is brought in as the first Witness against Mr Bateman tho' his Evidence touch'd him no more in Law than it did every of the Jury-men and it is remarkable Page 1. c. of the true Account c. that in the four Informations which he at several times gave in to Jenkins Mr Bateman is not so much as once named and yet we here find Keeling a witness against him The fore-mentioned bitter and malitious History doth likewise present us at large Page 34. of the true Account c. as it did Keeling's with the Information of Lee the dyer against Mr Bateman therein Lee swears that he told Mr B. a story he had from Goodenough of our Rights and Priviledges being invaded and that some Gentlemen had taken into consideration how to retrive them c. That Mr Bateman thereupon told him he must have a care and speak at a great distance that he was willing to assist if he could see but a Cloud as big as a Man's hand And that Mr B. told him that the Duke of Monmouth told him the said Mr B. that he was glad that he came acquainted with those Protestant Lords and that Mr B. assured Lee that the Duke was very right for the Protestant Interest and that we need not mistrust him And Lee added in that Information That Goodenough told him that they must seize the Tower and take the City and secure the Savoy and Whitehall and the King and the Duke The Case as to poor Mr Bateman was much altered between the time of Lee's giving the foregoing Information and this Tryal for at first the managers were for hanging Goodenough of whom the Author of the True Account pag. 55. saith that he with monstrous Impiety maintained and recommended the Murder of the King and the Duke as a pious design and a keeping of one of the ten Commandments and the best way to prevent shedding Christian Blood rather than Bateman and to that end Lee's main force was then bent against Goodenough but now it being found that Goodenough and the City Juries of that day could hang Alderman Cornish and Bateman and also Sr. Robert Peyton could they have catcht him the story of a Cloud as big as a man's Hand is expatiated and breaks in a dreadful storm upon Mr B. That of the Duke of Monmouth's being right for the Protestant Interest is now mightily improved and Bateman made to have said The Duke would engage in the business and had Honses in readiness c. And that he the said Bateman would take an House near the Tower in order to surprize it c. As matters were at first concerted the Evidence ran thus Goodenough told Lee that they must seize and secure the Tower the City the Savoy Whitehall the King and the Duke Now Lee swears and Goodenough backs him in it that all this discourse of seizing and securing c. proceeded from Mr Bateman To conclude the whole was a hellish Contrivance to destroy the most valuable men of the Age and with them the Protestant Religion and the wicked History I have mentioned is a lying most malitious Libel upon the great and noble Names and Families of the D. of Monmouth the Earls of Bedford Leicester Essex Shaftesbury Argyle and others and also upon the present learn'd Bishop of Salisbury and therefore seeing that Author doth not unwrite it 't is pitty that 't is not condemned to be burnt by the hands of the Common-Hangman And should it receive that deserved Sentence the Executioner is hereby advertised that he may find the Book in Custody unless escaped since the Prince of Orange's Landing and also in Irons it being affixed very fairly bound with a Chain not far from Newgate at Sadlers Hall with an Inscription on the Title Page The Gift of Mr Nott of the Pall Mall Remarks upon the Tryal of the Right Honourable Henry Lord. Delamere upon the 14th Day of January 1685. Before the Lord Jeffryes Lord High Steward on that occasion SOon after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in the Year 1685 a Proclamation was issued requiring my Lord Delamere to render himself which his Lordship accordingly did and upon the 26th of July 1685 the Earl of Sunderland Secretary of State committed him to the Tower for high Treason The Parliament sitting in November following the House of Lords began to enquire into his Lordship's case but were quickly after prorogued to the 10th of February following and never sate more The County Palatine of Chester did at that time furnish the Conspirators with as good Juries as could be pack'd in the City of London by Sr John Moore 's Sheriffs as is well known to the right honourable the Earl of Macclesfield my Lord Delamere Sr Robert Cotton and many other eminently deserving Patriots of Cheshire Thither was a Commission of Oyer and Terminer speeded and an Indictment was preferred against his Lordship before Sr Edward Lutwich Chief Justice of Chester and the Bill was readily found against him by a well prepared and instructed Grand-Jury Thereupon his Lordship was brought to Tryal before the Lord Jeffryes High Steward and the following Peers viz. Laurence Earl of Rochester Lord high Treastrer of England Robert Earl of Sunderland Lord President of the Council Henry Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal of England James Duke of Ormond Lord Steward of the Houshold Charles Duke of Somerset Christopher Duke of Albemarle Henry Duke of Grafton Henry Duke of Beaufort Lord President of VVales John Earl of Mulgrave Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold Aubery Earl of Oxford Charles Earl of Shrewsbury Theophilus E. of Huntington Thomas E. of Pembrooke John E. of Bridgewater Henry E. of Peterborow Robert E. of Scarsdale William E. of Craven Richard E. of Burlington Lovis E. of Feversham George E. of Berkley Daniel E. of Nottingham Thomas E. of Plymouth Thomas Viscount Fanconberg Francis Viscount Newport Treasurer of the Houshold Robert Lord Ferrers Vere Essex Lord Cromwell William Lord Maynard Comptroller of the Houshold George Lord Dartmouth Master General of the Ordnance Sidney Lord Godolphin John Lord Churchill Who being called over and appearing the High Steward began thus My Lord Delamere you stand indicted of High Treason by a Bill found against you by Gentlemen of Great Quality and known Integrity within the County Palatine of Chester the place of your residence and the King has thought it necessary to order you a speedy Tryal My Lord if you know your self innocent do not despond A Complement which Jeffryes never put upon any Man before For you may be assured of a fair and patient hearing and a free liberty to make your full defence He then ordered the Indictment to be read which was to this effect viz. That my Lord D. as a Traytor against King James the second the 14th of April last conspired with other Traytors the deposing and death of the King and did
time of day or night it was when he came to his House and whether when he came he alighted at the Stables or not and who took his Horse and at what Door he was let in and who let him into the House Saxon said It was just when it began to be dark that he alighted just at the Old Buildings and that the Man that eaine with him took his Horse and he went into the House and brought out a Candle that he never was at the House before and cannot tell which Door he went in at That the Man went with him just to the Door and let him within the Door and he saw no other man but that man till he came into the Room where my Lord and the two Gentlemen were My Lord D. asked him whether no body else but they were there Saxon answer'd No you were so wise you would let no Body be by Mr Attorney then said My Lord We shall give no more evidence at present but shall rest here till We see what defence this Noble Lord will make for himself My Lord Delamere then proceeded saying May it please your Grace and you my Lords It is an Offence of a very high nature for which I am this day to answer before your Lordships yet I thank God I am not affraid to speak in this place because I am not only very well assured of my own innocence but also well assured of your Lordships Wisdom and Justice which cannot be imposed upon or surprized by Instnuations and slorid Har angues nor governed by any thing but the Justice of the Cause I think that in matters relating to the Church and the things injoyned therein few have conformed more in practise than I have done and yet I am not ashamd to say that I have always a ten derness for all those who could not keep pace with me and Charity for those that have out gone me and differed from me tho' never so far nay tho' of a different Religion for I always thought Religion lay more in Charity than Persecution In every publick Trust I was faithful in the discharge of it for I never voted nor spoke in any manner but as my Conscience and Judgment did dictate to me I have always made the Laws the measure of my Loyalty and have endeavoured as far as in me lay to live peaceably with all men This my Lords was not only the dictates of my own Inclination but it was the Principle of my Father and the Lesson that he taught me Whosoever did know him I dare say did believe him to be a good Man For my part I endeavoured always to imitate his Example and that I hope will go very far to vindicate me from the imputation of being inclined to any such Crime as I stand charged with Here have been a great many Witnesses and a great deal of Swearing but little or nothing of legal Evidence to affect me for there is but one Man that faith any thing home and positively against me All the rest are but Hear-says and such remote Circumstances as may be tack'd to any Evidence against any other Person but are urged against me for want of greater matters to charge me with and therefore I hope the produced pressing of these things against me is rather a strong Argument that I am innocent and that there have been mischievous and ill Designs of some against me than that I am guilty Had they had geater matters your Lordships would have been sure to have heard of them My Lord of Nottingham when he sate in the same place that your Grace does now at the Tryal of my Lord Cornwallis speaking to the Peers had this passage I know your Lordships will weigh the fact with all its Circumstances from which it is to receive its true and its proper doom your Lordships are too just to let pitty make any abatement for the Crime and too wise to suffer Rhethorick to make any Improvement of it This only will be necessary to be observed by all your Lordships That the fouler the Crime is the clearer and plainer ought the proof of it to be 3 There is no other * 'T is then great pitty that the Law as to this is not altered and every English man who may have what Counsel he will in a Cause of 40 s. value allowed Counsel when he is concerded for his Life good reason can be given why the Law refuseth to allow the Prisoner at the Bar Counsel in matter of Fact when Life is concerned but only this because the Evidence by which he is condemned ought to be so very evident and so plain that all the Counsel in the World should not be able to answer it My Lords I think the Evidence given against me doth not come up to this and I hope your Lordships will regard this of my Lord Nottingham's as more worthy of your consideration than the fine Flourishings and Insinuations of the King's Council which tend if it be not so design'd rather to misguide your Lordships than to lead you to find out the truth My Lords I shall begin with Saxon for he I perceive is the great Goliah whose evidence is to maintain this Accusation and if I cut him down I suppose I shall be thought to have done my own business I shall first call some of his Neighbours who have conversed with him and know him My Lord Delamere then called Six Witnesses who proved Saxon to be a very ill Man and to have been guilty of Forgeries and several Cheats That being done his Lordship said I shall pass over this part of my Evidence tho' I have many more Witnesses to this point and come to matter of fact to encounter this positive proof against me Saxon has testified that about the 3d or 4th of June he as on extraordinary Person being confided in was sent for by me to Mere where he found me Sr Robert Cotton and Mr Offley who employed him to transact the stiring up the Country to rise and joyn with the D. of M. Now I will prove that Sr Robert was not in Cheshire for several Months both before and after the time he speaks of and I shall prove he was then in London at that time Mr Billing Sr Robert Cotton's Steward testified that Sr Robert came to London the 10th of April last and that he saw him constantly once or twice a day That about the end of July he went for three dayes to Epsam and came to Town again and continued here till he was committed to the Tower and never was in Cheshire since the 6th of April last Margaret Davis witnessed that Sr Robert Cotton came to Town the 10th of April and has not been out of Town any night since except it were in August The Lord High Steward catcht hold of this saying You say he did not go out of Town till †See here the vast difference between this Tryal before an August Assembly
and the Tryals in that day by Common Juries had this petty difference of the end of July and August happen'd in an ordinary case as the like did in the Case of Otes his Perjury what bawling would have been upon it and had this Excellent person been upon his Tryal before my Lord Russel's Jury or Colonel Sid ney's three Carpenters with the Taylor and their Crew it might have been improved by this Mushroom Lord Jeffryes and the King's Counsel to his Destruction August The other Man says it was the latter end of July My Lord Delamere thereupon said The other Witness saith it was the latter end of July and that may be very well consistent neither of them speaking to a day Mrs Sidney Lane who lived in Sr Cotton's House testified That Sr Robert came to Town in April last and never lay out of Town all those Months of April May and June after he came to Town Charles Reeves Sr Robert's Foot-man testified That Sr Robert was in Town before the Coronation the 23d of April and he saw him every day that time till after July Then Mr Ashburnham Sr William Twisden and Mr Heveningham witnessed that they saw Sr Robert Cotten in Town in June Mr Heveningham in particular that upon the 3d of June he was walking with Robert in the Court of Requests when Mr Neale came and told him the House of Commons had then determined a point about the Election of Thetford Sr Willoughby Aston then proved that upon the 26th of May Mr Offley and his Lady came to his House and he gave a particular account how he spent his time there till the 4th of June when he returned home to his own House which is directly another way from my Lord Delamere's whose House is eleven of those Northern Miles from Sr Willoughby's Mr Gregory and Tho. Kid Servants to Mr Offley witnessed that Mr Offley went from Sr Willoughby Aston's upon the 4th of June directly home to his own House Crew-Hall in Cheshire and did not go from thence that night Mr Booth my Lord Delamer's Brother proved that he saw my Lord in Town the 3d of June in the evening and also the 4th 5th 6th and so on to the 10th of June sometimes twice or thrice a day Mr George Booth another of my Lord's Brothers testified that he saw my Lord in Town the 4th of June by the partioular circumstance that he went with him the next day to the House of Lords to hear my Lord Macclessield's Cause upon Fitton 's Appeale My Lord Lovlace proved that he saw my Lord D. in the House of Lords at the hearing of my Lord Macclesfield's Cause the 5th of June and that my Lord D. stood by the Bar and took notes My Lord D. then said I hope I have now satisfied your Grace and the rest of my Lords that none of us three whom this Fellow has mentioned were at that time at Mere when hé said we were I affirm in the presence of Almighty God that I have not seen Sr Robert Cotton at my House these many years and I believe Mr Offley was never there since I was Master of it and I do protest that to my knowledge I never saw the Face of this Man till now I am sure I never spoke with him nor sent for him to my House If his Story be considered it will easily appear to be very improbable for he neither tells who the Messenger was that was sent for him nor the way that he came into the House and he must needs discern which way he came in for I have but one Door into my House except that by the Stables which is a great way off the House Besides my Lords Is it probable that he should see no Body stiring about the House except the Man without a Hand that he sayes was sent for him I assure your Lordship I have not nor had my Father ever that I know of any Servant or Tenant that was maimed in the manner he speaks of Is it to be imagined that I would take a Man I knew nothing of into so great a confidence as to employ him about a business of this nature I beseech your Lordships to look at him Is this Fellow a likely Fellow to be used in such an affair Does he look as if he were fit to be employed for the raising 10000 Men your Lordship 's likewise see that he is so well thought of that he dare not be trusted out of Newgate but is kept still a Prisoner and as such gives evidence here He Swears to save himself and would fain exchange his Life for mine My Lords The King's Council lay a great weight upon my going down the 27th of May and my frequent riding Post I shall satisfie your Lordships of the Reasons of my Journies the first time I went to take Possession of a Lease of six or seven Thousand pounds value which was renewed to me by the Bishop and I had word that the Bishop was ill and that obliged me to make hast down All this being fully proved by Mr Edmond's and Mr Henry my Lord Delamere proceeded saying I had resolved to go see a sick Child but hod not taken my journey so soon as the 27th of May nor with such privacy but that I had notice there was a Warrant to apprehend me and I was willing to keep out of custody as long as I could Being at my House in Cheshire my Wife sent me an Express that as to the Warrant She hoped it was a mistake but my Eldest Son was very ill and if I intended to see him alive I must make haste up This was the occasion of my quick return Mrs Kelsey then witnessed that my Lord came to his House in Cheshire the 31st of May being Sunday and that his Child was ill and my Lord told her that he heard there was a Warrant to take him up That he stayed Monday the 1st of June and went away on Tuesday morning My Lady Delamere my Lord's Mother testified the Child's being ill in the Country and that while my Lord was there his Lady sent for him Post if he intended to see his eldest Son alive Mr Kelsey proved That my Lor d D. came down upon the Sunday night at eleven of the Clock and stay'd at home all Munday and on Tuesday at three in the Morning he took Horse for London and that Mr Kelsey had Letters from my Lady Delamere and Mrs Vere Booth dated the 4th of June that told him my Lord was come to Town the night before Sr Thomas Millington the Physitian witnessed that upon the 28th of May he was sent for to my Lord Delamere's Son and found him very ill and he continued so two dayes and he told my Lady Delamere that he thought the Child would not escape That he knows punctually this was the time by the Apothecaries Bills which he wrote and finds the date on them My Lord Delamere then said My Lord I hope
manner gives more credit to the Relation than as a bare hear-say could have of it self For unless there be a good account given of my Lord 's thus going out of Town it is a kind of necessary presumption that he acquainted him with the Message and if so it can have no other Construction than to be in pursuance of the directions brought him from the Duke of Monmouth Another thing my Lords that renders this matter suspitious is the Name which my Lord assumed a Name by which the Party used to call my Lord which is proved by Babington and Paunchforth Paunchforth tells you that one Lock came for some of the Duke of Monmouth's Declarations for Mr Brown to be sent into Cheshire So that tho' some body else was called by the Name of Browne yet you have had no account given you that there was any other Brown in Cheshire It is very suspitious that if my Lord went into Cheshire under the name of Brown and some came on Brown's behalf for Declarations to be sent into Cheshire and my Lord commonly with that Party went by that Name That will be a great Evidence of his Correspondence with Monmouth I confess my Lords all this while our proof is circumstantial and indeed there is no positive proof but that of Saxon's and here I must confess there are Objections made which I cannot readily answer There is no good account given what reason there was for so many Post-Journeys backward and forward These are matters of suspition But I confess matters of suspition only unless clear positive probable proof be joyned with them will not weigh with your Lordships to convict a Man of High Treason but whether these matters of suspition be such violent and necessary presumptions as tend to fortifie the positive Testimony I must leave that to the consideration of your Lordships The High Steward then concluded saying my Lords There is something I cannot omit taking notice of that one mistake in point of Law might not go unrectified viz. That there is a necessity in point of Law that there should be two positive Witnesses to convict a Man of Treason Without all doubt what was urged by hat learned Gentleman who concluded for the King is true There may be such other substantial Circumstances joyned to one positive Testimony that by the Opinion of all the Judges has been several times adjudged to be a sufficient Proof As in this Case If your Lordships should believe Saxon swears true and shall believe there was that Circumstance of Jone's coming over from Holland with such a Message the 27th of May which is directly sworn in Evidence and what the other Witnesses have sworn likewise that my Lord Delamere went out of Town that Night changed his Name and went an indirect By-Road certainly these Circumstances if your Lordships be satisfied he went for that purpose do necessarily knit the positive Testimony of Saxon and amount to a second Witness Your Lordships are Judges 'T was well for my Lord D. amultitude more that they were so for had his Lordship fallen weshould not have known where they would have stop'd and the High Steward could have made this Evidence to have passed to the cutting off hundreds of Men in the West And if you do not believe the Testimony of Saxon which has been so positively contradicted by divers Witnesses of Quallity The Prisoner ought to be acquitted of this Indictment The Peers having thereupon withdrawn for about half an hour returned and took their Seats and unanimously declared upon their Honours that the Lord Delamere was not Guilty and so his Lordship was most happily delivered and with him the Right Honourable my Lord of Stanford my Lord Brandon Sr Robert Cotton Mr Offley and many other valuable Persons and good Patriots who were lockt up in the Tower and other Prisons in order to their Tryals and Tryal and death in that day were rarely found to be far asunder Thus Saxon one of the vilest Miscreants of human Race had a fair blow at one of the most valuable and deserving Persons of this Generation the Right honourable Henry Lord Delamere Grand-Son of the most worthy and never to be forgotten Patriot Sr G. Booth and Son Heir as well of the Vertues as of the Estate of the incomparably good and great Man Sr George Booth Lord Delamere But when the Villain came to bedetected of Perjury And his Suborners found that the sham would not pass they were ready to wish themselves half hanged that ever they pretended to believe him at all The repeated Imprisonment Vexation and eminent danger of this excellent Person my Lord Delamere and many other honourable highly deserving Patriots of the Vale Royal of England having been promoted and abetted by a Fanatical Presentment or Address of a Grand Jury of Cheshire which bears the Stile of Sr Roger L' Estrange I shall here subjoyn it viz. WE the Grand Jury sworn to enquire for the Body of the County of Chester at the Assizes held in the Common-Hall of Pleas in the Castle of Chester upon Munday the 17th day of September in the 35th year of his now Majesty's Reign and in the Year of our Lord 1683 having heard his Majâ—y's Declaration to all his Loving Subjects touching the treasonous Conspiracy against his sacred Person and Government lately discovered openly read to us in Sessions by order of the Court as well as in our respective Parish Churches by Royal Command and seriously considering the extensiveness of the said Conspiracy and dreadful Consequences thereof had it taken offect since notions of Sedition and Rebellion have been cultivated to such an amazing height that some have not only dared to draw them into practice in their Lives but to propogate them with their latest Breath by Devillish Insinuations of their consistency with Religion and Law We conceive it high time to manifest our Separation from such Persons and Principles their Favourers and Abettors with detestation of that dreadful Climax the Bill of Exclusion Treasonous Association Ignoramus Juries and seducing Perambulations by which the Accomplices advanced towards their intended Assassination Massacre which barbarous design it cannot be imagined that Forty or the Council of any Six durst undertake without confident reliance on Confederate Auxiliaries and not knowing the Latitude of such dire Combinations but heedful of our present charge and duty with the indispensable Obligation the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy lay upon all We hold our selves boundin this distempered juncture of Affairs to present that We have strong apprehensions of danger from a dissatisfied party in this Country who not only shewed their defection openly by an Address made to Henry Booth Esq and Sr Robert Cotton Knight and Barronet at the last Election of Knights of the Shire tending to alter the Succession of the Crown with other dangerous and seditious purports giving assurance of standing by them in that design without respecting their Oath of
believes it consisted of seven or eight hundred Sheets Mr Joseph Ducas upon his Examination informed the Lords in substance as follows That Colonel Sidney was taken up by a Messenger before there could be any pretence of proof against him for the Lord Howard the only Witness was not seized till fourteen dayes after That when Sr Philip Floyd seized and carried away Colonel Sidney's Papers he promised him that the Trunk and Pillowbeere in which they were sealed up should not be opened but in the Colonel's presence but that promise was not performed That they seized the Colonel's Goods and Money in the City and Country five or six Months before any Indictment was found against him That the Colonel was brought to Westminster the 7th of November by an * A most clear demonstration that the Prosecutors of this great Man had good Intelligence with the Grand Jury Influence upon them Habeas Corpus sent the day before to be arraigned upon an Indictment tho' no Indictment was then found against him and they kept him in a Tavern in the Palace-yard an hour till they had got the Grand Jury to find the Indictment That the Colonel being carried to the Court of King's Bench and the Indictment read he demanded a Copy thereof but the Court refused it That the Colonel offered a Special Plea engrossed in Parchment and desired it might be read but the Chief Justice said that if the Attorney General demurred and the Plea were over-ruled Judgment of Death should pass upon him and Wythens said if your Plea be over-ruled your Life is gone and so he was forced to Plead Not Guilty That he challenged several of the Jury as being the King's Servants and others as not being Freeholders but was over-ruled therein Some Gentlemen and very worthy Persons were for Fashion sake put into the Pannel and called but did not appear and it may be reasonably thought they were never summoned That Colonel Sidney was informed that when the Jury was withdrawn the Chief Justice under pretence of going to drink a Glass of Sack went to the Jury when they were consulting about their Verdict That when it was demanded of the Colonel what he had to say why Judgment should not pass he urged several points of Law but was over-ruled in every thing To this effect was the Information of Mr Ducas a very valuable French Protestant Gentleman and Colonel Sidney's true Friend To which I shall here subjoyn a few words uttered by that great Man at the time of his Condemnation I was brought to VVestminster the 7th of this Month by * This leads me to correct an Error committed in the first part of this History pag. 185. where I said as I then understood it that Colonel Sidney brought the Habeas Corpus but it appears that it was brought at the instance of his Prosecutors And upon this occasion I shall confess another mistake therein all with which I have been charged in the first part that I said Robert Masters one of Sr S. Barnardiston's Jury was a principal Witness against Colledge But I must acknowledge that Richard was the Witness Robert the Jury man was his Brother and only suck'd the same Milk with him Habeas Corpus granted the day before to be arraigned when yet no Bill was exhibited against me and my Prosecutors could not know it would be found unless they had a Correspondence with the Grand Jury That the Jury was not summoned by the Bailiff but agreed upon by the Vnder-Sheriff and Graham and Burton Upon the Sentence he expressed himself in that excellent manner which the Reader may turn to in the first part of the Display of Tyranny Page 200. Whereupon the Chief Justice foaming at the Mouth told him he was mad To which Colonel Sidney with great composure and gallantry of mind stretching out his hand said My Lord feel my Pulse and see if I am disordered I bless my God I never was in better Temper than I now am Dr. Chamberlaine being examined deposed That meeting the Lord Hallifax in the Gallery at White-hall he asked his Lordship whether the Aldermen were to blame that defended the City Charter and he believes he did not blame them but said the King must or will have the Charter he rather thinks it was must have it he believes he might tell this to the Duke of Monmouth my Lord Russell and others That it was for Sr John Laurence's sake he asked the Lord Hallifax and to him he gave advice to take care in what he did he being one of the Committee to defend the Charter A Memorial of the Numbers of Charters Dispensations and Pardons passed between October 1682 and the time of the late King's Abdication THe Marquess of Hallifax was Lord Privy Seal from October 1682. to February 1684. In which time 166 Charters were granted whereof one passed immediatè No Dispensations passed in that time In that time 47. Pardons with Non-Obstante's and Clauses with Dispensations were granted whereof three passed immediatè The Earl of Clarendon was Lord Privy Seal from February 1684 to December 1685. in which time 94. Charters were granted whereof 17 passed immediate No Dispensations passed in that time In that time 10 Pardon with Non-Obstante's and Clauses with Dispensations were granted whereof two passed immediatè The Lord Tiveot and others were Commissioners of the Privy Seal from December 1685. to March 1686 7. in which time 26 Charters were granted which passed in the usual manner Dispensations with the Penal Laws in that time were Six whereof one was immediatè In that time 70. Pardons with Non-Obstante's were passed whereof one of them immediatè The Lord Arundel of Wardour was Lord Privy Seal from March 1686 7. to 4 Jacobi 2. in which time 56 Charers were granted whereof 41. passed immediatè Dispensations in that time were 35. whereof 3 passed immediate In that time were 47 Pardons with Non-Obstante's passed whereof 25 passed immediate These are the heads of the Earl of Stamford's Report which being read in the House of Lords the same was by Order sent down to the House of Commons for their Information in these Affairs Copies of some Papers mentioned in or relating to the forgoing Informations Copy of the Advertisment in the Gazette Number 1880. November 26. 1683. relating to the Duke of Monmouth mentioned in the Examinations of Mr Row and Mr Yard WHite-hall November 25. His Majesty having this afternoon called an Extraordinary Council was pleased to acquaint them that the Duke of Monmouth did the last night surrender himself to Mr Secretary Jenkins having before writ a very submissive Letter to his Majesty entirely resigning himself to his Majesty's disposal That his Majesty his Royal Highness went down to Mr Secretary's Office where the Duke of Monmouth was who shewed himself very sensible of his crime in the late Conspiracy making a full Declaration of it And that having shewed an extraordinary penitence for the same and