window immediately before the news of his death and that all which was deposed concerning a Report in City and Countrey about his having cut his Throat before it was done were false and only invented by the Informers yet as it is evident by the Oaths and Depositions of the Witnesses that Mr. Braddon was not the Forger of these things so it is demonstrable that they were in their nature of that weight and importance upon which a wise as well an honest man might suspect that my Lord had not murdered himself but was destroyed by others Nor could the Gentleman have ever been found guilty but by means of Mercinary Judges and an overaw'd as well as a pick'd and prejudiced Jury who will boggle at nothing tho never so unjust that may but gratisy a great Man and oblige His Majesties Ministers of State And the reason as I have said before upon which Mr. Braddon came to be convicted and found guilty was plainly to skreen a great Man and some other persons from coming to be involved in the guilt of that Noble Man's death and to keep up the belief of a Protesiant Plot which as Justice Withins phraseth it was likely otherwise to lose its credit and to be esteemed a Sham Plot for the taking away Innocent Protestants Lives Nor was the whole Trial against this Worthy and Vertuous Person more extravagant arbitrary and illegal than the Sentence against him upon the Juries finding him convict of the Indictment was unjust and severe For besides the condemning him in a Fine of 2000 l. which is more than his whole visible Estate amounts unto and expressly contrary to the Law of the Land which requires no man shall be fined but with a salvo contenemento i. e. the leaving him as much as may support him in some degree answerable to his quality they have over and above ordered his finding Sureties for good behaviour during life which as I question whether it be lawful by the ancient and Common Law tho it hath been sometimes practised any more than it is to condemn a person to perpetual Imprisonment so I am sure there is no President to be found for the like in a matter that was not of a more criminal and heynous Nature But all serves to prove that whosoever hath the courage or honesty to â—avel into the Earl of Essex's death are to be persecuted oppressed and ruined and by consequence serves to demonstrate that there is a villanous mystery in the manner of his coming to that Fatal End which they are affraid to have searched out and detected And as if it were not enough in the judgment of all rational men to acquit and vindicate the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having destroyed himself that those have been prosecuted with the utmost sâ—verity and oppressed in their Estates and Liberties who with all imaginâ—ble modesty towards the Government were willing to inquire into the manner of his death and to declare their just suspitions with the grounds of them to persons trusted with the administration of affairs that he did not murder himself but was assassinated by others Behold that as one Crime is not to be concealed but by the perpetration of more so the Conspirators and Authorisors of that Noble Mans death have proceeded to the murdering several other men who as they had a perfect knowledge and comprehension both of the manner of the Fact the villanous bloody Agents who were immediately instrumental to commit it and the Persons who employed rewarded and encouraged them so they had been guilty of what some will call indiscretion to communicate to others what they had seen and observed and too fully understood themselves Among others who partly saw heard and observed themselves and partly learned from others several circumstances relating to the matter of my Lord's death there was one Meak a common Sentinel who had stood on duty all that morning â—â—er unto the place and house where the Earl of Essex was confined For whereas on other days the Sentinels used to stand but two hours at a time on duty there was care taken that morning that those who were on duty when the King and Duke came into the Tower which was about six of the clock should not be changed till both after the time of the Earl of Essex's death which was about nine and till after the King and Dukes departure from thence which was about half an hour after And the reason of this is obvious namely that tho it was impossible to keep all persons from seeing who walk't to and fro and what was transacting yet they resolved to preserve it in as narrow a compass as they could and to admit as few to an opportunity of observing persons and things as might be Whence it came to pass that those Souldiers who entred upon Duty at Four and should according to course have been relieved at Six were suffered and obliged to stay on till Ten. Now this Meak having an advantage from the post he was in of observing the several persons that went that morning to my Lord Essex's Lodgings and having parâ—ly himself seen and partly learned from others divers material particulars relating to the manner of the Assassination of that Noble Person it will be easily acknowledged that he was as capable as any to detect it or at least of letting these who should have the honesty courage and zeal to enquire after my Lord's death so far into it as to be able to unravel that whole villany and to trace it not only to the Instruments but the original Authors and Contrivers This poor fellow both abhorring in himself what he had seen and conceiving the greatest detestation imaginable against all the Villains who had been accessory to it was neither able to conceal his knowledge of what he had seen nor his resentments of so horrid a Fact but at the same time had not the prudence to distinguish betwixt persons who without dammage to the Author might be entrusted with so important a Secret and those who at first would seem forward enough to hear it but would withall make their advantage by revealing it to such as would reward them and destroy him Whence it unhappily came to pass that this poor foolish man not only related it to such as were honest and faithful to him and who will be ready in due time to testify the whole of what he acquainted them with but to others who conveyed it to St. James's as a piece of important intelligence and of wonderful consequence to his Royal Highness And tho it be not yet seasonable to recount the several particulars relating to that barbarous Murder which he declared upon his own knowledge as well as the confirmation of others yet I may take the liberty to digest and branch them into their several heads and to let the World know that some of them were such as preceeded his death others accompanied it and one or two came
and loved after it Having now shown the end unto which the murder of this incomparable Earl was designed and adapted and the improvement which was made of it not only through endeavouring to establish thereby the belief of a Protestant Plot in general but to compass and facilitate the ruine of that religious and noble person my Lord Russel in particular we shall as a further inducement to perswade and convince the inquisitive part of mankind that some about St. James's and Whitehall where the contrivers and authorisers of that barbarous assassination lay open and unfold the motive and pique upon which it was done and what it was which gave the original rise to some mens implacable malice against that loyal as well as virtuous person And as it cannot be denied but this late Nobl ' Earl had received Titles of honor and places of Trust interest and advantage from his Majesty so it will be acknowledged that not only his Father but himself had laid all the obligations upon the Crown which it was possibl ' for Subjects in way of Acting or Suffering to do Nor is it less evident that notwithstanding both the Father my Lord Capel's Laying down his life for Charles the First and the English Monarchy and his Son Essex's manifold sufferings and services for Charles the Second and the Royal Family yet this honorable Person instead of quietly possessing any longer the just rewards of his own and Fathers merits or enjoying any more the wonted signs of his Princes favour was not onely debarred from and deprived of the respect and confidence which his Majesty had used to show him but was become the object of a great mans implacable hatred and boundless malice For though the Earl of Essex was a person whom nothing could corrupt from his loyalty to the King and the Established Government yet he was also a sincere and zealous Patriot of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and a couragious Defender as well as owner of the Protestant Religion And as he was none of those mercinary base and timorous Lords who would either connive at or concur in the introduction of Slavery and Popery so he was one of the principal of those heroick and generous Peers who had been active in detecting the Popish Conspiracy and who had laboured with the greatest industry to prevent the effects of that hellish conjuration of the Valican Louvre and St. James's for the extirpation of the Reformed Worship and the subversion of the ancient Laws and Priviledges of England And as he was known to understand more of the nature and extent of the Popish Conspiracy and who were concerned in it and to what degree than most persons in the Kingdom either were or ever had oportunities for so nothing can be more certain than that as hereby he became the most dangerous man in the whole Nation to the Papists but that he must consequently be the most special object of their jealousie fear and hatred 〈◊〉 as his publick Station in Ireland as well as his having been long a Member of His Majesty's Privy Council in England furnished him with manifold advantages which others wanted of knowing the tendency and penetrating into the bottom of all the Designs and Counsels which have been carrying on against our Religion and Legal Government so his scorning and abhorring to sacrifice his Conscience and Honour by either falling in with the Conspirators or by avoiding to withstand and oppose them in their attempts for the introduction and establishment of Popery and Arbitrariness made them to think of all ways and means how to destroy him And besides these forementioned advantages which he had above other men of knowing all the dimensions of the Popish Plot he received no small accession of light in that affair by having been always a Member of those Secret Committees which had the Examination of Persons and Inspection of Papers concerning that devilish Conspiracy Nor was the Earl insensible of the danger he was in upon this account and accordingly was wont sometimes to say to his intimate friends that as generally all the Papists and more particularly such of them as make the greatest figure in the Kingdom dreaded him by reason of the detection he was able to make of their horrid Machinations so he could not be without apprehension but that they would seek to destroy him in order to prevent it Alas poor Essex thy respect to some whom I forbear to name made thee wanting to save the Nation and thy self by revealing that while we had ParlJaments the knowledge whereof would have been a means to have prevented our ruine and as thou art now ill rewarded for thy tenderness to those ungratefull men so we are at once unhappily robb'd of the great Instrument that could have unmasked persons and things and denied ParlJaments from whose legal Authority as well as united Counsels and Wisdom we can only under God hope for the preservation of England from becoming the Seat of Popery and the Theatre of Tyranny Nor ought it to seem strange that the malic◠of the Papists and of those who have conspired against our Rights and Priviledges should transport them to that measure and degree of rage against a person who had not only faithfully served his Majesty and the Crown but from whom they could expect no opposition but what was founded in the authority of our Laws and promoted in a ParlJamentary-way and which the King himself is bound by his Oath as well as the duty and trust reposed in him to second and give countenance unto For besides diverse Gentlemen of that temper and character whom they have destroyed or condemned by and under a Form of Law but indeed contrary to all the Laws of the Land and against the worst presidents even in the most absolute and despotical times there may be several Gentlemen mentioned whom they have cut off without the Form of any Process meerly because they either thought themselves prejudiced and withstood by them in their designs or were afraid of them by reason of the discovery which they were able to give of their conjurations against the Kingdom and of the villanies they had committed in subserviency to the establishment of Popery and Tyranny For not to mention either the Condemnation of that most Honourable Person the Earl of Argyle nor the Condemnation and Execution of that gallant Gentleman Collonel Sydney nor the late Barbarity used against their ancient Servant Sir Thomas Armestrong all which were directly repugnant to the Laws of the respective Kingdoms and contrary to all proceedings in other criminal and capital Cases were not my Lord Lucas Sir Robert Brook◠and Sir Edmondbury Godfrey without being so much as arraigned or accused murthered by them only because they either found them opposite to their Romish and Arbitrary designs or knew them capable of revealing their hellish Counsels and Actions against the Nation the established Government and the Reformed Religion What Family in England had
eyes of the people and confirm the belief of the conspiracy There was Digitus Dei in it say's my Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes and enough to satisfie all the world of the Truth of the conspiracy that the Earl of Essex being conscious of the great guilt he had contracted in being concerned in it did rather than abide his Trial and for the avoiding the methods of justice in his own particular case destroy himself The improvement of the Murder of that noble Peer to the establishing the belief of a plot gives no small ground to suspect who were the contrivers of his death and upon what design they did first assassinate and then endeavour to cast and divert the infamy and guilt of it upon himself But I hope they will from their own way 's of argumentation allow us the liberty of inferring that in case my Lord of Essex was not Felo de se that then there was no such Protestant plot as they have filled the world with the noise of seeing the only motives upon which they suppose and alledg ' his having committed that unnatural fact upon himself were the reproach and horror of that conspiracy Nay we doubt not but that all the honest and disinterested part of mankind will upon conviction of their having destroyed that innocent Gentleman become fully satisfied that there hath been no such Treasonable combination as his Majesties Ministers have endeavoured to impose the belief of upon the Nation but that all his Court and Popish Sham and only devised and fram'd for subverting our liberties and Religion by cutting off those that had the integrity and courage to espouse the protection and defence of them And as the end whereunto the unnatural death of my Lord Essex is applied and improved shows by whom it was contrived and effected so the Tim'ing of that murder does further evidence and demonstrate where the guilt of it ought to be charged and what service it was calculated for the promoting of For as if it had not been enough to murder one innocent person in a way of the most barbarous violence imaginable they resolved to adjust it to such a juncture of time as that it might serve to facilitate and compass the ruine of an other Noble Person in the way of their Legal Form's And therefore no sooner was my Lord Russel entred on his Trial for life upon an indictment of being guilt of that pretended conspiracy for which the Earl of Essex stood committed but they assassinated the one in the Tower and immediately dispatched away the news of his having murdered himself to the Old Bayly thereby to amuse and prepossess the jury and byaz them to convict that other virtuous noble and innocent person And with what satisfaction in themselves as well as malice and artifice against the prisoner at the Barr did his Majesties Councel lay hold on the tyd'ings and apply them towards the begetting a belief of the guilt of that admirable person who stood then arraigned and whom they were at that very time harrangu'ing and pleading out of his life As if it had not been enough to impress the minds of a jury sufficiently prejudiced and which to all mens knowledge was grosly partial for the Attorney General to say That my Lord Russel was one of the Council for carrying on the Plot with the Earl of Essex who had that morning prevented the hand of justice upon himself Sir George Jefferys comes after him and adds in the winding up the evidence to the jury just before they went from the Bar and without all doubt the better to mould and determine them to find the arrained person guilty That there was nothing could be said in favour of my Lord Russel's innocency as to what he was accused of but what might be more strongly alledged in behalf of the Earl of Essex who nevertheless from a conciousness of being guilty of that desperate conspiracy had brought himself to an untimely end to avoid the methods of publick justice Yea so evident was it to all impartial persons who were then present at the Tryal that the Murder of the Earl of Essex was not perpetrated by himself but by others and that it was time'd and adjusted to that season in order to influencing the jury to give up my Lord Russel with the more ease as a sacrifice and victime to the rage of the Court that a very noble Lord who was always in the interests of Whitehall and who was then very zealous in the prosecution of those accused for the Plot being at that time on the Bench did upon the hearing of my Lord of Essex's death and who were then walking in the Tower when it fatally fell out and upon observing with what diligence care and artifice the news was brought into Court as my Lord Russel was at the Bar and how the Kings Council thereupon acted their parts rise up in great consternation from the Bench where he sat and pulling his hat over his eyes press out of Court saying he plainly saw the bottom of the business and all the Mysteries wrapt up in it And indeed such influence and success had the news of the Earl of Essex's having murder'd himself from the shame and horror he was under for being concerned in the Conspiracy whereof my Lord Russel stood then arraigned that diverse of the Inquest have confessed and acknowledged that the Report of the Earl's death especially as improved and managed by the Kings Council had greater power over their minds for the convicting him than all the other evidence which was given and that they do really believe they should never have sound him guilty without the intervention of that fatal stroke and the crafty application which the Kings Council at Law made of it But so far was the Earl of Essex from entertaining any foregoing thoughts of murdering himself or from calculating the perpetration of it to that unhappy season that the very day before my Lord Russel's Trial being also the day before his own Throat was cut he gave private directions to his Steward to place himself with all the conveniency in Court which he could at the said Trial the better to take the evidence in short hand instructing him withall how he might afterwards convey it to him for his perusal and to be made use of as he should have occasion And as the Earl of Essex was a person of that sedateness honor and vertue that no rational or good man can believe he would commit so horrid a crime upon himself so such was the entire friendship between him and my Lord Russel that we must renounce common sense and reason before we can admit that the Earl of Essex would be guilty of so heinous an injury to his dearest and best Friend as to calculate and adjust the murdering himself to such a season which he must needs know would be too probable a means to derive the destruction of a person whom he infinitely valued
For I remember that when the late Sr. Thomas Armstrong had come post from Paris to give his Majesty an account how Orleans had poisoned the Princess Henrietta that he only replyed Orleans is a Rascal but pray thee Tom do not speak of what he hath done Yet that his Majesty may not excuse himself hereafter from causing further inquisition to be made after my Lord of Essex's death by saying he never heard otherwise but that he murder'd himself I do therefore tell his Majesty and publish to all the World that if he will grant an indemnity and protection to three or four persons we shall fully and evidently prove a Great Man the Earl of S. my Lord F. c. to have been the contrivers and Authorisers of it and shall name the Ruffians in particular who were employed to perpetrate the hellish and execrable Fact with an account of the several sums of money which they had for the execution of it Nor ought his Majesty to be displeased that I arraign his Brother and principal Ministers of so enormous and bloody a crime for as I write nothing but what I can fully justify so I take the boldness further to tell both him and them that if ever there come a ParlJament in England this matter shall be laid fully open and justice demanded against these impudent and enormous Offenders And as if it were not enough to evidence the E. of Essex did not murder himself but was barbarously assassinated by others that no encouragement hath been given for the discovery of the Authors of that villanous Fact notwithstanding all the rumours and Reports which have run to and fro both of the Manner of his death and the Actors in it it receives both a further and a very convincing accession of proof from this that all means have been used to deterr men from enquiring into that matter and to prevent their detecting what they may know of it The passages to this purpose would fill a volume meerly to relate them and therefore I shall confine my self to two particulars which I shall endeavour to deduce and represent with all the brevity as well as clearness I can Nor can it in the first place but astonish the world to find the Judges with whom the administration of law and justice between the King and his people is trusted I say to find them contrary both to the nature and End of their office and the Oaths they have taken of acting impartially to brand the medling in the matter of the E. of Essex's death as a Reflection upon his Majesty an Affront to the Government and a design to involve and embroil the Nation in trouble For not only the Attorney General stigmatiseth the report and belief of the Earl's being murdered by villanous hands as the throwing that ill thing upon the Government which he had committed upon himself but my Lord Chief Justice Jefferies is pleased to stile it a libelling of it and to have been forged in order to beget heart burnings and jealousies in the Kings Subjects against the Government and to raise Sedition Whereas the Government would never have been charged with this horrid Guilt tho some at the head of affairs might possibly have been accused of it had not these Gown-men involved the Government under the infamy and aspersion of it and done all they can to teach others to lay the barbarous Fact at that Door For as it is not the first time that a Prisoner hath been murdered in the Tower so it was never till now called a Reflection on the Government to endeavour to prove that such or such a person was destroyed by â—iolâ—nt and bloody hands even of whose death the Coroners Inquest had upon their inquisition given an other verdict Nay when the chief Favourites of our Princes and first Ministers of State have been accused as guilty of murdering a Gentleman imprisoned in the Tower whom the Coroners Jury had on their Inquisition declared to have died a natural death yet it was not thought to be an impeachment of the Government or a devolving the guilt of that bloody crime upon the King Of this we have a famous instance in Sr. Thomas Overbury who being committed Prisoner to the Tower in the Reign of King James and there poisoned by the contrivance and instigation of the Earl of Sommerset c. that was then chief Minister as well as principal Favourite was brought in by the Coroners inquisition to have died a natural death And yet it was thought no dishonour to the Government to have the death of that Gentleman afterwards enquired into and to find it proved contrary to the Coroners Inquisition that instead of dying a natural death he was basely and treacherously murdered by Villanous hands through the accession and contrivance of him whom he had faithfully served and with the consent of those to whose care trust and custody he was committed Nay was it not a great Vindication of the honor of the Government and an eminent Declaration of the Justice of the Nation to have the Lieutenant of the Tower and four or five meaner persons executed and the Earl of Sommerset and his Countess convicted and condemned for that bloody and barbarous Fact which the Coroners Inquest had acquitted and absolved all the world from the suspition as well as the guilt of And what an injury will the Judges of the Kings Bench and his Majesties Councel at Law be found to have done the King and the Government by their foolish as well as wicked expressions if at any time hereafter it come to be proved as certainly it will that the Earl of Essex did not murder himself but was assassinated by a company of hired Russians We should be loath in that case to claim the right of their way of Argumentation and to inferr that because my Lord of Essex was murdered in the Tower and at a time when the King was walking there that therefore not only the Government ought to be charged with it but that the King himself had a hand in and had designed it Tho I must say that according to their method of reasoning it will be impossible in that case to avoid such a deduction However it is a convincing proof that the ignominy and guilt of this Noblemans death ought to be ascribed to others than himself that the Judges and the men of the long Robe can find no other way to stifle the suspition and silence the clamor of the People but by interposing the Government as a Skreen to shelter Malefactors from Accusation and abusing the Authority of the Kingdom to deter men from the duty which they owe to God and his Majesty in discovering so execrable a murder Nor is this the only way and method they have taken to frighten and discourage Persons from discoursing of the Earl of Essex's being destroy'd by others without any accession or contribution of his own to his death but they have laid their
Officers of Justice and partly not to expose men to that hazard which they must necessarily run by engaging in this affair affords us a new proof of my Lord's innocency from being Felo de se and that the infamy and guilt of his death ought to be devolved upon others There are cases wherein suspition of guilt may so wait on some men that others tho never so well perswaded of their innocency cannot without forfeiture of discretion and becoming Sharers in the reproach and dishonour which attends them give them either the least countenance or yield them any Testimonies of Favour and Kindness till they have vindicated and acquitted themselves from that whereof they are suspected and which common Fame accuseth them of And as all persons pretending to wisdom or who are regardful of their reputation will account themselves obliged to act under the conduct and guidance of this Rule and principle so of all men those in Authority are most concerned not to take upon them the sheltring of those that are aspersed with infamous crimes nor to countenance and advance such whom the cry of a Kingdom chargeth with a barbarous enormous and execrable Fact But to that impudence in Villany as well as contempt of honour and credit are the Gentlemen of the Popish Juncto and Cabal arrived that they not only cause secretly Murther such as would discover a great and heinous offence against God and Mankind but they dare openly and in the face of the Sun both protect and prefer the chief Miscreant and Ruffian whom all sober and impartial persons have in suspition for it It must necessarily be acknowledged that in case my Lord was assassinated by violent and and bloody hands his Valet de Chamber Romeny the only Servant who attended him in the Tower save a Footman must be acquainted with it and accessory to it And so many as well as weighty were the arguments of his being guilty of his Earl and Master's death that he was justly suspected for it both by the rest of my Lord's Servants and all the thinking impartial people about the Town And tho I shall have occasion hereafter to mention divers particulars and recount several circumstances which not only serve to lay him under a suspition but to convict him of being accessary to the death of his Lord yet I care not if I relate one at present namely the apprehension he was in and the trouble he expressed to one of the Lady Essex's Gentlewomen upon a Report which he had heard that my Lord's Murder was to come under a second Examination and that the Body was to be taken up in order to a review Nor was the Countess her self for all the impressions which some great men had endeavoured to possess her with of my Lord 's cutting his own Throat without strong apprehensions to the contrary nor void of jealousie of this French Fellow's being guilty of her Husband's death which made her discharge him her service and dismiss him out of the Family And as no Gentlemen in England would have after this done so foolish a thing or so unworthy of himself as to cherish and entertain such a Rascal so it least of all became the honour of the Court unless there were a further mystery in it than the world is aware of to take him both into their protection and to advance him to an employ and place Let us therefore a little observe and recount what favours this Rascal under all the suspition and infamy of being accessary to his Lord's death hath met with both from his Majesties Ministers of Justice and from the principal persons at Court and chiefest Officers of State Can it be less than a reflexion both upon the honour of the Government and an insinuation that great men were concerned in that horrid fact whereof Bomeny is so justly suspected that my Lord Chief Justice at Mr. Braddon's Trial after he had been affronting interrupting and hectoring all the Witnesses for the Defendant steps in not only to assist and rectifie Bomeny in his Deposition guiding him to say a Razor when the Rogue had said a Penknife but durst represent the Villain under the character of one whose integrity and fidelity to my Lord was confirmed by six years experience of his service and that he was not an upstart and wandering fellow Yea the esteem that this Ruffian was in with our Grandees and which by consequence proves that there is a Mystery in the manner of the Earl of Essex's death which is not yet fully discovered seeing these who are deservedly suspected to have been accessary to it are favoured and befriended by them may be further enlightned and confirmed from the correspondence which Bomeny had with the Secretary of State when he lay concealed from others and the readiness he expressed to converse with any that pretended to enquire for him in Sir Lionel Jenkin's name when he was denied to every body besides For a certain person having occasion to call at his Lodging in order to Subpaena him to Mr. Braddon's Trial and being positively told that there was no such man there took the boldness to say he came from Sir Lionel upon which Bomeny immediately appeared and he who was said not to be there before stept forth with all imaginable readiness to receive the Secretaries Messenger and to know what his Honour's pleasure was And if these two passages which I have related be not enough to evidence the kindness which his Majesties Ministers had for this little and Infamous creature I shall subjoin a third importing the care which the greatest about the Court took of him and the respect they shew him For when he seemed to be abandoned by all others and knew not where to be admitted into a service by reason of the suspition he lay under of being either an instrument that murdered his Lord or who had consented to the doing of it behold a great man and the Officers of his Majesties Forces embrace him under all that ignominy and reproach and list him to ride in one of the Troops of Guards Nor is it possible for any man without renouncing his Reason to imagine that that Great Man as well as divers other persons of Figure and Quality should expose themselves to the censure of the world in entertaining a Fellow judged guilty of so enormous and abominable a crime unless they themselves had been accessory some way or other to that execrable wickedness and except they judged the Rascal to have merited by the Fact But to put it beyond all possibility of any rational contradiction that the Earl of Essex did not cut his own Throat but that he was massacred by others I shall demonstrate the impossibility of it as the manner of his death is represented in the Coroners Inquisition and declared in the Depositions of the Chyrurgions who view'd the Body and searched and examined the fatal wound And where there is a Natural Impossibility that a thing
of Essex's and who had just brought the provisions which Bomeny by my Lords Order had written to the Steward for as the perfidious Rascal was running down Stairs crying out that my Lord had killed himself and that he had found his Body dead in the Closet did thereupon being surprised by Bomenies report run up into the Chamber where he saw his Master lying in the Closet with a great part of his Leggs reaching out of the Closet door and the print of a bloody foot upon one of his Stockins which so far convinced this honest and unbiaz'd man of violence committed upon the Earl of Essex's person that he immediately cryed out they have murdered my Lord. Nor is Peck the only Witness whom we can produce to testifie this but there are others also ready to confirm it upon Oath whensoever his Majesty will be pleased to take them into his protection and indemnifie them from the accession they are guilty of to that horrid and bloody murder But before I dimiss Peck there is one thing further observabl ' namely that having among other things brought wine for my Lords own drinking Russel and others of that fellow's stamp and complexion who stood by fell a jeering the poor man telling him the wine came too late for my Lord to drink but that he had brought it very seasonably for his Funeral Nor is this the only circumstance which would have affoorded the Coroners Jury matter of evidence and light as to the manner of the Earl of Essex death had not the Body been medled with but suffered to continue in the place and posture as it fell but there would have appeared a second circumstance of as great importance and signification in it self and as serviceabl ' as the former to have discovered the barbarous violence committed upon this innocent and excellent person For not only Mary Johnson the woman who was then Servant in the Warders house where my Lord was a prisoner and who affirms that she saw my Lords Body as soon as either Bomeny or Russel did but several other persons besides her have confessed that the Neck or midd'l of my Lords Cravat was cut in four pieces Surely if my Lord as Bomeny tells us had taken off his periwig and hung it up because as the Villain would have the world believe he could not so conveniently have cut his Throat with the Periwig on he would for the same reason have much rather laid aside his Cravat being no less than three times about his Neck and more apt to hinder the accomplishment of that unnatural Fact which the infidous and perjured Rascal hath endeavoured to father upon him than the Periwig was And therefor ' as it is unreasonabl ' to think other wise but that the Earl of Essex would have lay'd by his Cravat had he designed to commit that violence upon himself so it gives just suspition that he was assassinated by others that his Cravat was about his Neck and c 〈…〉 thorough in so many places And whensoever this affair ' of my Lord of Essex's death comes to be admitted to a fair and indifferent hearing and a pardon vouchsaf'd to such as shall give evidence it will be fully proved that the bloody Miscreants came provided and furnished with an Instrument which was able to conquer the resistance which a Cravat tho thrice rolled about the Neck was abl ' to give it And whereas one Webster Bayliff of the Tower liberty being a person who assisted Mary Johnson in stripping my Lords Body hath pretended to some that it was he who cutt the Cravat as not being abl ' readily to untye it this may be easily demonstrated to be a story purposely forged towards the avoiding the suspition which the circumstance of the Cravats being cutt by the same Instrument and stroke that gave my Lord the fatal and deadly wound would have both begotten and cherished in the Minds of unbiaz'd Men. For besides that Mary Johnson who in conjunction with Webster stripp'd the Body hath often asserted the contrary to this which Webster reports and gives out it was not possibl ' that the Cravat should be thrice about my Lords Neck when the wound and Gash was made from the Neck Bone behind the one jugular to the Neck Bone behind the other jugular and not at all cutt or touched by the Instrument wherewith that large and deadly wound was given And as my Lords Cravat could not be tyed harder than he tyed it himself without the intervention of some violent hand that had endeavoured to choak him with it to hinder and prevent his crying out so we cannot suppose that my Lord himself had tyed it so hard but that it might have been easily loosed and untyed without cutting of it And as it was impossibl ' that my Lords Neck should swell after the Gullet and both the jugulars were cutt which if it could have don ' might have been a means and occasion of the Cravats being more strait ' and closs about his Neck so no rational man can apprehend but that had it been never so strait ' they would have taken pains and found a way to untye it especially having a prospect of enjoying it themselves it being usual in England that they who stripp a dead Body are recompenced with the gift and possession of all the Cloaths which they find about it And therefor ' as Websters pretending to have cutt the Cravat when he assisted in stripping the Body is both a confirmation that it was about my Lords Neck when he was killed and that it was cutt into so many pieces as I have declared so the having made it evident that this pretence of Webster as to his cutting the Cravat at such a time is a forgery and fiction of his own I may from the whole very justifiably conclude that this Report was invented to suppress the evidence and light which this circumstance would have given into the manner of my Lord Essex's death and to prevent the questioning such as might thereupon have been suspected and apprehended for assassinating and murdering that vertuous and Nobl ' Peer But besides the two forego'ing circumstances which would have served to detect the manner of my Lords death and the violence which had been used to bring him to his untimely End there was a Third of as great weight and moment as either of them which had the Body been suffered to continue in the place posture and condition as it fell would have clearly discovered the perjury of Bomeny and Russel and wonderfully contributed to the unvailing and laying open the whole Mystery of this barbarous murder For whereas both Bomeny and Russel not only swear that the Closet door where my Lord fell was lock'd when they came up to it but that upon opening the door they found him lying all along on the Closet Floor Peck the Servant that had brought the provisions to my Lord just as Bomeny pretended to have found him
dead and who upon Bomeny's meeting him on the stairs and telling him that my Lord had killed himself run immediately into the Chamber is ready to depose upon Oath that he saw the Earl of Essex 's Body lying in the Closset with a great part of his leggs without the Closet door Which Testimony as it shews the falshood of those two Rascals Informations in swearing that the Closet door was lock'd when they came first up to it so it ought to have credit given thereunto as proceeding from one that could hope for no advantage by telling a lie nor fear any danger from declaring the Truth while on the contrary Russel and Bomeny were suborned and brib'd to attest a forged story and knew themselves liable to be hanged for their accession to my Lord's murder had they related the matter as it really was Yea this posture wherein Peck declares he found my Lord's Body namely three quarters of it lying in the Closet and one quarter out of it must have awakened the Juâ—y had they seen it in that condition to suspect and apprehend that some preceding violence had been offered to his person near the Closet door But as the removing and stripping the Body and washing both it and the two Rooms before ever the Coroner's Inquest was admitted either to see it or to view those places where the Tragedy had been acted deprived them of the knowledge of the foâ—egoing circumstances and possibly of many others as weighty and important which would have served to have led them into this Mystery and enlightned them about the manner of my Lord Essex's death so nothing can be more convictive of some violent and unlawful course and means made use of to bring him to that deplorable and untimely End than the irregularities committed upon and about the Body before the Jury either sat upon or so much as saw it That which we advance unto in the next place as fresh matter of proof that the Earl of Essex was not Felo de se but that he perished by the violent hands of bloody Assassinates ariseth partly from the carriage of the Jury it self which was trusted with the Inquisition into the manner of his Death and who as men of little Sense or Reason and of less Justice and Honesty gave in upon Oath that he did voluntarily and feloniously cut his own Throat and partly from the behaviour of others towards the Jury boâ—â— in consining and abridging them to a shorter time than was necessary to a sâ—itable and thorough Enquiry into so great an Affair and in denying and withholding from them those means of being enlightned in that matter which it was their Duty to require and the Duty of others to grant and without which they could not judge themselves inabled to give a t 〈…〉 e and just Verdict concerning the manner of that Noble Mans death And the fâ—râ—â— thing that occurs in the carriage of the Jury which makes it suspected that even they did judge the manner of the Earl of Essex's death a business of too much hazard to enquire narrowly into was their partiality in examining those few Witnesses which they called before them and their giving too hasty and undeserved credit to two Fellows of whom they had reason to be jealous as interested in that murder against the information of an honest and unbiass'd person With what not only coldness but apparent loathness to be truly informed did they examine Peck as if they had dreaded to hear any thing which might shake their belief of the Earl of Essex's having killed himself or which might oblige them to accuse and charge others with the guilt of his murder while in the mean time they greedily hearkned to whatsoever Bomeny and Russel swore tho' stuft with all the inconsistencies and contradictions imaginable How little esteem and value did they set upon the information of poor Peck tho' they could not but know that he was a man whom none could have endeavoured to prepossess and who was neither under the influence of hope or fear to testifie any thing but what he saw while in the interim they paid an implicite faith to the self and one another contradicting depositions of Bomeny and Russel whom they might easily have suspected not only to have been prompted and taught what they were to say but to have been both deterred by the apprehension of punishment from declaring the Truth and sway'd by Rewards to swear and publish a Falshood But there is a Second thing wherein the Jury were partial and defective in their Enquiry into the manner of the Earl of Essex's death and which by consequence shews that if not all of them yet some and they such as conducted the rest did either know or were jealous of a mystery in the way of that Noble Mans coming to his fatal end which they were not willing and judged it not for their interest to dive too far into For albeit there were more persons than Russel and Bomeny then in the house when my Lord's Throat was cut yet I do not find that they did or were willing to examine any others Now amongst those that were in Hawley's house at that season when that bloody Fact was committed upon this honourable Peer there was one Mary Johnson who amongst many other things which she declares affirms particularly that being just entred my Lords Chamber as Russel and Bomeny were opening the Closet door she saw the Body as soon as either of them did and yet this Woman whom the Corâ—ner's Inquest were bound by the â—aws of Justice as well as the Rules of Prudence to have examined was never so much as called upon nor ask'd a Question concerning that matter in a judicial way And we have the more reason to complain of the Juries neglect and infidelity in this particular because she has often reported and prosesseth her self ready to depose upon Oath divers things which are wholly inconsistent with what Russel and Bomeny have informed For while they depose that they found my Lord's Body lying along in the Closet and the Razor lying by him on the Floor this Woman Mary Johnson both hath and doth still report that my Lord of Essex was found kneeling on both his knees with his Body leaning against the Wall and that the Razor was in his hand the blade being lying upon his Forefinger and the handle hanging down between that Finger and the Thumb And while they swear that it was not above a quarter of an hour and a half from Bomeny 's delivering the Razor to his Master till the time of their finding him dead in the Closet She positively avers and affirms that the Body when at first found was cold and stâ—ff which it could not be at that season of the year in a much longer time than their Informations do specifie and allow I do not say that what she affirms was true no more than I believe that what they inform was so but I say the
Russel and made appear my Lord's being murthered by others instead of perishing by his own hands To all that we have hitherto said in vindication of the Earl of Essex from the guilt and infamy of having been a Fâ—lon of himself and in proof that he was most treacherously as well as barbarously murdered by others we shall in the next place give an account of some remarkable passages which were observed in the Tower that Morning my Lord was kill'd which will not only inform us there was something requiring great secrecy then transacting but will conduct us home to the Authors and Authorizers of that villanous and ever to be abhorred Assassination The first thing then remarkable was That the Gate at the lower end of those Apartments in the Tower where the Earl of Essex and all the other Gentlemen committed for the late pretended Plot were lodged and secured and which always used to stand open from Morning to Evening was all that Morning kept shut till after my Lord of Essex was dead except that it was once opened to let out my Lord Russel to his Trial being immediately after he was gone lock'd up again And as this could not escape the sight of the persons who were then confin'd so it gave that surprise to some of them being a thing which had not fallen out before that one Gentleman in particular called to his Warder and ask'd him the meaning of it and receiv'd for answer That there was special Order given for it Nor is it difficult to guess the reason of the Order and upon what Motives and in reference to what end command was given for keeping the said Gate shut up all that Morning till after the Earl of Essex was kill'd For the Stage and Theater upon which the bloody Tragedy was to be acted being within that Gate it was needful to keep people out as much as they could to prevent the discovery of the Actors unless it were such as had their parts in some of the Scenes or would be sure to give their Plaudite to the whole A second passage very remarkable which was observed in the Tower that Morning and which speaks as loud to the matter we are upon as the former was that the King and Duke having been at the Lieutenant's house which is about the middle of the Alley where my Lord of Essex and the rest were imprisoned and having stood in a Balcony with a few attending them to see my Lord Russel pass by to his Trial the Duke did soon after with several waiting upon him withdraw from the King down into the Alley the Gate whereof was still kept shut Surely it could not be the pleasure of the walk that made the Duke leave his Majesty at that season but he had something to give Order about and to see the managing of which was of more moment than his Prince's company and which his heart was infinitely more set upon The Third and last thing which fell under the observation of divers then in the Tower was That the Duke having withdrawn from the King there were several persons immediately sent and dismissed from his very side towards the Earl of Essex's lodgings whâ— returned not till after the death of that Noble person that they came and gave an account of the obedience they had paid to his Highness's commands and that the Earl of Essex was kill'd pretending he had cut his own Throat thereby murdering his Memory after they had assassinated his Person It may be expected that I should here mention the Names of those that were sent upon that barbarous errand but there being some of them who may be improved and made serviceable to detect the villanous crime they were assisting to commit it is but Justice to our selves as well as to them to conceal their Names And to publish the Names of the rest were but to set a mark upon the former and expose them to the rage and power of St. James's by not proclaiming them in conjunction with the others But this offer I renew again both to his Majesty and his Ministers of Justice that if a melius inquirendum into the manner of my Lord Essex's death may be ordered and an Indemnity granted to such as shall be willing and able to detect by whom and how he was murdered then shall the Names not only of the Russians who committed the bloody Fact but the Names of the Conspirators who were the Contrivers Authors and Encouragers of it he both discovered to his Majesty and judicial Officers and published to all the World The only thing which remains to be discoursed of in confirmation of the Earl of Essex's being murdered by others and that he was not Felo de se is that of a bloody Razor 's being thrown out of his chamber Window before any noise of his Death or the least intimation that he was killed And indeed this of a bloody Razors being thrown out of his Window has already made a great clamor in the World and was the first thing which raised a suspicion that my Lord had not destroyed himself but that he was assassinated by others For as it was impossible that after his Throat was cut he should throw it out himself so it could not be cast forth by others before the body is pretended to be found or any declaration made that he was killed unless it was by such as were present in the Room when he was slain and who were instrumental in his Murder Nor can any account be given why they did it but that God infatuated them thereby to detect the villany they had committed And it seems they had no sooner recollected themselves but they were sensible it would not serve the end they had design'd it unto namely of making the world believe he had cut his own Throat and in revenge upon the Instrument wherewith it was done thrown it away after the deed was performed and therefore they immediately both caused it to be taken up and carried back into the Closet and have had the impudence ever since to deny that ever such a thing was done Nor can the Story which a certain Gentleman at Whitehal had formed for them stand them in any stead viz. That Bomeny finding my Lord dead in the Closet and the Razor which had been the Instrument of his Death lying by him and that thereupon being struck with Surprize and Astonishment at so unexpected and deplorable an Accident he took up the Razor being acted by Grief and Indignation and not minding what he did threw it out of the Window For besides that the Razor was thrown out of the Window before there was the least noise of my Lord's death this Gloss and Qualification was invented too late to serve the end it was designed unto seeing Bomeny's and Russel's Examinations with which it is inconsistent were publick before Now in proving that a Razor was thrown out of my Lord Essex's Window before the news and tidings of his
done or suffered more for Monarchy and for his present Majesty as well as his Father than that of my Lord Lucas some whereof had sacrificed their Lives and all lost their Estates and Fortunes upon the alone score and account of their Loyalty and yet notwithstanding all this my late Lord Lucas could no sooner declare his jealousie concerning the entrenchments which were making upon the Laws of the Land and with zeal and courage avow his integrity in the Protestant Religion and his resolution to assert by all legal ways the ancient Rights and Priviledges of England but the Conspirators against our Religion and Laws contrived and resolved the death of that worthy Patriot and found means to poyson him by suborned and hired instruments And for Sir Robert Brooks tho' he had not been called to that service for the Crown nor had the misfortune to suffer in that degree for the Monarchy which the former noble Person had yet he was never wanting in Loyalty to his Majesty but always served him with faithfulness in his capacity and upon all occasions expressed the utmost readiness to maintain and promote the greatness of the King and honour of the Throne Nevertheless that worthy Gentleman had no sooner ravelled into the burning of London and traced that execrable deed to St. James's which as Chairman of the Committee that was appointed to inspect and search after the Authors of that dreadfull conflagration he had both occasion and was justified by his place to do but the Romish Faction who had perpetrated that horrid villany took up a resolution to cut him off partly in revenge of his zeal and service to the City and Kingdom in that matter and partly to discourage others from medling in a point which so neerly touched some of the greatest as well as to prevent the publication of the researches and discoveries he had made And whereas Sir Robert upon an entertainment of apprehensions and jealousies in himself as well as upon the warnings and informations he had received from friends of a design against his Person and Life did on the Prorogation of the Parliament withdraw the Kingdom to avoid their fury yet these implacable and blood-thirsty men who never pardon either those that actually have or are in a capacity to injure them hired assassinates to dog and pursue him whithersoever he went who at last taking him at an advantage drowned him in a river where he was about to wash and refresh himself And for Sir Edmondbury Godfrey all that are not wilfully and perversely ignorant are so fully instructed both of the barbarous murther committed upon that Gentleman and from what motives and inducements and by whose countenance and authority he was assassinated that I shall not trouble my self or the Reader by enlarging on that villanous fact which we have hitherto wanted the courage to make a person at St. James's answer for Upon the whole it can be no surprise to thinking and observing persons to hear that the Earl of Essex was by the Authority of a great Man murthered and assassinated seeing it is no more than what he and our Arbitrary and Popish Ministers have practised upon several others whose opposition power wisdom and interest they did not so dread and apprehend as they did the zeal courage integrity prudence and figure as well esteem in the Kingdom of that truly great and honourable Peer As the Topicks which we have already insisted upon administer sufficient ground to believe that the Earl of Essex did not murther himself but was villanously assassinated by others so it is rendred more plain and evident from the Reports which were spread abroad both of his death and the manner of it before that barbarous Fact was committed or at least before the Fame of it could reach the places where it was told and related It hath been always esteemed a rational ground of accusing the Spaniards and Jesuites of the assassination of Henry the Fourth of France that the news of his death was not only reported in Spain Millan and Flanders some days if not weeks before the miscreant Ravilliack gave him the fatal stab but because a Courrier passing through Luxemburgh both related the news of his death a week before he was murdered and had the impudence to declare that he was carrying the Tidings of it to the Princes of Germany The Committee of ParlJament that had the examination of the burning of London Anno 1666. judged it no small evidence that the City was burnt on design and through the treachery of the Papists that the news of it had not only been reported in diverse parts of England before that fatal conflagration fell out but written from beyond sea as the discourse which the Ie 〈…〉 s entertained their favourites and privado's with Nay it was both one of the first means of discovering by whose contrivance Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had been murder'd and was also urged and allowed upon my Lord Stafford's Trial as a proof of the Papists being guilty of that assassination that the news of Sir Edmund's being killed was related sixty or seventie mile off in the Countrey before it was known at London what was become of him Nor indeed can it be imagined how matters of Fact should come to be told before they are acted or committed but by granting that such things were resolved upon and designed and that they came to be vented and talk'd off by reason of the blabbing humour either of some Persons accessory to the contrivance or entrusted with the knowledge of what had been agreed unto and determined in more secret Cabal's So that we may rationally hope the ingenuous part of mankind will esteem themselves much enlightned in reference to the manner of the Earl of Essex's death and enabled to conclude who were the contrivers and perpetrators of the villanous assassination of that renowned person if we represent unto them with all the distinctness we can the reports which went of it both in City and Countrey before the Commission of the abominable Fact or at least before the tidings could reach the places where it was spoken and discoursed Nor will it be unfit to begin with that which a Woman of Quality hath related to diverse persons and which she is ready to swear in the presence of any Magistrate when called thereunto namely that being the day before the Earl of Essex's death bestowing a visit upon some of her acquaintance and there happening in that conversation a discourse concerning that unfortunate Gentleman Sir Edmundbury Godfrey who because of the intelligence he had received from â—olimun as well as the Deposition made before him by Dr. Oatâ— about the Popish Conspiracy against the King and the Government was barbarously murdered Anno 1678. a Gentleman then in company took the freedom and boldness to say that there would appear on the â—norrow another S. Edmundbury Godfrey This though the Lady could not at that time fathom and comprehend yet being