him to call my Lord by that name That he was at Mr Disney's over the water with Paunchforth and Horsley and Disney shewed him a Declaration that was not quite perfected and some body said some of the Declarations were to be sent to my Lord Delamere and Mr Disney said he was afraid my Lord Delamere was not capable of doing that Service that was expected from him in Cheshire for want of some of those Declarations which would be mighty useful to inform the People And that Disney said he hoped to have 500 Printed in twenty four hours and a good number of them were to be sent to my Lord Delamere Hope of the three Tuns in Coventry then witnessed Non hosâ—es ab hospitetutus Those who travel that Roid will do well to beware of such a Landlord for he kept a Diary and was a Spy upon this Noble Lord. that my Lord Delamere upon the Sunday before the Coronation came Post to his House towards Cheshire and sometime after that he came down Post again and a little after went up Post and told him he went down another way and upon the 21th of June the Sunday sennight after the D. of M. landed he came down Post again and then his Lordship told him that it was said the Duke of Albemarle was killed and that the D. of M. had several Field Pieces and Arms for near 30000 Men and that his Lordshap shewed him in a Mapp which way Monmouth went and pointed out such and such Towns that he was possed of and withal said That he feared there would be many bloody Noses before the business was at an end Mr Attorney the called Thomas Saxon said Pray Mr Saxon Their dependance was upon this well instructed witness therefore he is Mr Saxon those before him were only Wade Jones Vaux c. will you give an account what you know of my Lord D. the Prisoner at the Bar concerning any Insurrection or Rebellion designed by him in Cheshire and when Saxon swore that he was sent for to Mere my Lord Delamere's House at the beginning of June he believes the third or fourth day and was conveyed into a Tower Room where were my Lord D. Sr Robert Cotton and Mr Crew Offiey who told him he was recomended to them by my Lord Brandon who said he was an honest useful Man and they hoped he would prove so For they had sent to the D. of M. and received an answer by Jones and as soon as they had an answer my Lord D. came down Post under another Name being conveyed through Moore-Fields to raise ten Thoufand Men for the D. of M. in Cheshire by the 1st of June but they found they could not raise them till Midsummer for they must have time to raise 40000 l. in that Country to maintain the Men. That they askt him to undertake to carry a Message to the D. of M. and he told them he would and my Lord D. gave him eleven Guineas and 5 l. in Silver for his Journey and he went and delivered the Message to the Duke The High Stemard demanded of Saxon * His Lordship was well apprised of the Answer their Witness would make and to them who discern it in this Question it may well seem strange that they should bring this great Man to Tryal upon such nauseating Evidence as some had put into this Varlets Mouth how he came to be recommended to them by my Lord Prandon whether he were acquainted with my Lord Brandon Saxon tho' a very willing Witness had forgot to tell the Story of drinking Ale with my Lord Brandon and therefore the Monster then called his Grace pumps it out by this Question Saxon knowing what my Lord wanted answered I was acquainted with him the first time I was with him was at Over the next time was at my Lord's House The Attorney General thereupon said Ay pray tell my Lord how you became acquainted with my Lord Brandon Saxon said Upon Munday in easter-Easter-Week last being at Over my Lord sent for me to drink a Glass of Ale and take a Pipe of Tobacco with him and when I came my Lord told me he had a desire to be acquainted with me so We drank a considerable while and my Lord discoursed how unfairly the Elections of Parliament Men had been carried which had so exasperated the Country that they were resolved to rise in Arms under pretence of maintaining the Christian English Liberties and that they had a design to send for the D. of M. and make him King and that they must use such men as me that were Men of Interest in the Country to stir up the People to rise in Arms And if I would come the next Munday to his * 'T was happy that my Lord Delamere never took a pipe with this Villain nor courted his Acquaintance House he would tell me more of the business and I went accordingly and he told me a great deal to the same purpose and shewed me a Letter that he had written to the D. of M. which I afterwards saw at Bridgewater My Lord D. then said I desire to know when was the first time that he declared this he has now sworn against me and to whom Saxon answer'd I suppose I told Mr Storey of it first at Dorchester after I was taken Prisoner for the Rebellion and I think it was a forthnight after my acquaintance with him I lay with him in the same Bed My Lord D. demanded when was the first time he made Oath of this and upon what occasion Saxon said I remained a Prisoner at Dorchester from the 10th of July to the beginning of the last Term when I was removed to Newgate and I gave my first information before is Majesties Counsellors who were sent * To instruct him he would have said but that it must be Perjury throughout to take my Examination immediately after I was brought to Newgate My Lord D. then demanded Whether ever he had employed him about any of his Concerns that should give him an occasion of trusting him with such Secrets Saxon answer'd I never was in his company but only then and then as recommended by my Lord Brandon for they said they must make use of such as me to make their Desigus known to the Country for the accomplishing what they did intend I was to inform the Country of the time of Rising my Acquaintance abounded that way and by their discourse they had got Men in every place to acquaint the Country when they should rise My Lord D. then said I desire to know who was the Messenger was sent for him to my House Saxon answer'd I askt his Name but the would not tell me he said he was a Tenant to my Lord and had been employed in such businesses for my Lord's Father Sr George Booth he was a Lame Man in one Arm for he had his Hand shoe away at the Siege of Nantwich My Lord D. demanded what
privity is his not declaring the whole truth which he must know for one at a greater distance that saw these Ruffians as they were bustling with the my Lord and heard the bustle did likewise hear one of these in the bustle as it seemed to be and therefore presumed to be my Lord cry out very loud and very dolefully Murther Murther Murther The Centinel who could hear the trampling or indeed the very walking in my Lords Chamber could not but hear this Murther so loud and often repeated It appears by five Cuts in my Lords right hand viz. two upon his fore-finger one upon the fourth-finger another on the little-finger and the fifth about two Inches long in the palm of his right hand that his Lordship in this bustle made great resistance for these Cuts can be supposed to be done no otherwise then by endeavouring to put off the cruel Instrument of his Death The next thing that I should observe which happened the day my Lord dyed and gives us reason to believe the Murther is the Irregularity committed upon the Body before the Jury saw it the Body was strip'd and washed and the Room and Closet washed and my Lords Cloathes carried away tho' all Men know the Body should have remained in its first posture till the Coroners Jury had seen it Sr T. R. as himself saith declared to the Lords that the Body was not stirred from its first posture till the next morning about ten of the Clock To this Sr. Tho. has not sworn for he was not sworn before the Lords and 't is well he has not for herein he is so much mistaken that the contrary can be proved by almost twenty Witnesses had the Body remained in its first posture by my Lords Cravat being cut in three parts the Jury would have plainly seen that his Lordship could not so do it with a Razour And then Secondly they would have perceived the print of a bloody Foot upon my Lord as he lay in the Closet by which it appeared some one had been with the Body in the Closet and several other material circumstances might have been discovered which by the total illegal alteration of the Circumstances of the Body c. were destroyed About three of the Clock in the afternoon that day my Lord dyed some of those bloody men who had been at the Consult met at Holme's House and one of them leapt about the Room as overjoyed and as the Master of the House came into the Room he strikes him upon the back and cryed The Feate was done or We have done the Feate upon which the Master said Is the Earls Throat cut To which the other replyed Yes And further said He could not but Laugh to think how like a Fool the Earl of Essex looked when they came to cut his Throat To destroy the Testimony of this Dorothy Smyth Holms hath produced two Witnesses who by many Witnesses appear to be for-sworn in every part of their Depositions His defence being false his Charge therefore may be concluded true Thirdly and lastly What passed after the day of my Lords Death That very morning several Soldiers which were presumed able to discover what was material with relation to his Death were called together As Meakes then said and enjoyned to secrecy under very severe Penalties About ten of the Clock in the morning the next day the Jury met and were surprized to see all the Ciroumstances of my Lords body changed from what was first discovered After the Jury had seen the naked Body at Hawley's the Coroner adjourned them to a Victualling House in the Tower one of the Jury demanded a sight of the Cloaths but the Coroner was immediately called into the next Room from which returning to the Jury in some Heat he told them It was the Body and not the Cloathes they were to sit upon the Body was there and that was sufficient One of the Jury then said My Lord of Essex was esteemed a very sober sedate and good Man which Bomeney then confirmed saying His Lord was a very pious Man and therefore it was improbable so good a man should be guilty of the worst of Actions Vpon which Hawley told the Jury They were mis-informed in my Lords Character for every man that was well acquainted with my Lord well knew that it had ever been a fixed Principle in him that any man might cut his Throat or any otherwise dispose of his Life to avoid a disho nourable and infamous Death wherefore this Action which they thought unlike him was according to his avowed and fixed Principles This made the Jury the more easily believe that my Lord had indeed done it Some of the Jury were for adjourning their Inquisition to some further day and in the mean time to fend notice to the Earls Relations so that if any thing appeared on my Lords behalf it might be produced Hawley hereupon assured the Jury that they could not adjourn their enquiry for his Majesty had sent one for their Inquisition and would not rise from the Coun. till it was brought him This the Jury believing immediately made all haste possible whereas otherwise they might have been more strict and particular in their Examinations Hawley in answer to this totally denyes all and protests that he was not nigh the Jury in the Victualing-House all the time the Jury sat tho' most of the Jury can say the contrary And as for the suggesting Self-Murder to be my Lords Principle he did protest he did never hear it said till their Lordships in this Committee told him it had been so declared This clearly proves that the pretended Principle of Self-Murder was a forgery of that bloody Party which Murthered my Lord And Hawley pitched upon as the most proper person to corrupt the Jury with the belief of it The backwardness of the then Government to examine this matter and their unjust proceedings against the Prosecution for they discouraged and ruined him who did humbly offer the matter to a judicial consideration tho' no crime or colour of offence was proved against him is further evidence of this Murther The Government turned old Edward's out of his Place for what his Son said in this matter and hereby inverted the old Proverb For here the Sons eating sour Grapes had set the Fathers teeth an edge A poor Soldier was barbarously Whipt after he had been cruelly managed in Prison for only saying That he would not say that he believed the Earl of Essex cut his own Throat But a more barbarous Cruelty is justly suspected to have been committed in the after Murther of several viz. of Meake and Hawley c. to prevent a defection of this Murther Tho' the Government heretofore had received private Intimations and in Print publick Applications for a Pardon and thereupon a promise of a full Discovery and in both these the Duke of York particularly charged as the chief Contriver of this horrid Cruclty yet the then Government would never
about ten days after he saw the King again by the means of Fitz-H and that when the Parliament was ended he waited again upon the Dutchess and then requested her to represent Fitz-H his condition to the King His Lordship further acknowledged upon the Question put to him by F. H. that he came to him the night before my Lord Stafford was Condemned and told him the King desired his Lordship would go the next day and give his Vote for my Lord Stafford and that he thereupon answered him seeing there is so great an account put upon it If I had but breath enough to pronounce his Doom he shall die Here Dr Otes desired leave to go away saying the Crowd was so great he could not stand upon which Mr Attorney scoffingly said my Lord that may be part of the Popish Plot to keep Dr Otes here to kill him in the Crowd The Prisoner then demanded of the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Porter how long it was since he paid him the Money from my Lady Portsmouth but he said he could not tell it was so long The Earl of Arran was then called by the Prisoner and acknowledged upon his questions that he did shew him a Libel perhaps it was this the day he was taken and his Lordship told him he would do himself a mischief one time or other by meddling with such Papers and that they drank a Bottle or two of Wine and parted and that as soon as his Lordship came home he heard Fitz-H was taken My Lord Conway and Seoretary Jenkins denied that the King did own that he had employed Fitz-H but my Lord C. acknowledged that he had heard the King say he did formerly employ him in some * Making a Protestant Plot or so trifling things and that he had got Money of him and that his Lordship said was for my Lord Howard's Business He added that the King never spoke with him till after he was taken The Dutchess of Portsmouth then appeared and Fitz-H asked her Whether he was not employed to bring Papers to the King and amongst the rest the Impeachment against her Grace and he said that thereupon she told him that it was a great piece of service to bring those sort of Papers and that he told her he knew one Mr Everard who knew all the Intrigues and Clubs in the City and could tell all the designs of my Lord of Shaftesbury and all that Party and her Grace encouraged him to go on and by her means he came to speak with the King about it The Dutchess answered I have nothing to say to Mr Fitz-H nor was concerned in any sort of Business with him he desired me to give a Petition to the King to get his Estate in Ireland and I spoke three or four times to the King about it and he had the Money for Charity Hereupon Fitz-H said I am sorry your Grace is so much under Mrs Wall 's Influence and then addressing himself to the Court said I will tell you what I know since my Witnesses will not I shall rely upon the Consciences of the Jury for the Issue Tho' my Lady Portsmouth Mrs Wall and the rest say that I was not employed nor recieved Money for secret Services yet 't is very well known I did so As to Everard he told me he was well acquainted with my Lord Shaftesbury and my Lord Howard and he knew their Intrigues in several Clubs in the City I humoured him in his discourse and discoursed him to reduce the Paper he accuses me of under some heads And I no sooner had the Paper but I came to White-Hall with it and was advised to go to my Lord Clarendon or Mr Hide and shew'd it to a Gentleman who was to give it to my Lord Clarendon but before he could get to him I was taken What I did was with design to serve the King according as I was employed tho' both the Secretaries will not declare it These are great Persons that I have to do with and where great State matters are at the bottom 't is hard to make them tell any thing but what is for their Advantage and so I am left in a sad Condition If the Jury Convict me They overthrow the Law and Course of Parliaments Whereas if they bring me in Not Guilty my Impeachment stands good still and I am liable to answer it before the Parliament I hope you will consider the Persons I have had to deal with and that it cannot be made so plain as in matters wherein We deal with common Persons I desire notice may be taken that Sr William Waller declares that for this very thing I was Impeached by the House of Commons Then the Solicitor General and Sr George Jeffryes summed up the Evidence and the Chief Justice directed the Jury his Lordship and the three other Judges Jones Dolben and Raymond telling them that they were sworn to the Point whether Fitz H. were guilty of the Treason or not but that it lay not before the Jury whether the Court have Authority to try him that was a question proper for the Judges determination and they had determined it Thereupon the Jury found him Guilty Before the Sentence was passed upon him he said that he thought it would be prejudicial to the Kings Service that Sentence should pass before he had made an end of the Evidence he had given in against my Lord Howard but the Chief Justice said They could take no notice of any thing of that nature and he was Sentenced to dye as a Traytor which was Execnted the 1st of July 1681. An Abstract of the Examination of Edward Fitz-Harris relating to the Popish Plot taken the 10th of March 1680. by Sr Robert Clayton and Sr George Treby THe Examinant saith that he was born in Ireland and was bred and is a Roman Catholick That he had a Commission and Raised a Company of Foot in Ireland for the French King's Service and Conducted them into France That in 1672 going to take his leave of Father Gough an English Priest at Paris he told him within this two years you will see the Catholick Religion Established in England as it is in France the Examinant asking how that could be the King being a Protestant he answered If the King would not comply there was Order taken and things so laid that he should be taken off or killed That the Duke of York was a Catholick and in his Reign there would be no difficulty of doing it That the Father then told him that the Declaration of Indulgence was for the Introducing the Catholick Religion and that to the same end the War was made against Holland it being a Nest of Hereticks and that Madam came over to Dover upon this Design That the Examinant about February 1672 had a Lieutenants Commission in Captain Sidenham's Company in the Duke of Albermarl's Regiment in the Black-Heath Army and that he knew many ef the Officers to be Roman Catholicks and
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
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
I have given their Lordships satisfaction in all points and need to give no further Evidence I acknowledge I did go at that time privately a By-Road by the name of Brown as for Jones I appeal to him himself and call God to witness I never saw the Man before now in my Life All that has been said against me except what this Fellow Saxon testifies is but Hear-say nay indeed but Hear-say upon Hear-say at the third and fourth Hand It is at the pleasure of any two Men in the World to take away the Lives Honours Estates of any of your Lordships if it be a proof sufficient to make you guilty of Treason for them to swear you were intended to be drawn into Treason Upon the whole matter my Lords I must leave my Case to the consideration of your Lordships I am not Master of so much Law or Rhetorick as the Kings Council to plead in my own Cause But I hope what Evidence I have offered has given your Lordship full satisfaction that I am not Guilty of what I stand charged with My Lords I would beg you to consider this that if I with those other two Gentlemen that he has named had had any transactions of this kind with such a Fellow as Saxon so as at first sight to put such large confidence in him Can it be imagined I so little regarded my own Life and all that is dear to me as to have surrender'd my self were it not that I was certain of my own innocence and integrity Life it self my Lords is to be preferred above all things but Honour and Innocence and Job saith Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his Life and why should I be presumed to have so little a value for it as voluntarily to deliver up my self to destruction had I been Conscious that there was any one who could really testifie any thing that could hurt me Besides my Lords This very Fellow Saxon is but one Evidence and surely one Witness will never be sufficient to convict a Man of Treason tho' thousands of Hear-says and such trivial circumstances be tack'd to it especially when tack'd to an evidence which I dare say your Lordships are far from thinking it deserves credit Would not any of your Lordships think himself in a very bad Condition as to his Fortune if he could produce no better Evidence to prove his Title to his Estate than what has been now produced against me to take away my Life and if such Evidence as this would not be sufficient to support a Title to an Estate certainly it can never be thought sufficient to deprive a Man of Life Honour Estate and All. My Lords God knows how soon the Misfortune of a false Accusation may fall to the Lot of any of your Lordships since that may happen I question not but your Lordships will be very cautious how by an easie Credulity you give encouragement to such a Wickedness For Knights of the Post will not end in my Tryal if they prosper in their Villany and perhaps it may come home to some of your Lordships if such Practices be encouraged My Lords the Eyes of all the Nation are upon your Proceedings this day Nay I may say your Lordships are now judging the Cause of every Man in England that shall hereafter happen to come under the like Circumstances with my self For accordingly as you Judge of me now just so will Inferiour Courts be directed to give their Judgment in time to come Your Lordships very well know Blood once spilt can never be gather'd up again and therefore you I am sure will not hazard the sheding of my Blood upon a doubtful Evidence If it should be indifferent or but doubtful to your Lordships which upon my Proofs I cannot believe it can be whether I am Innocent or Guilty Both God and the Law require you to acquit me My Lords I leave my self My Cause and all the Consequences of it with your Lordships And I pray the All-wise the Almighty God to direct you in your determination Mr Solicitor General then said May it please your Grace and you my Noble Lords The Evidence against this Noble Lord is of two Natures part of it is positive Proof and part is Circumstantial and tho' it be allowed that there must be two Witnesses in cases of Treason and that Circumstances tho' never so strong to fortifie one positive proof cannot make a second positive Witness yet I crave leave to say that there may be Circumstances so strong cogent so violent and necessary to fortifie a positive Testimony That will in Law amount to make a second Witness such as the Law requires My Lords If a man comes and swears against another That he said he will go and kill the King and another Man that did not heare these words testifies his lying in wait That Circumstance of lying in wait that was an Action indifferent in it self when applied to the positive Proof will be a second Witness to satisfie the Law It is not my duty to carry the Evidence in this Case further than it will go and I am sure it is not my Duty to let it lose any of its Weight My Lord Our positive prooff is but one single Witness and that is Saxon Mr Solicitor then repeated his Evidence and went on saying This I must acknowledge standing single will make but one Witness but whether the Circumstances that have been offered by the other Witnesses be such violent Circumstances as necessarily tend to fortifie and support that positive Evidence and so will supply the defect of a second Witness is the next Question I come to consider Mr Solicitor then repeated the Evidence of the Lord Grey and Mr Jones how truly let any who will be at the trouble of reading the Tryal at large judge and proceeded saying Here my Lord is the main Circumstance that renders the matter suspitious But tho it was not observed in she whole Proceeding of the Tryal Vaux witnessed that my Lord sent to him and engaged him the 26th of May to go out of Town with him the next day That very night that Jones came to Town the 27th of May does my Lord Delamere at ten at Night go out of Town under the disguise of the Name of Brown and a By-Road into Cheshire this I say is the Circumstance that renders the thing suspitious But now my Lords comes the Question the main Question how it is made out that my Lord Delamere had notice Jones brought the Message from the Duke of Monmouth Jones indeed does not say that he imparted it to him But Story says that Brand who knew of the Message did acquaint him that my Lord had received it at the Coffee-House and that Night went out of Town It is true this is but a hear-say but that which followed being matter of Fact My Lord 's going out of Town that Night and in such an unusual suspitious
and engaged to him the King should never let the Paper be seen and said this was the time to gain the King's favour It being long ago Mr Row declared these things as he believes and to the best of his Remembrance Mr Robert Yard being examined declared that the Advertisement concerning the Duke of M. which was put into the Gazete was what was handled in Council the day after the Duke came in It was the giving an Account of what passed betwixt the King and the Duke That he had the Paper either from the Lord Sunderland or Sr Leoline Jenkins John Hambden Esq declared himself thus His Case is so twisted with those of the Noble Persons whose Murders you enquire after that he knows not how to speak of theirs without relating his his own and that he looks upon himself almost as much murdered as any of them by reason of his Sufferings My Lord Russell and Col. Sidney were clap'd up in the Tower after which he was sent for and brought into the Cabinet Council or select number of Lords and askt whether he was of the Council of six so the Lord Howard was pleased to call it He saw there the King the Lord Keeper North and Lord Hallifax there were some others present whose faces he did not fee he does not remember a Clerk with them my Lord Keeper asked some Questions and so did the King He was pressed much to confess he claimed the Liberty as an English-man not to accuse himself he was sent to the Tower and made close Prisoner he was kept in the strictest custody for twenty Weeks when he had been there after the Lord R. was executed and a little before Col. Sidney was executed he had an intimation by a private note that there was an intention to try him for a Misdemeanour he was bailed out upon 30000 l. After this it happened the D. of M. came in and had a Pardon but several coming to see him he spoke some things freely which did not please the Court and at the Old Dutchess of Richmond 's he spoke as if those Gentlemen that were put to Death dyed unjustly Whereupon after the King was told this by a Lady he would have him confess his being concerned in the Plot and a Paper was drawn to that purpose which the King would have him sign which he did A Gentleman viz. Sr James Forbes came to him from the Duke with the Copy of the Paper the Duke had signed to own the Plot as soon as he saw it he said it was a Confession 〈◊〉 the Plot and according to the Law then in practise it would hang him because a Paper had been given in evidence against Col. Sidney upon which he was condemned for if a Paper which was said and not proved to be writ by him could supply the place of a second Evidence then a Paper which could be proved to be written and signed by the D. of M. might much more properly be made use of as his Evidence to hang other People He said he was told by Sr James Forbes that the D. was in a manner forced to do it and perswaded and overborne in it by the Lord H. when Sr James Forbes went back the D. was concerned to madness and said if he lived till next day he would have the Paper again and accordingly he went to the King and told him he could not rest till he had it The King with great indignation threw him the Paper and bid him never see his face more and he believes he did not and so the Duke went away and by that he escaped the Tryal then He was told by Mr Waller who is since dead that the Duke's owning the Plot to the King was the cause of Colonel Sidney's death for the King ballanced before He was after this brought to a Tryal for Misdemeanour and was convicted on the Lord Howard's evidence He pleaded Magna Charta that a Salvo Contenemento but the Court fined him 4000 l. and to Imprisonment till the Fine paid and security for the good Behaviour The King made his choice of putting him in Prison and he was committed to the Marshal's House in the King's Bench where he was ten Months He offered several summs of Money and they answered they had rather have him rot in Prison than he should pay the Fine After this they put him in the Common Prison where he was kept ten or eleven Months very close then they contrive a Writ called a long Writ to reach his Real and Personal Estate whilst he was thus a Prisoner After this he heard a new Witness appeared which was after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth He was sent Close Prisoner to the Tower by the Lord Sunderland's Warrant and put into such a Room where he had no conveniency and with two of the Rudest Warders in the Tower to lie in the Room with him After seven or eight weeks he was removed to Newgate where he was kept close eleven weeks his Friends offered Money for his Pardon to some in power who were the Lord Jefferyes and Mr Petre the summ was 6000 l. and that was effectual It is not possible for a Man to suffer more than he did By the help of the Money on condition he would plead Guilty to his Indictment he was to come off His Friends advised him to it because it could hurt none there being none living of those called the Council of six but the Lord Howard Whereupon pleading guilty he was discharged paying 3 or 400 l. to Burton and Graham for the charge of his Pardon As for the Subject matter of what he confessed * The designing to rise in Arms to rescue the Laws and Liberties of his Country when threatned with destruction no man will think he ought to be ashamed that thinks my Lord Russell was Murdered And he said this was the way that our Ancestors always took when the Soveraign Authority came to so great a height as may be made out by many instances he said Custom had made this the Law of England and that all Civilized and well governed Nations about us had used the same way Notwithstanding his pleading Guilty he hath been very ready to secure the Kingdom and he was one of the two or three Men that received Letters from Holland of this Revolution And he saith he thinks King William's coming into England to be nothing else but the Continuation of the Council of six and if not he desires to be better informed Being asked by the Lord H. how he came to send his Wife to the Man whom he thought was instrumental in obtaining the Paper which he thought endangered his Life He answered did not he send his Wife to the Lord Jefferies Mr Petre and others who should he send to but to those in power and who could help him but those in power He did not think that the Lord H. struck directly at his Life or that his Lordship had any personal
The Second Part Of the DISPLAY OF Tyranny OR REMARKS UPON The Illegal and Arbitrary Proceedings in the Courts of Westminster and Guild-Hall London From the Year 1678. To the Abdication of the late King James in the Year 1688. In which time the Rule was Quod Principi placuis Lexesto Printed Anno Anglia Salutis Secundo 1690. Sold by Book-sellers in London and Westminster TO The Eminently Deserving and Highly Honoured Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet Sir YOu are no more able to deliver your self from the Persecution of a dedication than you were in your single Person to stem the dreadful deluge of Popery and Tyranny which very lately brought Old England within an Hair's breadth of that utter Ruin that was manifestly impending Indeed when I first took the resolution of inscribing your honoured Name to the first part of my Scriblings I purposed to have petitioned your Licence so to do but at the time when the thing was finished I was at such a great distance from you that I had not opportunity to do it and therefore being no nearer to you at this time I do implore your Pardon for my Presumption therein and for my repeating that Transgression and do hope that you will the more readily grant it when I have made this publick Acknowledgement to the World in case any thing I have said be deemed offensive which I hope there cannot that Sr Samuel Barnardiston was no way privy to the writing of the First or of this Second part of these Stories and that I can upon very good ground say that he doth not to this day know who is the Collector of them Sir He who is not allowed to use a Sword in his Countries quarrel may surely be indulged in crying out Murder Treason when he sees a Pistol at his Prince's head or a Dagger at his Heart and having with grief beheld that very same Toryism which murder'd the best of Men my good Lord Russell and many others of our best Patriots to be rampant and impudent and as irreconcilably bent against the true Government of England which the glorious and most miraculous providence of Heaven has lately devolved upon our undoubted rightful King and Queen as it was against our late blessed Martyrs for the English Liberties I could not withhold my self from attempting the service of my Generation according to my mean capacity in exposing those Principles and Practices which but t'other day had brought the Kingdom to the very brink of irreparable ruin especially when I see at this very day the Men who had suck'd in that Poison Designing and Plotting not to allure but to dragoon us into French Bondage The truth of it is Sr. I was much irritated to the prosecution of this Work by what I met with in my return from the late Tryal of Skill in Essex when those most worthy Gentlemen Colonel Mildmay and Sr. Fran. Masham were elected Knights for that County I have heard that it hath been an old Observation that tho' many Honourable Reverend and Worthy Persons have frequently voted against your self in Suffolk and against Colonel Mildmay in Essex yet that it hath been rarely seen that a Tory has voted for either of you And it is well remembred that at the time of the mighty strugling between Popery and Christianity in the Critical Year of 1681. the then Lord Chief Justice Scroggs sent for many of the Gentlemen of Essex and told them that whatever they did they must not chuse Mildmay But I have digressed what I was saying is Rigby was one of the Good and True Men whom the great Care of Sr. Dudley North had returned to pass upon my Lord Russel's Life and he stood in that Pannel within two of Oneby who was last sworn that one Mr. Rigby of Covent Garden I name him because he stands indicted in Essex for the Crime I am mentioning returning from voting at that Election upon the 11th of March last being to a high degree enraged that Colonel Mildmay and Sr. Francis Masham were chosen for you must know he was of t'other side said that 't was no matter who carried the day there But if the King would not do as they would have him innuendo himself he knows who besides But I am most certain my Lord of Oxford doth not They would make a King that should do as They would have him And this being upon the Eve of the Fast appointed by their Majesties Proclamation he proceeded adding We must keep a damn'd Fast to morrow This most Loyal Disciple of Sr. Roger's and designed Jury-man for my Lord Russel taking Pet because Colonel Mild may was chosen a Parliament Man must now by all means have a King of his own making and 't is six and twenty to one but if the Silly Woman had pledged him K. James's Health but the next Glass had bin to our Lord Lewis King Elect. but we will eat Roasted Beef and be Drunk He then put a glass of Wine into a very Civil Woman's hand saying Drink King James 's Health and upon her answering him No I deny that but I will drink the Wine he said Damn you for a Bitch would it might poison you where you stand and added A Bitch to deny a Gentleman such a Request She deserves to be Sacrificed Sr. I cannot upon this occasion of Health-drinking hinder my self from remembring the Case of Mr. Elias Best a substantial Citizen but one who had been an Ignoramus Jury-man a great Reproach and an unpardonable Crime in that day as you Sr. very feelingly know He was indicted for the Frolick of drinking to the Pious Memory of Honest Stephen Colledge and condemned to a Fine of 1000 l. to stand Three Times in the Pillory and to give Sureties for the Good Behaviour for Life Upon this Judgment he was imprisoned Three Years to the loss of good Trade and to the ruin of his Health and his Estate and when almost ready to expire he was graciously pardoned upon payment of 200 l. to the Empson and Dudley of the late Reign Graham and Burton 'T is well for Mr. Rigby that the accursed Practices of that day are not to be Presidents in the present benign and most merciful Reign Sr I have no sinister nor mercenary end in emitting these Papers to publick view I write not for reward for I gave away as many scores of the first part of this Tract as the Printer gave me and have not one for my self and I should be vaine to the highest degree to expect applause for so confused and ill digested a Work as this is But I have with a good will tho' in a very feeble manner brandished my Pen for the service of that good old Cause which I ever loved and must love should it cost me my life I mean the Liberties of England and it hath deeply wounded me to hear and know so many instances as I do of the unpunished nay of the uncheckt Seditious and
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
Girl to be more than a Match for her first Assailant falls in to his aid and first bellows out a terrifying Exclamation Blessed God! What an Age do We live in That the King 's Learned Council with all their Cunning cannot confound these innocent honest Infant Witnesses and then taking up the same Dialoguing Cudgel falls roundly upon the Girl thus Chief Justice Girl you say you did not know that 't was the Earl of Essex's Window Girl No but as they told me Chief Justice Nor you did not see any body take up the Razour Girl No. Chief Justice But are you sure you did not Girl I am sure I did not Chief Justice But Child recollect thy self sure thou didst see some body take it up Girl No I did not The Goliah thus miscarrying Mr Braddon proceeded in his Evidence and called the Girl 's Aunt Mrs Smyth who witnessed that the Girl coming from the Tower upon the 13th of July told her that she saw a Razour thrown out of a Window and that Mr Braddon hearing of it came as a Stranger to enquire about it and ever encouraged the Girl to speak the truth and bad her speak nothing but what was truth and that he never offered her or the Girl any thing Mr William Glasbrooke testified That upon the 13th of July he heard the Girl very loud with her Aunt saying the Earl of Essex has cut his Throat in the Tower and that her Aunt chiding her she said she was sure it was true for she saw a bloody Razour thrown out of the Window and that he the said Witness was present when Mr Braddon first discoursed the Girl having never seen him before and he heard her tell Mr Braddon that the Earl of Essex cut his Throat and that she saw a bloody Razour thrown out of the Window and that she heard two Groans or two Shriekes Then Mr Smyth being called by Mr Braddon testified that he went with Mr Braddon to the Girl and heard her tell him that she saw an hand toss a Razour out at the Earl of Essex's Lodgings and that she heard two Shriekes and saw a Woman come out with White head-Cloathes but did not see any one take up the Razour Mrs Meux was then produced by Mr Braddon to testifie that she went from London to Berk-shire the day before the Lord Russell's Tryal and that a Gentlewoman in the Coach with her then told her that one of the Lords in the Tower had cut his Throat At this the quondam City Mouth storm'd and huff'd at his wonted rate refusing to hear the Evidence and demanding why they brought not the Woman which told this to Mrs Meux and was answered that she was so big with Child that she could not come Mr Burgesse of Marlborough then testified that he being at Froome in Dorset-shire upon the day of the Earl of Essex's death he heard there a Report that his Lordship had murdered himself Then the King's Council produced the Coroner's well instructed Witnesses to prove that this Noble Peer was Felo de se who were Bomency his Lordship's Servant now in France and a professed Papist Hawley and Russell the Warder and Lloyd the Centinel Now because the Depositions of these Fellows will appear in their most true and best light in the Abstract of some of the proofs made about this most barbarous Assassination which with the leave of the candid and ingennons Abstracter thereof I purpose to subjoyn I shall not here enlarge upon them The Evidence on both sides being given in the last place comes Jeffryes to descant and remark upon it which he did in an harangue which makes six leafs in Folio half as many as the Acts of all the Parliaments in the Reign of Charles the Martyr do fill in our Statute Book He tells the Jury That there is scarce in nature a greater crime than this before them It carries all the Venome and Baseness the greatest Inveteracy against the Government that ever any Case did That the Earl of Essex rather than he would abide his Tryal he being conscious the great Guilt he had contracted made him destroy himself immediately after my Lord Russell one of the Conspirators was carried to Tryal and it cannot be thought but it was to prevent the methods of Justice in his own Case there was digitus dei in it and 't is enough to sati fie all the World of the Conspiracy 'T is beyond all peradventure true that my Lord of Essex did minder himself Then the Jury by their Verdict brought in Mr Braddon Guilty of the whole matter charged upon him in the Information and Mr Speke Guilty of all but conspiring to procure false Witnesses The Court adjudged Mr Braddon to pay 2000 l. Fine to find Sureties for good behaviour for Life and to be committed till performed Mr Speke to pay 1000 l. Fine to find Sureties for good behaviour for Life and to be committed till performed An Abstract of some material Proofs which have been made in Relation to the Death of the Earl of Essex First for disproof of the Earl's Self-Murder THE Right Honourable Arthur late Earl of Essex was Committed to the Tower upon Tuesday the 10th of July 1683 and there were two Warders placed over him viz Monday and Russell and one Servant viz. Paul Bomeney was permitted to attend upon him The very next Friday Morning about nine of the Clock his Lordship was found dead in his Closet with his Throat cut through both Jugular Arteries to the Neck-bone Now seeing our Law presumes every Man destroyed by violent Hands is murdered by others unless such Evidence appears as gives satisfaction in the contrary and proves him a Self-Murder This Lord had been found to be barbarously murdered had not Bomeney Monday and Russell appeared to prove the contrary and they endeavoured to prove it thus My Lord of Essex they say called for a Pen-Knife to pare his Nails which Pen-knife not being ready he required a Razour which was accordingly delivered him with which his Lordship having pared his Nails he retired into his Closet and looks himself in and there he cut his Throat and the Razour before delivered to pare his Nails lying by the Body But that this Relation is forged and that there was First No Razour delivered to my Lord to pare his Nails nor had his Lordship pared his Nails with any Secondly Neither the Body locked into the Closet Nor Thirdly The Razour lying locked in by the Body when my Lord was first known to be dead is evident from what follows which clearly detects this Forgery For the first of these that there was no Razour delivered to my Lord. This appears by the Contradictions of Bomeney Russel and Monday as to the time of the delivering this Razour for Bomeney first swears he delivered this Razour to my Lord to pare his Nails on Friday Morning at eight of the Clock within two hours positively swears in the deposition himself writ that he
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
permit such an Inquisition to be made but punished those that dispersed those publick Challenges Had his Highness been really Innocent none would have been more zealous for such a Proclamation of Pardon for Innocence desires a Tryal and its only Guilt that flies from Justice Another Argument of this Murther and likewise of Major Webster's Guilt therein is Webster's producing my Lords Pocket-handkerchief all bloody to some of his Neighbours rejoycing at the blood of a Traytor and the very next day to some of the same Person he produced part of the price of Blood viz. a Purse of Gold wherein there were Forty nine Guineas and a Pistol which he shewed in great Ostentation but all this was but a small part of that villanous Reward for sometime after my Lords Death when his Wife was upbraided with her Husbands Poverty she replyed her Husband long since was not so Poor for he had Five hundred Guineas at which the other being stariled answered most certainly he could not come by them honestly to which it was said that he got them by his Trade but to that it was replyed that his Trade could hardly get Bread therefore there must be some other way It s very probable that Websters Wife speaking of his Trade might intend Murther in which it is supposed he has been more then once concerned tho' the other mis-understood her That she was not a stranger to his Guilt appears by her often telling him upon her hard Vsage that he was a Fool as well as a Rogue to use her so ill he knowing it to be in her power to Hang both him and another in the Tower A like Instance there happened upon a Quarrel between Holmes and his VVife soon after my Lords Death she thereupon told him he was a Murthering Rogue and he well knew that she could at any time hang him for it to which Holmes answered with his usual scurrolous Language you Bitch you Whore you of all the World have no reason to speak for do not you remember I bought you a good Satin Gown and Petticoat whereupon the wife replyed you are a Murthering Rogue for all that REMARKS Upon the Proceedings in the Case of Edward Fitz-Harris Esq in the Court of Kings-Bench in the Year 1681. IT may not be forgotten that the Popish Plot in 1678 was to have been ushered into the World by a Presbyterian or Fanatick Conspiracy to that end in July 1678 when the Papists had resolved to dispatch King Charles to make way for King James the Second Mr Claypoole because Son-in-Law to Cromwell was clap'd into the Tower upon the Accusation of Sing a Papist upon a pretence that he was to seize the King in his way to * That Newmarket or the way to it was the place designed for dispatching the King long before Keeling made it so in the year 1683 is very evident for by the Journal of the House of Lords upon the 12th of November 1678 it appears that Conyers Confessor to the Lord Bellasis had at this very time in 1678 undertaken to kill the King in his morning Walks at Newmarket Were the Newmarket Fire throughly even at this day examined it might be found that that Town was as certainly burnt by the Papists to countenance Keeling's Plot which immediately succeeded as t is certain that they Burnt London and that the great Earl of Essex's Throat was cut in order to the Murther of the good Lord Russell Newmarket And it doth as well deserve Remembrance that the Conspirators having been disappointed and vexed with the unlucky discovery of their Plot Resolved to make one Fanatick Plot or other to thrust theirs off the Stage and to turn the Popish into a Protestant Plot Thereupon the danger of Forty one and of Fanaticism was most industriously discoursed and preached And which was more a great Prelate declared that tho' it was true That there was a Popish Plot there was also a greater design carrying on by the Forty one Party Matters being thus prepared cost what it will we must have another Plot that the belief of that of the Papists may be blasted and the management thereof is now committed to Madam Wall Chamber-Maid to the Dutchess of Portsmouth always a Creature of the D. of York's and now the same Lady Ogelthorp who was lately seized at Chester going for Ireland this Woman of Intrigue introduces and recommends to K. C. the second Mr Edward Fitz-Harris an Irish Papist and he was directed to make a Counter-Plot in which we find Rome and Hell united with our Conspirators for the destruction of Protestants and Fitz. H. is encouraged to it with great Rewards and greater Promises In order to the framing and fitting this new intended Plot against the meeting of the Parliament at Oxford upon the 21st of March 1680. Fitz. Harris renews an old acquaintance which he had with Mr Everard who pretended himself a Confident of the Earl of Shaftesbury 's and en tertained his old Friend Fitz-H with complaints of that Noble Lord and his Party hereby was Fitz-H encouraged to tamper with Everard to joyn with him in framing a most Trayterous Libel against the Government There were great as well as little Villains in this design and Fitz. H. was daily instructed at White-hall and directed to adapt their Libel to the humour and make it speak the Language of the highest Male-Contents that thereby their Plot might gain belief and appear plausible to the World accordingly they set about it Fiz H. furnishing Materials and Everard drawing it into form The Conspirators were Cock-sure of catching the Earl of Shaftesbury and the discontented party as they termed all the avowed Enemies of Popery and true Friends to the English Liberties in this share it being resolved to disperse this hellish Paper amongst them and then to seize it upon them After several meetings about this Intrigue between Everard and Fitz-Harris they appointed to compleat their work at Everard's Lodgings about the last of February 1680 against that time Everard planted Sr William Waller and Smyth known by the Name of Narrative Smyth within hearing They then perfecting their Libel and each of them taking a Copy of it Fitz-Harris runs with great joy with it to Nell Wall to White-hall but the King being unluckily at Windsor he fatally missed the opportunity of being before-hand with Everard and was seized in his Bed by Sr William Waller and carried to Secretary Jenkins and being the next day brought before the Council the Witnesses were examined and he was committed to Newgate for high Treason Notwithstanding a great Man said that Fitz-Harris was his Friend and that Waller was a Rogue and had spoiled all Fitz-Harris being fast and reflecting no doubt upon Colman's fate began to relent and offers to make full discovery of the Villany and of those who omployed him in it Thereupon Sr Robert Clayton and Sr George Treby as Justices of London took his Examination This gave great offence at
determine that Impeachment before you Here is the Method and Proceedings of Parliament before you and I hope you will proceed no further on the Indictment The Cheif Justice then said Here is nothing of the Commons Right to Impeach before us nor of the Lords Jurisdiction nor the Methods of Parliament in this Case the sole matter is whether this be a good Plea to oust the Court of its Jurisdiction in this matter To which Judge Jones added Here is nothing of any fact done in Parliament insisted on here this is for a thing done without Doors Mr Williams replyed 'T is a hard matter my Lord for the Bar to answer the Bench. Sr Francis Winnington then argued for the Prisoner thus The King's Attorney has demurred generally and if our Plea be well and formally pleaded I am sure all the matter of fact is confessed by the demurrer And upon the matter of fact so agreed the general Question is Whether an Impeachment by the Commons and still depending be sufficient to oust the Court to proceed upon an Indictment for the same offence The Lord Chief Justice said That cannot come in question in the Case Sr Francis Winnington replyed Why my Lord Chief Justice The Question is Whether you have pleaded sufficient matter to oust us of our Jurisdiction Sr Francis Winnington proceeded saying My meaning is the same It is agreed that there were no doubt to be made of the Plea if there had been a particular Impeachment The House of Lords is a Superiour Court to this and a Suit in a Superiour Court may be pleaded to stop the Proceedings of an Inferiour Court and if once the Suit be well commenced in the Superiour Court it cannot after go down to the Inferiour and what is begun in one Parliament may be determined in another So is the Case 4. Edw. 3. N. 16. of the Lord Berkley and those accused of the death of Edw. 2. It was there objected as 't is here that by this means there might be a stop of Justice by the dissolution of the Parliament yet the true answer is That it is presumed in Law that Parliaments will be called frequently according to the Statute 4 Edw. 3.14 36 Edw. 3.10 This Record is well pleaded and could not be otherwise unless Mr Attorney would have us plead what is false the Commons Impeached Fitz-Harris generally and We alledge in our Plea that 't was secundum legem consuetudinem Parliamenti and so 't is confessed by the Demurrer A general Impeachment is good by the Law and course of Parliament Coke 4 Inst 14 15 says What the Law and course of Parliament is the Judges will never intermeddle with We find 11 Rich. 2. Rot Parl part 2. and Rushworth part 1. in the Appendix 51. Tresilian and others were appealed against for Treason the Judges of the Common and Civil Law were called by the King to advise of the matter they all agreed that the Proceedings were neither agreeable to Common or Civil Law But the Lords said it belonged not to those Judges to guide them but they were to proceed according to the Course and Law of Parliaments and no Opinion of theirs should oust them of their Jurisdiction 31 H. 6. Rot. Parl. N. 26. The Judges were demanded whether the Speaker of the Commons during an Adjournment might be Arrested They excused themselves saying That in this great matter they ought not to interpose it being a matter of Parliament In the great Council 1st and 2d Jac. The Judges refused to give their Opinions upon questions put to them about the Vnion of both Kingdoms for that such things did not belong to them but were matters fit for Parliament only Hence I infer that since 't is Pleaded here to be according to Law of Parliaments and Mr Attorney hath acknowledged it that you are fore-closed from meddling further with this Case it being a matter whereof you cannot judge But 'T is objected That if the Impeachment be admitted to be according to the course of Parliament yet 't is so general the Court cannot judge upon it Answer The House of Commons would not Impeach a Man for no Crime The Prisoner's Plea avers that that it was for the same Treason in the Indictment this makes the matter as clear to the Court as if the Impeachment had mentioned the particular Treason 26 Assiz Pl. 15. Stamf. Pla. Cor. 105 A Man Indicted for the Murder of I. S. pleads a Record of Acquittal where he was Indicted for the Murder of I. N. but avers that I. S. in this Indictment is the same Person with I. N. in the other Indictment and it was adjudged a good Plea tho' the Averment seemed to contradict the Record This makes it clear that if an Averment may consist with the Record the Law will allow it Mr Attorney had his Election either to plead Nul Tiel Record Or he might have taken Issue upon our Averment that it was not for one and the same Offence but he has demurred and thereby confessed there is such a Record and confessed the Averment to he true that he was Impeached for the same Crime and that he is the same Person I shall now offer some Reasons in general 1st That when the Commons in Parliament in the name of all the Commons of England have lodged an Impeachment against any Man it seems against natural Justice that any Commoners should afterwards try or judge him for that Fact Magna Charta says That every Man shall be tryed by his Peers or by the Law of the Land This is a way of Tryal by the Law of the Land but not by his Peers for 't would be hard that any Man should come to Try or give Judgment upon a Person who hath been his Accuser before The Lords are here Judges in point of Fact as well as Law the Commoners may come in as Witnesses but not as Judges 2d Reason If an Appeal of Murder were depending before the Statute 3 H. 7.1 The King could not proceed upon an Indictment for the same Fact because the King only takes care that the Offender should not go unpunished but the preferrence was given to the Person more particularly concerned and the King's Indictment must stay till the year and day were out to see whether the Person immediately concerned would prosecute the Suit so says Lord Hales in his Pleas of the Crown Then a Minoriad Majus does the Law so regard the Interest of the Wife or Heir c in their Suit and has it no regard to the Suit of all the Commons of England for manifestly an Impeachment is the Suit of the People and not the King's Suit 3d Reason If this Man be tryed and acquitted here Can he plead this in Bar to the Impeachment it cannot bar that great Court by saying he was acquitted by a Jury in Westminster-Hall and if so contrary to a fundamental Rule of Law a Man shall be twice put in danger of his Life
removed and there they remain to this day nay further to those Impeachments they have pleaded to Issue which is ready for Tryal but in the Case at the Bar there is only an accusation without any further proceedings thereupon I take not this to be such a dangerous Case as the Gentlemen of the other side do pretend for you to determine For I am sure it will be better for the Court to answer if ever they shall be required That they have performed their Duty and done Justice according to their Consciences Oathes than ever to be afraid of any Threats or Bugbeares from the Bar. For would not they by this manner of Pleading put upon your Lordships a difficulty to judge without any thing contained in the Impeachment to guide your Judgment whether the Prisoner be Impeached for the same thing for which he is Indicted May not the Treason intended in this Impeachment be Cliping or Coyning We rely upon the informality and uncertainty of the Pleading only and meddle not with the Question whether an Impeachment in the House of Lords supersedes an Indictment in the King's Bench For We say they have not Pleaded it so substantially as to enable the Court to Judge upon the Question and therefore We pray your Judgment that the Plea may be over-ruled Sr Francis Wythens added I say that this Plea cannot be good to oust this Court of Jurisdiction The Prisoner shall by no means be admitted to averr the intention of the House of Commons before they have declared it themselves and therefore I conceive the Plea to be naught for that reason also for another because the Court in this Case by any thing expressed in the Plea cannot discern or takenotice whether it be the same Treason or not Treason generally alledged in the Impeachment is the Genus and the particular Treason in the Indictment is only a Species And the Averment in the Plea is That the Genus and the Species is the same which is absurd and if allowed tends to hood-wink and blind the Court instead of making the matter plain for their Judgment The Arguments being ended The Chief Justice said We never intended when We assigned four Council to Fitz-Harris that they all should make formal Arguments in one day 't is the first time that ever it was done but because 't is in a Case of Blood We were willing to hear all you could say But I must tell you you have-started a great many things that are not in the Case at all We have nothing to do here whether the Commons at this day can Impeach a Commoner in the House of Lords nor what the Jurisdiction of the Lords is nor whether an Impeachment when the Lords are possessed fully of it does bar the bringing any Suit or hinder the Proceeding in an Inferiour Court but here We have a Case that rises upon the Pleadings Whether your Plea be sufficient to take away the Jurisdiction of the Court as you have pleaded it And you have heard what Exceptions have been made to the form and to the matter of your Pleading We ask you again whether you are able to mend your Pleading in any thing for the Court will not catch you if you can amend it either in matter or form But if you abide by this Plea then We think 't is not reasonable nor will be expected of us in a matter of this Consequence to give our Judgment concerning this Plea presently All the Cases cited concerning Facts done in Parliament and where they have ender voured to have them examined here are nothing to the purpose for We call none to question here for Words spoken or Facts done in the Commons House or in the Lords which takes off the Instances you have given but our Question is barely upon the Pleading of such an Impeachment whether it be sufficient to fore-close the Hands of the Court And we will not precipitate in such a Case but deliberate well upon it before we give our Judgment Take back your Prisoner Upon Wednesday May 11th Fitz-Harris was again brought to the Bar and the Attorney moved for Judgment on the Plea and The Chief Justice thus delivered the Opinion of the Court Why Mr Fitz-Harris you have pleaded to the Jurisdiction of the Court that there was an Impeachment against you by the Commons before the Lords and you do say that that Impeachment is yet in force and by way of Averment that this Treason whereof you are Indicted and that whereof you are Impeached are one and the same Treason And upon this the Attorney for the King hath demurred and you have joyned in demurrer And we have heard the Arguments of your Counsel and have considered of your Case among our selves and upon full consideration and deliberation concerning it and all thath hath been said by your Counsel And upon conference with some other of the Judges We are three of us of Opinion that your Plea is not sufficient to bar this Court of its Jurisdiction my Brother Jones my Brother Raymond and my self are of Opinion your Plea is insufficient My Brother Dol-been not being resolved but doubting concerning it And therefore the Court does order and award that you shall answer over to this Treason Thereupon he pleaded Not guilty and the Court appointed his Tryal to be upon the first Thursday in the next Term. Upon Thursday the 9th of June 1681. Fitz-Harris being brought to the King's Bench Bar the Court ordered the Jury to be called and Major Wildman being returned upon the Jury and appearing The Attorney General demanded whether he were a Freeholder in Middle sere He answered I was a Parliament Man and one that voted the Impeachment against this Person and dare not serve upon this Jury and he was set aside as not being a Freeholder John Kent being called said that he was no Freeholder and the Chief Justice declared that then he could not be sworn of the Jury Then Gites Shute Nathaniel Grantham Benjamine Dennis Abraham Graves Henry Jones and Isaac Heath were set aside as not being Freeholders And the Jury sworn were Tho. Johnson Lucy Knightley Edward Wilford Alexander Hosey Martin James John Vyner William Withers William Clenve Tho. Goffe Ralph Far Samuel Freebody John Lockyer Then the Indictment was read comprising several Treasonable passages in a Libel called The true English-man speaking plain English Then Mr Heath as Counsel for the King opened the Indictment and the Attorney General enlarged upon it and called the Witnesses Mr Everard testified that he and Fitz-Harris became acquainted in the French King's Service and F. Harris invited him to frame a Pamphlet to reflect upon the King and gave him Heads and Instructions tending to it and told him that he should have forty Guineas and a Monthly Pension which should be some thousand Crowns Fitz-Harris then demanded of Everard Whether he was not put upon this to trapan others which Everard answered with this question Can you mention any
that the Act passing to disable Roman Catholicks he and others of them were forced to quit their Commands that the common opinion amongst them was for the setling the Roman Catholick Religion in Engd. but that the measures being broken by means of the Peace with Holland and the Duke of York's and other Catholick Officers quitting all Commands and the King failing in his expectations from them the Roman Catholicks came to a Resolutitn to Destroy the King as Father Parry Confessor to the Portuguieze Ambassodor told the Examinant in 1673 who put this Confidence in him being his Confessor and that the same Father repeated the same discourse to him with more assurance in 1678. adding then that the Business then was now near and he should soon see it done That about April 1679. the Duke of Modena's Envoy having sworn him to Secrecy told him That if he would undertake the Killing the King he should have 10000 l. which he refusing the Envoy said The Dutchess of Mazarine understands Poysoning as well as her Sister and a little Viol when the King comes there will do it and that upon the King's Death the Army in Flanders and Parts adjacent to France was to come into England to destroy the Protestant Party and that after that there should be no Parliaments and that the Duke of York was privy to all these designs That about April 1680. Kelly the Priest whom he had known above 12. Years and had some times Confessed him owned to him at Calis that he was concerned in the Murder of Sr Edmund-Bury Godfrey and that the same was done as Prance had related it That the Examinant had been six or seven Years acquainted Monsieur de Puy Servant to the Duke of York and that he told him soon after the Murder of Sr Edmund-Bury Godfrey That that Murder was consulted at Windsor and about that time said that the Duke was very desirous to come to the Crown the King being incertain and not keeping touch with them and that De Puy said there was a necessity of taking off the King and that it would be soon done That the Duke of York possessing part of the Examinant's Fathers Estate in Ireland the Examinant being acquainted with Father Bedingfeild asked him how he could give Absolution to the Duke till he had made Restitution to which the Father said that every Penitent was supposed to know his own Sins and to declare them to his Confessor to which the Examinant replying with warmth But since you know it you ought to take notice thereof the Father answered be not angry for e're it be long you may be in a better condition That in March 1680. he met Father Patrick at Paris and talking of a Rupture that might be between England and France the Father said that the French intended in such Case to send Marshall Bellfonds into Ireland with 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse and Arms and Ammunition for 30000 Men to be raised there and the Father promised the Examinant a Regiment of the Men to be so Raised and the design was to restore that Kingdom to its former Owners in Subjection to France That Father Patrick desired him to send him all the Libels that came out in London and said that Libelling the King was a thing necessary in order to distaste and make him jealous of his People that the Examinant knew Mr Everard at Paris in 1665 and hath since encreased his acquaintance with him and that the Opinion of Father Patrick about Libelling the King incouraged the Examinant to concur with Everard as to the Libel lately Written by Everard It was most evident from the demeanour of Fitz-Harris from the first to the last after his apprehension that he was ready to say deny affirm or do any thing to save his Life Mrs Fitz-Harris his Widow upon the 15th of August 1681. deposed that her Husband a little before his Execution told her what great offers were made him at first to have charged the Libel upon the Earl of Shaftesbury and my Lord Howard and that he advised her to do it as the only means to save his Life tho' he protested at the same time they were wholly innocent and that she was assured that she should have what Money she pleased if she would accuse those Lords of the Libel Nay Fitz-H himself the very Night before his Execution wrote a Paper which he ordered to be delivered to his Wife in order to prevent the spilling innocent Blood informing her by whom he was advised to accuse those Lords and others of the Libels and of having put him upon the discovery of the Popish Plot and that he had the promise of a Pardon to prevail upon him to do it but finding that he was deluded he declared as before God that they were innocent and that what he had deposed against the Papists was true and that he had been only too sparing in accusing great People among them It is observable that for about fourteen dayes between the time of the Condemnation and Execution of Fitz-Harris the poor wretch was wholly under the management of Dr Hawkins of the Tower in which time the Doctor having held several Consults with some at Windsor there was modelled a Paper stuff'd with abominable Malice and Falshood to serve the wicked Designs of that day which the Doctor after his Death emitted to the World under the Title of the Confession of Fitz-Harris and therein he is made to declare abundance of extravagant Falshoods in particular That the Treason of the Libel came from the Lord Howard But his Conscience could not but witness that he had at several times complained to Sheriff Bethel and Sheriff Cornish that he had been pressed to accuse the Lord Howard and also the Earl of Shaftesbury of the Libel Then the Sham Confession proceeds to a Protestant Plot viz. that the Lord Howard told him of a design to seize upon the King to carry him into the City and there detain him till he had yielded to their desires and that himself and Haynes were privy to the design and had several Meetings with the Lord Howard A strange Tale of a Protestant Plot between two Irish Papists and a Protestant English Lord. In the next place this Mock-Confession is to perswade the World that the Protestant Magistrates of London did endeavour to suborn him to make a Confession that might confirm a Popish Plot. It declares That in Newgate the Sheriffs Bethel and Connish came to him with a Token from the Lord Howard and told him nothing would save his Life but discovering the Popish Plot and greatly encouraged him to declare that he believed so much of the Plot as amounted to the introducing the Roman Catholicks or to criminate the Queen his Royal Highness or to make so much as a plansible Story to confirm the Plot. Besides That as it hath been heretofore observed and is most undoubtedly true that Neither of the Sheriffs ever spake privately with Fitz-H until
he had been thrice examined by the Secretaries of State and sworn to the substance of his Examination taken by Sr Robert Clayton and Sr George Treby So this idle Tale in it self could never deserve the least credit in that it made the Sheriffs so foolish and vain as to think a Declaration from such a Wretch as Fitz-H of his belief of the Popish Plot to have been of great value and that it was worth a high Reward for him to have invented a plausible story to confirm the Plot after the belief thereof had been confirmed by many Proclamations by the Votes of four Parliaments and the Condemnation and Execution of several of the Plotters Further Dr Hawkins his Paper brings in Fitz-H charging it upon the Sheriffs that they extorted from him false Confessions about the Popish Plot and it makes him to speak thus I finding my self in Newgate fettered Monyless and Friendless and I could see no other refuge for my Life but complying with them the Sheriffs so to save my Life I did comply But as soon as the Doctor had published this Sham the falshood thereof was detected and the World rightly informed in the matter that Fitz-H was never fettered or put in Irons but was treated with all imaginable civility for which he thanked the Sheriffs even with his dying Breath The Doctor 's impudent Libel then fell upon Sr Robert Clayton and Sr George Treby and insinuates that they would have induced Fitz-Harris to say more than was true and says that what he deposed before them about Father Patrick was forced out of him and was not true F. H. himself well knew that Sr Robert Clayton and Sr George Treby came to take his Confession upon his earnest importunity and that after he had been thrice examined by the Secretaries and Attorney General and he had sworn before them all the matters in substance contained in the Examination by Sr R. C. and Sr G. T. except that one passage about de Puy and when that Examination was read to the House of Commons at Oxford Secretary Jenkins acknowledged that he had confessed the same to the Lord Conway the Attorney General and himself except that about de Puy yet the Contriver of the Sham Retractation took no care to retract or excuse his Swearing the same matters before the Secretaries and Mr Attorney because Reason of State did at that day require that not They but the City Magistrates must be exposed Then the impudence of Hell is assumed to bring in Sr George Treby inviting Fitz-H to accuse the Earl of Danby and the Popish Lords in the Tower by speaking thus do but you say it We have have those that will swear it Had they been provided with false Witnesses and had they had such an accursed design There was no need of Fitz-H his saying any thing Neither the false Suggestions nor the Perjuries could have gained any weight or credit from the Authority of Fitz-H by his saying what they were to Swear To conclude there are Persons who can unriddle this whole Mystery pull off the Disguises and Vizors wherewith this affair is even to this day obscured and therefore I have made this Recapitulation of the fore-going particulars to incite those who are better able to oblige the World with a more full knowledge of the vile Practices with this poor deluded timerous Wretch and then it may be evident that the Doctor gave him expectation if not assurance of Life to the very last Moment that he drew breath Remarks upon the Tryal of Mrs Elizabeth Gaunt at the Old-Bayly London upon the 19th day of October 1685. WEre my Pen qualified to represent the due Character of this Excellent Woman it would be readily granted that she stood most deservedly entitled to an eternal Monument of honour in the hearts of all sincere Lovers of the Reformed Religion All true Christians tho' in some things differing in perswasion with her found in her a universal Charity and sincore Friendship as is well known to many here and also to a Multitude of the Scotch Nation Ministers and others who for Conscience sake were thrust into Exile by Prelatick Rage These found her a most refreshing Refuge She dedicated her self with unwearied industry to provide for their supply and support and therein I do incline to think she out-stripped every individual Person if not the whole Body of Protestants in this great City Hereby she became exposed to the implacable fury of the bloody Papists and those blind Tools who co-operated to promote their accursed designs and so there appeared little difficulty to procure a Jury as there were well prepared Judges to make her a Sacrifice as a Traytor to Holy Church Upon Monday the 19th day of October 1685 Mrs Gaunt was arraigned upon an Indictment to this effect viz. That she intending to disturb the Peace and Tranquility of the Kingdom and to stir up Rebellion against the King and to subvert his Government and depose and put him to death for bringing her Traytorous purposes to pass she well knowing James Burton to be a Traytor did secretly and Trayterously entertain and conceal him and did give him Meat Drink and 5 l. in Money for his Maintenance and Sustenance She having pleaded Not guilty the following Jury was sworn Tho. Rawlinson Tho. Langham Ambrose Isted Tho. Pendleton John Grice Tho. Oneby William Cloudesley Richard Holford William Longboate Steven Colman Robert Clavel and William Long. Then Mr Attorney General said The Prisoner is indicted for harbouring Burton a great Traytor and procuring a way for his escape beyond Sea and giving him 5 l. to bear his Charges She and her Husband were the great Brokers for carrying over such Traytors as my Lord Shaftesbury and others He then called James Burton and demanded an account of him whether he were engaged in the matter of the Rye-House and how Mrs Gaunt harboured him Burton testified that Keeling brought him and Barber and Thompson into the company of Rumbold It looks as tho Keeling had been employed at White-hall to make as well as to discover this Plot for of the very small number accused of it We have him here drawing in three at once That upon Keeling's discovery he was put into the Proclamation for being at that Meeting and absconded about two Moneths and then Mrs Gaunt came to enquire of his Wife for him who brought her to him and she told him that there were some Persons about to make an escape and she would have him go along with them and sent him with Rumbold to Rochford-Hundred in Essex to take Ship but not liking the Vessel and the Weather being bad they returned to London That many Moneths afterwards Mrs Gaunt came and gave him 5 l. and sent him in a Boat to Gravesend from whence he went in a Vessel to Amsterdam Mary Gilbert Burton's Daughter was sworn and said that she met Mrs Gaunt with her Father in Houndsditch and they went to a
House without Bishopsgate and that she there saw him with a Man that had but one Eye and was full of Pock-holes Burton's Wife then testified that Mrs Gaunt came to enquire where here Husband was and she told her he was at her Daughter 's and Mrs Gaunt told her That if she were willing her Husband should go away she would take care therein and Mrs Gaunt appointed them to meet without Bishopsgate The Lord Chief Justice Jones and Judge Wythens and also the King's Counsel viz. the Attorney the Solicitor General Mr North and Crispe the Common Serjeant rack'd their Inventions to draw Burton and his Wife to charge Mrs Gaunt with the knowledge of his being in a Plot or in the Proclamation but nothing of that could be made out Nor is here any sort of proof that Mrs Gaunt harboured this ungrateful Wretch or that she gave him either Meat or Drink as the Indictment charges her And it must be further noted that here is only the single Testimony of Burton of her giving him Money and sending him away The Evidence being short in this The Chief Justice fell upon the Prisoner with ensnaring Questions demanding of her What was the reason she would send Burton away whether she gave him Money Whether she heard that his Name was in the Proclamation c Here Captain Richardson officiously interposed saying She says she is not come here to tell your Lordships what she did The Chief Justice then sum'd up the Evidence thus Burton sayes this Woman was very solicitous to send him beyond Sea That her Husband being concerned in the Plot and she as Burton believes knowing that he could make some discovery concerning her Husband endeavoured to convey him away It is true there is not direct proof that there was any particular mention that Burton was in the Proclamation but he and his Wife say that they verily believe the Prisoner knew that he was in the Proclamation and she her self being examined says that she might hear that he was in the Proclamation and that his House was searched and he could not be found and yet she conceals him what could be the meaning of this but that she was very zealous to maintain the Conspiracy and was a great Assistant to all concerned in it She will not tell you any other cause why she should be concerned to convey this Man beyond Sea and therefore in all reason you ought to conceive it was for this The Jury being thus sent out and returning Mrs Gaunt desired to be heard declaring that she hoped they would not take any advantage against her and that she had some Witnesses to call But Wythens said It ought not to be done you ought to take the Verdict and so the Jury pronounced her Guilty and Jenner the Recorder passed this Sentence You are to be carried back to the place from whence you came from thence you are to be drawn upon a Hurdle to the place of Execution and there you are to be burnt to Death Mrs Gaunt only said I say this Woman did tell several Untruths of me I don't understand the Law The Sentence was executed upon this Excellent Woman upon Friday then following being the 23d of October 1685. When she left her Murderers the following Memorial Newgate 22d of October 1685. NOt knowing whether I should be suffered or able because of Weaknesses that are upon me through my hard and close Imprisonment to speak at the place of Execution I write these few Lines to signifie I am well reconciled to the way of my God towards me tho' it be in ways I looked not for and by terrible things yet in Righteousness for having given me Life he ought to have the disposing of it when and how he pleaseth to call for it and I desire to offer up my all to him it being but my reasonable service and also the first terms that Christ offers that he that will be his Disciple must forsake all and follow him and therefore let none think it hard or be discouraged at what hath happened unto me for he doth nothing without cause in all that he hath done unto us he being Holy in all his Ways and Righteous in all his Works and it is but my lot in common with poor desolate Sion at this day neither do I find in my heart the least regret of any thing that I have done in the service of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ in favouring and succouring any of his poor Sufferers that have shewed favour to his righteous Cause which Cause tho' it be now fallen and trampled on as if it had not been anointed yet it shall revive and God will plead it at another rate then yet he hath done with all its Opposers and malitious Haters and therefore let all that love and fear him not omit the least duty that comes to hand or lieth before them knowing that Christ hath need of them and expects that they should serve him and I desire to bless him that he hath made me useful in my Generation to the comfort and relief of many distressed Ones that the Blessing of those that have been ready to perish hath come upon me and I have been helped to make the Heart of the VVidow to sing and I bless his holy Name that in all this together with what I was changed with I can approve my Heart to him that I have done his Will tho' I have crossed man's Will and the Scripture that satisfied me in it is the 16th of Isa 3 4. Hide the Out-casts betray not him that wandreth let my Out-casts dwell with thee Obadiah 12.13 14. Thou shouldst not have given up him that escaped in the day of distress But Man saith You shall give them up or you shall dye for it Now whom to obey judge ye So that I have cause to rejoyce be exceeding glad in that I suffer for Righteousness sake and that I am accounted worthy to suffer for well-doing and that God hath accepted any Service from me that hath been done in Sincerity tho' mixed with manifold Weaknesses and Infirmities which he hath been pleased for Christ's sake to cover and forgive And now as concerning my Fact as it s called alas it is but a little one and might well become a Prince to forgive but He that sheweth no Mercy shall find none and I may say of it in the Language of Jonathan I did but taste a little Honey and lo I must dye for it I did but relieve a poor unworthy and distressed Family and lo I must dye for it I desire in the Lamb-like Will to forgive all that are concerned and to say Lord lay it not to their Charge but I fear and believe that when he comes to make Inquisition for Blood Mine will be found at the Door of the furious * * Wythens Judge who because I could not remember things through my dauntedness at Burton's Wife Daughter's witness and my Ignorance took
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
would have him stay till Tuesday morning That then the Duke being gone out of Town the Lord Grey told Jones from the Duke That he intended to be in England within nine days and bid him remember to tell Brand that when he heard the Duke was Landed he should acquaint Sr Robert Peyton with it but not till he was Landded That Jones missing passage to England from Roterdam he returned to Amsterdam and went to the Duke and told him the reason why he was not gone and the Duke said he was glad he was not gone for he had a further Message and would have him stay two or three days That upon the 21st of May the Duke ordered him to come to him in the Evening and when he came the Duke took a Paper that lay upon the Table and sensed it and told him that when he came to London he must see for Captain Mathews and desire him to acquaint my Lord Macclesfield my Lord Brandon and my Lord Delamere that he was resolved to set out the next Saturday morning That the Duke then said that Mathews was to send one Post to that place that was named in the Note to receive Intelligence of his Landing and that News he designed should be brought to his Friends here 24 hours before the Court had notice of it and those Lords were to be in readiness and as soon as they knew he was Landed they were to repair to their Posts to assist him That Jones askt the Duke what he was to do with the Paper who said I do by you as Princes do by their Admirals they have their Commissions sealed up and not to open them till at Sea so I deliver your Instructions sealed up which you are not to open till you are at Sea and when you have opened and read what is contained in them I would have you tear the Paper and throw it into the Sea least you be surprized and fearched at your Landing And that the Duke ordered him that if he missed of Captain Mathews he should deliver the Message to Major Wildman That the Instructions in the Paper were to this effect viz. Taunton is the place to which all are to resort The Persons to be acquainted with the time of Landing are the Lord Macclesfield the Lord Brandon and the Lord Delamere The place to send the Coach to is to Mr Savage's the Red Lyon The Post is to return to Captain Mathews or as he shall appoint Jones added that he came home the 27th of May the Wednesday forthnight before the Duke Landed and Disney came immediately to him and told him that Captain Mathews and Major Wildman were both out of Town whereupon he delivered the Message to Disney and left it to him to convey it to the Lords concerned That Disney met him the same night in Smithfield with Mr Crag Mr Lisle and Mr Brand and Disney took Jones and Brand aside and askt Jones what was the place to which the Post was to go That Jones met the Duke at Lyme and told him what he had done with the Message who said he was satisfied he had done what he could but seemed troubled that Mathews was out of Town It being demanded of my Lord Delamere whether he would ask Jones any Questions his Lordship answered No I never saw his face before Mr Story the Duke of Monmouth's Commissary General testified that Mr Brand who lived about Bishopsgate and was killed at Keinsham Bridge told him upon the 28th of May last that Mr Jones was returned from Holland and brought a Message from the Duke and that he the said Brand was to go to Taunton to expect from Mr Dare or Mr Williams the account of the Duke's Landing That Brand told him that Jones his Message was delivered to Disney who went and had some discourse with my Lord Delamere and that that night his Lordship went out of Town and two Friends of Mr Brand's went with him and conveyed him by a By-way through Enfield-Chase towards Hatfield That Story went out of Town the 28th of may and overtook Brand that night That he heard the Duke of Monmouth say at Shepton-mallet that his great dependance was upon my Lord Delamere his Friends in Cheshire but he was afraid they had failed him and he said he could have been supplied otherwise but that he had a dependance upon them My Lord Delamere then demanded of Story whether he knew one Thomas Saxon. Mr Story answered yes my Lord I was a Prisoner with him in Dorchester Prison The Attorney General then called Vaux and said My Lord this is an unwilling Witness and we are forced to pump all out of him by Questions And then demanded of him what day it was my Lord Delamere sent for him Vaux answered It was the 26th of May his Lordship sent for me to the Rummer Tavern in Queen-street and the next day I went out of Town with him about nine or ten in the Evening My Lord went by the name of Brown We got to Hoddesden about twelve at night Mr Attorney demanded whether they went next whether my Lord Delamere was going and whether that was the direct Road to Cheshire Mr Vaux answered We then went to Hitchin and I returned home the next day My Lord was going to see his Son who was sick in the Country and we made that the way it being the freest Road from Dust Mr Edlin then testified the same in substance with Mr Vaux that upon the 27th of May he went with my Lord Delamere to Hoddesden c. Mr Attorney then said my Lord to confirm and explain this Evidence I shall prove that this Gentleman went by the name of Brown in the Cant of those that were engaged in this Business that the name was known as his name by all the Party and called so constantly in their Letters and Messages Tracey Paunchforth being called witnessed That he was at Disney's house the 14th of June with Joshua Lock one Hooper and one Horsley and Lock stayed for some of the Duke of Monmouth's Declarations which were finished about nine of the Clock and three were delivered to him and there was a discourse of having them sent into Cheshire to one Mr Brown whom he understood to be my Lord Delamere and Mr Disney used to mention him by the name of Brown That Paunchforth was at the Castle Tavern with Mr Vermuyden his Brother Babington and Mr Manning but there was no mention as he remembers of my Lord or Mr Brown but only something in relation to the Duke's Landing Mr Vermuyden who also went by the name of Brown said he did not know where he was to Land Babington the Betrayer of that worthy Gentlemen Mr Disney then swore That when he first knew of any of the Transactions he was with Mr Vermuyden his Brother Paunehforth and Mr Chadwich where there was discourse of Mr Brown and that his Uncle Vermuyden afterwards told him it was my Lord Delamere and ordered
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
receive it till after the Tryal Mr Hagar deposed That he thinks he knew Keeling was a Witness against Captain Walcot but did not then offer himself to be a Witness because times were so difficult but when he heard of my Lord Russell's Tryal he acquainted his Lordship's Servant with what he has now sworn and that he attended at the Tryal but Keeling was no Witness Mr Bates deposed That he believes he told what he hath now sworn about Keeling's Declaration at the Fleece Tavern to twenty persons before the Lord Russell's Tryal and that he heard Keeling say in the Amsterdam Coffee-House It is reported that I have discovered a Plot of the Duke of Monmouth my Lord Russell and others but I know nothing of it and am innocent and falsly accused Mr Haly deposed that he remembers not that he spoke of what he has now sworn to any Person for times were such he was affraid to speak of it John Keeling deposed that Josia Keeling his Brother who gave his first Information upon Oath to Sr Leoline Jenkins upon the 12th of June 1683. came to him the next day and called him out and carried him into the Company of Goodenough at the Dolphin-Tavern where they talkt of taking off the Black-Bird and the Goldsmith meaning the King and the Duke That the Company being parted he the said John Keeling told his Brother that he did not understand that Gibberish and therefore would not be concerned That his Brother then carried him to one Mr Peckham at the Fleece-Tavern in Southwark where Peckham encouraged him and told him if he would be a Witness he should be well rewarded Then he carried him to two Gentlemen whom he knew not to the Flanders Coffee-House who encouraged him and would have had him to a Dinner but he declined it That then his Brother told him he must go with him to Secretary Jenkins to give Information of what he had heard to which he shewing aversion his Brother told him he must go thither or to Newgate and so he was compelled to comply That he gave notice to Mr Tory his Brother's Master how his Brother had trapan'd him An honest Whigg Tory Citizen living in St Martins Legrand and is reckon'd the only Tory in London who at all Elections votes for the true English Interest and made him to swear and that he acquainted Mr Jones therewith and desired him to give notice to the Persons accused That he did not believe the Plot till he saw the Proclamation and understood that Lee the Dyer came in for a Witness That his Brother had 500 l. of the King and brought it to a Coffee-House That he the said John Keeling was subpenaed to be a Witness against the Lord Russell and was sworn to give Evidence to the Grand-Jury but was not examined Mr Nathaniel Wade deposed that Josia Keeling accused him of being in the Rye-Plot tho' he had never been above twice in his company That at the Salutation Tavern in Lumbard-street he heard Keeling * He was ordered by Jenkins to draw Men in and that he might accomplish it They gave him Licence to talk Treason speak very extravagantly and say he would do some brisk thing and that thereupon Mr Nelthorpe said I prethee be not mad And that presently after Mr Wade heard his own Name in a Proelamation Mr John Tisard deposed that at my Lord Russell's Tryal four Gentlemen told him that Keeling who was to have been the first Evidence against his Lordship had confessed that he was to meet some Gentlemen at a Tavern who were to give him Instructions what to swear but he said when he had received the Instructions he would make a discovery That however Keeling was not produced against my Lord and he believes the reason was because some were apprised of the defence which his Lordship would have made against his evidence Mr Nathaniel Gael deposed that by the perswasion of Keeling's Mother he procured 100 l. to be lent to him by Mr Wolfe a Merchant to supply his necessities which Keeling repaid three Months after which was after he was an Evidence Josia Keeling being examined declared That he remembers not that he was in an Agony or trouble at the Fleece-Tavern or that he told the Company there he was to meet any Persons concerning the discovery of a Plot or that he was promised a Groat or Employment or that he desired them to bear Witness against him if he pretended to say any thing of a Plot or that he knew nothing That he was subpenaed at the Lord Russell's and Walcot's Tryal and was there during the whole Tryal of the Lord Russell That he applyed himself to the Lord Privy Seal at his House to help him to his place in the Victualling Office and he thinks he applied also to the D. York That he after reminded the Lord Hallifax going up into the Gallery at Whitehall and after that he heard he had his place he thankt him that Evening and he continued in his place till within these six Weeks That he had Money of the King as Subsistance and also received 500 l. of Mr Duncumb the Banker That the King told him he should have 100 l. a Year but he never had it Mr Aaron Smyth deposed That he was a Prisoner in the Tower when my Lord Russell and Colonel Sidney were tryed and was kept close Prisoner above nineteen Weeks at 5. l. a week charge and two Warders watched him or lay in the Room That one of his Warders told him that Mr Ambrose Philips was come to speak with him and had an Order from one of the Secretaries to come as often as he would and bring whom he would along with him but then he was alone When Mr Philips came in after some other discourse he told him it was in his Power to make himself what he would for said he you know this Rogue Sidney is a Traytor and you way make your self what you will if you will DISCOVER what you know of his designs against the Government That he replied he could not say any thing that could touch a Hair of Colonel Sidney's head and that then Mr Philips said If he might advise the King he would have all the damn'd Whig Rogues hanged and for your part any Body knows you are Guilty Sr Ambrose Philips being examined confessed that Aaron Smyth had been his Client and there was a Friendship between them and he thought he might have prevailed with him to have declared what he knew which he thought would be a service to the Publick and service to himself That he cannot be positive whether Mr Roger North gave him an Order to go to Aaron Smyth or told him he should find an Order with the Lieutenant of the Tower That he used to Mr Smyth the Arguments a Friend might do and told him he came not to trapan him nor would he discover more of what he would tell him but what he would give
the Pannel and either he or his Clerk told him that Burton and Graham hadit and when he came again in the Evening to them for it one of them told him They had orders from above not to let him have it Sr James Forbes deposed that the Dake of Monmouth desired him to shew Mr Hambden a Paper written with the King 's own Hand which was for the Duke's owning of the Evidence of Romsey and others That he told the Duke that that Paper would make him infamous and would be a means of destroying many Men's Lives whereupon the Duke sent him with the Paper to the Earl of Anglesey who upon the reading of it presently wrote a a Paper of Reasons against it That before Sr James went to the Earl of A. the Duke told him if it were so as he had told him he would have the Paper again tho' he dyed for it whereupon Sr James ask't him how he would get it That the Duke said the King would shew it him and then he would tear it out of his Hand and then further said the Duke of York was his implacable Enemy That as soon as Mr Hambden had read the Paper he said he was a Dead Man and ask't leave of Sr James to shew it to his Father which he consented to That he returned to the Duke and gave him the Earl of Anglesey's Reasons against the Paper together with his own thoughts of it whereupon the Duke replyed that he saw they had a mind to ruine him and he was only brought into Court to do a Jobb and that he would not Sleep before he had retrived the Paper That the Duke told him how kindly the King had expressed himself to him and Sr James desired the Duke to save Colonel Sidney if possible but he feared he could not but said he had told the King how good a Man the Lord Russell was and how unjustly he had been put to death That at the desire of Mr Hambden the Duke went to visit him before he had his Pardon tho' he thought it to be very dangerous and was with him two or three Hours in private and Sr James believes it was about saving the Colonel's Life That the Duke's Servants told Sr James at the Cock-Pit that they were ordered not to suffer any of his old Friends or Whiggs and such and such in particular to see or pay a Visit to the Duke That the Duke told St James that the Lord Hallifax perswaded him to sign the Paper but whether it were for his good or not he knew not That when Sr James told the Duke how it was reported in the Town that he was come in to be a Witness he answered he never would That the next day after Sr James had given the Duke the Earl of Anglesey's Reasons and Mr Hambden's and his own Opinion Colonel Godfrey came to him and told him that the Duke had recovered the Paper and got it into his own possession and Sr James went to tell Mr Hambden Mr Charlton and Major Wildman of it Colonel Godfrey deposed That the first night the Duke of Monmouth came to Court he went to him with Sr James Forbes and the Duke told them how kind the King was to him in giving him his Pardon and that he believed he owed a great deal of it to the Lord Hallifax and several times he heard him say that the Lord Hallifax had been kind and servicable to him That the Duke said the King told him that he must submit to be askt Questions in publick concerning the Plot and must submit to him and not contradict him That within two or three dayes after the Duke surrendered himself he shewed him a Paper which was a Declaration or seeming Confirmation of the Plot with which the Lord Russell and Colonel Sidney were charged and he thinkes the Paper was signed with the Dukes name to it That the Paper which the Duke got from the King was not the same with the other and he believes he did not see that Paper That the Duke told him after the Paper had been sent to the Council that he had signed such a Paper he understood in general from him that this Paper was a Confirmation of the Plot the Lord Russell and Colonel Sidney suffered upon That he thinks the Duke told him the Lord Hallifax perswaded him to sign that Paper The Reasons he used were that he might keep at Court and be near the King or else he must go from thence Anthony Rowe Esq deposed That the Duke of Monmouth sent him to the King with two or three Letters whom he found very angry with him for the Company he kept Observe here what value that King put upon the Blood of Lord Russell and Col. Sidney c. and particularly the Lord Howard who he said was so ill a Man that he would not hang the worst dog he had on his Evidence That he heard the Duke had a Paper given him from the King to consider of he seemed unwilling to sign it but at last consented so he might not be askt to sign any other He being in the Bed-Chamber when the King told him he should not whether he signed it or not Mr Row knows not That this Paper was given to the King and shewed to the Council but they not likeing it it was either Burnt or Torn and another Paper drawn That about that time some thing of this being put into the Gazette Mr Row acquainted the Duke with it Who was displeased at it and bid them tell every Body they met that it was false That Mr Row doing so in the Coffee-house that night the King was acquainted with it and sent for him early the next morning and chid him and told him he did the Duke more hurt than he was aware of and commanded him to speak no more of it That the Duke told him he was resolved not to sign the second Paper That one day afterwards he and Godfrey and Barker were in the outward Room and the Lord Hallifax was with the Duke and Dutchess in her Room and the Duke came out to them once or twice and at last laid he had done it and that night he seemed angry with himself that he had signed the Paper for that it might hurt others and that if it had concerned none but himself he had not cared but said he would not rest till he had the Paper again and the next morning he told him he had got it That the Duke told them that the King had often press'd him to sign it and told him he should never see his face more if he did not do it but if he would he should ask him nothing but he would grant it But when he did sign it he knows not nor that there was any in the Room but the Dutchess and the Lord Hallifax That the Duke told him after he came out that the Lord Hallifax had over perswaded him and made him do it
Pique against him but against the Cause he was engaged in His Wife did go several times to the Lord H. and by her he believes he sent him thanks He knows no solid effects of his kindness if there were he desires the Lord H. to tell him in what He believes no part of the 6000 l was given to the Lord H. He never heard any thing of the D. of Monmouth's Confession of the Plot till after the Paper was signed by the Duke and sent to him He has heard it as common talk that the Duke had confessed a Plot and that Mr Waller told him so indefinitely he could not tell whether he meant before the signing the Paper or no He saith what the Duke did at that time was all of a piece whether speaking or writing he is sure that it was with the utmost reluctancy that the Duke signed the Paper He remembers no more in the Cabinet Council but the Lord Radnor besides those he has already named but believes there were three or four more He was bailed the 28th of November 1683. and Colonel Sidney he thinks was Executed the 5th of December following The Duke of Monmouth appeared very firm to him and engaged to do his utmost to save Colonel Sidney He saith he came out of the Tower some days before Colonel Sidney was Executed he had an intention to have visited him but his Friends thought it useless and dangerous to them and that he might write any thing he had to say Accordingly he wrote to him that he would come to him if he desired it but Col. Sidney charged him not to come but to write if he thought any inconveniency would come of it The Messenger which brought him the Message before-mentioned was Dr Hall now Bishop of Oxford who applyed to the Dutchess of Portsmouth for his Release but her answer to him afterwards was That she had tryed and could do nothing for they would rather have him rot in Prison than have the 40000 l. Dame Katharine Armstrong being examined deposed that she demanded a Writ of Error of the Cursitor of London for Sr Thomas Armstrong and told him she was ready to pay all due Fees but he told her she must go to the Attorney General and she demanded it publickly in Court of the Lord Keeper North but he said it was not in him to give but the King Mrs Jane Mathews being examined said that her Father was sent to Prison and could have no Council admitted to him nor any Friends speak with him but in the presence of his Keeper he had one Chain on him and was kept close Prisoner she saith she questions not but to prove the Lord Howard perjured for Sr Thomas could have proved by ten Gentlemen and the Servants of the House those base Reflections the Lord Howard made on him to be falshoods She saith her Father demanded his Tryal and also Counsel in the Court but was denied both the Chief Justice Jefferies telling him they had nothing but the Outlawry to go on Withens Holloway and VValcot were other three of the Judges And she thinks he was brought from aboard the Yatch by the Lord Godolphin's Warrant She saith Mr Richardson beat her Sister while she was asking her Father Blessing She saith that her Father was at Sparrow's at Dinner that day that the Lord Howard swore he was not and she saith that when her Father in Court said My Blood be upon you The Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes said let it let it I am Clamour proof Mrs Katherine Armstrong being examined saith That Captain Richardson used her Father ill and made him lie in a Chain on one Leg and would not let her see him alone and was rude to her and struck her in such manner that she had so fore a Breast that she could not put on Bodies in three quarters of a year She saith she went with her Mother to the Cursitor of London to demand a Writ of Error but he refused it She went also on the same Errand to the Lord Keeper North Mr Attorney and the Lord Chief Justice but had none Mr Richard Wynne declared That he was Solicitor to Colonel Sidney That the Colonel excepted against several of the Judy to some as not being Freeholders and others as being in the King's Service and receiving Wages from his Majesty That presently after the Tryal the Lord Chief Justice sent him Prisoner to the King's Bench Mr Wynne said this to Angier the Foreman of that murdering Jury and to Glisby another of the three Carpenters which were upon that Jury and to another of their Brethren near the King's Bench Court whereupon they went to lay hold upon Mr. Wynne at which instant Mr Forth the King's Joyner coming interposed upon which Angier said Mr Forth will you assist this Man he says Colonel Sidney's Jury was a Loggerheaded Jury To which Mr Forth answer'd I have nothing to do with the Jury but Glisby knows that I know he it a Loggerhead Of this They complained to Jeffryes who committed Mr Wynne and Mr Forth to the King's Bench It cost Mr Forth about 50 l. whereof Burton had 24 l. and he being a Protestant Joyner he ' scap'd well out of their Hands as times then went especially with that Trade for saying the Jury were a Loggerheaded Jury that They had not Evidence sufficient to find such a Verdict or found a Verdict contrary to Evidence Mr Serjeant Rotherham being examined declared That he was of Counsel for Colonel Sidney and drew a Plea for him which the Colonel desired to have read and threw it into the Court It was to distinguish the Treasons laid in the Indictment and quoted the three Acts of Treason But the Court told him if the Plea had any slip in it he must have Judgment of Death pass on him immediately After this he pleaded Not Guilty That he demanded a Copy of the Indictment as his due but the Court refused it him That Col. Sidney told him that they proved the Paper they accused him of to be his Hand-writing by a Banker who only had his hand upon a Bill Col. Sidney quoted the Lady Carr's Case in the King 's Benels Trinity Term 1669 Anno 21. Car. 2. wherein it was adjudged that in a Criminal Case 't is not sufficient for a Witness to swear he believes it to be the hand but that he saw the party write it The words in the Case are That it must be proved that she actually writ it and not her hand â—ut credit Note Colonel Sidney demanded the Copy of the Indictment upon the Statute 46 Edw. 3. which allows it to all Men in all Cases That Colonel Sidney ask'd him with the rest of the Council whether all the Book should be read at his Tryal The Council said it ought The Book was by way of Questions and meerly polemical discourse of Government in general as far as Serjeant Rotherham could find after reading in it several hours He
to do Justice and therefore I cheerfully leave the matter with you I am sure that if God help me and deliver me in this Exigency that it is he and you under him that preserve my Life Gentlemen The great Incertainties Improbabilities and Consequences in this case I hope will be weighed by you and make you the better to consider the proof which is made by none but such as are Strangers to me since then they know me not I hope you will weigh it before you give it against me We must all dye and I am sure it wil be no grief to you to acquit a Man that is innocent I leave it with you The Lord direct you Then Jenner the Recorder to aggravate the matter spoke thus The Treason charged on the Prisoner is of that sort that if he be guilty he will be a just example to terrifie others from doing the like for if Traytors had not persons to supply them with Money abroad it may be they would not have so much Courage to run away We have satisfied you that Sr T. A. was indicted that an Exigent was gone against him upon that account here was a Proclamation and Sr T. A. named in it and so at his rate of talking the Recorder repeated the Evidence of the Witnesses and concluded Gentlemen We think that his defence has been so little and our proof so strong that you have good ground to find him Guilty The Chief Justice then summed up the matter to the Jury in a Speech of of a vast length which was in substance this Gentlemen of the Jury This is an Indictment of high Treason against the Prisoner at the Bar and you are to try it according to your evidence The Prisoner's affirmation of his innocence is not to weigh with you Nay I must tell you I cannot but upon this occasion make a little Reflection upon several of the horrid Conspirators that did not only with as much solemnity imprecate Vengeance upon themselves if they were guilty of any Treason but thought they did God Almighty good service in that hellish Conspiracy It is not unknown one of the Persons proscribed in this Proclamation did declare they should be so far from being esteemed Traytors That they should have Trophies set up for them and all this under the pretence and enamel of Religion Nay I can cite to you an instance of another of the Conspirators that after a full and evident proof and plain Conviction of having an hand in it when he comes upon the Brink of Death and was to answer for that horrid fact before the great God he blessed Almighty God that he dyed by the hand of the Executioner with the Ax and did not dye by the Fiery Tryal He blessed God at the place of Execution that he dyed a Traytor against the King and Government rather than dyed a Martyr for his Religion I think it necessary to make some Reflection upon it when Men under the pretence of Religion are wound up to that heigth to foment Differences to disturb and distract the Government to destroy the Foundations of it to murder his sacred Majesty and his Royal Brother and to subvert our Religion and Liberty and Property and all this carried on upon pretence of doing God good service You are to go according to evidence as the Blood of a Man is precious so the Government also is a precious thing the Life of the King is a precious thing The preservation of our Religion is a precious thing and therefore due regard must be had to all of them I must tell you in this horrid Conspiracy there were several Persons that bore several parts Some that were to head and to consult there was a Council to consider Others were designed to to have a hand in the perpetrating of that horrid Villany that was intended upon the Persons of his Sacred Majesty and his Royal Brother and with them upon the Persons of all his Majesties Loyal Subjects that acted with duty as they ought to do There were others that were to be aiding and assisting as in the case of the Prisoner if you find him guilty aiding abetting assisting by Money or otherwise or harbouring any of those Persons that were concerned therein Then he recounted the Evidence given against the Prisoner and made such Remarks upon the same as he thought fit The Jury withdrew and spent two hours in consideration of the matter and then returning gave their Verdict to the disappointment and vexation of the Chief Justice Common Serjeant and others that the Prisoner was Not Guilty Mr Attorney General thereupon said My Lord tho' they have acquitted him yet the Evidence was so strong that I hope your Lorship and the Court will think fit to bind him to his good behaviour during his Life The Chief Justice answer'd Mr Attorney that is not a proper Motion at this time So the Prisoner was discharged after he had been imprisoned five Months Tho' Mr Hayes to the eternal Honour of some good Men who were upon his Jury came off with his Life he was by this Prosecution beaten out of as good and valuable a Trade as most Linnen Drapers in London had and was by consequence highly impaired in his Estate About the same time Mr Roswell a very worthy Divine was tryed for Treasonable Words in his Pulpit upon the Accusation of very vile and lewd Informers and a Surry Jury found him Guilty of high Treason upon the the most villanous and improbable evidence that had been ever given notwithstanding Sr John Talbot no Countenancer of Dissenters had appeared with great generosity and honour and testified that the most material Witness was as scandalous and infamous a Wretch as lived It was at that time given out by those who thirsted for Blood that Mr Roswel and Mr Hayes should dye together and it was upon good ground believed that the happy deliver ance of Mr Hayes did much contribute to the preservation of Mr Roswel tho' it is very probable that he had not escaped had not Sr John Talbot's worthy and most honourable detestation of that accursed Villany prompted him to repair from the Court of King's Bench to King Charles the second and to make a faithful representation of the Case to him whereby when inhumane bloody Jeffreyes came a little after in a transport of Joy to make his Report of the eminent service he and the Surry Jury had done in finding Mr Roswel guilty the King to his disappointment appeared under some reluctancy and declared that Mr Roswell should not dye And so he was most happily delivered and being by this remarkable Providence of God still alive he would at least in my opinion do a very useful and seasonable piece of service to this Age and to those which are to succeed in publishing a full Account of the whole Proceedings against him Remarks upon the Tryal of Mr Charles Bateman at the Old-Bayly Upon the 9th day of December 1685
before the Lord Chief Justice Herbert c. IT was very well known that Mr Bateman as a good Citizen true Englishman had constantly asserted and stood up for his native Rights Priviledges and by consequence he became obnoxious to those who had conspired and resolved the ruin thereof and of the Protestant Religion with them It is an undoubted truth that this worthy Citizen's seasonable and necessary endeavour with many others of eminent desert to withstand the fatal Usurpation of Sr. John Moore in imposing Sr Dudly North and Sr Peter Rich upon the City for Sheriffs in the year 1682 did expose him to the implacable rage of the Conspirators Our Parliaments and Courts of Justice had been for some years most strenuously attempting to extirpate the hellish Popish Plot and accursed Popery but there were then found Miscreants who set themselves to run the Kingdom upon a wrong scent and they never wanted a Protestant Plot when it might cover and secret their own and all wise men saw them ready to start one when Sr John Moore had constituted proper Sheriffs At that time the Earl of Shaftesbury well knowing that his Innocence would not be able to guard him against hired and suborned Rascals and pack'd Juries and he remembring what base and villanous Arts had been used to destroy him his Sagacity prompted him to put himself out of the reach of that implacable rage which had so long pursued him and in order to it he concealed himself for some time in Mr Bateman's House and afterwards till he retired into Holland in the house of that worthy upright English-man Captain Tracy in Goodman's Fields whose Life was therefore threatned and eminently endangered but the divine Providence delivered him after he had suffered a long and close Imprisonment in Irons in Newgate under the Tyranny of Richardson Mr Bateman was also the Refuge of that eminent and well-deserving Citizen Sr. Patience Ward whose innocence could not defend him against those wrathful Enemies with his undaunted appearance against Popery had stirred up against him He retired to Mr Bateman's House and was by him concealed until discovered by that Blood-hound Atterbury About that time viz. in June 1683 the Conspirators had brought Keeling's Plot upon the Stage and thereupon Mr. Bateman was taken up by Atterbury and carried before King Charles the second and there accused by * He swore many of his Neighbours into Prisons and Irons tho' till now Rouse excepted no man was ever tryed upon his Evidence Lee the Dyer The King had declared of that infamous Varlet that if he were not checkt he would swear all mankind into the Plot Nevertheless the King demanded of Mr Bateman whether the Earl of Shaftesbury and Sr Patience Ward did lodge at his House which Mr. Bateman acknowledging he was committed Prisoner to the Marshalseas and there kept eighteen Weeks and then there being no Prosecution he was discharged upon Bail At the time of the Duke of Monmouth's Landing not only the Prisons about London but the Halls of many of the City Companies were filled by the then Lieutenancy with the best Citizens under the imputation of being Trayterously affected or Enemies to the Government without any manner of accusation and amongst them Mr Bateman was imprisoned in Cloth-workers-Hall but being discharged from thence in a short time afterwards Atterbury who in that day took up whom he pleased fetched him from his House at Highgate and kept him some time Prisoner in his own House which he made a Goal as long as Men would feed his Avarice and then delivered him over to Richardson by whom he was kept in a close Room with the Windows boarded up sixteen or seventeen Weeks before he was brought to Tryal That Mr Bateman was a Person of very good sense and understanding will not be denyed by any Man to whom he was known but by the rigour severity and inhumane usage wherewith he was treated during his long Imprisonment he was found at the time of his Tryal to be very much shattered in his understanding and very uncapable of making a defence and that defence which he made was by the assistance of his Son a very young Man of about twenty years of age The Jury returned and sworn to pass upon him were Richard Aley Richard Williams John Cannum Patrick Barret John Palmer James Raynor Edward Rhedish George Lilburne Daniel Fowles Peter Floyer Laurence Cole John Cooper Mr Phips opened the Indictment to this effect viz. That the Prisoner the 30th of May 1683 trayterously with other Rebels conspired to depose and kill the King and to change and subvert the Government and did promise and undertake to be assisting and aiding in the apprehending the King and in taking and seizing the City of London and the Tower the Savoy and Whitehall Then Serjeant Selby and Mr Moloy aggravated the charge in the Indictment And Josia Keeling witnessed that Rumbold * Note all this is hear-say and no manner of Evidence against the Prisoner Keeling had heard it discoursed but for ought appears it might be by Secretary Jenkins for he named no Body said he had a House very convenient to plant Men in to seize the King and that he had heard it discoursed that Mr Bateman was lookt upon as a Person fitting to manage one Division in order to an Insurrection to seize the Tower c. Tho. Lee the Dyer testified that he being acquainted by Goodenough This Lee at the same time that he swore against Mr Bateman also offered to swear Treason against a Person with whom to my certain knowledge he never exchanged one word in his Life and who never was in company with him nor otherwise seem by Lee than at a considerable distance in a Coffee-house how the City was to be divided into twenty parts and managed he the said Lee nominated Mr Bateman as a fit Man to manage one part and thereupon he was desired by Goodenough to speak with him about it and that when he discoursed him he plainly apprehended Mr Bateman was no stranger to it nor boggled to give his consent That he went with Mr Bateman to the Duke of Monmouth's House and after he had had some discourse with one of the Duke's Servants he came to him and told him the Duke was willing to engage in the business and had Horses kept in the Country to be in readiness when matters should come to extremity That he the said Lee and Mr B. went to the Devil-Tavern and there Mr B. proposed the seizing the City Tower Savoy and Whitehall and the King's Person And that Mr B. told him at the Half-Moon-Tavern in Aldersgate-street that if he could but see a Cloud as big as a Mans hand he would not be wanting to employ his Interest That Mr Bateman had told him Just as likely a story as that of Colledge's Plot in his single person to seize the King at Oxford that he intended to take an House near