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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63146	The tryal and condemnation of Mervin, Lord Audley Earl of Castle-Haven At Westminster, April the 5th 1631. For abetting a rape upon his Countess, committing sodomy with his servants, and commanding and countenancing the debauching his daughter. With the learned speeches of the Lord High-Steward, the arguments of the King's-Councel upon that occasion, and the Lord Audley's speech at the place of execution.	Castlehaven, Mervyn Touchet, Earl of, 1592?-1631.	1699 (1699)	Wing T2144; ESTC R219718	15,249	39

Counsellers to be Covered the Lords were call'd by their Names as followeth Earl of Po●●land Lord Treasurer Earl of Dorset and Middlesex Lord Chambl Earl of Manchester Lord privy Seal Earl of Arundel Lord Marshal Earl of Pembroke Earl of Kent Earl of Essex Earl of Warwick Earl of Carlisle Earl of Bedford Earl of Worcester Earl of Derby Earl of Leicester Earl of Salisbury Earl of Holland Lord Viscount Conway Lord Visc Wimbleton Lord Visc Wentworth Lord Visc Dorchester Lord Howard Lord Peircy Lord Strange Lord Clifford Lord North. Lord Peeters Lord Goring Judges Assisting at this Tryal Sir Nicholas Hyde Lord Chief Justice of England Sir Thomas Littleton Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Sir Humphrey Davenport Lord Chief Baron Mr. Justice Jones Mr. Justice Whitlock Mr. Justice Crook Mr. Baron Denham The King 's Learned Counsel Mr. Sergeant Crew Mr. Attorney General Mr. Sollicitor General Sir John Finch Sir Thomas Fanshaw Clerk of the Crown Mr. Keeling with other Officers and Attendants The Lords having answer'd to their Names the Lieutenant of the Tower was requir'd to bring forth his Prisoner who was then in the Treasury Chamber and from thence was Guarded into the Court by the Warders of the Tower and being put into a place inclos'd for that purpose cover'd with Blew Bays and the Lieutenant of the Tower into another place adjoyning to it the Prisoner having made his Complement to the Lord High-Steward and the rest of the Noble Lords that were to Try him the Lord High-Steward spake to him in these words My Lord The King's Majesty being inform'd by common Fame and the Verdict of divers Gentlemen of Quality in the Country where you ●ive That you stand Impeach'd of several Great and Heinous Crimes that the Truth of the Charge may be known he has this day brought you to your Tryal therein imitating the Almighty in the XVIIIth of Genesis who came down to see if the Sins of the People were as Notorious as the Cry that was about them and truly the Kings of the Earth can have no better Example than what has been given them by the Great and all Wise King of Heaven and therefore our Sovereign who is God's Vicegerent upon Earth has now brought you to Justice and desires that all proceedings should be carried on with as much equality as the Rules of Equity and Justice themselves have prescribed And because my Lords the Crimes that will now be brought before you are of such a Horrid Nature that may justly raise in some of your Lordships a Detestation and in others Pity and Compassion I advise you to lay aside both these Considerations and let your Reasons and Consciences sway your Judgments and your Heads direct your Hearts My Lord Audley I question not but you are really satisfied as well as I am my self that the Noble Peers here Assembled have as much Justice in their Hearts as Noble Blood in their Veins and since such as they are to Try you if you are Conscious of your own Innocency speak without Fear for if you are falsely Accused those that do it shall not escape an Exemplary Punishment but if you know your self Guilty I advise you to give Honour to God and the King by Confessing your Faults for neither vain Confidence nor Subtlety can obscure or prevail against the Truth and if that touches your Heart your own Conscience will be a thousand Witnesses against you and God also who is greater than them all Persist not therefore in an Obstinate denial of the Truth for if you do God will put it into 'th Hearts of these Noble Lords to find it out and to do what is Just in relation to the Punishment of the Crime Consider of it and the Lord Direct you Lord Audley My Lord I have been six Months a Prisoner under a close Confinement without the Advice of Friends or Counsel and long Imprisonment has reduced me into a very weak Condition When I was in my best state of Health my Voice was very low and therefore I desire your Lordships will be pleas'd to allow me the liberty of Counsel to speak for me Lord High-Steward Your long Imprisonment has been a singular favour to you You have had more time than ever any Peer had that was brought to this Bar. However you shall ask nothing which the Law can give you but it shall be freely granted to you and therefore I will propound your Request to the Judges and leave them to give you satisfaction in it My Lords the Judges Will the Law allow us to give my Lord Audley the liberty of Counsel to speak for him I shall be glad to have your Opinions in it Lord Chief Justice Hyde In Criminal Causes Counsel cannot be allowed in matters of Fact in matters of Law it may Lord Chief Baron The Law is express in this Case and Counsel ought not to be granted Lord High-Steward Read the Indictment Clerk of the Crown Mervin Lord Audley Thou art here Indicted c. for that thou and Gyles Broadway Gen. both of Fountain Gifford in the County of Wilts not having the Fear of God before your Eyes but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil Did on the twentieth day of June in the Sixth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. at Fountain Gyfford aforesaid in the County aforesaid did by Force and Arms c. In and upon Ann Lady Audley then being in the Peace of God and our Sovereign Lord the King Make an Assault And the aforesaid Gyles Broadway the aforesaid Ann Lady Audley by Force and Arms against the Will of the said Ann then and there did violently and Feloniously Ravish and the said Ann then and there against her Will did Carnally know against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and against the Statute in that Case made and provided what sayest thou Mervyn Lord Audley art thou Guilty of the Rape of which thou standest Indicted or not Guilty Lord Audley Not Guilty Clerk of the Crown How will you be Tryed Lord Audley By God and my Peers Then the Clerk of the Crown Read another Indictment against the Lord Audley to this effect viz. That he Mervin Lord Audley not having God before his Eyes nor respecting the Order of Nature but moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil the first of June in the Sixth Year of our Sovereign Lord Charles c. at Fountain Gifford in the said County of Wilts in the Mansion House of the said Lord Audley Did there by Force of Arms upon one Florentius Fitz Patrick Wickedly Devilishly Feloniously and contrary to Nature exercise Venery and the said Florentius Fitz Patrick then and there did Carnally know and that Detestable and Abominable Sodomitical Sin called Buggery not to be named among Christians Then and there with the said Florentius Fitz

nominandum it is a Crime not to be named among Christians and by the Law of God as well as the Antient Laws of England it was punish'd with Death Levit. 20. Fleta l. 6. Cap. 35. Sodomitae in terra vivi confodiantur Sodomites are to be buried alive in the Earth or rather as some understand the Phrase be set deep and alive into a Pit dig'd for that purpose with their heads above ground till they are famish'd to Death and this agrees with the Mirror Cap. 4. The Statute of 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 6. made it Felony without Clergy which tho' Repeal'd by 1. Mar yet it was revived by the 5. El. Cap. 17. and is still in Force As to this Indictment there is no other Question but whether it be Crimen Sodomiticum penetratione whether he penetrated the Body or not to which I answer the Fifth of Elizabeth sets it down in general Terms and ubi Lex non distinguit ibi non distinguendum and I know you will be cautious how you give the least Mittigation to such abominable Sins for when once a Man indulges his Lust and Prevaricates with his Religion as my Lord Audley has done by being a Protestant in the Morning and a Papist in the Af●ernoon no wonder if he commits the most abominable Impieties for when Men forsake their God 't is no wonder he leaves them to themselves But here I find things that exceed all imagination and is what the Poet truly Calls imprincipiti vitium or meditated mischiefs for his ill inclinations were bent to force his Wife to be naught against her own Inclinations which the wickedest Man I ever heard of before would have Vertuous and Honest how bad soever he is himself but on the contrary the Prisoner at the Bar tells his Wife if she loves him she must love Antill his Servant also and to incline the Lady to lie with him he fetcheth an argument from Scripture and tells her that her Body is his and that she is bound to obey his Commands and if she Sinned in obeying him it was no fault of hers but his own and he would answer for it He allowed this Antill his vitious favorite to spend Five Hundred Pounds a Year but would not allow his Eldest Son One Hundred If his Lady or Daughter wanted necessaries they must lie with Skipwith another of his Servants before they could have Money to buy what they wanted telling his Daughter he had rather she should have a Child by Skipwith than any other person but these things my Lord I had rather should come out of the Mouths of the Witnesses than from mine therefore pray Cryer call Walter Tyte. Cryer Vous avez Walter Tyte who being sworn the Attorny General said Attorny General Walter Tyte Inform my Lord High Steward and the rest of these Noble Lords the Conditions and Circumstances of Antill and Skipwith before they came into my Lord Audley's Service and how my Lord Audley Preferr'd and Enrich'd them afterwards Walter Tyte. Antill my Lord was a Footman to Sir Henry Smith and had not as I verily believe one Farthing when he came to my Lord besides the Cloaths on his back he liv'd with my Lord as his Footman and Page several years then he had Leave given him to keep Horses in my Lord's Grounds by which it was discours'd that in a short time he got Two Thousand Pounds He never sat at Table with my Lord till he had Married my Lords Daughter with whom he gave him to the Value of Seven Thousand Pounds Henry Skipwith was sent by my Lord from Ireland to be my Ladies Page his Father and Mother was very poor people yet he spent Five Hundred Pounds a Year of my Lord's Mony He gave him at one time a Thousand Pounds and has since made over to him leveral parcels of Land to the value of Two Hundred Pounds a Year Attorny General Pray what Religion did my Lord profess Walter Tyte. At first every Body knows he was a Protestant but after the buying of Founthill House he turned to the Romish Religion at the Instance of some Popish Gentlemen who were Neighbours Then the Lady Audley appearing as an Evidence she was Sworn and the Attorney General said to her Attorny General Will your Ladyship be pleas'd to inform these Peers with the Real truth concerning my Lords Vile and unheard of Actions to your Ladyship Countess My Noble Lords I should be glad if a way might be found out that I might deliver my Testimony in a Written Affidavit and not by word of Mouth in this publick Audience Lord High Steward I will propound it to the Judges and if the Law will allow it you shall be at your own Election My Lords the Judges you have heard what the Countess desires of us will you give your Opinions and satisfie her Ladyship about it Lord Chief Justice Hyde By the Law the Testimony relating to matter of fact that is what relates to the Charge in the Indictment must be made Viva Voce and not otherwise and the reason is because persons may take a greater liberty of inserting in an Affidavit what is not really true which the Awe of the Court or asking apt Questions may probably prevent or discover the falsehood Lord High Steward Your Ladyship I hope is satisfied with the Judges Opinion and the Reasons on which its grounded Countess Why then my Lords the first or second Night after we were Married Antill came to our Bed and the Lord Audly talk'd lasciviously to me and told me my Body was his and if I lay with any Man with his consent 't was not my fault but his He made Skipwith come naked into our Chamber and Bed and took delight in calling up his Servants to shew their Nudities and forc'd me to look upon them and to commend those that had the longest Broadway a Servant of my Lord's by his Lordships command lay with me and I making resistance my Lord Audley held my hands and one of my Feet and I would have kill'd my self with a Knife afterwards but he took it from me before that Act of Broadway's I had never done it He delighted to see the Act done and made Antill come into the Bed to us and lie with me in such a marmer as he might see it and though I cry'd out he never regarded the complaint I made but incouraged the Ravisher Attorny General Pray Young Lady Audley will you give my Lord High Steward and these Lords an account of your Fathers barbarous usage of you I was Married to my Husband by a Romish Priest in the Morning and at Night by a Prebend of Killkenny I was first compell'd to lie with Skipwith by the Earls perswasions and Threatnings saying I should have nothing but what Skipwith gave me He saw Skipwith and I lie together several times and so did many Servants of the House besides He tempted me to lie with others also telling me my Husband did not love

THE TRYAL AND Condemnation OF MERVIN Lord Audley Earl of Castle-Haven AT Westminster April the 5th 1631. For Abetting a Rape upon his Countess Committing Sodomy with his Servants and Commanding and Countenancing the Debauching his Daughter With the Learned Speeches of the Lord High-Steward the Arguments of the King's-Councel upon that occasion and the Lord Audley's Speech at the place of Execution LONDON Printed in the Year 1699. THE PREFACE 'T IS no less deplorable than wonderful that in this Nation where the purest Religion is profess'd and where Vice and Immorality are punish'd by severe Laws Wickedness should ascend to such a height as equals if not exceeds all the Barbarous Regions of the Earth Time was when gross enormities in this Island like Batts and Owls were obscur'd by Night and Darkness and those that committed them were asham'd to own their Crimes or suffer their Examples to infect the open Air. They were contented to go to Hell alone without Usurping the Office of Belzebub or loading their Souls with the Guilt of Tempting their incautious Brethren but now the most Scandalous Inhuman Unnatural and Beastly Offences stalk abroad at Noon day and he thinks himself a Puny in Wickedness and scarce worth the Damning that can't boast of numbers of Souls that he has lead to Destruction Ravishing Women was a Crime rarely heard of among our Ancestors and though no Age has been so happy but it has produced some Monsters in Morality as well as Nature yet now this Sin is grown so common that scarce a Sessions passes wherein there is not one or more Convicted of Rape and that in the most Scandalous manner too upon the Bodies of meer Children Nay the Debauches of this Age have found out another way of Ravishing Women and that is of their Honours and Reputations for where the Villains have impudently assaulted the Chastity of Vertuous Women and have encountred nothing but Scorns or the Bastinado from a Foot-Man there they 'll be sure to fix a Scandal and boast of the Favours they ne'er received Nay a Fellow that has neither Sence in his Head Money in Pocket nor a Tatter to his Back but what a Louse wou'd break its Neck from shall dignifie himself Gallant to persons of the Best Quality that ne'er could reach above the Rank of a Dung-hill-raker Another Abomination that shocks our Natures and puts our Modesty to the Blush to see it so commonly perpetrated is the Devillish and Unnatural Sin of Buggery A Crime that sinks a Man below the Basest Epithet is so Foul it admits of no Aggravation and cannot be express'd in its Horror but by the Doleful Shrikes and Groans of the Damned A Sin that caus'd God Almighty Pluere Gehennam de Coelo to Rain down Hell-Fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah and turn a Fruitful and Pleasant Country into utter Barrenness and Desolation This Sin being now Translated from the Sadomitical Original or from the Turkish and Italian Copies into English not only in the Infamous Example of that Monster Ri by and other Notorious Sodomites but he●ring also that there is at this time several taken up at Windsor and others of the same Gang now Committed to Newgate who were ingag'd in a more than Beast-like Confederacy among themselves for exercising this Unnatural Offence I thought I could not more oblige the Publick than having this Tryal lying by me in an Old Manuscript which was never yet Printed to Publish it at this Juncture that by Reading the Sin so Tragically Delineated in its Horrid Shape and ugly Visage by the Grave and Learned Sages of the Law and in the Death of a Noble Peer other Men might be terrify'd and scar'd from those Sins that are attended with nothing but Infamy and Death in this World and Eternal Damnation in the next And Now seeing I have some Paper left give me leave to tell the Miscreants of our unhappy Days that the preceding Sins of Sodom which spaun'd the Unnatural Sin of Buggery were the same that now Reign among our English Debauche's and as they would avoid the Effects so they ought to be careful in removing the Cause or without the help of Prophecy 't is easie to foretel their R●ine Pride Luxury and Irreligion were the Infernal Parents of Sodomy and that of their Destruction And he must have neither Eyes nor Ears that knows not how egregiously the same Vices Reign amongst us also Pride is in its Achme and nothing so much admir'd as Ease and Softness Courtship Address and Entertainment And that Delicata Insania Effeminate Madness had banish'd all manly Vertues Instead of those Noble Characters of Vertue Wisdom and Courage the great things in Vogue and the only obtaining Bonne Graces are that the Fop Eats and Drinks nicely manages his Whore his Snuff-Box his Wigg his Comb and Glass discreetly mouths his Oaths finely and handles his Knife and Fork to Admiration But the great Qualification they Boast of and which wholly imploys our Modern Wits is in Belching out Blasphemy against the God that made them and throwing bitter Scoffs and Prophane Jests upon Religion and having no other way to demonstrate their Courage they shew it in this That they dare venture to be Damn'd to be accounted Contemptibly Witty But if they are not already so far sunk into Beast as they have lost the benefit of Thinking I wou'd faign stop their Career by a few Modest Questions viz. Whether they can the better indure Eternal Torment because they don't believe them Or whether they can extinguish the Flames of Hell by going Merily and Laughing thither You all know that Ri by 's other Heinous Crimes was Accompanied with horrid Blasphemy See your Faces in his Glass at the Bar on the Pillory and the Brink of Hell and if that will neither shame nor fright you let me beg the favour of you to leave the Kingdom for that will be the best Office you ever did or can do for England and the Obligation shall be gratefully acknowledg'd by Gentlemen If it ben't a Shame to Stile you so Your Humble Servant The Prefacer THE TRYAL AND Condemnation OF MERVIN TOUCHET Lord Audley Earl of Castle-Haven c. ON Monday the 25th of April in the Year of our Lord 1631. About the Hour of Ten in the Morning the Lord-Keeper Coventry being by special Commission Constituted Lord High-Steward of England with twenty six of the Nobility came into Westminster-Hall Attended by an Herald and six Sergeants at Arms And the Lord High-Steward being sat in a Chair of State and the Peers on each side of a Table cover'd with Green Velvet Proclamation was made for Silence Then Sir Thomas Fanshaw Clerk of the Crown Read the Commission and the Usher of the Black Rod kneeling before the Lord High-Steward presented his Lordship with a White Rod After which a second Proclamation was made Commanding all persons to keep to Silence and the Lord High-Steward having desir'd the Peers of the Realm and the Privy

me and if I would not he would tell my Husband I did lie with them He used Oyl to enter my Body first for I was then but Twelve Years of Age and usually lay with me by the Earls Privity and command The next Evidence that appear'd was Sworn was Broadway to whom the Solicitor General said Broadway give a true account of what you know of my Lord Audley's unnatural doings Broadway I lay at his Lordships Beds Feet and in the Night he call'd for some Tobacco which when I brought to him he caught hold of me and bid me come to Bed which I at first deny'd but at last consented and went into the Bed on the Lords side but he turned me upon my Lady and bid me lie with her my Lord Audley held both her hands and one of her Legs and at last I lay with her notwithstanding her resistance The Lord Audley also us'd my Body as a Woman but never Pierc'd it only spent his Seed betwixt my Thighs I have seen Skipwith lie with the young Lady in Bed and when he got upon her the Lord Audley stood by and incourag'd him to get her with Child He also made Skipwith lie with his own Lady telling him he could not live long and it might be the making of him and the like he said to me Lord High Steward Pray Mr. Attorney let Skipwith be call'd that we may hear what he can say Skipwith For the most part I lay in Bed with the Earl He gave me his House in Salisbury and a Mannor of Two Hundred and Sixty Pounds a Year I lay with the young Lady very commonly there being Love between us before and after My Lord said he had rather have a Boy of my getting than of any other She was but twelve Years of Age when first I day with her and I could not enter her Body but by Art and my Lord gave me things to open her Body Sir John Finch Pray let Fitz-Patrick be call'd Is your Name Fitz-Patrick Fitz-Patrick Yes Sir Sir John Finch Well be sure you speak the truth and give these Lords the ●rue and whole Account of what you know concerning the Charge against my Lord Audley Fitz-Patrick Henry Skipwith was the great Favourite of my Lord Audley he usually lay in bed with him and the Lord would make him lye with his own Lady and with the young Lady his Daughter and these things I saw several times it being done in my Lords sight also My Lord made me lye with him at Fount-hill and Salisbury and once spent his Seed but did not penetrate my Body and I understood he had often done the like with others He kept a Woman in his House call'd Blandina who was a Common Whore to his Lordship and his Servants His House was a Common Brothel-House and the Earl himself took delight not only in being an Actor but a Spectator while other Men did it Blandina was once abused by himself and Servants for the space of seven Hours together until she got the French Pox. Lord High-Steward You Gentlemen of the King's Counsel have you any more Witnesses to produce if you have pray be expeditious Mr. Sergeant Crew My Lord we have several more and desire that Frere may be Examined Lord High-Steward Where is he call him Frere Here my Lord. Lord High-Steward Pray speak what you know about my Lord Audley but be sure it be the Truth Frere I only know that Skipwith and the young Lady Audley lay several times together while my Lord was present and that he said he would feign have her have a Boy by him Attorney General May it please your Grace my Lord High-Steward we have several Witnesses more to produce but their Testimonies being the same your Lordships have already heard and what I humbly conceive is sufficient to prove the Charge in the Indictment against the Prisoner at the Bar I shall give your Lordships no further trouble but shall leave it to the clearness of the proofs which your Lordships have heard for I know your Wisdoms to be such that you know in so dark a business a clearer proof can't be made for Men though ne're so wicked do not use to call Witnesses to see it I shall say no more but commit the whole to your Lordships Considerations Lord High-Steward My Lord Audley when I came first thither I could not have believed there would have been such manifest proofs as you find has been produc'd of horrible Crimes against a person of your Honour I shall give you all the liberty you can desire in making your Defence and therefore desire to know what you have to say for your self in reference to what has been Sworn against you Lord Audley I humbly thank your Grace for the favour you are pleased to grant me though being no Scholar nor learned in the Law I have nothing to depend upon in my Defence but my own Innocence and your Lordships good Construction of my weakness My Lords I must acknowledge that Skipwith was but poor when he came to me that he lay with me several times when I was streightned for Room in my House and being a good Servant I gave him good Rewards Antil I thought deserved my Favour also and therefore had my Consent to Marry my Daughter and I gave him a good Fortune with her Lord High-Steward I advise you my Lord not to deny what is plainly proved against you lest you give the Lords cause to suspect the Truth of the rest Lord Audley My Wife has been a Whore and has had a Child which I conceal'd to save her Honour She and my Son and one Mr. William Wroughton have plotted against my Life and all that 's alledg'd against me is only their inventions and gives a dangerous Example in the Kingdom for no Peer or any other person can be secure of his Life that has as I have a Wife who desires a younger Husband and a Son that is gaping after my Estate and has the Devil and wicked Servants to assist their Maliee in indeavouring to take away my Life wrongfully This my Lords is my Condition and I hope your Lordships will take care that you don't involve the Peers the Gentry and Commons under a dangerous President in my Condemnation for if a Wife of such a Character may be allowed to be a Witness against her Husband no Man is safe when his Wife dislikes him and would have a younger Husband Lord High-Steward If your Lordfhip had proved a Conspiracy to take away your Life you had urged what had been material but for want of proof it signifies nothing However I will propound your Objections to the Judges My Lords the Judges Can a Rape be Committed against a Whore And can a Wife be a Legal Witness against her Husband Lord Chief-Justice If the Woman on whom the Crime is Committed be a Whore yet it may be a Ravishment And in Civil Causes a Wife can't be a Witness against her Husband