of Winchester Henry Lord Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold James Earl of Salisbury John Earl of Bridgewater Robert Earl of Sunderland one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State lately made in the room of Sir Joseph Williamson Arthur Earl of Essex first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury John Earl of Bath Groom of the Stole Thomas Lord Viscount Faulconberg George Lord Viscount Hallifax Henry Lord Bishop of London John Lord Roberts Denzil Lord Holles William Lord Russel William Lord Cavendish Henry Coventry Esq one of his Majesties principle Secretaries of State Sir Francis North Kt. Lord Cheif Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Henry Capel Kt. of the Bath first Commissioner of the Admiralty Sir John Earnley Kt. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Thomas Chicheley Kt. Master of the Ordnance Sir William Temple Baronet Edward Seymour Esq Henry Powle Esq The 30th of April His Majesty made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament wherein he recommended three things to them The prosecution of the Plot The disbanding of the Army and the providing a Fleet which was followed by a larger signification of his Majesties mind by the Lord Chancellor That His Majesty had considered with himself That 't is not enough that his Peoples Religion and Liberty be secure during his own Reign but thinks he ows it to his People to do all that in him lies that these Blessings may be transmitted to Posterity And to the end that it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any change in Church or State his Majesty would consent to limit such Successor in these points 1. That no such Popish Successor shall present to Ecclesiastical Benefices 2. That during the Reign of such Popish Successor no Privy Councellors or Judges Lord Leiutenant or Deputy Leiutenant or Officer of the Navy shall be put in or removed but by Authority of Parliament 3. That as it is already provided That no Papist can sit in either House of Parliament so there shall never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to die but that the Parliament then in Being may continue Indissoluble for a competent time or the last Parliament Re-assemble c. But it seems all these Provisions were not thought a sufficient Fence for such dear and precious things as Religion and Liberty and that in the progress of their Debates upon this most important Subject they could not resolve upon any certain Expedient of safety less than the Exclusion of his Royal Higness For on Sunday April the 27th 1679. It was Resolved by the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Encouragement and Countenance to the present Conspiracies and Designs of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion And on Sunday May the 11th the better Day the better Deed we use to say but whether it will hold here will be the Question they Ordered That a Bill should be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm which was brought in accordingly and twice read in the House the preamble thereof being to this effect That forasmuch as these Kingdoms of England and Ireland by the wonderful Providence of God many Years since have been delivered from the Slavery and Superstition of Popery which had despoiled the King of his Sovereign Power for that it did and doth advance the Pope of Rome to a Power over Sovereign Princes and makes him Monarch of the Universe and doth with-draw the Subjects from their Allegiance by pretended Absolutions from all former Daths and Obligations to their lawful Sovereign and by many Superstitions and Immoralities hath quite subverted the Ends of the Christian Religion But notwithstanding That Popery hath been long since Condemned by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm for the detestable Doctrine and Traiterous Attempts of its Adherents against the Lives of their lawful Sovereigns Kings and Queens of these Realms Yet the Emissaries Priests and Agents for the Pope of Rome resorting into this Kingdom of England in great numbers contrary to the known Laws thereof have for several Years last past as well by their own Devilish Acts and Policies as by Counsel and Assistance of Foreign Princes and Prelates known Enemies to these Nations contrived and carried on a most Horrid and Execrable Conspiracy To destroy and Murther the Person of his Sacred Majesty and to Subvert the ancient Government of these Realms and to Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Massacre the true Professors thereof And for the better effecting their wicked Designs and encouraging their Uilainous Accomplices they have Traterously Seduced James Duke of York Presumptive Heir of these Crowns to the Communion of the Church of Rome and have induced him to Enter into several Negotiations with the Pope his Cardinals and Nuntio's for promoting the Romish Church and Interest and by his means and procurement have advanced the Power and Greatness of the French King to the manifest hazard of these Kingdoms That by the descent of these Crowns upon a Papist and by Foreign Alliances and Assistance they may be able to succeed in their Wicked and Uillainons Designs And forasmuch as the Parliaments of England according to the Laws and Statutes thereof have heretofore for great and weighty Reasons of State and for the publick Good and common Interest at this Kingdom directed and limited the Succession of the Crown in other manner than of Course it would otherwise have gone but never had such important and urgent Reasons as at this Time press and require their using of their said Extraordinary Power in that behalf Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same And it is hereby Enacted accordingly That James Duke of York Albany and Ulster having departed openly from the Church of England and having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion which hath notoriously given Birth and Life to the most Damnable and Hellish Plot by the most gracious Providence of God lately brought to light shall be Excluded and is hereby Excluded and Disabled c. On the 19th of May the House of Commons attended his Majesty with this following Address Most Dread Sovereign WEE your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled do with all humble gratitude acknowledge the most gratious assurances your Majesty hath been pleased to give us of your constant Care to do every thing that may preserve the Protestant Religion of your firm resolution to defend the same to the utmost and your Royal endeavours that the security of that blessing may be transmitted to posterity And we do humbly represent to your Majesty That being deeply sensible that the
greatest hopes of Success against our Religion in the Enemies thereof the Papists are founded in the execrable Designs which they have laid against the Sacred Person and Life of your Majesty which it is not onely our Duty but our Interest with the greatest hazards to preserve and defend We have applyed our selves to the making such provision by Law as may defeat these Popish Adversaries their Abettors and Adherents of their hopes of gaining an advantage by any violent attempts against your Majesty and may utterly frustrate their expectation of Subverting the Protestant Religion thereby in time to come And further to obviate by the best means we can all wicked practices against your Majesty whilest any such Lawes are in preparation and bringing to perfection It is our resolution and we do Declare That in defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge upon the Papists any violence offered by them to your Sacred Majesty in which we have your Majesty will gratiously please to be the more assured as We our Selves are the more encouraged in that the Hearts of all your Majesties Protestant Subjects with the most sincere affection and zeal joyn with us herein But this Zeal of the House of Commons running to so high a pitch touching the Succession together with some unhappy misunderstandings arising between them and the House of Lords concerning the Tryal of the Popish Lords and Earl of Danby as shall be related in the next Chapter His Majesty to allay the same was pleased first to Prorogue and then to put a period to them by a Dissolution of that Parliament by a Proclamation dated at Windsor the 12th of July 1679. But therein graciously declaring that a New one should be called to begin and be holden on Tuesday the 7th which was afwards altered to Friday the 17th of October CHAP. XVII The Proceedings against the Popish Lords in the Tower WE have before related the Commitment of these Lords to the Tower for High Treason after which followed this Vote in the House of Commons in the old Parliament Decemb. 5th 1678. Resolved That the House do proceed by way of Impeachment of High Treason and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours against the Lord Arundel of Warder Lord Powis Lord Petre Lord Bellasis and Viscount Stafford and a Committee appointed to draw up Articles of Impeachment against them Which Vote was Communicated to the House of Lords and the several Lords Charged by several Members in these words The Commons in Parliament having received Information of divers Traiterous Practices and Designs of a great Peer of this House Henry Lord Arundel of Warder have Commanded me to Impeach the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanours They have further Commanded me to acquaint your Lordships that they will within a convenient time exhibit to your Lordships particular Articles of the Charge against him Thus standing Impeached they continued in the Tower all the Interval of Parliament and as soon as the next Parliament was settled to Business they forgot not their Lordships For March 20th 1678. it was Ordered That a Committee of Secrecy be appointed to take further Evidence and prepare Articles against the Lords in the Tower who stand Impeached of High Treason and take such further Informations as they shall receive touching the Plot in general and the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that this Committee have power to send for Persons Papers and Records and that they sit de die in diem and the Quorum to be Three The Articles at last Exhibited were as follows Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other high Crimes and Offences against William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis now Prisoners in the Tower THat for many Years now last past there hath been contrived and carried on a Traiterous and Execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change or subvert the Antient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein established and to Extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof which said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means and by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended to execute and accomplish the aforesaid Wicked and Traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis together with Philip Howard commonly called Cardinal of Norfolk Thomas White aliàs Whitebread commonly called Provincial of the Jesuits in England Richard Strange late Provincial of the Jesuits in England Vincent commonly called Provincial of the Dominicans in England James Corker commonly called President of the Benedictines Sir John Warner aliàs Clare Baronet William Harcourt John Keines Nicholas Blundel Pole Edward Mico Thomas Beddingfield Bazil Langworth Charles Peters Richard Peters John Conyers Sir George Wakeman John Fenwick Dominick Kelly Fitz Gerald Evers Sir Thomas Preston William Lovel Jesuits Lord Beltamore John Carrel John Townely Richard Langhorn William Foggarty Thomas Penny Matthew Medbourn Edward Coleman William Ireland John Grove Thomas Pickering John Smith and divers others Jesuits Priests and Fryars and other persons as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid have Traiterously consulted contrived and acted to and for the accomplishing of the said wicked pernicious and Traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and Traiterously agree conspire and resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther his Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal State Crown and Dignity and by malicious and advised speaking writing and otherwise declared such their Purposes and Intentions and also to subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government And to seize and share amongst themselves the Estates and Inheritances of his Majesties Protestant Subjects and to Erect and Restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom supprest for their Superstition and Idolatry and to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Invested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and to remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Offices Benefices Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesties Person extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Properties of his Majesties good Subjects Subvert the Lawful Government of this Kingdom and subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome That the said Conspirators and their Complices and Confederates Traiterously had and held several Meetings
friend of mine and his that he was freed from his durance within the space of six Months And within these four or five years as far as my friend and I could judge tampering much with Independents in and about London was seen several times by a friend of mine at Doctor Mantons private Lectures in or near the Lord Whartons House still known by the name of John White He spake as good English as any Native and knew all Cities Towns Villages Hamlets in a manner in all or most part of England Sir This is the sum of the Relation I made to your Friend I bless God I was never noosed in his snare but rather confirmed in our true Christian Principles in which I pray God continue stedfast both you and Your loving Friend CHAP. XIX The Procedings against Richard Langhorn Esq THis Gentleman was a Counsellor at Law of the Temple and Transacted much business for the Jesuits being well skill'd in Conveyancing He was oft imployed by divers of the Catholick Gentry and almost his whole practice lay between Papists and Quakers for of the latter many of the most eminent frequently resorted to him for Advice and Direction He was Committed to Newgate by the Lords of the Privy-Council by a Warrant dated the seventh of October 78. for High-Treason and on the first of Nov. he had a Son named likewise Richard Langhorn sent to the same Goal under the same Charge who there still remains having not yet been brought to his Tryal The Father came on at the Sessions in the Old-Bailey on Saturday the 14th of June 1679. being next day after the Conviction of Whitebread and his Associates The Jury consisted of able Citizens of London viz. Arthur Young Edward Beeker Robert Twyford Tho. Barnes Francis Neeve John Hall William Yapp John Kirkham Peter Pickering George Sitwell James Wood Richard Cauthorn As for the Proofs against this Prisoner they were as home and positive as against the rest 1. Dr. Oates declares how he came acquainted with him by bringing him See the Tryal P. 9. Letters from his Sons from a Seminary in Spain and then swears That Langhorn did hold Correspondence with Le Chese and others and that the Witnesses carried several Letters to persons beyond the Seas in one of which he saw under his own hand words to this purpose That now they had a fair opportunity to begin or give the blow with other expressions plain enough concerning the Plot and these he saw signed Richard Langhorn and that the Prisoner himself delivered them to him 2. That he had order from the Provincial to give Mr. Langhorn an Account P. 10. of the Resolve of the Jesuits Consult for Killing the King and that he did acquaint him therewith and that the said Langhorn thereupon lift up his Hands and Eyes and prayed to God to give it a good success 3. That he saw at his Chamber certain Commissions which they call Patents P. 11. and that on his desire he permitted the Witness to peruse several of them and that there as one Commission to the Lord Arundel of Wardour and another to the Lord Powis for the one to be Lord Chancellour and the other Lord Treasurer of England and one to Mr. Langhorn himself to be Advocate of the Army and that they were signed Johannes Paulus d'Oliva by Vertue of a Brief from the Pope and Mr. Langhorn also told him that he had sent one of these Commissions by his Son to be delivered to the Lord Arundel of Wardours Son 4. That Mr. Langhorn being employed as Solicitor for several of the Fathers of P. 13. the Society did prevail with the Benedictine Monks to raise six thousand pounds for carrying on the Cause and did say in the hearing of the witness That he would do his utmost for procuring the said Money 5. That Mr. Langhorn was disgusted that Sir G. Wakeman was not content with ten thousand pound to poison the King and call'd him narrow-spirited narrow-soul'd Physician for being a publick concern and to carry on the Cause it was no matter if he did it for nothing 6. An Instrument was produced in Court signed by Paulus d'Oliva found in Mr. Langhorns Chamber long after Mr. Oates had given in his Testimony Now Mr. Oates swore that the before-mentioned Commissions were signed by the same hand and had the same mark but they were all conveyed away and this being onely concerning an Ecclesiastick business wherein they thought there was no danger was left However this much confirmed Mr. Oates's Evidence by shewing that Mr. Langhorn did use to receive Patents from and had Commerce with the Superiour of the Jesuits at Rome In the next place comes Mr. Bedloe and he swears that he went with Mr. Coleman P. 19. to Mr. Langhorns Chamber and there Mr. Coleman gave him his Letters to le Chese and the Popes Nuncio and others open to read and Register in a Book by him kept for that purpose and that he saw him read these Letters which were concerning these designs in hand and that he Registred them in a Book in his Closet whilst he and Mr. Coleman walkt in the outer room and that afterwards Coleman sealed up these Letters and delivered them to the Witness who carried them to le Chese and that some of the expressions in those Letters were That all things were now in readiness and they onely wanted Money That the Catholicks were now in safety that Places and Offices had been disposed to them and that all the Garrisons either were or suddenly would be in their hands and that now they had a fair opportunity having a King so easie to believe what was dictated to him by their Party and that if they missed this advantage they might despair of ever introducing Popery into England These were the very Expressions of some of them 2. That he brought other Letters from Harcourt to Langhorn to be Registred and Langhorn writ back that he had received and would Register them of which Letters one was from the Rector of the Irish Colledge at Salamanca which specified That the Lord Bellasis and the rest concerned should be in readiness for that they had sent some Irish cashier'd Souldiers with many other Lay-Brothers under the notion of Pilgrims for St. Jago who were to take shipping at the Groin and to land at Milford-Haven in Wales and there to meet and joyn with the Lord Powis The onely defence Mr. Langhorn could maket was like that of the rest of his Party by stoudenyals and endeavouring to invalidate the credit of the Witnesses by intrapping or confronting them in point of time or place 1. He would make Doctor Oates an Approver as having been pardoned for the P. 27. same Crime and alleadged that the Witnesses had received Rewards and gratifications for swearing against them But to this the Court answered That it could not be supposed the King would Bribe his Witnesses and unless he could prove any reward
the King and inform'd him of the Business Whereupon conjecturing as well he might that they meant himself he privately got away with speed and absented himself from his Lodging in Drury-Lanâ— that night and returning thither next night for some necessaries was like to have been Assassinated by one Stratford On the 9th at Night he met Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Tonge at the Flying-Horse in Kings-Street Westminser whither for the present he had retired and then for his security went over with Mr. Kirkby to Fox-Hall where he and Dr. Tonge continued During this time Dr. Oates wrote fair Copies of his Informations and Dr. Tonge in vain sought to give in farther Informations to the Treasurer but were both and Mr. Kirkby also much perplexed with apprehensions of the danger they were in and discouragements they had met with Till on the 27th at Night one of the Treasurers Servants meeting Mr. Kirkby acquainted him he was come for Dr. Tonge to go to the Council who with Mr. Kirkby immediately went but the Council was risen before they came and order given them to attend next day Whereupon they resolved next Morning to get two more Copies Sworn unto that each man might have an Authentick Copy which accordingly they did being 28th of Sept. before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey who would needs keep one of them having never before perused the said Informations Then first Dr. Tonge and Mr. Kirkby and afterwards Dr. Oates being sent for attended the Council who upon Examination of Dr. Oates were pleased to order both him and Dr. Tonge Lodgings in White-Hall for their Security and proceeded to examine and enquire further into the matter Post varios Casus post tot Discrimina Rerum Tendimus adversus Latium CHAP. VII The nature and scope of the Plot in general laid open SECT 1. THE design in general was by Fire and Sword when all other means fail'd to subvert the Establisht Government and Religion of these Kingdoms and to reduce the same to Popery so as no Toleration should be given to any Protestant but all to be Extirpated Root and Branch The chief Conspirators that design'd and were to carry on this were 1. The present Pope Innocent the Eleventh who in the Congregation de propaganda fide consisting of about 350 persons held about December 1677. Declared all his Majesties Dominions to be part of St. Peters Patrimony as forfeited to the Holy See for the Meresie of the Prince and People and so to be disposed of as he should think fit 2. Our English Cardinal Howard whom in pursuance of such Declaration his Holiness appointed as his Legate to take Possession of England in his Name he likewise made him Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with an augmentation of Forty-thousand Crowns a year for the maintenance of his Legantine Authority He had also Constituted Bishops and Dignitaries for all or most of the Sees and Ecclesiastical promotions in England As Perrot Superior of the Secular Priests to be Arch-Bishop of York Corker Bishop of London Whitebread of Winchester Strange of Durham Dr. Godden of Salisbury Napper a Franciscan Fryar of Norwich c. Removing all the Bishops in possession from their present Dignities 3. Johannes Paulus de Oliva Father-General of the Jesuits Society residing at Rome who was to give directions to the Provincial of the Jesuits in London how to proceed in this affair 4. Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba Provincial of the Jesuits in New Castile who was to assist with Counsel and Money and to mis-represent the Actions and Intentions of his Majesty of Great Britain in the Spanish Court to create Jealousies and Feuds between the two Crowns which likewise was to be done by a Jesuit that is Confessor to the Emperour in Relation to England and that Court 5. Le Chese a Jesuit Confessor to the French King with whom Coleman holding Correspondence discover'd to him all the Secrets of State he could and by his means endeavour'd to obtain a Pension from the French King for his good Services in betraying his Native Countrey 6. The Provincial of the Jesuits for the time being in England which of late was first Strange and then Whitebread 7. The Benedictine Monks at the Savoy ' where they had erected them a Colledge to such a degree of Confidence were they arriv'd 8. Jesuits and Seminary-Priests of whom there were about that time in England the number of Eighteen-hundred and were generally privy to the main design though perhaps not all acquainted with particulars 9. Several Lay-persons of Quality drawn in out of Zeal Ambition Covetousness Revenge c. to joyn with them to Command the Forces they were to raise and execute the great Offices of the Realm As the Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord Chancellor of England The Lord Powis Lord Treasurer Sir William Godolphin Lord-Privy-Seal Edward Coleman Secretary of State Lord Bellasis General Lord Peters Lieutenant General Sir Francis Ratcliff Major General John Lambert Adjutant-General Langhorn Advocate-General c. who had Commissions sent them Sealed by Paulus d' Oliva from Rome The work was so great and in their apprehension so glorious that the most Eminent of the Popish Clergy in Europe were engaged in it so that it cannot be said to be an Act or Contrivance of any few particular persons but an Vnanimous undertaking of their whole Church and so it must be Recorded to Posterity to their everlasting shame SECT 2. The means whereby they resolv'd to accomplish it were 1. By Killing the King finding they could not work him to their purpose and therefore to remove him they laid several distinct Plots and all to be kept unknown to each other As 1. Grove and Pickering to Shoot him 2. Conyers and Anderton Benedictine Monks and four Irish Russians to Stab him 3. To Poison him for which purpose 5000 l. was entred in their Books as paid to Sir George Wakeman in part of 15000 l. Reward which he was to have for that Horrid work by vertue of a Contract made with him in the presence of Coleman and Dr. Fogarthy As for the Duke of York they concluded to make use of his Name and Interest if he would comply with them 1. To accept of the Three Kingdoms as a gift from the Pope and hold them in Fee of him 2ly If he would Confirm their Settlement of the Church and State 3dly If he would Exterminate all Protestants 4thly If he would Pardon the Murtherers of his Brother the Murtherers of the People and those who should Fire the remaining part of the City and Suburbs 2. For that was the second particular of their work to Fire London and Westminster and places adjoyning thereunto as also other the chief Cities and Towns of England immediately on the Killing of his Majesty and lay the whole load both of the Murther and Firing on the Presbyterians and Fanaticks thereby provoking the Episcopal men to joyn with them to cut them off that so Protestants being weakned by their own Feuds they might
Jesuit Preach a Sermon on the 13th of August to 12 persons in disguise supposed to be of eminent quality wherein he asserted That Protestants and other Heretical Princes were ipso facto deposed because such and that it was as lawful to destroy them as an Oliver Cromwel or any other Vsurper with several other Traiterous words and discourses from divers of the Conspintors at several times and places therein specified till the time of his making the Discovery as aforesaid CHAP. VIII Some proceedings immediately following the Discovery and the true manner and circumstances of the Murther of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey SECT 1. THE Discovery was made to the Council on Saturday the 28th of Septemb. being Michaelmas Eve as aforesaid in the Morning where Dr. Oates was a long time under Examination In the Afternoon the Council sat again and Dr. Oates was imploy'd with a Guard that Night to search after some Jesuits whom he took On Sunday in the Afternoon the Council sat again very long and then he was Re-examin'd and when they rose he was sent abroad all that Night to Search the Lodgings of several Priests and find out their Papers which he did seize upon On the said Sunday Sir George Wakeman the Queens Physician before mentioned was summoned to attend the Council but was dismiss'd being told by Sir Ph. Lloyd that his Majesty would have the hearing of his business next day himself On Monday Morning the Council sat again and Dr. Oates was further Examined and by reason of so long watching and running up and down for two days and nights together continually without any respit and in bad rainy weather he was reduced to such extream weakness and disorder of body that he could hardly stand or speak Then it was that Sir George Wakeman again appeared and behaved himself so strangely that the whole Council were amazed at the manner of it for he did not seem to deny what he was charged with so positively as one that was Innocent would have done but used many boasting expressions of his great fidelity and Loyalty to the King and required Satisfaction and Reparation for the Injury done to his Honour Dr. Oats did then set forth that he had seen a Letter from Whitebread to Fenwick mentioning that Sir George had undertaken the Poisoning of the King for 15000 l. of which 5000 l. had been paid him by Coleman But a question arose afterwards at his Trial Whether he then mentioned another Letter which afterwards he insisted upon written from Sir George himself to Father Ashby Sir George denying that he then said any thing of it but on the contrary declared he had not any thing further to charge him with and then endeavour'd to Invalidate his after-Evidence whereas Dr. Oates alledged the Council did not press him to his knowledge and that the Omission of mentioning that Letter if he did omit it as to the best of his memory he did not was to be attributed to his Weakness at that time which the King and Council were so sensible of that his Majesty himself had like to have sent him away once or twice before because he found him so Ill. See Wakemans Trial p. 55 56 59. It not being improbable that a man under such Circumstances might forget to mention that which at another time he might well know and remember However it was things were so manag'd that Sir George was not Committed at that time nor till above three weeks afterwards When Dr. Oates acquainting the House of Commons with that Letter under Sir Georges hand they thereupon sent a Message to the House of Lords wondring why he was not Confined Whereupon their Lordships upon Examination of the matter Committed him As for Priests Jesuits and Conspirators about this time secured there were On the 30th of September Committed to Newgate by Order of the Privy Council for High Treason Dr. William Fogarthy Since dead in Goal William Ireland John Fenwick Thomas Pickering All since Executed John Grove John Smith Tho. Johnson Still in Newgate Untry'd On Sunday the 30th of Septemb. Mr. Colemans House was Search'd and some of his Papers seiz'd On Munday the first of Octob. he voluntarily rendred himself to Sir Joseph Williamson then Secretary of State hearing there was a Warrant out against him But there were so many other Prisoners under Examination that he was not call d till After-noon where he seem'd to hear these lewd things charg'd upon him with Scorn and Indignation insomuch that though a blank Warrant was fill'd up to send him to Newgate he was only for the present Committed to a Messenger and a special Warrant granted to the Messenger to secure him against the said first Order On Tuesday the 2d of Octob. his Majesty went out of Town to New-Market and a Committee being appointed to Examine several Papers and Mr. Colemans amongst others there were found in a Deal-box some of such dangerous Consequence as moved the Lords forthwith to Sign a Warrant for his Commitment to Newgate dated the 4th of October On the 7th Mr. Richard Langhorn the Elder a Councellor of the Temple and on the 10th Mr. Edward Peters lately living at Sir Charles Shellies in Sussex who Married the Lady Abergaveny were both Committed to Newgate by the Council Hitherto the weight of this mighty work lay wholly upon Dr. Oats's shoulders and Reputation and the design he mentioned was in it self and its tendency so Horrid and Bloody that good men who are always Charitable could scarce perswade themselves of its reality The fashionable men of the Town that pretend to wit and humour did but make a Jest of it having long since learn'd to turn all things though never so serious and sacred into Drol and Ridicule and on the other side the Conspirators with Impudence lies noise number and the powerful Interest they had did not doubt but to over-bear and crush his testimony and upon this Confidence no doubt it was and consideration that at worst he being but a single Evidence they could not by our Law be Convicted of Treason for any thing he could say that so many of them stood so long by it without flying that at last they fell into the hands of Justice which Indiscretion these men who are excellent at turning Objections into Arguments would afterwards have made an advantage of as a sign of their Innocence when in truth it was only a symtom of their Presumption SECT 2. But now the adorable Providence of God was pleased to take the Crafty in their own Net and so far Infatuate these Romish Achitophels that themselves mortally wounded their own Cause and became Accessary to promote a further Discovery and Confirmation by venturing upon a Bloody Enterprize which immediately Alarm'd the whole Nation and left no room any longer for doubt whether or no there were a Plot. This was the Murther of that worthy Magistrate Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey whose memory shall be dear to Posterity as a Martyr for our
to avoid the Soldiers taking any notice had invited them into his House with Drink and Tobacco Thus sometimes Girald and Prance and sometimes Kelly and Green carried him up towards So-ho Fields hard by the Grecians Church and there Hill attended with an Horse and they set the body up before him and clapt the Sedan into an House that was Building there but unfinish'd till they came back and then Girald the Priest said I wish we had an hundred such Rogues as secure as we have this Then Prance because he was a House-keeper returned home and the other four went away with him one leading the Horse Hill riding and holding the Body and the other two walking by They carried him into an obscure place about two miles out of Town towards Hampstead near a place call'd Prim-rose Hill and there in a Ditch they left his Body Girald having run Sir Edmonds own Sword through him and left it in but the Scabbard and his Gloves they laid on the Bank at a small distance In the mean time Sir Edmund-burys Servants first and then his Friends and at last the whole Town were not a little concern'd for his abscence and there was once a Proclamation ordered to discover him but Countermanded by reason of false Information given by some Papists that he was living and well and there were several persons that went up and down to Coffee Houses to spread false Reports that he was gone into the Country to be Married to such a Lady whom they took upon them to name that they saw him at such or such a place c. That Saturday the 12th of October the very Evening that Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was so Murthered did Father Harcourt the Jesuit lately Executed send away a Letter to Father Ewers a Priest at the Lord Astons in Stafford-shire wherein were these words This night is Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey dispatcht This Letter was received there on the Munday and shown to Mr. Dugdale as he hath since made See the Tryal of Whitebread c. p. 26. Oath at several Tryals which is further confirmed by Mr. Chetwin a worthy Gentleman who being then in that Countrey heard a report of it there by means of that Letter on the Tuesday which was before ever there was any discovery of it at London For here was no tidings to be heard what was become of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey till on the Thursday following being the 17th of Octob. and then two men passing over the Fiâ—â—ls by chance spied the Gloves and Scabbard and as they came back going to the place discovered the Body in the Ditch The 20th of Octob. the King Issued his Proclamation Commanding all his Officers and Subjects to use their utmost diligence to find out and discover the Murtherers of the said Sir Edmund-bury Graciously promising 500 l. Reward to any that should make such discovery and if any one of the Murtherers should discover the rest he should not only be pardon'd but likewise have the said Reward But this Royal offer could not prevail with any of them to come in for the present but they seem'd more hardned in their wickedness by its success for about a Fortnight afterwards there was by them a Narrative of See Pran Narrative p. 18. this Heroick fact drawn up in Writing which Vernatti read in a Triumphing manner at a meeting they had at the Queens-Head at Bow and said that the same was drawn up to be shew'd to the Lord Bellasis and some other great persons that were the original Designers and Promoters of the business for their satisfaction and possibly it may since be sent to Rome and there finds as great approbation and causes as great Joy as the News of the Murther of King Henry the Third of France did upon which Pope Sixtus the Fifth made a Panegyrical Oration calling it the Work of God and preferring the Vertue Courage and Zeal of the Fryar that did it before that of Eleazer in the Macchabees or of Judith killing of Holofernes The 21th of Octob. the Parliament met to whom his Majesty in his Speech took notice of the Plot in these words I now intend to acquaint you as I shall always do with any thing that concerns me that I have been informed of a design against my Person by the Jesuits of which I shall forbear any Opinion lest I may seem to say too much or too little but I will leave the matter to the Law and in the mean time will take as much care as I can to prevent all manner of practices by that sort of men and others too who have been tampering in a high degree with Foreigners and contriving how to Introduce Popery amongst us October the 24th 1678. Mr. Oates was Examined in the House of Commons six or seven hours and about Nine a Clock at Night the House sent for the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs and he took Mr. Oates's Examination upon Oath and in the House ‑ Sealed 26 Warrants against several Lords and others that Mr. Oates had Sworn against whereupon the five Lords viz. The Lord Powis the Lord Stafford the Lord Arundel of Wardour the Lord Petre and the Lord Bellasis and Sir Henry Tichburn Baronet were taken into Custody and shortly after Committed to the Tower and about the 30th of Novemb. the Lords were Impeached of High Treason The same day James Corker was Committed to Newgate by Sir Charles Harbord and Sir Thomas Stringer for a suspected Priest who afterwards appeared to be one charged with the Plot And the 26th Matthew Medburn formerly a Player was likewise sent thither by the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs for High Treason who died in Custody the 19th of March following The 30th of October the Parliament having by an Address desired that Papists might be Banish'd the Town his Majesty set forth a Proclamation declaring that there was a Bloody Traiterous design of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and the Protestant Religion commanding them all except settled House-keepers that would take the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy which the Justices should be Impowered by Special Commission to Administer to depart the Cities of London and Westminster and all places within 10 Miles distance of the same In pursuance of this Proclamation many Papists pretending they could not in Conscience take the said Oaths did go out of Town with great Lamentation leaving their Trades and Dwellings But within a Week or two their Ghostly Fathers had fitted them with Dispensations as appears by the sequel and then they generally return'd again and freely without any Keckings of Conscience offered to swallow the said Oaths or indeed any other Test that could be tendred them Octob. the 31th Upon the further perusal of Mr. Colemans Papers and the Examination of Mr. Oates taken upon Oath it was Resolved by the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente That there has been and is a Damnable and Hellish Plot contrived and carried on by the Popish
he gave in this Information first to the House of Lords and afterwards to the Commons upon Oath as by the Narrative thereof Printed by it self more at large appears It may here be noted That afterwards viz. but in August last the before-mentioned Sir Robert Walsh taking advantage of the Liberty of the times adventured to Print some Papers which he pretended to be an Answer to this Narrative but it being found to consist of nothing material but only certain Scurrilous and causeless Reflections on Mr. Everards Person the same upon Complaint was Ordered by Authority to be suppress'd As for other Occurrences the most material were as follows Decemb. 30th The Parliament was Prorogu'd till the 4th of February and before that time viz. Jan. 24th Dissolv'd by Proclamation as aforesaid January the Third was an Order of Council made to Reinforce the Proclamation of the 30th of October To keep Papists out of London and 10 Miles distance January the Eigth A Proclamation Commanding the immediate Return of all his Majesties Subjects who were in any Foreign Seminarles and forbidding any Releif to be sent to them About this time Come in Herefordshire was discovered to be a College of Jesuits and Mr. Stephen Dugdale formerly Servant to the Lord Aston in Staffordshire came in and made a considerable Discovery whereupon on the 15th of January a Proclamation was set forth against Francis Evers aliàs Eurie aliàs Ireland of Tixal in the County of Stafford John Gaven late of Wolverhampton in the same County Vavasor aliàs Gifford late of Boscobel Edward Levison late of Wilnot in the same County All Jesuits and Broadstreet late of Hore-Cross in the same County a Popish Priest being charged upon Oath to be guilty of the Plot and a promise of 100 l. to any that should Apprehend Evers and 50 l. for each of the rest Of these Gaven was soon after taken into Custody and since Executed but the rest absconded January 17th The Judges gave their Opinions in the Points following relating to Recusants May it please your Majesty We have met and considered of the Questions proposed to us and do hereby humbly return our Opinions To the First We are of Opinion That Foreigners being Popish Recusants and exercising ordinary Trades but not Merchants are not excused from taking the Oaths or finding Securities To the Second That Foreigners though certified by Ambassadors to be their Servants except they are menial Servants are not excused To the Third That Foreigners though settled House-keepers being no Travellers or Foreign Ministers Servants are not excused To the Fourth That the King 's Native Subjects are not excused form taking the Oaths by being menial Servants to Foreign Ministers To the Fifth We find no Law that excuses a Feme-Covert being a Papist from taking the Oaths though her Husband be a Protestant To the Sixth That a Popish Recusant having taken the Oaths is not bound to find new Sureties unless upon a new tender of the Oaths he shall refuse to take them All which with great Humility we submit to your Majesties judgment Will. Scroggs Fran. North. W. Mountagu W. Wylde Tim. Littleton Hugh Wyndham Robert Atkyns V. Bertie Fr. Bramston Tho. Jones W. Dolben At the Sessions in the Old-bailey the 16th and 17th of January One John Ayleworth aliàs Adland Committed to Newgate as a Preist on the 23th of Novemb. before was Indicted of High Treason upon the Stat. of 27 Eliz. cap. 2. And upon full Evidence of his having frequently said Mass received Confessions given Absolutions and performed all other Priestly Functions and that he had often appeared in her Majesties Chappel in Priestly Vestments amongst the rest of the Preists he was found guilty and Condemned But his Majesty treading the merciful steps of his Ancestors being most unwilling to punish any for their Religion or that any Preist though even upon this odious provocation of their Parties plotting against his Life should suffer purely for being a Priest or meerly for their presumption and disobedience for coming into his Dominions contrary to that Law was graciously pleased to grant him a Repreive CHAP. XIII A Design of the Papists to suborn Witnesses to oppose and vilifie the Evidence of Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe THE Papists finding all their Plot was like to be unravel'd unless some speedy Course were taken to overthrow the Evidence resolv'd to spare no Charge for so necessary a work and to this purpose one James Nettervile an Irish Papish Prisoner in the Marshalscy Tutor'd by Dominick Kelly one of the Priests that Murther'd Sir Edmundbury Godfrey being for some time his Fellow-prisoner and holding some Correspondence with the Lords in the Tower attempted to corrupt and suborn two Gentlemen for great Sums of money to Swear what should be dictated and prescribed unto them to oppose the Testimony of Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe and to scandalize them with odious Crimes and charge the Plot on dissenting Protestants as wholy contrived and pretended by them to cut off the Papists that they might the more easily accomplish some ill intentions they had against the King and Government But the Persons they happened to tamper with were of greater worth and integrity than to engage in or conceal so base a Business The one of them was Captain Bury dwelling in Ireland and Son of Sir William Bury of Grantham in Lincolnshire The other Mr. William Brooks one of the Aldermen of Dublin who being in London for the prosecution of their private concerns they were oft times with this Nettervile who had been formerly a Clerk in the Court of Claims at Dublin and did now pretend he could be serviceable to them and knowing that their attendance here had been very chargeable was so far infatuated as to think them profligate enough to entertain such a wicked proposal for money and so broke the matter to them severally the one not knowing of the others being concern'd till after they had both discovered it For about the 13th of January See the Narrative of this design P. 1 2. Nettervile having sent for Captain Bury to the Marshalsey told him in private after some preparatory discourses That there was a Design on foot to amuse those that had Impeached the Lords and those concern'd about the Plot and to turn the Game an other way as he expressed it and that the said Captain might do himself a kindness if he pleased and that if he would prove some certain things against Mr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe and that they held such and such Correspondencies and particularly with Mr. Blood c. he should have 4 or 500 l. The Captain seem'd to adhere to his discourse and learn'd of him that one Russel a rank Papist and an Irish man who Married Madam Rowse the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Gentlewoman was appointed to manage the affair and pay the money and after two or three meetings it was concluded That the money should be put into a third persons hand and that a paper
of the most material passages such as will be necessary for compleating this our Compendious History and giving the Reader a general Scheme of the horrid Contrivance referring the more curious to those Relations at large 1. The sum of the Intrigue was That seeing their former Popish Plot against His Majesties Person and Government and the Protestant Religion was notoriously detected and all their attempts to baffle or stifle the Kings Evidence frustrated they resolved upon coyning a new pretended Plot which should be charged on the Presbyterians by name but in truth involve the most zealous and active Protestant Nobility Gentry c. throughout the Nation which being fortified with bold Perjuries and specious pretences might gain credit and thereby they being destroyed as a sacrifice to Justice it might seem probable that the last years Plot was onely their malicious contrivance against the Catholicks who would then appear the Kings best Subjects and having so crusht their Enemies might with safety and almost without opposition proceed in their former Plot to subvert the Government c. See Col. Mans Narrative fol. 2. 2. Amongst other Instruments for this purpose they made choice of this Mr. Dangerfield as one professing the Roman Catholick Religion and whose extravagant courses and desperate condition being a Prisoner in Newgate had rendered him fit to serve them therein 3. To him Mistress Celier Wife of a French Merchant a great crony of the Lady Powis and at whose House the before-mentioned Witnesses from St. Omers had been harboured repairs and after some petty Tryals of his parts procured his Liberty and paid his Fees But being clapt up immediately after for Debt removed him into the Kings-Bench and there for a considerable time allowed him Twenty shillings a week Mr. Dang Narrative fol. 2 3. 4. There he was employed to Trepan one Stroud and get something out of him against Mr. Bedloe And to that purpose was to drink him hard and allowed by two Priests to be drunk on the same day he had received the Sacrament since it was for the good of the Cause He also gave Stroud Opium to lay him to sleep by advice of Mrs. Celier the Priests Nevil c. but without any great advantage Idem fol. 5. And now Mrs. Celier sends for the time of his Nativity which he sent her 5. Having compounded his Debts which amounted to near seven hundred pound Mrs. Celier furnisht him with money to discharge them so he left the Kings Bench is brought acquainted with the Lady Powis who promises to make him a Fortune and takes a Lodging for him in Drury-lane employs him to get Priests out of Prison sends him to the Lord Castlemain who likes him well c. fol. 7 8. 6. He is sent with a Pacquet to one Mrs. Jean at Peterley in Buckinghamshire whom he finds indeed to be a Priest and from him brings up Papers to the Lady Powis being the ground-work of the New-Plot That Pamphlets must be writ and persons employed at Coffee-houses to rail against the Presbyterians c. p. 10. 7. He is employed to Tutor the St. Omer-youths under the Lord Castlemain who was their grand Instructor He takes Notes at the Five Jesuits Tryals carries them to the Lords in the Tower who encourage him to write Pamphlets and promise to reward him and thenceforth he was allowed three pound a week besides Diet fol. 12. 8. Castlemain employs him to get Knox and Lane out of the Gate-house who were to swear against Oates and having obtained Lane's liberty he was kept privately at powis-Powis-house Here they contrive to Iudict Mr. Oates first of Perjury and then of Buggery 9. The Lords order him to go to Coffee-houses particularly Farrs Mans Garraways Jonathans c. and disperse Pamphlets as the Reflections on the Earl of Danby written by Nevil c. This is that Nevil whom we mentioned before in this History for his Poetical Prayer to the Ghost of St. Coleman At Wakemans Tryal Dangerfield takes Notes and received from Nevil divers Papers and Letters to transcribe amongst which were forty Lists of Names each containing above 800 Names These were privately to be left by their Agents throughout England in the Houses of Nonformists or other Protestants and then search being made on other pretences when these dangerous Papers were found the persons mentioned would be seized for Treason Another time he Transcribed twenty seven such Letters and sent them to the Tower And one Mr. Holder his R. H. Auditor at Brussels was ordered to get divers Coats of Arms cut there on Seals the Impressions having been taken off the Wax of Gentlemens Letters which was to make the Treasonable forged Letters more authentick 10. About the beginning of August lodging at Mrs. Celiers house he is sent for to the Tower where the Lord Arundel in the presence of the Lord Powis after other discourses askt him if for a good reward he would venture to kill the King mentioning 2000 l. But Dangerfield blushing at such a horrid motion Powis put it off and then proposed 500 l. if he would kill the Lord Shaftesbury which he promised to undertake whereupon they told him of one Rigaut a Virginia-Merchant that should advise with him about it and secure the 500 l. And the next day waiting on the Lord Castlemain who was then writing the Compendium he appeared much enraged saying Why were you so unwilling to do what you were taken out of Prison for Whereupon Dangerfield made hast away but Celier excused my Lords passion to him And Sharp a Priest after Confession and the Sacrament justified to him That he might kill his King if he were first Excommunicated and Condemned by the Church fol. 23. 11. That the Countess of Powis ordered him to acquaint the Lord Peterborough that Sir Robert Peyton would meet him at Gadburies the Astrologers house which he did and also Gadbury who then seemed very angry and gave the reason because the said Dangerfield refused to kill the King adding that he had Calculated his Nativity and found him a person fit for that Enterprize and that he might come off with safety fol. 25 26. In pursuance of this Assignation the the L. P. and Sir R. P. met and as the Lady Powis told Dangerfield agreed well and Sir R. declared he would come into the Kings Service to all purposes and afterwards met the Duke once or twice and engaged to employ all his Interest for his Highnesses service 12. That the Countess of Powis dictated to him Remarks of four Clubs in the Town and the Names of several persons which Paper was afterwards found in the Meal-tub of which we shall by and by give a farther account And by the means of the Lord Peterborough he was introduced to the Duke of York and acquainted him with this Presbyterian Plot who afterwards giving him Twenty Guineys with his own hand brought him to the King having received Instructions what to say from the Lady Powis as to charging the
Lord Gray Lord Howard of Escrick Duke of Monmouth Duke of Buckingham Sir Will. Waller c. which he did so well that he thought then His Majesty believed him being pleased to order him forty pound which he received fol. 35. And the more to possess his Majesty he sent him a Letter to New-market signifying he had discovered a great Correspondence between the Presbyterians and the Dutch fol. 36. 13. That pursuant to his undertaking with the Lords he went twice to Murder the Earl of Shaftesbury armed with a short French Dagger given him by Mrs. Celier who said there had been three of them left her by Rigaut pretending business as directed by Celier and the Lady Powis but was both times prevented by peoples coming and his own guilty fears for which the Countess called him Coward and Mrs. Celier said I will go and let the world know that some of our Sex are brave and more daring than the men whereupon she went pretending business but was prevented of an opportunity 14. Now the Countess put him on enquiring out Col. Mansels Lodgings delivered him Papers to plant there which under pretence of taking Lodgings in the same House and seeing all the Rooms he pin'd behind the Beds-head and then having informed two Officers of theCustom-house to come there to search for Prohibited Goods of Two thousand pound value on Wednesday the twenty second of October in the Colonels absence they came and he and one Bedford that lay with him the night before went in with them who finding nothing he directed them to remove the Bed and at last going himself behind it discovered the Papers and as the Devil would have it or rather the providence of Almighty God to detect the villany before they had well lookt into any of them cryed out Here is Treason The Officers carryed the Papers to the Custom-house which were ordered to be returned but the Colonel in the mean time having notice and that such a man who then and for some time before had gone sometimes by the name of Thomas and sometimes Willoughby had been concerned in the matter strictly enquiring after him found he lay at Mrs. Celiers House and there apprehended him and on the twenty third of October brought him before the Councel where accidentally he met with and abused one Mr. d'Oiley o◠the Tower that had formerly prosecuted him 〈◊〉 uttering false Guineys who much helped to give an account of his former ill conversation yet he persisted stifly in charging Mansel and justifying his own innocency but on hearing all circumstances attested by the Searchers and other Witnesses produced by Colonel Mansel it apppearing that the Papers were laid by Dangerfield in the Colonels Chamber out of a malitious design he was committed to a Messenger whereupon he writ a Note to acquaint the Lady Powis therewith to be sent by his boy but the Messenger would needs see it and thereby the Correspondence between them was discovered 15. The twenty seventh of October Dangerfield was committed to Newgate by the Council on a full hearing though he had endeavoured all he could to defend himself by certain notable instructions received from the Lady Powis in the Stone-gallery in Whitehall which he particularly sets forth fol. 49. 16. On the twenty ninth of October Sir William Waller to whose indefatigable pains and courage this Nation and the Protestant Religion in general under God in an high measure owes its preservation searching Celiers House most providentially found hid in a Meal-tub the Paper-book tyed with red ribbons containing the Model of this designed Plot against the Protestants the matter whereof was dictated by the Lady Powis the grand Solliciness from the Lords in the Tower as aforesaid and proved by her maid to be hid there by her order It purported to be onely Remarks or chief Heads of things and persons to be charged As amongst the rest there were named the Lords Hallifax Shaftsbury Radnor now President of his Majesties Privy-Councel Essex Wharton the Duke of Buckingham and others to be of Counsel in this pretended Conspiracy the Duke of Monmouth General the Lord Grey Lord Gerard and his Son and Sir Tho. Armstrong Lieutenant Generals in this Rebellious Army Sir William Waller and others Major-Generals Colonel Mansel Quarter-Master-General To which was added Lists of particular persons usually meeting at four principal Clubs about the Town too tedious here to repeat 17. In the Papers foisted into Col. Mansels Chamber there were likewise long Lists of Names that were to be rendred obnoxious to this present Plot but no particular Copy or Account can thereof be given the Original Papers being so lodged that the same are not easily procurable till Authority shall think fit to divulge them See Col. Mansels Nar. fol. 104. 18. Mr. Dangerfield by this last Discovery at Mrs. Celiers finding himself trapt had not the confidence to stand out longer but on the last of October made application to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Clayton Lord Mayor before whom and other persons of Quality he made a candid Confession on Oath transmitted the next day to His Majesty and the Councel Whereupon and on farther Examination of the several persons concerned the Earl of Castlemain was Committed to the Tower whence he had not long since been Bayled as having been charged by Doctor Oates on the former Popish Plot Mrs. Celier and Mr. Rigaut to Newgate and Mr. Gadbury the Almanack-maker who though bred a Taylor hath for some years written himself Physician to the Queens most Excellent Majesty and formerly published a Figure which he called his Majesties Nativity in Print and constantly of late in his Calendar hath left out the Gunpowder-Treason-day to the Gate-house And on the fourth of November the Lady Powis being farther Examined and divers notable Circumstances which she had denyed being proved against her by other persons besides Mr. Dangerfield she was by order of the Board committed to the Tower for High-Treason in conspiring the death of the King And the said Dormer formerly Committed on suspition of being a Priest and Bail'd being found discoursing with her in the Lobby was upon other new matter charged on him by Doctor Oates taken into custody The Lord Castlemain twice in Michaelmass-Term brought his Habeas Corpus to be Bayled in the Kings Bench but was told by the Judges of that Court that though formerly when there was but one witness against him they had afforded it him yet having made such ill use of his Liberty and being now charged directly by two Witnesses for High-Treason they could not allow it and so was re-manded to the Tower By this whole contrivance it most evidently appears that though the Popish out-cries and clamours ran onely upon the Presbyterians and Fanaticks yet their aim was to ruine all that were true Protestants or honest Assertors of the Liberties and Property of the Subject As their naming his Grace the Duke of Monmouth the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Essex
precipitate to Ruine as aforesaid consult and use all Arts to exclude him from the Succession To this purpose Father Parsons Cardinall Allen and others contrive a mischievous Book under the counterfeit Name of Doleman wherein divers Titles are started and 't is laid down as a Fundamental Maxime That none but a Roman Catholick how near soever in Blood ought to be admitted King and therefore therein by forged devices the Title of the Infanta Isabella of Spain is preferred before the indubitable Right of the said King James and all the English in the Spanish Seminaries were compell'd to Swear to maintain the same And Tho. Winter and Tesmond a Jesuit were sent over Anno 1601. into Spain to manage this Design in that Court by the Assistance of Father Croswel Legier-Jesuit there 2. In Farther pursuance of this Pope Clement the Eighth sent privately over to Father Garnet the then Proâ—incial of the Jesuits two Bulls one to the â—aiety directed to the Nobles and Gentlemen of England that were Catholicks the other to his Beloved Sons the Arch-Priest and the rest of the English Catholick Clergyâ— the effect of both was That whoever after the death of Queen Elizabeth whether by course of nature or otherwise should claim the Crown of England though never so directly and nearly interessed therein by Descent and Blood-Royal yet unless he were such an one as would not onely Tolerate the Catholick meaning Romish Religion but would likewise take an Oath to promote it with all 〈◊〉 might and endeavours they should not admit or receive him for their King but oppose his Entry and Claim with all their power Which in plain English was meerly designed and directly tended to obstruct King James though not particularly named and Exclude him and his Family from the Crown And was not this a sufficient tast of the Popes good-will a notable earnest of the Papists Loyalty to him 'T is true when the Conspirators saw him so unanimously Proclaimed the State setled and a Peace with Spain so far advanced that that generous Monarch began to refuse them the expected Assistances then and not till then Garnet as himself alleadged burnt the said Bulls and quitted the Project but why onely because they despaired of effecting it 3. The more to prepossess the minds of the English against the said King James that they might keep him out or at least that themselves might have some colour for their future intended Conspiracies if he should come in Watson a Priest having some time heretofore got access once or twice to His Majesty at Edenburgh did with the Arch-Traitor Piercy and others of the Popish Crew most falsely devise and divulge a scandalous Report as if His Majesty had promised that whenever he should come to the Crown of England He would Establish or at least Tolerate the Popish Religion Than which nothing was ever more remote from or contrary to his Royal Thoughts And Watson himself but two days before his death confessed it to be a Lie of their own forging spread abroad meerly that they might kill two Birds with one stone viz. bring an odium upon him from the Protestants for making such a promise and the like from the Papists on pretence of breaking it In which latter respect it took effect though not in the former for Sir Everard Digby at his death and other Gun-powder Traitors made use thereof alleadging that they were exasperated to that horrid Attempt because the King had not kept his promise with Catholicks SECT 2. These were the good Officer of the Pope these the dutiful respects of the Priests and Papists paid to King James before he was actually Estated in the English Throne Whence we may judge how little welcome they were like to afford him at his Entry and of this the worthy Authour of a Treatise published in the beginning of King James's Reign before the Gun-powder-Treason Intituled A Consideration of the Papists Supplication gives us a notable instance from his own Experience and Observation in these words p. 3. My self can testifie that here in Oxford at what time His Majesty was proclaimed King of England c. a man might easily have traced and culled out every Papist within this City by his extraordinary howling and sobbing for grief that their hopes were frustrated and their expectation all in vain some of the simpler sort crying out in express terms Alas alas How shall the poor Catholicks do now we are all undone we are undone whereas all the rest of His Majesties Liege and Loyal Subjects by manifold Tokens declared their extraordinary rejoycing Their demeanor afterwards was suitable to these beginnings for soon after his arrival at London the said Watson and Clark two Secular Italianated Priests wheadled in several of the Nobility and Gentry as the Lords Cobbam and Gray Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir Griffin Markham George Brooke and others into a dangerous Conspiracy to have surprized the Kings Person and his Son Prince Henry and to keep them Prisoners in the Tower or Dover Castle till by Duress they had obtained their ends viz. A Toleration of Religion and some other Projects and then having obtained their Pardons they were to share amongst them the grand Offices of the Realm just as their Successors Whitebread Coleman c. had lately designed viz. Watson was to be Lord Chancelour the Lord Gray Earl Marshal of England George Brooke Lord Treasurer Sir Griffin Markham Secretary of State c. But though several were found guilty onely Watson Clark and Brooke were then Executed and Sir Walter Rawleigh on the same Conviction many years after 'T is observable that Watson though a Secular Priest had yet learned the art of Equivocation as well as the Jesuits For he insisted that this Conspiracy was no Treason against the King and being at last put to explain himself gave this doughty reason That a King was no King before he was Anointed and the Crown solemnly set on his head and King James being not yet crowned therefore they might lawfully conspire against him without commitring any Treason Amongst other things which Watson Confessed one was that he had endeavoured to draw in several of the Society of Jesuits into this Plot but they declined it saying They had another of their own then on foot and that they would not mingle Designs with him for fear of hindring one the other Vide Watsons Confession What such their Design was though he could not yet time in few years after did discover for in the next place appears that horrid never-to-be-forgotten Popish Powder-plot a Treason that as it exceeded all that had ever been before in the World so it was believed it would have surpassed in its mischievous Design Extent and Cruelty all that teeming Hell and Rome could have bred at any time afterwards had not this last Internal Conspiracy of the same Bloâ—â—y Tribe against our present Gratious King Charles the Second and the Establisht Religion and Government of England vut-gone it in
designed Party perceiving their Treason was openly known and fearing their just reward from some enraged hand desired a Pass to return since the work of killing the King was done beyond the Seas which that they might with less suspicion and more security pass they pretended to Banish them A Noble person of this Kingdom of Sir K. acquaintance told me That he observed him in publick to exclaim against the Hereditary Rights of Kings as a most pernicious thing to a Kingdom saying That oft-times thereby the Kingdom was Governed by Children Fools and Women And hereupon took occasion to traduce the then Prince of Wales now King saying c. The Expressions are so base and foul-mouthed that we dare not out of Reverence to Majesty go on to repeat them from our Author At the same time highly commending Cromwel as one of the ablest men in Europe and Bradshaw that sate as the Kings Judge for a gallant man Thus far that Treatise concerning the credit of which we shall onely say that the Author appears by the Work to have been a man of no vulgar Intelligence or Conversation in those times and all along expresses much Loyalty and Affection to his present Majesty 2. The Reverend and Learned Doctor Peter du Moulin hath long since declared in Print That the Roman Priest is known who when he saw the â—atal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we have in the World is gone And that the year before the Kings Murder a select number of Jesuits out of England had a Consult with their Confederates at Paris where this question in writing was by them put to the Faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited That seeing the State of England was in a likelyhood to change Government whether it were lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advancing and securing of the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from this Heresie Which was answered affirmatively And afterward the same question being transmitted to Rome the said Resolution was likewise approved and confirmed by the Pope and his Council That it was both lawful and expedient for Catholicks by such means to promote that alteration of State But afterwards when the Regicide was so universally cryed down and detested his Holiness consulting his credit commanded all Papers about that question to be burnt in obedience to which order a Roman Catholick in Parts was demanded a Copy which he had of those papers but having had time to consider and abhor the wickedness of that Project refused to deliver it up but shewed it to a Protestant friend of his relating the whole carriage of this Negotiation This passage theâ— Reverend du Moulin aforesaid now Canon 〈◊〉 Christ-Church Canterbury and one of His Majestieâ— Chaplains did seventeen years ago set forth 〈◊〉 print in his answer to a scurrilous Popish pamphleâ— Intituled Philanax Anglicus and there publickly offered to justifie the truth of it if any should 〈◊〉 him to an account for it before Authority but That in all this time they have been afraid or ashamed to do onely soon after the coming forth of his Book the Gentlemen of Somerset-house who were netled one eminent person of them it seems not a little concerned actually in the story instead of having the truth thereof examined privately by interest obtained a Command from the King to the said Doctor that he should write no more Books which Prohibition the Doctor goâ— taken off Anno 1668. See the last Edition of the Doctors Answer p. 60. where likewise p. 64 we have the Testimony of that worthy judicious Gentleman Sir William Morris late Secretary of State who in a Letter to the said Doctor du Moulin concerning this matter hath these words This I may say safely and will do it confidently That many arguments did create a violent suspicion very near convincing Evidences That the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the Murder of that excellent Prince the odium whereof they would now file to the account of the Protestant Religion 5. 'T is notorious that no sort of men truckled more servilely to the late Rebellious Powers they adressed their Petitions to them with the Stile of the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England First Moderator fol. 59. They affirmed That they had generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement Second Moderator fol. 41. They promised that 〈◊〉 they might enjoy their Religion They would 〈◊〉 the most quiet and useful Subjects of England First Moderator fol. 31. which they proved in these words viz. That the Roman-Catholicks of England would be bound by their own interest the strongâ—â—â— obligation amongst wise men to live peaceably and â—hankfully in private Exercise of their Consciences and becoming gainers by such compassions they could not 〈◊〉 reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatick Parâ—y that were loosers First Moderator fol. 36. 6. 'T is observable That Tho. White a Popish â—riest in the height of Olivers Tyranny set out 〈◊〉 Book Intituled The grounds of Obedience and Government purposely to confirm his usurpation another His Majesties just Tale and perswade people that they were not obliged to assist or reâ—â—ore him Who was it as Doctor Oates says in his Epistle to the King before his Narrative of the Plot printed by Order of the House of Lords â—hat broke off the Uxbridge Treaty but the Romish Interest and Policy with what zeal and Interest did they perswade the Scots in 1650. to impose that upon your Majesty which your Royal Law had forbidden others for the effecting whereof some Thousands of pounds were spent and given by them Where he likewise sets forth how they endeavoured to Betray and Sacrifice His Majesty after his miraculous escape as Worcester And that those who were to pay the 1000 l. promised for his Discovery were no other but Father Joseph Simmonds and Father Carleton Compton both Jesuits and 〈◊〉 whereas Mr. John Huddleston a Priest having 〈◊〉 instrumental in His Majesties Escape for whicâ— good Service he has been always excepted out 〈◊〉 His Majesties Proclamations against Priests and Jesuits several of the Jesuited Crew have often call'd him FOOL for his labour and said that the same was the worst days work that ever he did in his life That there is a Popish Lord not forgotten or unknown who brought a Petition to the late Regicide and Vsurpers signed by above 500 of the principal Popists in England wherein was promised upon condition of a Toleration here by a Law they would jointly resolve to Abjure and Exclude the Family of the Stuarts for ever from the Crown That a whole Convent of Benedictine Monks were Olivers Pensioners to betray His Majesties Secrets and Counsels That the Traitor Manning taken 〈◊〉 discovering such His Majesties Affairs was a Roman Catholick and had Masses sung for him after his 〈◊〉
get any opportunity of seeing his Majesty except in Company of the Duke of York till the next Morning Then in the Park he acquainted his Majesty that his Enemies had a design against his Life and humbly pray'd him to use all caution for he did not know but he might be in danger in that very Walk Tyrants are always haunted with suspitions and fears But his Majesty arm'd with his Native Goodness and Innocence seem'd more surpriz'd with the strangeness of the news than any apprehension of the danger and only askt how that could be To which Mr. Kirby answered that it might be by being Shot at but to give a particular account requir'd more privacy His Majesty ordered him to attend his return out of the Park and then taking him aside laid his Commands on him to tell him what he knew who acquainted him that there were two Men by Name Grove and Pickering that watch'd an opportunity to Shoot his Majesty and that Sir G. W. was hired to Polsoh him as he had been the day before acquainted by a Friend who had a more full account thereof in writing and was near at hand ready to appear when commanded which his Majesty was pleased should be about Eight that Evening Accordingly Mr. Kirby and Doctor Tongue did at that hour attend his Majesty and in the Red Room at White-Hall delivered unto him the said 43 Articles Copyed out by the Doctor keeping the Original for his own security and both of them humbly begg'd that those Papers might be kept safe and secret lest the full Discovery should otherwise be prevented and their own lives indanger'd His Majesty was pleased graciously to answer That being to go next Morning to Windsor he would safely deposite the said Papâ—is in the hands of one whom he could Intrust and with whom he would answer for their safety ordering them to wait upon the Earl of Danby then Lord Treasurer the next Morning which accordingly they did but it was After-noon before they could be admitted to speak with him When being brought to his Closet they found him with the Papers in his hand saying he had received them from his Majesty Sealed up and that they were of the greatest concern in the World But after some few questions very civilly for the present dismiss'd Mr. Kirby and the Doctor who two or three days after carried more Informations but could hardly come to speak with him only one of his Gentlemen was appointed to receive the Papers Sealed And about the 20th of Aug. Doctor Tongue offered to bring the said Pickering and Grove into St. James's Park that they might be taken with their Guns about them his Informant having assured them he could do it at any time if the King would please to be walking there but this was not accepted or neglected However shortly after Mr. Kirby shewed Pickering as he attended the Priests at Mass in sommerset-Sommerset-House to one of the Lord Treasurers Gentlemen The 26th of Aug. Dr. Tonge told Mr. Kirby that he had Informed the Lord Treasurer how he might Intercept Letters that come to Grove which if it had been honestly done must of necessity have very much laid open their Traiterous practices the Jesuits Letters being generally directed to him But having heard nothing of it and the Treasurer being gone out of Town he was resolv'd to know if any thing had been taken or no Accordingly on the 31th of Aug. he made an Interest in a certain Letter Carrier belonging to the Post-Office who on the 3. of Sept. informed him that the said Grove had usually Letters every week amounting to three or four pound and that the very day before he had as many Forreign Letters as came to 4 s. and some Inland Letters but how many he could not positively tell nor could give account of any offered to be intercepted Doctor Oates on the second of Septemb. first discover'd himself to Mr. Kirby Lodging at Fox-Hall who all the time before had never seen his face nor heard his name but from thenceforth they met together and on the 4th of Septemb. he acquainted the said Mr. Kirkby that Whitebread the Jesuits Provincial was come to Town and having got intelligence that there was some Discovery made had Beaten him and charg'd him with having been with the King with a Minister and that he had Betray'd them The means and occasion whereby they came to have this notice and suspicion is thus set forth One Bedingfield a Jesuit deeply conecrn'd in the Plot and who had got as is said to be Confessor to the Duke of York had related in a Letter to Blundel another of the Gang that his Royal Highness had intimated some such thing to him viz. That a Gentleman in such-colour'd Habit and a Minister had been with the King and made some Discovery Now it happened that Mr. Kirkby when he waited on his Majesty as aforesaid had on a Suit much of the same colour with what Dr. Oates then usually wore which created such their jealousie However Dr. Oates denying it for in truth he had then never been with the King the Provincial at last seem'd Reconcil'd to him and only ordered him speedily to prepare to go beyond the Sea pretending he had some Business there for him to Negoriate Upon this discourse of Dr. Oates Mr. Kirkby finding him partly discovered and in danger resolved to go next day to Windsor desiring Dr. Tonge in the mean time to get his Information Sworn before some Justice of the Peace which on the 6th of Septemb. was done before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey yet without permitting him to read the particulars only assuring him in general that it contained matter of Treason and other high Crimes and that his Majesty had a Copy of it In the mean time on the 5th Mr. Kirkby presented himself before his Majesty at Windsor but there having been some prepossessions to take away all belief of the Plot used by Bedingfield c. he could not that day or the next obtain Audience and therefore on the 7th repaired to the Treasurers Lodgings and acquainted his Man that the Original Informant was discover'd and beaten therefore desired his Lordships directions who sent out word that he would hear him But although Mr. Kirkby waited all that day was in his presence and offered to speak yet the said Treasurer declined it and on the 9th went away to Wimbleton Mr. Kirkby receiving this discouragement returned home In the mean time Dr. Oates holding on his Correspondence with the Jesuits on the 6th of Sept. at night coming to the Provincials Lodgings and attending at his Chamber door over-heard him and some others discourse concerning the disposing of a person saying This man has Betray'd us we will give 20 l. to a See Dr. Oate's Narrative p. 55. Coach-man to take him up who by By-ways shall carry him to Dover and when we have got him beyond Sea we will force him by Tortures to Confess who had been with
have the better opportunities and easier task to subdue them All. 3. By a general Massacre to which purpose they had formed an Army which was to consist of Fifty-thousand to be Listed about London The Officers all resolute Papists and for the most part French and Irish These they gave out were enow to Cut the Throats of One-hundred-thousand Protestants especially being taken upon a Surprize when the Militia of London was unprovided and Undisciplin'd and the Country generally Disarm'd as aforesaid And besides the Conspirators had the French and also many thousands of Pilgrims and Lay-Brothers daily expected from Spain to assist them 4. The Prince of Orange was also Condemned Scandaliz'd and designed against by Name and 12. Jesuits sent into Holland on purpose to use means to put that People in a Mutiny against his Person and Government by buzzing amongst them that his Uncle of England and himself had a design to make the said Prince Absolute with the Title of a King over them and so to bring them to a Slavery for ever worse than they suffered heretofore under the Spaniard 5. As for Ireland the Pope had made Talbot the Titular Arch-Bishop of Dublin his Legate to take possession for him of that Kingdom whose Brother Talbot was to be General of all the Forces there which were to consist of 20000. Catholick-Foot and 5000. Horse besides the French Auxiliaries It was there to be carried on by a general Rebellion and Massacre of the Protestants as in 41. which they call Demonstrating their Zeal for the Catholick Faith In the first place the Duke of Ormond was to be Assassinated which four Jesuits had undertook to dispatch And the better to encourage this Rebellion the Pope was to Contribute Eight-hundred-thousand Crowns and the French had privately sent over some supplies of Men and Arms and was to furnish them with more as soon as they should be in Action Le Chese having a great Influence in promoting all these Transactions 6. In Scotland likewise particular care was taken to foment Discontents and raise a Rebellion to which end they divers times sent over several Jesuits to mingle themselves if they could with the Dessenters so as they might Preach in their Field-meetings and inflame them to take Arms to Vindicate their Religion and Liberty against those Pressures they complained of and which they were to aggravate and also against Bishops And for their encouragement the Papists there were to raise Eight-thousand Men to joyn with such Dissenters lest they should be too weak to oppose the Government by which they would kill two Birds with one stone make a difference and hatred between Protestants and cast the Odium of Rebellion on the Presbyterians if it should not succeed or destroy the Government if it should nor have their Policies in this kind been wholly ineffectual as appears by the late Rebellion in Scotland principally occasion'd by these Romish Incendiaries though happily suppress'd without doing that general mischief which they expected Towards the necessary Charge 1. The Society of Jesus in England are Credibly said to have above Threescore-thousand Pounds per Annum Estate in Land managed by Trustees in the securing and settling whereof Mr. Langhorn the Councellor was principally concern'd 2. They have One-hundred-thousand Pounds Stock in ready Money imployed at Interest by Scriveners and used in Trade by Persons of several occupations 3. Eleven-thousand Crowns Paulus de Oliva was to send them from Rome Ten thousand Pounds more from Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba from Spain Le Chese the French King's Confessor advanc'd Ten thousand Pounds more and Six thousand pounds the Benedictines Besides considerable sums of Money transmitted to Coleman by Foreign Ministers of State and the Benevolencies of Catholick Grandees at home for promoting so meritorious a work This is the general Scheme of this Bloody Hellish Plot which in the quality and number of the Conspirators the long time it hath been contriving and carried on the Cruelties design'd the vastness of the undertaking the multitudes that would thereby have been destroyed and other circumstances is not to be parallel'd in any History and all this Treason Blood-shed and Villany without any provocation to be perpetrated under the colour of Religion SECT 3. As for particulars and the several Letters and Negotiations we refer the Reader that is so curious to Dr. Oates his Narrative Printed as aforesaid last Spring by Order of the House of Lords whereby it appears that in April 77. he was imployed by Strange the then Provincial Fenwick Hartcourt and other Jesuits in London to carry their Letters to one Father Suinam an Irish Jesuit at Madrid in Spain That in his Journey he broke open the said Letters and found therein an account given what Jesuits they had sent into Scotland to stir up Tumults and that they feared not success in their design having got an Interest in his Royal Highness c. That he saw several Students sent out of England to Valladolyd who were obliged by the Jesuits of the College to Renounce their Allegiance to his Majesty of Great Britain and that one Armstrong in a Sermon to the Students there did with most false and black-mouth'd Scandals represent his said Majesty using such Irreverent base expressions as no good Subject can here repeat without horror with several other Traiterous words and Correspondencies which he there discovered from whence he returned in November That about the beginning of December he was sent with another Treasonable Letter to St. Omers wherein was expresly mentioned their design to Stab or if that could not be done to Poison the King and that they had received Ten thousand Pounds from Le Chese which was in the hands of one Worsley of London Goldsmith There was likewise Inclosed a Letter of thanks to Le Chese which he carried from St. Omers to him at Paris During this his Journey and being abroad he saw and read many other of their Letters all tending to one effect viz. Of cutting off the King Subverting the Government and Restoning the Romish Religion and were so confident as in some of them to say That his Majesty of England was so possest of their Fidelity that if any Malecontent amongst them should not prove true but offer to discover he would never belieâ— them That in April 1678. he came over with others to the grand Consult which was held the 24th of that moneth by about 50 Jesuits at the White-horse Tavern in the Strand where they met successively in small Companies and thence dispersed into distinct little Colloquies or Clubs where they Signed a Resolve for the Death of the King which Dr. Oates as Messenger carried from one Company to another to be Signed and very shortly after returned to St. Omers from whence he came again being the last time of his being abroad the 23. of June for England where in July he became privy to the Treaty with Wakeman and the terms as also heard John Keins a
the University as some report or whether drawn in upon his Marriage as others alleage or to gratifie a Rich Vncle of that Persuasion as a third sort relate it on which or whether on some other occasion different from all these he revolted is not much material but revolt he did to the Roman Church and became a mighty Bigot to advance the same and gain Proselytes He was a Person of rare natural and acquired parts and so well conceited of himself that he once undertook to be one that should manage a Conference concerning Religion against the Learned Doctor Stillingfleet and another Divine of the Church of England which discourse is extant in Print But his Talent lay more in News and Policy than Divinity being for some time Secretary to her Royal Highness the Dutchess of York he was a Leading-man in this Horrid Conspiracy and a prime Promoter thereof by his great Correspondency abroad both at Rome and in the French Court. Concerning the manner of his Commitment an Account is given before Chapt. the 8th On Saturday the 23 of November he was Arraigned at the Kings-Bench Bar the Indictment being very Expressive and Significant we shall for Example sake See Colemans Tryal p. 2. recite part of it viz. That as a false Traitor against our most Illustrious Serene and most excellent Prince Charles by the Grace of God c. his natural Lord having not the fear of God in his heart nor duely weighing his Allegiance but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil his cordial Love and true Duty and natural Obedience which true and lawful Subjects of our said Lord the King ought to bear towards him and by Law ought to have altogether with-drawing and devising and with all his strength intending the Peace and common Tranquillity of this Kingdom of England to disturb and the true Worship of God within the Kingdom of England practised and by Law Established to overthrow and Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm of England to move stir up and procure and the cordial Love and true Duty and Allegiance which true and lawful Subjects of our Soveraign Lord the King towards their Soveraign bear and by Law ought to have altogether to withdraw forsake and extinguish and our said Soveraign Lord the King to Death and final Destruction to bring and put The 29th of Septemb. in the 27th year of the Reign of our said Soveraign Lord Charles the Second c. at the Parish of St. Margarets Westminster Falsly Maliciously and Traiterously proposed compassed imagined and intended to stir up and raise Sedition and Rebellion within the Kingdom of England and to procure and cause a miserable Destruction amongst the Subjects of our said Lord the King and wholly to Deprive Depose Deject and Disinherit our said Soveraign of his Royal State Title Power and Rule of his Kingdom of England and to bring and put our said Soveraign Lord the King to final Death and Destruction and to overthrow and change the Government and alter the sincere and true Religion of God in this Kingdom by Law establish'd and wholly to subvert and destroy the State of the Kingdom and to Levy War against our said Soveraign Lord the King within his Realm of England And that to accomplish these his Traiterous designs and imaginations on the 29th of Septemb. in the 27th year of the King he Traiterously composed two Letters to one Monsieur Le Chese then Servant and Confessor of Lewis the French King to desire procure and obtain for the said Edw. Coleman and other false Traitors the Aid Assistance and Adherence of the said French King to alter the true Religion in this Kingdom Establish'd to the Superstition of the Church of Rome and Subvert the Government of this Kingdom of England c. Reciting his receiving an Answer from Le Chese his Correspondence with Monsieur Rovigni Envoy Extraordinary from the French King and Letters to Sir William Throckmorton in France Concluding in usual form That all this was done against his true Allegiance and against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity To this Indictment he pleaded Not Guilty and on Wednesday the 27th of Novemb. 1678. was brought to his Tryal To the Jury Empannel'd he made no Challenges Their Names were Sir Reginald Foster Baronet Sir Charles Lee. Edward Wilford Esq John Bathurst Esq Joshua Galliard Esq John Bifield Esq Simon Middleton Esq Henry Johnson Esq Charles Vmfrevile Esq Thomas Johnson Esq Thomas Eaglesfield Esq William Bohee Esq His Tryal as it held very long so it was managed with all Integrity and Moderation by the Court The Charge against him was made out two ways partly by Witnesses Vivâ voce and partly by Letters and Papers found at his House which he could not deny to be his own hand writing Dr. Oates was the first Witness produced to whom the Lord Chief Justice gave this grave Caution That he See Colemans Tryal p. 17. should speak nothing but the truth not to add the least tittle that was false for any advantage whatsoever mind him of the Sacredness of the Oath he had taken declaring that since the Prisoners Blood and Life was at stake he should stand or fall be justified or Condemned by truth The substance of Mr. Oates's Evidence was 1. That in Novemb. 1677. being brought acquainted with Mr. Coleman by one John Keins then Dr. Oates's Confessor who Lodged at Colemans House he carried some Letters for him to St. Omers in which were Treasonable Expressions of the King calling him Tyrant and a Letter in Latine enclosed to Monsieur Le Chese to whom Dr. Oates carried it from St. Omers to Paris in which there were thanks returned for the Ten thousand pounds by him remitted into England for the Propagation of the Catholick Religion and promising that it should be Imployed for no other purpose but that for which it was sent which was to cut off the King of England as appear'd by the Letter of Le Chese to which this was an Answer and which Dr. Oates saw and read 2. That Coleman was concern'd in the design of taking away the Sacred Life of the King for that when at the Jesuits Consult at the pag. 2. Whitehorse-Tavern in the Strand in April Old Stile and May New Stile and afterwards adjourned into several Companies It was resolv'd that Pickering and Grove should Assassinate his Majesty by Shooting or other means for which the latter should have 1500 l. and the former Thirty thousand Masses which at 12 d. a Mass amounted much what to the same sum This resolve was in his hearing Communicated to Mr. Coleman at Wild-House who did approve thereof and said it was well contriv'd 3. That in August 78. Mr. Coleman was present at a Consult with the Jesuits and Benedictine Monks in the Savoy for raising a pag. 23. Rebellion in Ireland and was very forward to have Dr. Fogarthy sent thither to dispatch the Duke of Ormond by
being swayed by such powerful Inducements That he might Lawfully say he Note ☞ was Innocent and so they were all which in Popish construction is not to deny that they Killed Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey for that according to their Divinity and what the said Priests had Solemnly declared was no Sin or Crime and consequently they might All in such their Catholick sense still be Innocent Yet this he must acknowledge he somewhat doubted because he had never been at Confession and received Absolution since the Fact Committed which all the rest as some of themselves had declared had done and so might more peremptorily persist as they did in averring themselves to be Innocent and he does ingeniously declare That had he received Absolution 't is his fear he he should never or not without extream difficulty have been brought to any acknowledgment These Circumstances together with a great distemper of Body contracted by the incommodities of Consinement want of Air c. occasioned that sudden revolt of his Reason and duty under that perplexity of Spirit but as soon as he had done it Conscience flew in his face and would no longer be laid asleep with any delusive Popish Charms When he began to recollect himself the power of truth dispersed all those Temptations of Interest Fear and Superstition If it were true that he might hazard his Life and lose his Trade if he did persist in the Confession of the Murther it was as true and he found it by experience that he should never have peace of Conscience if he denyed it And therefore he was no sooner returned from the King and Council to Newgate which comeing in a Coach 't is certain was not half an hour but he most earnestly requested Capt. Richardson who had been with him and heard what he had said that Morning for God's sake to go back and assure the King and that Honourable Board from him That the first Confession which he had made on Oath was true in all Circumstances and that whatsoever he had said before them that Morning to the contrary was occasioned only by the Consternation Fear and Perplexity of mind he was under which the Capt. immediately did and hath since declared the same upon Oath Thus far the words of Mr. Prances own Narrative well worthy the Readers perusal not only for his satisfaction in this behalf but also for the several notorious Villanies of a great number of Popish Priests therein by name exposed To which as a very confirming Circumstance we may add that falling very dangerously Ill. soon after he then when he had nothing but a certain prospect of approaching Death before his eyes he declared and asserted to divers his first Confession to be true in all points and also afterwards as soon as he recovered his Health he repeated the same with all stedfastness before the Kings most Excellent Majesty and the Lords of the Council Whereupon his Majesty was most gratiously pleased to grant him his Pardon From all which 't is most plain that all this Dust which the Priests and Jesuits have raised about this matter is fairly blown away and Truth is become perspicuous to any ingenious man that will but Impartially look into these Transactions and consider them as they are and not as they are represented by their false perspectives SECT II. On the 21th of December 1678. there was some Discovery relating to this Plot given into a Committee of the House of Lords by one Mr. Edmund Everard a Scottish Gentleman who had been kept four years Prisoner in the Tower the effect of which and the occasions and manner of such his Confinement was as followeth This Mr. Everard having been concern'd with the English Forces in France and there having the Honour to be acquainted with his Grace the Illustrious Duke of Monmouth was employ'd as Agent for the concerns of the English Militia at the French Court where he became acquainted with the Lady Ann Gourdon Sister to the Marquess of Huntly in Scotland living in a Popish Convent in Paris who being a Lady very Zealous for Popery of excellent Accomplishments and great Correspondence did in the moneth of Novemb. 1673. acquaint him That there was a grand design on foot in England for settling Popery there and a project either to dissolve the then Parliament or sow mis-understandings between his Majesty and it and that there was a considerable Party labouring to make the Duke of York King and that his Majesty would be made away and shortly would not be in a case to hurt any body After this he was entertain'd to Introduce Peter Talbot Popish Arch-Bishop of Dublin to the Marshal Bellefond and the French King into whose presence he was admitted and allow'd half an hours Conference presenting that King with a Letter and other Papers That the said Talbot then told Mr. Everard that the business he had to negotiate with that King mightily concern'd the welfare of all the Catholicks in England but those of Ireland more especially being to propose ways to the French King to relieve them of their present Persecutions and undertake their Protection some of which Expedients he declared were to Arm some of the Irish and secure a Sea-port Town in Ireland for the French for which Negotiation he said he had good Warrant and Commission from some of the greatest persons in England Mr. Everard immediately discovered all this to one Sir Robert Welsh hoping for his Assistance to Communicate it to his Majesty of Great Britain but it seems Sir Robert re-acquainted Colonel Talbot the said Bishops Brother both what Everard had said of his Brother and of the Lady Huntly and that he was designing for England to make known such their Correspondencies who thereupon threatned him That if he offered to do any such thing they would infallibly procure that he should forthwith be Committed to the Tower of London or the Gatehouse That notwithstanding Mr. Everard privately getting away not without great danger being desperately sought after and pursued in France came over into England but within three or four days and before he could get to speak with the Duke of Monmouth whom he intended to have Address'd himself unto he was suddenly sent for to one of the Secretaries of State and without any Examination or Crime proved Committed to the Tower where after some moneths he was Examined by the then Lieutenant to whom he declared all the said particulars of the Traiterous Conspiracy whereof he seem'd to take little knowledge but threatned to Rack him next day and afterwards Hang him if he would not Confess some design he had against the Duke of Monmouth and several other Examinations he had before other persons to that purpose but was continued Prisoner on this false and malicious suggestion occasioned by the Malice and Interest of the said Traitors beyond the Seas and thereby their Conspiracy lay Concealed for the space of four years till after the Plot was discovered by Dr. Oates and then
strangers nor any persons of Quality to come into Somerset-house on the 12th 13th and 14th days of October that is the day Sir Edmund was Murthered and the two days following and particularly that Prince Rupert did come in that time and he did refuse him and sent him back again Now as to the defences they offered for themselves 1. They all denied the Fact very stoutly but that is of no value against plain Evidence and doe but aggravate their Crime 2. Hill would have invalidated Mr. Prance's Testimony because he had once denied it and said They were innocent But that the Court vindicated for the Reasons before reciâ—ed that it could no ways legally take off his Evidence for he was no ways perjuâ—'d but rather excusable under the Circumstances aforesaid 3. The said Hill to evade the Charge brings several Witnesses all of his own Religion to aver he was never from his Lodgings after Nine a Clock at Night but these did it so mineingly and generally that no stress could be laid upon them it being proved that they had several Keys to the door and that Hill might go in and out without their knowledg and one of his Witnesses makes a palpable mistake of an whole Month P. 55. and two of Greens Witnesses a whole Week P. 66. So ill had they calculated the time which they were brought to speak to 4. On the behalf of Berry The Soldiers who were placed at the Gate Sentinâ—l say They saw a Sedan come in so far they agree with the King's Evidence but then they confidently aver That they saw none go out all night But what was this to the matter of Fact and to the Murther committed sworn in all Circumstances so punctually The Sentinel might be from his Post and Mr. Prance who best knew the contrivance tells us that Berry had inveigled the Sentinel in to drink and so he might not see the Sedan go out and then the Sentinel knowing he had committed a dangerous fault by so doing might be so wise though not very honest to conceal it and say there was no Sedan went out This was all the defence they could make which in every part appeared so weak that as well the Jury as all other impartial Auditors were fully satisfied to bring them in guilty of the Murther On Tuesday the 11th of February they were brought again to the Bar in order to receive their Sentence which after a grave speech was pronounced by Mr. Justice Wild to whom it apperrained as being second Judg in the Court. In pursuance of which Sentence Robert Green and Lawrence Hill were Executed at Tybuâ—ne on the 21th of February and Henrry Berry on the 28th of the said Month. They all three did at their deaths deny the Crime and used that Expression That they were as Innocent as the Child new born But we may justly fear they were under an horrid delusion and so charm'd and bound up by so many Oaths and Sacraments by their Gostly Fathers the Jesuits and Preists that they durst not acknowledg the Truth but on the contrary thought by concealing and denying the same they should do great Service to the Romish Church by keeping it from scandal and be Sainted for it in Heaven That there was some such Artifice used to seal up their Lips is plain by this notable Circumstance When Hill and Green were hang'd and dead Captain Richardson Keeper of Newgate and many others present saw the Executioner amongst other things take a Paper out of Hill's Pocket purporting to be the form of speech that he should use to the People at the Gallows which being very remarkably Penn'd I shall here insert the same verbatim as follows I now come to the Fatal Place where I must end my Life and I hope with that Courage that may become my Innocence I must now appear before the great Judge who knows all things and judges rightly and I hope it will be happy for me a Sinner that I am thus wrongfully put to death I call God Angels and Men to Witness that I am wholy ignorant of the Manner Cause or Time of the Death of Justice Godfrey although on that account by the malice of wicked men brought to this shameful Death which I hope will give me a speedy passage to Eternal Life In this hope I die chearfully because of my Innocence and the benefit of the precious Wounds of my Blessed Saviour by whose Merits I hope for Salvation I die a Roman Catholick desiring all such to Pray for me And I beseech God in his Justice to discover this Horrid Murther with the Contrivers thereof that my Innocence may appear And though from my heart I forgive my Accusers yet I Cite all such as have had a hand in this Bloody Contrivance before the greâ— Tribunal of Gods Justice to answer for the wrong they have done the Innocent and particularly the Lord Cheif Justice and the Brothers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey with Jury Witnesses and all their Partakers Oh Lord bless and preserve his Majesty and be merciful to this poor Nation and lay not Innocent Blood to its Charge So I bid you all Farewel in Jesus Christ into whose hands I commit my Spirit This Paper is no small Evidence of the ill Arts used by the Jesuiâ—s and Popish Preists to make their People persist in denial of their Crimes at their Death and keep up the Credit of their Church though with never so certain an hazard of their own Souls For 't is certain these were not Hill's own words but prepared by some other for See the Animadversions Printed thereon P. 2. him to say and what need was there of so much skill in a matter where only Truth and not Art was necessary For if Hill knew himself guiltless he could have told the people so which would have been more Credible out of his mouth from his heart then out of this Paper from his memory But they were afraid he would either confess the whole matter or that the power of Truth would over-bear his Tongue in some Circumstance or at least that he would not deny it so resolutely and in such a taking manner as might fix a suspicion and odium upon the Witnesses Judg and Jury in the minds of the people which was the great thing they aimed at and therefore some Preist drew up this form of what he should say that every word might be according to their mind how remote soever it was from his Thoughts or the Truth Nor is it any wonder that they should teach their Proselytes to make Speeches just as they do Prayers Opere Operate â— without any understanding or attention or consent of the mind to the words they use For that the words were fram'd by another for him to Con by heart is most evident for that he never had Pen Ink nor Paper all the while he was in Newgate and his Wise Testified that it was not of his hand writing nor did she ever see it
before or know how he came by it yet he began his Speech with these very words and repeated as much thereof as he had got without book but certainly a man under his Circumstances would never have troubled his mind with a parcel of formal words if the Awe of the Preist or some Absolution on that Condition had not been more prevalent with him than Truth or Conscience the strain of it shewing a malicious Spirit in the Inditer towards the Evidence and Court as it does his uncharitableness towards the Prisoner to impose thus on a poor ignorant dying man And whereas the Papists do generalâ—y report That Berry was always or at least died a Protestant The same is no toriously false for he had many Years been a Papist cheifly led thereunto for Lucre and to get an Employment as he acknowledged to Mr. Ordinary to whom 't is true he declared a little before his Execution That he did not believe many things which the Doctors of the Romish Church teach as necessary to be embraced for Articles of Faith which is no more than what many other Papists will affirm But the said Berry neither in Prison nor at the Gallows would ever disown the Romish Church nor in the least declare himself a Protestant CHAP. XV. The Proceedings in Parliament touching the Plot with the discovery of Mr. Reading's ill practice and the substance of the Proceedings against him for attempting to stifle the King ' s Evidence relating thereunto AT the beginning of March his Majesty sent his Royal Highness the Duke of York a Letter Ordering him to withdraw for some time who thereupon set forwards on the third of March towards Flanders and on the sixth of the same the new Parliament met whom the King entertain'd with a Speech setting forth what had been done in prosecution of the Plot disbanding the Army c. during the interval and concerning the Duke of York's being so withdrawn beyond the Seas his Majesty was pleased to take notice thereof in these words And above all I have Commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the most Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence Me towards Popish Counsels But some unhappy Traverses happened about settling a Speaker which stumbling at the Threshold was even then look'd upon by observing men as an Ominous Presage That little good would be attained or effected by that Assembly though undoubtedly it was composed as of men of the best Estates so generally of the most able Understandings and most publick-spirited Gentlemen that over served their Country in that Capacity To allay and compose these Animosities which were unhappily started by the Treasurer and his Interest purposely to render this Parliament ineffectual which he knew would otherwise prove Fatal to him There was a short Prorogation and then they fell to Business and on the 24th of March 1678. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House doth declare That they are fully satisfied by the proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers Years last past hath been an Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the Murthering of his Majestie 's Sacred Person and for Subverting the Protestant Religion and the Antient and well-Establisht Government of this Kingdom And the Concurrence of the House of Lords being desired herein the next day their Lordships sent a Message to the Commons That their Lordships did immediately and unanimously Concur with the House of Commons in the Declaration as to the Plot. Thus have we the Judgment of Two Parliaments in the Case solemnly and publickly declared The same 25th of March One Mr. Sackvile a Member of the House of Commons and Burgess for East Greenstead in Sussex being charg'd by Dr. Oats to have said That they were Sons of Whores who said there was a Plot and that he was a lying Rogue that said it the matter was examined and Resolved That the said Mr. Edw. Sackvile be sent to the Tower and that he be Expelled the House and made incapable of bearing any Office and though the next day on his Knees at the Bar of that House he desired to have the last part of this Sentence remitted yet the House would not Retract what they had done About the same time Mr. Bedloe made a complaint of harsh usage and discouragements to the House of Commons and upon Oath set forth That going to the Lord Treasurer for some money by virtue of an Order from the Council my Lord took him into his Closet and asked him Whether the Duke of Buckingham or Lord Shaftsbury or any of the Members of the House of Commons had desired him to say any thing against him and to tell him who they were and he would well Reward him and to know if he would desist from giving Evidence against the and the Lords in the Tower c. To which he answered That he had once been an ill man and desired to be so no more To which the Treasurer replied You may have a great sum of money and live in another Countrey as Geneva Suâ—den or New-England and should have what money he would ask to maintain him there But Mr. Bedloc refusing such Temptations his Lordship began to threaten him saying There was a Boat and a Yatch ready to carry him far enough for telling of Tales and after this Guards were as Spies upon him and he very ill used till by an Address to the King the same was remedied and better Care taken And at the same time Dr. Oats declared to the House That one day he being in the Privy Garden the said Lord Treasurer passing by and reflecting on him said There goes one of the Saviours of England but I hope to see him hang'd within a Month all which Complaints as to the Earl of Danby were referred to the Consideration of the Committee of Secrecy We have before Chapter the 13th set forth a kind of Counter-plot laid for opposing and vilifying the Evidence of Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe but now we must give an account of another kind of Design still aiming at the same end but manag'd more privately to mollifie aad sweeten Mr. Bedloe in his Evidence and stifle his Testimony by his own consent that it might not fall too heavy upon the Lords in the Tower but this too proved Abortive for though they had chosen a notable Agent for the Work viz. One Mr. Reading a Council at Law famous for his Adventures in the Isle of Axolme yet Mr. Bedloe out-witted him and brought him to deserved Infamy for that corrupt practice for after he had long held him in hand got several sums of money of him procured by a stratagem sufficient Witnesses to prove it out of his own mouth and under his hand and made the Business full ripe Then on the third of April the Committee of Secrecy to whom
Mr. Bedloe had from time to time communicated this Intrigue and from them took his measures of proceeding in it inform'd the House of Commons that they had something of moment lately come to their knowledg wherein they desired the Assistance of the House hereupon it was immediately Ordered That all Persons who were not Members should be put out of the Speakers Chamber and that no Person should be suffered to go out of the House and that the Keys be brought in and laid upon the Table which being done and the business discovered and debated it was Ordered That Mr. Speaker immediately issue out his Warrant against Nathaniel Reading Esquire who being then walking in the Lobby for he had much Practice in Soliciting Causes in Parliament and commonly attended there was taken into Custody and the Secret Committee Ordered to take his Examination which being dispatch'd and Reported the House on the 8th of April made the following Address to the King for bringing him to his Tryal May it please your Majesty WEE your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled having according to our Duty made equiry into the Damnable and Hellish Plot against your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion have upon examination discovered that Nathaniel Reading Esq hath Industriously and against the Duty of a Loyal Subject held frequent Correspondencies with several Lords and other Persons that stand Committed for High-Treason and also used his utmost endeavours to prevent and suppress your Majesties evidence and as much as in him lay to stifle the discovery of the said Plot and thereby to render the same Fallacious and of no reality and by such undue means to prevent the Malefactors from coming to Justice Therefore We your said Commons do most humbly beseech your Majesty that you will be Gratiously pleased to command That a Commission of Oyer and Terminer do immediately Issue forth for the Tryal of the said Nathaniel Reading for the said Offence that he may be brought to publick Justice Accordingly a Commission was granted and on Thursday the 24th of April Mr. Reading was brought to his Tryal before Sir Francis North Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas and most of the other Judges except the Lord Cheif Justice of the Kings-Bench who was in the Country and several other Persons of Quality in the Commission named at the Kings-Bench-Bar at Westminster When the Jury came to be Sworn Mr. Reading desired the Liberty of a Peremptory Challenge which the Court could not allow he standing Indicted only for a Misdemeanour not Treason then he replied with a great deal of Submission and Eloquence seeming to urge that the nature of the Crime as it was laid was Treason and thence descended to crave the Opinion of the Court whether he might not be Indicted again for Treason for the same matter but in this the Court refused to gratifie him only telling him that the laying of it but as a Misdemeanour was a favour and ought so to be by him accounted and so proceeded to Swear the Jury as follows Sir John Cutler Kt. Joshuah Galliard Esq Edw. Wilford Esq Thomas Henslow Esq Thomas Earsby Esq John Serle Esq Thomas Cass Esq Rainsford Waterhouse Esq Matthew Bateman Esq Walter Moyle Esq Richard Pagett Esq John Haynes Esq The Effect of the Evidence 1. Mr. Bedloe set forth how he came acquainted with Mr. Reading whom he employed in some Concerns See Reading's Tryal P. 15. That he never went about to have him stifle the whole Plot but only to make him easie towards some particular People that he Solicited for to which purpose he would tell him it was not for his safety to run at the whole Herd and if he could do a kindness he should be well gratified 2. That the cheif Persons he Solicited for were the Lord Petre the Lord Powis the Lord Stafford and Sir Henry Titchborn in whose name he promised great Rewards both in money and Estate for shortning the Evidence and bringing them off from the charge of High Treason and particularly that he made him easie towards Whitebread and Fenwick when they were first Arraigned which was to be an Assurance that he would accomplish what he promised and an example what kindness might be done wherein the Witness was willing to comply to carry on the Intreigue with the Lords till it might properly be discovered he esteeming that of greater Consequence then two old Priests whom he might charge further another time 3. He did not know but Reading had laid a Trap for him and therefore discovered these Conferences to Prince Rupert the Earl of Essex Mr. Kirkby and others and Mr. Reading being to give him a meeting at his Lodgings on the 26th of March he had planted one Mr. Speke a Gentleman of good Quality behind the hangings and making an hollow place in the Bed laid his man there cover'd over smooth with a Rugg as if it had been new made that they might over-hear what passed and not be descryed There he agreed to bring the Final Answer of the Lords and told him That he had Authority to draw blank Deedes both for Sums and Estates which they would settle on him and that the Lord Stafford was Felling of Timber to sell to raise money for him c. 4. That the Monday following the Witness and the Prisoner drew up a Paper of what the Witness had to charge the aforesaid Lords with which was carried to the Lords and then return'd by Reading in his own hand writing but minc'd so as not to signifie any thing material against them This paper Mr. Reading own'd and it was read in Court 5. Mr. Speke sets forth the Conference between Mr. Bedloe and Mr. Reading which he over-heard and that Mr. Ibidem P. 28. Reading said The Lord Stafford would settle an Estate in Glocestershire on Mr. Bedloe and Sign and Seal a Deed thereof within ten days after he should be discharged and several other discourses plainly proving the matter of the Indictment too long here to be recited And the same was sworn by Henry Wiggins Mr. Bedloes man 6. Mr. Bedloe swore positively That Mr. Reading had given him several Sums of money amounting in all to 56l or upwards and all to dispose him to this matter To all this Mr. Reading had very little to say in his own defence that was pertinent or material but only endeavoured with a multitude of fine words to cloud the matter and asperse the Evidence yet in the process of his discourse he did in effect own the whole matter of Fact he stood charged with but would have had it beleiv'd that Mr. Bedloe first proposed it to him and that all that he did was not in the least to shorten lessen or stifle any thing of Truth which Mr. Bedloe had to say but only to prevent him from the guilt of Perjury and Innocent Blood c. All which being sufficiently
Coach and Horses in the same Street both Irish men were Engaged in the same Design that Father Gifford promised this Examinate One Hundred Pounds for to carry on the Work and told him He was to have the money from the Church That the said Gifford Clinton Flower and He did use to meet in St. Jame's Feilds in the dark of the Evening and there to discourse of these matters and that the several Informations that he had given to the said Elizabeth Oxley he had from the said Father Gifford He further said That the said Flower and Clinton told him the said Stubbs That they would carry on the said Fire and that they had Fireballs for that purpose and that they would fire other Houses in Holborn at the same time He confessed he was at the Fire in the Temple but was not Engaged to do any thing in it That Gifford told him that there were English French and Irish Roman Catholicks enow in London to make a very good Army and that the French King was coming with 60 Thousand men under a pretence of a Progress to shew the Dauphin his Dominions but it was to plant them along the Coasts at Diep Bulloign Calais and Dunkirk to be presently ready to be Landed in England when there was an opportunity which he doubted not but might be by the middle of June for by that time all the Roman Catholicks here would be ready who were all to rise and with the Assistance of the French Forces to cut off and utterly destroy the Hereticks that then the Papists were to be distinguish't by marks in their Hats and that the said Father Gifford doubted not but he should be an Abbot or a Bishop when the work was over for the good Service he had done who frequently told this Examinate and the said Flower and Clinton That it was no more Sin to Kill an Heretick than to knock a Dog o' th head and that they did God good Service in doing what mischeif they could by Firing their Houses That it was well Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murther'd for he was their devilish Enemy That Coleman was a Saint in Heaven for what he had done c. That the Examinate was fearful he should be Murther'd for this Confession the said Father Gifford having sworn him to Secrecy and told him he should be damn'd if he made any discovery and should be sure to be Kill'd but gave him leave to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance because he was an House-keeper and it was necessary that he should stay in Town to help to promote the work of Burning therefore the taking of such Oaths to him should be no sin April the 15th That worthy Patriot Sir Thomas Player giving the House of Commons information concerning this matter of Oxley and Stubbs the Examinations were transmitted to the Lords and the Lords sent them to the secret Committee to make a further inspection and progress therein but they had their hands so full of Business that it was thought fit to appoint a Special Committee for this very purpose before whom the Parties were again Examined and gave them such satisfaction that the House became Suitors to his Majesty that they might both have his gracious Pardon which was granted and a Proclamation but not till the 4th of May set forth Reciting That whereas due Information hath been given that Morrice Gifford a Popish Priest Roger Clinton Derby Molraine alias Flower and several other Persons of the Romish Religion have out of their detestable and barbarous Malice conspired and agreed together to set on Fire the City of London the Suburbs thereof and the places thereunto Adjacent and have in prosecution of such their devilish and wicked Design procured divers Mansion Houses within the said City Suburbs and parts adjacent at sundry times and in divers places to be set on Fire and Burnt The King 's most Excellent Majesty at the humble desire of the Commons in Parliament Assembled doth Command the said Gifford Clinton and Flower who are fled from Justice to render themselves by the 10th of May instant and is pleased to promise 50 l. Reward to any that should apprehend any of them or if any of themselves should come in and discover his Accomplices so as any of them may be taken and Convicted he shall not only have his Pardon but the 50 l. also for each Incendiary As this ingenious Confession of Oxley and Stubbs was a grand Confirmation and undeniable proof of the restless Malice of these bloody Priests so 't is a notable Corroboration of the Truth and sincerity of Mr. Bedloes Evidence for how was it possible if what he says were not certain Truth but only contrived Stories as Papists calumniat How is it probable I say That Stubbs should happen so exactly to accuse the very same man which Mr. Bedloe had done for the Instigator to these barbarous Attempts of Firing for at that time Mr. Bedloe though he had given in such his Informations to the Committee of Secrecy yet had not published the same abroad so that Stubbs could not then have any notice thereof On the 20th of April happen'd an extraordinary Change at Court no less unexpected than grateful to the people who by such alteration of Ministers did hope to find considerable improvements in the management of the publick Affairs for his Majesty having caused his Privy Council to be extraordinarily summon'd was pleas'd by the Lord Chancellor to dissolve them and to declare his Pleasure That for the future their constant Number should be limited to that of Thirty whereof Fifteen to be of his chief Officers who shall be Privy Councellors by their Places Ten others of the Nobility and Five Commons of the Realm whose known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation shall render them without all suspicion of either mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Kingdom These Fifteen Officers to which the Quality of a Privy Councellor was hereby annext are The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Bishop of London The Lord Chancellor One of the Lord Cheif Justices The Admiral The Master of the Ordnance The Treasurer and Chancellor or First Comissioner of the Exchequer The Lord Privy-Seal The Master of the Horse The Lord Steward The Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold The Groom of the Stole Two Secretaries of State And that there shall be a President of the Council when necessary and room for the Secretary of Scotland when any such shall be here The Names of the New Privy Council then Establisht were as follows His Highness Prince Rupert William Lord Arch Bishop of Canterbury Heneage Lord Finch Lord Chancellor of England Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury Lord President of the Council Arthur Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy-Seal Christopher Duke of Albemarle James Duke of Monmouth Master of the Horse Henry Duke of New-Castle John Duke of Lauderdaile Secretary of State for Scotland James Duke of Ormond Lord Steward of the Houshold Charles Lord Marquess
said Plea contained which may any way give this Honourable House any occasion of Offence which he hopes will be granted The said Lord as to that part of the Impeachment that contains the matter following Namely That for divers Years last past there hath been contrived and carried on by the Papists a most Traiterous and Execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change and subvert the Ancient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein Established and to extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof and that the said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended thereby to execute and accomplish their aforesaid Wicked and Traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Lord Petre and other Lords therein named together with several other Persons threin likewise named and mentioned as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid have Traiterously acted and consulted to and for the accomplishing the said Wicked Pernicious and Traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and Traiterously Agree Consult Conspire and Resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther his Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal Estate Crown and Dignity and by malicious and advised speaking and otherwise declaring such their purposes and intentions as also to Subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government and to seize and share among themselves the Estates and Inheritances of his Majestie 's Protestant Subjects and to erect and restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom suppressed for their Superstition and Idolatry and to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Vested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Livings Benefices and Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesties Person extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties good Subjects Subvert the lawful Government of this Kingdom and Subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome And the said Conspirators and their Complices and Confederates Traiterously had and held several Meetings Assemblies and Consultations wherein 't was contrived and designed amongst them what means should be used and the Persons and Instruments which should be imployed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poisoning Shooting Stabbing or some such like ways or means And to that part of the Impeachment named The better to compass their Traiterous Designs have consulted to raise Money Men Horses Arms and Ammunition The said Lord saving to himself and which he humbly prays may be reserved to him the liberty of Answering over and denying all and singular the said Crimes and Offences charged on him Saith And humbly offereth to this Honourable House that the charge of those Crimes and Offences so imposed on him by the said Impeachment are so general and uncertain that he cannot possibly give any direct Answer thereto or make any just or lawful defence upon his Tryal for that the said Charge had no manner of certainty in point of time it being laid only for many Years now last past which may be for 5 10 20 30 or more Years whereby though the said Lord knoweth himself to be altogether innocent of any such horrid and detestable Crimes as by the said Impeachment are objected against him Yet 't is impossible for him on any Tryal thereof to be prepared with his just and lawful defence by Witnesses to prove himself absent or in any other place at the time of such Meetings or Consultations to or for any of the wicked Designs and Purposes in the said Impeachment mentioned as on his Tryal may be suddenly objected against him when he cannot by any care or foresight whatever have such Witnesses ready as would speak thereunto if they were certainly charged for any Traiterous Design Act or Crime at any time certainly alleadged in the said Impeachment Nor is the said Charge in the said Impeachment more certain as to the place of any such Traiterous Meeting or Consultation laid down in the said Impeachment it being only alledged to be at divers places in this Realm of England and elsewhere which for the Cause aforesaid is so utterly uncertain that it deprives the said Lord of his defence on his Tryal Likewise the uncertainties of the number of Meetings or Consultations to the wicked purposes in the Impeachment and the not shewing how many times the Lords met and consulted and with whom in particular doth likewise deprive him of all possibility of making his defence in producing Witnesses for the said Lord being wholy innocent cannot suppose or imagin what Meeting or Consultation either to raise Money or Men for carrying on of a Traiterous Design or to any other wicked intent or purpose in the said Impeachment mentioned shall or may be objected against him on his Tryal and 't is as impossible for him to bring Witnesses to prove all the Meetings he hath had with others in his life time as 't is for him to foresee on this general Charge what Meetings or Consultations may on his Tryal be objected against him as Traiterous Consultations And whereas 't is in the said Impeachment charged on the said Lord That he hath uttered Treason by malicious and advised speaking and otherwise declaring the same The said Lord saith That never any Traiterous Thoughts entered into his Heart and therefore cannot possibly know what words or writings he ever spoke uttered reveal'd or declared which are now charged on him as Treason their being no words or writings at all specified in the Impeachment whereby the said Lord might know how to prepare his defence against them So as this Honourable Court may or might judg whether the same words or writings are in truth Treasonable or not ALL WHICH incertainties and eminent and apparent Dangers of the said Lord being there-upon surprized in a Cause of this Consequence wherein his Life and Honour more dear to him than his Life and all else that is dear to him in this World are immediately concerned being seriously weighed and considered by your Lordships he humbly prayeth as by his Councel he is advised that your Lordships will not put him to Answer the said Impeachment herein above recited till the same be reduced to such compleat certainty that the said Lord may know how to Answer thereunto and may thereby be enabled to make his just defence accordingly ALL WHICH notwithstanding he humbly submitteth to whatsoever your Lordships in Justice shall order and think fit and as
to all other Treasons Crimes and Offences contained mentioned or specified in the said Impeachment the said Lord protesting his Innocency In the great Wisdom and Sentence of this Honourable Court shall always Acquiesce So the Rest Mutatis Mutandis But these Pleas being Judg'd unsatisfactory and illegal they were afterwards forc'd to plead the general Issue And now there were daily expectations of their being brought to Tryal and Scaffolds erected in Westminster-Hall for that purpose but in the mean time the Earl of Danby late Lord Treasurer whom the Commons had likewise Impeach'd for Treason and who had for some time absconded himself did on the 15th of April unexspectedly surrender himself and insisted on his Pardon which the Commons Voted Illegal and thereupon prayed Judgment against him on the Impeachment About this matter and also upon the Question whether the Bishops had a right to sit upon the Lords when they should be brought to Tryal some misunderstandings happened between the two Houses for removing of which and settling a good Correspondence the House of Commons used several Endeavours as by the following Paper may appear THE Reasons and Narrative OF Proceedings BETWIXT THE Two Houses WHICH Were delivered by the House of COMMONS TO THE LORDS At the Conference touching the Lords in the Tower On Munday 26th of May 1679. THE Commons have always desired that a good Correspondence may be preserved between the two Houses There is now depending between your Lordships and the Commons a matter of the greatest weight In the Transactions of which your Lordships seem to apprehend some difficulty in the matters proposed by the Commons To clear this the Commons have desired this Conference and by it they hope to manifest to your Lordships that the Propositions of the House made by their Committee in relation to the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower have been only such as are well warranted by the Laws of the Parliament and Constitutions of the Government and in no sort intrench upon the Judicature of the Peers but are most necessary to be insisted upon that the Antient Rights of Judicature in Parliament may be maintained The Commons readily acknowledg that the Crimes charged upon the Earl of Powis Viscount Stafford Lord Petre Lord Arundel of Warder and Lord Bellasis are of deep Guilt and call for speedy Justice But withall they hold That any change in Judicature in Parliament made without consent in full Parliament to be of pernicious Consequence both to his Majesty and his Subjects and conceive themselves obliged to transmit to their Posterity all the Rights which of this kind they have received from their Ancestors by putting your Lordships in mind of the progress that hath already been between the two Houses in relation to the Propositions made by the Commons and the Reasonableness of the Propositions themselves They doubt not but to make it appear that their aim has been no other than to avoid such Consequences and preserve that Right and that there is no delay of Justice on their part And to that end do offer to your Lordships the ensuing Reasons and Narrative That the Commons in bringing the Earl of Danby to Justice and in discovery of that Execrable and Traiterous Conspiracy of which the Five Popish Lords now stand Impeached and for which some of their wicked Accomplices have already undergone the Sentence of the Law as Traytors and Murtherers have laboured under many great Difficulties is not unknown to your Lordships Nor is it less known to your Lordships That upon the Impeachment of the House of Commons against the Earl of Danby for High Treason and other High Crimes Misdemenours and Offences even the Common Justice of Sequestring him from Parliament and forthwith Committing him to safe Custody was then required by the Commons and denied by the House of Peers though he then Sate in their House Of which your Lordships have been so sensible that at a free Conference the Tenth of April last your Lordships declared That it was the Right of the Commons and well Warranted by Precedents of former Ages That upon an Impeachment of the Commons a Peer so Impeached ought of Right to be Ordered to with-draw and then to be committed And had not that Justice been denied to the Commons great part of this Session of Parliament which hath been spent in framing and adjusting a Bill for causing the Earl of Danby to appear and Answer that Justice from which he was fled had been saved and had been imployed for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and the security of the Nation and in Prosecution of the other Five Lords Neither had he had the Opportunity for procuring for himself that illegal Pardon which bears date the First of March last past and which he hath now pleaded in Bar of his Impeachment Nor of wasting so great a proportion of the Treasure of the Kingdom as he hath done since the Commons exhibited their Articles of Impeachment against him After which time thus lost by reason of the denyal of that Justice which of Right belonged to the Commons upon their Impeachment the said Bill being ready for the Royal Assent the said Earl then rendred himself and by your Lordships Order of the Sixteenth of April last was Committed to the Tower After which he pleads the said Pardon and being prest did at length declare He would relie upon and abide by that Plea which Pardon pleaded being illegal and void and so ought not to Bar or Preclude the Commons from having Justice upon the Impeachment They did thereupon with their Speaker on the Fifth of May instant in the name of themselves and all the Commons of England Demand Judgment against the said Earl upon their Impeachment Not doubting but that your Lordships did intend in all your Proceedings upon the Impeachment to follow the usual Course and Method of Parliament But the Commons were not a little surprized by the Message from your Lordships delivered them on the Seventh of May thereby acquainting them That as well the Lords Spiritual as Temporal had Ordered that the Tenth of May instant should be the day for hearing the Earl of Danby to make good his Plea of Pardon And that on the Thirteenth of May the other Five Lords Impeached should be brought to their Tryal And that your Lordships had Addressed to his Majesty for naming a Lord High Steward as well in the Case of the Earl of Danby as the other Five Lords Upon consideration of this Message the Commons found that the admitting the Lords Spiritual to exercise Jurisdiction in these Cases was an alteration of the Judicature in Parliament and which extended as well to the Proceeding against the other Five Lords as the Earl of Danby And if a Lord High-Steward should be necessary upon Tryal on Impeachments of the Commons the Power of Judicature in Parliament upon Impeachments might be Defeated by suspending or denying a Commission to constitute a Lord High-Steward And that the
said days of Tryal appointed by your Lordships were so near to the time of your said Message that these Matters and the Method of Proceeding upon the Tryal could not be Adjusted by Conference betwixt the two Houses before the Day so nominated And consequently the Commons could not then Proceed to Tryal unless the Zeal which they have for speedy Judgment against the Earl of Danby that so they might proceed to Tryal of the other Five Lords should induce them at this Juncture both to admit the inlargement of your Lordships Jurisdiction and to sit down under these or any hardships though with the hazard of all the Commons Power of Impeaching for time to come rather than the Tryal of the said Five Lords should be deferred for some short time whilst these Matters might be agreed on and settled For Reconciling Differences in these great and weighty Matters and for saving that time which would necessarily have been spent in Debates and Conferences betwixt the two Houses and so expediting the Tryal without giving up the Power of Impeachment or rendring them ineffectual The Commons thought fit to propose to your Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be appointed for this purpose At which Committee when agreed to by your Lordships it was first proposed That the time of Tryal of the Lords in the Tower should be put off till the other Matters were Adjusted and it was then agreed That the Propositions as to the time of the Tryal should be the last thing considered And the effect of this Agreement stands reported upon your Lordships Books After which The Commons communicated to your Lordships by your Committee a Vote of theirs viz. That the Committee of the Commons should insist upon their former Vote of their House That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and that when that Matter should be settled and the Method of Proceedings Adjusted the Commons would then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the Pardon of the Earl of Danby against whom they had before Demanded Judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other Five Lords in the Tower Which Vote extended as well to the Earl of Danby as the other Five Lords but the Commons as yet received nothing from your Lordships towards an Answer of that Vote save that your Lordships have acquainted them that the Bishops have asked leave of the House of Peers that they might withdraw themselves from the Tryal of the said Five Lords with liberty of entring their usual protestation And though the Commons Committee have almost daily Declared to your Lordships Committee that that was a necessary point of Right to be settled before the Tryal and offered to debate the same your Committee always answered That they had not any Power from your Lordships either to conser upon or to give any Answer concerning that Matter And yet your Lordships without having given the Commons any satisfactory Answer to the said Vote or permitting any Conference or Debate thereupon and contrary to the said Agreement did on Thursday the Twenty Second of May send a Message to the Commons Declaring That the Lords Spiritual as well as Temporal had Ordered that the Twenty Seventh of this instant May be appointed for the Tryal of the Five Lords So that the Commons cannot but apprehend that your Lordships have not only departed from what was agreed on and in effect laid aside that Committee which was Constituted for preserving a good understanding betwixt the two Houses and better dispatch of the weighty Affairs now depending in Parliament But must also needs conclude from the Message and the Votes of your Lordships on the Fourteenth of May That the Lords Spiritual have a Right to stay and sit in Court till the Court proceeds to the Vote of Guilty or not Guilty And from the Bishops asking leave as appears by your Lordships Books two days after your said Vote that they might with-draw themselves from the Tryal of the said Lords with liberty of entring their usual Protestation and by their persisting still to go on and give their Votes Proceedings upon the Impeachment that their desire of leave to with-draw at the said Tryal is only an Evasive Answer to the before mentioned Vote of the Commons and chiefly intended as an Argument for a Right of Judicature in Proceedings upon Impeachments and as a Reserve to judg upon the Earl of Danby's Plea of Pardon and upon these and other like Impeachments although no such Power was ever claimed by their Predecessors but is utterly denyed by the Commons and the Commons are the rather to beleive it so intended because the very asking leave to withdraw seems to imploy a Right to be be there and that they cannot be absent without it And because by this way they would have it in their Power whether or no for the future either in the Earl of Danby's Case or any other they will ever ask leave to be absent and the Temporal Lords a like Power of denying leave if that should once be admitted necessary The Commons therefore are obliged not to proceed to the Tryal of the Lords on the Twenty Seventh of this instant May but to Adhere to their aforesaid Vote And for so doing besides what hath been now and formerly by them said to your Lordships do offer you these Reasons following Reasons I. Because your Lordships have received the Earl of Danby's Plea of Pardon with a very long and usual Protestation wherein he hath Aspersed his Majesty by false Suggestions as if his Majesty had Commanded or Countenanced the Crimes he stands charged with and particularly suppressing and discouraging the Discovery of the Plot and endeavouring to Introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical way of Government Which remains as a Scandal upon Record against his Majesty tending to render his Person and Government odious to his People against which it ought to be the first and principal care of both Houses to Vindicate his Majesty by doing Justice upon the said Earl II. The Setting up a Pardon to be a Bar of an Impeachment defeats the whole use and effect of Impeachments and should this point be admitted or stand doubted it would totally discourage the exhibiting any for the future whereby the cheif Institution for the Preservation of the Government and consequently the Government it self would be destroyed And therefore the Case of the said Earl which in consequence concerns all Impeachments whatsoever ought to be determined before that of the said Five Lords which is but their particular Case III. And without resorting to many Authorities of greater Antiquity The Commons desire your Lordships to take notice with the same regard they do of the Declaration which that Excellent Prince King Charles the First of blessed Memory made in this behalf in his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament Wherein Stating the several parts of this regulated Monarchy he
says The King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each particular Privileges And among those which belong to the King he reckons Power of Pardoning After the enumerateing of which and other his Prerogatives His said Majesty adds thus Again That the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the name of publick necessity for the gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of his People The House of Commons an excellent Conserver of Liberty c. is solely intrusted with the first Propositions concerning the Levies of Money and the Impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanced by any surreptitiously-gotten Command of the King have violated that Law which he is bound when he knows it to protect and to the protection of which they were bound to advise him at least not to serve him in the contrary And the Lords being Trusted with a Judicatory Power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any encroachments of the other and by just Judgments to preserve that Law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the three c. Therefore the Power legally placed in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny c. IV. Until the Commons of England have Right done them against this Plea of Pardon they may justly apprehend that the whole Justice of the Kingdom in the Case of the Five Lords may be obstructed and defeated by Pardons of like nature V. An Impeachment is virtually the Voice of every particular Subject of this Kingdom crying out against an Oppression by which every Member of that Body is equally wounded And it will prove a Matter of ill Consequence that the universality of the People should have occasion ministred and continued to them to be apprehensive of utmost danger from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection VI. The Commons Exhibited Articles of Impeachment against the said Earl before any against the Five other Lords and demanded Judgment upon those Articles Whereupon your Lordships having appointed the Tryal of the said Earl before that of the other Five Lords now your Lordships having since inverted that Order gives a great cause of doubt to the House of Commons and raises a Jealousie in the Hearts of all the Commons of England that if they should proceed to the Tryal of the said Five Lords in the first place not only Justice will be obstructed in the Case of those Lords but that they shall never have right done them in the matter of this Plea of Pardon which is of so fatal Consequence to the whole Kingdom and a new device to frustrate publick Justice in Parliament Which Reasons and Matters being duly weighed by your Lordships the Commons doubt not but your Lordships will receive satisfaction concerning their Propositions and Proceedings And will agree That the Commons ought not nor can without deserting their Trust depart from their former Vote communicated to your Lordships That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and when that Matter shall be settled and the Methods of Proceedings adjusted the Commons shall then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the Earl of Danby against whom they have already demanded Judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other Five Lords in the Tower May 27th 1679. The Narrative and Reasons delivered at the Conference Yesterday with the House of Commons were again read and after a long Debate the Vote of this House dated the 13th of May instant and the explanation thereupon dated the 14th instant were read and the Question was put Whether to insist upon these Votes concerning the Lords Spiritual and it was resolved in the Affirmative But there were present These Dissenters Buckingham Huntington Kent Shaftsbury PR Bedford Winchester Rochester North and Grey Suffolke J. Lovelace Townsend Herbert Gray Stamford Newport Say and Seal L. Wharton Leicester Scarsdale Stafford Derby Delamer Howard Paget Clare Salisbury Falconberg Windsor CHAP. XVIII The Proceedings against Whitebread and the other Four Jesuits ON Friday the 13th of June 1679 was the grand Tryal of Five notorious Jesuits viz. Thomas White aliàs Whitebread Provincial or cheif of the Jesuits in England a comely antient man of a very grave deportment both at his Tryal and Execution William Harcourt pretended Rector of London who 't is thought after the first discovery of the Plot had been beyond the Seas and had the confidence to return hither again where being apprehended in his Lodging near long Acre he was by the Lords and Commons Committed to Newgate on the 8th of May last John Fenwick Procurator of the Jesuits in England John Gavan aliàs Gawen and Anthony Turner Committed first to the Gate-house and thence brought to Newgate There was at the same time Arraigned one James Corker a Benedictine Monk but he pretending he had not his Witnesses ready was put off and happy it was for him who since was acquitted with Wakeman whereas if he had then been tryed 't is most probable it would have prov'd as Fatal to him as the rest Whitebread and Fenwick pleaded that they were tryed before for the same Fact but the Court answer'd That though they were indeed once Arraign'd yet the Jury was discharg'd of them and they not then in any Jeopardy of their Lives and therefore must plead to this Indictment Then the Prisoner made a general Challenge That none should be of their Jury that were of any of the former Juries concerning the Plot Those now sworn were Thomas Harriot William Gulston Allen Garraway Richard Cheney John Roberts Thomas Cash Rainsford Waterhouse Matthew Bateman John Kaine Richard White Richard Bull. Thomas Cox The Proofs were long and consisting in divers particulars As 1. Dr. Oats Swears That the Consult of the 24th of April was by the Order of Whitebread the Prisoner at the See the Tryal of Whitebread c. P. 12. Bar as Provincial and that then the said Whitebread and Fenwick and Harcourt and Turner did all in his presence Sign the Resolve for the King's death 2. That Whitebread after his return back again to St. Omers did say That he hoped to see the King's Head laid fast enough only he had not the manners to give him the Title of King but shew'd his spight by calling his Majesty opprobriously These are those that speak evil of Dignities 3. That in July Ashby alias Timbleby brought over Instructions from Whitebread P. 13. to offer Sir George Wakeman 10000 l. to poyson the King and also a Commission to Sir John Gage to be an Officer in the Army which they design'd to raise which the Witness himself delivered to him the said Sir John 4. That Turner was at the Consult and at Fenwick's Chamber he saw him
signe the Resolve for the King's Death 5. That as for Gavan alias Gawen though he could not positively say he saw him at the Consult yet he saw his hand subscribed to it and makes it out how he knows it to be his hand And that he in July 78. gave P. 15. them in London an account how prosperous their affairs were in Staffordshire and Shropshire that the Lord Stafford was very diligent and that there was two or three Thousand Pound ready there to carry on the Designe And that some time in July homet the said Gawen at Ireland's Chamber where in his presence he gave Father Ireland the same account as before he had written The next Witness was Mr. Dugdale that never gave Evidence before at any of their Tryals who had no knowledge of either Mr. Oates or Mr. 〈◊〉 when he first came in and so could not conspire with them to charge the very same persons as they had done He swears 1. Against Whitebread That he saw a Letter under his hand and tells you how he knew it to be his to Father Ewers a Jesuit and the said Mr. Dugdale's Confessor in which he ordered him to be sure to chuse men that were hardy and trusty no matter whether they were Gentlemen p. 22. and p. 29. he swears it again and what they were to do that the words under his hand were in express terms For Killing the King 2. Against Gawen he swears directly that he entertain'd him the said Mr. Dugdale to be of the Conspiracy to Murther the King as one of those resolute Fellows prescribed by Whitebread and that they had several Consultations in the Countrey at several places which he names for Murdering of the King and bringing in Popery as at Boscobel and at Tixal in Sept. 1678. And that he heard them discourse at one of these Consults that it was the opinion of the Monks at Paris who were concern'd in the Conspiracy and were to assist That assoon as the Deed was done that is the Killing of the King they should lay it on the Presbyterians thereby to provoke the other Protestants to cut their P. 25. Throats and then they might the more easily cut theirs And p. 26. That he hath intercepted and read for all their Letters in those Parts came under his Cover above 100 Letters to the same purpose all tending to the Introducing of Popery and Killing the King which being without any Names only directed to Mr. Dugdale and to be delivered by marks known to Father Ewers if they had been intercepted by the way only Dugdale could have been called in question for it 3. That himself was so zealous in the Cause that he had given them 400 l. for carrying on this Design which Gavan had made him believe was not only lawful but meritorious and that he was to be sent up to London by Harcourt there to be instructed for Killing the P. 23. King 4. That the same Harcourt whose hand the Witness well knows did write word of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's being Murthered that very Night it was done to Father Ewers so that they knew of it in Staffordshire several days before any except those privy to the Murder at London knew what was become of him And to confirm his Testimony herein he produceth Mr. Chetwin a Person of Quality who swears That he did hear it then reported as from Dugdale and that he was not in Town when the Murderers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey were Tryed or else he would then have witnessed the same 5. Against Turner he positively swears That he saw him with others at Ewers's Chamber where they consulted together to carry on this Design and that he agreed to the Plot that is bringing in of Popery by Killing the King Then Mr. Prance gave Evidence 1. Against Harcourt That such a day when he paid him for an Image of the P. 30. Virgin Mary to send into Maryland he told the Witness that there was a Design of Killing the King 2. Against Fenwick That he told him in Ireland's Chamber Ireland and Grove being by that there should be 50000 Men P. 31. in Arms in a readiness to settle their Religion and that they should be commanded by the Lords Beliasts Powis and Arundel Lastly Mr. Bedloe was sworn who first gives a satisfactory account why he did not before give in his Evidence against Whitebread and Fenwick because he was then finding out the Bribery and Subornation of Reading in behalf of the Lords in the Tower but now he positively swears 1. That he hath seen both Whitebread and Fenwick at several Consults about this Plot and that he heard Whitebread at Harcourt's Chamber tell Coleman the manner of the sending the four Russians to Windsor to kill the King 2. That he saw Harcourt take out of a Cabinet about 80 or 100 l. and give it to a Messenger to be carried to the said Russians P. 32. with a Guiney to drink Mr. Coleman's health 3. That Whitebread told him That Pickering was to have a great number of Masses and Grove 1500 l. for killing the King P. 33. 4. That Harcourt employed him several times to carry their Consults beyond the Seas and that he received in Harcourt's presence Mr. Coleman's thanks for his Fidelity and P. 35. that Harcourt recommended him to the Lord Arundel who promised him great favour when the times were turned Also that he saw Harcourt give Wakeman a Bill to receive 2000 l. in part of a greater sum and heard Sir George say 15000 l. was a small Reward for the settling Religion and preserving three Kingdomes from Ruine Thus we see there is the positive Testimony of three viz. Dr. Oates Mr. Dugdale and Mr. Bedloe against Whitebread Of three quite blank against Fenwick viz. Oates Bedloe and Prance And against Harcourt four very fully Oates Dugdale Bedloe and Prance Against Gavan there is positively Dugdale's and Oates's and the same directly against Turner Whereby the matter of Fact is plainly proved and the Evidence full and legal against them all There was also the before-mentioned Letter read found amongst Harcourt's Papers which did much fortifie the Evidence as to the certainty and nature of the Consult of the 24th of April It was written from one Petre a Jesuit to another of their Society to let him know there was to be a Consult on the said 24th of April in which were these words Every one is minded also not to hasten to London long before the time appointed nor to appear much about the Town till the meeting be over lest occasion should be given to suspect the Design Finally Secrecy as to the Time and Place is much recommended to all those that receive Summons as it will appear of its own nature necessary Now as to what the Prisoners had to say against all this it was well observed by the Lord Chief-Justice p. 89. That they defend their Lives as they do their Religion with
weak Arguments and fallacious Reasons For to omit their Aspersions which they did not so much as offer to prove upon the Witnesses and therefore signified little the main part of their Defence consisted in a Regiment of Lads of their own tutoring brought from St. Omers on purpose to prove Mr. Oates to have been all April and May 1678. and till the latter end of June at St. Omers and consequently that he could not be at the Consult at London 24 April nor truly know any of the particulars which he swears to depending there-upon and indeed they all said and offer'd to swear it very confidently that they saw him every day Conversed and Dined with him and that he was never out of the Colledge except two Days and one Night he was absent at Watton and two or three days that he was in the Infirmary c. But still to make good Dr. Oates's Testimony 't is observable that these Witnesses were at great variance amongst themselves some of them said That Mr. Oates left their Colledge some time in June some say the tenth some the latter end But p. 53. one of them mistakes his Moneth and avers he is sure it was in July that Mr. Oates went away and being told that he differed from all the rest he cryed He was sure he was there till after the Consult at London which gave a great light to what point of time these Novices were instructed to speak to and caused the People to laugh to see the Youngman out in his part But secondly Mr. Oates brought no less than seven substantial Witnesses who swear P. 79. his being in London in April and May 1678. the time that they aver him to have constantly been at St. Omers 1. A Minister swears he saw him which is confirmed by a Gentlewoman to whom he then told it that he had the day before seen Titus Oates in St. Martins-lane disguised in a Serge Coat and gray Hat Mrs. Mayo p. 81. swears more punctually as to point of time That about a week before Whitsontide which was in May she saw Mr. Oates twice in Sir Richard Barkers Court-yard in London and that one of Sir Richards men told her it was Mr. Oates and that he was either turned Quaker or Jesuite but she replyed he was no Quaker because he then wore a Perriwig and swears this Doctor Oates in Court was the same man which then she saw there And then one Page swears that he saw this Mr. Oates in a gray or light-coloured Campaign Coat and discoursed with him at Sir Rich. Barkers in May 78. and tells a circumstance to prove his knowledge that it was in May. Sir Richards Coachman swears that he was well acquainted with Mr. Oates and that he was at their House in Barbican the beginning of May 78. with his Hair cut close to his Ears in gray cloaths and inquired for Doctor Tongue Sir Richard Barker himself swears that he being then in the Country when he came home his Servants told him that Titus Oates had been there in such a strange Habit and they thought he was turned either Quaker or Papist Mr. Smith School-master at Islington p. 84. swears That in the beginning of May 78. Mr. Oates dined with him at his House at Islington and as he remembers it was the first Munday in May and that he knew him well for he had been his Scholar at Merchant-Tailors School when the Witness was Usher there and that he stayed with him three or four hours after Dinner discoursing of his Travels Lastly one Mr. Clay who own'd himself a Roman-Catholick and is supposed to be a Priest nay affirmed since by Blunden's Letter to be so and of the Dominican Order swears p. 84 and 85. That he met Mr. Oates in April and afterwards in May 78. at Mr. Howards at Arundel-House and that this was the same man he saw there So that they are not all Protestants that he brings to annul their Evidence but one of their own Religion too that durst speak truth And now let all the world iudge whether the Jury had any reason to think Doctor Oates's Evidence was any way weakened by all that those Novices had averr'd knowing that though they might have Dispensations for telling of Lies to serve a turn yet the Protestant Religion doth in no case allow it much less of Swearing falsely And that these young men spoke onely as they were directed is more than probable from the nature of the thing their own circumstances and the manner of their Behaviour And it is credibly reported that as for one of them Palmer by name p. 51. who says positively that he saw Mr. Oates at St. Omers the first of May New Stile and the second and the fifth and the eleventh days and gives particular circumstances for each yet 't is since said to be discover'd and offer'd to be sworn by two worthy Gentlemen that the said Palmer was at the same time at Rome and in those Gentlemens company the said first week in May when he tells all these stories as of his own knowledge at St. Omers And by this we may judge what regard to give to their Witnesses to prove that Sir John Warner and Sir Tho. Preston did not come over with Doctor Oates or that Mr. Gavan was in April June and July for indeed these last speak so timerously and give such weak reasons that though what they say should be true yet Mr. Gavan might step up to London and sign this Consult in few days without their knowledge Lastly p. 69. Whitebread insisted that Mr. Oates had sworn falsely that Mr. Ireland was in London the middle of August and beginning of September whereas he could prove the contrary But it had been better for his Party if he had let it alone for though he did produce some Popish witnesses to say something to that purpose yet the same was not only disproved then by the Oaths of Doctor Oates and Sarah Pain formerly Groves's Servanr but also occasioned the happy Discovery afterwards by Mr. Robert Jenison of which we shall give an account in another Chapter This was the whole effect of their Defence abating some vain flourishes of Gavan's Rhetorick his offering to maintain his Innocence by the old obsolete Tryal of Ordeal or walking bare-foot on Red-hot Plow-shares p. 68. and his starting a point of Law p. 87. That Mr. Oates swears to a Treason in London Mr. Dugdale to one in Stafford-shire therefore there were not two Witnesses to one Fact which the Court over-ruled shewing that the Treason in both places was the same viz. killing the King raising an Army subverting the Government and bringing in of Popery though the Overt acts demonstrating the same be several or in different Counties Then the Lord Chief-Justice summ'd up the Evidence and took particular notice of the proof made that Harcourt was privy to the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey which he declared he could never be more or better
satisfied in than by what he heard that day and thereupon speaking to the Prisoners he said P. 93. This will stick I assure you Sirs upon all your Party We have therein a Testimony that for promoting your Cause you would not stick at the Protestants blood you began with Sir Edmundbury but who knows where you would have made an end It was this one man you killed in his person but in Effigie the whole Nation It was in one mans Blood your hands were embrewed but your Souls were dipt in the Blood of us all this was an hansel onely of what was to follow And so long as we are convine'd you killed him we cannot but believe you would also kill the King we cannot but believe you would make all of us away that stand in the way of your Religion a Religion which according to what it is you would bring in upon us by a Conversion of us with Blood and by a Baptism with Fire God keep our Land from the one and our City from the other The Jury after about a quarter of an hours consideration returned into Court and brought in all the Five Prisoners Guilty of High-Treason who the next day with Mr. Langhorn received Sentence and on the twentieth of June following were drawn to Tyburn Whitebread and Harcourt in one Sled Gavan and Turner in another and Fenwick by himself in a third At the Gallows they made every one a particular Speech which seemed to be not onely premeditated but the substance and matter thereof to have been prescribed or at least agreed on before amongst them the big protestations of Innocence and expressions being so near alike These Speeches as there were Copies of them spread up and down that very morning by their own Party which shews them to have been prepared out of design so they were afterwards printed and answered very solidly shewing the nature of their Principles and the impious fraud of such their solemn Appeals c. See An Impartial Consideration on the Five Jesuites Speeches as also Animadversions on their Speeches whereunto we refer the Reader for full satisfaction in this point Indeed what credit is there to be given to the words of those men dying whose whole Lives have been but continued Lies it being not unknown that the said Whitebread had for several years heretofore made it his business to Masquerade it in the various Fanatical Mock-Religions of the late times In confirmation of which general Report soon after his Execution there was the following Letter published said to be written by a very Reverend Minister and communicated to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London And though we are far from giving credit to every Pamphlet in an Age that swarms with printed Lyes and Fictions and detest that redoubled baseness to abuse the Living by scandalizing the Dead yet to the end that if it be true villany may not be conceal'd but the next Age warn'd to avoid their wyles by reflecting on what they have practised in this and for that upon inquiry we find very probable grounds to believe the sincerity of this account though for some Reasons the Author declin'd exposing his name to it in Print we shall here insert it in his own words that such as shall think fit may farther satisfie themselves concerning the Contents A Letter from a Minister of the Church of England communicated to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor relating to Thomas White alias Whitebread who was lately Executed for High Treason Sir IN Answer to your request in two Letters of yours to your Brother these are to assure you that the Gentleman you mentioned viz. White alias Whitebread more than twenty years ago came to Oxford under pretence of a Jew converted by some eminent Divine of the Presbyterian way in London But in Oxford he pretended a farther light by joyning with and hearing at the several Churches and Sermons of Doctor Thomas Goodwin Doctor Owen and some others of the Independent or Congregational way But not stedfast there long pretending the Apostles rule to try all things he fell to the Anabaptists and then to the Quakers amongst whom he challenges Doctor Owen and several others for their Principles in a Letter written in several Languages so learnedly that it was thought worthy of consideration of the Learned Convocation there by whom he was censured as a Jesuite or some other Popish Seminarist and thereupon Imprisoned in the Castle-Prison there where he pretended a Distraction and personated the Mad-man so exactly that in few days some friends of his procured his liberty I saw him several times running up and down the streets with his Hat under his arm full of stones throwing at every small Bird he saw But e're long I met him at a Papist-house where I heard him discourse very gravely learnedly and discreetly where I got not only acquaintance with him but familiarity insomuch that several times in change of Habit he came to visit me and several other young Scholars in Magdalen Colledge But at length being again suspected and like to be apprehended he got privately away for London I brought him five miles of his way and so left him to his designs In six Months after business called me to London where after a day or two I heard a Report of a famous Preacher amongst the Quakers near Charing-cross and the same day met the same Gentleman then so much famed going to speak in an old-fashioned pinked Fustian Jerkin and clouted shooes and Breeches faced with Leather and a Carters Whip in his hand altogether disguised from my knowledge of him but he knew me and spake with me and renewed our acquaintance At present he went about his intended work and the next day came to my Quarters in the neat Habit of a London Minister and carried me to his Lodgings within the Precincts of the Middle-Temple where I had a good entertainment and a view of several strange Habits in which he disguised himself to the several sorts of people he insinuated himself into I saw also his Orders from the Roman Court and an Instrument wherein he was assured of and ordered to receive of certain Merchants an Hundred pounds per Annum besides an yearly Pension of Eighty pound per Annum from his Father I am sure he pretended he was born at Wittenberg his Fathers Name John White and in his Writing he himself was stiled Johannes de Albo by the Court of Rome He was both Jesuit and Priest in Orders I went with him by water and visited some Ships and in one House in Southwark he Celebrated the Mass in the Popish Mode to more than forty The same day we visited several Presbyterians and others and I continued in his company by the space of a Month when he was apprehended and by a special Order from the then Protector Imprisoned in the Tower of London where I endeavoured but was not admitted to visit him Two years after I understood by a
how he should drink Milk in Town and onely general instructions by the by touching the Bath but when he was just a going then he might cause more particular instructions to be writ by his man Or which is most probable knowing what stuff he had intermint with his former directions unfit to be shewed to any Apothecary he therefore was obliged on that very score to repeat his directions of the number of strokes at the Pump what Pills he should take c. So that in all this there is nothing worth the Juries taking notice of but onely to observe that it was nothing to the purpose 2. Sir George's next Exception to Mr. Oates's Testimony is That before the House of Lords he should say that he thought that before-mentioned Letter to be of Wakemans writing onely because it was subscribed George Wakeman But this the Knight was not able to prove and Doctor Oates gives another account of his words there to the best of his remembrance and refers to the Record So that this caâ—il too signifies nothing 3. But then was started an Objection which though very little in it self yet was made very much of by good management and that was That Doctor Oates did not charge Sir George so fully before the King and Council but rather denyed that he knew any thing against him but what he had seen in other peoples Letters And to this purpose Sir Philip Lloyd did say p. 55. but not upon Oath being produced by the Prisoner That Mr. Oates did their say he had seen a Letter from Whitebread to Fenwick that Sir George was to poison the King and to have 15000 l. for it whereof 5000 l. had been paid by Coleman and Sir Philip farther added That Sir George did then carry himself as if he were not concerned at the Accusation and that Mr. Oates being called in again and askt whether he knew any more against him did lift up his hands and said No God forbid that I should say any thing against Sir George Wakeman for I know nothing more against him In Answer to this 1. Doctor Oates did now upon his Oath deny that he to his remembrance spake any such words but believed Sir Philip was mistaken 2. That he was then so weak and weary with watching and hurrying up and down that he was not in a condition to make Answer Sir Thomas Doleman upon Oath saith of Sir George's behaviour then before the P. 59. Council that in his opinion and in the opinion of others he did not deny the Crime so positively as one that was Innocent would have done which is somewhat contrary to Sir Philips opinion 4. The same Sir Thomas confirms Dr. Oates's Apology and swears he seem'd at that time to be in such great weakness and disorder that he believes he was scarce able to give a good Answer Now suppose Doctor Oates through weakness forgetfulness or some other good reason did not at that time charge Sir George so home it being enough then to give a general Charge does it follow that he was now tyed up in his Evidence and may not afterwards charge him farther Was not Whitebread and Fenwicks Jury with-drawn one time because one of the Witnesses did not swear home and yet afterwards that Witness admitted to enlarge and thereupon the Prisoners Convicted and Executed Besides in Mr. Oates's Depositions at that time exhibited to the King in writing Article the 37. it is more than probably intimated that Doctor Oates could Charge Sir George Wakeman further but prudentially for some reasons perhaps that he might not all at once stir too many and mighty Enemies forbore to do it For speaking there of the 15000 l. proposed to Sir George he adds But whether Sir George hath been treated with about that concern the Deponent cannot inform here in this Article And so much touching his Evidence against Wakeman Against Mr. Bedloes Testimony Sir George objected onely 1. That it was not likely he should let P. 40. him be privy to so so great a secret being but a stranger To which Mr. Bedloe answers That Harcourt had told Sir George who he was and that after he knew he was his Confident and engaged in their grand design he might well be free before him 2. He solemnly swears he never saw Mr. Bedloe before in his life Ibidem But this Mr. Bedloe does also confute making it out by Circumstances that he had taken Physick of him at the Bath three years ago and that acquaintance Wakeman could not deny onely calls him Rogue c. And thus as to any thing material stood Sir George Wakemans Case Then as for Corker and Marshal Doctor Oates swears positively that they P. 31. both knew of the design of killing the King for that they did both of them in his hearing express their dislike not of the Treason but of one of the persons chosen to do it saying that Pickering was no fit person for that service because being commonly attendant on the Altar he might thereby miss of an opportunity and therefore they declared their opinion that a meer Lay-man would be more proper He farther saith p. 35. That Marshal went half with Conyers who laid a wager That the King should eat no more Christmas-pies and that both of them were privy and consenting to the Consult of the Benedictines for raising 6000 l. for carrying on the design Marshal being actually present at the Consult at the Benedictine Convent in the Sauoy either the day before or after the Feast of the Assumption which is the fifteenth of August and Corker though he were not there but gone as he said to Lamspring in Germany yet he sent a Letter dated the latter end of August to signifie his consent which was necessary because he was their President and this Letter Doctor Oates by comparison of hands prov'd to be his Writing and farther that he had a Patent from the See of Rome to be Bishop of London which Doctor Oates saw in his hands and was told by him p. 34. That he hoped it would not be long ere he exercised his Episcopal Function And lastly That Marshal was present at another Consult 21 of Aug. where he agreed to the sending of Commissions into Ireland to raise Forces there and to the poysoning of the Duke of Ormond Then Mr. Bedloe as to these two swears P. 38. That though he never heard any thing from Corker that did positively relate to the Murder of the King yet he hath heard him talk much of the Design and carrying it on about raising an Army what Interest he had in the people what Letters they had received from beyond the seas and how forward they were in their proceedings here And as to Marshal that he used to carry Letters to and fro concerning the Plot amongst the Plotters and that he knew what was the effect of such Letters and the Answers being one of the Club and Consult that saw all
and particularly that whereas Mr. Bedloe carried a Letter from the English Monks to le Chese at Paris wherein they acquainted him that all things were in readiness within a year or two to put the design in practice and subvert the oppression and Tyranny which the Catholicks were under in England c. when he brought back an Answer thereunto Mr. Marshal carried a Copy of it to Sir Francis Ratcliffe 1. As for the Defence made by these two Marshal with a long starcht Oration would undertake to perswade the people there was no Plot and that Whitebread and the rest dyed Innocent and all because they did not confess it at their death 2. Corker denyed his being at Lamspring but that was nothing to the purpose for Mr. Oates swore onely that he said he would go thither and that it was usual with them to give out they go to one place and go clear another way and the Letter he mentioned was not dated from any place 3. He alleadged that he was not President of the Benedictines so that Mr. Oates was mistaken therein and consequently his consent not necessary to the Consult for raising the 6000 l. To prove this though p. 65. he saith he could bring no body yet at last a good while after he called three women that all said that not he but one Mr. Stapleton was President of the Benedictines But as to this it is to be noted That Doctor Oates being taken very ill was gone out of the Court and did not hear this Objection and though he was called for by Mr. Recorder yet when he came by I know not whose negligence he was not acquainted with it nor Examined about it who otherwise might probably have cleared the point But however 't is not at all impossible that the Prisoners might find three Women in this Town kind enough to tell so small a Lye for them which considering they were under such Circumstances might by their Votaries be counted not onely venial but exceeding meritorious 4. They both urged that when Pickering was taken at the Savoy they were there in Bed and yet Doctor Oates and his Company did not apprehend them but rather said they had nothing to do with them and to prove this they produce a woman that was the Monks House-keeper or Bed-maker Nell Rigby who you might be sure would speak a good word for her Masters But Doctor Oates at that time came purposely for Pickering and 't is possible in the night and hurry and such disguises as they might have might not know them but indeed we may conclude he did not see them for the Prisoners offer no proof of that no not Nelly Rigby her self who onely says she nam'd them all to them when they askt who else was in the house 5. This Nell Rigby starts another Objection against Dr. Oates and says That in the Summer 78 she saw him come a begging to Mr. Pickering for Charity and that Pickering bid her shut the door and never let that man come in again Whence Marshal observes how unlikely it was they should suffer him to be in such want and use him in that manner in the very heat of the Plot when they most employed him and when he could gain such advantages by discovering them if indeed there had been any such Conspiracy as he pretends But as to this we are not obliged to take all that Nell Rigby the Monks Bed-maker to say no worse tells us for an Oracle and prefer it to positive proof upon Oath for undoubtedly this begging story was a meer flam for if true why was it not offered before why was it not set up at Pickerings Tryal whom it as much concerned or more than these and who could never have been so careless as to omit so material an Evidence if he had known any such thing Besides 't is plain Mrs. Nelly is a common Voucher and says she knows nor cares what if she think it will make for her beloved Masters for she positively avers p. 73. That Mr. Bedloe was with Mr. Oates at the taking of Pickering which was on Michaelmass Eve upon the very first publick notice of the Plot whereas that must needs be a notorious Lie for all the world knows that Bedloe was then wholly amongst the Jesuits and did not come in till many weeks after And had this been well enough observed this scandalous Objection would have left no impressions Lastly Marshal made a great stir about Bedloe's not knowing him but was confuted though not at all ashamed in his Lies by Sir Wil. Waller upon Oath and afterwards with an impudence that none but a Monk could own said That he would be content to be hanged if Mr. Bedloe could prove That he viz. Mr. Bedloe himself was ever in the Savoy in his life And though it hapned Bedloe had none ready by him to prove that for who should dream of such a question being askt yet by a sufficient circumstance he proved not onely that he had been in the Savoy but also that he was well acquainted with their Convent and Affairs there in that he gave Sir Will. Waller directions where to search in the most material places describing them and in particular he desired him to look under such a Bench in P. 45. Irelands Apartment where he should find the Gun that was to kill the King which was there found accordingly all which was confirmed by the said Sir William Waller now present in Court These were all their Objections that seem'd to have any colour of weight or argument in them the rest of their tedious talk being nothing but either railing at the Witnesses certain flashes of Rhetorick and some long set-speeches ad faciendum Populum to amuse the People or else down-right Impertinence as Marshal's trifling that he had Witnesses here to prove that he had Witnesses in the Country but sixty miles off that could say something for him when he had had a months notice to get them ready for this time of tryal As for Rumley Dr. Oates testified that he was privy to the Consult of the Monks wherein the 6000 l. was agreed on and he judg'd did consent to it for he did pray God it might have good success and that the Catholick Cause might once again flourish in England But he being but a single Evidence and Mr. Bedloe not being able to speak any thing material as to that Prisoner he came off on course Thus after a tedious full and most favourable hearing of all that the Prisoners or their Witnesses had to offer the Lord Chief Justice Sir William Scroggs came to sum up the Evidence to the Jury which he performed in a long Speech See the Tryal p. 77. to which we refer the Reader some material heads whereof as his Lordship was then pleas'd to observe them were as follows 1. That as to Rumley there was but one Witness which not being sufficient Evidence according to Law to condemn him therefore
the Earl of Radnor late Lord Roberts the Lord Hallifax c. all persons of untainted Loyalty and far from Presbyterian or Fanatical Principles and yet these they had designed for destruction as the Chiefs of this new pretended Conspiracy Nor indeed can there be assigned above two or three in all their long forged List that can with any colour of reason or usual acceptation of the word be called Presbyterians SECT 2. But Abyssus Abyssum invocat one Popish villany treads on the heels of another There happened now likewise a yet farther detection of their desperate wickedness that would violate all rules of Morality and Laws both Humane or Divine to wreck their implacable malice on Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe and render them odious if it were possible to the people and thereby depreciate their Evidence Of this kinde was their horrid Conspiracy to charge them both with a malicious Contrivance against the Earl of Danby the late Treasurer and particularly Mr. Oates with an attempt of Sodomy To which purpose Will. Osborne and John Lane formerly Servants to Dr. Oates were suborn'd and manag'd by Tho. Knox late Servant to the Lord Dumblain Son to the said Earl of Danby but the Design laid and directed from time to time by wiser heads concerning which there hath already a perfect Account been emitted into the world by the appointment of Dr. Oates And also the Tryals of the said Knox and Lane at the Kings-Bench Bar Novemb. 25. 1679. where they were Convicted are published by Authority where the Curious may receive further satisfaction and therefore we shall only very briefly Epitomize some material matters of Fact which to perform intelligibly we must look back for some time For this hopeful Project had been long a brewing and had been once mortified before ' though now crawling towards a Resurrection it was Doom'd to the second Death which in the language of Divines is to say That it was damn'd as the malicious Contrivers are like to be without sincere Repentance 1. About April 1679. Osborne and Lane being for several Misdemeanours turn'd out of Dr. Oates's Service Knox so qualified as you have heard insinuates into their acquaintance and working upon their necessities engages them in the Design which to render more plausible he dictates four several Letters from them to himself as if they first mov'd him to it wherein pretending great trouble of minde for being privy to certain ill Designes the Dr. and Mr. Bedloe had against the Earl of Danby c. they desire him to put them into a way to discharge forsooth their Consciences by a Discovery These Letters were by one of them wrote from Knox's mouth and then very formally sent to him See the Narrative p. 5 and 6. 2. Knox hereupon after several meetings with them prepares an Information setting forth how he came by this Intelligence and what they had declared to him Another Information is likewise drawn in the names of Osborne and Lane setting forth several horrid expressions that Dr. Oates should use against his Sacred Majesty and other Persons of Quality thereby to render him odious to the Court so offensive to Christian ears and abominably scandalous as not fit here to be unnecessarily recited A third Information they had ready under Osborne's hand attesting a supposed Discourse that he heard between Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe contriving how to destroy the Earl of Danby that Mr. Bedloe should say he had invented a way viz. To swear that the Earl offer'd him Money to go beyond the Seas and thereby quash his Evidence which Dr. Oates should approve of saying It was the only or most dexterous course c. Other several Informations from Lane and Osborne That Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe should persuade them to carry on an Intrigue with some of the Lord Treasurers Servants and get Money of them by telling them Lies wherein the said Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe would instruct them and make such use thereof as should destroy the said Lord. And yet another Information of Lane's deposing That about the 24th or 25th of March last Dr. Oates having sent all the rest of his Servants to the Chappel did make an attempt to commit Sodomy with him And this Information was some time after Sworn before Sir James Butler But though somewhat subtlely contrived to cast an Odium on the Doctor and yet save the Informant from the Gallows he alledging that it was only an attempt and the perpetration thereof prevented by the noise of a Woman sweeping the next Chamber yet there are in it so many incredible Circumstances that had the Witness been of some Credit and the Doctor of none yet no man of sense could have entertain'd such a villanous nonsensical Story But not only the Law hath since vindicated that worthy person from this odious Scandal but the Informer himself hath voluntarily confessed both the utter falsity thereof and the Instigations that tempted him to alledge it The true Copies of all these Informations which they had cut out in readiness when ever they should think fit to make use of them see in the before-recited Narrative p. 7 8 9 c. 3. Their Tackling being thus prepared the Earl of Danby depended so much on the success that if we may believe the Oaths of the Conspirators it was chiefly on that Confidence that he surrendred himself to the Usher of the bla-Rod after he had for a considerable time absconded And the very same day Knox made Osborne and Lane swear again to stand to what he had taught them But Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe having some notice of the contrivance against them all three of the said Instruments were soon after taken into Custody And being Examin'd before a Committee of Lords they at first would acknowledge very little but after some time Lane voluntarily set forth upon his Oath how Knox had tamper'd both with him and Osborne instructed them what they should Swear against Oates and Bedloe and for the Lord Treasurer promised them Rewards dropt a Guinney which Osborne took up because they should not be able to say if questioned he had given them any Money How he paid Reckonings and provided Lodgings for them where he paid all charges for Diet c. And swore them to secrecy assuring them if either of them made a Discovery they should be killed And that since he was in Prison a Gentlewoman who by Mr. Dangerfield's Depositions seems to be Mrs. â—elier came to the Prison and sent him word that he should stick to Mr. Knox and whatever Money he required he should have it though it were a Thousand Pounds About the same time viz. 29 April 1679. Osborne by Order of the said Committee being Examined did upon his Oath deny he ever heard any such discourse between Mr. Oates and Bedloe about destroying the Treasurer nor any undecent words from Mr. Oates touching his Majesty the Queen or Mr. Chessinch c. but Deposeth that Knox promised him If he
would swear such things he should have enough to maintain him with his Footboy and sets forth the dictating of the said intended Depositions or Informations by Knox and that they are of the Examinants writing from his mouth and the dropping of the Guinny the taking of Lodgings for them c. The Copies of these Depositions justifying likewise Dr. Oates's sober pious Life and modest Christian Behaviour towards his Servants by giving them good Counsel c. See in the Narrative p. 15 sequentibus 4. This was in the beginning of May last and who would have imagined that after such a plain Discovery and full Confession on Oath of their former Villanies the same persons should have the face to attempt playing over again the same Game But what will not Popish Impudence suggest or desperate Varlets for Money undertake After these acknowledgments they continuing in Prison Mr. Dangerfield who was now come into the Service as you have heard is imployed by the Lady Powis the Lord Castlemain and the rest to keep them still in heart feed them with Money and endeavour to get them out and at last he procured Lane's Liberty and Nevil and his Friend Knox's Then Lane was harbour'd for a while at powis-Powis-house by the name of Johnson and 10 s. per week allowed by that Countess for Diet and thither also Knox repaired to consult how to new-charge Dr. Oates and then the Papers before-mentioned were handed to the Lords in the Tower the Lord Castlemain and Nevil in the Kings-bench to be altered and corrected so as to make them most serviceable for their devilish purpose See Mr Dangerfields Narrative p. 12 13 and 14. 5. After much charge and pains in this kinde having as they imagined brought their Design to some perfection and seeing some of their Intrigues miscarry they resolv'd to push forwards This hoping it might at least slur and scandalize if not ruine the King's Evidence and therefore on the 19th of Novemb. last the said Lane is prevailed with notwithstanding all such his Confessions on Oath to prefer an Indictment against Dr. Oates for attempting to commit upon him the horrid and detestable sin of Sodomy but the Grand Jury by reason of the incoherence and slightness of his Evidence did not think fit to finde it but returned an Ignoramus 6. Hereupon the Dr. to vindicate his Credit and justly to punish such wicked Insolence brought an Indictment of Conspiracy and Misdemeanour against the said Lane and Knox for Osborne absconded and could not then be found which on the 25th of Novemb. 1679. came to be Tryed at the Kingsbench-Bar where upon a full hearing the several matters before-related being evidently proved against them and their Abettors to the entire satisfaction of all the numerous Audience divers Peers of the Realm and Persons of Quality being come thither on purpose to hear the same The Jury found the said Knox and Lane Guilty who immediately were secured but by reason it was so near the end of the Term Sentence according to the practice of that Court in such Cases was deferr'd till the next Term they in the mean time being kept in Custody And since the said Osborne hath been taken in the Countrey and being brought up and Examined hath voluntarily confessed all the before-mentioned Ill Practices and several other notorious Circumstances CHAP. XXIV Some necessary Reflections on several late Popish Libels as the Address to both Houses of Parliament The Cloak in its Colours The new Plot of the Papists to transform Traitors into Martyrs The Compendium of the Plot c. WE conceive we cannot sufficiently discharge this undertaking of giving a satisfactory account of this Popish Plot branched out into so many various sorts of villanies without taking some particular notice of several of their most effronted Pamphlets wherewith they endeavour'd to poyson the minds and dazle the eyes and divide the affections of his Majesties good Protestant Subjects This you have heard was one of their principal projects contrived by the Tower-cabal and Consults of their Priests which most industriously they pursued We shall not waste time in a tedious confutation of all the lies and slanders therein contain'd for that most of them have already particular Answers but shall offer some brief Remarques which may sufficiently antidote the people against their infection 1. Consider the Authors They are written either by desperate Bigots deeply and principally concern'd in the Plot or else by debauch'd mercenary villains kept in pension by the great ones for that purpose Thus Mr. Dangerfield proves the Compendium to be the work of the venomous Pen of the Lord C. The New-plot to be written by Dormer a supposed Priest several others by Nevil who haunting the Play-houses too much and thereby neglecting to scribble so fast as they would have him when he was at liberty some of their Lordships advised that he should be clapt up again and thereby be made more industrious in doing their drudgery Now what credit is there to be given to what such people shall write Can it be imagined that they will make any conscience of venting the most impudent Lies and Scandals who have already plung'd themselves into the most detestable Treasons and whose writings are no more but their own Neck-verses having no way to save their heads but by that ingenuity of their fingers 2. The main scope of all these Libels is to perswade the world that there neither is nor was any such thing as a Popish Plot. Now 't is left to all considerate men in forraign parts which they will chuse to believe the King and the two several Parliaments and all the Judges of the Land who upon notorious evidence of matter of fact have solemnly declared that there is such a damnable Hellish Popish Plot both against his Majesties Life and Government as well as against the Protestant Religion or these wretched Traitors who by fantastick flourishes impudent denials shameful falshoods and surmises would suggest there is none 3. The Mediums they proceed upon which are loading the Kings Evidence with opprobrious language and calumnies and in this Billingsgate-rhetorick the Author of the Compendium hath not his Peer yet have they not at any time been able to prove any of the Crimes with which they charge them but on the contrary their slanders have most fully and satisfactorily been refuted by the several answers and proofs that have been made in justification of the Witnesses integrity and innocency 4. The sly manner and subtle titles whereby they publish these mischievous Libels to insinuate as if they were written by loyal Protestants In many of them pretending a great veneration for the Church of England railing at Presbyterians and suggesting fears and jealousies of ill designs hatcht by them against the Government on purpose to amuse people and cause rancour and divisions amongst Protestants But blessed be God providence hath now laid that part of their villanous malice so bare and naked to the
Respondents part and not the Opponents It 's not so easie to prove as to wrangle against proofs 2. Follow them with certain Questions which the vulgar are not verst in As 1. Where was your Church before Luther or where hath it been visible in all Ages 2. How prove you that you have a true Scripture that is the Word of God among you 3. What express Word of God do the Catholicks contradict 4. How prove you that you have a truely called Ministry that is to be heard and believed by the people 5. By what Warrant did you separate from the Catholick Church and condemn all your Forefathers and all the Christian World 6. If you will separate from the Catholick Church what reason have you to follow this Sect rather than any one of all the rest 7. What one man can you name from the beginning that was in all things of Luthers or Calvins opinions 8. Do you not see that God doth not bless the labours of your Ministers but the people are as bad as they were before what the better are you for hearing them Our hearty Prayers are for your Success And Sir I am yours to command F. B. These were part of the subtle and more innocent Platforms laid by the Jesuites to undermine the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery which were discovered and set forth in Print now almost twenty years ago yet have they still ever since vigorously traced the same methods with mischievous success and without any great opposition till finding all these not enough to accomplish their main work they applied themselves to more bloody and violent Counsels and the hatching of that Master-piece of villany the horrid Plot whereof we have in the precedent sheets given you a summary account which being so far detected nothing but Gods Judgments on these sinful Nations in suffering the spirit of infatuation to possess us can hinder its being prevented The following Transactions happening after the Printing this History be pleased to take a summary account thereof as follows THe 10th of December 1679. was published a Proclamation signifying the Kings pleasure that the Parliament formerly Prorogued to the 26th of January should at that time be Prorogued again to the 11th of November 1680. About this time several persons Endeavouring to promote Petitions and Nine Lords in the names of several other Peers of the Realm actually presenting a Petition to his Majesty for the Parliament to continue to sit on the said 26th of January his Majesty thought fit to publish his Proclamation for the preventing of tumultuous Petitions yet many conceiving such humble Petitioning not to be forbidden by any Law of this Kingdome did proceed therein and on the 20th of December three persons of the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields sending for some others that were promoting such a Petition and having it produced did tear the same for which being carried before a Justice of the Peace since discharged of the Commission they were bound over and the next Sessions a Bill being preferred against them reciting That whereas the subjects and liege people of England by the Laws and Customes thereof have used to represent their grievances by Petition or by any other way And whereas such a Petition reciting the words was prepared and subscribed by many of the Kings Subjects and liege People the Persons indicted being ill-affected and contriving devising and intending as much as in them lay to hinder the sitting of the said Parliament as was prayed in the Petition and also to hinder the Tryal of the Offenders and redress the Grievances therein mentioned did as Rioters and disturbers of the Peace c. with Force and Arms c. unlawfully riotously and injuriously the said Petition being delivered to them at their request and for the subscribing of their Names thereto if they should think fit did tear in pieces in Contempt of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Laws to the evil Example c. and against the Peace c. Which Bill was found by the Grand Jury And on the 13th of January a Petition was presented to his Majesty by Sir Gilbert Gerrard Baronet Son in the Law to the late Bishop of Durham Thomas Smith Bencher of the Inner-Tempel and eight other Gentleman and Citizens of considerable Estates and Qualities the words whereof were as follows To the King 's most Excellent Majesty the humble Petition of your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects Inhabitants in and about the City of London whose Names are hereunder subscribed Sheweth THat whereas there has been and still is a most Damnable and Hellish Plot branched forth into the most horrid Villanies against Your Majesties most Sacred Person the Protestant Religion and the well-established Government of this your Realm for which several of the principal Conspirators stand now Impeach'd by Parliament Therefore in such a time when Your Majesties Royal Person as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation are thus in most eminent danger Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects in the deepest sense of our Duty and Allegiance to your Majesty do most humbly and earnestly pray That the Parliament which is Prorogued until the 26th day of January may then Sit to try the Offenders and to Redress all our Grievances no otherwise to be redressed And your Petitioners shall ever pray for Your Majesties long and prosperous Reign To this Petition was annexed a Roll of above 100 Yards long containing many thousand Names of many of the most eminent Citizens and Inhabitants in and about London that had subscribed the same His Majesties Answer was to this effect I know the substance of it already and as I am Head of the Government I shall take care of it The Papists though so often bastled resolve still to play a new Game and therefore on the 7th of January John Gadbury Prisoner for the Popish High-Treason as we have before related sent to acquaint the Lords appointed a Committee for Examination that he had something to communicate to them whereupon he was immediately sent for but being perhaps not sufficiently tutor'd he then excused himself that he did not expect to be so suddenly called and therefore desired further time whereupon he was ordered to put what he had to say into writing And on the 9th of January being again examined before His Majesty did declare That about September last Sir Robert Peyton desiring to be reconciled to the Interests of his Majesty and the Duke of York Gadbury acquainted Mrs. Celier the Midwife therewith between whom and Sir Robert there grew an intimate Correspondence and that Sir R. Peyton did then say he should hereby lose a considerable Interest which could put him in the Head of 20000 men in two days time and that could raise 60000 men in little more than a Week And that these people in case the King had died the last Summer at Windsor would have seized the Tower Dover-Castle c. secured the
Mayor of London and opposed all that should have proclaimed the Duke of York Mrs. Celier though both pretended to be kept close Prisoners he in the Gatehouse and she in Newgate yet being now brought up confirmed in substance the same Story only adding that they were to murder the Lord Mayor destroy all Episcopists set up a Commonwealth and to that purpose allowed Pensions to several old Officers of the late Rebellious Army All these things and words Sir R. Peyton absolutely denied yet was by Warrant from the Council committed to the Tower for High-Treason for Conspiring to raise Arms against the King a close Prisoner though the Five Popish Lords directly charged upon Oath and Impeach'd by Parliament for a Designe to Murder the King and Subvert the Government were admitted mutual Converse and free access of Visitants yet no body without special Warrant being admitted to visit him In the mean time both Gadbury Celier were flusht with hopes of procuring their respective Pardons but that being stopt upon divers weighty Considerations by a most judicious and Honorable Peer Gadbury began to relent and on the 14th discovered the whole contrivance of this Sham-Plot that he knew no harm by Sir Robert but was drawn in by Mrs. Celier c. to testifie such things against him c. whereupon there was an Order that Celier should be kept close Prisoner and 't is supposed Gadbury will at last make a full honest Discovery On Saturday the 17th of January at the Sessions in the Old-Bayly were Arraigned eight persons as Popish Priests viz. David Joseph Kemish Lionel Anderson alias Mounson William Russel alias Napper James Corker and William Marshal Two Benedictine Monks formerly tryed for the Plot with Wakeman George Parris alias Parry Henry Starkey and Alexander Lumsdel Of whom the first that is Mr. Kemish being very antient and sickly was upon his humble request after Arraignment referred to another time for Tryal when he might be better able to make his defence The other seven being severally tryed the chief Witnesses that gave Evidence against them were Dr. Oates Mr. Bedloe Mr. Prance Mr. Dugdale and Mr. Dangerfield The particulars of their respective Charge and Defence are too tedious here to be set forth the sum was that they were severally proved by the Witnesses some speaking as to some of the Prisoners others to others to have said Mass consecrated and administred the Eucharist and frequently performed such Functions as no Lay-man in their Church is allowed to meddle with Particularly it was proved by Mr. Dangerfield that Anderson alias Mounson having scowr'd his Kettle that is took his Confession and given him Absolution and ordered him to receive the Sacrament which he did accordingly did yet the same day perswade him to endeavour to get some secrets out of Stroud then a Prisoner with them in the Kings-bench against Mr. Bedloe and to do it by drinking hard with Stroud and the Witness seeming to be a little scrupulous of being drunk the same day he had Received this holy Father said he might venture without danger it was no harm if he were drunk since he did it for the good of the Cause The Defences made by them were either silly or else rather subtle than solid alleadging that there was no way to convict them of being Priests unless the Witnesses saw them actually take Orders Which if true the Statute would be vain and its whole force eluded None of them had either so much zeal as now to own himself a Priest though one of them had confest it before to the Court which he now denied but rather all seeming to deny it lying at catch with the Witnesses words and urging them to name the very days they heard them say Mass that they might by their Gang prepared to affirm any thing contradict them Which appear'd evidently in that Marshal was not ashamed openly to declare That let Mr. Oates name any time or place whatsoever he would bring Witnesses to disprove him This Marshal was their great Orator who made long Speeches but to very little purpose there being nothing of weight or matter in what he urged Starkey was an Old man that said he had been a Major in the late King's Army and 't was proved that he had boasted that he had said Mass twenty and twenty times in that Army and of late the Witnesses had divers times and at several places heard him say Mass c. After a full and fair Tryal the Jury brought in Six Guilty who thereupon received Sentence of Death But Lumsdel being a Scotchman was left upon a special Verdict it being doubted whether he were within the Statute of the 27 Eliz. cap. 2. on which they were Indicted So that he must lye till the Judges have determined that Point FINIS
the Popish Party and that he had been dogg'd several days and the Witness advising him to take his man always with him he said No He did not fear them if they did but come fairly 2. Thomas Robinson Esq Testified That on the 7th of October See the Tryals of Green c. P. 13. discoursing of the Plot Sir Edmundbury said these words to him Vpon my Conscience I beleive I shall be the first Martyr but I do not fear them if they come fairly I shall not part with my Life tamely 3. Then Mr. Prance set forth the whole matter how the two Preists drew him into it and how they Murthered and disposed of the Body and afterwards met at Bow and read over a Paper there of the particulars of the Murther c. exactly for substance as is before set forth Chapter the 8th To which for avoiding Repetition the Reader is referred He also swears That he never had any Conference with Mr. Bedloe in his life before he was committed to Prison 4. Mr. Bedloe Swears That about the beginning of October Le Fair and Prichard and Keins and some others all Preists discours'd him about Killing a certain Gentleman whom they would not name and told him he should have a considerable Reward and then they set him to insinuate himself into Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's acquaintance which he did do on several pretences 5. That the very day Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murthered Le Fair at the Palsgraves-head Tavern told him there Ibidem P. 30. was a Gentleman to be put out of the way for so they call Murther that Night and would have him to assist and that there would be 4000 l. Reward from the Lord Bellasis for if this Gentleman were not cut off things would de discovered to that degree that they should not be able to bring this design to pass but must wait another Age to effect it and therefore desired him to meet in the Cloisters at Somerset-house that Evening for thereabouts it was to be done which he promised to do but wilfully faild them because he would not have his hands in Blood He all this while not knowing upon whom their design was 6. That on Monday Le Fair meeting him charg'd him with breach of Promise and appointed him to come to Somerset-house at Nine a'Clock where he told the Witness that he had done ill that he did not help in this business but if he would assist to carry him off he should still have part of the Reward Why saith the Witness is he Murthered yes saith the said Le Fair whereupon the Witness askt if he might not see him which was granted and Le Fair led him through a dark Entry into a Room where were several People that had no light but a dark Lanthorn and were consulting how to carry him off one of the Company throwing off the Cloth wherewith he was covered the Witness saw the Face and presently knew it to be Sir Ed. Godfrey with whom by the Priests instigation he had of late been much Conversant The Witness advised to tie weights to his head Page 32. and feet and throw him into the River but they did not think fit to do so but said They would put it upon himself and carry him out in a Chair and that the Porter Berry was to sit up to let them out the hour appointed was 12 that Night and the Witness promised on the Sacrament which he had took the Thursday before then to come again to help them But being got from them never came at them more 7. The Constable that viewed the Body in the Ditch gave an account that the Sword was sticking through him but no blood appeared on the ground and he found a great deal of Gold and Silver in his Pockets And two Chyrurgeons swore That they verily believed the Sword was run through him after he was dead and cold but that he died by reason of Suffocation and breaking of his Neck and bruisâ—s on the Breast 8. In Confirmation of Mr. Prances Evidence That they had been several times at his House inquiring for him and that Hill as he and the rest told Prance was there in the Morning of that Day on which he was Murthered There was produced one Elizabeth Curtis that at the same time dwelt with Sir Edmundbury as Servant in the House she swore directly That Green had been at her Masters about a Fortnight before her Master was killed and talkt to him a quarter of an hour in French and that Hill was there that very Saturday Morning on which he was kill'd and spoke to him before he went out and was there a good while in the Parlour with him but cannot tell what his business was and that overnight there was a strange man brought a Note to her Master which she gave to him and the man staying for an answer prethee saith Sir Edmund Godfrey tell him I don't know what to make of it But this was none of the three Persons at the Bar but supposed to be one of the same Tribe But as for Hill she was sure he was there on the said Saturday Morning by the same token he had then on the same Cloaths as he had now at the Bar now though he denied he was there yet he acknowledged he had not changed his Cloaths but wore the same Suit ever since before that time 9. The man at the Plow-Alehouse where Mr. Prance swore That the Murther was Consulted and his Servant Page 41. said That Prance used to come thither with Hill and Girald and Kelly several times and this within 5 Weeks before the Murther 10. The Relation Prance gave of the meeting at the Queens-Head at Bow is confirm'd by a Messenger they Page 43. employ'd there to go to call Mr. Dethwick of Poplar to them and the Servant of the House swears positively That they pull'd out a Paper and read it and named Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey ' s name and whilst he stood without the door one of them threatned to kick him down stairs 11. Sir Robert Southwell Deposes That Prance having related these things to the Council and being sent with the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Ossory to shew the places he mentioned did readily go to them all and they appeared to be all such as he had described them only as to the Room in the upper Court where the Body was laid one Night having never been there but once and that in the dark he said he could not positively assign it but pointed to some Rooms and said He was sure it was thereabouts And this doubtfulness the Court observ'd did give more credit to the rest of his Testimony for a man that will swear any thing would stick at nothing Lastly It was proved That Berry the Porter on his Examination before the Lords of the Committee did say He had Order from the Queen or in the name of the Queen That he should suffer no