Mr Solicitor had shortened his Labour by the pains he had taken to sum up the Evidence to them which he concluded he had without doubt done with all faithfulness to his Master He then proceeds to blacken the Defendant with all the foul Language that Malice could suggest and tells his old Friends of the Jury whose acquaintance with him disposed them to credit him that the Popish Plot was a sham and that under the pretence thereof another black and bloody Conspiracy was carried on Then he magnifies the evidence against the Defendant both from the number of the St Omers Sparks no less then twenty but also their harmony and he affirms that against the credit of their Testimony there was no objection really made but only Impudence that the Defendant had produced but two positive Witnesses that they were likewise positive in their contradiction of one another that they swore according as their humour led them and not according to any remembrance they had of the thing and that he rather believed it because the third Witness Page gave an evidence contrary to both of them how notoriously false these malitious Suggestions are will evidently appear upon the perusal of what these three honest and plain-dealing Witnesses swore Then he comes to the Defendants fourth Witness Mr Walter and positively affirms that he says nothing to the matter for that it did plainly appear the time which he speaks of was about a year and a half before the five Jesuits Tryal which must be in 1677 before the Defendant went to St Omers Mr Solicitor told the Jury that Mr Walter spoke of a year and a quarter before the discovery of the Plot had that been true it had run it back to the year 1677 and to a time before the Doctor went to St Omers His Lordship makes Mr VValter to speak of about a year and a half before the Jesuits Tryal which runs it back to December 1677 and then the King 's celebrated Witnesses and Mr VValter are agreed but Mr Vvalter speaking for himself says the time was near a year and a quarter before the Tryal of the Jesuits which brings us to April 1678. Though the Chief Justice and Solicitor were not agreed in this matter yet they would not quarrel about it provided the understanding Jury would credit either of them against Mr Walter and so serve the turn they aimed at the baffling the credit of the Popish Plot and not allow this Witness to be serviceable to the Vindication of Dr Otes Upon the following day after this Tryal Dr Otes was tryed upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury but that prosecution being of the Complexion with what is here presented I shall not trouble the Reader with any thing further upon this subject then to present him with the Names of the Jury viz. Sr Thomas Vernon Nicholas Charlton Esq Tho. Langham Esq Thomas Hartop Francis Griffith John Kent George Tory Ano. Hen. Loades Tory Also John Midgley John Pelling Thomas Short and George Peck The Juries having according to the direction of that Man of Blood Jeffryes brought in the Defendant guilty of both the Perjuries Comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments the tender-hearted good natured Protestant Judge VVythens to pronounce the Sentence This very Person Wythens being Counsel for Knox did declare openly in the Court of King's Bench that Dr Otes had served the Nation too well to be vilified in that Court. previous to it he tells the Defendant That no Christian 's Heart can think of the innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath without bleeding That every knowing Man believed and every honest Man grieved for it He proceeds God be thanked our Eyes are now opened You had not one Word to justifie your self from that great and heinous Perjury you were accused of transcendant Impudence The Judgment of the Court inter alia is You shall upon Wednesday next be VVhipt from Algate to Newgate Vpon Friday you shall be VVhipt from Newgate to Tyburn by the Hands of the common Hangman This I pronounce to be the Judgment of the Court upon you and I must tell you plainly If it had been in my power to have carried it further I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgment of Death upon you I shall sum up all with the sense of the present House of Commons upon this whole proceeding which take in this Vote Martis 11th die Junij 1689. Resolved That the Prosecution of Titus Otes upon two Indictments for Perjury in the Court of King's Bench was a design to stifle the Popish Plot and that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt and that the Judgments given thereupon were cruel and illegal Notes upon the Tryal of Nathaniel Reading Esq for attempting to stifle the King's Evidence as to the horrid Popish Plot upon Wednesday the 24th of April 1679. before the Lord Chief Justice North c. THe Conspirators against our Religion Laws and Liberties being struck with astonishment and the Imprisoned and Impeached Traytors with no small Terror at the most providential and happy accession of Captain William Bedloe's Testimony to the discovery made by Dr Otes of the hellish Popish Plot in which he had stood single much discouraged we do quickly find their thoughts at work how to remove this newly acquired Witness Their way of taking off Sr Edmundbury Godfrey having so highly dis-served their Cause that is not to be again practised therefore the resolution taken in the present case is to tamper with and buy off Captain Bedloe they pitched upon Mr Reading to carry on this Intrigue whose parts and principles did very well qualifie him for such an undertaking but Mr Bedloe being above the reach of very powerful Temptations he very honestly detected the villainous Attempts upon him and the Suborner was brought to Justice as follows The Indictment sets forth the Plot against the King the Government and the Protestant Religion and that Colman Ireland and Grove were tryed condemned and executed for the same That several Lords viz. the Earl of Powis Lord Viscount Stafford Lord Bellasis Lord Arundel of Wardour Lord Petre and also Sr Henry Titchbourn stand impeached of the said Treason That Reading well knowing these things and to obstruct and stifle them and to retard the prosecution of Justice against the Lord Powis Stafford Bellasis Petre and Sr Henry Titchbourn did on their part the 29th of March last solicit suborn and endeavour to perswade Mr VVilliam Bedlooe whom he knew to have given Information of those Treasons against the said Persons to lessen stifle and not to give in evidence the full truth against them and to give such evidence as he should direct and to that purpose did give him fifty six Guineas and promised him other great Rewards to the hindrance and suppression of Justice The Jury were these Sr John Cutler Thomas Cass Joshua Galliard Rains. Waterhouse Edw. Willford Mathew Bateman Tho. Henslow Walter Moil Thomas Earsby
Richard Pagget John Serle John Haines Esquires The King's Counsel were Sr Creswell Levens The Attorney General Mr Ward The evidence of this practice subornation was very clear and full particularly Mr Bedloe witnessed that Reading had often treated with him about mincing his Evidence for the bringing off the Lords and Sr Henry Titchborne and gave him Money at several times and did draw up a Paper of what Bedloe should Swear and did carry it to the Lords in the Tower to be viewed and corrected by them Mr Speke testified that Bedloe had from time to time informed him how the Treaty was carried on that upon the 29 th of March 1679. Mr Speke and VViggins Bedloe's Servant being concealed in his Chamber Mr Reading came and in the first place asked whether any body could hear their discourse and being assured that he was secure and secret he told Mr Bedloe upon his demand what the Lords in the Tower said and what my Lord Stafford said that as to my Lord Stafford he should be sure of the Estate in Gloucester-shire which had been promised to be setled upon him for my Lord had ordered him to prepare a blank Deed which within ten days after his Discharge should be perfected and the rest of the Lords did assure him that after they were acquitted in proportion to the service he did them in lessening of his Evidence he should have a plentiful Reward That Bedloe did then demand to have something under their hands but Reading said that they think that not convenient but I do take their Words and you must take mine and then promised to go to the Lords in the Tower against Munday to prepare and bring him the Instructions from them for his Evidence Mr Speke added that upon the Munday morning he was to watch and see the Delivery of the Paper and did see Reading put it into Bedloe's hand in the painted-Chamber who immediately delivered it to Mr Speke This Paper was all of Mr Reading's writing and being read in Court was found to contain the purport of the Evidence to be given against the Lords and was so ordered that the whole was only hear-say and could no way touch them Wiggins agreed with Mr Speke in the Evidence given of the Transactions between Mr Bedloe and Mr Reading in Mr Bedloe's Chamber Reading coming to make his Defence offered nothing against the credit of the Witnesses but did in effect confess all they had testified and the whole matter charged in the Indictment and in truth he was the greatest witness against himself as was well observed after he was found guilty by the Right Honourable Sr Robert Atkyns then one of the Judges of the Common-Pleas but soon after thrust out for non-Compliance with Sr Francis North then Chief Justice and is now most deservedly Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Lords The Jury having brought him in guilty he was fined 1000 l. adjudged to a years Imprisonment and to be set in the Pillory upon the munday following for the space of one hour in the Palace-Yard in VVestminster When the late King James ascended the Throne he was a particular Favourite and his Suffering in this matter was well rewarded It may not seem impertinent to present the Reader upon this occasion with so much of Captain Bedloe's solemn Death-Bed Declaration as the Lord Chief Justice North allowed the World to see His Lordship was pleased to acknowledge that he took Captain Bedloe's Examination upon Oath at Bristol upon the 16 th of August 1681. And that he declared that the Duke of York had been so far engaged in the Plot that there was no part that had been proved against any Man that had suffered but he was to the full guilty of it all but what tended to the Kings Death from the trouble whereof the Jesuites had undertaken to deliver the Duke And his Lordship added that Mr Bedloe told him he lookt upon himself as a dying Man and that he must shortly appear before the Lord of Hosts to give an account of all his Actions and that because many persons had made it their business to baffle and deride the Plot He did for satisfaction of the World there declare upon the Faith of a dying Man and as he hoped for Salvation that whatever he had testified concerning the Plot was true and that he had many Witnesses to produce who would make the Plot as clear as the Sun. That the Jesuites had resolved the King's Death and would spare him no longer than he continued to be kind to them And that they resolved to set up an Head for their Cause here whatever came of it and said that if they should slip the opportunity they then had they should never have such another Notes upon the Tryal of Thomas Knox and John Lane for a Conspiracy to Defame and Scandalize Dr Otes and Mr Bedloe thereby to discredit their Evidence about the Popish Plot At the Kings-Bench Bar at VVestminster upon the 25 th of November 1679. The Judges then upon the Bench were Sr VVilliam Scroggs Lord Chief Justice Sr Francis Pemberton and Sr Thomas Jones THe unlucky miscarriage of Reading's attempt to corrupt the King's Evidence or to overthrow the credit of their Testimony deterred not others from prosecuting so pious a work for that is instantly succeeded by the cursed Conspiracy of Knox and of Lane and Osborne the one lately the other at that time a Servant to Dr Otes but Justice overtook them as the following Scheme of their Tryal shews The Indictment being read upon their pleading not guilty the following Jury was sworn Sr John Kirke Kt. John Roberts Thomas Harriot R. Waterhouse Henry Johnson Thomas Earsby Simon Middleton Joseph Ratcliffe Hugh Squire James Supple Francis Dorrington Richard Cooper Esq. The King's Counsel were Mr Attorney General Mr Solicitor General Mr Serjeant Maynard Sr Francis VVinnigton Mr VVilliams Mr Thomas Smith Mr Trenchard For Knox Mr Saunders Mr VVithens and Mr Scroggs For Lane Mr Holt assigned by the Court. The Indictment opened by Mr Trenchard was that whereas Colman Ireland Pickering and Grove conspired to destroy the King and change the Religion Established by Law to introduce Popery and were thereof Convicted Attainted and Executed And whereas the Lord Powis Lord Arundel of VVardour and others were accused of those Treasons and Impeached for the same in Parliament c. The Defendants knowing Mr Otes and Mr Bedloe had given Information of these Treasons to stifle the Evidence and scandalize them did conspire to represent them as wicked Persons and of no credit And the Indictment further sets forth that Knox with the agreement of Lane and Osborne caused Letters to be wrote with contrivance to accuse Otes and Bedloe that they had conspired falsly to accuse the E. of Danby And that Otes had attempted to commit Sodomy with Lane that to effect those wicked designs Knox gave several sums of Money to Osborne and
Reason the Jury returned Ignoramus upon the Indictment to the unspeakable satisfaction and joy of all Men who were not in the Conspiracy or Well-Wishers to it An Abstract of Captain Henry Wilkinson's Information of what passed between him and the Persons who attempted to prevail with him to swear high Treason against the Earl of Shaftesbury Imprimis HE declares on his Oath That upon the 8th of October 1681 Mr Walter Baines came to him in the King's Bench Prison and caressing him with great kindness told him that Mr Browrig was sent Prisoner to York-Castle for Treason and for appearing for the Earl of Shaftesbury He then told the Informant that he could not but know much of my Lord Shaftesbury's designs against the King and that if he would make discovery to him he was ready to do him any Kindness and desired an opportunity and added that he had been lately with Mr Graham and that he had a great Interest with my Lord Hide That Baines spent all the time he staid with him in expressing a great deal of Zeal upon that subject and assured the Informant that he should have Pardon and should be considerably rewarded to which the Informant perceiving what was designed and resolving to humour it seemed to listen telling Baines that when he was requited for his former Services having suffered much for King Charles the first and been very active in the Restoration of the second he would serve his Majesty in what he could That upon the 11th of October the Informant was sent for to Mr Booth who was a Prisoner at Weaver's House near the King's-Bench he having been removed thither the Night before from one of the Compters That the Informant understood Booth to be in the design that he had known him above twenty Years and to be a Person of good learning and ingenuous but of bad Principles and very ill Reputation having been accused and condemned for Cliping and Coyning besides Murder therefore he resolved to stand upon his Guard. That Booth said to the Informant that he was to tell him that he had an opportunity to be a better man in his Fortune then ever he was and to make his Fortune and that he might have 500 l. per annum to him and his Heirs or 10000 l. which he pleased to discover what he knew of my Lord Shaftesbury and of his design to change the Government to a Common-wealth and to witness against him to which the Informant replyed that no Body would believe that he should be trusted with such a design but that Booth answered that he was the likeliest man to know having served the King and been slighted that the Informant to humour the matter and to provoke Booth to speak his full mind told him that he was with the Lord Shaftesbury the Night before he was apprehended and that Sr Thomas Armstrong was there That the Informant gave an account of this transaction to one Mr Gervas James that Night desiring him to put it in Writing declaring that if he should be tempted to Swear any thing of a Plot or Design by the Lord Shaftesbury against the King it was for Reward and desired him to witness it against him That upon the 12th of October he was invited to the same place to Booth with whom he found Baines where they tempted him as before to be a Witness against the Lord Shaftesbury who answered that till he was satisfied for by-past Services he would not be any way concerned at Court but that if they would give him two Thousand Guineas towards the Injury he had received he would discover what he knew but still declared that he knew nothing of any design by that Lord but that the more he declared he knew nothing the more Booth urged the Reward saying that 500 l. per annum or 10000 l. was intended for him That the Informant upon Booth's importunity said when he had the Money and a Pardon he would do any Service he could that Baines thereupon told him that he might have a Pardon in two or three days and then took his Christian Name which the Informant conceived was with intention to get a Pardon That upon the 13th of October the Informant was sent for by Booth Baines to dine with them at Mr Weaver's House and that Mr Graham came thither and told the Informant whom he had known about twenty Years that my Lord H. and my Lord H. and the two Secretaries of State had inquired of him concerning the Informant and his Reputation and that he the said Graham had answered that the Informant had served the King and his Father faithfully and was a very honest man and a great sufferer and had received great disappointments and they had sent him the said Graham to carry him to the King where he should have his promise to be requited for his Sufferings and to receive his Royal Promise for his Reward That the Informant thereupon told Graham that he could say nothing and would not go to Whitehall upon which Graham said That whether he could say any thing or not he might be recompenced for his Sufferings Whereupon the Informant took leave and went away dissatisfied to be so tempted That upon the 14th of October Booth came to the Informant to know whether he would go to the King or not and told him That Mr Wilson my Lord Shaftesbury 's Secretary then in the Gate-House had offered to come in and make discovery if he might be pardoned and therefore he would have the Informant to have the honour to be the first discoverer That the Informant then telling him that he had no business at Whitehall Booth said if he would not go to the King the Lord Chief Justice's Warrant would be sent to fetch him to his Chamber where some of the Council would examine and swear him that Booth then demanded of him whether he did not ride with Sword and Pistols out of Town with the Lord Shaftesbury when he went to Oxford which being confessed by the Informant Booth then said that he must needs be privy to this that if the King would not pass three Acts one for excluding the Duke the next for making void the Act of Queen Elizabeth against Recusancy and the third for uniting Protestants then by force of Arms he was to be compelled and added that all the Council were satisfied that he knew this That upon the 15th of October Booth came again to the Informant to know whether he would yet go to Whitehall Who demanding for what Booth said To evidence against the Earl of Shaftesbury And being told by the Informant that he had nothing to say against him Booth importuned him not to lose the great opportunity he then had That Baines then came to them and the Informant inquired why they should be so urgent to have him a Witness who told him There were yet none but Irish Witnesses who had not credit but if he would come in though he had been
very Nature and shewed so much Venom as would make one think the whole mass of his Blood were corrupted Here is malice against the King malice against the Government malice against both Church and State malice against any man that bears any share in the Government indeed malice against all mankind that are not of the same perswasion with those bloody Miscreants Here is the sanctifying of Traytors justly executed Here is the Sainting of two horrid Conspirators the Lord Russell that blessed Martyr my Lord Russell that good man that excellent Protestant he is lamented and here is Mr Sidney Sainted and what an extraordinary man was he 't is a shame to think that such bloody Miscreants should be Sainted and lamented 'T is high time for all mankind that have any Christianity or sense of Heaven or Hell to bestir themselves to rid the Nation of such Caterpillars such monsters of Villany as these are These Letters tell you God would be sure to raise up Instruments but what Instruments do they mean Instruments of Rebellion and Faction and Sedition which they most falsly call his own Work. The question is whether the Defendant be guilty of writing these Venomous Malicious Seditious Factious Tumultuous Letters of which you have as full and plain proof as can be made And as to his publishing them can you think that he would write all this Malitious Stuff to put them in his Pocket but you have it sworn that the Defendant said they were sent to the Post-House Then the Jury immediately gave in their Verdict that the Defendant was Guilty of the Offence and Misdemeanor charged in the Indictment as no doubt they resolved to do before they heard one word of the matter The Judgment upon this Verdict was that the Defendant should pay 10000 l Fine and be Imprisoned till paid and to find Sureties for the good Behaviour for Life Accordingly he was committed for the Fine to the King's Bench and continued a Prisoner four or five years which satisfied not but Graham and Burton those Instruments of Rapine and Oppression broke in upon his Estate and besides the Waste and Destruction made they levyed to their own Use and the King 's about 6000 l. Notes upon the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong at the King's Bench the 14 th of June 1684. Before the Lord Chief Justice Jefferies Justice VVithens Justice Holloway and Justice VValcot SR Thomas Armstrong having been Out-lawed upon an Indictment of high Treason and betrayed and brought from Holland was Committed to New-gate upon the 10 th of June 1684. by the Warrant of Sidney Goldolphin Esq principal Secretary of State And upon the 14 th of June being brought to the King's Bench Bar Sr Robert Sawyer Attorney General moved the Court for an award of Execution upon the Outlawry Whereupon he was Arraigned on the Outlawry viz. that he had been Indicted of high Treason for conspiring against the King's Life and the Government That for not appearing to plead and try that Indictment he stood Outlawed and thereby Attainted of the Treason And it was demanded of him what he had to say why Execution should not be awarded against him Sr Thomas urged that he was beyond Sea at the time of the Outlawry and desired that he might be Tryed To which the Chief Justice answered We have nothing to do but to award Execution Sr Thomas desired that the Statute 6. Edward 6. might be read which gives the Person Outlawed for Treason a year to reverse it if he were beyond Sea and desired that Counsel might be assigned him The Chief Justice ordered the Statute to be read to which the Attorney General assented but said Sr Thomas would not find it to his purpose it was read to this effect That all process of Outlawry for Treason against Offenders being beyond the Seas shall be effectual in the Law but it provides that if the Party shall within a year yield himself to the Chief Justice and offer to traverse the Indictment he shall be received to traverse and being found not Guilty he shall be acquitted of the Outlawry and of all Penalties and Forfeitures by reason thereof Then the Attorney General said Sr Thomas now I suppose will shew he yielded himself to your Lordship and added that before he went out of England he might have rendred himself and been Tryed if he had pleased Sr Thomas Armstrong answered I have been a Prisoner the year is not yet out I now render my self and do conceive I am within the Benefit of the Statute and do desire it The Chief Justice replyed we are of another opinion we cannot take notice of it there is no doubt nor difficulty at all in the thing and applying to Richardson said Captain Richardson you shall have a rule for Execution on Friday next Then Sr Thomas offered to the Court that one in that place had the benefit of a Tryal offered him and that was it that he desired for he thanked God his Case was quite another then his That he knew his own Innocence And so did They too otherwise he had not been denyed a Tryal and desired to make it appear by a Tryal To this the Chief Justice answered that which you speak of was the Grace and Mercy of King who may if he please extend the same to you but we are satisfied that according to Law we must award Execution upon this Outlawry Thereupon Mrs Mathews Sr Thomas's Daughter said My Lord I hope you will not Murder my Father for which being Brow-beaten and checkt she added God Almighty's Judgments light upon you Then the Attorney General said that he would acquaint the Court with one thing in reference to what Sr Thomas had said That the King did indeed indulge Holloway so far as to offer him a Tryal and perhaps might have some reason for it but affirmed that the Prisoner deserved no sort of Indulgence or Mercy and then in effect went on to give Evidence against him saying that it appeared that after the disappointment to the meeting at the Rye by the New-market fire Sr Thomas was one of those who engaged to destroy the King by the way upon his hasty coming then to Town and affirmed that this did appear upon a full and clear Evidence and that when he was taken beyond Sea Letters of Communication with Foreign Ministers and other people were found about him The Chief Justice knowing a more expeditious way of murdering this Gentleman said he would not meddle with evidence telling the Attorney that that was not their business and no doubt they were both conscious that they had not evidence where with to convict him and said we have nothing more to do but to award Execution Sr Thomas still insisted that he was within the Statute that he was Out-lawed while he was beyond Sea and that the twelve Moneths not being past he ought to have the Law and demanded no more Thereupon the Bloody-Monster in a most insolent and
inhumane manner concluded thus That you shall have by the Grace of God see that execution be done on Friday next according to Law. You shall have the full benefit of the Law. It may seem proper in this place to note to the Reader the reason why the Grace and Favour as termed by the Chief Justice and Attorney General of being admitted to Tryal was offered to Holloway upon the one and twentieth of April before and now denyed to Sr Thomas Armstrong which cannot be better done then by casting an Eye to the proceedings upon Holloway whereby it manifestly appears that that unhappy person had been wrought upon by the fear of Death and hope of Pardon to be very prodigal in his Confessions it being most evident that what he had declared was more then a thousand Witnesses against himself and that he had put down a multitude of Hear-says and Reports of others the truth whereof never did nor will appear Hereupon they who had before wheedled deluded him do now caress him Mr Attorney told him that at Law he was gone but if he had any thing to say to defend himself the King would not exclude him but extend his Mercy so far as to admit him to Tryal Upon which the Chief Justice said Mr Attorney it is exceeding well and told the Prisoner that the King was pleased to signifie his gratious Intention towards him in that he was contented to wave the Out-lawry and allow him to try the matter if he thought he could defend himself The Prisoner finding himself snared and that this Grace would serve him as it did all others that fell into their power at that time did only answer that he could not undertake to defend himself he having before thrown himself upon the King's mercy and confessed himself guilty of many things in the Indictment So he was sentenced and dyed without Mercy At the place of Execution Sr Thomas Armstrong deported himself with Courage becoming a great man and with the Seriousness and Piety suitable to a very good Christian Sheriff Daniel told him that he had leave to say what he pleased and should not be interrupted unless he upbraided the Government Sr Thomas thereupon told him that he should not say any thing by way of Speech but delivered him a Paper which he said contained his mind he then called for Dr Tennison who prayed with him and then he prayed himself In his Paper he thus expressed himself That he thanked Almighty God he found himself prepared for Death his thoughts set upon another World and weaned from this yet he could not but give so much of his little time as to answer some Calumnies and particularly what Mr Attorney accused him of at the Bar That he prayed to be allowed a Tryal for his Life according to the Laws of the Land and urged the Statute of Edw. 6. which was expresly for it but it signified nothing and he was with an extraordinary Roughness condemned and made a precedent tho' Holloway had it offered him and he could not but think all the world would conclude his case very different else why refused to him That Mr Attorney charged him for being one of those that was to kill the King He took God to witness that he never had a thought to take away the King's Life and that no man ever had the Impudence to propose so barbarous and base a thing to him and that he never was in any design to alter the Government That if he had been tryed he could have proved the Lord Howard's base Reflections upon him to be notoriously false He concluded that he had lived and now dyed of the Reformed Religion a Protestant in the Communion of the Church of England and he heartily wished he had lived more strictly up to the Religion he believed That he had found the great comfort of the Love and Mercy of God in and through his blessed Redeemer in whom he only trusted and verily hoped that he was going to partake of that fulness of Joy which is in his presence the hopes whereof infinitly pleased him He thanked God he had no repining but chearfully submitted to the punishment of his Sins He freely forgave all the World even those concerned in taking away his Life tho' he could not but think his Sentence very hard he being denyed the Laws of the Land. I shall here for the Readers more full Information in this matter subjoyn the Sence of our Present House of Commons of this Proceeding against Sr Thomas Armstrong and the Censure they have most justly passed upon it Martis 12. November 1689. A Petition of the Lady Armstrong and her Daughters was Read Whereupon a Committe was appointed to examine the matter and make their Report to the House Resolved That it be an Instruction to the Committee That they examine who were the Judges that gave the Sentence against Sr Thomas Armstrong and who were the Prosecutors of him and who had his Estate and how the Petitioner may have Reparation And also to examine what Proceedings were in order to a Writ of Error by him desired and how it came to be denyed and by whom And they are to make their Report with all convenient speed Martis 19. November 1689. Mr Chrisly reported from the Committee to whom the Petition of the Lady Armstrong and the Daughters of Sr Thomas Armstrong was referred An account of the whole Proceedings against him And that thereupon they had come to these Resolves 1. That Sr Thomas Armstrong's Plea ought to have been admitted according to the Statute of Edward 6. and that the Execution of him upon the Attainder by Outlawry was illegal and a Murder by pretence of Justice 2. That the Executors and Heirs of Sr Thomas Armstrong ought to have a Reparation of their Losses out of the Estates of those that were his Judges and Prosecutors 3. That a Writ of Error for the Reversal of a Judgment in Felony or Treason in the right of the Subject and ought to be granted at his desire and is not an Act of Grace or Favour which may be denyed or granted at Pleasure To all which Resolves the House agreed Resolved That leave be given to bring in a Bill to Reverse the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong and to make Reparation to his Widow and Children out of the Estates of the Judges and Prosecutors And the same to be without Fees. Munday the 20th of June 1689. Mr Chrisly reported from the Committee to whom the Bill for the annulling the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong was recommitted some Amendments to the Bill as also who were his Prosecutors also what Losses Sr Thomas Armstrong's Family had sustained by reason of the Attainder and thereupon it was Resolved That Sr Richard Holloway Sr Francis Wythens the Executors of the late Lord Jefferies and of the late Justice Walcot Mr Graham and Mr Burton do attend the House on Saturday morning next to answer to such matters as are charged against them touching the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong
Then Mrs Mathews Sr Thomas Armstrong's Daughter was called in and examined what she knew of the Prosecution against her Father And Sr Robert Sawyer then Attorney General being named by her as one of the Prosesecutors After she was with-drawn he was heard in his place to what was objected against him and then he withdrew and upon debate of the matter it was Resolved That Sr Robert Sawyer 's name be put into the Bill as one of the Prosecutors of Sr Thomas Armstrong Resolved That Sr Robert Sawyer be expelled the House for the same Saturday the 25th of January 1689. The House being acquainted that according to their Order Sr Francis Wâ—thens Sr Richard Holloway Mr Graham and Mr Burton attended at the Door thâ—y were severally called in and examined touching the Prosecution and Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong And also the Executors of the late Lord Jeffryes that were attending at the Door were likewise called in and asked what hey had to say why Reparation should not be made out of the Lord Jeffryes Estate to the said Sr Thomas Armstrong's Family No Persons appearing as Executors to the late Justice Walcot the House was acquainted that he dyed Intestate and had not left an Estate sufficient to pay his Debts After the Persons before-mentioned were heard and with-drawn Mr Blaney was called in who gave the House an Account of the Proceedings in the Court of King's-Bench upon the Awarding Execution against Sr Thomas Armstrong And then the House proceeded upon the Amendments made by the Committee to the Bill for annulling the Attainder of Sr Thomas Armstrong And after having inserted the Name of Sr Robert Sawyer as a Prosecutor and resolved That the sum of five thousand Pounds should be paid by the Judges and Prosecutors to Sr Tho. Armstrong's Lady and Children as a Recompence of the Losses they had sustained by reason of his Attainder the Bill was recommitted upon the debate of the House to the same Committee Notes upon the Tryal between Sr William Pritchard Alderman of London and Thomas Papillon Esq. at Guildhall upon the 6th day of November 1684. before Sr George Jeffryes Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench THat Mr Papillon was second to none in his zealous and undaunted opposition to the wicked attempts of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Government is very well known and deserves to be for ever remembred with honour None out did him in a diligent and faithful discharge of his Trust in several Parliaments In the Year 1681 there appeared a Race of Men fond of Vassalage and Slavery to that degree that they made Addresses of Thanks to the King for breaking two Parliaments in the compass of three Months meerly upon the score of their steady Resolution to extirpate the Popish Plot and Popery One of these fawning Addresses with promise of venturing their Lives and Fortunes to maintain this Violation of the Constitution of the Government having been presented to the King by Sr William Pritchard Sr George Jefferies and others Mr Papillon in abhorrence of it promoted and personally prosecuted a Petition to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council praying that the Thanks of the City might be returned to Sr Robert Clayton Sr Thomas Player Alderman Pilkington and Alderman Love their worthy and well deserving Representatives in the Oxford Parliament and shewing That as matters then stood the Papists being animated in their Bloody designs by the hopes of a Popish Successor a Declaration to have frequent Parliaments could not attribute to the safety of the Kingdom and the composing the minds of Protestants but that it must be the sitting of a Parliament so as to search the Plot to the bottom to Prosecute the Conspirators and provide suitable Laws against the impending Evils and that nothing else could be effectual Further This Gentleman having in the same year 1681. greatly added to his guilt by baffling the Popish designs upon the Lives Liberties and Estates of all Protestants in the attempt upon the Earl of Shaftesbury He exerts himself in the year 1682. in the defence of the great and undoubted Right of the Citizens to chuse their own Sheriffs but now arbitrary Power being by the aid of ill Men become rampant and uncontroulable he must be sacrificed to their Revenge Mr Papillon having been duly elected one of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex he brought a Writ of Mandamus out of the Court of King's-Bench to command the Mayor Aldermen to swear him into the Office that being disobeyed he is advised by his Counsel that he is entitled to an Action at Law for the wrong done him he sends in a respectful way to the Mayor and Aldermen requesting them to give voluntary appearances to his Action that being refused he proceeds by a legal process to bring them to answer him at Law whereupon Sr William Pritchard being arrested by the Coroner of London to whom the King's Writ was directed and detained some hours upon his refusal to give an appearance to Mr Papillon's Action Sr William brings an Action against him for thus arresting him and demands 10000 l. damages wherein he committed a great over-sight for had he ask'd 100000 l. the usual damages given in that day he had not failed of it with the following Jury which tryed the Cause Bartholomew Ferryman an old Informer one of the Jury of the Guildhall Riot Thomas Blackmore One of Dr Otes's Jury and also of the Riot Jury Thomas Symonds William Whatton One of the Riot Jury John Greene Thomas Amy One of Sr S. Barnardiston's Jury Joseph Baggs Daniel Chandler John Reynolds John Allen. Joseph Caine and Will. Wythers junior Fathers own Son. Mr Mundy opened the Declaration to this effect That the Plantiff being Lord Mayor and to attend that Office in the diligent Government of the City The Defendant envying the happy Estate of the Plantiff and contriving unjustly to disturb him in the Execution of his Office did to vex him not having any probable Cause of Action against him maliciously prosecute the King 's Writ out of the Court of King's-Bench against him directed to the Coroner of London commanding him to take Sr William Pritchard at Mr Papillon 's suite in an Action of Trespass and did procure Mr John Brome The Coroner to arrest him and that he was detained in custody six hours To the disgrace and scandal of the Plantiff and of his Office Whereas in fact he had not any just Cause of Action against him to his damage 10000 l. Then the Attorney General told the Jury that the action was brought to vindicate the honour of the Chair from such Affronts as these which in no Age till our times of faction and confusion it ever met with and he said We shall shew you that there lay a further Malice in this case and that there was a design in it against the Government This design was laid to carry on the great
in which these most deserving Gentlemen ever engaged themselves For this imaginary Riot they were with others brought to Tryal The Sheriffs made by Riot Force and Arms returned upon them some of the true Rioters for Jury-Men Others of them were made the Witnesses and so they were found guilty and most extravagantly Fined Mr Bethel after about two years Imprisonment for non-payment of the Fine against all Law and Reason imposed upon him Obtained his Liberty by payment of his Fine he having wisely observed that the Juries of that day did Kill as sure as Death every Man whom the Conspirators marked out to them and being thus at Liberty and also at leisure resolved for a time to take his leave of England as he did and so very happily lives at this day to be further servicable to this famous City and his Generation But Mr Cornish's Family and great Occasions having detained him within the reach of the Conspirators The wise disposer of all things now permits him to be made a Sacrifice to the Tories Rage They charge him with an Indictment of High Treason for Conspiring the death of King Charles the second and the raising a Rebellion The Jury sworn upon him were Thomas Rawlinson Thomas Langham Ambross Isted of Fleetstreet Thomas Pendelton John Grice Thomas Oneby of Aldermanbury William Clowdesly of Fishstreet of whom it is generally and very credibly reported that he was killed about three years after with a piece of Wood called the Cornish of an House upon the blowing up some Houses at the Fire at Paul's-VVharfe Richard Holford of Breadstreet-Hill Cheesemonger VVilliam Long-boat Stephen Colman of Leadenhall-street at the Corner of Limestreet Robert Clavel Book-seller in St Pauls Church-yard and VVilliam Long. The King's Council were The Attorney General The Solicitor General Mr North and Mr Phipps The Attorney General aggravated the matter charged in the Indictment thus Gentlemen of the Jury the Prisoner stands Indicted for Conspiring the death of the late King and for raising Rebellion and consenting to be assisting to the Rebellion then designed I need not tell you what part he acted when he was Sheriff that that was the ground-work of the Rebellion setting the Commonality against the Government of the City Hereupon Mr Cornish said that he was as Innocent as any Man in the Court and the Attorney ironically replyed So was my Lord Russel to his Death Mr Cornish do you remember that Then Colonel Romsey who to the certain knowledge of the Judges and King's Council had perjured himself in the Tryal of my Lord Russel testified that about October or November 1682. he went to Mr Shepherd's House to the Duke of Monmouth my Lord Russel Lord Gray Sr Thomas Armstrong and Mr Ferguson That they were just going away when he came That before they went Alderman Cornish was brought in by Shepherd and made his Excuse that he did not come sooner and said he could not stay with them That thereupon Mr Ferguson opened his Bosome and pull'd out a Paper and read it to him Mr Shepherd holding the Candle and after it was read he said he liked it well That he the said Romsey did not hear all the the Paper read but it was a Declaration to have been dispersed when the Rising was to have been That there were as he well remembred two points in it One was Liberty of Conscience and the other That all who would assist in the Insurrection that had any Lands of the King 's or Churches in the late War should have them restored Mr Goodenough who to capacitate him to be a Witness brought a Pardon for one Treason for which he had been Outlawed and stood awed with the guilt of another He testified that being with Alderman Cornish in the beginning of the year 1683. He said to him Now the Law won't defend us tho' we be never so innocent some other way is to be thought on and that upon this the Alderman said he wondered the City was so unready and the Country so ready That he thereupon told him that something was thought of to be done here but in the first place the Tower ought to be seized That the Alderman after a little pause said I will do what I can or what good I can That some time after the Alderman met him upon the Exchange and asked him how Affairs went which he understood to relatc to what they had discoursed and that he answered him Well But he acknowledged that he had other matters with him about the defence of the Riot Upon this mention of the Riot Justice Wythens reflected saying Mr. Cornish I tell you that was a branch of the Plot take that from me and quickly after he told him something as true viz Mr Cornish you have this Happiness that you will be Tryed by your Fellow Citizens of very good Quality and Understanding I must tell you On behalf of Alderman Cornish there appeared Sr VVilliam Turner Alderman Love Mr Jekil and Mr Gosfright who testified that the Prisoner had great aversion to Goodenough and did oppose his being made Vnder-Sheriff but the Chief Justice slighted their Evidence and Wythens said Mr Jekyl was in a Limb of the Plot one of the greatest of the Rioters Note a Person under the guilt of Treason is allowed for a good Witness but this Learned Judge seems to doubt in the Case of a Rioter Then Sr Thomas Lane testified that in my Lord Russel's Tryal Romsey swore that he did not hear the Declaration read it being done before he came Dr Calamy Mr Carlton Mr Cooke Mr Knap and Mr Smart then spoke to the Life Reputation and Loyalty of the Prisoner It deserves to be noted that after the Evidence given Mr Solicitor did here omit the drudgery which in all other Cases of this nature he underwent by a long florid Speech to impress the Jury in the matter here it sufficed that Judge Wythens had just before passed his word that this Jury was composed of Citizens of very good quality and understanding therefore they might be trusted well enough knowing what they had to do The Lord Chief Justice Jones who had in the whole proceeding of the Tryal discovered sufficient tartness sumed up the Evidence to the Jury Then The Jury being withdrawn the Prisoner informed the Court that he had omitted to call one material Witness whereupon the Jury being returned Mr Shepherd testified That Mr Cornish came into his House to speak with the Duke of Monmouth or some other person he could not positively after so many Years say whom and did not stay half a quarter of an Hour That Shepherd went up Staires and came out of the Room with him and that there was not one Word read or Paper seen while Mr Cornish was there That he was not look'd upon to be one of the Company But before he came Mr Ferguson had pull'd off his Shooe and took the Declaration out there and read it and Mr Cornish knew nothing of
the Church of England and who are now for calling him back These were Men who would have finished the Ruin of the Nation in the Dissolution of its antient and well Established Government and in the Blood of its best Patriots They gloryed in calling themselves Tories their Guide and Patron did in their name thrust out stigmatize all the sober and moderate Men of the Church of England with the Name of Trimmers bestowed upon them this Apothegme That a Trimmer is worse than a Rebel Whoever recurs to the Original of that Name in the Observators will find that it pointed at first at two honourable and never to be forgotten Protestants of your Neighbour County the late Lord Townshend and Sr John Hobart of Norfolk and quickly after Dr Fowler Mr Smithee and many other Reverend Divines of the Church of England fell under that Denomination Now surely 't is not a Crime to call such Men as these by the name which they appropriated to themselves and 't were Foolish to esteem Men of their practices to be of any Religion In some cases a Man ought not to be over-patient and it must move any one to hear a Learned Lawyer at the Bar at the time when Popery had actually ascended the Throne in this manner to caress a Tory-Jury Gentlemen I cannot but with much Sorrow remember to you and I know you all remember it too well that there was a time when the City of London was so far corrupted that it was become a Refuge and Sanctuary for high Treason when there was no Justice to be had for the King there when Men lodged themselves within those Walls as a Protection for their Conspiracies We all remember the time when Indictments were perferred and a plain Evidence given to a Grand-Jury even to the publick satisfaction of all that heard it and yet they have refused to find the Bill and not only so but were so abetted by the Rabble that it was scarce safe for the Judges to sit upon the Bench These are things none of us can forget but must be perpetually remembred to the shame of the Authors and Contrivers of them And must it not provoke a Man to hear the following Doctrine from the Pulpit upon the sad occasion of the good Lord Russell's death of whom one of the best Divines now living did truely say that an Age would not repaire that loss to the Nation viz. Cuting of Throats would have been counted only a Scotch way of Triming and the destruction of Princes to be no more but a perfecting the History of the Reformation They who cannot rise up to all the heights of Conformity can yet strain a point upon occasion and rise up to all the heights of Rebellion and Barbarity and had not God marvelously interposed these squeamish Conscience Traytors would have shewed the truth of this Is it not astonishing at this day when the Parliament hath declared that my Lord Russell Colonel Sidney and Sr Thomas Armstrong were murdered to heare an Irish Arch-Deacon who fled hither upon the score of Religion and is a Principal Manager of our Charity to the Irish Protestants publickly ridicule the death of the first two by telling us in an upbraiding way these are your Martyrs and affirm that the last dyed justly and according to Law Would such men as these satisfie the World of their Ingenuity and Repentance these extravagancies undoubtedly ought to be put into utter Oblivion now that Heaven has wrought for us a most signal and miraculous deliverance but which is to be lamented those very Men who carryed us to the very brinck of destruction are not onely remorseless but many of them do make it their business by drinking Popish Healths wishing success to their Arms and spreading false Newes to infect and debauch the Kingdom especially the City and to traduce maligne and undermine the Government under which the divine Providence has so mercifully placed us and therefore they who have given such high provocations and done so much mischief and do still remain impenitent ought not to esteem themselves unkindly used by some tart expressions Sr That I may be justâ—…ied with you who I am sure would believe the best of every Man and make the best of all things I have said much more then I did intend upon this occasion and hope you will forgive it You have very signally and heartily lent and laid out your self in your Countries service that service was not onely difficult and hazardous but it had proved fatal had not Heaven interposed for your deliverance and therefore all true Lovers of old England's welfare must wish that no false Insinuations may lessen you in the esteem of Good Men you have been a publick Good and that obliges me to be Sir Your Honourer and Most Obedient Servant February 10. 1689. The CONTENTS REmarks upon Dr Otes his Tryal pag. 1. Vpon the Tryal of Reading p. 38. Vpon the Tryal of Knox and Lane p. 45. Vpon the Tryal of Tasborough and Price p. 53. Vpon the Proceedings against the Earl of Shaftesbury p. 64. Vpon the Tryal of Stephen Colledge p. 92. Vpon the Tryal of Thompson the Printer Payne and Farwell p. 117. Vpon the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot p. 127. Vpon the Tryal of my Lord Russell p. 155. Vpon the Tryal of Colonel Sidney p. 185. Vpon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston p. 207. Vpon the Proceedings against Sr Thomas Armstrong p. 215. Vpon Mr Papillon's Tryal with Sr William Pritchard p. 228. Vpon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish p. 245. REMARKS upon the Tryal of Dr Titus Otes upon an Indictment for Perjury at the King's Bench Bar at VVestminster before Sr George Jeffryes Baron of Wem Lord Chief Justice Whom the House of Commons had recommended to the King by this Vote and an Address thereupon November the 13th 1680. Resolved That Sr George Jeffryes Recorder of London by traducing and obstructing Petitioning for the sitting of this Parliament hath betrayed the Rights of the Subject Ordered That an humble Address be made to his Majesty to remove Sr George Jeffryes out of all publick Offices Mr Justice Wythens Who was advanced to a Seat upon that Bench by the following Vote of the House of Commons October 29. 1680. Resolved That Sr Francis Wythens by promoting and presenting to his Majesty an Address expressing an Abhorrence to Petition his Majesty for the calling and sitting of Parliaments hath betrayed the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England And this Order thereupon Ordered That Sr Francis Wythens be expelled this House for this high Crime and that he receive his Sentence at the Bar of this House upon his Knees from Mr Speaker Which he received accordingly Mr Justice Holloway late Recorder of Oxford whose part in the dispatching Stephen Colledge advanced him to this station And Mr Justice Walcot the best of all the four but as poor as Sr R. Wright and by consequence a fit Tool to serve the
reproachful manner retorted No they are all of them no doubt of it very good People Good-Wife Mayo and her Companions excellent Protestants without all question Object 3. The Statute 27 Eliz. cap. 2. entituled An Act against Jesuits Priests and other such like disobedient Persons Which Act makes it Treason for any Jesuit or Ecclesiastick Person of the Romish Church to come into England And the Statute 3. Car. 1. Cap. 2. whereby it is enacted That in case any Person shall go into parts beyond the Seas and be resident or trained up in any Priory Abby or Popish University or School he shall be disabled to sue or to be an Executor or Administrator or capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift or to bear any Office and shall forfeit his Goods and also his Lands for his Life Object 4. The Judgments of Papists in case of Conscience whereby they maintain the vilest Wickedness to be lawful for the Churches Service and they own They have Dispensations to swear Lyes for promoting the Catholick Cause Object 5. What was said and done in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Case at the Sessions in the Old-Bayly and Hickes-Hall It was there moved for Liberty to bring Indictments of Perjury against the Witnesses who accused him of Treason but those Motions were over-ruled because they would not have the King's Witnesses indicted of Perjury nor the Popish Plot called in question These Objections receiving no other answer from the Bench then that all was trifling and idle and being so huff'd off the Defendant proceeded to speak to this effect My Lord this I say The Evidence upon which I am indicted is the same which was delivered six Years ago at Whitebread 's and Langhorn 's Tryals where were sixteen Witnesses against me but what credit did they then receive Now if my Evidence was then to be believed though opposed by so many Witnesses what new objestion doth rise against it which was not then hinted and answered I do avow the Truth of the Popish Plot and will stand by it whilst I live I have called some Noble Lords to testifie for me but I find either the distance of time has wrought upon their Memories or the difference of the Season has changed their Opinion Was ever Man dealt with as I am or had such Evidence offered against him Who are the Witnesses to prove this Perjury but Youths out of a Seminary My Lord of Castlemaine and Sr George Wakeman known Papists As for Castlemaine all the World knows he was acquitted because there was but one Witness against him and that without any reflection by the Lord Chief Justice Scrogs upon my Testimony Then Wakeman swears all I said against him was false whereas had it not been for two dishonest Persons one of them meaning Graham I have now in my sight we could have proved 5000 l. of the Money paid to him and that he gave a Receipt for it But my Lord this I am sure of if I had been a VVitness against those who suffered in the late Fanatick Plot as 't was called I had never been called in question if my Evidence had been false but 't is apparent the Papists have now a turn to serve and these St Omers Youths are brought to falsify my Evidence and to bring off the Lords who stand impeached of high Treason for the Popish Conspiracy My Lord 't is not me they indict but the whole protestant Interest is aimed at in this Prosecution For my own part I care not what becomes of me the Truth will one time or another appear Then Mr Solicitor in a long Harangue gave great Reputation to the St Omers Witnesses and then told the Jury that the Defendants Witnesses were these four Cicely Mayo Butler Page and Walter the Parson and that he would first mention Page and Walter and set them out of the way Page says he remembers to have seen Otes in a disguise at Sr Richard Barker's but he is not certain as to the time and he cannot take upon him to say what time of the Year or what Year it was only he believes it was in May and therefore that can be no sufficient evidence to contradict Witnesses that with great particularity speak to certain times As for Walter he cannot remember the time when neither Nay the remembrance he has of it goes rather to another time then the time in question for being ask'd what circumstance he knew the time by he said it was about a year and a quarter before the Plot was discovered which must be in April or May 1677 and that will do the Doctor no service at all upon this question thus Mr Solicitor For tryal of this learned Gentleman's Sincerity I shall review the Evidence given by these two Persons that the Reader may make his Judgment how fairly they were set out of the way Page did indeed declare that he could not be positive to the Year or Month but that to the best of his remembrance 't was in the Year 1678 and in the beginning of May this was like an honest conscientious Witness but what he further testified did evidently shew the time to be in the beginning of May 1678. For besides his mentioning the Doctors coming in disguise according to the evidence of Mrs Mayo and Butler he declared that it was at the time when Sr Richard Barker was ill at Putney and that Sr Richard came to Town soon after and Mrs Mayo and Butler swore expresly that the time of the Doctors coming in disguise was when Sr Richard was sick at Putney and that that was in the end of April or beginning of May 1678. As to Mr Walter his evidence was that he met the Doctor in disguise and did upon that very day observe the Elm Trees budded forth so that by that token he thought it might be between Lady-day and the latter end of April and as to the Year that it was near a Year and Quarter before he was examined about this matter at the Tryal of the five Jesuits which was the 13th of June 1679 but Mr Solicitor to the end this Man's Testimony might not serve the Doctor as he himself worded it represents it quite otherwise and tells the Jury that Mr Walter said the time was about a year and a quarter before the Plot was discovered and so makes the time to be April or May 1677 though Mr Walter in speaking for himself being ask'd about the time of the discovery of the Plot said that he could not tell when the Plot was discovered or whether it be found out yet or no. Where is the Candor or Ingenuity of this proceeding Now comes the Scandal of the Law Jeffryes that mortal Enemy to the Liberties of England and all true English-men He foaming vomits a flood of Malice and Rage First he caresses Sr William Dodson and his Brethren of the Jury with the complement that to his knowledge they are Persons of great understanding and abilities and adds that
Lane and had promised great Rewards to them Then the Cause was opened by that most incomparable Person the honour of the Law old Sr John Maynard now first Lord Commissioner of the great Seal whose Ability Integrity and Desert have kept him from a Seat upon the Benches of Westminster till about the eighty eighth Year of his Age when Heaven set the Law free he spoke to this effect This Cause is of great consequence there hath been an horrid and abominable Conspiracy against the King the Nation our Religion and the Law The first discovery of this Conspiracy came from a single Person who stood single and discouraged a long time and there were endeavours to discourage his further discovery when it stood so Sr Edmundbury Godfrey having taken his Examination then the endeavour was to suppress it and that by no less a wickedness then the barbarous Murder of that honest Gentleman that being accomplished they strived to baffle and defame him when dead All this while he stood single it fell out by the mercy of God that Bedloe made a further discovery and publick Justice has gone upon it Then they attempted to corrupt his Testimony with Bribes and Rewards and Reading who transacted it is attainted of it scelere tutandum est scelus Having gone all these ways they return again to see if they can disgrace and baffle the Evidence of Otes and Bedloe by scandalizing them with foul offences especially Dr Otes and that was thus Knox tampered with Lane a Servant to Otes to accuse him of the Horrid Sin of Sodomy In order to it there were Letters wrote by Osborne who is run away but contrived by Knox. It happens in this case as it did long ago as the Historian told us multi ob stultitiam non put abant multi ob ignorantiam non videbant multi ob pravitatem non credebant et non credendo conjurationem adjuvabant To this Sr Creswell Levens the King's Attorney-General added This is a counter-part of Mr Reading 's Case only it seems in this to differ that it exceeds the Original In the proceeding upon the cause it was proved that Lane upon his first coming to Dr Otes in November 1678 had a design to accuse him as he afterward did of Sodomy a Crime above the common standard of Villanies That he declared whilst he was with the Doctor that he hoped in a short time to get 1000 l. That Lane sent for Sr William Waller that he might confess the whole Contrivance to him declaring that he was pricked in Conscience for the false Oaths he had taken That Lane and Osborne had confessed before a Committee of the House of Lords and also before Sr William Waller and Justice Warcup that they were suborned by Knox to swear falsly against Dr Otes and Mr Bedloe and that he had given them money to do it That Knox made Lane and Osborne swear Secrecy and to stand fast to the Instructions he had given them That he went to the Sugar-Loaf in Pickadilly and took Lodgings for them and lay there with them and promised them Money and Preferment and told Lane that he need not doubt but the Lords in the Tower would acknowledge their Kindness That Lane and Osborne said they were going from Dr Otes that they were sworn Brothers if the one did go the other would and they should get Preferment and have 100 l. per annum and 500 l. in Money As to Knox his endeavours to blast the Testimony of Dr Otes and Mr Bedloe it was proved That Knox endeavour'd to suborn H. Wiggins to accuse Mr Bedloe his Master That he proposed to Thurston a Servant to Dr Otes to be very kind to him if he could find any thing to Swear against his Master That Knox to invite VViggins to betray and accuse Mr Bedloe said The King knows Otes and Bedloe to be great Rogues and when he has got what he can out of them he will hang them up That when Knox Lane and Osborne were Prisoners in the Gate-house for this contrivance Knox offered the Vnder-Keeper a Reward to allow him to correspond by Letters with Lane and gave him three half Crowns desiring him to speak to Lane to stand fast to him and then they should be two against one for he fear'd Osborne had betrayed them about the business of Dr Otes That Knox and Lane and Osborne went to Justice Dewy and Knox told him he was advised to come to him to take an Information against Dr Otes and that they went to Justice Cheyney upon the same errand That Lane had been kept the last Summer at the Lord Powis his house had 10 s. per week allowed him That Knox was to have 30 or 40 l. to carry on the business and that Knox Osborne and Lane were to be rewarded by the Lords in the Tower for their evidence against Dr Otes and Mr Bedloe That Lane being taken Knox sent for Osborne and carried him in a Coach to White Fryers That the Papers relating to the Conspiracy were delivered by Knox to Dangerfield and went about to the Lords in the Tower and afterwards to Nevil alias Paine and were by him amended and then delivered to Knox again The Case appearing so very clear upon the Evidence the Jury without going from the Bar found the Defendants guilty Whereupon they received this merciful Sentence Knox the principal who is now at this day in a better station at Court than ever he was in his Life or could ever have hoped for Fined two hundred Marks to be Imprisoned a year and to be bound to the good behaviour for three years Lane fined one hundred Markâ— to stand once in the Pillory and to be Imprisoned a Year Notes upon the Tryal of John Tasborough and Ann Price for Subornation of Perjury in endeavouring to perswade Mr Stephen Dugdale to retract and deny his Evidence about the Popish Plot with an intent to stifle the further Prosecution of the same At the Kings Bench upon the third of February 1679 before Sr William Scroggs Sr Thomas Jones Sr William Dolben and Sr Francis Pemberton Judges of that Court. The Jury were Thomas Harriot Tho. Johnson Char. Vmphrerile Tho. Earsby Richard Pagget John Greene Edward Willford Richard Bull Joseph Ratclaffe Richard Cooper James Supple George Read. THe suborning attempt of Knox Lane was succeeded by another of the like nature carried on by two Popish Engines Mr Tasborough and Mrs Price which being likewise happily detected they were prosecuted as follows The Indictment was to this effect That Whitebread Harcourt and Langhorne and others were convicted and attainted for Treason and that Dugdale had been a material Evidence against them and the Defendants knowing this and contriving to stifle the evidence of those Treasons did before Harcourts Tryal suborn and endeavour to perswade Dugdale not to give evidence against him and after the Tryal solicited him to retract the Evidence he had given and promised him large Rewards
into the bargain but that Mr Justice Pemberton checkt it by holding up his hands in Admiration this persons Crime was the publishing a Book called An Appeal from the Country to the City in which this passage was contained We in the Country have done our parts in chusing good Members for Parliament but if they must be Dissolved or Prorogued when-ever they come to redress the Grievances of the Subject we may be pittied not blamed if the Plot takes effect as in all probability it will Our Parliaments are not then to be condemned for their not being suffered to sit occasioned it But now when we come to Judgments for Misdemeaners on the other side We shall perceive great Compassion and Mercy appearing in that Court indeed Reading who was Convicted for the first attempt upon the King's-Witnesses was adjudged to pay 1000 l. to be Pilloried and Imprisoned for a year and one would have thought that more severe Judgments would have past upon such as should dare to repeat the same Crimes after such an Example but we see the contrary About six Months afterwards Knox and Lane being Convicted of the same Offence accompanied with much blacker Circumstances Knox the principal was only Fined 200 Marks and condemned to a years Imprisonment and to be bound to the good Behaviour for three years And Lane Fined 1â—… Marks and adjudged to stand once in the Pillory and to be Imprisoned a year And now in the Case before us Mr Tasborough a Gentleman of a good Estate who had treated about so great a Villany in the name of the Duke of York was only Fined 100 l. And Mrs Price 200 l. But who can admire at this notorious departure from the rules of Justice and Equality in the assessing of Fines that remembers that the Chief Justice Scroggs did in this very Term declare in open Court in the Case of Dr Jessop a very honest and worthy Protestant of Norfolk that he would have regard to Persons and their Principles in imposing of Fines and would set a Fine of 500 l. on one person for the same offence for which he would not Fine another 100 l. And accordingly Fined Dr Jessop 100 l. for reporting false News as they called it and at the same time Fined the Doctor 's Author of that News a right Tory no doubt only five Marks Now surely will the Reader say this Jessop was undoubtedly a very naughty Man but to undeceive him I can affirm he is as true a Church of England Man as can be found and the bad principle which made him to be thus marked was that he was an avowed Enemy to Popery and true to the Liberties of England and did upon every occasion exert himself to a degree hardly to be equalled by any Gentleman of Norfolk for the chusing deserving men for Knights of the shire and particularly for Sr John Hobart then whom none ever deserved better of that County and whose name will always be remembred there with great Honour For this extravagant Partiality and Injustice in imposing Fines the Court of Kings-Bench was deservedly marked with this Vote of the House of Commons December the 23 d 1680 Resolved That the Court of King's Bench in the Imposition of Fines on Offenders of late years hath acted Arbitrarily Illegally and Partially Favouring Papists and persons Popishly affected and excessively Oppressing Protestants Reflections upon the Proceedings in the Old Baily before the Lord Chief Justices Pemberton and North. November 24 1681. upon an Indictment for High Treason framed against the Right Honourable Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury for conspiring the Death of the King and Subversion of the Government THe Names of the Grand-Jury returned by Sheriff Filkington and Sheriff Shute and who were Sworn upon that occasion were Sr Sam. Barnardiston John Morden Thomas Papillon John Dubois Charles Herle Edward Rudge Humphrey Edwm John Morris Edmund Harrison Joseph VVright John Cox Thomas Parker Leonard Robinson Thomas Shepherd John Flavel Michael Godfrey Joseph Richarson VVilliam Empson Andrew Kendrick John Lane and John Hall. A sort of people called Tories wedded to their own blindness having loudly clamoured of this great Jury I shall here add the names of those who were returned upon the same Pannel Alderman Ellis Mr Mellish Mr Tho. Gardener Samuel Swinnock Mr Ben. Godfrey Mr John Pollexfen Mr John Smith Mr John Gardener Mr Peter Delence Mr Peter Hubland Mr William Ashurst Mr John Deagle Mr Thomas Western Mr Bonnel Mr Gabriel Wheatley Mr Tho. Carpenter Mr L. Baskervile Mr George Marwood Mr John Smith And now let all who know the City of London judge whether a more substantial Pannel in every respect was ever returned to serve at the Old-Bailey The King's Council for the management of this Intrigue were The Attorney General Sr Francis Wythens the Abhorrer of Parliaments And Mr Saunders afterwards the Quo Warranto Lord Chief Justice Mr Graham the Solicitor of all the late Sham Plots upon Protestants and pay-master of corrupt Juries and perjured Witnesses solicited this Prosecution and hence took his first step to such Preferment as enabled him to give Eight or ten thousand Pounds with a Daughter 'T is to be lamented that he hath lived to this day without further Preferment in the way which at that time the then Lord Chancellor promised to honest Captain VVilkinson The magnified Evidence of this horrid Treason and that which the King's Council relying upon begun with was a Paper proved by Secretary Jenkins Mr Blaithwaite and Mr Gwin to have been found in the Earl's House of which such noise has been made in the World by the virulent Observator and the Popish News-Writers as well as from too many of our Pulpits that it may not be ungratful to the Reader to be here presented with the very words thereof which follow The Association WE the Knights c. finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Jesuites with the Papists and their Adherents and Abettors have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gratious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery And it being notorious that they have been highly incouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by James Duke of York and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through Crafty Popish Councils his Designs have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependants upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State. It appearing also to us that by his influence Mercenary Forces bave been levied and kept on foot for his secret Designs contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazard of his Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the Danger had not been timely fore-seen by several Parliaments and
disband the mercenary Forces raised and kept up to advance arbitrary Power but such a mistake may be remitted to Sr F. Wythens and also to that smooth Lord Chief Justice North who in suming up the Evidence to the Grand Jury did wilfully no doubt of it make the same mis-representation of that matter Mr Saunders added that the design of the Paper was pretended to oppose Popery and Arbitrary Power and destroy the Papists which seemed not so much in it self but that their Witnesses would shew who those Papists were that were to be destroyed And now the Witnesses are called who were John Booth a most notorious and scandalous Villain who had been guilty of several Felonies Edward Turbervile and John Smyth an Irish Priest who were manifestly perjured in the Tryal of honest Colledge Brian Haynes John Macnamar Dennis Macnamar Edward Ivey and Bernard Dennis Profligate Irish Witnesses who according to every season had traded in Swearing and Counter-swearing It may suffice to present the Impartial Reader with the Names of these scandalous Fellows for 't would be nauseous to detain him in reading the non-sensical incredible contradictory stuff sworn by them as That the Earl would raise the Kingdom to compel the King to give Haynes a Pardon That the Government was to be changed to a Common-wealth and the Duke of Buckingham to be King. That the Earl should tell Macnamar and Ivey that he would bring the King's Head to the Block That a Person of the Earl of Shaftesbury's extraordinary caution should talk Treason or any thing else with so infamous a Fellow as Haynes for an Hour together in a Cook 's Shop in Ironmonger-Lane It seems here worthy of Observation that the Conspirators clap'd this Noble Lord into the Tower in the beginning of July 1681 but the Term coming on when they must prosecute him or he would be bailed out they were then to seek for English Witnesses to back the trusty Irish so Booth and the rest were rak'd together and Captain Wilkinson one of the honestest Men then or now living was tempted and threatned at a more then ordinary rate to come in to back and credit their Testimony as was evidently made out by his Information which to his eternal honour he published before this prosecution an Abstract whereof I do hereunto subjoyn to evince the cursed practises of those dayes and to mind an ungratful Generation of the merit of that worthy upright Person It may also deserve Remark that the Treasonable discourses Sworn against his Lordship by these Varlets were fix'd by them to February and March before the Instructors of these Witnesses well remembring that that was a time when the Nation was in no small ferment upon the trifling with Parliaments for the introduceing Popery and Tyranry yet most of these Witnesses upon their examination were forced to acknowledge that they gave or rather sold their Informations after my Lord of Shaftesbury was committed in July upon a Warrant for high Treason which Secretary Jenkins who managed this whole Intrigue and the Witnesses thereof gloried that he had the honour to sign I shall here take occasion to declare what I have long believed that the amusing us in England with the Irish Popish Plot did proceed from the depth of the Jesuits Counsels with design to trip up the Heels of their execrable Plot here that they sent us these wretches on that very errand I do also think that the Conspirators then at Whitehall did in the management of this Intrigue over-reach this great and wise Lord the Earl of Shaftesbury and that his zeal to extirpate Popery in both the Kingdoms disposed him to be too credulous in that matter of the Irish Plot at least as to the honesty of the Witnesses thereof But what Man endued with the least grain of Honesty and Sense could ever credit the Evidence against this Noble Peer after the reading Mr Colledge's Tryal and the Information of worthy Captain Wilkinson about this very affair As to the Paper found in the Earl's House and upon which so great stress was laid I shall here note that at this time it was notoriously known even in every Coffee-House that an Association and very probably this now given in evidence had been resolved upon and read in Parliament and the Fore-man of the Grand-Jury who was a Member well knowing that the Plot-Secretary was then of the House of Commons examined him strictly about it but he appeared very reserved and cautions in his answers and could not at first remember that he had heard of the Association but as Town-talk but being closely followed with Questions by the worthy Fore-man he very unwillingly went a little further saying That to the best of his remembrance he was not present in the House at the Reading the Association though 't is notoriously known that he did there make Speeches against it To evince that the project of an Association was no new thing I cannot hinder my self from a small digression to shew that one of this formal Secretary's Confidents Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer had published the news of this Association near two Years before this prosecution it is in his Intelligence of December the 9th 1679 in these Words A form of an Association is preparing for People to subscribe for the defence of the King 's sacred Person the present Established Form of Government and the Protestant Religion paralel to that in Queen Elizabeth's time which was afterward confirmed by Act of Parliament This seems to take its Rise from the Resolve of the late Parliament This very Advertisement may be well supposed to put such as were curious to know the transactions of that time to get a sight of the Association so notified to be on foot and 't is very probable that by that means it might as news be handed to the Earl of Shaftesbury and so come to be thrown by amongst his old Papers however had not an upright understanding English Jury interposed it had as certainly destroyed the Honour Estate and Life of this never to be forgotten Noble Lord as the Westminster Carpenter in disguise with his little Presbyterian Band and his eleven Brethren did destroy the brave Colonel Sydney upon the evidence of old loose Papers found in his House enforced with a Maxim in three cramp Words Scribere est Agere as unintelligible in all probality to that pack'd Jury as was the Treatise of that great Man or as the Maxim it self is to learned Lawyers Well to conclude after much contrasting between the Jury and the Court whether the Jury might consider the credibility of the Witnesses which the Chief Justice denyed and Mr Papillon with much tugging having gained a great point of the Court viz. That they were within the compass of their own Vnderstanding and Consciences to give their Judgment Which is in truth no more than the giving them leave to see with their own Eyes hear with their own Ears and judge by their own
Justice he hath endeavoured to take off the credit of our Witnesses and he would have you believe that he is a very good Protestant though he does the Papists work I think it a great piece of arrogance for him to take upon him the Title of a Protestant when he hath abused that title by such unsuitable Practices I cannot but reflect upon the condition of this Man whose onely hope is that you should now forget your selves and become as ill as he is But as that cannot be presumed so I shall not need to say any more to you After the making of very long Speeches to the Jury by Sr George Jeffryes and also by the Lord Chief Justice North to the same effect with the Solicitor's The Prisoner minded the Lord Chief Justice that he had omitted to mind the Jury of several material things evidenced for him but his Lordship answered That he had repeated to them as much as he could remember And so the Jury having been for a short time sent out and returning it being about three in the Morning they brought in the Prisoner Guilty The Lord Chief Justice North coming to pronounce Sentence said I think the Court were all very well satisfied with the Verdict and the Jury did according to Justice and Right I thought it was a Case that as you made your own defence small proof would serve the turn to make any one believe you Guilty and so he was sentenced to dye as a Traytor At the place of Execution upon the 31st of August 1681. he behaved himself with great Courage and Constancy and expressed himself to this effect He professed in the presence of the Living God That he was so far from being Guilty of those Treasons falsly sworn against him by the wretched and mercenary Men Dugdale Turbervile Smyth and Haynes that he never spoke so much as one single word of those Treasons to them or either of them or ever heard them spoke till sworn in the Court. He declared that Haynes had discovered to him that the Parliament was to be destroyed at Oxford and that Fitz. Gerald and his party had a design to murder the Earl of Shaftesbury and that they did endeavour to bring Macnamar over and said that then it would be well with them And they would not be long before they had Shaftesbury's Life That as for what Arms he and others had they were for their own defence in case the Papists should make any attempt by way of Massacre He took it upon his Death that he was never engaged in any manner of Plot or Conspiracy against the King the Laws or Government or knew of any except that of the Papists That if it had been true that he was to have seized the King he knew not of so much as one single Person that was or would have stood by him in that attempt That Masters was unjust in what he swore in omitting the material part of the discourse about the Parliament of 1640 for when Masters cursed them and the last Westminster-Parliament and charged the Parliament of 1640 with beginning the War and cutting off the King's Head he denyed both and told Masters that the Papists begun that War and that the death of the King was the fatal consequence of it That Sr William Jennings also did him wrong for his words were that he had lost the first Blood for the Parliament and wish'd it might be the last That he was reported to be a Papist but he declared he detested Popery and that he had lived and dyed a Protestant That Secretary Jenkins my Lord Killingworth and Mr Seymour when they committed him did interrogate him to many things that he should be privy to against the King Mr Sevmour saying that Colledge did know the Lord of Shaftesbury the Lord Howard and Mr Ferguson were also engaged but that he answered were it to save his Life he could not accuse a Man of them nor any other Person whatsoever That upon the 23d of August the Messenger who brought him the message of his Death told him he might save his Life if he would confess who was the Cause of his coming to Oxford and upon what account And that he answered him that he came voluntarily of himself rode his own Horse spent his own Money and neither was invited nor had dependency on any Person whatsoever and had only one Case of Pistols and a Sword and that had the Papists offered to have destroyed the Parliament as was sworn they would that he was there to have lived and dyed with them That when he had said this to the Messenger though the very truth he found it was not that he wanted and so left him with a Curse He concluded I dye by the Hands of the Enemies of the great God his Christ his Servants his Gospel my Country to which I willingly submit and earnestly pray mine may be the last Protestants Blood that murdering Church of Rome may shed in Christendom And that my Death may be a far greater Blow to their Bloody Cause than I either have or could have been by my Life The Lord God Almighty save England from Popery and Slavery bless the City of London and unite all good Protestants in the Nation Amen Amen Notes upon the Tryal of Nathaniel Thompson the Popish Printer William Paine Brother of the famous Nevil Paine and John Farwell upon the 20 th of June 1682. before the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton upon an Information for Writing and Publishing Libels importing that Sr Edmundbury Godfry Murdered himself THe Conspirators from the very first discovery resolved that the Popish Plot should be turned to a Presbyterian Plot pursuant thereto the credit of the Evidence especially from the time of the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament in the beginning of the year 1681. had been with matchless Impudence and Virulence traduced and run down by the scriblings of L'Estrange and of Heraclitus ridens and the Intelligences of this Thompson now before us so that by this time a multitude were infected with the poison of their Works and seduced into a belief that the Popish Plot was a Sham nothing but a thing raised by the Protestants against the Papists however it still remained upon them to wipe off the Blood of that Martyr the worthy Sr Edmundbury Godfry which was more then One Thousand Witnesses against them and now they judging matters to be ripened for it with effronted fore-Heads set to the Work as will appear by what follows The Information against these notorious Criminals Thompson Paine and Farwell was to this effect That they well knowing that Green Berry and Hill were Convicted Attainted and Exâ—…uted for the Murther of Sr Edmundbury Godfry and that Prance Bedloe Brown Curtis Skillarne and Cambridge were Witnesses for the King against them and that by the Coroners Inquest taken upon view of the Body it was found that he was Strangled and Choaked they to subvert and elude the due course of
Law and to defame the Justice of the Kingdom and to render as well the Witnesses as the Coroner contemptible and to deter others from detecting the Designs of Papists and to induce a belief that Green Berry and Hill were unjustly Executed and that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Felo de se they did most impiously Compose and cause to be Printed and Published two false Scandalous and Defamatory Libels entituled Letters to Mr Miles Prance and three other Scandalous Libels called the Loyal Protestant and true Domestick Intelligence and did by these Libels suggest that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Felo de se and did reflect on every of the said Witnesses as if they had contradicted themselves and Insinuate that the Coroner's-Jury did at first declare that he was Felo de se and that the Coroner used much Art and Skill to procure their Verdict to the contrary The Jury which tryed this Cause were Peter Houblon John Ellis William Barret Joshua Brooks Gervas Byfeild Jonathan Lee George Widdows William Sambrooke William Jacomb John Delinee Samuel Bayly and Samuel Howard The Counsel for the King were Mr Serjeant Maynard Mr Solicitor General Sr Francis Winnington Mr Williams Mr Thompson Mr Saunders and Mr Gooding Council for Paine Mr Yalden for Thompson Mr Osborne for Farwell Mr Thompson having opened the Indictment Mr Serjeant Maynard spoke to the Crime and declared it to be as impudent a thing as ever was done in that it scandalized the publick Justice of the Nation undertook to vindicate the Murtherers and to accuse the Proceedings of the Nation and then calling the Witnesses Sr John Nicholas Sr Philip Loyd and Mr Bridgman Clerks of the Council proved that the two Letters set forth in the Information were shewed to the Defendants at the Council and that Thompson owned the Printing both of them and that Farwell owned the carrying the first and Paine the carrying the second to Thompson After reading these Letters in Court Thompson's Intelligence of the 17 th of March 1681 was produced wherein it is contained as follows There is not in the said Letter meaning the said first Letter the least Item or Circumstance but what will be by undeniable Evidence made out to be Truth so that Mr Prance having not as yet vouchsafed an Answer to that Letter he will speedily receive a further Letter relating to that Murther wherein the further truth will be set forth and other Circumstances set out Another of those Intelligences of March 11 th 1681. given in Evidence ran thus Whereas Dick Janeway in this days Mercury promises an Answer to the late Letter to Mr Prance c. This is to give him and all the World notice that such an Answer is impatiently expected by the Author of that Letter who questions not but to prove every tittle of that Letter to the satisfaction of all Mankind and then it proceeds to challenge the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council to inspect the truth of that Letter and says That then the Fraud and Blindness put upon the World in Relation to the Murther of Sr Edmundbury Godfry will be manifestly proved A third of these Intelligences took a further step glorying in an imagined victory in this matter for it sayes Last Wednesday Nathaniel Thompson upon Summons appeared before the Lords of the Council about the Letters to Mr Prance concerning the death of Sr Edmunbury Godfry where he justified the matter and produced the Authors who are ready to prove by undeniable and sub stantial Witnesses c. that every tittle and jot a of these Letters are true And after adds Mr Thompson and the Gentlemen his Friends are to attend the next Wednesday at Council where they do not doubt but that honourable Board will put them into a Method to prove the whole or any particular which their Honours in their great Wisdom shall think convenient to be brought to the Test or Examination An honest English-man can never better express his admiration and detestation of the transcendent impudence of these vile Miscreants then in the Language of the late famous Baron of Wem upon another occasion with a small alteration of Words Good God! whither were we runing when many easie People were so strangely wrought upon by these Impostors and when the villainous and black Designs of some evil Instruments among us were so powerfully abetted and countenanced that they were arrived to this degree of assurance that they could beguile and delude not only some of the Shepherds of our Church of England with their silly innocent Flocks but even the King and his Privy-Council into the belief of so horrid a falshood and that at a time when not a hidden but a deeply contrived and detected Treason was carryed on amongst us for extirpating our Religion termed the Northern Heresie our Laws and Liberties The Conspirators had a fair Game of it whilst these Fellows were believed and they needed no other means to compleat their design I cannot but say my Blood does curdle and my Spirits are raised to see fellows so impudent as to brazen it out as these monstrous Villains do the blackness of their Souls the baseness of their Actions ought to be lookt upon with such horror and detestation as to think them unworthy any longer to tread upon the face of God's Earth But to return to the matter in hand from which I have digressed It being as aforesaid made out that the Defendants had published that what was testified against the Murderers of Sr Edmundbury Godfry was a lye Mr Saunders and Mr Gooding Counsel for Paine declared it was a rash and unadvised Act but not out of Malice and that he was sorry for what he had done and had offered to give any Satisfaction To whom the Lord Chief Justice replyed To me he said he would make it out by five hundred Witnesses they would make it as plain as the day and Counsellor Thompson added since the last time that was appointed for the Tryal they have printed that they would prove it by sixty Witnesses and were very sorry it did not come on Mr Yalden Counsel for Thompson said that he thought his Client was unfortunately drawn into the business by Paine and Farwell who turn all upon him now Mr Osborne Counsel for Farwell said It was a foolish thing to do as he had done but that his Client said he had several Witnesses who being called it was manifest that Farwell designed to have even then raised a doubt whether Sr Edmundbury Godfry was murthered or not but it appeared that of the eleven or twelve Witnesses he called there was not one but was as much against him as could be for they did plainly evince it that Sr Edmundbury Godfry was Killed and that by Strangling and so confirmed the evidence given against Green Berry and Hill. It being thus manifested that this was a cursed combination to affront the publick justice of the Nation and that done to the end to perswade the World there
was no Popish Plot. The Jury without stirring from the Bar found them all three guilty of the Information and the judgment was that Farwell and Thompson should stand in the Pillory in the Palace-Yard for one hour the last day of the Term and each of them pay 100 l. Fine and to be Imprisoned till paid and that Paine should only pay 100 l. Fine and be imprisoned till paid Upon the 5th of July 1682. according to the judgment Thompson and Farwell stood in the Pillory with this Writing over their Heads For Libelling the Justice of the Nation by making the World believe that Sr Edmundbury Godfry murdered himself Tho' this bold and daring Contrivance of these Champions for Holy Church was thus happily defeated and their own Counsel did not only declare that it was an unadvised undertaking but some of their own Gang began to say that the Devil owed them a sham yet no doubt of it the design was better laid then some imagined But what fence for ill luck They did confidently relie upon the Council-Board to cherish the undertaking and to instruct the prosecution thereof and nothing disappointed them there but an unlucky mistimeing the matter They also knew full well that the credit of Popery must be restored and that by suppressing the evidence of their Plot and that if one thing failed another would hit they remembred the Prophecy of one of the Guides of the hare-brain'd Toryes Heraclitus Ridens who fore-told soon after the election of Sr John Moore to be Lord Mayor that at or before 1683. they should have Juries for their turn and that then talking to the Whiggs about hanging that Author with great assurance told them They must come to 't and should come to 't so that all had been Cock-sure if they had tim'd it so as to have had it tryed before any one of the corrupt and murdering Juryes which that year of 1683. furnished for my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney and others Reflections upon the Tryal of Thomas Pilkington Esq and Samuel Shute Esq Sheriffs of London And of Ford Lord Grey Alderman Cornish Sr Thomas Player Slingesby Bethel Esq Mr Francis Jenks Mr John Deagle Mr Richard Freeman Mr Robert Key Mr John Wickham Mr Samuel Swinnock Mr John Jekyl and Mr R. Goodenough Vpon an Information for a pretended Riot at Guild-hall at the day for Election of Sheriffs being the 24th of June 1682. THe Conspirators having in the beginning of the Year 1681 delivered themselves from the danger of Parliaments They well knew that there then stood nothing in their way but the old fashioned abhorred way of Tryals by Juryes Therefore they must now to cut off all who stood in their way have Jury-Men as they had already Judges at their own Nomination and Devotion so In October 1681 Sr John Moore is made Lord Mayor of London than which to the discerning part of Mankind nothing was more portentous nor of worse Omen and the dire effects with that foreboded were quickly felt For now the Lord Mayor giving himself up intirely and implicitly â—o the dispose and conduct of Sr Leoline Jenkins all things went according to the Will of the Conspirators The great care now is how to get such Sheriffs as would furnish proper Juryes to serve the turn for securing this great point the Mayor is closely plyed by their little Engines in the City and directed to insist upon a pretended Prerogative to elect one of the Sheriffs This point being gained upon him they bethink themselves of a fit Man and incline to Sr Benjamin Newland but at length they pitch upon Mr North lately returned from Turkey Brother to the Lord Chief Justice North He readily embraces the Employment and before the day for election of Sheriffs was come a thing never before known he seals a Bond to the Court of Aldermen to hold Sheriff and the Gazette proclaims it to the World that the Lord May or had elected Dudley North Esq Sheriff of London The Conspirators and the Mayor having thus acted the matter by concert Midsummer-day the accustomed time for Election of Sheriffs being come the Mayor insists to have Mr North admitted as one of the Sheriffs and his Party put up Mr Box to be joyned with him But the Citizens withstood the Mayor's Usurpation upon their undoubted Rights and proceeded according to immemorial Custom to Elect their Sheriffs and fixed upon those well-deserving and eminent Citizens Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois who were chosen upon the view by a very great majority of Voices Hereupon to gain time for Consultation how to trick this Election the Accomplices of the Conspiracy demand a Poll that being yielded to them the Sheriffs went upon the takeing the Poll and it being far proceeded upon and it appearing that there were two to one of the Electors polled for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois the Mayor was sent with a Rabble in a Tumultuous manner to interrupt the finishing the Poll by Adjourning the Court. The Sheriffs Mr Pillington and Mr Shute well knowing the Managment of the Election to belong to them continued for some time to proceed in takeing the Poll and then adjourned to the Tuesday following The Conspirators call this a Riot as in truth it was of their own side and the Council at Whitehall commit the Sheriffs to the Tower and there lock them up till by an unlucky English Instrument called an Habeas Corpus the Tower Gates were forced open they nevertheless with undaunted resolution persisted to assert their own and the Citizens Rights and declared Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to be Elected Sheriffs Then it was proposed and consented to that a new Poll should be taken which being done it appeared that Mr North had 170 Voices Mr Box 1353. and Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois upwards of 2700. and they are a second time declared to be Elected Sheriffs Thereupon upon the 20 th of July divers eminent Citizens attended the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen and for themselves and on behalf of the rest of the Citizens demanded that they would cause Proclamation to be made for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to appear and seal Bonds according to Custom to take the Office of Sheriffs And at the same time they entered a Caveat to Mr Wagstaffe the Town-Clerk against the swearing and admitting Mr North and Mr Box Sheriffs However the Lord Mayor by the direction of Sr L. Jenkins and the influence of Saunders and of Jefferies both declared Enemies to the City Rights and at that time of Council with the Conspirators for the overthrow of their Antient Charters assumes the boldness to declare both Mr North and Mr Box Sheriffs and so ravishes from the Citizens the right to Elect either of the Sheriffs But Mr Box appearing to be endued with a better stock of Discretion than to undertake the Office upon that Title declined it Whereupon 't is resolved that Mr Rich shall be the Man and a Common-Hall being called a little before
Michaelmas where tho' above ten to one were found against Rich yet the Common Serjeant who was deeply engaged in the Intrigue makes report to the Mayor as was before concerted that Mr Rich was Elected and so without more to do he is declared Mr North's Partner Upon the day for swearing the new Sheriffs being Michaelmas-Eve 1682. The Citizens went in a very great Body to Guild-hall to present Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois to be sworn but were with-stood by Souldiers Armed with Pikes and Musquets then in possession of the Hall By these means and in this Military Arbitrary and most Illegal way were Mr North and Rich constituted Sheriffs of London and Middlesex to the unspeakable joy of the Conspirators and their insipid Adherents in the City These new Sheriffs to gratifie their Faction and to oblige the World with notice of what must be expected from them At the publick Feast upon their entring upon the Office They entertain their Crew with these Rhimes Sung at their own Table Thanks to Sr John our good Lord Mayor ' Gainst Sheriffs tricks he kept the Chair Then to the famous Sr John Moore May after Age that Name Adore For Ropes and Gibbets the next year The Whigs we hope need not despaire If Rich find Timber give 'em scope Brave North will never grudg 'em Rope Then to brave North a double Dose Who the strong Factions did oppose Then to brave Rich a Health off hand Who the loud Tumults did withstand Well to be serious and after a too tedious digression to return to the matter proposed These Sheriffs being thus settled and by consequence Juryes to serve the turn at hand They set themselves to a vigorous prosecution of the Quo Warranto brought against the City Charters and of an Information exhibited about this notorious and horrid Riot and to make sure work herein they cast an Eye into Westminster-Hall and finding Sr Francis Pemberton Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench would not serve this purpose He is thrust down into the Common-Pleas with a Complement from the Lord Keeper North that no Man's services were more eminent nor better accepted than my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton's And Mr Saunders the Counsel against the City upon the Quo Warranto and Adviser of the Lord Mayor's most extravagant proceeding in the matter of the Sheriffs is upon the 23d of January 1682 promoted to be Lord Chief Justice being then told by the Lord-Keeper That the King's People might not suffer in the want of so good a Magistrate as his Predecessor his Majesty had taken care in the choice of him to succeed in that great and important Office he being a Person of manifest Integrity and Affection to the King's service And that his Lordship might say without flattery that he came into the Seat of Lord Chief Justice with as few Passions and personal Frailties as any that had been before him Methinks Sr Matthew Hale or Sr William Scroggs might have been excepted That the Age was so degenerate and full of Faults ☞ Faults of Irreligion Immorality Debauchery c. that it required more than a Man to censure them And his Lordship added That the temper of the present Age required his Severity in cases of Sedition Which he said was â—…lly grown to that height and Insolence and managed with that Malice that it was very near breaking out into open force All things being now thus well prepared upon the 8th of May 1683 the matter of the Riot is brought to Tryal at Guild-hall before this vertuous Lord Chief Justice Saunders upon an Information to this effect That upon the 24 th of June 1682. in Guild-hall there was a Common-Hall summoned by Sr John Moore Lord Mayor for the Election of Sheriffs and that on that day the Lord Mayor in a lawful manner adjourned the Court till Tuesday following That after the Adjournment the Lord Mayor made Proclamation for all persons to depart That the Defendants intending to disturb the King's Peace did unlawfully meet together and riotously assault the Lord Mayor And that after the Adjournment Mr Pilkington and Mr Shute by colour of their Office as Sheriffs and the rest of the Defendants did continue the Poll and affirm to the People that Sr John Moore had no power to adjourn them and that they continued this great Tumult three hours to the terror of the King's Subjects and against the Peace The Prosecution of this Information was managed by The Kings Atturney General Solicitor General Sr George Jefferies Mr Dolben Mr Jones and Mr Molloy And defended by Mr Wallop Sr Francis Winnington Mr Williams Mr Thompson Mr Holt Mr Sommers and Mr Freke Mr Sommers and Mr Thompson upon calling the Jury offered a Challenge of the Array and pressed to have it read which being done Sr George Jefferies called it a Tale of a Tub But Mr Thompson persisted Vrging that Sheriff North was interessed in the matter and if Sr John Moore had not Authority to Adjourn the Poll Mr North was not duly chosen Sheriff and so ought not to return a Jury the very Title to the Office of Sheriff being in question This point was further pressed by Mr Williams Sr Francis Winnington and Mr Wallop but opposed by the Atturney and Solicitor General and Jefferies and over-ruled by the Lord Chief Justice Then Mr Thompson prayed the Benefit of a Bill of Exceptions but that was also over-ruled and the Jury returned by the Sheriffs who were forced upon the City by the true Rioters were Sr Benjamin Newland Sr John Mathews Sr John Buckworth Sr Tho. Griffith Sr Edmund Wiseman Percival Gilburne Henry Wagstaffe Barth Ferryman Tho. Blackmore Samuel Newton William Watton George Villers Then Mr Dolben opened the Information and Mr Atturney followed saying That the Information was brought for settling the Peace of the City and to shew who is the Supream Magistrate there That the Lord Mayor in all times was the Kings Lieutenant and no publick Assemblies could ever meet without his Summons That the question was about the Election of Sheriffs That the Lord Mayor adjourned the Court and the Sheriffs proceeded and made Proclamation that it was not in the power of the Mayor and continued the Poll in a Riotous manner and when the Mayor attempted to go out of the Hall they struck him struck his Hat off and pressed several of the Aldermen That if the others had made opposition all had been in Confusion upon this Usurpation To this Mr Solicitor added That after my Lord Mayor commanded them to depart they continued their Assembly there in a very riotous manner and as my Lord came down they offered Insolencies to his Person Then comes Sr George Jefferies the main Contriver and Abettor of the Lord Mayor's most daring and unjustifiable attempt and tells the Jury That the Rabble came upon my Lord Mayor had him down upon his Knees and if some Gentlemen had not come in they had trod him under feet He
then called Sr William Hooker Mr Lightfoote Mr King the Common Serjeant the Common Cryer the Sword-Bearer and Mr Bancroft to testifie as they did that the Lord Mayor did always convene and dismiss the Common-Hall and as to the matter in question the Common Cryer evidenced that about five or six of the Clock he adjourned the Court by my Lord Mayor's Order to the Tuesday following Mr Weston witnessed the same about the Adjournment and that he saw my Lord's Hat off and his Train bearer was knock't down or fell down The Common Serjeant evidenced that he heard them but could name no Person cry out No God Bless the King down with the Sword No Lord Mayor No King. And he affirmed that he had the sole management of Elections of Sheriffs as the Duty of his Place Then Cradock and others witnessed that the several persons charged in the Information continued upon the place after the Adiournment And Cradock said that Mr Bethel came to him and bid him resist my Lord Mayor Major Kelsey declared That he saw my Lord Mayor's Hat upon his Back And Captain Clark said that he heard above a hundred hiss and cry No King's man upon the proclaming God save the King and that they also cryed Press on Press on Higgins said that some cryed God save the Protestant Sheriffs down with the Sword and that after the Lord Mayor was gone home he saw one Freeman whom they call the Protestant Cheesmonger calling to Poll to Poll And that he heard Alderman Cornish tell the Sheriffs they were doing right and you shall have all right done to you Higgins added that he was saying you are all in a Riot and Mr Swinnock said this is no Riot I can never meet you but you are railing against the King's Evidence Mr Vavasor Note This Spark Vavasor was the malicious and implacable Mover and Promoter of the unjust Prosecution of honest Mr VVilmore and said This Dog VVilmore this Ignoramus Dog If I do but rout him I shall be made the King's Atturney Had Mr Atturney General known that he had the Ambitious thought of supplanting him he would not have given him this lift towards the Office of Kings Atturney by making him one of his Majesties VVitnesses called by Mr Atturney General witnessed that Sheriff Shute ordered Proclamation to be made and told them where as my Lord Mayor had taken upon him to Adjourn We the Sheriffs being the proper Officers do Adjourn to Tuesday at nine of the Clock And Vavasor added that had it not been for Trice Hammond he believes he had been trod under foot Then Farrington testified that Mr Wickham a Scrivener said to him My Lord Mayor has nothing to do here We will not be ruled by any of your Tory Lord Mayors and he added that they fell about him and he was in great danger of mischief for they trod upon his Toes Mr Kemp testified that Mr Deagle confessed to him that he was there about seven at night with Alderman Cornish It will no doubt be a warning to Mr Deagle to go upon his next transgression a little further than Pater Noster-Row for a Confessor Mr VVilliams then urged on behalf of the Defendants That for the Cries and Disorders nothing was fixed upon them and it appeared not whether one Party or other made the noise That the question here was whether the Sheriffs did more than their Office and he did not see the Government concerned one way or other That here is nothing more proved than the continuing the Poll and it will be very hard to make them guilty of a Riot Sr Francis VVinnington added That at this rate They that are the greatest Number or rather the most powerful Party may upon every occasion make them against whom the Election is carried to be Rioters Then Sr Robert Clayton witnessed That when he was Lord Mayor a Person whom he drank to for Sheriff was rejected by the Common-Hall and they were left to choose two Sheriffs for themselves That the management of the Election was left to the Sheriffs who did grant a Poll and managed it which Sr Robert took to be their duty and did not apprehend it to be his right That that Poll was the most litigious he had known and lasted five or six days and the Sheriffs adjourned it without consulting him or receiving any direction from him for he did not look upon it to be in his power Here the Attorney General and Mr Jones designing without doubt to catch this prudent and well-deserving Gentleman as they lately had the worthy Sr Patience Ward did mightily labour to have him be positive in his evidence but he not being to be so ensnared declared that he spoke to the best of his remembrance every thing he said Alderman Love then witnessed that when he was Sheriff about two twenty Years ago he took it for granted that it was the Sheriffs Office to manage the Common-Hall as my Lord Mayor's was to have a Sword born before him and that he received it by Tradition from all before him That in his Sheriffalty when they came to chuse Sheriffs the Lord Mayor said to him and his Brother Gentlemen look to your Office that one was put in nomination who had been drank to and he being a sitting Alderman he was chosen with another He added that had my Lord Mayor gone about to intermeddle he should have desired him to meddle in his own Office and let him alone with his That he never knew or heard that the Lord Mayor interposed till of late years but the Sheriffs managed the whole business of chusing Sheriffs Deputy Sibley then testified that he had been of the Livery ever since the Year 1639. That in all his time except of late the Sheriffs had the management of the Election and the Lord Mayor never interposed but he and the Aldermen went off the Bench. Mr Winstanley testified that when Sr Samuel Starling was Mayor Sr James Edwards and Sr James Smyth the Sheriffs managed the Poll between Mr Kyffen and Sr Robert Clayton Mr Wallop then put this Case in a point of right if there be a probable Cause to insist upon it Suppose I send three or four Men to a Wood and take a Car or Team if they be a competent Number to cut down Wood if I am mistaken in the title that is no Riot Then Mr Roe testified that he saw a Rabble of about one hundred in the Street with their Hats upon Sticks crying damn the Whiggs they declared that they did it to stop the Polling for Sheriffs Then something in excuse for the Lord Grey's being there was offered Sr Simon Lewis and Sr Jonathan Raymond who were Sheriffs in Sr Robert Clayton's Mayoralty then said That upon the first day of Election of Sheriffs my Lord Mayor adjourned the Court and that afterwards they only appointed from day to day till the Poll was ended The Common Serjeant out-stripped these Gentlemen
and now declared that upon the Poll for Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish against Mr Box and Mr Nicholson in the Mayoralty of Sr Robert Clayton every Adjournment was made by my Lord Mayor's direction to him This Gentleman's endearedness to Jeffryes did sufficiently dispose him to give his best assistance to the Conviction of these worthy Citizens aimed at in this prosecution and it may be suspected that it would not have much displeased him to have seen them capitally accused for he was heard to say at Tunbridge to some of his Confidents soon after my Lord Russel's Death That the Plot at present lay amongst Lords and Country-Gentlemen but when it came into the City they should see what work it would make The Attorney General concluded saying This matter relates immediately to the Government here is the publick Peace of the City in daâ—ger and if my Lord Mayor had been a person of great Spirit and had raised others to suppress this Riot then the City had been in a fine condition therefore Gentlemen it is hoped you will settle the City by destroying this pretence which has been fluttering in the Air but hath no ground for it Then the Chief Justice summing up the matter told the Jury That the Rioters would make the Sheriffs the Men and that the Lord Mayor was no body and that it was something of the Common-wealth Seed that was like to grow up among the good Corn. That the Jury must consider whether these Gentlemen did not in a tumultuary way make a Riot to set up a Magistracy by the power of the People That in truth the King must be put out of his Throne to put these two Sheriffs in it That it was to dethrone the King as far as they could That my Lord Mayor himself had like to have been trod under foot his Hat was down That all this Flame took fire from this Spark That the Sheriffs might do what they thought fit about chusing Officers Hereupon the Jury having found the Defendants guilty Upon the 26th of June Justice Jones declaring the heinousness of the Fact and what an evil President it might prove if it should pass unpunished after a little Whispering with his Brother Wythens awarded the following Fines to be paid viz. Mr Pilkington to whom Royal Mercy was extended in regard he was a Prisoner upon Execution for 100000 l. given by a Loyal Hertfordshire-Jury for Words about the Duke of York only 500 l. Mr Shute 1000 Marks Lord Grey 1000 Marks Alderman Cornish 1000 Marks Sr Tho. Player 500 Marks Mr Bethel 1000 Marks Mr Jenks 300 Marks Mr Deagle 400 Marks Quere If not bestowed upon Kemp for betraying his Neighbour Mr Freeman 300 Marks Mr Key 100 Marks Mr Wickham 100 Marks Mr Swinnock 500 Marks Mr Jekil 200 Marks Mr Goodenough 500 Marks The black Representation of the demeanour of the Sheriffs and many of the most valuable Persons in the City upon this Election of Sheriffs as that it was a Branch a Limb any thing or every thing of an horrid Fanatical Conspiracy against the King's Life A deliberate design to spoil the Crown the Church and the Subject The impetuous prosecution of the Information The strange practices to procure the Conviction of the Persons now named the exorbitant Fines imposed upon them And to add no more the avouching and out-facing the accession of the Tory Crew to most of the extravagant and arbitrary Practices of the late Reigns in the attempt even in the beginning of the auspicious Reign of their present Majesties whom God long preserve to bring Sr John Moore a second time to the Chaire and that at a time when the House of Commons had received Petitions charing him with high Misdemeanours in his Mayoralty and were proceeding to the examination thereof I say the consideration of these things may well justifie the Remarking with some plainness the transactions at Guild-hall upon the memorable 24th of June 1682 so that Truth may be vindicated against Calumny As to the Evidence of the Riot and Disorders given by Sr John Moore 's Witnesses some things seem pritty observable as 1 st Though the Witnesses were all forward enough the most Splenetick violent and imbittered Tories saw and heard most indeed every thing for Instance Mr Bethel amongst the many hundreds or thousands there Assembled unhappily chopt upon or rather sought out Gradock for he swore Mr B. came to him and had him resist my Lord Mayor Captaine Clarke heard above one hundred hiss and cry no King's Man upon the proclaiming God save the King and yet it was not heard by one other of more than twenty Witnesses produced on that side The Common Sergeant went a step higher than Clark for he and no body else heard them cry No Lord Mayor no King. 2 dly Captain Clarke heard the People cry Press on press on Major Kelsey saw my Lord Mayor's Hat upon his Back Vavasor was in danger of being trod under foot Nay the Roguy VVhigs trod upon Farrington's Tory Toes but they paid dear for it for he Swore Mr VVickham in for his 100. Marks But which was worst of all there was such a Crowd my Lord Mayor takeing a false step had like to have got a fall Now tho' it may be thought that but few of these Gentlemen-Witnesses do frequent thronged Churches yet they will not deny but when they have gone to divert themselves with the lashing of the Whiggs at one or other of the London Churches upon a Set-day they have been in such haste to get out to the Wonder Tavern to drink their Confusion that they have not only used this naughty guage now complained of press on press on but have also in a riotous manner trode upon one anothers Toes But if so it may be objected that it was amongst themselves so in truth was this We are talking of for the matter was no other than this Heat of the Brains reigning at that day to an high degree amongst many of that party when my Lord Mayor went out of the Hall towards the Sheriffs who were taking the Poll in the Guild-Hall-Yard the Crowd of his own furious Followers of whom every one strove to be foremost press'd upon him and by that means and no other did the disaster happen of his Lordship's Hat falling from his Head. To conclude though the carriage of things at that time of the swearing Mr North and Mr Rich Sheriffs when that notorious Vsurpation upon the Citizens right was justified by Bashaw Quiney and his Janazaries did creat an apprehension that no Laws Usages or Customs would be regarded when they came in competition with the designs then on foot yet the Citizens asserted their Rights with all modesty and the Sheriffs in the whole proceeding carried themselves with all imaginable impartiality and with the greatest regard to the Quiet and Peace of the City Having just touched the unheard of practice of bringing the Military Power to strike a Terror into the Citizens and thereby
them to safe retirements and so were clap'd into the Tower and afterwards in different wayes butchered It was resolved that my Lord Russell the Honour of his Age should be cut off in a seeming way of Justice and as he was a Person of inestimable value so the art used to destroy him was extraordinary in the first place The Conspirators to introduce a belief of his Lordship's guilt procure two Persons charged with Keeling's Plot to be convicted just before my Lord is brought to Tryal reserving other two of them of whose Conviction they more doubted to be tryed after his Lordship Then a well prepared Pannel of Jurors many of them train'd and disciplin'd under L'Estrange and some Inferiour Clergy-Men his Prostitutes was returned by Sr John Moore 's Sheriffs Matters being thus prepared He is brought upon his Tryal at the Old-Bayly upon Friday the 13th of July 1683 At the instant of entring upon it the Conspirators cut the Eaâ—l Essex's Throat in the Tower and to facilitate the dispatch of the Lord then at the Bar they immediately intimate by an express to the Old-Bayly that the Earl of Essex had murdered himself from hence a wicked and unquestionably a premeditated Inference is raised of the good Lord Rassell's guilt and by this diabolical contrivance the Blood of the Earl of Essex is made a main Evidence towards the Prisoner's Conviction that being accomplished upon the day ensuing the Verdict of his guilt is made an Argument to seduce and delude the Coroner's Inquest into a belief that the Earl of Essex had destroyed himself The Jury being called his Lordship was over-ruled in his Challenges of those of them who were not Freeholders though the learned in the Laws did and do say that he was entituled to those Challenges not of Grace but Right and the same was allowed to others by my Lord's Prosecutors at such Seasons when it would not disserve their turn thus the Estate Honour and Life of this Noble Lord are put into the Hands and Power of Tradesmen and Shop-keepers He being charged with an Indictment for high Treason the right of my Lord 's Challenging for want of Freehold was argued and insisted upon by his Council Mr Pollexfen Mr Holt and Mr Ward But was opposed by The Attorney General The Solicitor General Sr George Jeffryes and Mr North. And was over-ruled by the Judges upon the Bench who were The Lord Chief Justice Pemberton The Lord Chief Baron Justice Jones Justice Wyndham Justice Charleton Justice Levins Baron Streete and Justice Wythens Then the following Jury were sworn Jahn Martin William Rouse Gervas Seaton William Fashion Thomas Short George Tory Ano. William Butler James Pickering Thomas Ieve Hugh Noden Robert Brough and Thomas Oneby Then Mr North the King's Counsel opened the Indictment to this effect That the Prisoner stood charged with no less than conspiring the Death of the King and that in order to it he with other Traytors the second of November 1682 conspired to raise War against him and to Massacre his Subjects and to seize his Guards and Person The Attorney General being so hot upon this bloody pursuit that he had before positively refused to defer the Tryal till the Afternooon * 'T is probable that he might imagine that by the Afternoon the suspition of the Earl of Essex's Assassination might reach the Ears of the Jury as it did in a few hours many about the Town and then Mr Attorney had lost that which he made a mighty part of his Evidence and imposed upon the Court to go instantly upon it did now apply himself totis viribus to impress the Jury telling them that the Prisoner was one of the Council of State as he in a scornful way expressed himself to give forth directions for the general Rising that as had appeared was to be in the Kingdom That the Rising was of great concern and expence and must be managed by Persons of Interest Prudence and Secrecy That they consulted in October and November how to seize the Guards and at several meetings they received Messages from my Lord of Shaftesbury touching the Rising That this was the great Consult and moved all the Wheels That there were Vnderlings who were to manage the Assassination who were an inferiour Council of seven That there was a great Council of six who were the Prisoner the Earl of Essex whom he pretended he was sorry to name he having that Morning prevented the hand of Justice upon himself * Note this was spoken within an hour or two after the Earl's death before any Inquisition taken or it could possibly be known how he came by his death but right or wrong this Jury must now pass upon him and find him Felo de se to facilitate and justifie the Murder they are now to commit and four others That they debated how they should make the Rising Resolved that before they fell upon it they would have an exact account of the time Method of the Scotch Rising and thereupon Colonel Sidney sent Aaron Smyth on purpose to invite Scotch Commissioners to treat with these Noble Lords that pursuant to this just before the Plot broke out several came from Scotland to treat how to manage the Work They demanded at first 30000 l. then fell to 10000 l. and at last to 5000 l. but they not coming to their terms it broke off the Week the Plot was discovered He concluded that they should shew that all the Inferiour party still look'd upon these to be the Heads I shall not here trouble the Reader with the particulars of the Evidence given against this Noble Lord by the Lord Howard Colonel Romsey and Mr Shepheard nor offer at any Remarks thereupon much less to touch upon the many Hardships and great Injustice put upon his Lordship in this Prosecution in point of Law all that having been admirably well done by the Learned Pens of the right Honourable the Lord Chief Baron Atkyns and of Mr Hawles of Lincolns Inn My purpose not only in extracting these Notes in my Lord Russell's Case but also in this whole Tract being only to present the World with some matters of History which they did not put down or remark upon and which indeed invited me to this work to gather together for publick use Abstracts and Remarks upon some memorable Tryals in the late unhappy Reigns upon which they never touched I shall therefore now proceed to represent something further of the carriage and exasperating Speeches of the King's Council c. against his Lordship The Solicitor General sum'd up the Evidence in this manner That the Prisoner stood Indicted for High Treason in conspiring the Death of the King That the Overt Act laid to prove that Conspiracy by is the assembling in Council to raise Arms against the King and to raise a Rebellion and that they had proved that by three Witnesses He then proceeded to state the substance of the Evidence which having done as
having in his forementioned Paper mentioned the Opinion of King James the first delivered in his Speech to the Parliament in the Year 1603. I shall here to gratifie the Reader 's Curiosity transcribe a Paragraph or two of that Learned King's Speech viz. I do acknowledge that the special and greatest point of difference that is betwixt a rightful King and an usurping Tyrant is in this That whereas the proud and ambitious Tyrant doth think his Kingdom and People are only ordained for the satisfaction of his Desires unreasonable Appetites The righteous and just King doth on the contrary acknowledge himself to be ordained for the procuring of the Wealth and Prosperity of his People and that his great and principal Worldly Felicity must consist in their Prosperity That I am a Servant it is most true That as I am Head and Governour of all the People in my Dominion who are my natural Subjects considering them in distinct Ranks So if we will take in the People as one Body Then as the Head is ordained for the Body and not the Body for the Head so must a righteous King know himself to be ordained for his People and not his People for him Wherefore I will never be ashamed to sonfess it my principal honour to be the great Servant of the Common-wealth To this I shall subjoyn a few Words to the same purpose out of that King's Speech to the Parliament in 1609 Every just King in a settled Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And therefore a King governing in a settled Kingdom ceases to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off to rule according to the Laws Notes upon the Tryal of Sr Samuel Barnardiston Baronet at Guild-Hall London Before Sr George Jefferies Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench upon the 14 th day of February 1683. upon an Information to the effect following viz. THat there having been a Horrid Plot lately discovered the Defendant to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter to this effect viz. That the return of the Duke of Monmouth and his being received into Favour with the King had made a great alteration at Court and that those who before spoke indecently of him did now court and creep to him Yesterday being the last of the Term all the Prisoners in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were Bailed The Information against Mr Bavddon who Prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex for a Subornation was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged and the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great Applications are made to the King for the pardoning Mr Sidney The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men The Papists and high Tories are quite down in the Mouth Their Pride is abated and themselves and their Plot confounded but their Malice is not Asswaged It s generally said the Earl of Essex was Murdered The brave Lord Russel is afresh Lamented The Plot is lost here except you in the Country can find it out amongst the Addressers and Abhorrers And that he wrote in another Letter to this effect The King is never pleased but when the Duke of Monmouth is with him His Pardon was Sealed and delivered to him last Wednesday 't is said he will be restored to be Master of the Horse c. He treats all his old Friends with great Civility they are all satisfied with his Integrity and if God spare his Life doubt not but he will be an Instrument of much good to the King and Kingdom he said publickly that he knew my Lord Russel was as Loyal a Subject as any in England and that his Majesty believ'd the same now it would make you laugh to see how strangely our high Torys and Clergy are mortified their Countenances speak it Sr George is grown very humble It s said Mr Sidney is reprieved for forty days which bodes well And that in a third Letter he wrote thus The late change here in publick Affairs is so great and strange that we are like men in a Dream and fear we are not fit for so great a Mercy as the present Juncture seems to promise the Sham Protestant Plot is quite lost and confounded And that in a fourth Letter there are these expressions Contrary to all mens expectations a Warrant is signed for beheading Colonel Sidney at Tower-Hill next Fryday great endeavours have been used to obtain this Pardon but the contrary party have carried it which much dasheth our Hopes but God still governs The King's Counsel to prosecute this matter were The Recorder of London Mr Herbert quickly after made Lord Chief Justice Mr Jones Counsel for Sr S. Barnardiston were Mr Williams Mr Thompson and Mr Blackerby The Jury pick'd out to try this Cause were Thomas Vernon Knighted soon after the Service done in this Cause and then made Fore-man of a Jury to convict Dr Otes of Perjury Percival Gilburne one of the Jury upon the Guildhall Riot Edward Bovery William Withers senior A well qualified Jury-Man for this Cause James VVood Robert Masters A principal Witness against Colledge Samuel Newton Another of the Riot Jury George Toriano One of the Lord Russell's Jury Kenelm Smyth Thomas Goddard Thomas Amy and Richard Blackburne The Rocorder of London and Mr Herbert having aggravated the charge in the Information Mr Blaithwait Atterbury the Messenger and Nehemiah Osland Sr Samuel's Servant gave evidence of the writing those Letters and sending them by the Post for Sr Philip Skippon Mr Gael and Mr Cavel in Suffolk Then Mr Williams Counsel for Sr Samuel applied to the Jury to this effect That the question was Whether Sr Samuel were knowingly guilty of the Writing and publishing the four Letters That as to his publishing them he saw no evidence and he put it to the Court whether the sending them to the Post-House could amount to the publishing a Libel and he added to the Jury that he supposed they would not take it upon their Oaths that he was guilty of what he was there accused of many things being laid in the Information to inhanse the Crime of which there was no proof The Clamorous Chief Justice proceeding to dierct the Jury expressed himself to this effect That the Information took notice of a horrid Conspiracy lately hatcht for the destruction of the King and subversion of the Government and that the Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney who were ingaged in that damnable Conspiracy were convicted and executed That the Defendant being dissaffected and a man of ill Principles to disturb the Government did cause the four Letters to be writ and published That the Letters were Factious Seditious and Malitious and as base as the worst of mankind could have invented That it was a work of time and thought fixt in his
snivelled at and overthrown by a Company of such Whining Fellows Do you think to sham People into Offices No I tell you Villany was the Foundation of it and Knavery the Superstructure Neither Bethel nor that very Fellow that stands there Cornish would have taken the Oaths and Sacrament till they found it would contribute to the design of subverting the Government then these Rascals could qualifie themselves for an Office only to put the Kingdom into a Flame Mr Gilbert Nelson then testified That upon the holdling up of the Hands at the Election of Sheriffs the 24 th of June 1682. there were upon the view most for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois and that upon the casting up the Poll Books there was the greatest number for Mr Papillon Mr Wightman added that in the Poll-Books there were 2400. and odd for Mr Papillon and Mr Dubois Mr Leonard Robinson added that by the Hands the majority was much more for Mr P. and Mr D. than for the other two and the Sheriffs did so declare their opinion and a Poll being demanded and granted after it was closed in the Evening the Sheriffs declared the Numbers upon the Hustings Mr P. and Mr D. had above two thousand and Mr North and Mr Box some hundreds under two thousand Mr Baker testified that the Action was brought by the advice of Mr Wallop Mr Pollexfen and Mr Thompson Then the Chief Justice comes to sum up the Evidence and after a most tedious Introduction proceeds to discharge his Spleene thus Come Gentlemen it is best to be plain Tho' it is true a Man may lawfully sue for such an Office and it is no offence yet it looks somewhat extraordinary 't is for some strange purpose or other It is notoriously known that for several Years the Government has been beset and which is a baser thing than ever was thought of or acted in the highest times of Villany the very Methods of Justice have been corrupted and all to serve the main design of subverting the Government Gentlemen this is so black a Wickedness that no honest Man that has any sense of Loyalty Religion or common Justice but must tremble at the very thoughts of it When we see such Fellows as are common Reproaches to the Government shall get into Office to make Ignoramus Juryes When men begin to take Oathes to sanctifie Villany what shall we say And all this you all of you Gentlemen know to be true Was it not more safe to conspire the death of the King his Brother than to give the least frown upon one of these snivelling Saints Did not we know that Men were sanctified to be Jury-men that before were never thought fit to be trusted with the common Society of honest Men Mr Papillon knows all this to be true eminently When pack'd Jurys were grown to that heighth that when seven or eight Witnesses swore down-right Treason The Traytor could not by these Men so much as be accused by an Indictment To that stupidity in Villany were things brought by these Fellows So far were the proceedings in Courts of Justice tainted that cropp'd Hair and a demure Look were the best signs of a good Evidence Gentlemen There was not a pursuit of right in this case It was a designed piece of Villany on purpose to affront the Government nay to destroy it and if he were ten thousand times Mr Papillon I would tell him so It is plain Gentlemen that the design from the beginning to the end was to cause a tumult and confusion in the City in order to put that damned hellish Conspiracy for destroying the King and his Brother and every man that was honest and loyal in execution This Gentlemen is plain English We all know Mr Papillon to be a wealthy Man one that had rather have minded his Affairs than the expensive Office of Sheriff but that something was to be done to wreak a damned Malice and Revenge upon the Government This I tell him openly and let him and his party make their Remarks upon it as they please There was questionless a devilish Malice fixed in his heart and mind and he wanted an opportunity to effect it and he thought it best for his own security to take this course and nothing else was in it Alack-a-day as Mr Pilkington said I am for the preservation of the Liberties and Properties of the Subject but I find the City is strangely run down in their Rights and Priviledges I will rather take a troublesome Office than let all run thus and immediately sets himself a Cock-a-hoop as if there were none to take care of the City but himself He and Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish forsooth are the only Men of the times the Men Men for the Liberties of the Subject and the Rights of the City Gentlemen the Government is infinitely concerned in this Case that puts a weight upon your enquiry into the damages your severity in this Case will deter all People from entring into Clans and Cabals to affront the Government That I may not further nauseat the Reader with the foul Language venomous Malice of this Insolent arrogant and intolerable Slanderer I shall transcribe no more of his virulent discourse though he run on to a strange length at a most wicked and infamous rate of Falshoods and Defamations against the best Men of the City without any manner of colour for the truth of what he said The Jury thus directed found for the Plantiff and assessed Damages to 10000 l. The Chief Justice said Gentlemen you seem to be Persons that have some sense upon you and consideration for the Government and I think have given a good Verdict and are to be greatly commended for it By this extravagant and most unrighteous Verdict was this upright and Wise Citizen Mr Papillon drove into Exile till Heaven vouchsafed him with the Nation a most Miraculous and happy deliverance by the glorious Vndertaking of our now Soveraign then Prince of Orange That it may not be forgotten how this Plantiff Sr William Pritchard came to be Lord Mayor I shall subjoyn the Account of the Poll taken when he was brought on Sr Thomas Goold had 2257 Votes Alderman Cornish had 2227. Sr William Pritchard had but 2144. Sr Henry Tulse had 236. Being conscious that in the foregoing Account of the Tryal of the pretended Guildhall Riot I forgot to intimate to the Reader that Lieutenant Colonel Quiney had a Warrant for what he did tho' he did not condescend to show it to such Men as Sr Robert Clayton and the other Aldermen upon whom he put the Indignity before mentioned to do him right and to shew that though he might act too headily 't was not upon his own Head I shall in this place insert the Names of those who ordered him and the Forces he then commanded to that Post They were The Lord Mayor Sr John Moore Sr George Waterman Sr James Edwards Sr Will. Pritchard Sr Hen. Tulse Sr James Smith
Sr John Peak Sr John Chapman Sr Sym. Lewis Sr John Mathews Sr Benj. Newland Sr William Dodson Sr John Buckworth Lt. Colonel John Steventon Thomas Cowden Edward Beaker John Wallis John Nicolls William Parker Henry Loads Peter Aylworth John Short Richard Aily Benj. Skut Humphrey Stroud William Carpenter Remarks upon the Tryal of Alderman Cornish at the Old-Bayly upon Munday the 19th of October 1685. Before the Lord Chief Justice Jones the Lord Chief Baron Justice Wythens Justice Levins Justice Streete Baron Gregory and Jenner the Recorder WHen the Reader remembers what part this Eminent and Worthy Citizen acted in the mighty Struglings between Christianity and Popery English Liberties and Tyranny he will not be surprised to see him overwheml'd when by the Aid of the worst of men the Banks of our Security were broken down and the Torrent of Popery and Arbitrary Power carried all before it That from the time of the discovery of the Popish Plot the Conspirators did with indefatigable Industry apply themselves to shift it off to the Protestants is most undoubtedly and beyond contradiction true This alarming the City and it being well known that the Lives Liberties Estates of English-men against Arbitrary Attempts upon them Lay in Tryals by Juryes The Citizens in the Year 1680 rouz'd out of the Lethargy in which they had long lain and bethink themselves how to secure substantial honest Juryes knowing that that could only be accomplished by proper Sheriffs They pitched upon and elected Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to serve in that Office By so doing and by a like Election of Mr Pilkington now deservedly Lord Mayor and Mr Shute in the succeeding Year 1681 the Popish design of murdering Protestants under colour of Law was Post-poned until the Ancient Right of Electing Sheriffs was ravish'd from the City in the year 1682. However the Conspirators impatient of delay made their attempt in the Sheriffalty of Mr Bethel Mr Cornish The Earl of Shaftesbury and divers others are now clapt up upon pretence of a Plot and an experiment is made upon Mr Stephen Colledge a Man of great Honesty and who wanted nothing but a Figure to make him every way valuable But these Sheriffs not furnishing a Jury to cut him off The Earl of Shaftesbury and the rest who were imprisoned are reserved for the next Sheriffalty When they hoped tho' as Heaven would have it without ground to get Sheriffs and by them Juryes for their purpose And the Conspirators being enraged at the disappointment and baffle put upon them by an honest City-Jury in the Case of Mr Colledge They hurry that poor man to Oxford and there by most unpresidented illegal Practices basely murder him Further it cannot be forgotten that the honest endeavour of these worthy Sheriffs Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish to have the Sham-Plot of Fitz. Harris throughly searched into did greatly contribute to their future Sufferings The mentioning this Wretch forces a Remembrance of the Stratagems then used to present his discovery of the Authors of his Trayterous Libel and of the design for which it was framed That that matter might not be pryed into by the Magistrates of London he is removed from Newgate to a most close Confinement in the Tower Then he being Impeached in the Oxford Parliament in March 1680 to hinder the Examination of it there that Parliament is dissolved Quickly after he is tryed and condemned in the Court of Kings-Bench Then tho' a Papist he is left solely to the management of Dr H. of the Tower and without controversie was held to the last Moment of his Life under the hope and expectation of a Pardon if he would confess or to speak more properly say as he was directed But being deluded and his Mouth stop'd The Doctor in his Name emits to the World a Mock Confession inconsistent in it self and most notoriously void of truth but most wickedly contrived to render these Sheriffs and also those worthy Gentlemen Sr Robert Clayton an Alderman and Sr George Trâ—by Recorder of London infamous and odious to the highest degree and all this with design to create a belief of a Protestant Plot particularly the Doctor 's Paper charged the Sheriffs that they came to Pitz. Harris in Newgate with a Token from the Lord Howard which he knew to be true and told him nothing would save his Life but discovering the Popish Plot and gave him great encouragement from the Lord Howard that if he would declare that he believed so much of the Popish Plot as amounted to the introducing the Roman Catholicks or if he would find out any that would criminate the Queen or the Duke or make so much as a plausible story to confirm the Plot that the Parliament would restore him to his Father's estate with the profits thereof since his Majesty's Restoration How idle false groundles and villanous soever this Story was it highly irritated the Conspirators against these Gentlemen About this time God for the Scourge of the Nation had sent into the City that common Nusance to Mankind a Race of blind sensless Creatures who hardly deserved to be called Men and therefore took to themselves the Name of Tories These Animals seeming to delight in Fetters of Iron rather than Chains of Gold were the Champions for Arbitrary and Despotick Power They set themselves to betray the Rights and Liberties of the City and to bring all Free-born Englishmen to live at the Will of an Absolute Prince These by Addresses of Thanks for the Violation of the Laws and of Abhorrence of those who endeavoured to maintain them invited the Conspirators to attempt the overthrow of the Antient Priviledges and Government of London Nay their Solicitation Backt with assurance of a Surrender procured the bringing a Quo Warranto against the City Charters But the Wretches failing their Principals herein as they ever did in all things but Noisy Huzza's and a Committee of Aldermen and Commoners true English-Men being appointed to guard the City Franchises against the Quo Warranto Attack New Measures must be taken hereupon The Tories now perceiving that their Quo Warranto must pass the Formalities of Westminster-Hall witb bended Knees supplicate the aid of that Tool of State Secretary Jenkins He readily espouses them and having the Ascendant of Sr John Moor at this time most unluckily Lord Mayor directs him to constitute Mr North and Mr Rich Sheriffs of the City which he as obsequiously as daringly undertakes Many worthy Citizens whose names deserve eternal remembrance boldly withstood these Arbitrary Illegal Attempts Amongst them Mr Bethel and Mr Cornish were not the last and they felt with the first the rage of the Conspirators and their Adherents Their honest innocent and peacable appearing to Vote for the Election of Shâ—riffs in 1682. according to the undoubted right of the Citizens was termed a Riot and in Mr Cornish's Tryal now before us a Branch of the Plot. and most certainly is was the greatest Plot and Treason