defiance to the Laws of the Land which they most impudently violated in all these particulars and more than so they had proceeded step by step to this height of tyranny a whole year almost before they had digested their general charge into particular Accusations or ever called him to his Answer in due form of Law 5. But God had given him such a measure both of strength and patience that these afflictions though most great and irksome did make no more impressions on him than an Arrow on a rock of Adamant For at his first commitment he besought his God as Master Pryn observes out of his Manual of devotions to give him full patience proportionable comfort and contentment with whatsoever he should send and he was heard in that he prayed for For notwithstanding that he had fed so long on the bread of carefulnesse and drank the water of affliction yet as the Scripture telleth us of the four Hebrew children his countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than any of those who ate their portion of the Kings me at or drank of his wine And he was wont to say to his private friends that he thanked God he never found more sweet contentment in his greatest liberty than in the time of that restraint And certainly it was no wonder that it should be so he being conscious to himself of no other crimes which drew that fatal storm upon him than a religious zeal to the honour of God the happinesse of the King and the preservation of the Church in her peace and patrimony as he professed at his death before all the People So that despairing of successe in the way intended his Enemies fell upon another but more desperate course which was to ship him for New-England and make him subject to the insolencies of Wels and Peters two notorious Schismaticks But this being put to the question in the House of Commons was rejected by the major part not out of pity to his age or consideration of his quality nor in respect unto the Laws so often violated but to preserve him yet a while as a stale or property wherewith to cheat the Citizens of some further sums and to invite the Scots to a new invasion when their occasion so required For it was little doubted by discerning men but that the Scots who made their first invasion on a probable hope of sequestring the Lord Arch-bishop and the Earl of Strafford from His Majesties Counsels and sped it so well in their design that they were recompensed already with the death of the one would easily be tempted to a second journey upon assurance to be glutted with the blood of the other 6. And this appears more plain and evident in that about the coming on of the Scots which was in the middest of January 1643. they did again revive the businesse which had long lain dormant causing the Articles which they had framed in maintenance of their former Accusation to be put in Print about that time as is apparent by the Test of John Brown their Clerk dated the 17 of that moneth And as the Scots advanced or slackned in their marches Southward so did they either quicken or retard the work till hearing of the great successes which they had in Yorkshire they gave command to Master Pryn to prosecute the charge against him and bring him to his long expected trial as he reports it of himself who having rifled him of his Papers and thereby robbed him of those helps which he had purposely reserved for his just defence and having personal quarrels of his own to revenge upon him was thought to be the fittest blood-hound in the whole kennel to pursue the scent And now there was no talk but of quick dispatch When hatred doth accuse and malice prosecute and prejudice and prepossession sit upon the Bench God help the innocent There 's nothing but a miracle can preserve him then And so it proved in the event They called him after to the Bar both before and after caused a strict inquisition to be made into all his actions they winnowed him like wheat and sifted him to the very bran which was you know the Devils office they had against him all advantages of power and malice and witnesses at hand upon all occasions but still they found his answers and his resolutions of so good a temper his innocence and integrity of so bright a die that as they knew not how to dismisse him with credit so neither could they find a way to condemn him with Justice And though their Consciences could tell them that he had done nothing which deserved either death or bonds yet either to reward or oblige the Scots who would not think themselves secure whilâ— his head was on they were resolved to bring him to a speedy end Only they did desire if possible to lay the Odium of the murther upon the common People And therefore Serjeant Wilde in a speech against him having aggravated his supposed offences to the highest pitch concluded thus that he was guilty of so many and nototious treasons so evidently destructive to the Commonwealth that he marvelled the People did not tear him in pieces as he passed between his barge and the Parliament Houses Which barbarous and bloudy project when it would not take and that though many of the Rabble did desire his death yet none would be the executioner they then imployed some of their most malicious and most active instruments to go from door to door and from man to man to get hands against him and so petition those to hasten his condemnation which must forsooth be forced to their own desires whereof and of the Magistrates standing still and suffering them to proceed without any check he gave them a memento in his dying Speech This being obtained the businesse was pursued with such heat and violence that by the beginning of November it was made ready for a Sentence which some conceived would have been given in the Kings Bench and that their proofs such as they were being fully ripened he should have been put over to a Middlesex Jury But they were only some poor Ignorants which conceived so of it The leading members of the plot thought of no such matter and to say truth it did concern them highly not to go that way For though there was no question to be made at all but that they could have packed a Jury to have found the Bill yet by a clause in the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford they had bound the Judges not to declare their facts for Treason in the time to come for which they had condemned and executed that Heroick Peer And therefore it was done with great care and caution to proceed by Ordinance and vote him guilty first in the House of Commons in which being parties witnesses and Judges too they were assured to passe it as they would themselves which was done accordingly about the 20 of November But yet the businesse
Honourable When the Long Parliament first sate these two Gentlemen with the rest of the Kingdom rejoyced to see that day and stood at gaze as greedily as any expecting what acts of Bounty what Relief of Grievances the King would through their hands convey unto his Subjects And while they kept in the Sphere of their Duty and Allegiance were as forward to applaud them as any but after the Publication of the Remonstrance wherein the Parliament so abominably slandered the Kings Government which was the Ground-work of the Rebellion and the Critical time being come in which men must either declare themselves either for or against their Soveraign though the City was deeply leavened with disloyal Principles yet these Gentlemen and the major Part of the Citizens of whom they were chief were the Kings most faithful Subjects They were men of good esteem plentiful estates known Integrity and true Children of the Church of England who seeing the miserable condition of those places where the Rebels bore sway and beginning to be sensible of the same Bondage under Col. Essex entred into a Consultation how to put the City of Bristol into the Kings Possession and Protection To this purpose they dispatcht an Agent to the Court to inform the King that he had many good Subjects in Bristol and withal to signifie their desire to deliver up his own City to himself if he would send some of his Forces thither to take it The Inducements and Reasons of this Design were these First Conscience to God not to resist the King knowing they that do shall receive unto themselves Damnation Detesting that abominable Sect of the Hothamites those State-Hereticks who accounted it their duty to keep the Kings Towns for the Kings use by shutting the Gates against the Kings Person Secondly the frequent Affronts given to His Majesty by scandalous and disloyal Speeches on all Occasions belched out against him by Protestations Declarations Messages Contempt of his Gracious Offers before the Face of his Messengers as to instance in Sr. Baynham Throckmorton whom the King sent to Bristol requiring the Mayor and Aldermen not to give admittance to any of the Parliament Forces promising that he himself would not impose any on them together with tender of the promise of his Favour yet did the Mayor and Sheriffe two Boutefews in that City send 4 Pieces of Ordnance at that very instant to Marleborough to be employed against the King Lastly Out of regard to their own security and to quit themselves of those Oppressions and Grievances under which they suffered and these were many 1. The often repeated Taxations and Loans of Money unto the King and Parliament as they were pleased to twist them upon the thredbare Security of the publick Faith the illegal exactions employed for repairing the Castle building of Forts and maintaining a Garrison against the King 2. By urging upon them new and treasonable Votes and Protestations if not fully in words yet in the use and interpretation of them directly opposite to the Oath of Allegiance the Oath of every Citizen when made a Freeman with a paticular Engagement to resist Prince Rupert the Lord General the Earl of Forth and Brainford the Lord Marquesse Hertford the Earl of Newcastle Sr. Ralph-Hopton and their Forces 3. By their disarming all such as were any way suspected to bear duty and Affection to his Majesty unlesse they would take the aforesaid Protestations 4. The perpetual Scorn and Obloquy to which they were exposed being reproached every day as they passed the streets with the names of Malignants and Papists 5. The General Contempt and Prophanation of Gods holy Worship and Service tearing the Common-Prayer-Book c. Lastly Because upon the Point they were confined to Bristol not daring to go out of the City for in all places where the Commands and Ordinances of the Two Houses prevailed they had given a List of the Names of those that durst appear for the King to the end that if any of them came thither they might be apprehended and sent Prisoners to Taunton Barkley Castle as Delisâ—quents to the Parliament It was no wonder therefore that a City thus robbed of its Wealth and Liberty groaning under an insupportable Yoke of Bondage and Tyranny should endeavour by restoring the King to his Rights to restore themselves to their former Freedom Upon these Motives therefore they engaged in a Loyal Confederacy to deliver the City from its Captivity into his Majesties Protection if possible without any bloodshed as afterwards by their Examination appeared 'T is therefore true that these two Gentlemen with their Associates had an Intention to cast out the Rebels and to secure Bristol for the King and ro seize the Governour and some of the Chief Rebels but not to kill them and to that end a Commission was got and sent to Mr. Yeomans to raise Forces and constitute Commanders for the Kings Service whereupon a Protestation was drawn by Mr. Bowcher to be taken by all the Partakers in this businesse which fully exprest their Intentions in this undertaking which being in general Terms for the Assistance and Defence of the King against all Forces raised without his Command need not here be inserted After Communication of Counsels and many Messages interchanged between Oxford and Bristol drawing to the Design some of the Parliament Officers under Coâ— Essex who loathed and condemned themselves for being in their Service in was resolved that upon Monday Mar. 7. 1642. Prince Rupert with a Party of the Kings Forces should face the City on Durdan-Down distant not a full Mile from the City while they within should possesse and make good Froom Gate and Newgate seize the Court of Guards open the Gates and give the Signal thereof for the Kings Forces to make their Approach by Ringing of St. Johns and St. Michaels Bels. Accordingly Prince Rupert came expecting the Signal by Five of the Clock in the morning and the Ports to be opened but the Combination was discovered and these two Gentlemen with others apprehended there being found several Armed men with them in their Houses which being signified to the Prince he marched presently away Having them thus in their power they clap Irons upon them tie them Head and Feet together make them close Prisoners deprive them of all Comfort to be administred by their Wives Children or Friends and used them with that Barbarousness and Inhumanity as is not imaginable could be practised by one Christian upon another and after 11 weeks hard Imprisonment frequent Examination barbarous insulting over them especially by Nathaniel Fiennes they were brought to their Trial at a Council of War where upon the Articles exhibited against them by Advocate Walker they were condemned to die but first Mr. Yeomans received this Judgment The Judgment upon Robert Yeomans Upon due Consideration of the Articles exhibited on May the 8th by Clement Walker Esquire Advocate to this Council of War against Robert Yeomans and others the late conspirators in this
Commodity was Security to Us Peace to Our People And We are confident another Parliam would remember how useful a Kings Power is to a Peoples Liberty Of how much We have divested Our self that We and they might meet again in a due Parliamentary way to agree the bounds for Prince and People And in this give belief to our Experience never to affect more Greatness or Prerogative then what is really and intrinsecally for the good of your Subjects not satisfaction of Favorites And if you thus use it you will never want means to be a Father to all and a bountiful Prince to any you would be extraordinarily Gracious unto You may perceive all men trust their Treasure where it returns them Interest and if Princes like the Sea receive and repay all the fresh streams and Rivers trust them with they will not grudge but pride themselves to make them up an Ocean These Considerations may make you a great Prince as your Father is now a low one and your state may be so much the more established as mine hath been shaken For Subjects have learnt We dare say that Victories over their Princes are but Triumphs over themselves and so will be more unwilling to hearken to Changes hereafter The English Nation are a sober People however at present under some Infatuation We know not but this may be the last time We may speak to you or the world publickly We are sensible into what hand We are faln and yet We bless God We have those inward Refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot perturb We have learnt to own our self by retiring into Our self and therefore can the better digest what befals Us not doubting but God can restrain our Enemies malice and turn their fierceness into his Praise To conclude if God give you success use it humbly and far from Revenge If he restore you to your Right upon hard conditions whatever you promise keep Those men which have forced Laws which they were bound to observe will find their Triumphs full of Troubles Do not think any thing in this world worth obtaining by foul and unjust Means You are the Son of our Love and as We direct you to what we have recommended to you so we assure you We do not more affectionately pray for you to whom We are a Natural Parent then We do that the ancient Glory and Renown of this Nation be not buried in Irreligion and Phanatick humour And that all Our Subjects to whom VVe are a Politick Parent may have such sober Thoughts as to seek their peace in the Orthodox Profession of the Christian Religion as it was established since the Reformation in this Kingdom and not in new Revelations And that the ancient Laws with the Interpretation according to known practises may once again be an hedge about them that you may in due time govern and they be governed as in the fear of the Lord. C. R. The Lord Capel beheaded March 9. 1949. in the Palace yard Westminster THis Noble Lord Noble in his Life nobler in his Death and Memory noblest in his Posterity who fill the trumpet of Fame that summons all men to render them their deserved honours though he was not like some of our foregoing Martyrs viz. Sr. Charles Lucas and Sr. George Lisle murthered in the instant of the rendition of Colchester having quarter for life given him by the General yet did not long survive their hard fate being brought with more solemnity more perfidiousness though alike glory to his Death which he suffered with a Christian and no Roman but Colchester Spirit and resolution He was no great Captain nor ever undertook such a charge serving without any signal command in his Majesties Armies though no doubt sufficient thereto yet he is no less to be eternized for his indeavours his courage constancy and faithful adherence to the King when deserted by a great part of the Nobility parting with and hazarding a great and ample Estate which was sequestred from him and in conclusion laying down his life so that he may justly be stiled one of the Worthies of the English Nobility and his name ever to be honourably mentioned according to that of the Psalmist Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance He was Son and Heir to Sr. Arthur Capel of Hadham Hall in Herefordshire a Gentleman of Great Estate and who loved and followed the old mode of our Nation kept a Noble and bountiful House and shewed forth his Faith by his charity extending it in such abundant manner to the poor that he was bread to the hungry drink to the thirsty eies to the blind and legs the the same so that he might justly be stiled Great Almoner to the King of Heaven As this diffusive charity and bounty spread it self abroad no less did his Relative love and Paternal affection bestow it self on this his Son whom he most liberally educated to a perfection in Learning as his rich expressions and elegant stile in his Book Printed after his death and in other letters do best evidence Sr. Arthur dying as this Noble Lord inherited his Estate so did he his Virtues his pious bounty appearing so conspicuous that some envious persons who hate good works in others because they will do none themselves have maliciously traduced him as inclining to Popery But as such aspersions amongst persons of understanding signifie nothing more than the speakers malice so wrought it in others a deserved commendation of this Noble Person especially in those times and our own are worse when Charity lay bed-rid and Faith only and such hungry notions were talkt of whereas his Faith appeared by his works From the degree of Knight the ancient Dignity of his Family now advanced to the Earldom of Essex he was made Baron Capel of Hadham a little before the time the Earl of Strafford received his Tryal which in this brave Lords conscientious Judgment of himself was his original condemnation in foro coeli During the Rebellion and those differences between the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing both in purse and person to his aid and assistance being appointed in that time for his eminent wisdom and prudence Councellour to the Prince by the King his Father whom he abandoned not till the disbanding of my Lord Hopton's Army in Cornwall from whence his Highness took shipping to Scilly giving my Lord an honourable but sorrowful dismission and conge to return home and attend though his heroical mind spur'd him on to pursue his most unworthy fate For at his coming home upon those Articles having scarce warmed himself there after his long absence from thence but some hopes appearing of the King's restauration to his former Authority by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also by the Welch Insurrection and the rising of several Counties who declared for the same purpose he with a select number of his friends acquaintance and
standing and had not yet put off their blood-died Robes in expectation of this Grand Contrivance which should make them farther work Mr. Love being one of the chief was first Tried afterwards some others who recanted and humbly besought the Parliaments mercy as Mr. Jenkins and Potter but Mr. Love's submission such as it was for they required Confession and discoverie too came too late and to no purpose so that he and this Ms. Gibbons a Taylor was condemned by that High Court for the same businesse lost their Heads on Tower-hill as aforesaid The Earl of Derby beheaded at Bolton in Lancashire Octob. 15. 1651. WHosoever shall look upon the sad Historie of this Princely person must be armed against all humanitie if he condole not this miserable Traggedie every circumstance whereof is a Scene of sorrow which alike moves indignation and compassion If we deduce him from his glorious originals we see him descended from a most ancient and illustrious Family in which Loyaltie was one of the Gentilitions in herent vertues derived in the succession of those Heroes who to this day adorn'd the noble name of Stanley so memorated and famed in our Annals especially in the Reign of Henry the 7th direct Ancrestor to his present Majestie The signal Services done at that time to this Crown and Kingdom both by Victorie and Advice in the blessed union of the Houses of York and Lancaster were so placed that they seem to have directed only the imitation of their most Honourable Posteritie without the affectation of any thing but duty For those Heroick actions have been ever since as Spurs and Incentives to the same Grandeurs of Loyaltie manifested in all occasions and Affairs of the Crown through the whole current of Succession But this Noble Earl whose unworthie Fate we now deplore came nearest that great Pattern the Times concurring with the activity of his mind afforded him the advantage of employing and exercising that stock of Prudence and Valour which had so long been treasured up in the loines of his Princely Progenitors and yet to the scandal and reproach of that Age rewarding all his Honourable Attchievements with a most lamented Catastrophy If we also consider therefore his great and personal merit and obligations upon this Kingdom we shall find his Services not to come short of those of his Ancestors though clog'd with the burdensome glory of giving a Crown in designment and attempt however they failed of their most probable effects But to mitigate the Envy of his Fate to innocent Posteritie I will not presume with so rude a Pen to write their Monument and at large relate them He that hath heard of a Latham-House and Marston-Moor as I suppose all men have will easily confess his glories which shone brightly in the Sphear of all Military worth to the setting of Charles his Wain In those gloomy and black dayes he withdrew himself to a shelter in his Royaltie of the Isle of Man awaiting a new opportunity of serving his present Majestie which not long after offered it self and was with all readiness of duty encertained by him For the King having resolved Cromwel being gotten into Fife in Scotland to pass into England over Sterling-bridge by the advantage of three daies march gave present intimation thereof to the Earl who in order to some other design had some forces in readiness with these according to his instructions upon the Kings advance that way he landed in Lancashire where his Interest and Power lay and joined with his Majestie who leaving him some forces to aid and assist him in his new Levies against the Parliaments Forces then marching thitherward to suppress them marched directly for Worcester As soon as the King was departed Col. Lilburn was upon him and at Wiggon in that County with thrice his number fell upon the Earls small party not amounting to above 600 men and after a sharp encounter which favourably promised Victory at the first but through want of Reserves failed the Earl in conclusion put him to the rout where a many gallant Noble men and Gentry were slain and taken as my Lord Widdrington and others and the Earl himself hardly escaping to the King at Worcester being in the way forced to shelter at Boscolet the receptacle afterwards by my Lords direction of the King himself who being worsted at Worcester by the Rebels under Gromwel where his Majestie and his Nobilite discharged the place of brave Captains and Warriours particularly this undaunted Earl not yet wearied with his ill fortune was constrained to abandon that City and betake himself to a swift flight in Companie with this faithful Lord and other Honourable Persons At White-Ladies whither by the direction of the Earl the King was guided he took his leave of his Majestie having first taken care of his security where also he himself might have found a subterfuge but that he would not hazard his Majesties safty by a divided care of his Guardians for two and that number though but so small might not betray him At his departure he fell on his knees and wept and then conjured the Pendants to be faithfully careful of his Majesties person dearer to him then ten thousand lives and so betook himself again to flight in company of the same retinue who made after the road the Scotch horse they had taken under David Leshly At Newport in Shropshire they overtook them but with the same Col. Lilburn at their heels who fell into the Town and after a short dispute dispersed and took most of the party among the principal whereof was this Noble and unfortunate Earl the Earl of Landerdale Lord Sinclare and others the Duke of Buckingham strangely making his escape Becoming thus the prey of those barbarous rebels he was a while detained there till at last Orders came for his removal to Chester where shortly after he was convented by instructions of them at Westminster where the Earl desired to be heard in person before a Council of War all of them base and mechanick fellows and of no great Command in their army a barbarous shame that the Honour of so great a personage in a Country where he was so well esteemed reputed and reverenced both for his own superlative vertues of liberality and bounty and the continued obligements of his Ancestry should be so violenced and profaned by a rascally sort of men who assumed to themselves and arrogated the power of life and death upon a Peer of such magnitude and veneration an indignity worse by far then those outrages committed and perpetrated by Jack Cade and Wat Tyler and the rest of those rabbles who in their mad fury did such-like pranks whereas here thâ—s murther was countenanced by a colour of Law Martial and done in the form and process thereof but in this he imitated his dearly beloved Soveraign who was reviled contemned and mocked in the same manner at their irreverent High Court of Justice which no question did much sweeten that
my soul Amen And so meekly laying his Neck to the block and giving a sign his head at one blow and a draw of the axe was severed from his body Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr. Hewyt beheaded on Tower hill June 8. 1658. THis was the last Act of Cromwel's Tragedies Death putting soon after a period to his Usurpation and Epilogizing other mens fate with his own his life had been attended and his hours measured with stillation of blood now they were determined this full pomp of slaughter went before and ushered his long desired Funerals to his usurped Grace He never stirt'd a Plot but money stuck at the bottom He had an Army of Janizaries which without constant pay could never be kept at his beck and obedience and all the design he practised could not raise him money without the tricks of Jealousies and Fears that State-Device serving by fondness and force to bring in mony for the Cause from the beginning to the very ending and this was the original of this horrid Plot. For nothing else can be made out he had lately so frighted all men by his known intelligence at the Kings Court that none but mad-men except the condition of the Tyrannie were altered would venture upon any new Contrivance the Usurper being stronger and farther seated in his Domination then ever before and the severity of his Revenge against those whom he took in such practices was so fresh and recent in memory that nothing but Desperation could thrust men upon such Pikes Therefore ho had recourse to his old Artifices and because no body would be dealing with him he would be dealing with others to make the people believe and apprehend danger and afterwards pay for the delivery from that is to say for the perpetration of it The Design was laid in all quarters North East West and South but centred in the City of London 't was a General Conbination betwixt him and his Secretary and so â—e not dive in it further but leave those parties who are concerned in the death 's of these and some preceding persons to consider of the rest and proceed to the Narrative The first man that was produced in this Plot which was to subvert the Usurpation till the Tyrant introduce and restore our Sovereign with a particular kind reference to the City which should be fired by its former Incendiaties was Sir Henry Slingsby a Gentleman of a very Noble Family in York shire of an ample and large Revenue and Estate in York shire but exhausted and wasted in the Kings Service and afterwards wholly sequestred for the Parliament This Knight for some time before had been a prisoner in Hull in order to the security of the Peace as their Tyrannie termed it but for manyyeares together no stranger to such demeurances In that Garrison he became acquainted as the solace of misery and life necessirated him with some of the Officers they likewise insinuating and ingratiating with him but more particularly when instructions were given them of trapanning him into some design against their Sultan Cromwel This engaged them into a nearer famisiarity Sir Henry's case and hard usage is lamented the state of the Kingdome laid open and the oppression of the people aggravated with many the like overtures to feel if the pulse of Sir Henry would beat an Alarm to an insurrection which for their part truly they feared but should not draw a Sword against any who should so attempt the regaining and recovery of their liberty To these Discoveries Sir Henry gave some pleasant but not serious eare though he did not utterly disbelieve the discontents of those men knowing if it was absolute truth they spoke and might in time be accomplished and therefore let fall some words tending to that purpose on which they replying and professing their serious service to the King if occasion presented it drew some further matter from Sir Henry which was the offering of a Commission to them to secure that place for the King This was an old Commission and which had lain by him a long while â—oremote and distant were his thoughts from effecting any thing Before they had thus brought him on and had then produced upon the sudden and unexpected hopes of gaining that Town The producing of this Commission was enough for their Tyrants satisfaction who straight gave Order that he should be sent up to London who after some Examination he was sent to the Tower and finally brought before a High Court of Justice where he manifested the Juggle by which he was brought into the snare and demonstrated the impossibility of his doing any prejudice to the State but that was no Argument there so that he was sentenced to be beheaded by vertue of a late Act of one of Olivers Conventions whereby it was made Treason to hold intelligence with the Kings Majesty Much application was made to save his life by the Lord Viscount Fauconbridge his Nephew who had lately married one of the Usurpers Daughters but as Sir Henry said at the Scaffold he was inexorable the truth is the Tyrant supposed that his not sparing a person so related to him would make all the World believe there was a reality of some horrid design which could not be dispensed with without extream danger to the publique He said very sittle at his death not caring to busy the world with his concerns having spoken largely to his Charge at his Trial before the said High Court the substance on the Scaffold was this The fatal Execution of Sir Henry Slingsby on Tuesday the 8. of June 1658. upon Tower-Hill With the substance of his speech before his Death ABout Eleven of the Clock Sir Henry Slingsby was brought from the Tower to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill whither being come he fell upon his knees and for a short space prayed privately Then standing up he did with a very low voice address himself to that noble Gentleman Mr. Sheriff Robinson telling him that what he had to say he would speak to him which was to this purpose That he had received a Sentence to die upon account of his endeavouring to betray the Garrison of Hull But said All that be did in that businesse he was drawn into by others That the Officers of that Garrison did believe he had some greater Design in hand and therefore they would needs pump him to the bottom But what he spake to them in private was brought into evidence against him He likewise said That he did no more than any person would have done that was so brought on That he had made many applications by his Friends for a Reprieve but found his Highnesse was inexorable He did confess that he did deliver a Commission as it was charged against him But said that it was an old Commission and what he meant was well known to himself but what construction others had made of it might appear by his present condition He dscovered little sense of sorrow or fear of Death but
information I thought fit to propose and do humbly crave their pardon if this weak and mean endeavour cannot reach that grandeur of Spirit with which they constantly endured their fiery tryals and dreadful and doleful sufferings I observe the order of time and not of Dignity and shall begin with the right Honourable the Lord Finch of Fordwich who being Lord Keeper of the Seal upon their arbitrary proceedings against the life of the Earl of Strafford wisely withdrew himself and endured banishment and exile from his own Country for sixteen years and then returned and died in Honour His faithful serving his Soveraign in that great employment being all his charge and accusation Mr. Secretary Windebanke who pursued the same course to avoid the Popular fury and died abroad The Right reverend Father in God Matthew Lord Bishop of Ely who with eleven more of his Sacred Order were committed to the Tower in 1641 from which imprisonment he never â—irred till the end of the year 1659 at which time by the means of the ever renowned Lord General the Duke of Albemarle he was set at liberty from thence in kind remembrance of those fatherly counsels and happy advice the said noble Duke had during his restraint in the same place for the same account of Loyalty received from this reverend Bishop who is now reestablished in this same Diocesse to the Honour and support of this restored Church Doctor Featly a very Learned Religious and grave Divine to whom this Church oweth much for his accurate defences of its Doctrine and Discipline being for no other cause committed to Peter House by an Order of Parliament languished there a year and a half and with much importunity was at last removed to Chelsey Colledge for the aire but he died there within three weeks after his coming being too far spent by his barbarous misusage Sir Robert Heath Lord Chief Justice of England known so well for his integrity and moderation and as famous for his constant Loyalty of whom quarrelsome John Lilburn a sworn Enemy to the Royal Party gave so noble a character before his Judges at Guild-hall forced to abandon his Country fled over towards the expiration of the War into France being by the bloody prevalent Faction at Westminster excepted from mercy not long after the Kings death with grief and anxiety of mind to see the miseries and ruines of the King and his Country he himself died at Caen in Normandy and was received no doubt into mercy Judge Bartlet who weathered the same Storm being the first committed of that reverend Robe and long survived their high and insignificant charge and accusation This gives us an Evidence of the intended Justice of the Reformers who would first put out the eyes of the Law that the Subject might see the better Sir Ralph afterwards Lord Hopton who so couragiously and prudently and as an Expert Captain commanded for the King in the West and had so many notable successes after his disbanding in Cornwall he took Shipping with the Prince our now Soveraign into the Island of Scilly and from thence into France following the Kings hard Fortune in all his peregrinations till Death arrested him at Paris and put an end to his Travel Judge Jenkins one of his Majesties Justices in Wales brought to the Chancery Bat for some misdemeanours of Loyalty where he denied the Authority of the Court for that the Seal was contrary to Law as well as the Commissioners whereupon he was sent to the Tower where he persisted in his integrity published several Presidents and Statutes and argued them Rebels and owned the same again at other bars did what he could to set the Army and the Parliament together by the ears desied them and their threats and asserted the King and the Laws against their usurpation was continued a close Prisoner till they were weary of him and then was sent to Windsor in the same quality where he continued of the same mind till without thanks he was permitted the liberty of the Town This brave stout person is yet living but when dead his memory shall endure for evermore Mr. Secretary Sir Edward Nicolas who constantly abode with the King from the beginning of his troubles and afterwards continued the same Service and Office to his present Majesty in all his troubles abroad by no less trouble than Honour having faithfully and prudently managed that employment to the happy effect of his Majesties Restitution Sir Edward Hide now the Right Honourable Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellour of England the Counsel-Favourite of his late Martyr'd Majesty and therefore no wonder so hated by the Faction at Westminster and traduced by their scandalous Votes being excepted likewise out of their mercy He not only continued the same advice but also saw it in conclusion attain that successe to which it had alwaies been directed but had missed of approbation till the general applause and shouts of our Deliverance The Lord Wilmot afterwards by King Charles the Second made Earl of Rochester who throughout the War particularly at Roundway Down neer the Devizes so valiantly behaved himself passed over with the Prince and my Lord Hopton into Scilly and accompanied his Highnesse in all those difficulties he passed more especially at Worcester and in his Majesties happy conveyance from thence which he principally managed And here I must not omit the Duke of Buckingham with an honourable reference also to his noble Brother my Lord Francis Villers who young at Kingston as in the primitive times gave early testimony to this cause the valiant Earl of Cleveland the Lord Wentworth his Son and other Gentlemen in that Expedition who suffered for their assistance and obedience to his Majesty in those commands As also my Lord Gerard now Captain of his Majesties Life-guard who bore part afterwards as well as before in the calamity and misfortune of the Kings adventures in forrein parts My Lord Wilmot unhappily died a little before the Kings restitution and hath left behind him the sweet favour of a most Loyal affection to his Majesty Nor without due observation can I pass by the Earl of Norwich my Lord Loughborough Bernard Gascoign Col. Far Squire Hales and the rest engaged in that design at Colchester nor Sr. John Owen for the same endeavour in Wales being condemned with the said Earl of Norwich by the High Court of Justice but must give their names and memories their veneration Nor likewise the right reverend Dr. Shelden now Lord Bishop of London and the famous Dr. Hamond who were a long while in restraint and threatned with more cruelties at the same time expecting to have been transported to some forreign plantations Dr. John Berkenhead who so hazardously and in so very great dangers and several imprisonments asserted his Majesties cause in its lowest extremities this Gentleman is so deservedly well reputed that this mite will signifie nothing Sr. Marmaduke Langdale now Lord Langdale a Person not inferiour to any of his Majesties
an overture was made by other Lords then about the King for a Peace with the Scots which soon after taking effect the King returned to Westminster where he had summoned his Parliament according to the advice of this Lord and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury both whom they rendred odious to the People upon the very account of being Enemies to Parliaments The very first thing of consequence done at the first Sessions was a charge exhibited by the House of Commons against this Earl which consisted of 28. Articles of high Treason Feb. 16 1640. The substance of them all was That he had endeavoured to subvert the fundamental Laws and Governments of the Realms of England and Ireland that he had done ill Offices betwixt the King and the Scots and betwixt the King and his Subjects of this Kingdom that he had advised the King to bring up the Army out of the North and overawe the Parliament and that he had informed his Majesty that he had an Army of 10000 men in Ireland ready to be transported for the same Service His Tryal thereupon April 13. ensued which was done with all solemnity a Court being made for the purpose with seats for both Houses and a Canopy for the King with a Terrasse before it The Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward his Accusers were Pym St. Johns Whitlock Sr. Walter Earles Serjeant Glyn Maynard Stroud Mr. Selden Hambden c. The Lieutenant warded all their blows defending himself bravely and learnedly so that there was no hopes of prevailing against his innocence by the Law before the Lords that were his Judges But the implacable fury of the House of Commons since chey could effect nothing this way put them upon another which was to draw up a Bill of Attaindor and present it to the Lords whereby the matter of Fact was declared to have been sufficiently proved and then as to Law that he had incurred the censure of Treason the Lords stumbled at this way of proceeding as a path leading to their own destruction it being a course unsuitable to the practice and state of the Kingdom and their own safety and against Common Justice To this it was replied by the Commons that if the Lords would not joyn with them in this way they feared a rupture might follow for that the People would not be satisfied without Justice done upon the Earl as the Author of all their grievances The Lords stood for a while to their first determination and heard the Earl by his Council at their Bar as to matter of Law this made the House of Commons though the King in a set speech to them had cleared the Earl from any design of Treason or consulting to any arbitrary Government nor could he concur to punish him as a Traitor the more eager Whereupon the Londoners came down in Tumults crying Justice and threatning the Lords as aforesaid so that at last the said Bill ushered in by a Protestation passed the whole House of Commons nemine contradicente but the Lord Darby and one or two more and presently after the House of Lords where were present 45 26 against him and 19 for him most of his friends absenting themselves for fear of the multitude Immediatly the Kings assent was required to the Bill who consulted with the Bishops who all but the Bishop of London now his Grace of Canterbury and who as the King observed in his Book fared the best of all advised him against it but that which most swayed the King to sign it which he bitterly afterwards repented was a Letter of the Earls to his Majesty which being too long here to insert I shall only give you that Passage wherein he desires his Majesty to passe the Bill And therefore in few words as I put my self wholly upon the Honour and Justice of my Peers so clearly as to beseech your Majesty might please to have spared that Declaration of yours on Saturday last and intirely to have left me to their Lordships so now to set your Majesties Conscience c. at liberty I do most humbly beseech you for the preventing of such mischief as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but I confess this unfortunate thing forth of the way towards that blessed agreement which God I trust shall for ever establish betwixt you and your Subjects Sir my consent herein shall more acquit you to God than all the World can do besides to a willing man there is no injury done c. I have also here inserted for their excellency and elegancy these two following Speeches the first at Westminster Hall to the Lords at the conclusion of his Trial the other at the Scaffold which are as follow MY Lords There yet remaines another Treason that I should be guilty of the endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Laws of the Land that they should now be Treason together that is not Treason in any one part of Treason accumulative that so when all will not do it is woven up with others it should seem very strange Under favour my Lords I do not concieve that there is either Statute Law nor Common-Law that doth declare the endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Laws to be high Treason For neither Statute-Law nor Common-Law written that ever I could here of declareth it so And yet I have been diligent to enquire as I believe you think it doth concern me to do It is hard to be questioned for life and honour upon a Law that cannot be shewn There is a Rule which I have learned from Sir Edward Cooke De non aparentitibus non existentibus eadem ratio Jesu where hath this fire lain all this while so many hundred of years without any smoak to discover it till it thus burst out to consume me and my children extreme hard in my opinion that punishment should precede promulgation of Law punishment by a Law subsequent to the Acts done Take it into your considerations for certainly it is now better to be under no Law at all but the will of men than to conforme our selves under the protection of a Law as we think and then be punished for a crime that doth precede the Law what man can be safe if that be once admitted My Lords it is hard in another respect that there should be no token set upon this offence by which we should know it no admonition by which we should be aware of it If a man passe down the Thames in a Boat and it be split upon an Anchor and no booy be ser as a token that there is an Anchor there that party that ows the Anchor by the Maritine Laws shall give satisfaction for the damage done but if it were marked out I must come upon my own peril Now where is a mark upon this crime Where is the token this is high Treason If it be under water and not above water no humane
against St. Faith's Door a good and suitable prop to such constant Loyalty which he resolutely maintained to his last and so bravely exposed himself to their bullets Collonel Poyer shot to death in Covent Garden I Cannot deny this Gentleman a room in this Martyrology those that came the eleventh hour shall find entertainment though he was formerly for the Parliament especially because he was mainly concernd in this aforesaid businesse of Pembroke He rendred at mercy and by order of a Council of War drew lots with the other two for his life which fell upon him and thereupon he was shot as aforesaid The execrable and horrid Murther of our late Martyred Soveraign King Charls the First of ever blessed memory I Intend not to write the History of this Pious Prince so excellently and curiously drawn by himself and those who have traced his memorials and remains not taking a far prospect of him which was fair and beautiful and pleasant in the beginning of his Reign but viewing neerer at hand the black and dismal cloud which wrapt up and enveloped his setting glories now by Divine Justice and favour risen again to their full and radiant lustre We shall retrospect no further than the beginning of the Scotch War at which time the Symptomes of a general Rebellion first appeared For what the Scots covertly implyed in their undutiful Papers Declarations and Remonstrances was soon after avowedly insisted on by the prevailing Faction of the long Parliament The King was loaded with an heavy imputation of being led by evil Councellors that their design was to introduce Popery to erect an arbitrary Government as in the businesse of Ship-money Patents and Monopolies That he declined Parliaments as the boundaries of his unlimited Prerogative to the great burden and oppression of his Subjects No sooner therefore had he composed the Scotch War but to take away and remove all jealousie and distrust of him in his People though all along his Reign he had found some popular leading Grandees to be the untractable and unsatisfiable Enemies of his Kingdoms Peace he summoned his last the long Parliament in November 1640 which by a gracious Act of his was not to be dissolved or prorogued without their own consent and if that should so determine a Bill also was signed by him for a Tâ—iennial or perpetual Parliament that so his Subjects might rest confident and assured in the due manage and administration of the Government But these favours gave the Faction no other satisfaction then that they saw they might presume to add other demands and by how much more gracious his Majesty was to them they judged they might be the more impudent towards him in which they failed not a tittle dasiring as their only safety from the danger of the Prerogative the Militia in their own disposal the only defence and the unseparable right of his Crown To attain this they most insolently by their partisans in the City tumult him at his Court at White-hall from which to avoid both the danger and dishonour that rebel rout threatned he was compelled to withdraw to see if by his absence that rage and madnesse might be allayed and the two Houses set at freedom which by his presence was the more enflamed and the Priviledge of Parliament prostituted to the licentious and mad frenzy of the multitude But this afforded them their desired advantage from hence they calumniate the King that since he could not dissolve the Parliament he would invalidate their Authority and render them uselesse and unserviceable to those great ends for which they were called by refusing to concur with them and departing from that his great Council With these and such like suggestions they so filled the minds of men who were predisposed by some former discontents and who had their Authority through some disuse of it in great reverence that every where but especially in London parties were framed intelligencies and correspondencies held Divers Petitions presented in the pursute of these designs to the Parliament offering to stand by them with their lives and fortunes to the attainment of those ends held forth in their Declarations and Resolves which in conclusion were summed up in that unhappy Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom by the Lords and Commons remaining at Westminster divers of both Houses either out of fear of the rabble or conscience of their duty absenting themseves and retired home or followed the King's Fortune who having traversed some ground about London from one of his Royal Palaces to another in hope the distemper would abate and the People return to their reason and obedience together at last finding his hopes frustrated by more unreasonable demands every message to him from the two Houses came burdened with he resolved to go for York and secure his Magazine at Hull But Sr. John Hotham being newly sent thither by the Parliament refused the Kings admittance into that Town unless himself with some few of his retinue would please to enter the King passionately complained of this to the Parliament but with as little redress as his demand of Justice against the Authors of the Tumults this was the Inrroduction to those after violences of his Royal Person and Authority For the Parliament forthwith raised an Army under the command of the Earl of Essex and the County of York humbly professed themselves to the Service of his Majesty whereupon August the 22 1642. he set up his Standard at Nottingham whence after he had marched into Shrewsbury and having raised a considerable Army thereabouts was on his way to London he was overtaken by the Earl of Essex at a place called Edge Hill where ensued a fierce Fight with equal loss on both sides October 23 1642. where God was pleased to cover the Kings head in the day of Battel and permit him to fall by their execrable hands in the time of Peace to which he so often solicitously wooâ—d them In their Generals Commission they had tyed him up with a limitation the preservation of the Kings Person but left their bullets at random A subtil time-serving distinction between the Cannon and the Axe which afterwards they trayterously lifted up against his Annoynted and sacred Head The Parliament to strengthen their Cause treat with the Scots and for the better mutual assurance and to difference their abettors and fautors from the Kings Leige People as well as to lay a baite for all sacrilegious and covetous minded men to invite them to supplies of money in this rebellion enter into a Solemn League and Covenant the main design whereof was the utter extirpation as previous and necessary to the Kings destruction of Episcopacy and the established Government of the Church of England Popery being added also for the greater colour of this engagement against which the King issued forth his Royal Proclamation laying open the mischievous design thereof being resolved to maintain the Religion so long and so happily professed and sealed by the blood of
Subjects for industry and personal Valour which he for the desence of his Sacred Majesty and his Restauration deserves to be had in everlasting Remembrance But above all the sad visitations of the Universities deserves remembrance that the guilt and danger of such barbarity may make posterity to tremble at the thought of it being the comprehensive design of all those evils they after perpetrated making those Sources and Fountains of Learning and Piety as broken Cisterns that should hold no water and the place become a meer puddle a mare mortuum that should send forth pernicious sents as might insect the Kingdom To enumerate all those excellent persons who were forced out of their Fellowships and other Collegiate Emoluments and places will require a Work of it self and so I pass that sad Story and beadrol though with that due compassion to those who though now Augâ—as stable be swept yet cannot find the Manger After the two Universities which afforded sufferers enough to make up a Catalogâ—e as big as this whole Book the next place is due to the Martyr'd City of Worcester the Scene of ruin'd Loyalty which would fill many pages with Red Letters whose Citizens might all be transcribed into this Cannon who besides their constant adherence to the Royal Cause from the first when the honest Mayor Mr. Soles hardly escaped a gallows set up for him at his own door held out to the last for King Charles the First not rendring without his Order and had the honour to entertain King Charles the Second in Fifty one where he was with great solemnity and greater joy proclaim'd and in that fatal defeat suffer'd with him and for him devoting their estates and lives as a ransom for his Majesties safety whilest the streets at the Rebels entrance resounded with the Peoples cries Oh! save the King save the King Sr. John Stowel a Somersetshire Gentleman and Knight of the Bath of a very great estate and as much loyalty who adhered vigourously to the King during the War till the surrender of Exeter upon whose Articles he came to London to make his composition where contrary to that capitulation the Committee at Goldsmiths-Hall tendred him the Negative Oath before any admission to compound He withstanding this unjust and perfidious dealing and pleading the benefit of the said Articles was reported to the Parliament as a Contemner of their Authority and an Enemy and thereupon committed to the Serjeant at Armes thence to New-gate from whence he was brought to their High Court of Justice where with much adoe he escaped with life being remanded to the Tower and all his Estate amounting to seven or eight thousand 1. per Annum sold by a pretended Act of Parliament as forfeited for Treason He now survives all those losses and miseries and may he like Job be rewarded trebble in the future of his life for his constant and stout integrity And here I could make a record of that black Bill and List that passed for Acts of Parliament against several of the Nobility and Gentry by which their estates were forfeited and sold by Trustees thereunto appointed for this only fault of Loyalty but shall forbear Let the Purchasers blush at their shame and folly while honest Loyalty keeps its countenance and wears out the sudden braves of staring Rebellion I must also pass over the old Earl of Kingston Father to the right Honourable Lord the Marquesse Dorchester who being surprized by the Parliaments Forces and by them put in a Vessel disigned for Hull was shot by some of the Kings Forces at his passing by Gainshorough the Rebels offering him if the Royalists would venture to shoot upon the Deck to their Bullets by which he sell immediately The noble Marquesses of Winchesters Newcastle and Worcester deserve a more durable Register than the scantling and shortnesse of this little breviary having divided all the sorrows of life viz. imprisonment distresse banishment deprivation of Estate and other discommodities of those wretched times among them without any Intermission of that which weak men term insupportable misery Dr. Barwick now the Reverend Deâ—n of Sr. Pauls who lay Prisoner in the Tower of London while he was near famished by the cruel Order of the Long Parliament soon after the Kings death and was scarce able to stand when Col. West the then Lieutenant gave him his Liberty on Parol to render himself at a certain time soon after which he performed but the Lieut dying his wife set him at perfect Freedom and gave him his Conge it being the method of those Tyrants to bury men in their Prisons unless they had that against them which would presently reach their Lives And upon this Account I hope to be excused if I cannot retrive other Loyal Persons from those Obscurities and Dungeons and the Depths of Villany and bring neither them nor their Memories into Light What should I mention the general calamity of the Clergy Loyal and Orthodox more especially the Fathers of the Church since nothing can be more evident to us and Posterity but yet I cannot forget that most cruel Edict of Oliver which by restriction of their Function nay their particular Abilities took clearly away from them all hopes of sustentation and Maintenance of Life The Honourable Col. John Russel Brother to the Earl of Bedford who served all along his Majesty in his Armies and suffered all along afterwards in the Usurpers Prisons being one of the first that upon any the least occasion of their fear was presently secured and tossed from one Custody to another till the happy Revolution of his Majesties Return Col. John and William Ashburnham the former so well known in our Annals both signally Loyal and honest were served in the same manner and in conclusion sent away to remote Castles and Islands and there debarred of any Intercourse or Correspondence with their Friends meerly upon suspition as to proof of any thing whatever was in the bottom The Right Honourable the Lord Bellasis in the very same Predicament no where more resident or constant then in their custody nor could go or travel any where without a Passe or safe Conduct from the next Officer to the place of his Abode for many years together and perpetually in danger of being betrayed out of his Life Sr. Humphrey Bennet formerly a Brigadeer in the Kings Army an eminent Person for his Loyalty seized and secured as a partaker and confederate in that unfortunate business of Col. Penruddock at Salisbury being of that Country as aforesaid was kept in Prison at the Tower of London from the time of that Rising till Olivers next Plot in 1658. upon Sr. William Slingsby c. which was near 3 years and then brought before the High Court of Justice with those Gentlemen where after some dayes attendance their preparations of his Charge not taking with their Intentions he was superseded from his Trial and remitted again to his Confinement For the Honour of the City of Lond. S.