latter were promoted to the best Dignities in the Church that by the mutual assistance of each other the Kings might enslave the Bodies and drain the Purses and the Priests enslave the Souls and ride the Consciences of all Men But after our late State-Mountebanks had thus for a time tried their Tricks at length they felt the Weight of the Nation to fall like a Mill-stone upon them and found that the People of England would be the People of England still and be govern'd as reasonable Men and free-born Subjects Nevertheless in every bad Reign Evil Counsellors will be at the old Game and better is not to be expected unless in a good one we find Justice to be executed in Terrorem and it be made the Interest as well as 't is the Duty of every Man to serve the Publick The Politick States of Holland do make it so and thereby is it that they not only stand but prosper and are well served for every private Man there finds his Account of Interest and Profit in serving the Common Good whereas here in the late Reigns every Judas to his Country that most betrayed the fundamental Rights and debauched his Country had Honours and Profits for so doing and on the contrary where any stood in their way to oppose them they were certainly taken off or ruined Which shews how precarious the Lives Liberties and Properties as also the Religion of the People of England were made What Rapines barbarous Murders and Outrages were in the late Reigns such as no Chronicle can parallel Ahab and Jezabel's Murder of Naboth and taking possession of his Vineyard so blackned in holy Writ and so revenged by God seems to be far out-done by the cruel and barbarous Murder of the Brave and Noble Earl of Essex the first was done in the face of the World and owned but the latter in Hugger-mugger when he was under the Custody of the Law in Confinement and which highly aggravates the Heinousness of the Fact it was perpetrated at that moment when it was made to serve the wicked Design of destroying another of our greatest Men the Noble Lord Russel And lastly to throw the Odium of it on himself which if England take not off I am sure will cost them dear and they must feel the Vengeance of Heaven until Justice be in some kind satisfied When we took God's Way he blessed us and when we return to him he will return to us and bless us again I cannot but admire the Fineness of God's Providence how he called forth the Vertuous Puissant and Illustrious Family of Nassan to rescue his People out of the Jaws of Spanish Tyranny under Charles the Fifth and broke that Hellish Yoke made by Popish Priests and now to call the same Family in his present Majesty to break the French Yoke This is a stupendous Providence an amazing Work which will give him a glorious Name more lasting than that of Sons and Daughters God is shaking the Earth he hath begun with us in Jamaica in a terrible manner and since hath come to our own Doors and given us a Warning of his Power to shew us what he can do Let us labour to understand the meaning of the Voice of God in the Earthquake Shall we say the People of Jamaica were more wicked than we because they perished I tell you God seems to call to us in this still Voice and say Repent or ye shall all likewise perish Let us away with our dastardly Cowardliness and sordid Covetousness and Self-seeking which is the Root of all Evil and seek more the things of God and things of good Report amonst good Men in our Generation Let us reform and amend our Manners our Ways and Doings or else leave those Names of Protestants and Christians for our Immorality is a Shame to them all and the old Heathens and Turks will condemn and rise up in Judgment against us and it will be more tolerable for them in the Day of Judgment than for us The CASE of JOHN WILMER Citizen and late Merchant of London With Reflections thereupon SECTION I. THAT there was a damnable Conspiracy to introduce Popery and Arbitrary Government carried on long before the great Alarm thereof was given to the three Kingdoms about the Month of September 1678 was well known to all thinking Men and is now put out of question as it is that the late unhappy King James gave Life to it The House of Commons in the first Westminster Parliament after the Dissolution of the Long Parliament in January 1678 declared That the Duke of York being a Papist and his Hopes of coming such to the Crown gave Countenance and Encouragement to the Popish Conspiracies It appeared at that time to both Houses of Parliament by Letters from several Cardinals and others at Rome that the Duke held great Correspondences with the Pope and that his pretended Holiness could not but weep for Joy at the reading some of the Duke's Letters Whereupon a Bill was brought into the House of Commons to disable the Duke to inherit the Crown which upon a second reading in a Committee of the whole House being carried by the Majority of near two to one that Parliament was dissolved and never sat more The honest and most necessary Resolution then taken being thus defeated to the Grief and Astonishment of the greatest part of the Nation the undernamed Lords and Gentlemen viz. the Earl of Shafesbury Earl of Huntingdon Lord Grey of Werk Lord Russel Lord Cavendish Lord Brandon Thomas Wharton Esq Sir William Cowper Sir Gilbert Gerrard Sir Edward Hungerford Sir Henry Calverly Sir Scroop How Thomas Thynne Esq William Forrester Esq and John Trenchund Esq went in Person upon the 26th of June 1680 and presented Reasons to the Grand Jury which served in the Court of king's-King's-Bench for the County of Middlesex for the indicting the Duke of York as a Popish Recusant whereupon that Jury took the Indictment into Consideration But the Judges of that Court getting Information thereof sent for the Jury and in an unheard-of manner hastily dismissed them at a time when many other Indictments were depending before them The former Lords and Gentlemen no way discouraged by the aforesaid denial of Justice upon the 30th of July following together with the Earl of Clare Sir John Cope Sir Rowland Gwynn and Mr. Wandsford did personally prosecute the same Accusation against the Duke before a second Grand Jury but they were in the same arbitrary manner dismissed by the Court to the obstruction of that Prosecution In the ensuing Michaelmas Term 1680 I John Wilmer was returned and sworn upon the Grand Jury which served in the Court of King's-Bench for the County of Middlesex at that time began the Parliament commonly called the second Westminster Parliament from the Dissolution of the late Long Parliament and upon the 11th of November the House of Commons passed a Bill entituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke
my Measures God's Fish I will have his Blood or ruine him although it cost me ten thousand Pounds Reflections on the seventh Section NO Age can parallel the Wickedness of such Magistrates to contrive such horrid things against a brave and honest People to bring such alparcel of Varlets and Irish Cut-throats to swear against innocent Men that no honest Man in the Kingdom in Life or Estate could escape them if they could have had Jury-Tools as well as Judges and others It is a difficult Task to keep within bounds and to bridle in Passion under Oppression to have our Spirits in a Christian cool Frame when we are injured it requires great Measures of Grace You see I was here in a fine Case having such thundring Threatnings that nothing but Death or Ruine must follow For what is mentioned is Matter of Fact in the foregoing Section and I believe I can prove it at this Day if need require SECT VIII THE Conspirators unwilling thus to lose their hopeful Plot and the Cost which they had been at in suborning and instructing their Irish Witnesses they cast about how and where to employ them to better purpose than in the City of London and at length they resolve to make an Experiment at Oxford thither they send Colledg to be tried upon a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer issued into that County Hereupon it being evident that I might be a most material Witness to shew the Inconsistency and Falshood of the Irish Evidence Inquiry was made of me whether I would go to Oxford to testify my knowledg in the Matter on the behalf of Colledg I declared that if I were Subpena'd I would go but upon the very Day when a Subpena was brought to my House Atterbury the Messenger came thither with Stephens Messenger of the Press and seizing me said You are my Prisoner Hereupon I demanded a light of his Warrant and finding it to be from Secretary Jenkins for High-Treason I told Atterbury as Counsel had before advised me that it was an illegal Warrant and would not run in London I being within the Freedom and a Freeman of the City but if any Warrant came from my Lord-Mayor or from an Alderman of the City who was a Justice I would readily obey it but Atterbury with his Assistants laid hold of me and forced me into a Coach carrying me to Atterbury's House where I was kept two Days from thence I was carried before the King and Council at Hampton-Court and being very sick with an Ague and flayer the Lord Chancellor said to me at my coming in You come in like an Ignoramus upon which the King pulled him by the Sleeve and wink'd on him which seemed to intimate that though my giving the Ignoramus Verdict upon the Indictment against Colledg was in truth the Crime which brought me thither yet it should not be published wherefore the same Lord turning it said You come here as one not only guilty of High-Treason but have begun a Rebellion in resisting his Majesty's Warrant for your Apprehension Whereupon I replied May it please your Majesty I have not not will I resist any legal Warrant of your Majesty's but I humbly conceive the Warrant by which I am apprehended is an illegal Warrant being from the Secretary of State and will not run in London for the Justices of London are not Justices by Commission but by Prescription and Charter Said the King Will not my Warrant run in London Yes may it please your Majesty I answered a Warrant from my Lord Chief Justice of your Majesty's Bench will run in London to apprehend any Citizen but it is to be executed by its proper Officer a City-Constable and he to carry his Prisoner so apprehended before the Lord-Mayor or any other Alderman that is a Justice of the said City To which the King said Who told you this Law I replied One Mr. Smith an able Lawyer Whereupon I was ordered to withdraw and within an hour after without any other Accusation or Examination a Warrant was sent out of the Council-Chamber to commit me to the Tower for High-Treason Reflections on the eighth Section IT is thought by many that one Reason of my being taken up at this time was to prevent my going to Oxford to Colledg's Trial to confront the Irish Evidence and declare my knowledg of them By this Warrant against me and by a like Warrant against Mr. Whitaker the Customs and Privileges of the City of London granted by Charter and confirmed by Act of Parliament were broken through for it was granted by the Charter of King Edward the Third as may be seen in the printed Charters of the City p. 45. and which hath been very often confirmed by many Acts of Parliament That no Summons Attachments or Executions be made by any the King's Officers whatsoever by Writ or without Writ within the Liberty of the City but only by the Ministers of the City The famous Lawyer Bracton expresses himself to this purpose Bracton lib. 1. cap. 8. fol. 5. lib. 2. cap. 16. fol. 34. Mirrour of Justice p. 8 15. The Law is not only the King's Maker but his Master and whatever he doth against it he is as liable to answer as the Subject save in Life and Member therefore does nothing in Person but all in his Political State and Capacity by Ministers And therefore if any Minister by the King's Command breaks the Law or acts against Law he is punishable for the Crime whether Privy-Counsellor Chancellor Judg or other inserior Minister Every Citizen of London with the same Breath he swears Allegiance to the King he also swears to maintain the Charters Grants Rights and Privileges of the City and I take each Oath to be binding alike and no ways contradictory the one to the other and as I take it I was bound by the latter to have resisted Atterbury even to the hazard of my Life he coming with his illegal Warrant to seize me contrary to the Grants Charters and Customs of the City Now to evince the truth of what I assert and to remember my Fellow-Citizens of their Duty I shall here subjoin the Oath which we all took as Freemen of the City and also the Oath which is taken by every Member of the Common Council by both which Oaths I then stood obliged The Oath of every Freeman of the City of London I here insert word for word as follows YE shall swear that ye shall be good and true to our Sovereign Lord and Lady King William and Queen Mary Obeysant and obedient ye shall be to the Mayor and Ministers of the City The Franchises and Customs thereof ye shall maintain and this City keep harmless in that that in you is Ye shall be contributary to all manner of Charges within this City as Summons Watches Contributions Taxes Tallages Lot and Scot and to all other Charges bearing your part as a Freeman ought to do Ye shall colour no foreign Goods
under or in your Name whereby the King or this City might or may lose their Customs or Advantages Ye shall know no Foreigner to buy or sell any Merchandise with any other Foreigner within this City or Franchise thereof but ye shall warn the Chamberlain thereof or some Minister of the Chamber Ye shall implead or sue no Freeman out of this City whilst ye may have Right and Law in the same City Ye shall take no Apprentice but if he be free-born that is to say no Bondman's Son nor the Child of any Alien and for no less Term than for seven Years without Fraud or Deceit and within the first Year ye shall cause him to be enrolled or else pay such Fine as shall be reasonably imposed upon you for omitting the same and after his Term's End within convenient time being required ye shall make him free of this City if he have well and truly served you Ye shall also keep the King's Peace in your own Person ye shall know no Gatherings Conventicles nor Conspiracies made against the King's Peace but ye shall warn the Mayor thereof or let it to your Power All these Points and Articles ye shall well and truly keep according to the Laws and Customs of this City to your Power So God you help Here follows the Common-Council-man's Oath YE shall swear that ye shall be true to our Sovereign Lord the King his Heirs and lawful Successors and readily come when ye be summoned to the Common-Council of this City but if that you be reasonably excused And good and true Counsel ye shall give in all things touching the common Weal of this City after your Wit and Cunning. And that for favour of any Man ye shall maintain no singular Profit against the common Profit of this City And after that ye be come to the Common-Council ye shall not from thence depart till the Common-Council be ended without a reasonable Cause or else by the Mayor's Licence And also that all secret things that are spoken or said in the Common-Council the which ought to be kept secret ye shall in no wise disclose As God you help By which Oaths all Citizens may see how far they stand obliged to the Community to defend and preserve the Rights and Privileges granted to them if at any time they are invaded or infringed SECT IX THE Warrant against me was as follows Whereas several Informations upon Oath have been this Day read at the Board against John Wilmer of High-Treason by him committed in conspiring the Death of the King and endeavouring to depose his Majesty from his Imperial Crown and Dignity These are therefore in his Majesty's Name to will and require you to receive into your Custody the Body of the said John Wilmer for the High-Treason aforesaid and him safely to keep till he shall be delivered by due Course of Law And for so doing this shall be your Warrant Dated at Hampton-Court the 15th of August 1681. To Thomas Cheeke Esq Lieutenant of the Tower of London or his Deputy Signed Canterbury c. 14 in all Reflections on the ninth Section AS in Section the 8th I gave the Relation of the King's Rage against me that he would have my Blood or ruine me now here he begins first he makes his Secretary Jenkins by his Warrant break over the Rights and Privileges of London and fetch'd me out thence and now he makes the Lords of the Council leap over Hedg and Stile of all Law to send me to the Tower As I take it the Law of England is No Man shall be by Warrant or Mittimus sent to Goal until first the Accuser cometh face to face and maketh Oath Secondly The Criminal shall be sent to the County-Goal where the Fact is committed and not where the Justice or Privy-Counsellor pleaseth For the first here is no Accuser face to face nor to this day know I mine Accusers Secondly Mention is made of several Oaths read but never a word by whom made or before what Justice taken neither can I guess before what Justice they should be taken or by what Witnesses sworn unless they were taken by Mr. Justice Warcupp and sworn by our Dear-Joys for I knew he was conversant with them I believe old Pious Memory himself was ashamed of letting either Justice or Witnesses be publick to the World they were so scandalous My Warrant of Commitment was signed by thirteen more Lords of the Council whose Names I omit to publish as having that Charity for some of them it was their Ignorance and Fear that made them set their Hands and others of them I have hopes God will give them Grace to repent and make satisfaction for their Wrongs done me I am sure some of them may do it with the lifting up of a Finger if they have a Will to it I will engage let them serve half the Merchants upon the Exchange as they did me they will forbid their being Merchants again SECT X. UPon this Warrant I was detained in the Tower fifteen Weeks and odd Days and not allowed in all that time Pen Ink and Paper for the space of six Weeks I was denied the sight of any Friend and not so much as my Wife Children Servants Doctor or Apothecary permitted to come near me though I was languishing under a violent Ague and Fever My Wife petitioned all that time to be confined with me but could not obtain it till six Weeks being clapsed when she procured it and also Liberty for me to walk with my Warder in the Tower In the time of my Imprisonment several Stratagems were used to destroy me diligent Enquiry was made in most of the neighbouring Counties about London to find whether I had been in any of them to the end that they might pack me out of London and get me indicted and murdered as Colledg was at Oxford they endeavoured to suborn English Witnesses against me the Irish being become infamous they also took some into a Messenger's Custody and threatned that they themselves should be hanged if they would not swear against me Moreover they had it under consideration to cut my Throat in the Tower for Major Hawley in whose House the Earl of Essex's Throat was cut being enquired of what would be done with Wilmer he made answer He is a stubborn Rogue his Throat must be cut During the time of my Imprisonment my Petition was put in by Friends at two several Sessions at the Old-Baily praying to be tried or released but that would not avail so that I was detained till the last Day of Michaclmas Term 1681 when being brought by Habeas Corpus to the Court of king's-King's-Bench I was set at Liberty upon 9000 l. Bail my self in 3000 l. and four Sureties in 6000 l. to appear the next Term and then appearing I was discharged Reflections on the tenth Section WAS not here a denying and delaying of Justice and an absolute Breach of Magna Charta What shall I say All Designs of
taking away my Life failing now I must be ruined in my Estate At that time I owed almost 10000 l. no Servant nor any Friend was suffered to speak to me my People were forced to follow the best ways they could to pay running Bills of Exchange and in order to it to sell Goods at any Rates every one calling for every Penny I owed and no one giving me Credit for a Penny I being then in so strong a Hold and under so black a Charge whereas before I thank God I had a fair Credit upon the Exchange and was in great business The Wisdom therefore of our Forefathers to obtain the Privilege that no Citizen should be committed to any Prison but the City's where he is sure quickly to come to Trial deserves to be remembred with Honour for it 's not with a Merchant in Trade as it is with a Country-Gentleman though he be falsly imprisoned he is not damnified as is the Merchant for his Estate being in Lands his Rents are going on which he will receive at his being restored to Liberty but a Merchant in great Trade and Credit and doing much as a Factor as well as upon his own account and his Business lying in many Countries as was my Case I say let him be sent to the Tower four or five Months and denied Pen Ink and Paper or Friend or any to come to him I will engage it shall spoil him and lose all his Commissions especially those in the Territories of the Monarch who lays his Hand on him besides the Damage in his own particular Concerns all Persons will be afraid to have to do in Trade with him against whom the Government hath a Pique But before I could be hence released the Popish Party would take t'other Blow or two to try if they could hit the Nail o'th'Head but here also as God would have it they also missed for now a second Jury is Ignoramus and afterwards a third returned by the next Sheriffs brave Pilkington and Shute is Ignoramus also SECT XI SHortly after my fast Friends at Court resolving to follow their Blow upon me imploy two wicked and infamous Persons Vavasor and Beaumont to give me a new Vexation these Varlots bring an Indictment against me in the City of London charging me with the stealing of a Boy but in this they were also disappointed by an Ignoramus returned upon the Bill which so enraged the little Engines Vavasor and Beaumont that they told me to my Face that they would never leave me till they had Colledg'd me In a few days afterwards they came upon me with a Writ de homine Replegiando pretending that I had kidnapp'd a Boy and also with an Information in the king's-King's-Bench at the same time and for the same Matter To the Writ de homine Replegiando the Sheriffs Pilkington and Shute by the Advice of able Counsel made a special Return setting forth that the Boy before and in the presence of two Justices had bound himself Apprentice to me and was by me sent in my Service to Jamaica so that they could not replevy him But the Court of King's-Bench not liking this Return sent an Attachment against the Sheriffs who appearing in Court were threatned if they would not return Elongavit upon the Writ they should be committed The Sheriffs seeing this told me that the Quo Warranto being brought against the City if they should go to Prison for standing by me it might tend to the great Prejudice of the City in taking them off from attending the Desence of the Charter and asked me what I would have them to do Whereupon seeing Matters at this pass I was content that the Sheriffs should give me up by returning Elongavit as the Court required Which being done a Writ called A Capias in Withernam is immediately issued against me to take me into custody and detain me until I produced the Boy Upon the Writ I was instantly and most industriously searched after and had fallen into their hands but that going just before to retain Mr. Pollexfen lately Lord-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas as my Counsel He very honestly and worthily like himself said to me I am loth to take your Money for I can do you no good I see the Court is set against you and resolved to ruin you therefore my Advice is fell what you can and put it into Money and go your ways Within a few days after they brought on a Trial against me in the king's-King's-Bench by a well-prepared Kentish Jury upon the Information for the pretended Kidnapping To this Trial the villanous Prosecutors brought a pack of suborned Witnesses who had all imaginable Countenance and Encouragement from the Court when on the other side the lord-chief-Lord-Chief-Justice Pemberton did brow-beat the Witnesses brought by me and committed one of them who confronted and in a Point most undoubtedly true falsified a Witness brought against me and also denied to hear many of my Witnesses By this Management was a Verdict obtained against me for which Service the Jury were well payed having been allowed a great Sum of Money upon pretence of their Travelling besides upwards of 40 l. spent at a Dinner upon them And thus did King Charles the Second carry in great measure his Point and execute his Threat to ruin me Reflections on the eleventh Section THE Prosecution of me upon this pretence of Kidnapping was committed to two vile Wretches as all who knew them will declare Vavasor speaking of me declared his Expectation of great Preferment if he could rout the Dog Wilmer that Ignoramus Dog as he expressed himself and not long after as a very useful Man he was preferred and made one of the Witnesses against the pretended Rioters at Guildhall in the Election of Sheriffs at Midsummer 1682 when Sir John Moore made a Riot there in order to the making North and Rich Sheriffs And Beaumont was a Miscreant who had been guilty of razing a Record and of Perjury Such Men as these were most proper Instruments for such a Work A certain knowledg of the Expence in this malicious Prosecution of me which was found in the Accompts of Graham and Burton reported in the House of Commons and which Major Wildman can produce would convince the World how far the State was concerned in this Matter and that it was esteemed more than a private Quarrel SECT XII FRom the time of this Verdict I was advised by Counsel and perswaded by Friends to keep out of the Reach of those who were bent upon my Ruin and thirsted after my Blood and I secreted my self in England for about a Year's space in which time Messengers with Constables would come at all Hours of the Night to search my House for me I then retired into Holland whither about a Year after my Wife and Children followed me My implacable Enemies now finding that they could not have their Will on my Person cast about how to starve me and my Family in Holland to which End