Finishing the History of One Popish Murther up starts Another Upon the 30 th of Ianuary Last past about Nine at Night there was found in Parkers Lane among the Dunghills the Trunk of a Murther'd and Dismembred Body of a Man. The Thighs Legs and Arms were taken up Next Morning from under a House of Office in the Savoy Drippings of Bloud seen on the Wall and the Head found in Another Common Place of Easement in the Strand near Exeter Exchange This Tragical Story rais'd such a Hubub of Rumour and Discourse all'ore the Kingdom that This Particular Assassinate was most Industriously Represented as no Other then the Earnest of an Vniversal Massacre Insomuch that there was hardly an Eminent Protestant Divine but they were presently Fitting His Head to This Bodies Shoulders It fell out unluckily enough that a Couple of poor Iournymen Ioyners that were taken Notice of to be more Busie then Ordinary about the Place That night where the Body was Laid were Taken and Committed upon 't And in my Conscience it would have gone Hard with 'em if God's Providence had not Order'd such a Discovery Another way as Clear'd these Two Men to All Purposes of any Possibility of being Guilty of the Fact. I take Freedom to Discourse the Case thus far in regard that they have been already taken into Custody Examin'd Produc'd and Acquitted by the Coroners Inquest The Criminals upon the Other Account are in the hand of the Law and it will not become Me to Anticipate the Iudgment of a Court of Iustice by any General or Particular Previous Descant upon the Point in Question I shall only say that since the Whole Matter what ever the Town may Talk to the contrary has pass'd through my Hands As the Discovery of the Head the Proving of That Head to be the Head of Aubry and the Proving Those Quarters also that were found in the Savoy to belong to the same Body Since All This is True I say as Sir Robert Clark and several others will bear me Witness and that All the Enformations Every One of them fell under My Particular Care Three only Excepted wherein Iustice Lugg Joyn'd with me I have some Right Methinks for the Credit of Truth and of my self to speak a Word or Two on the Safe Side of the Question The Story of the Body the Bloud the Quarters c. being All put together furnish'd Matter for so Terrible a Relation that the Phantôme it self of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Nothing to 't Insomuch that a man could hardly Walk the Streets without being Flapt in the Mouth with a Will you believe Now that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murder'd by the Papists I received a Penny-Post Letter upon the Occasion which the Reader shall have as Cheap here as I had it Sir I understand that you are Writing a Book to Prove to the World that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Murder'd Himself It would be a Work Equally Acceptable to This Nation to Demonstrate that the Person lately found Murthered did Cut off his Own Arms and Leggs and then with his Own Hands did Cut off his Own Head and Order'd his Trunk to be Carryed and left upon a Dunghill in Parkers-Lane and there to receive Burial as Heretiques Deserve Yours Philo-dicus This Letter is a Specimen of the Humour both of the Season and of the People that are so Forward to Erect Articles of Faith upon Visionary Illusions 'T is a Thing Incredible what a Concourse of People Met Every Day and Hour in Shoals to see the Dreadful sight of the Bloud at the Savoy What Romances upon it What Inferences and Applications as if Every Drop of Protestant Bloud in the Peoples Veins were to go the same Way with That upon the Savoy-Wall But to see now how the Just Goodness of Heav'n has Turn'd All This to the Reputation of Godfrey's Case instead of Confounding it For let the Present Murder be Fix'd where it will the Bloud at the Savoy will have No Part at all in That Story so that I hope the Snare of this Pretence for the Abusing the Embroiling and the Tumultuating of the Common People when they shall Discern how Dangerous and how Malicious the Cheat was may turn to their Advantage Methinks it should make them Careful What to Believe and Whom to Trust And say to Themselves Instead of Here 's the second Part of the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Here 's the second Part of the Imposture of That Pretended Murder I cannot have a Better Occasion or a Better Place for the Exposing of This Spiteful Sham then That which I am now upon And I cannot better do it then by setting forth the Truth of That Bus'ness of the Bloud And that it was a Sort of Bloud which they that would have it Thought to be Protestant Bloud are not so Tender of Spilling I must Desire the Reader to take Notice here that Murder is of No Religion and that Truth is of All Religions that ever were under the Sun. But for the Clearer Illustration of the Matter I shall here subjoyn several Enformations that I have taken concerning This Bloud And it is Desir'd that an Enquiry may be made by any man that has the Least Doubt upon him whether All the Circumstances of Time Place and Persons in These Following Depositions be not True in Every Point according to the Known Matter of Fact. Midd. Westm. ss The Enformation of Dr. Richard Lambe of the Parish ofSt Clements Danes Feb. 7. 1687 8. SAITH that upon Sunday Morning the 29th of January Last Past Mr. Hall one of the Fathers in the Savoy finding himself Ill with the Spitting of Bloud sent for this Enformant as appear'd by the Message to come to the said Mr. Hall and let him Bloud The said Mr. Hall telling This Enformant that it was by the Order of Sir George Wakeman And this Enformant went accordingly and Open'd a Vein taking a Quantity of Bloud from him according to his Order And saith That on the Morning following This Enformant went again to the Savoy and Open'd a Vein for Mr. James Cook and likewise for John Taylor Having let Mr. Hall Bloud in a Room One pair of Stairs in the Presence of several People Mr. Cook being let Bloud Three pair of Stairs High and John Taylor in the Kitchin. Richard Lambe Jurat die Anno supradict Coram Me Ro. L'Estrange Midd. Westm. ss The Enformation of Francis Hunter of the Savoy Taken upon Oath Feb. 9. 168 7 8. SAITH That on Munday Jan. 30. 168 7 8. in the Morning This Enformant held the Porringer to Mr. James Cook while Mr. Lambe let him Bloud in a Room Three pair of Stairs High. Jurat die An. supradict ' Francis Hunter The Enformation of Iohn Taylour of the Savoy Taken upon Oath Feb. 9. 168 7 8. SAITH That upon Munday Jan. 30. 168 7 8. in the Morning Dr. Lamb let This Enformant Bloud in the Savoy-Kitchen And saith that about One the
against Sr. W. Scroggs as One Article Ingredient to the making up of his Treasons Now certainly there was something Extraordinary in 't that more then That Number of Noble Lords should be Declared Pernicious Advisers Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom for only Ioyning with the King Himself in Opinion against the Exclusion And that the Same Persons should Arraign the One that Brought-off the Other So Mortal a Sin was it accounted in Those days to Serve the Crown and the Royal Family and so Venial a Slip to Endeavour the Overturning of the Government I do not remember so much as any One Instance that Vary'd from This Rule And never was any thing so Constant that came by Chance To give These Political Operators their Due there was Nothing Wanting to their Purposes that either Fraud Industry Confidence or Hypocrisy could Furnish They made the People afraid of Infallibility and Arbitrary Power and at the Same Time look'd them in the very Faces while they Assum'd the One and Practis'd the Other Themselves the Former under the Authority of the Wisedom of the Nation and the Latter in the Right of the Commons of England For Every Vote was in Effect a Sentence of Law Reason and Power Sovereign Absolute and without Controll And it was but saying that This or That Is at This Time Grievous to the Subject a Weak'ning of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom to make the Resolution Authentique with a Non Obstante of never so many Laws to the Contrary If a Vote say that the King Cannot Pardon That Subjects shall not lend him Money Or That the Refusal of the Lords to Proceed in Parliament upon the Commons Impeachments of any Peer or Commoner for Treason or any other Crime or Misdemeanour is a Denial of Iustice and a Uiolation of the Constitution of Parliaments Here 's the King Law and Lords Over-rul'd and the Votes made Presidents Cited and Pleaded for the Prerogative of the House of Commons in all the Clubs or which is the same Thing the Peoples Courts of Iustice throughout the Three Kingdoms And it could not well be Other so long as Green-Ribbon-Committees and Caballs Without doors had such an Influence upon what pass'd Within and that the Principal Managers of Otes'es Plot were the very Oracles that were Consulted for Direction and Resolution upon All the Conspiracies that were then in Agitation These Evidences upon the Transactions of the House it self drawn from the Prints that they Themselves Order'd to be Publish'd and that were Publish'd accordingly as an Appeal to the Whole World in Iustification of their Proceedings and to Prevent False Copies and Reports These very Papers are the Evidences as their Unlucky Starrs would have it that are now Arisen in Iudgment 1against them and Faithfully Deliver'd-over to Succeeding Times as the Only Sure Means of Vnriddling the Mystery of This Wonderfull Intrigue And certainly No better way to let the Reader into the Secrets of This Affair then by the Key it self that was Made Originally to the Cypher I Have by this Time Trac'd the Likelyhoods of a Deliberated Design upon the King Church and State thorough all the Steps of Probability and Strong Presumption up to the Highest Degree of Certainty and Demonstration Were not All the Violent Asserters of the Duke of Monmouth's Pretended Interest and the Opposers of the Indubitable Right of his Royal Highness Embarqu'd in the Same Bottom of Enmity to the Government and of Kindness to the Faction How many were there in Both Houses that had the Same Hearts towards the King in a Committee of Parliament that they had afterward in a Clubb or in an Army And still Otes'es Plot the Support of All their Pretences And what was the Countenance of That Plot at Last but that the King was in Danger of being Assassinated by the Papists and therefore the Posse of the Three Kingdoms was to be Rais'd to Prevent that Murther Now whoever Believes That Story to be True must of Necessity draw this Conclusion from it That the Same People Stickled for the Saving of the King at Whitehall that were for the Killing of him in the West That is to say unless they can Bear the World down that there was No Rebellion Or that None of the Leading Members of Either House were Concern'd in 't but for That there was never any thing made Plainer then This Affirmative not onely from the Mouths of their Confederates but from the Confessions of the very Parties Themselves For the Truth of This I may further Remit my self to Divers Proclamations Declarations and Other Acts of State that have been Issued out by the Order and Authority of the Late Blessed King and of his Sacred Majesty that is now in Being But as a Supplemental Explanatory to All the Rest the Paper of Association that was found in the Late Earl of Shaftsburies Closet and Prov'd upon him if ever Light it self was made Manifest That Paper I say may serve without any Violence to the Text for a Comment upon All the Dark Passages of That History for it is in the Frame Order and Matter of it no other then a Compendious Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions that had pass'd the Commons upon the bus'ness of the Plot and the Succession Insomuch that there is hardly a Syllable of any Moment in the One that is not Answer'd and Eccho'd in the Other and whoever Lick'd it into Form the Project was the Cubb of a Close-Committee and it was kept in Reserve for a Forc'd-Put The French Holy League was look'd upon in those days as a Master-piece but the Devil was as yet a Novice The Scotch and English Holy League and Covenant came an Age Later into the World and Refin'd upon the French One and Then some Forty Year after that came the Noble Peers Association that Out-did them Both. But there 's no Reading upon 't 'till we have the Piece it self Before us in its own Dimensions Words and Colours The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Francis Gwin Esquire One of the Clerks of His Majesties Privy-Council and Read November 24. 1681. at the Old-Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer WE the Knights c. Finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Iesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abetters 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 Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery 2. And it being Notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his
is This Let him be Detected of a Thousand Falsities A man is Pop't in the Mouth with this Answer Where 's your Record Why You might have Indicted him If you can Produce a Record you say Something when yet to my Certain Knowledge Means have been made by Application and Petition for Leave to Prosecute him for Perjury according to the Ordinary Methods of Common Iustice and there was no Obtaining of it This in one Instance for All was the Case of Mr Cox a Linnen-Draper in Covent Garden who Frankly and Honestly made the Attempt and he was only Brow-Beaten Repuls d and Baffled for his Pains I would fain get over This Topique but the Nature the Reason and the Importance of the Subject in hand forces me to be yet a little more at Large It will now come into Course to see what Quarrel it is that SrWilliam Iones had to the Testimony of Mr. Lydcot First as he was Secretary to the Earle of Castlemain he was True to his Lord. 2 ly In the Honour and Freedom of a Companion to Him He was Iust to his Noble Friend 3 ly In taking Notes for my Lords Service who was himself Concern'd in Otes'es Accusation He did no more then what in Generosity Good Faith Common Humanity Tenderness and Prudence he was Bound to do He took Notes that he might be able upon any occasion in the Future to bear Witness to a Truth which Truth would have been as much Against my Lord if he were Guilty as For him if he were Innocent and the Service he Intended my Lord by These Notes was only the Attesting of a Truth on his Behalf in Confidence of his Integrity The Want of an Evidence in This Case would have been Just as Mortal as the want of a Record in the Other before Spoken of and mens Lives were Lost both ways in This Controversy for want of a Legal Proof of an Indubitable Truth So that here 's a short Result of the Stress of the Exception First Block-up the way to an Enformation of Perjury against a Forsworn Varlet and Then Hang-up an Honest Man for Want of one Make it a Misdemeanor and a Scandal High enough to Incapacitate any man for a Witness that shall Presume to take Notes in a Popish Cause and then Truss-up the Pretended Traytor though never so Innocent for want of an Evidence to Prove what was Said or Sworn upon such a Tryall Why This looks like Lying in Wait for Bloud when they find they Cannot reach a Man upon a Guilt of Fact to Ty-him-up by Surprize for either Ignorance or Neglect upon a Formality of Proof But in One Syllable now From a General Contemplation or Supposition of the Case to the Real Condition and Quality of that Case as it was found afterwards before a Court of Iustice in Truth and in Effect No man was More Press'd or Harder put to 't and no man put himself more Franckly upon his Iustification then my Lord Castlemaine I remember what Pains was taken upon his Lordships Tryal to make a Witness of Dangerfield A Wretch of a Character to bring an Infamy upon a Common Iayl. And I remember an Oath of Otes'es there in a Flat Contradiction to what he Swore in my Lord Staffords Tryal I have a Charge of High Treason says Otes against That Man one Mr. Hutchison an Evidence against him for Seducing me from my Religion My Lord I will Swear he Turn'd me to the Church of Rome and I desire it may be Recorded Lord Castlemain's Tryal fol. 51. Upon the whole Matter his Lordship was acquitted with Honour and to the Confusion of his Enemies and it is but a Bare Iustice Abstracted from All other Considerations to say that no Man Lâ—ving perhaps has given a more Vncontestable Proof of his Faith and Affections to the Crown then Himself And as to Mr Lydcot now Sr Iohn Lydcot and Worthily advanc'd to a more Honourable Station It is beyond Question that he Behav'd himself in This Office toward both the Government and my Lord Castlemaine with a Resolution and Integrity Answerable to the Character of a Man of Honour There have been so many Hares Started in my way and the Change of Subject has Carry'd me into so many Digressions that I had almost forgot one Passage which though formerly Cited Cannot be well Pass'd over in this Place There were Certain Quaeries offer'd to the House of Commons by the Sheriffs of London and Midl Dec. 23. 1680. about the Kings Prerogative in Dispensing with any part of the Sentence upon My Lord Stafford upon which occasion Sir W. I. Deliver'd his Opinion and Advice in These Words It is probable that the Royal Power hath always Dispensed with such Sentences formerly and if so This House Lyeth not under any Obligation to offer at any Opposition nor Concern themselves herein Especially at This Time when such a Dispute may End in Preventing the Execution of the said Lord Stafford And Therefore I humbly Conceive you may do well to give your Consent that the said writ be Executed according to its Tenure Collections p. 215. Here 's an Indubitable Prerogative subjected to a Question The Resolution given is that It is Probable c. Mr Attorneys Advice is Not to Offer at any Unseasonable Opposition for fear My Lord Stafford's Life might be Sav'd by 't Theâ—efore says he 〈◊〉 Give your Consent For the Avoiding of Confusion I have Interjected where there was Room Convenient for 't Some Remarques and Reflexions upon the Attorny Generalls State of the Evidence and upon the Progress of his Animadversions in the Further Prosecution of that Pretended Popish Cause as well in the Quality of a Kings Councel upon the Tryals of Green Berry and Hill as in That afterward of a Principal Manager of the Evidence against my Lord Stafford This did not yet Hinder the Saving to my self the Liberty of a Word or Two more upon the Whole Matter at Last There are Three General Points that fall Naturally under Consideration in This Place First Did the Kings Witnesses as the Law Terms them Agree in their Evidence or Not 2 ly If they did Not Agree Where and How does That appear Did they Swear One Thing at One Time and Another Thing at Another Was not their Evidence in Court the Same with that before the King and Councel The Kings Iustices of the Peace the Two Houses and the Committees 3 ly Was Sir W. I. Sufficiently Arm'd and Instructed with All Necessary Powers and Papers for the Perfect Vnderstanding of the Matter both in the Whole and in Every Part To These Three Questions I return These Three Answers First That there are Disagreements and Inconsistencies in the Evidence both Ioyntly and Severally that are Utterly Impossible to be Reconcil'd 2 ly I appeal for the Proof of This to the Council-Books The Lords Iournal and the Printed Tryals even under All their Partialities where their Depositions many times are no more
they had a Months-mind to make Tryal of the Same Experiment Themselves too as may be seen by the By in their Parliamentary Addresses and Votes but most Expresly in the Throng of Popular Addresses to his Majesty and in the Libel of Vox Patriae where so many of the Members got themselves Address'd to in a kind of an Association to That very purpose As for Example In the Address against Sir George Ieffreys the Earl of Hallifax and several Votes upon the same Occasion We your Majesties most Dutifull c. in hopes to bring the Popish Conspirators to speedy Iustice were about to Petition to your Majesty in an Humble Dutifull and Legal Way for the Sitting of This Parliament c. And so again We c. being deeply sensible of the Manifold Dangers and Mischiefs which have been Occasion'd to This your Kingdom by the Dissolution of the Last Parliament and by the Frequent Prorogations of This Parliament whereby the Papists have been Greatly Encouraged to Carry on their Hellish and Damnable Conspiracies c. Resolved That Whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue This Parliament to Any Other purpose then in Order to the Passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France What is All This but Overturning and Overturning Confusion like Waves following One upon the Back of Another and the Cabal so Intoxicated with Passion in the Logick of This Last Vote that the very Despite of being Defeated made them Forget their Ordinary Prudence For the Conclusion is never to be Reconcil'd to the Premisses All that can be said for This Worrying Vote is that they were then in their Last Agonies for they were That Day Prorogu'd from the aforesaid 10th of Ianuary to the 20th in Order to a Dissolution And in All Mischievous Creatures the Convulsions of Death are ever the Strongest But for the Rolls of the Written Addresses of Those Days they are most of them Peremptory for Sitting 'till they might be Effectually Secur'd and That 's One Main Condition too of the Countrys Addresses to their Members And the Address of Sir Patience Ward then Lord-Mayor c. to his Majesty Himself Your Petitioners were Extremely Surpriz'd at the Late Prorogation whereby the Prosecution of the Publique Iustice of the Kingdom and the Making the Provisions Necessary for the Preservation of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects hath received an Interruption c. They do therefore most Humbly pray c. That the said Parliament may Sit from the Day to which they are Prorogued untill by their Councels and Endeavours Those Good Remedies shall be Provided and Those Iust Ends Attained upon which the Safety of your Majesties Person The Preservation of the Protestant Religion The Peace and Settlement of your Kingdoms and the Welfare of This your Ancient City do so Absolutely Depend What is This now but the Counter part of the Bill for Continuing the Parliament that was Pass'd in Forty One and Chiefly upon the very Same Pretences too Viz. That Publique Grievances might be Redress'd and Iustice done upon Delinquents before the Parliament should be Dissolv'd Or in short The King was Not to Prorogue Adjourn or Dissolve This Parliament without Consent of Both Houses And there 's Another Parliamentary Point yet to Come in the Vote of Unqualifying the Members for the Receiving of any Beneficial Office from the King. 'T is a kind of a Scandalous Incapacity for a Subject to fare the worse for his Master's Commission And too much in all Conscience for the Same Men to Tye-up the King's Hands from Any Act of Grace and Bounty toward his Subjects that had before Ty'd-up the Peoples Hands from Supplying his Majesty The Vote was This Resolved That no Member of This House shall Accept any Office or Place of Profit from the Crown without the Leave of This House nor any Promise of any such Office or Place of Profit during such time as he shall continue a Member of This House An Eminent Member that Started This Motion made it his Observation upon the Long Parliament That All Those that had Pensions and most of Those that had Offices Voted All of a side as they were directed by some Great Officer c. If That Gentleman had taken as much Notice that the House had but Two sides and who Voted on the Other he would have found a Noble Peer to have Weigh'd against his Great Officer and the Matter to be no more then the Old Discrimination over again of King and Parliament It may be a Question now the Tendency and Intent of This Touch duly Consider'd whether they made the King or the Member in such a Case the Greater Delinquent of the Two. And they were not Contented here neither without a Further Essay upon the Choice of his Majesties Ministers and Officers of State War and Iustice After the Copy of the Old Nineteen Propositions The King not to Chuse his own Officers and Ministers NO Judges but men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion And They Themselves to be Iudges of the Iudges Their Offices and Salaries to hold Quamdiu se bene gesserint c. No Lord-Lieutenants but Persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion the Religion of the Associators that is No Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace but so Qualify'd And moreover Men of Ability Estates and Interest in their Country uâ—der the Same Character still None to be Employ'd as Military Officers or Officers in his Majesties Fleet but men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion All Parliament-Proof still and of the Same Stamp To say nothing of the Habeas-Corpus Bill and other Encroachments upon the Prerogatives of the Crown for fear of being too too Tedious We 'le see next how they Beâ—av'd themselves in the Bus'ness of the Militia and the Kings Guards over and above the Step they made to have the Approbation of All Officers Themselves After the Blessed Example still of Old Forty One Nay and in the very Method too Beginning with an Address for Guards as follows They offer at the Militia and the Guards WHereas the Safety and Preservation of your Majesties Sacred Peâ—son is of so Great a Consequence and Concernment to the Protestant Religion and to All your Subjects We do most humbly beseech your Majesty to Command the Lord Chamberlain and All Other the Officers of your Majesties Houshold to take a Strict Care that no Vnknown or Suspicious Persons may have Access near your Majesties Person and that your Majesty will likewise please to Command the Lord Mayor and Lieutenancy of London to Appoint sufficient Guards of the Train-Bands during This Session of Parliament and likewise the Lords Lieutenants of Middlesex and Surry to appoint
of Religion and an Impetuous Restless Ambition of getting Sovereign Power into their Own Hands NOW the most that can be pretended in Mitigation of this Violent and Vnwarrantable Practice is that they Meant Well perhaps but fai'ld in their Measures If there was a Wheel in a Wheel as they say and One Plot Nurs'd-up under Another it might be a Thing Started by the By and only an Advantage made of an Occasion Vnforeseen without any Previous Design My Answer is that This was the Case of Some but not of Others And that I hold my self Bound in Reason Charity and Iustice to Distinguish betwixt 'em That is to say betwixt the Bare Believers and the Conscientious though Mistaken Abetters of the Plot and the Malicious Contrivers and Promoters of it Of the Two Former Sorts there were a Great many Worthy Men and True Lovers of their Prince their Religion and their Country that upon the first Flushing-up of the Sham fell most Unhappily into the Snare and these were Persons Effectually so Eminently Loyal and so Passionately Zelous for his Majesties Safety and Government and for the Protestant Religion that they were e'en the Worse for 't again for their very Character in Concurrence with Vile Projectors Patrons and Witnesses gave a Reputation to the Imposture Their Passions were so taken-up with the Horror of the Wickedness that they did not so much Attend to the Proofs of it and the Detestation they had for so Hideous a Conspiracy Blinded their Eyes that they could not see the Cheat But Time brought the Truth to Light and People to their Wits again This does not hinder though so many Good Men were led away at First by Plausible Appearances but that the Foundation of This Structure was laid in Hell and the Treason Deliberately Pursu'd from One End of the Train to the Other The Exclusion of the Duke was no other then a Dethroning of the King for his Majesties Prerogative and his Royal Highnesses Birth-right were Both Struck-at in the very Same Address But whether This was done Wilfully Spitefully and with Malice prepense is Another Question which I take to be not only Probable in Many Respects but Demonstratively Clear and Certain in Others FIrst as to the Quality of the Two Cardinal Witnesses It was Low and Mean to the Degree of a Scandalous and a Starving Poverty and yet One of 'em from a Street-Beggar and the other from a Iayle and an Alms-Basket sets up for the Discovering of a Conspiracy Carry'd on in the Cabinets of Princes In the Privacies of Cloysters and Cells and in the Secret Confidences of men of Honour of the First Rank what Forces to be Rais'd What Officers When and in What Manner the King was to be Murder'd the Price of the Villany and Who and Who to do the Execution How could any man whose Patience upon the Surprize of the First Alarum would but give him leave to Think tho' never so Litle of the Tale and of the Reporters of it Imagine that these Scoundrells should ever come within reach of being Privy to this Plot even if Every Syllable of it had been True And that so many Persons of Brains and Fortune should Trust their Lives and Estates in the Hands and at the Mercy of such a Brace of Varlets Otes at the End of his Narrative in his List of the Conspirators reckons up Nine Benedictines Three Carmelites Two Franciscans Ten Dominicans Twenty Five Jesuits All in England Two at Liege Five at Watton Twelve at St. Omers Seaven Jesuits more abroad Twelve Scotch Jesuits Eight Secular Persons two Lay-Brothers Fourteen Secular Priests in England which he has but upon Enformation he says as who should say I dare not venture an Oath upon 't Four other Persons Beside Seaven and Twenty Noblemen Gentlemen and Officers that had All Commissions whose Names he says did not Occur at Present This is a Great Number of Conspirators for One poor Man to give an Account of As to the Probity of their Life and Conversation They came upon the Stage Recommended for Buggery Perjury and Horse-Stealing by Advance and Notorious for these Evidencing Qualifications before-hand In their Enformations they Fall Foul not only One upon Another but upon Themselves too and Each of them is Felo de se in his Self-Contradictions Now this is a Topique that has been Beaten over and over throughout the whole Course of the Observators and a Man might Muster-up at least Forty or Fifty Corroborating Swearers more of the Same Stamp BUT I am now upon the Subject of the Subborners Themselves Not the Hirelings For Those Men and Matters would never have pass'd Muster if there had not been more Care taken to Cover and Conceal the Perjury then to find out the Truth Who were the Great Sticklers for Otes and his Accomplices but the very Persons that were the Ring-Leaders of the Late Rebellions And who but Otes again at all their Republican Clubs and Cabals In short Nothing could be more Palpable then that there was a Confederate Agreement of the Party in Mediating for the Profess'd Enemies of the Government and Addressing against the Vnquestionable Friends and Servants of it Nor could that Constant Practice have any Other End in Prospect then the Ruine of the King the Subversion of the Monarchy and the Introducing of a Common-Wealth What was the Meaning of their Vote of Thanks to the City of London for their Manifest Loyalty to the King their Care Charge and Vigilancy for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and of the Protestant Religion But the Firing of a Gun to Call for Help upon the Springing of a Leake and no body within distance to Relieve them And then to follow it the same Morning with Another Resolved That it is the Opinion of the House That James Duke of Monmouth hath been removed from his Offices and Commands by the Influence of the Duke of York And so to Order an Application to be made to his Majesty from that House by such Members thereof as were of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council to desire his Majesty to Restore the said James Duke of Monmouth to his said Offices and Commands What were These Two Votes I say but so much Holy-Water cast away upon the D. of M. and the City and to do as much as in Them lay under That Exigence toward the bringing of the Head and the Body together Briefly they found that One Duke was as Necessary for the King as the Other was for the Faction and that was the True Ground of the Bill of Exclusion and the Vote of Intercession Ben. Harris was Fin'd and Pillory'd for One Treasonous Libell Care with his Strange Knack was Fin'd for Another Every jot as Bad as That And Brown for Other Libells the Worst of all Three And yet These Paltry Libellers found Powerfull Friends and Intercessors Nay and the very Fining of them for Sedition was Enter'd upon the Charge
Oppose and Pursue unto Death and Destruction All such as aforesaid But what are these same Ioynt and Particular Forces they speak of Whence do they Come Who Raises them Who Leads ' em By What Authority by What Law is all this done The People are To follow such Orders as they shall from time to time Receive from This Present Parliament while Sitting and the Major Part of it when Prorogued or Dissolv'd and to Obey such Officers as shall be set over them by the Authority aforesaid And This they do Knowing Themselves to be Intrusted to Advise and Act for the Preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being persuaded in their Consciences that the Dangers are so Eminent and Pressing that there ought to be no Delay of the Best means that are in their Power to Secure the Kingdom against them WHat is all this now but King Monarchy Parliaments Laws Liberties and Properties Cut-off at a Stroke The Papists Destroy'd under the Colour of a Plot the Duke as the Head of the Papists the King as an Adherent to the Duke The King's Friends for their Fidelity to their Master the Laws Over-rul'd by a Uote The Oath of Allegeance made Void by a Subscription to an Association Kingly Government Sunk into a Common-Wealth One Part of the Two Houses Enslav'd to the Other And this Iust and Pious Work as they Call it Is in the Presence of God set a-foot for the Preservation of the True-Protestant-Religion His Majesties Person and Royal State Our Laws Liberties and Properties And this to be Pursu'd by the Subscribers During Life too upon pain of being by the Rest Prosecuted and Suppress'd as Perjur'd Persons and Publique Enemies to God their King and their Native Country Here 's in One Breath an Oath that Makes them All This and an Oath that They will Never be Other This Paper Begins with an Oath Against a Conspiracy and Concludes with an Oath Of Conspiracy It begins with an Exclamation against Iesuites Priests and Papists and Ends in the Dissolution of King Lords and Commons Upon the Whole it speaks neither More nor Less then the Sense the Design and within a little of the very Syllables of the Votes Themselves And to say all in a Word the One is but the Model or the Minutes of the Other THere was likewise found among my Lord Shaftsburies Papers as I have formerly Noted in some of my Writings a Book of the Several Counties of England Ranged in Alphabet under the Heads of WORTHY MEN on the One side and MEN WORTHY on the Other which was Intended and Made use of for a Discriminating List of the Royalists and the Republicans Under the Cypher of Men Worthy was Couch'd the Conâ—eit of Men Worthy to be Hang'd Now the Probable Advantage that they intended to make of This Distinguishing Register if Rightly Understood may serve to give some Light to the Dark and Mysterious Part of the Oxford-Plot upon the King's Person The Mercenary Forces and the Papists Adherents in the Style of Those Times By the Virtue of This Roll and Distinction at hand they could any time at a Week or Ten days Warning Flush-up an Vniversal Plot Get it Authenticated upon the Oathes of Half a dozen of the Sons of Belial that they had in Pay Put All the Considerable Men in the Kingdom into the Catalogue and File it at last to the Account of the Conspirators whose Names did not Occurr at present to Otes upon his Calculation of his Narrative A Thousand ways might have been Contriv'd by giving a Hot Alarum to have taken 'em All in their Beds before they were aware And at the Same time to Beset the King with Petitions upon their Knees to give 'em leave to Provide for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and Royal State to the Tune of the Association There would have been no more Need of Voting the Duke to be Banish'd or the King's Ministers to be Remov'd from his Majesties Councells and Presence for ever but there would have been Downright Commitments and Impeachments and more Work for One Poor Executioner then Twenty Dextrous Knaves could have Turn'd their Hands to Three or Four Home-Oaths and Warrants Immediately Dispatch'd away for the Seizure of the Conspirators would have left the Government at Mercy Nothing can be Clearer I think then that the Oxford Plot was a Branch of the Capital Design And that by the Help of Shaftsbury's List they might have Infinitely Facilitated their Work. Now if it be Reasonable to Believe that This was a Course to turn to Account it is As Reasonable to Believe that they Intended to make Vse of it and Emprove it as the Best Means they had Before them There needs no more towards the Satisfying of any man over and above the Evidence in the Foundation and Truth of the Oxford-Design then to Consider how the Whole Faction were Startled at the Summons Thither and the Pressing the Importune nay and the Menacing Instances of Application to his Majesty that the Meeting might be at Westminster These Considerations upon the Noble Peer's Book and the Oxford Conspiracies may seem to be a Digression but whoever duly Weighs them will find that they hang All on a String and are only Several Members of the Same Plot. Reflections upon the Whole I Shall now pass some Necessary Reflections upon the Whole There never was perhaps since the Creation of the World so much Confusion Wrought by so Mean so Scandalous and so Ridiculous Instruments Lowzy Greazy Rogues to be taken into the Arms of Princes Porters and the Coursest of Letter-Carryers to be made the Confidents of Publique Ministers Starving Indigent Varlets that had not Credit in the World for a Brumigen Groat and liv'd upon the Common Charity of the Basket to be a matter of Seven Hundred Pound out of Pocket in his Majesties Service as Otes and Bedloe pretended Sots to find Treason in Words at length in Common Post-Letters The Four Ruffians to have but Twenty Pound a Man for Murdering the King by Assault and Sir George Wakeman Fifteen Thousand Pound only for Poysoning him without running the Fifteenth Part of the Risque Nay and Bedloe Fifteen Hundred Pound for but Lending a Hand to the Helping away of a Dead Iustice. These and a Thousand Incredibilities more must be All Believ'd or the Witnesses found to be most Damnably Forsworn Unless it were for the Evidences sake that they had Credit given 'em for the Matter of 〈◊〉 under Such Circumstances was Morally Impâ—â—â—ble to be True And for the Probity of the Witnesses they were already as well known as the Whipping Post for a Pack of Swearing Lying Cheating a Prostitute and an Abandon'd Sort of Mercenary Villains And yet such was the Infatuated Credulity of the Common People at that Season and such the Bold and Shameless Hypocrisy of the Managers of That Imposture that there was no Place for either Truth or Honesty to Appear The Inference I
Papists in Despite of the Evangelical Precept that bids us Love one Another Subornation was Authoriz'd under the Title of Reward Murder was recommended under the Varnish of Publique Iustice. Atheism was a kind of a Qualification for a man of Interest in This Matter because they were to Talk of God and at the same Time make a Mock of the Belief of any such Power and it was Requisite that the Hardness of their Hearts should be Proof against the Sense of Divine Vengeance and Iustice. There was no Room left for Christian Charity when Every Papist was to Suffer for the Principles of his Party and when they could Make Those Principles to be whatever Themselves pleas'd In All their Holy Leagues Vows Covenants and Associations they have This to say for Themselves that the Hypocrite is of No Religion and Consequently that The lifting up of their Hands unto the Lord and their Solemn Promises In the Presence of God are of No more Force upon people that do not Acknowledge a God then the Oath of a Iew upon the Four Evangelists In the Matter of Reputation How have we Lost our selves at Home and Abroad by Believing Things upon Second Thoughts Incredible and Believing too upon the Testimony of Known Falsaties and Blasted Criminals By setting the Evidence of Common Hirelings and Scoundrells against the Character the Try'd Faith Integrity and Incontestable Loyalty of Men of Honour The King the Queen the Duke and so many other Illustrious Persons on the One side to be Confronted by Miscreants on the Other not to be Nam'd in the Same Page How have we Expos'd the Dignity of our very Profession to make it a Point of Conscience to work so Great a Villany An Instance of our Zeal to Pursue it into so many Barbarous Extremeties and which is more then All to cast a Protestant Cover over One of the Lewdest Impieties that ever was under the Sun and to make it an Impulse of our Religion which was only a Perjurious Conspiracy of State It has Lost us to the Present Age thoroughout the Christian World for the King receiv'd not so much as one Complement of Gratulation from any of the Forreign Ministers for his Deliverance which would have been Otherwise if any of them had Believ'd it It leaves us Expos'd likewise to After-Times Especially Considering that so great Care has been taken by Some for the Transmitting of the Imposture and so Little by Others for the Propagating and Confirming of the Truth And now again we are as much Lost in the Offices of Charity Truth and Iustice. This Plot has turn'd Religion into a Faction and the Animosity which it has begot in us toward Roman Catholiques has utterly Extinguish'd the Love and Veneration we Owe to Christianity it self As to the Next Point Truth and Falshood have Chang'd Places and according to the Mode of the Times the very Quality of it is Inverted too Truth is Ridiculing the Witnesses Invalidating the Plot Arraigning the Iustice of the Nation and Popery in a Disguise whereas Falshood or Perjury is a Thing to Bless God for a Miraculous Discovery a Subject to beg a Pension upon a Wonderful Service to the Protestant Religion and what was This Plot at last but a Blasphemous Slanderous Imagination made up of Lies and Contradictions as I shall set forth by and By. Now over and above all the Rest How was the Iustice of the Nation Abus'd and Impos'd-upon by the Trumperies of Confederacy and Practice even to the Confounding of Right and Wrong Good and Evil and Inverting the very Order and Equity of Reward and Punishment How many Innocent Men were Clapt-up and Kept upon Vnconscionable Expence 'till all they had left in the World was little enough to Clear the Charge of the Prison without Any Cause Assign'd without ever being brought to know their Accusers or their Accusation and forc'd to Content themselves upon their Humble Petition with the Hope of a Mercifull Vote in the Conclusion for their Discharge Paying their Fees without any Reparation while Suborners and False-Witnesses Pester'd the Lobbys Barefac'd with their Crimes as Open as if they had been Writ in their Foreheads So Sacred was Villany and so Hazardous was it for any man to do his Duty 'T is true that upon the First Springing of this Cause a man might for want of Iudgment Thought or Foresight Charitably and Innocently enough be Misled or Mistaken The Evidence was Positive and Bold the Fact Horrid so many Conspirators of Quality to Countenance the Tale and Formalities of the Law in favour of the Witnesses But yet afterward when the Masque came to be Taken off and the whole Web of the Villany to be Vnravel'd the Iustice of the Nation did Then Suffer I say in the Opinion of the World for not doing Immediate Right upon these Miscreants to a Distracted State and People to the Orphans and the Widows that these Forsworn Wretches had made and to the Innocent Bloud that cry'd for Vengeance It gave them some sort of Reputation to let 'em Triumph so long in their Wickedness Insomuch that a Friend of mine Burnt his Fingers in the Case of Otes even for bringing the Bear to the Stake at Last Why This will Destroy the whole Plot they Cry'd as if the leaving of a Nest-Egg would have been such a Comfort to the Nation I speak in This Place rather of Publique then of Private and Personal Iustice for the Indignities they put upon the Government were Infinitely above the Injuries of here and there a Member of it for they Swore the Monarchy it self to Death as well as the Papists They Embroil'd the Order and they Vnsettled the Foundations of it Under Colour of Securing the Kings Person they Cramp'd his Prerogative and took away peoples Inheritances for fear of their Religion How many Incapacities and Disabilities have we seen Created upon the Same Score Now I take the Reason of the Case betwixt a Private Cheat and a Publick to be much the Same If a man Wins my Money by False Dice and I can Prove it I 'le have my Money again and why should not this Equity hold as well now in the Case of a Factions getting any thing from a Government by the Help of False Witnesses There 's a Plot Affirm'd Warranted and Sworn We shall lose our Prince they Cry our Religion Laws Lives and Liberties unless we have such and such Powers put into our hands to Prevent or to Disappoint the Danger The Yielding on the One side is in Confidence and upon Condition of such a Desperate Plot on the Other Now if there be No Plot there 's No Bargain Nay and 't is a Worse Matter Yet if what was Demanded for a Security against One Devillish Plot shall Appear Evidently to be Intended and Apply'd toward the Promoting and the Strengthning of Another A Lapidary sells me at a Horrible Price That which He Warrants for a Ruby of the
the Lord Shaftsbury of it when he came to Newgate but that his Lordship appeared so Hasty that he would not let him speak Their Lordships presently Signed a Warrant for the Apprehending of These Men and Appointed Sir Robert Southwell to go in the Afternoon to acquaint the Earl of Shaftsbury therewith The Persons Accus'd were Humphry Adamson George Bradshaw Benedict Prosser and Christopher Maddison Mr. Boyce further Enform'd their Lordships on the day above that being This morning in Newgate with hopes to have found Prance in the same Temper he found him so sullen that he would not speak a Word to him but laying down his Face upon his Arms Cryed out and often Repeated I have Committed No Murther Captain Richardson being Examin'd what might be the Cause of This Fright from whence All These Changes seem to Arise says that he cannot Imagine unless it were that when once he brought him down several People came to Enquire of him when the Men meaning the Three Condemn'd would be Executed wherein he might perhaps think himself Concern'd That Prance had once told him of a Whisper through the Key-hole which he Believed not but supposes Another thing might be True which is said by him that Moore and Messenger being here Attending when he was brought did Beckon to him which made him alter his Mind Their Lordships thought fit to Move his Majesty for a Warrant of Pardon which is accordingly obtained and Mr. Dean is to shew it unto him in order to settle his Doubts and if he appears to Embrace it and Deserve it then that his Irons be knockt off and He remov'd into Better Quarters and a Letter to This Effect to Captain Richardson which appears in the beginning of This Days Entry and as well the Dean as Mr. Boyce are to Aâ—quaint their Lordships on Munday how This Bus'ness proceeds Vpon Monday the 10th the Dean of Bangor is call'd in and says that he gave on Saturday-night to Mr. Secretary Coventry such Enformation in Writing as he had from Miles Prance which being call'd for to be Read was for some Reasons of Secrecy Excus'd as Discovering New Persons Not yet apprehended That when the Dean went to him on Saturday he found him almost Dead and without a Pulse but at last when his Irons were off and he Carry'd into a Warm Room he began to Hearken to his Pardon and did Revive Promising that he would Declare all he knew but first desiring to have his Pardon Completed and after Insisting hereupon that Then he should speak out William Boyce says he found him in a very good Temper but very Jelous and Desirous about his Pardon And then he open'd and told him of Dangerous Words spoken by Bradshaw and Guzzeen of Mr. Messenger's being set on by the Popish Lords to Kill the King Vernatti Concern'd in the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey c. â—e had now sworn Himself out of the Condemn'd Hole 〈◊〉 out of a starving Condition upon the Boards into a Warm Room Variety of Dishes a Convenient Lodging and his Friend Boyce at his Elbow with the Liberty of Invention Pen Ink and Paper toward the Compiling of his Narratives It is a Bold Adventure for One Man to Undertake for Another Man's Conscience but it is yet a Bolder Under so many Signs and Indications of Remorse as Prance Express'd in the Prison for so many Days together to Pronounce That Appearance of Penitence to be Hypocrisy and to Interpret That steadyness in favour of a Lye rather then of a Truth He Deny'd Every Syllable of the Accusation upon his First Charge He shrunk after That under the Fear of Death from the 22. of December to the 29. And there as a Man that was not as yet Wholly Abandon'd to Work Wickedness he went off again and from Thence to the Following 11 th of Ianuary he Continu'd Firm notwithstanding All the Temptations of Life Liberty and Ease But the First Proof of his Frailty was an Encouragement to the making of a Further Tryal of it And Effectually Prance's Case was the very same Case with that of Green Berry and Hill as to the Choice they had before them of Living or Dying upon the same Terms Now as to his Playing the Mad-Man the very Fancying of it Under his Circumstances is Certainly One of the most Phantastical Freaks next to the Believing of it that ever was in Nature To take it first in the Reason of the Thing Suppose it a Murther and Himself one of the Murtherers or suppose it Neither One nor the Other He was to Dye in Case of not Confessing whether he were Guilty or Not. Now for him to stand out in the Defence of a Falsity as the Patron of the Murther will have it was the Certain way to Carry him to the Gallows and to the Dâ—â—il Both at once and the owning of a Truth aâ— Tâ—â—y would have it Understood was the Ready Way to the Saving of him both Soul and Body There is a Second Consideration which makes that Conceit of it so Ridiculous that a Man of sense would rather Chuse to wear a Fools-Coat then own himself the Author of it They will have it a Piece of Art in him to make himself appear a Mad-man when on the Contrary it was Manifestly his Interest the Most in the World to be taken for a Sober Man for after the Irresistible Transports and Agitations of a Labouring Conscience Reflecting upon his having call'd God to Witness to a Perjurious Oath against the Life of his Neighbour His Bus'ness was to gain Belief to his Innocence by taking shame upon Himself for the Guiltless Bloud that he had Endanger'd by a False Oath and Retracting as well as by Confessing the Wickedness But on the Other side what end could he have in Making the world Believe that All his Not Guilties and No Murthers were rather the Issue of a Distemper'd Head then of a Troubled Conscience To take the Matter in Order Captain Richardson and his Man Cooper are Witnesses to the Fact here in Question Prance told the same story to the King and Council He said the same Thing also to his Friend Mr. Boyce Who in an Enformation of April 5th 1686. upon This Subject has Expresly These words Here I am in Prison Jan. 10. 1678. And I am like to be Hang'd and I am Falsly accus'd There is Nothing hitherto that looks like the Playing of a Part and it will appear upon further Enquiry that Prance's Body was as much out of Humour for Fooling as his Mind But before I proceed to the Hardness of his Condition and to the Severity of the Vsage it will be but Iustice to Note by the Way that the Plot-Pris'ners were not under the same Methods of Government with Those People that the Law Lodges in the Power and in some sort at the Discretionary Mercy of their Keepers For there 's a Great Difference betwixt Men that were Brought Rogues Into Newgate and Men that were to be
in Company with Mr. Huysman a Painter upon the Saturday when Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was first missing being to the best of This Enformants Memory the 12th of October 1678. He This Enformant about Two or Three in the Afternoon of the Day aforesaid as he remembreth Seeing a Tall Person walking alone towards the White-House near Primrose-Hill He this Enformant said to Mr. Huysman there goes Dr. Barwick But this Enformant observing him further told the said Mr. Huysman that it was not 〈◊〉 â—arwick but wondring a little with himself to see a Person alone thereabouts This Enformant having often taken that Walk but very rarely seeing any Body thereabouts before This Enformant followed him in the same way at the matter of Twenty Yards distance for near a Quarter of a Mile and observed that his Stockings were a kind of a Rusty Black and his Shoes seemed to be Old and his Coat of a Dark-Colour'd Mixed Chamblet as this Enformant Remembreth And further That this Enformant going to take the same Walk some Days after and going by So-ho this Enformant was there told the First News he had heard of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey being found Murther'd upon Primrose-Hill Vpon which this Enformant reflected on the Person that he had taken upon the Saturday for Dr. Barwick and concluded within himself that the Person whom he first took for Dr. Barwick was Sir E. Godfrey This Enformant knowing Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and remembring that he had seen him in such a Colour'd Coat which Struck this Enformant with an Apprehension as he Declar'd to Several Others that the said Sir Edmund had laid Uiolent Hands upon Himself Iames Huysman Deposeth That he this Enformant hearing that the Body of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was found at or near Primrose Hill and that the said Sir Edmund had been missing ever since the Saturday before This Enformant reflected upon it that he had seen a Person in a very Melancholique Posture and way of Walking near the said Place upon the Day when Sir Edmund was reported to have been first missing And as this Enformant remembreth it was betwixt Two and Three that Afternoon He was a Tall slender Man in a Black or Dark Coat which this Enformant took to be Chamblet This Enformant wondring within himself to See a Person of his Appearance walking in so Lonesom a Place And saith That this Enformant speaking with one Mr. Grundy after the Body was found about the said Sir Edmund the said Mr. Grundy having been with this Enformant at the Time when they saw the said Person that is above described He the said Mr. Grundy and This Enformant Comparing the Person of the Man with the Circumstances of the Day the Place and the Appearing Sadness in the said Persons Gate and Motion did Joyntly Agree in an Apprehension that the Person above Described and whom they had seen Together as aforesaid was Sir Edmundbury Godfrey And that this Enformant going afterward to the White-house Asked the Woman of the House Whether Sir Edmunds Body had been brought Thither and if any Bloud came from it the said Woman Answer'd This Enformant that it was Laid there upon the Table and that the Bloud Dreyned from the Body into the Cellar and that Clots of Bloud were found about the Body to the Best of This Enformants Memory CHAP. III. What Notice was taken of Sir E. B. Godfrey's Melancholy before he went away from his House And what Opinion or Apprehension People had Concerning it THis Topique is the very Hinge of the Main Question There 's a Great deal to be said upon 't And I shall rather Adventure to be thought Tedious then to fall short in any thing that 's very Particular and very Material for it is not with such a Tryal as This in a Book as it is with a Tryal at Bar in a Court of Iustice Where All that 's over and above a Legal Competency of Witnesses for Probity and for Number is Burdensom and Superfluous and only so much Mony or Time thrown away Now I am not in This Place to contend with Rules and Forms of Law and Equity but Common Fame sits Iudge of the Controversie while Reason is to be Try'd by Noise and Prejudice So that I must both in Necessity and in Discretion make use of All Honest Aids to my Advantage though I prove the same thing over and over again by Twenty several Hands in as many several Ways and so as to leave no Place for Prepossession For when Men of All Sorts and Conditions Men of Several Qualities and Persuasions And Men of Credit in fine of what Iudgment soever When All These I say shall agree as with One Voice to the Truth of what I deliver I have no more to Ask but the Readers Patience for a Candid Report of the Fact and Every Man then is at Liberty to make his Own Inference We shall now Begin our Remarques upon the Eve to That Fatal Saturday before mentioned Mr. Richard Wheeler of St. Martins in the Fields Deposeth That upon Friday October 11. 1678. being at a Vestry in St. Martins Sir E. B. Godfrey who was commonly the Mouth of the Bord sate Leaning with his Face upon his Hand without a Word speaking saving that he once Lifted up his Head and Vttered These or the like Words That will not do Captain Bridal being there present That the Company Adjourn'd from thence to a Tavern where upon Discourse of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey it was Agreed that he Was not or had not been Well his Countenance and Behaviour being very much Alter'd Mr. Ioseph Radcliffe gives an Account of a Humour of his at Mr. Weldens in York-Buildings That very Night after the rising of the Vestry See it at large Cap. 18. Mr. Edward Birthy Deposeth That about Four or Five in the Afternoon of the Friday Next before the Saturday that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was First Missing This Enformant with his Wife and Another Person since Dead going to Cross the Street from the Red-Lyon-Inn in Drury-Lane saw Sir Edmundbury Godfrey walking down Drury-Lane to the Strand-ward Close by the side of the Kennel looking still upon the Ground seeming to be Extremely Pensive and Melancholique And that as This Enformant was just about to Pass the Kennel He this Enformant with his Company stopt till Sir Edmund might go by who happened to be Passing just at That Place this Enformant saluting him with his Hat as being very well known to him Whereupon the said Sir Edmund made a very strange and a sudden Pause Setting one Foot forward with a stamp Catching hold of the Brims of his Hat as if he were to look at something and star'd this Enformant in the Face a while without a Word speaking This Enformant and the Company Passing by him while he stood in this Posture and so continued a little while after This Enformant observing the said Sir Edmund to continue his Course by the side of the Kennel 'till This Enformant and his Company went
Enformant was looking upon the Body there came in a Man with a drawn Sword in his Hand who said he was the Constable and that he took that Sword out of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Body Describing the Manner of Sir Edmund 's lying upon his Face and the Sword about Six Inches through his Body The Constable upon This said that the Coroner desired the Body should be stript and entreated the Company to lend him a Hand to do it Whereupon This Enformant with Two Others Assisted him in the stripping of the Body This Enformant observing his Neck to be Limber a Blackness about his Breast and upon the stripping him of his shirt found it to be All Bloudy in the Back And the smell of the Body very Noysom and Offensive And saith likewise that the Arms were so stiff that they were forced to Tear off his shirt Thomas Burdet Deposeth That the Woman of the White-House told him This Enformant that the Bloud ran from Sir Edmund's Body from the Table on to the Floor and so from the Floor into the Celler And she took This Enformant into the Celler and shew'd him the Ground stain'd with the Bloud Mr. Yeomans Deposeth that he found the Body lying upon a Table at the White-House and Watrish Bloud running from the Body on the Floor Mr. Collinson Deposeth that he Observed Drops of Bloud in several Places of the Path where the Body was Carry'd as if a Man had Walk'd with his Nose Bleeding but that at some Posts in the Way there was Bloud seen in a Great Quantity After These Proofs of Bloud and of Bloud too in such a Quantity as more could not be Expected from a Body Vnder Those Circumstances nor more Undenyable Evidences of it for the Sword stopt the Fore-part of the Wound as Tight as a Tap After All This I say and an Appeal that a Man might safely make to the Consciences of Thousands of People that might be added to the Open and Avow'd Witnesses of This Truth It will be but Fair Yet at last to see how This Question of the Bloud was Manag'd and what was said on the Other side to bear the World down that there was No such evacuation for the Bloud or No Bloud was the same Thing with Guilty or Not Guilty It is very Remarkable that in the Coroner's Examinations the very Word of BLOUD is not so much as Mention'd And in Truth it was not safe to Insist upon it because the Jurors were Conscious to Themselves that there was a Great Deal of Bloud as I have already Prov'd upon Six of them and the same may be reasonably presum'd of All the rest Now the Jurors would never have agreed upon a Verdict wherein they should every Man of 'em have given the Lye to his own Knowledge and Conscience for they might as well have said we know upon Ocular Certainty that there was Bloud in a Great Quantity and yet we will Discharge our selves upon our Oaths in Declaring that VVe believe there was None and therefore Recourse is had to the Twisting of his Neck and the Blows upon his Breast for the Cause of his Death And so we find it upon the Tryal where 't is the Crevat or the Twisted Handkercher that does the Feat still not the Sword. Was he bloudy says the L. C. Justice Mr. Brown There was No Bloud at All There was No Bloud in the Ditch fol. 35. And so the Enquiry went off Immediately to the Sword the Bruises The Loosness of the Neck the Stick and Gloves the Mony in his Pocket fol. 36. and not One VVord More to the Constable of the Bloud though that same No Bloud in the Ditch Considering that the Question was not restrain'd to the Ditch Imports a â—ind of Emphatical Exception as who should say there was No Bloud in the Ditch but there was Bloud else where VVe find in Goweth's Enformation 't is true that Batson told him he thought he saw Bloud in the Ditch and that Goweth himself was Half of That Opinion though he would not be Positive in 't It will be here Objected that This Admittance Overthrows what I have said Already of the Swords Closing the Wound so that No Bloud could pass And if a Little why not More Now This Cavil Concludes mightily for My Purpose for the same Thing might be Objected in the Case of his Shirt and Flannel How came it at All to be stain'd And why no More on 't The Answer lyes very Plain and Open The Orifice of the Mortal Wound was Clos'd but the Puncture as Cambridge calls it that stopt upon the Rib was Open and thence came This Bloud There might be some Little Draining from the Other but Not Considerable and the Clots that were found about him came from his Back where the Point had Wriggled out its way through the Bone and could not so well secure the Passage After Brown the Constable had given his Evidence the Surgeons were Call'd and Question'd about his Bruises The Distortion and Loosness of his Neck and Then Mr. Attorny Ask'd Mr. Skillarne if he thought he was kill'd by the Wound Mr. Skillarne No for then there would have been some Evacuation of Bloud which there was not Meaning I suppose an Evacuation While the Bloud was Warm and Fluid Not Reflecting upon the Swords stopping the Course of it One of the King's Council upon This Leads him off from the bloud again to the Neck Are You sure says he his Neck had been Broken Yes I am sure says Mr. Skillarne And then again of Himself The Wound says he went through his very Heart and there would have been some Bloud if it had been done quickly after his Death Cambridge in fine Assented to the Opinion of Mr. Skillarne without one Word more about the Bloud And the whole Stress was laid upon the Signs of being Strangled or Hang'd fol. 37 38. The Light it self is not more Open to the Eyes of any Man then is the Evidence of the Truth and Reason of This Affair But there will be Place and Occasion by and by to make it yet Clearer CHAP. XV. The Enformations before the Coroner Examin'd and not One Word in them to the Point in Issue THere are many Cases wherein the Truth may be Cover'd or Intricated and the Reason of a Thing lye out of Sight But for Errors of Inadvertency Credulity Frailty or Good Nature it is no more then Common Iustice for Flesh and Bloud to bear with Humane Infirmity But if People are Resolv'd to shut their Eyes against the Sun to be Deaf to all Profitable Counsels and Necessary Instructions and not only to Neglect Contemn or Refuse but also to Stifle Discountenance and Oppose the Honest Means of Arriving at the Certain Knowledge of Things Let it be in Fact Let it be in Opinion Let it be Where How or let the Case be What it will there 's No Excuse for That sort of Ignorance But in few Words the Present Point is Briefly
Twelve or One And Great Vse was made of that Evidence to Induce a Verdict that he was Strangled for they Inferr'd that he was Not Kill'd in the Ditch because he was come back again Now that Inference would have held as good and consequently that Verdict in the Case of Mason who undoubtedly told the Jury the Story of his Coming back again before they Adjourn'd So that they got not one Grain of Intelligence to This Purpose at the Rose and Crown more then they had before at the White-House But to return to the Clerk again Moor took Notice of his Masters Great Discontent and Disorder in his Own VVords after the taking of Otes's Enformations He could not be Ignorant of the Freak of his Burning so many Papers upon Friday Night as he made express remarks upon his Distracted Starts Lookâ— Actions and Gestures That Last Saturday Morning He told Iudith Pamphlin one of the Family that he was affraid he was Murther'd His Wife Exclaiming O that ever it should be said that such a Man as Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Murther'd himself Pamphlin raving at the same rate and telling Captain Gibbon his Lady and his Daughters over and over that Moor knew a great deal and if Moor were examin'd he could say much He Declar'd it himself that he had been to Search for his Master and within a Few Rods too of the Place where the Body was found And he Deliver'd the same thing upon Oath before Two of his Majesties Iustices for the Isle of Ely It cannot be Imagin'd that the Brothers all this while were Strangers to these Circumstances Especially considering the Part they had in the Manage of the whole Transaction Upon the Monday after his going away they went to Mrs. Gibbons to enquire for him and upon her Relation of Sir Edmund's Wild Behaviour the Last time she saw him they both brake out into Violent Exclaymings Lord What will become of us Upon Sunday Morning Early Moor went to the House of Mr. Michael Godfrey and told him that his Master did not come home last Night God have Mercy upon as says the Brother Pray God we hear Good News of him And Enjoyn'd Moor not to tell any Creature of his Absence till he Himself or his Brothers should come to him in the Afternoon They came accordingly and Agreed to enquire every where after him but all under the Seal of Secrecy still And so he was to keep it close 'till Monday Morning and Then till Night and so 'till Tuesday Morning 'till the Brothers should have been with my Lord Chancellor and upon Tuesday Night they Divulg'd it at a Funeral These Repeated Injunctions of Secrecy would puzzle the Mayor of Quinborough and his Brethren to find a current Reason for They do as good as Cry Seek but do not Find And why Again Say nothing till we have been with my Lord Chancellor The Caution in Truth might be Prudential enough in case of his Laying Violent Hands upon himself but supposing him to be Murther'd by a Malicious Practice or by Assassins it would have been a Point of Publique Duty to Honour and Iustice and an Office of Humanity Natural Affection and Respect to the Defunct Immediately to have spread the Story of it as far as the Post and Common Fame could carry it But there 's Another Passage yet behind to the same Point that makes the Bus'ness still more and more Suspicious Mr. Wheeler Deposeth That on Wednesday October 16. 1678. being in Company with one Mr. Parsons Mr. Monk and others he asked Parsons What Discourse he had with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey in St. Martins Lane upon Saturday Last Parsons 'T is no matter Wheeler What a Justice Lost and You the Last Man in his Company and not declare what Discourse you had Parsons Let Mr. Monk tell To which Mr. Monk said What have I to do to tell your Discourse And thereupon this Enformant said to Mr. Parsons If you will not do it here you shall do it somewhere else And then Mr. Parsons said That Sir Edmund asked him three times whereabout Paddington Woods were And that he himself asked Sir Edmund if he were buying a Parcel of Land To which Sir Edmund replyed No. This Enformant asked the said Parsons What other Discourse Pass'd Who Answered him None For Sir Edmund was sparing in his Speech This Enformant putting it further to the said Parsons Why he was so Loth to tell the Discourse Parsons made Answer because Sir Edmund 's Clark Desired him to say Nothing on 't Upon the Whole matter The Brothers Ty'd up Moor to Secrecy and Moor Ty'd up Parsons and there appears No other Reason in Sight either for the one or for the other then a Desire to keep it Private which sounds just as much as an Vnwillingness to have it known what was become of him only the Brothers took care that he should not be Miss'd at Home and the Clark that he should not be found abroad for his Question to Parsons was the only Light they had so Early which way to Enquire after him and Moor took the Hint upon 't After All This said and Prov'd 't is not for Any Man to Doubt either that Moor Knew or was likely to know as much of This Private History as any Man Or of the Brothers knowing as much as Moor Could Tell them And This being taken for Granted a Man Methinks might Fancy such Interrogatories to be put to Moor as might Reasonably open the Way to a Discovery As for Example now Directing the Discourse To the Clerk. Here 's the Body of your Dead Master now upon the Table before us And the Question is How he came by his Death You have been Constantly near about him and in his Business Did You Observe Any Quarrel he had or Any Desperate Discontent upon him and for what Cause or Reason Have You Observ'd him to be more out of Humour of Late then he was formerly And Since what Time and upon what Occasion Your Master went away from his House upon Saturday Morning Last How was he the Day before Did You observe any Bussle of People more then Ordinary about him How did You find him the Morning that he went away Did You Gather Any thing from his Looks VVords or Actions to give you an Ill-Boding of him Mr. Parsons it seems Spake with him in St. Martins-Lane That Saturday Morning and Sir Edmund asked him the way to Paddington-woods And Mr. Parsons told You of it they say VVhâ—n did he tell you This And VVhat Did he tell you of it Did any body Else tell you of it before And VVhat did they tell You And what did You Do upon their Telling it Now we have reason to Believe that he went his Way to the Place that he Enquir'd for because Mr. Collins here one of the Iurors Saw him afterward talking with a Milk-woman thereabouts And here 's Another of the Inquest Mr. Mason that Saw him after This too going Back again And
Cross Mediations Votes Jan. 10. 1680. Ibid. Ibid. Votes Jan. 10. 1680. (a) Mar. 24. 1678. (b) Jan. 7. 1681. (c) Oxon. Mar. 26. 1681. Their own Votes and Papers are the best Evidences Address No. 29. 1680. Address Dec. 21. 1680. The Condition of the Association The Conditions of the Address Dec. 21. 1680. Coll. of Debates p. 202. Address No. 29. 1680. Proceedings at the Old-Bayly London upon the Bill of Indictment for High-Treason against Anthony E. of Shaftsbury p. 34. Middle-Temple Declaration See Ob. 106. Vol. 1. Of ADHERENTS and ABETTERS The Intent and Effect of the ASSOCIATION Worthy-MEN and Men-WORTHY Otes Narrative Fol. 58. The Character of the Late E. of Shaftsbury His Manage and Practices Chancellouâ— Shaftsbury's Speech Feb. 5. 1672. A great Stickler for the TEST EXCLUSION c. Growth of Popery p. 39. 40. Inconsistent with Himself Feb. 7. 1673. Address Nov. 3. 1673. More of his Character In Soul and Body In Life In Liberty In Estate In Peace of Mind In Religion In Reputation In Charity Truth And Justice The Case holds betwixt a Cheat at Play and a Cheat of State. Saying and Swearing Mr. Colemans Letters Coleman's Story Godfrey's the Two Stilts of the Plot. A Plot under a Plot. Confusion and Change of Government Design'd The Association Ibid. Nov. 29. 1680. No. 29. 1680. Ibid. The Account of the manner of Executing a Writ of Enquiry c. His Insolencies Encourag'd See Otes'es Narrative fol. 15 64. And Pickerings Tryal fo 22. Otes'es Tryal upon the Consult fol. 77. Otes'es Second Tryal fol. 44. Otes'es Tryal fol. 87. Tryal p. 52. A Villany and a Scandal beyond Example Otes'es Appeal Otes'es Tryal p. 76. The Lewdness of his Life and Conversation Tryal p. 86. Great Sufferers by the Plot. In Respect of the Time. And to the Occasion Objections Answer'd After Otes'es Copy A Horror for the Plot from the Begeginning Preface The PLOT The Miseries that it brought upon us The ASSOCIATION History of OTES SHAFTSBVRY 's Matters No MONY No POWER No Parliamentary Power No Militia No CREDIT No FRIENDS Sir W. Jones Order'd to make a State of the Evidence The Stress of All lies upon Otes'es Credit The Contents of the Five Windsor Letters Objections against the Five Letters The Windsor-Letters a Plain Forgery Not one Comma or Point in them All. They are All Spell'd False the same way All of a Cast for Style Matter Plain Treason to no manner of Purpose All the Marks of Fraud upon them The Design of the Windsor Pacquet spoil'd The Manner of the Disappointment Tonge Examin'd by the E. of Danby about Grove and Pickering The E. of D's Proceeding upon the Matter Tongs Sham of the Ruffians going to Windsor The King believ'd Nothing aâ— all of the Story The Sham of Bedingfields Pacquet The Pacquet Confirm'd to be a Cheat. The Letters Produc'd to the Councill Sr W. Jones Privy to All. And Convinc'd that Otes was an Impostor Notes upon Sir W. Jones'es Final Report Ignorance and Credulity gave the Plot Credit Otes'es Narrative was a Palpable Practice and Sir W. J. knew as much The Methods of a Faction The Irish grounded upon Otes'es English Plot. The Duke of York made the Head of Both Plots Sr W. J. proposes a Declaration to That Effect And a strong Bill of Association The Danger Transferr'd from the Popish Plot to the Religion No Safety without a Bill of Exclusion Notes upon the Westminster Debates The Credit of the Plot lessen'd dayly Only it Mended upon Sir William Jones'es Hand Of Green Berry and Hill. Sir W. J. upon Godfreys Murder Otes Bedloe and Prance Help out one another A Gross â—artiality Sr W. J's Enflaming Speech to the Jury The Whole Intrigue was known to SrW.J. Sr W. J. a Manager against the Lord Stafford He makes all Disbelievers of the Ploâ— to be either Fools or Coâ—spirators The Disbelievers Vindicated Mr. Coleman's Case Sir W. J. Founds the whole Plot upon Otes'es Bottom He blesses God forOtes'es being a Papist when he himself swears he was none He makes All Papistâ— to be Traytors Scandalous Exceptions to Mr Lydcots Evidence for Common Justice done to the E. of Castlemain The whole Stress lies upon Otes'es Probity Notes upon the Exceptions to M. Lydcot The Injustice of the Exceptions laid open in the Honourable Defence and Acquittal of the E. of Castlemain Sir W. J's care to Secure the Execution of my Lord Stafford The Witnesses Clash Sir W. J. had all their Contradictions before him Tong and Otes's Narrative look'd upon as a Cheat. The Five Letters that should have given them Credit Confirm'd the Forgery They were the very Contents of the Plot. They were so Rank a Cheat they durst never bring them in Evidence How the Pretended Popish Plot came to be Started Tong was the â—rojâ—ctor of it and put Otes upon it The Rise and Manner of Promoting it How the Maggot of it came into Tong 's Head. His Stickling to Advance it Tong 's Credit with the House of Commons His Confession that he knew nothing of the Matter Habernfelds discovery Published by Prynne 1643. Resemblance of the Two Plots Papers and Letters about Habernfelds Plot. Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot and Parallel Plot and Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel Plot. Parallel to the Large Discovery The First Opening of Habernfelds Plot. An Abstract of Sir W. Boswells First Letter The Parallel of Tongs Plot and Habernfelds goes on still The Arch-Bishop writes Immediately to the King. An Abstract of his Graces Letter The â—arallel goes on Otes known to his Majesty by a Certain Token The Token iâ— self Habernfelds Plot had Less Credit every day then Other Tongs Plot. Habernfeld's and Tongs Plot much the same Tong an Agent for Popery A Remarkable Practice How Tong and Otes came Acquainted Their Practices together Tongs Plea for Otes'es Perjury He Contradicts Otes upon the Main Point The Plot was a Shamm Otes only Tongs Property Tong sets-up for the â—irst Discoverer Otes'es Contradictions Tong a Confederate quite thorough Otes'es Starving condition in 1677 He Swears for Bread. Tong gives him his Lesson and sends him abroad All Ceremony apart Otes returns from St Omers Tongs Account of the Plot In the Greek Character Tong referr'd by his Majesty to the Earl of Danby The Whole Story a Sham. They go to Fox-Hall The Windsor Letters The Deduction of the Plot. Tong 's Diary of their going to Whitehall An Abstract of Mr Kirkbys Narrative Tong with his Narrative before the Councell L'Estrange falsly Accus'd by Young Tong and Otes L'Estranges First Letter to Young Tong. Tongs Answer A Second Leâ—ter of Tong 's How the Author came by Tong 's Papers Tong 's 〈◊〉 to the Duke 〈◊〉 York Tongs Malice to the Duke of York Otes was only Tong 's Tool The whole Manage of it was Tong 's A Brief Deduction of Tong 's Plot. Otes only Swore to Tongs words Tong 's Method of Pursuing the Plot. Tong 's Sawcy Expostulations with the Late King.