Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	charles_n	sir_n	william_n	26,660	5	8.3004	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41185	A letter to Mr. Secretary Trenchard discovering a conspiracy against the laws and ancient constitution of England : with reflections on the present pretended plot.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1694 (1694)	Wing F752; ESTC R32026	71,664	47

years ago for Fraud and Infidellty hath been ever since endeavouring to qualify himself to be an Evidence For soon after he was discharged from his Masters ' Service he made his first Essay of Roguery in breaking open a Trunk at the Black Swan Tavern in Bartholomew-Lane where being taken in the Fact of robbing it he had been prosecuted by the People of the House for Felony if Mr. Berionde had not by earnest Intercession prevailed with them to overlook the Crime and to let him alone But the Graceless Youth instead of being thankful to Mr. 〈…〉 ionde for saving him from the Pillory or the Carts Tail did soon after forge his Hand to two Notes upon Goldsmiths the one upon Mr. Richard Pierson for 25 l. the other upon Mr. ●alg●ave for 50 l. which by good Fortune no● being immediately paid the Forgery camé to be detected e're he could receive the Money Yet instead of being discouraged by the repeated Discoveries of his Villainles from attempting the like he grew more emboldened to proceed in his Criminal Practices and thereupon he not only again counterfeited Mr. ●erionde's hand to Two other Notes one to Mr. Poiterme at the George in Pall Mall and the other to Mr. Pawlet at the ●●ew Posts in the Hay market and both of them for Wine but he likewise forged Mr. L'Espine's hand to a Note to Mr. Bancks the Draper for Cloth Which Bills and Notes tho preserved and ready to be produced yet thro the too much Compassion and Humanity of those whom he would have cheared and defrauded he escaped being prosecuted and had only a Reprimand given him seconded with good Counsel and Advice But according to the Proverb Save a Rogue from the Gallows and he will cut your Throat so this young Villain advanced from Forgery in order to rob and defraud them to Perjury in order to murther and destroy them For hearing how tenderly those were cherished and how ple●tifully they were maintained that had set up to be Witnesses in reference to a Sham Plot he resolved to try whether he could not raise a Fortune or at least gain a Subsistance by coining Falshoods and deposing them upon Oath for Truths as well as your Breretons and Lunts have done In order whereunto he gave an Information of High Treason upon Oath against Mr. B 〈…〉 d Mr. De Hersee and Mr. Sentiman on which they were all Three taken up had their Papers and Books seised and were committed Prisoners to a Messenger 's Nor will the Secretaries want business how honourable let them and the World judg nor quiet and peaceable People trouble so long as Subornations are countenanced and Perjuries rewarded For who is there that Lunt to mention one in the room of all will not swear against rather than b● d●graded from a Gentleman such as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 has made him to be a Victu●ller at 〈◊〉 or a Labourer at Highgate or to be reduced from swaggering with Sixty or Seventy Guineas in his Pocket to wo●k servile labour for 1 s. a day as he was formerly accustomed to do But being wearied as well as ashamed in sweeping Kennels and in ●aking thus long in Dungh 〈…〉 I shall therefore discharge my self from this Drudgery after I have given an Account of one celebrated Witness more whom you Sir have taken into your special Care Favour and Protection and are indebted to N●wgate for him The Person whom I mean is your Friend and Darling William A●●lock who lived heretofore with Dr. Oates that was of all Mankind the fittest to instruct him in the Forging of Plots and how to support the Belief of them with unparalleled Impudence and Perjuries Now the Dr. having having no farther occasion for this Ashlock since he got a Female Bed-fellow the Blade became Servant to one Mr. Freeman a Barber in Throgmorton-street near the Royal Exchange And having brought several good Qualities along with him from the Drs. the first Proof he gave of the Improvement he had made by the Example and Doctrine of his old Master was to rob Freeman in Hair and Money to the Value of about 30 l. And tho the Fact was clandestinely committed yet knowing where A●●lock had been formerly Entertained and Disciplined he had a Suspicion that he must be the Thief that had robbed him And therefore causing him to be apprehended and carried before a Justice of the Peace some of the Money which his Master could distinguish from all other was found about him and the Fellow thereupon committed by the Justice to Newgate a little before Whitsunday last Where he had not lain long e're he gave a new Testimony where he had been Educated and that he had been a very teachable Scholar under so expert and famous a Tutor So that he took upon him to discover a Plot whereof he could not miss the making this the chief part namely That there was a Design to kill Her whom they call the Queen For the Burthen of the Doctor 's Discovery heretofore being a Conspiracy to Murther King Charles he would Copy his Master's Draught as near as he could with the single change of a Princess to be assassinated instead of a Prince And to tread as much as possible in the Steps of the first grand Architect of Forged Conspiracies having coined and framed a Plot in his Head he in the next place wrote a Narrative of it and took care to have it sent to my Lord Mayor Sir William Ashurst Which he not being so forward to give credit unto as Ashlock expected and who having sucked in a liberal Share of the Insolence and Impudence of the Doctor and being willing it should appear how well he had profited under him he sent to my Lord Mayor to know what he had done with his Discovery and Narrative which my Lord being allarmed at as foreseeing the Consequences that might ensue upon it he returned it unto him with a command That he should attest before Witnesses what he had writ or else that his Lordship would not farther meddle with it And that being done by the Rascal with all readiness my Lord to deliver himself both from the trouble and reproach of it caused conveigh and deliver it to Mr Secretary Trenchard whom I take to be you Sir Nor did you think it enough to receive it as may be your Place did oblige you but you had the Indiscretion to entertain it with a great deal of Fondness and to say he was a Person might do you a great deal of Service And as a Testimony both of your Esteem of the Fellow for the good Qualities I have mentioned and of your being engaged in a Design of murthering Men by the worst and most infamous Means and Instruments imaginable you gave Order that he should not be prosecuted the Sessions following for his Felony For to obstruct Justice and to pervert it are the usual Methods with you of Administring your Office But Mr. Freeman having upon that Disappointment consulted with a

not know but that an Affront or Oppression might provoke him to turn Rebel For many will chuse rather to ●un the hazard of dying by the Swords of ●our armed Troops than to be eat up peice 〈◊〉 and Limb after Limb by your Messe●gers and G●●lers which is like the being gnawn by 〈◊〉 and ●●●●s instead of being devoured by 〈◊〉 ●ut you know in whose Reign and by whom it was said sentiant se mori let the● 〈…〉 e and that he was not so much in favour wi●h ●●ose he either feared or hated as to ●●ow them the Privilege of expiring spe 〈…〉 y. A 〈◊〉 barbarous 〈◊〉 exer●ised towards those you have in Custody is The refusing their nearest Relations and most necessary Friends admission to them whose Company if needful and comfortable at any time is while they are in such Circumstances more especially so This was a Hardship seldom practised heretofore tho grown much into Fashion since the late Revolution Nor was either the Earl of Shaftsbury or the Earl of Essex denied the attendance of their own Servants under the severe Reign of King Charles and those we called his Despotical Ministers as my Lord Molineux and the Lancashire Ge●tlemen are under the Gracious Reign of K. 〈◊〉 and easy Administration of those he employs in the Head of his Civil Affairs For since the Exchange was made of Princes some have stood confined for many Months if not Years and none suffered to go near them besides Goalers I do acknowledg that in some Cases and towards some Prisoners it may not be convenient that any should have the Liberty of access to them save in the Presence of a Keeper but with that Proviso and that Circumspection there cannot be the least danger of giving their Friends and Relations admission to them at seasonable Hours For whatsoever can be vouchsafed a Prisoner without Danger to the Government or in Subserviency to the making an Escape the Law requireth that it should not be denied him And that it is not from any care of preserving the Government or apprehension of the Prisoners contriving an Escape that this Privilege is with-held from them but from Covetuousness to squeeze Money out of them is apparent from hence that upon Application for leave and paying down so much for an Order of Admi●tance from the Secretary the Liberty which was before refused is then granted But then the Mischief is that this Order will for the most part give only a Freedom of Access to the Prisoner for once and that whosoever would go again ●ust pay down t●other Fee to get it renewed And this Method is held till you and your Clerks have levied so many duyly or weekly Taxes on the Subject as satisfy your Avarice and then a general one is vouchsafed by which either any Person is allowed to see the Prisoner or at least that such and such may do it as are therein mentioned and expressed And this customary Practise of some Secretaries in oppressing the Subject encourageth Goalers to do the like which tho they cannot exemplify in the same manner yet they imitate it as well as they can So that even when the Secretary does no way intend by his Form of Commitment that the Prisoner should be debarred the sight of his Relations and Friends yet the Goaler will not admit them unless they make their Address by Guineas and seek his Favour by the Intercession of Angels and then the Doors fly open and the Prisoner may be seen and conversed with To which may be added as a Fourth Illegal Severity used towards Prisoners under their Confinements that they are refused the having their Counsellors and Sollicitors admitted to them when they need and desire them For as if their Conditions were not distressful enough thro a shameful defect in our Laws in not allowing them the Assistance of Council at and upon their Tryals for Treasonable Offences which no Laws in the World besides ours but allow You Sir render it more deplorable and worse by denying them to speak with their Councel freely and as often as they please before which is the robbing them of a Right which the Law under all its other Deficiencies in this matter grants unto them For a Counsellor at Law is the same thing to a Person confined and to be arraigned for a Conspiracy against the Government that a Physician is to one sick of a dangerous and malignant Distemper nor ought the First be refused the coming to his Client with the same Freedom that the Latter goes to his Patient I do the rather insist upon this because of the unpresidented Barbarity used towards Mr. Crosly even after he had warning given him by Mr. Aaron Smith to provide for his Tryal For tho Mr. Momp●sson who is his Council and Mr. Barleigh who is his Sollicitor had admission to see him yet they neither were nor yet are permitted to speak with him but in the Presence of a Keeper Which is not only all one but much worse than if they were not suffered to come near him at all so it does put him only to the expence of so many Fees without leaving him in a Condition either to declare with Safety his own Case or to receive their Advice And the Fellows fastened upon him at those Seasons are only so many Spies whose Business is to observe what he does say that so if he discover the least Thing which being known may do him hurt they may be ready as Witnesses and depose against him and thereby supply the want that the Government still laboureth under in that matter after they have hunted through the three Kingdoms to procure such as with any probability may swear him out of his Life And through this Severity put upon Prisoners for High Treason which most in both Houses of Parliament as well as the generality of the Kingdom and even Mr. Secretary Trenchard oftner than the rest have been guilty of they are worse treated than Felons Murtherers and Highway-men are that being never denied to the latter which is thus scandalously refused the former To which I subjoyn in the fifth and last place as another hainous and intolerable Grievance put upon State Prisoners in some Goals and that this is the subjecting them to wear Irons unless they redeem themselves from the Barbarity by Money For tho I cannot tell whether this Inhumanity be exercised towards Prisoners by your Authority or meerly by your Conniance yet this I am sure of that exercised it is and that upon Persons whose Quality Education and Character equal them to your self in every thing save that they are not advanced to the Honour by being vested with the Seals of the Office Nor is this only a punishing of Men before they be convicted or proved guilty of the least Crime seeing none will deny but that the wearing Irons is a Punishment and that as Grievous as it is Ignominious but it is a Treating them as if they were actually Sentenced and