an Impeachment a Tryal and after That a Verdict By Vertue of which Verdict all the Mistakes that led to 't are made Sacred and Authentique and Then 's the Time for Declamatoryes and Exaggerations And when the Conscience at Last the Wisdom and the Iustice of the Nation come to be all Concern'd in the Espousing of such an Error the Lord have Mercy upon that People untill Time that is the Mother of Truth and Experience that is the Daughter of Time shall put Mens Heads and Hearts in their Right Places again There was in sooth so much Application and Artifice us'd to give This sad Accident the face of a Popish Contrivance Design and Execution that they broach'd the Report of it as a Thing Resolv'd Pass'd and Done even while Sir Edmund was yet living to prepare People for the Fiction that was to Follow. Of this we shall say something hereafter Upon the First Rumour of his being Missing there were several Surmises of Fancy and Conjecture put about what might be Become of him One while he was Murthered in Arundell House Another while in My Lord Bellasis Cellar And then again the Duke of Norfolk's Coach was seen to come from Prim-rose-Hill the Saturday that he went away But in fine Somerset-House was the Place they pitch'd upon and That They Stuck to It was but Requisite that it should be a Popish Place to Answer a Popish Conspiracy and Reconcile it to a Popish Intelligence For the Plot was at that Time Almost Cold in the Mouth and they were fain to take in the Murther to get Credit to the Treason It was a Thousand Pitties that when the Devil had Furnished them with so plausible an Argument to work upon they could find no better Pretence for the Strangling of him then to get the Enformations out of his Hands Bedloe swears indeed that They Treated with him about those Enformations before the Smothering of him betwixt two Pillows But Prance swears that his Bus'ness was done with a Twisted Handkerchief without so much as the Ceremony of by your leave Sir Edmond which was much the Courser way of the Two But a Note by the By Now Why should they expect to find the Enformations still in his Pocket that he had Taken Some of them a Fortnight and Others Five Weeks before Or what would it have availed them if they had taken the Papers too when they Dispatched the Iustice Could not Tong and Otes that they left behind them have Sworn the same Enformations Forty times over again and have made them Fifty times stronger then they were at First Beside that they had been in the Kings Hands Already above Two Months before To draw toward a Close when Bedloe had once Declar'd himself for their Turn they wanted another Witness yet to Second Bedloe but Principally for the Tacking of the Murther to the Plot To which End they Swore Prance into the Noose and left him This Choice before him Whether being Innocent he would Confess Himself to be a Murtherer and so Scape or Deny it and Hang But Charity began at home and he Chose the Perjury By This Time they were a Gleek of Knaves strong to the Two Great Points and every one of the Three Seconded the Other Two both to the Plot and to the Murther which was a Point well enough Order'd by the Contrivance of making the same Persons as Walsh Pritchard Le Phaire Parties to Both. The Authority of This Imposture was Established in such a Manner that there was no Touching the Murther without an Indignity to the Plot nor any Touching the Plot without Grating upon the Murther Nay the Somerset-House Relation was held to be so Authentique that there was nothing to be Bated on 't to the very Spright and the Piss-pot They had an Excellent way too of Breaking into their Particulars by a Previous Proof of the General Plot which Enrag'd the Multitude before ever they came to the Cause in Hand to such a Degree that the Prisoner at the Barr was as good as Condemn'd before he was Heard And Truss'd-up by the Sentence of the Rabble for the Sins of his Fore-Fathers This may suffice to shew the Reason and the Manner of making Godfrey's Murther a Branch of the Popish Plot. It follows next to see how far Bedloe and Prance gave Evidence to them both in one CHAP. III. Bedloe and Prance Swore to the Plot as well as to the Murther THE Question is not in This Place whether Prance and Bedloe upon the Matter of Fact swore True or False but how far they Swore to the Murther and to the Plot Both under One and how far They took upon them to Swear to the Plot over and above the Murther And not to a Plot at Random neither but Catechistically if a Body may so say to the Parts Branches and Articles Directly or Indirectly of Otes's Narrative Every Body knows that Bedloe came-in with a Cry only of Murther in his Mouth but for the Conspiracy he Declared that he knew nothing at all on 't though 't is likely enough that another Five-Hundred-Pound-Proclamation for the Discovery of the Plot might have refreshed his Memory without Need of a Prompter And who knows but his Compunction might have wrought as Heartily upon him in That Case for fear of the Kings Life as his Remorse of Conscience did in the Other for the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey But I am now to bring my Chapter to my Text and in the First Place to take a short View of the Evidence that These Two Iustice-Killers Deliver'd upon the History of the Plot. The Informations I know are Many Intricate and Tedious but a brief Abstract of the Whole will serve my Present Turn Every jot as well as Copies at Large So that I shall Content my self to make the Matter as Short and as Orderly as I can without more Trouble either to the Reader or to my Self then needs must To take the Thrid of the Story along with me Upon the 5 th of November 1678. Bedloe came from Bristoll upon This Adventure directly for London where he was Examin'd on the 7 th by the Two Principal Secretaries of State in the Presence of His Late Majesty touching the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Declaring upon his Oath at the same Time that He could say Nothing at All to the Plot that was Then in Question And the Lords Iournal does Effectually hold forth as much as That comes to upon the said Examnation Nov. 8. 1678. THe Lord Treasurer Reported by His Majesties Directions that Yesterday one William Bedloe was examin'd at Whitehall concerning the Discovery of the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that his Majesty had given Order he should be brought to give This House an Account thereof Who being brought to the Barr and having his Oath given him made a Large Narrative to This Effect That he was born in Monmouthshire and was of the Church of England till within these Two Years
have had Such a Superabundance of more Pregnant and Convincing Arguments and Evidences that I should not so much as have Mention'd This Particular but that there 's somewhat of Curiosity in it as well as of Use. We have now pass'd through the Several Points in order as they were laid down in the Course of our Distribution concerning the Sufficiency of the Proofs Produc'd The Sincerity of making the Best of them in Matters whereof the Examiners had Certain Knowledge the Competency of the Witnesses that were Summon'd and the Best Emprovement also of what they Did say and of what in Likelyhood and Reason they might be able to say More I shall pass now to a Consideration of some Witnesses that were not Summon'd and might have been more Serviceable in Common Probability to the Satisfaction of the Iury upon the Enquiry they had Then before them then any of the rest CHAP. XX. Mrs. Gibbon's Enformation Compared with the Coroners Report and the Matter submitted to All Indifferent Men whether the Design throughout was to Discover the Truth or to Stifle it With an Appendix for a Conclusion HEre 's a Subject a Magistrate a Master a Friend a Relation and an Acquaintance Lost in the Person of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and All these Circumstances are to be Consulted toward the finding out what is become of him Now in Order to such a Discovery a Man Naturally Bethinks himself somewhat to This Purpose What Confidences had he What Haunts What Persons were Most Privy to his Affairs his Ways and Humors What Servants Who saw him when he went away from his House Who saw him Afterward In whose Company was he Last c. There 's Nothing more Familiar or Reasonable then such Enquiries as These provided they be made in the Proper Place and Apply'd to the Right Persons So that the Brothers were well advis'd upon the First Missing of him to go to Coll. Weldens his Common Baiting-Place to hearken after him His Servant Pamphlin goes the Next day to Mrs. Gibbons upon the same Errand and so did the Brothers on the Munday as one of Sir Edmunds Ancient and Particular Friends It is to be taken for Granted that they did not Forget to Examine Sir Edmunds Domestiques What They Knew What they Thought What they Observ'd and it is as Little to be Doubted that the Servants gave them All the Lights they could upon such Questions The reason of the Thing Carry'd them still forward upon the same Train of Likely-hoods to Enquire of Parsons Mason Collins and the Milk-woman to Learn what he said What he Did How he Look'd Which way he Went c. and who knows but Such a Trayle might have brought them to the Ditch where he was found But to the Admiration of All People we do not find that any One of All These Persons Harry Moor only Excepted with his Lac'd Band was Formally and Publickly Examin'd about This Matter Nor so much as one Question put with any sort of Tendency or the Least Appearance of Good-will toward an Effectual Discovery as we have already Set forth in an Orderly Series of Observations upon This Topique And there Needs No Better Proof of This Assertion then the Testimony of the Enformations Themselves I find 't is true an Enformation of Mrs. Gibbons among the Coroners Papers but the Verdict was over before it was Taken It was by Command not by Choice and how it was Manag'd will appear upon a Collation of other Circumstances with the Enformation It was it seems by the Special Order of my Lord Chancellor Nottingham that Mr. Cowper the Coroner took This Enformation of Mrs. Gibbon and his Direction as he told her was to Examine her upon Oath what Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Said to her about a Fortnight before his Death As we shall see by and by This gives to Understand that the Matter in Question was a Thing of very great Importance for his Lordship would never have thought the Cause worth a Review if he had not been told something very Extraordinary concerning That Encounter Now to Expound the Story there was a very remarkable Passage upon a Visit that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey made to Mrs. Gibbons on Tuesday the First of October 1678. And That 's the Busness the Coroner was now to take an Account of But This Enformation has had the Fortune I perceive of the rest of it's Fellows to come into the World Lame and Imperfect to the Degree of Defeating the very Intent of the Examination But briefly Whatever it was the Coroner Undoubtedly Attended my Lord Chancellor with a Copy of the Enformation and an Answerable Report upon the Whole Matter as here under-follows Midd. ss The Enformation of Mary Wife of Thomas Gibbon Esq taken upon Oath before me SHE saith That about a fortnight last past in an Afternoon Sir Edmundbury Godfrey came to her House in Old Southampton Buildings and upon Discourse with her Ask'd her if she did not hear that he was to be Hang'd for not discovering the Plot against his Majesty for that He the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had taken the Examination of one Otes and one Tong touching the same the 6th day of September and had not Discover'd it to any Person living whereupon this Enformant asked the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey why he had not acquainted the Duke of York or the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Treasurer with the same and Then This Enformant told the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey that she Suppos'd that what he then said was but in Jest touching his being Hang'd Whereupon he reply'd that he had not told Sir William Jones thereof although he had been at the said Sir William Jones his House Several times since and then told this Enformant that the King and Councel knew of the Plot before his Majesty went to Windsor which was about a Month before he took the said Examination Whereupon this Enformant ask'd him if he thought there was Really any Plot intended against his Majesty To which he reply'd that surely there Was but that Otes had Sworn Somewhat more then was True and therefore the Papists would find so much favour as to have All things that Otes had Sworn to be thought Lyes and Then This Deponents Brother Coll Rooke came into the Room and then the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey took his Leave of This Enformant saying that he was to Go to the Lord Chief Iustice about Bus'ness and said that he would Call on This Enformant some other Time and Tell her More and Since That Time she hath not seen Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and farther saith not Jo. Cowper Coroner Mary Gibbon There will be no great need of a Key to uncypher This Mystery if the Reader shall but duly Consider the Matter before him upon Comparing other Enformations of Mrs. Gibbons with This before the Coroner There 's One that Speaks Almost peculiarly to This Subject and Another that 's more General and at Large but I shall take so much
allready Granted that he was as fully Possess'd of the Whole Extent of the Matter there in Question as it was Possible for any Man to be upon Study Search and Enformation As to any thing purely relating to the Matter of Sr Edmund-bury Godfrey I shall Remit my self upon that Particular to the Third Part of This Brief History which I have Expressly Reserv'd for a Discourse upon That Subject In Fol. 7. of Greens Tryal Mr. Attorny Grafts the Murder of Godfrey upon the Discovery of the Late Horrid Plot and sets forth how Industrious Sr Edmund was in finding out the Principal Actors in That Plot and how Mortal an Enemy to Priests and Iesuits Whereas it is Notoriously known that he call'd Otes a Rogue and a Cheat from the very Beginning and that he did many Good Offices to Known Priests when he found them in Distress to the Extreme hazzard both of his Person and Estate Let it Suffice that I do here Affirm This to be True and Oblige my seif to Prove it so upon Authorities Vnquestionable hereafter It is but matter of Course for Mules according to the Adage to Knab one another and so there 's no Love Lost betwixt Otes Prance and Bedloe The Two Latter put their Shoulders to the helping of Otes'es Plot out at a Dead Lift And Thankfull Otes does as much toward the Helping out of Bedloe and Prance in Sr Edmund-bury Godfreys Murder Godfrey told Otes a Tale it seems how the Popish Lords had Threaten'd him and what a Fright he was in for fear of his Life from the Popish Party and how they had been several days Dogging of him Tryal Fol. 12. So that Otes'es Testimony some way or other was the Life of the Cause all this while and take away That Pillar the whole Building sinks into Rubbish But to see now at the Close of the Tryal and of the Day how Mr. Attorny Blesses himself to find Every thing made out so Clear even to Admiration I intended says he when I began to open the Evidence to have made some Observations after the Evidence Ended to shew how Each Part of it did Agree and how the Main was Strengthen'd by Concurring Circumstances But in Truth the Kings Evidence did fall out much better then I could Expect And the Defence of the Prisoners much Weaker then I could foresee So that I think the Proof against the Prisoners is so Strong and so Little has been Alleged by them in their Defence that it would be but loss of Time to do what I at first Intended fol. 71. As to the Strength of the Evidence and the Weakness of the Defence the Tryal is Extant and let the Cause speak for it self But Thus however he goes on Haranguing upon the Harmony of the Witnesses 'till at last he Crowns the Exploit with an Address to the Iury in These Words I shall say no more but Conclude to the Jury with That Saying that I remember in the Book of Judges in the Case of a Murder too though of another Nature Iudges 19.30 The People said there was no such Deed done nor seen from the Day that the Children of Israel came out of Egypt And I may say there was never such a Barbarous Murther Committed in England since the People of England were Freed from the Yoke of the Popes Tyranny and as 't is said There so say I now Consider of it Take advice and speak your Minds fol. 72. The Barbarous Murder of Charles the First is forgotten here once again But now we are upon the Subject of Innocent Blood let any Man set the Bloud that was Drawn upon This Authority and Encouragement against That which was There in Question and then lay his Hand upon his Heart To say nothing of the Lives that were Afterwards Sacrificed under the Countenance and in Consequence of That President It Cannot be too often Repeated that Mr. Attorny had all the Papers at his Command that might give him Light to a Distinct and Perfect Vnderstanding of the Main Cause and Every Part of it As the Iournals of Both Houses The Council-Minutes and Other Publique and Attested Enformations that he had the Whole Cause before him as in a Breviat and the Means Consequently of Comparing every Several Witness with Himself and every Witness Respectively One with Another to see how far their Oaths upon the Lords Iournals agreed with what they Swore in Court and how far their Depositions before the King and Council or before so many of his Majesties Iustices of the Peace Squar'd with Both or Either of the Other By Vertue of These Advantages Sr. William Iones was upon so great a Certainty of Knowledge in All he Said or Did upon this Matter that it was hardly possible for any Practice of Confederacy any Doubling or Shuffling any Flaw Contradiction or Equivocation in the Evidence to Scape him Beside that he wanted neither Wisdom nor Industry to make the best of his Materials And yet upon laying Things together It is a little hard to Imagine how this Learned Gentleman should come to Phansy so Admirable a Concurrence of Circumstances The Strength of the Kings Evidences so much beyond Expectation and the Defence of the Prisoners so short of it in a Case which to all other Mens Eyes appears a meer Huddle and Mish-mash of Vnaccountable Confusions which I do here Oblige my self to make as Manifest as the Light of the Sun in the Continuation of This Story if I live but a very little while longer to Finish it The most Favourable Construction that can be offer'd in Excuse of the Proceeding will be This that though Mr. Attorny had the Care of the Cause and the Command of all Papers and Enformations Concerning it Multiplicity of other Thoughts and Bus'ness might yet Divert him perhaps from attending All the Critical Minutes of the Case so Nicely as he Ought to have done Sir William Iones proceeded Thus far in the Quality of Attorny General We shall see now what Part he sustained in the Tryal of my Lord Stafford as a Manager of the Evidence upon an Impeachment in the Names of the Commons of England My Lords says Sr William Iones I think I may take leave to say that the Plot in General hath been now Sufficiently Prov'd And if we Consider whath has been Prov'd at Former Tryals upon which many of the Offenders and Traytors have been Executed what hath been Published in Print and above All Colemans Letters written all with his own Hand and for That Reason Impossible to be Falsify'd we may Iustly Conclude that there is not a Man in England of Any Understanding but must be fully Convinc'd of the Truth of the Plot in General c. p. 169. So that I think now None Remain that do Pretend Not to Believe it but Two Sorts of Persons The One Those that were Conspirators In it and the Other Those that Wish'd it Had Succeeded and Desire it May
so Still p. 170. This was a Shot at Random I hope without considering where it would fall for it makes All Men whatsoever without any Exception of Persons to be either Fools or Knaves that were not of the Managers Pretended Opinion I call it Pretended because I look upon it as a Flight of his Rhetorique rather then a Motion of his Conscience And that it was Design'd to work upon the Passions of those that heard him rather then upon their Iudgments This Liberty does not only give every Honest Thinking Man an Honourable Right but puts him upon a Defensive Necessity of Throwing-off that Infamous Character let it Light where it Will and of Rangeing the Fools and the Knaves on the Other side But This is a Sentence however with Two Edges One way he makes People Conspirators and Abetters for not Believing the Plot at a Uenture whether the Supposed Fact be True or False The Other way he makes a General Plot on 't by taking All Into 't that do not Believe it But as to the Proof now of a General Plot If Otes'es Plot falls there Remains No General Plot to Prove upon Colemans Letters are a Particular Matter of a Personal Practice and Vndertaking And His Crime at the Vttermost Stretch of it amounted to no more then a Forward Intermeddling with State-Matters without a Commission I could never find out the least Colour in that whole Proceeding to Imagine any sort of Affinity that Colemans Letter-Plot had with Sir Will. Iones'es pretended Narrative Plot. He had a Plot undoubtedly upon the Fing'ring of French Mony But without any Malice in my Conscience against Either King or Government Sir William Iones draws Inferences from the Jesuits Several Meetings Their Raising of Arms and Gathering of Moneys toward the Execution of their Design fol. 169. Certain Imaginary Commissions to Popish Lords Seditious Sermons and Discourses Ibid. All which is upon Otes'es Bottom still And so my Lord Staffords being at Fenwicks Chamber and his Bolting-out Treasonous Words in Otes'es Hearing against the King fol. 170. The Pages 178. 179 are spent in Iustifying Otes wherein Sir William does not only admit Otes'es Change of Religion but even blesses Providence for 't in these Words I am sure it is happy for us that he Did Change his Religion Without That we had not had the First Knowledge of the Plot nor of many Particulars which he could not come to know but by Occasion of that Change fol. 179. This was a Mighty Mistake for we had the First Knowledge of the Plot from Tonge And then for so great a Man there was as unlucky an Oversight Sir William Iones upon the Summing-up of the Evidence makes Otes to be a Papist though He Himself Swore he was None in the Tryall Nay and he raises Arguments from his Being the Thing that he Swore he was Not and Emproves His Forswearing Himself to the Advantage of his Evidence I desire to know says my Lord Stafford whether Mr Otes was Really a Papist or did but Pretend Otes I did only Pretend I was not Reaâ—â—y One I Declare it fol. 123. The Evidence says Sr W. in another Place is so Strong that I think it admits of No Doubt and the Offences prov'd against My Lord and the Rest of his Partâ— are so Foul that they need no Aggravation The Offences are against the King against his Sacred Life against the Protestant Religion nay against All Protestants for it was for the Extirpation of All Protestants out of These Three Nations I mean not of Every one that is Now so but of Every one that would have Continu'd so Every one amongst us if These Designs had been Accomplish'd must either have Turn'd his Religion or turn'd out of his Country or have been Burn'd in it fol. 186. Here 's a Charge of Treason against every Papist in the Three Kingdoms to a Single Man Every Protestant Throat to be Cut or to fly his Country or to Turn or to Burn. Taking away the Kings Life and the Extirpating of the Protestant Religion by Violence were the Points of the Conspiracy what could be more Incentive toward an Vniversal Tumult What more Repugnant to Christian Charity and to Common Sense then to Build such Conclusions upon the Testimony of Abandon'd Cheats and the Visionary Extravagances of Dreamers of Dreams for such was Tonge most Superstitiously according to the Letter But to carry it further yet All These Pretences have been Detected for a Forgery and a Counter-Plot Prov'd on the Other side to Answer Every Malicious Point of This. What Atonement is the whole World able to make for the Affronts that have been put upon Gods Providence Truth and Iustice upon the Honour of the King the Peace of the Kingdom and the Reputation of the Oppress'd and Injur'd Party But to return to my Point It will deserve one word more now after Otes'es Passing Muster for a Competent and a Credible Witness according to Sr William Iones'es Qualifications and Measures to take a little notice on the other side what it is that he makes to be an Incapacity for a Warrantable and a Creditable Discharge of that Duty 'T is no great Wonder where a Profligate Sodomite and a Common Knight-of-the-Post passes for a Testis Probus to See a Man of Honour upon tâ—e File for an Infamous Rascal Sir William Iones makes his Exceptions to Mr. Lydcot's Evidence which he gave Concerning My Lord Castlemain Lord Staffords Tryal pag. 115. c. I refer the Reader to the Tryal it self and he will find no need of a Gloss upon the Text to shew him how that Worthy Honest Gentleman was handled in Court by the Manager But He that would more Particularly Enform himself in the Ground of Sir Williams Exceptions must look for his Crime fol. 177. upon Summing-up the Evidence A Man says Sir W. Iones that owns himself the Continual Companion and Secretary of one so Famous in the Popish Party as my Lord Castlemaine is A Man that Pretends he was never out of his Company And a Man that owns that two Years since he was Taking of Notes at a Trial for This Plot Not only for his Curiosity but for his Lord who was Concern'd in the Accusation That This Man should be a Fellow of Kings College seems Strange and 'till it be better Prov'd will hardly be Believ'd Nor will he deserve any Credit From one End to the other of This History of the Pretended Popish Conspiracy the Weight of the Proof still rests upon Otes'es Probity and Reputation and the Whole Frame has nothing more to Support it then Flourish and Noise The Proof and Character of a Licentious and Habitual Dissolution of Manners through the Entire Course of Otes'es Conversation is still Blown-off with one of These Two Banters Set a Rogue to Catch a Rogue That is to say He must be a Party to the Treason to Qualify him for a Testimony The other
and keep themselves upon the Reserve Habernfeld Propounds the Intercepting of a Pacquet at Bruxelles Our Iesuits Five Letters to be Intercepted at the Post-House at Windsor p. 3. are the very same Project Habernfeld's Letters are Characteristically Written Ib. And so are the Letters in Tong 's Plot-Hand Reade is to Vncypher them p. 4. As Otes Vncyphers Forty Eight Sixty Six Ciocolatti Mum and Mustard-Balls as Reade is to do the Same Office for Habernfeld P. 4. Or if it falls out that Reade upon the Question will rather Hang then Discover more then he Knows 't is but Allowing him Thirty Thousand Masses for the Health of his Soul and All 's well again The Searching of Reades House for a Congregation Ibid was so much Out-done by Our Discoverers that for Habernfelds One Reade and One Congregation they have shew'd us Forty Habernfeld takes Great Care for fear of trusting Popish Pursuivants Ib. For which Reason the Searching of our Houses for Priests and Popish Trinkets was Committed to Otes Bedloe Dangerfield c. instead of Constables and Ordinary Messengers Habernfield Advises the Abolishing of All Bitterness of mind that the Intestine Enemy may be Invaded on Both Parts p. 4. Which Tongs Friends in the Westminster Parliament Translated into the Vniting of Protestants against the Common Enemy We shall come now to the General Overture and Discovery of the Plot Bearing date Hague Sept. 6. 1640. sent with Sir W. Boswells First Letter p. 6. and see how the Counterpart Answers it Head by Head as it lies The General Overture and Discovery of the Plot c. 1. That the Kings Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop are Both of them in Great Danger of their Lives p. 6. So says Otes'es Consult 2 ly That the Whole Common-Wealth is by This Means Endanger'd unless the Mischief by Speedily Prevented Ibid. A most Natural Consequence and so says the Consult too 3 ly That These Scottish Troubles are Raised to the End that under This Pretext the King and Arch-Bishop might be Destroyed Ibid. Father Moor and Father Saunders sent into Scotland to This very End. Otes'es Narrative Ar. 43. 4 ly That there is a Means to be Prescrib'd whereby Both of them in This Case may be Preserved and This Tumult Speedily Compos'd Ibid. This was the very Proposal on the Other side too and the Means found out to Save All were Swearing Iayling Drawing Hanging and Quartering 5 ly That although these Scottish Tumults be Speedily Compos'd Yet that the King is Endangered that there are many ways by which Destruction is Plotted to the King and Lord Arch-Bishop Ibid. And All is not Safe neither though Scotland were Quieted for there are many other ways Plotted to Destroy the King As Pickerings Gun Conyers'es Dagger Wakemans Poyson Invasions Insurrections Assassinations c. 6 ly That a Certain Society hath Conspired which Attempts the Death of the King and Lord Arch-Bishop and Convulsion of the Whole Realm Ibid. This same Certain Society may be heard of at St Omers Weld-House The White-Horse-Tavern and the like 7 ly That the same Society Every Week Deposites with the President of the Society what Intelligence Every of them hath purchased in Eight Days search and then Confer all into One Pacquet which is Weekly sent to the Director of the Bus'ness p. 7. Pacquets for the Provincial and Letters of Intelligence are a Great Part of the Narrative Intrigue 8 ly That All the Confederates in the said Conspiracy may verily be Named by the Poll But because they may be made known by Other Means it is thought Meet to Deferr it till hereafter Ib. Otes could have Poll'd All the Conspirators Man by Man if he had thought fit but some New Men and Things must be left for Bedloe to Discover some for Prance some for Dugdale with an Allowance to Otes for a Roll of Conspirators Whose Names do Not Occur at Present as well as for those whose Names Do Occurr at Present Narrative fol. 61. 9 ly That there is a Ready Means whereby the Villany may be Discover'd in One Moment The Chief Conspirators Circumvented and the Primary Members of the Conjuration apprehended in the very Act. Ibid. Otes has his Ready Means too for the Ordering of the whole Work in an Instant Grove and Pickering we know were to be Taken in St. Iames'es-Park and the Ruffians had been Dogg'd to Windsor as Tong Assur'd the Earl of Danby if One of the Horses had not got a Slip in the Shoulder Or at worst 't was but Picking-up Priests Papists and All Suspected Persons Plundering their Baggs and their Houses Rifling their Papers Cooping-up the Popish Lords in the Tower and then Swearing them All into the Treason 10 ly That very many about the King who are Accounted most Faithfull and Intimate to whom likewise the most Secret Things are Entrusted Are Traytors to the King Corrupted with a Forreign Pension who Communicate All Secrets of Greater or Lesser Moment to a Forreign Power Ibid. This was Otes'es Method too to make Traytors of Those that the King Accounted his Best Friends and Consequently to make Loyal Subjects of Traytors And then the Old Westminster Parliament Supply'd the Pensioners 11 ly These and other most Secret Things which shall be Necessary to be Known for the Security of the King may be Revealed if These Things shall be Acceptable to the Lord Arch-Bishop p. 7. This Article is an Expletive and Signifies just nothing for how many of these Secrets did the Kings Witnesses Promise to Reveal that never came to Light and in Truth never had any Beeing in the Nature of Things But the very Noise and Amusement was enough to do the Work. 12 ly In the Mean Time if his Royal Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop desire to Consult well to Themselves they shall Keep These Things only Superficially Communicated unto them most Secretly under Deep Silence Not Communicating them so much as to those whom they Iudge most Faithfull to them before they shall receive by Name in whom they may Confide for else they are safe on No side p. 8. Just at This rate were the Superficial Communications and the Injunctions of Silence in the Case of Tong and Otes and what was the Condition at last too but that the King should Trust No Other then such as the Discoverers or which is all one the Conspirators should Name As Otes Excepted to such and such Persons by Name out of the Committee that was to Examine him 13 ly Likewise they may be Assured that whatsoever Things are here Proposed are No Figments nor Fables nor Vain Dreams but such Real Verities which may be Demonstrated in every small Tittle For Those who Thrust themselves into This Bus'ness are such men who mind no Gain but the very Zeal
that by Persuasion and Promises from the Jesuits he was drawn over to them that he is not in Orders He KNOWS that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murthered in Somerset-house c. Lords Journal From hence it appears that he had been Examin'd about the Murther and that he was now to give an account to the Lords of what he knew Concerning that Matter But when his Hand was once In he was pleas'd out of a Superabundant Zeal for the Safety of the King and his Government and for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion to Launch out into the Depths of the Plot with a New and Supplemental Evidence Wherein he says further that Walsh and Le Phaire Enform'd him that the Lord Bellassis had a Commission to Command Forces in the North the Earl of Powis in South-Wales and the Lord Arundel of Warder had a Commission from the Pope to grant Commissions to whom he pleased that Coleman had been a great Agitator in the Design against the King and that he asking the Iesuits why they had not formerly told him what they had Design'd concerning the Kings Death they Answered that None but whom my Lord Bellassis gave Directions for were to know it Desired he might have Time to put the whole Narrative in Writing which he had Begun And being asked If he knew Titus Otes he Deny'd it Lords Iournal Nov. 8. 1678. But he had a Salvo for This afterwards which was that he knew him by the Name of Ambrose not by the Name of Otes Journal 29. 1678. And such another Fetch he had in the Case of Whitebread I speak it with a Caution says he That I never heard of Whitebread that he was so very much Concern'd And indeed I had No Reason to say so because I heard him my self and could not so well speak from the Hear-say of Another Five Jesuits Tryals P. 32. Immediately upon This Evidence an Order was Pass'd to make a Strict Search for Charles Walsh Le Phaire and other Suspicious Persons c. and an Address the Day following for a Proclamation against Conyers Simmonds Walsh Le Phaire Pritchard and Cattaway as Persons Guilty of the Damnable and Hellish Plot c. Nov. 12. 1678. The Lord Marquess of Winton reported that the Committee appointed to take Examinations for the Discovery of the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey have spent Many days therein and do present the House Two Examinations of Mr. William Bedloe and some Examinations of several other Persons His Lordship said that the Lords Committees did Conjure William Bedloe to speak Nothing but Truth and he did in the Presence of God as he should Answer it at the Day of Iudgment assure All to be true he had Depos'd Lords Journal Then the Examinations taken November the 8th 1678. at the Committee of Lords for Enquiring into the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey were read Lords Journal After he had spoken to the Murther he proceeds as before to the Plot but not without Intermixing here and there a Word even in the Depositions touching the Murther that Skew'd upon the Plot too There was a Man to be Kill'd he says that was a great Obstacle of their Design And then he speaks Afterward Of the Principal Plotters of that Design against the King and so Passes-on to his Evidence about the Conspiracy under the Title of The Further Examinations of William Bedloe being Sworn at the Bar. THe Monks at Doway told him the Design he said and after Four Sacraments of Secrecy they sent him to Harcourt a Iesuit in Duke-street who Provided for him and sent him to Paris c. Le Phaire Walsh Pritchard and Lewis told him what Lords were to Govern What Men to be Rais'd Forty Thousand to be ready in London What Succours to be Expected Ten Thousand from Flanders Twenty or Thirty Thousand Religious Men and Pilgrims from St. Iago Hull to be Surpriz'd But just in the Godspeed the Plot was Discover'd Le Phaire gave him a Sacrament of Secrecy They told him Who and Who were to be kill'd and the Men that were to do the Work. Le Phaire saâ—d further that Conyers was My Lord Bellassis's Confessor and Communicated his Orders and that they were resolv'd if any Plotters were Taken to Dispatch 'em before they could be brought to a Tryal or to Burn the Prison And he Deposes moreover that Le Phaire Pritchard Lewis Keines Walsh and others had often told him That there was not a Roman Catholique in England of any Quality or Credit but was acquainted with this Design of the Papists and had râ—ceived the Sacrament from their Father-Confessors to be Secret aad Assistant in the Carrying of it on Lords Journal Nov. 12. 1678. On the 18th of November 1678. He Deliver'd an Enformation upon Oath concerning the Plot to the Lord Chief Iustice in the Speakers Chamber which was in Effect but so much over again adding only that the part assign'd him was to bring and carry Orders and Counsels and all other Intelligences from One Army to Another upon All occasions he knowing every Part and Road of England and Wales That about the Latter end of April or the beginning of May last was a Twelvemonth about Six a Clock in the Afternoon there was a Consult held in the Chappel-Gallery at Somerset-House where were present the Lord Bellasis and he thinks the Lord Powis Mr. Coleman Le Phaire Pritchard Latham and Sheldon and Two French-men in Orders whom he took to be Abbots and two other Persons of Quality but did not see their Faces and Others Amongst Them the Queen And further that Coleman and Pritchard told him that after the Consult the Queen Wept at what was propos'd there but was Over-perswaded to Consent by the Strength of Two French-men's Arguments That he was below walking in the Chappel at the Time of the Consult with others c. That after the Consult the Queen came through the Room where the Priests Dress'd Themselves and that he then observ'd some Alteration in her Majesties Council Chamber Nov. 27. 1678. And so he runs on into a Ramble of his carrying Letters for France and Treasonous Discourses betwixt Stapilton and Himself at Cambray c. All of the same Batch with the other Presently upon This Enformation there Follow'd an Address for Removing the QUEEN and all her Family and All PAPISTS and REPVTED or SVSPECTED Papists from his Majesties Court at Whitehall There is one remarkable Deposition yet behind that was taken before the Council Iune 24. 1679. upon the Subject of the Consult last above mentioned which is not upon any Terms to be Pass'd over for Reasons to be given hereafter He brings the Queen into the Plot of Poysoning the King her Husband by the Hand of Sir Geo. Wakeman And says that He Himself being the Latter Part of the Last Summer in Harcourt 's Chamber Sir Geo. came in there in a great Huff saying Why should I be so Drill'd on and Slighted when I have Vndertaken so
Men and Things as he calls Afterwards to Mind and upon Recollection swears to over and above what he had sworn before And it is a Thing no less Remarkable that he should upon the Following Tryals Forget so many Capital and Dangerous Articles of the Plot as he had formerly sworn before the King and the Lords and the Omissions all the while as Essential to the Matter in hand in one Place as in the other But This Wonder will Cease if a Man Rightly Considers what the Points are that are omitted in the One and supply'd in the Other and the Relation which they Respectively had to the Design that was Then in Agitation While the Plot was General the Enformation must be General too and Bedloe did as much as Man could do upon Bare-four-and-twenty-Hours-time toward the Tuning of his Depositions to the Narrative which was all he had to Work upon at Present But New Lords New Laws and when Otes came to Charge Particular Persons upon the Strength and Foundations of That Geneneral Model Bedloe was no longer at Liberty to Steer his own Course but Ty'd up too swear in a Conformity to Otes's Measures So that Bedloe must have Divin'd before the Lords to Hit the Evidence that in the Future would be necessary at the Trials As for the Purpose now to Begin with Coleman He Carry'd a Pacquet he says from Mr. Coleman to Monsieur Le Chaise and that he heard Coleman say If he had an Hundred Lives and a Sea of Bloud to carry on the Cause he would spend it all to further the Cause of the Church of Rome and to establish the Church of Rome in England And if there was an Hundred Heretical Kings to be Depos'd He would see them All Destroy'd This he swears was spoken in his own House behind Westminster-Abbey at the Foot of the Stair-Case Colemans Tryal pag. 43 44. They were carrying-on a Plot he says to Destroy the King and the Lords of the Council p. 44. Now there 's not one Word either of Le Chaise or of This Matter to be found in the Lords Iournal Nor any thing more of Coleman then that he had been a Great Agitator in the Design against the King Nov. 8. 1678. Under which Generality Bedloe sav'd to himself a kind of Right to say more afterwards as he should come to be further Enlightn'd and better Enform'd For Bedloe in short was no other then Otes's Eccho and His Bus'ness no more in Effect then to take the same Oath that the Foreman had done In one Word as there is a most Extravagant Difference betwixt his Depositions before the King and the Lords and Those against the suppos'd Plotters at the Kings Bench so the Reason of it is obvious for he is forced to stretch his Latter-Evidence against the Pris'ners where his Former Deposition would not Reach them In the Tryals of Ireland Pickering and Grove Otes swears a Consult in August 1678. at Harcourts Chamber Ireland present at it Grove and Pickering appointed to kill the King the One to have 30000 Masses if he Miscarry'd and the Other 1500 l. Vpon their Failing Four Ruffians were hired to do it at Windsor Coleman gave a Messenger a Guinnea to carry them their Money Fogarthy Ireland Grove and Pickering were present at the Resolution and if all Fail'd Sir Geo. Wakeman was to do the Work by Poyson the very Price agreed upon and Part of the Money Receiv'd c. Now there 's not one Syllable of All This in Bedloe's Evidence upon the Lord's Iournal No not so much as the NAME of Corker Fogarthy Fenwick Grove Pickering and yet Bedloe upon the Tryal sets-up for Otes's Second to every Point and the Disagreement leads still to the Hanging of the Pris'ner And so again in the Tryal of the Five Iesuits He brings in Whitebread for sending the Four Ruffians to Windsor Coleman's Guinnea given to drink his Health The 1500 l. again and the 30000 Masses Pickering is Disciplin'd for the Neglect of his Flint Once he had no Powder in the Pan Another Time no Powder in the Barrel Wakeman's 15000 l. The King to be kill'd at New-market Conyers taken in for an Assistant But to conclude there 's not one Word of All This neither nor so much as the Name of Whitebread and several other of the Pris'ners upon the Lords Iournal 'T is the same Case again with him upon the Tryals of Sir Geo. Wakeman William Marshal William Rumley and Iames Corker where he Charges Keines and Corker with Discourse about Raising an Army KILLING and DESIGN He makes Marshal one of the Club and runs through the whole History of Sir Geo. Wakeman This was Iuly 18. 1679. And the Particulars were never so much as thought of till his Deposition before the King and Council of Iune 24. then last past when he was preparing for That Jobb He took the same Measures too in the Bus'ness of Langhorn Le Chaise told him he says of Mony to be remitted into England and that he had remitted some of it to Coleman and Ireland p. 21. and he speaks of Three Letters that he saw Langhorn Transcribe One to the English Monks at Paris Another to Monsieur Le Chaise Another to the Popes Nuncio p. 53. This is All New Matter Newly Accommodated to the Evidence of Otes and the Case of the Pris'ner without one VVord of it in his Original Discovery It would be Endless to take All his Evidences to Pieces and to Confront one Testimony with Another but one Instance may serve for the Measure of All That is to say his Additions are still Stabbing if not Mortal and Adapted to the Case without any regard to the Truth As for Miles Prance he was under the same Government also with his Brother Bedloe only coming in Late he had not so much occasion to shew his Parts but he serv'd as well as the Best however for a General Plot-man He made several Proffers yet at the Helping out of the Conspiracy though to little or no Purpose only in the Case of Fenwick he had the Honour to pass with Otes and Bedloe for a Third Witness His was only a dull kind of Hackney-Story still that Mr. Messenger was to Kill the King. 50000 Men to be rais'd The Popish Lords to Command them Fenwick Ireland and Grove spake of this Together Harcourt said the King was to be kill'd by several and Fenwick said that Langhorn was to have a great hand in 't Langhorn's Tryal fol. 8. He brought in All the Roman Catholiques he could Name for an Appendix 't is true but made Little on 't and order'd his Matters all the way with an Eye to his First Paper Upon the whole matter Right or Wrong here 's Perjury without Dispute either for not swearing the Whole Truth at First or for swearing More then the Truth afterward and the Presumption of the Perjury is so much the stronger in Regard that almost All the Diversities and Additions in the
went away in a Freak So that in fine the Coroners Enformation as it is drawn is only the Carcass of the Discourse without any Soul or Meaning And there 's Not One Word Neither of the Account Mrs. Gibbon gave of his very Ill Humour and Disorder We shall go forward now to her Depositions before the Secâ—etary Mary the Wife of Captain Thomas Gibbon Deposeth That there was a Long and Particular Intimacy and Friendship betwixt the Two Families of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and This Enformant And that the said Sir Edmund made her frequent Visits at her House in Old Southampton Buildings Acquainting her Many times with Things that Troubled him and for some time before his Death he came to her at least once a Week and upon the Tuesday was Senight before the Saturday when he went Last away from his House he came to This Enformants and desired to Speak with her alone she being then in her Mothers Chamber with her Husband and her Brother Coll. William Rook her Mother lying at That Time upon her Death Bed she went with Sir Edmund into Another Chamber when being Enter'd the said Sir Edmund Bolted the Door and appearing to be much Troubled and out of Order Ask'd her if she had not heard that he was to be Hang'd for says he All the Town is in an Vproar about me Then she Ask'd him for what To which he replyed That he having taken Otes's and Tongs Examinations a Month a-go and though he had been often at Dinner Since at My Lord Chancellors and Sir William Jones's Yet he never had Discover'd the Plot they had Sworn to she ask'd him what Plot And he said That Otes had forsworn himself and it would come to Nothing Iust upon This Coll. Rook Call'd the Enformant away and thereupon Sir Edmund went his Way too telling her at Parting that he would come to her again the Next Day and would tell her more Sir Edmund came accordingly when the Enformant being Bareheaded told him she would wait upon him Immediately but before she could put on her Hood and come back he was gone his way He sent to the Enformant in the Last Week when he went away to the Best of her Memory to come to him but her Mother being Dying she could not Leave her but the Enformant however order'd her Daughter to go to him Early upon Saturday Morning and Invite him to Dinner who brought word back that she was there by Eight but Pamphlin told her he was gone out an hour before We are now got over the Question of the Means and the Witnesses that the Coroner had before him the Competency of Those Means and how far they were Emprov'd toward the Clearing of the Truth The Next and Last Point will be to Enquire Whether there were not as Good Witnesses left out or perhaps Better and More Likely to Bolt out the Truth then any of Those that were Taken in saving Harry Moor only who though Qualifi'd by his Station and Employment for a Probability of knowing More then Another Man was Yet so Crampt by Restraining his Evidence to the Nonsensical Question of his Masters Lac'd Band that he was as good as No Witness at All. There are Certain Main Points that in a Course of Reason and Method are properly to be taken into Consideration upon the Matter that we have now before us First What was the Question Secondly What were the Points Necessary to be Known toward the resolving of That Question Thirdly What Sort of Men were the Most Likely to give Light to a Resolution upon it Fourthly Who were the Persons that to the Certain Knowledge or Reasonable Presumption of the Brothers or of the Coroner were able to Speak Effectually to This Matter And so by Degrees were Those People Summon'd to give Evidence Or if not Why was it Omitted To the First Point Felo de se or Not was the Question Secondly Was there Any Bloud follow'd the Sword If so 't is Concluded that he Dy'd of the Wound And not of Suffocation Was he in Any Danger In any Fear either of Others or of Himself Had he any Quarrel or any Desperate Melancholy upon him Thirdly As I have said Formerly his Domestiques his Relations his Familiar Friends and Acquaintance and other Chance-Witnesses that either out of Curiosity or by Accident came to the Knowledge and Observation of any thing concerning him by the By. These were the Men in General that were properly to be Examin'd And then Fourthly in Particular as to the Persons who but Mrs. Gibbons in the First Place a Person to whom the whole Family apply'd themselves in Private for Enformation The Person that they desir'd would Speak Sparingly when she came to be Examin'd The Person that told the Brothers such a Story of him the Fourth Day before the Body was found as Manifestly gave them a Foreboding of what was become of him The Brothers were at their Wits End for fear of his Desperate Melancholy An Apprehension that was Nothing a-kin to the Dread of a Violence from any Other Hand The Brothers knew well enough the Impression that the Conceit of his Fathers Melancholy had upon him and that Captain Gibbon and the Daughters of the Family were Privy to Several Fits of his Distemper And what Opinion Collonel Welden and his own Servants had of his Deep and Inconsolable Discontents The Brothers had all along the Secret History of Moor's Discoveries and Intelligences Contingent Evidences and Enformations over and above There was not One in fine of These Persons Summon'd And I cannot find any One Reason in the World for the Omission but what I am very Vnwilling to Believe That is to say the Smothering of the Truth for the Managers I perceive have Industriously either Avoided or Disguised the Two Certain Ways of Deciding This Question First The Discovery of the Bloud which is already made Manifest as the Light. 2 ly There has not been so much as One Question put about his Melancholy on the One Hand Nor One Syllable of Enformation concerning that Melancholy that has not been Discountenanced And if not Punished at Least Ridicul'd on the Other Now to Conclude If These Two Points well-prov'd would have brought it to a Clear Issue it is beyond all Controversie that the Bloud has been made out past Contradiction already and that what These People could have said to the Evidencing of a deep and a dangerous Discontent would have as Amply made out the Other These Things they did Certainly KNOW and Would not Know and This was the Blindness undoubtedly of those that Would Not see I have here Discharged my Conscience and my Duty with a most Affectionate and Impartial Respect to Truth and Iustice And I have done it according to the Best of my Skill and Vnderstanding without Gratifying any Passion or Interest and without Leaning either to the Right Hand or to the Left as I shall Answer for 't at the Last Day The Two Main Points
him to get acquainted among the Papists and when he had done so then my Father told him there had been many Plots in England to bring in Popery and if he would go over among the Jesuits and Observe their ways it was possible it might be One now and if he could make it out it would be his Preferment for ever But however if he could get their Names and a little Acquaintance from the Papists it would be an Easy matter to stir up the People to fear Popery And again My Father and He Dr. Otes went and Lodg'd at Fox-Hall at one Lamberts a Bell-Founder which House was call'd by the Neighbours the Plot-House And there Otes 's Narrative was Written whereof several Copies were Written very Different from the Other and the Four Jesuits Letters wherein Oates pretended was the whole Discovery were Counterfeits c. To the Instances above I shall Add One More for the Further Reputation of All the Rest which is That when Otes'es Credit ran High and the Faction as Bold as Ever upon May the 15. 1682. I Publish'd This Following Advertisement And it went down without either Check or Controll If any Man Woman or Child will be so Kind and Generous as out of an Affection to the Protestant Religion and the Vindication of Dr. Otes to call Simpson Tonge to a Legal Account for Endeavouring to Destroy the Credit of the said Doctor and his Evidence by Scandalous Reflexions upon Both Roger L'Estrange does hereby offer Himself out of a Zeal to the Publique Good to Furnish Authentique Papers and Memorials toward the Prosecution of the Work. THe Whole Party were as Mute as Fishes after This Publication which they would never have been if they durst have put the Reputation of Otes'es Evidence to the Test. To say Nothing of the Congruity betwixt the Method and the Drift of their Open Proceedings in the Case and the Scope of Tonge's Private Enformations For the Father and Otes Acted the Same Part before the Commons which Young Tonge said they did betwixt Themselves and the Mortal Malice of the Cabal struck at the Duke of York too just according to the Report of His Papers Insomuch that while His Royal Highness was Wounded for the Pretended Sake of the Roman-Catholiques The Romanists Themselves were likewise to be Sacrific'd for the sake of the Duke of York and Both for the Common Interest of the Change they Design'd After this Preparatory to a General Vnderstanding of the Case here under Consideration it will be Proper and Needfull to set forth what such a Plot Is before I come to a Resolution that This Damnable Hellish Popish Thing of Otes'es was in Truth such a Plot That is to say a Plot upon the Life of the King The Frame of the Government and the Destruction of the Protestant Religion And to This End Parliamentary Uotes will be as Good in Payment I hope as Fox-Hall Narratives and as Current in the Uindication oâ— the Royal Family as the Other were to the Defaming of it The Plot-Faction Design'd the Ruine of the Late King and to Compass it by leaving him neither MONY POWER CREDIT nor FRIENDS WHat 's a Prince I would fain know without MONY without POWER without CREDIT without FRIENDS And what are Those People that Endeavour to Robb and to Strip their Sovereign of All These Necessary Supports Or what can any man do More toward the Execution of the Malice of the Pretended Popish Plot then to enter into a League and to Ioyn in a Conspiracy to All These Execrable Ends If the Project of doing All This may be call'd a Plot If to Labour the Doing of it be to be In a Plot And if This was upon the Wheel and Actually a Doing by Otes and his Confederates and Founded upon His Counterfeit Plot too And if I make All This Out from Publique Acts and Orders as Credible as Records the Question and the Reputation of This Sham is at an End for Ever And so I shall Proceed to the Four Heads above mentioned in Course as they lye No Mony. AS to the Matter of MONY How many Addresses were made by a Prevalent Majority of the House of Commons for Reward to the Discoverers of Godfrey's Murder Five Hundred Pound Reward to Bedloe Dangerfield to be Pardon'd and Rewarded And so for Turberville Bourk Sampson Macknamarra Eustace Commins c. Beside the Horrible Charge of Pensions for the Entertainment of Otes Bedloe Dugdale and Forty more But after all these Expences not a Penny to be either Supply'd by Bill or so much as Borrow'd upon Anticipations unless upon Terms Worse then Death as by These following Votes will Appear Resolved That his Majesty in his Last Message having Assured This House of his Readiness to Concurr in all other Means for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion This House doth Declare that untill a Bill be likewise passed for Excluding the Duke of York this House cannot give any Supply to his Majesty without Danger to his Majesties Person Extreme Hazzard of the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to Those by whom This House is Intrusted Resolved That whosoever shall hereafter Lend or Cause to be Lent by way of Advance any MONY upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-Mony shall be Adjudged to Hinder the Sitting of Parliaments and shall be Responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whosoever shall Accept or Buy any Tally of Anticipation upon any Part of the Kings Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be Struck shall be Adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be Responsible therefore in Parliament In the Address of Decem. 21. 1680. The Commons Insist upon the Excluding of the Duke of York and an Act of Association Or otherwise see what Follows Without these Things the Allyances of England will not be Valuable nor the People Encourag'd to Contribute to your Majesties Service From hence it does abundantly Appear that his Late Majesty was Driven upon Expence and Hinder'd of Supplys by All Arts and Shifts Imaginable and the Readiest way of finding to what End All this was done will be to look into the Grounds and Reasons of their so doing The Lords sent down a Vote to the House of Commons for their Concurrence Declaring that their Lordships were fully Satisfy'd that there was a Horrid and a Treasonable Plot Carry'd-on by the Papists in Ireland Unto which Vote the Commons Agreed with an Addition in Manner Following This House does Agree with the Lords in the said Vote with the Addition of These Words That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation of his Coming to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement thereto the Irish Plot that is as well as to the Horrid Popish Plot in This Kingdom of England Resolved That it is the Opinion of This House that there
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
in Preparation and bringing to Perfection it is our Resolution and we do Declare that in Defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will Stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge any Violence Offered by them to your Sacred Majesty It is to be noted that the Vote was Soften'd in this Address For as it was Worded at first Whoever had Kill'd the King the Papists should have Gone to Pot for 't which Hint did as good as say Get but over This Iobb my Masters and y 'ave done your Bus'ness But the Conspirators found a way however to Supply That Restrictive Distinction by Murdering him Themselves and giving it out that the Papists had done it according to the Evidence of the Republican Conspiracy which says it was so Determin'd if the Rye House Project had Succeeded The Conspirators were to go to several Persons and Ask them Supposing that the Papists should Rise or that there should be a General Insurrection or a French Invasion Are you in a Posture of Defence This was the very Practice and the Imposture in the Case of the Militia the Double-Guards and the Rout they made among the Papists But Keeling a little Lower in the same Tryal puts it into somewhat Plainer English. These Men says he where to be in a readiness and it was Design'd that the Thing should be laid upon the Papists as a Branch of the Popish-Plot Which may serve for an Excellent Commenâ— upon the Present Text. Upon the 15th of Dec. 1680. There was no way with 'em but immediately to Banish All the Considerable Papists in England out of the Kings Dominions And it is to be Suppos'd that they would not have Forgotten his Royal Highness in the Number Especially Considering how Mindfull they were of him in Other Cases Insomuch that there was hardly any thing done by the Conspirators that had Worm'd themselves into the House but for Countenance-sake and to While away Time that had not the Ruine of the Duke and consequently of his Royal Brother in the Bottom of it and they were so Eager upon 't that all they could do without it was to no purpose Resolved Nemine Contradicente that so long as the Papists have any Hopes of the Duke of Yorks Succeeding the King in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto Belonging The Kings Person the Protestant Religion and the Lives Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects are in Apparent Danger of being Destroy'd And then follows Another Resolve upon the Necessity of such a Bill Excluding and Proroguing Two Great Points THE Refusal of This Bill and the Last Refuge that the King had left him of Proroguing Parliaments were Two Terrible Rubbs in their way For with the Help of the One they could have done the Bus'ness of the Roman Catholiques at pleasure and made as many Reputed and Suspected Papists of the Rest of his Majesties Subjects as they found Averse to the Popular Design And Then under the Countenance of a Sitting Parliament they had a Thousand Tricks and Devices by their Printed Votes Papers and Intelligences to make their Principals Fall down and Worship them as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion the Heroes and Patriots of the Common Cause and the Saviours of the Nation But the Cunning Snapps of the Faction finding that the King would not let go his Power of Calling them and sending 'em away again as he pleas'd and that Prorogations and Dissolutions were but as Sentence and Execution to them They had the Wit to make a Provision of Parliamentary Guards for the Oxford Meeting under Colour of Securing the Protestant Members from having their Throats Cut there by the Papists And it is more then Probable that if his Majesty had not very prudently taken Two Steps at a Time and Dissolv'd them upon the very Spot and Instant without the Antecedent Ceremony of Proroguing them they would have found under the Colour of a House of Commons yet in Being Another Game to Play. There had been a Heavy Cry made upon all their Former Disappointments in Pamphlets Papers Discourses Addresses upon Surprizing Prorogations Popish and Amazing Prorogations c. which humour they did Notably set forth in an Address to his Majesty of No. 11. 1680. IN relation to the Tryalls of the Five Lords Impeached in Parliament for the Execrable Popish Plot we have so far Proceeded as we doubt not but in a short time we shall be ready for the same But we Cannot without being Vnfaithfull to your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are Intrusted Omit upon This Occasion humbly to Enform your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryalls are much Increased by the Evil and Destructive Councels of those Persons who Advised your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the Last Parliament at a time when the Commons had taken great pains about and were Prepar'd for those Tryalls And by the like Pernicious Councells of those who Advised the Many and Long Prorogations of the Present Parliament before the same was permitted to Sit whereby some of the Evidence which was prepared in the Last Parliament may possibly during so long an Interval be Forgotten or Lost and some Persons who might probably have Come-in as Witnesses are either Dead have been Taken-off or may have been Discourag'd from giving their Evidence But of One Mischievous Consequence of those Dangerous and Unhappy Councells we are Certainly and Sadly Sensible Namely that the Testimony of a Material Witness against every of Those Five Lords and who could probably have Discover'd and brought-in much Other Evidence about the Plot in General and Those Lords in Particular cannot now be given Viva Voce forasmuch as That Witness is Unfortunately Dead between the Calling and the Sitting of this Parliament To prevent the Like or Greater Inconvenience for the Future we make it our most Humble Request to your Excellent Majesty that as you tender the Safety of your Royal Person The Security of your Loyal Subjects and Preservation of the True Protestant Religion you will not suffer your self to be prevail'd upon by the Like Councell to do any Thing which may Occasion in Consequence though we are Assured never with your Majesties Intention either the Deferring of a Full and Perfect Discovery and Examination of This most Wicked and Detestable Plot or the Preventing the Conspirators therein from being brought to speedy and Exemplary Justice and Punishment and we humbly beseech your Majesty to rest Assured Notwithstanding any Suggestions which may be made by Persons who for their Own Wicked Purposes Contrive to Create a Distrust in your Majesty of your People that Nothing is more in the Desires and shall be more the Endeavours of us your faithfull and Loyal Commons then the Promoting and Advancing of your Majesties True Happiness and Greatness NOW to Observe a little upon
This Lamentably-Complaining Address the Old Vein I perceive of Popery and Calamity Conspiracy and Destruction runs quite thorough it And what Misery soever has either Threatn'd or Befall'n the King the Government the Church or the People is All-Charg'd upon the score of This Almighty Plot as the First Cause and Mover of it And which was the spite on 't no Averting of Those Impending Miseries but by the Kings Parting with his Honour his Crown Natural Affection Humanity Gratitude In short His Ministers His Friends His Prerogative Reasâ—n and Iustice 'T is Urg'd that the Councels were Evil and Destructive that Mov'd his Majesty to a Prorogation and Then to a Dissolution of the Foregoing Parliament How could it be Evil and Destructive in the Advising and not so in the Doing too Or what matters it whether it be done Without Advice or With it so long as the Venom of This Address Wounds the King Equally under the Cover of his Ministers The Want of That Advice and Resolution in the Parliament of One and Forty Cost the Royal Father his Life and the Son Probably upon such a Concession would not have come-off much Cheaper Unless it shall be Imagin'd that he might have found Better Quarter in the House then in the Field from the very same Persons that were Now in Councell and Afterwards in Arms against him It is pretended that the Commons were ready for the Tryal of the Five Lords at the Dissolution of the Last Parliament Now This was only Bubbling the Multitude for the Commons Themselves would not Yield to 't unless the Earl of Danby might be Try'd First But to say All in a word The King was Vndone if he did Not Prorogue and the Republicans if he Did. As to the Possibility of more Witnesses Coming in it cannot be Deny'd that according to the way of Summons that was then in Fashion the Common Iayles nay Newgate it Self in the Case of Prance were Consulted for Evidence and they could not well fail of as many Witnesses as either Malice Faction Countenance or Reward could Prevail upon to Forswear themselves But a Material Evidence it seems was lost by 't Bedloe they mean. A Fellow known for a Blasphemous Atheistical Wretch A Thief a Cheat and in fine a Scandal to the very Alms-Basket What a Dismal VNFORTVNATE Loss was This now of so Material an Evidence in Good Time upon the Plot in General which Material Evidence in the True Intent of it is no Other then a Rogue that would Swear any thing But against the Five Lords they say in Particular And if there had been Five times Fifteen Hundred more of them he should have Sworn against 'em All at the Same Price I can hardly look back upon the Parting Complement without Thinking of the Addresses and Declarations of One and Forty for the making of Charles the First a Glorious King they are so Very Very Alike But so much for the Bus'ness of Prerogative And now for the Other Great Point the Matter of Exclusion let the Bill Speak for it self 'T is Long But it Carries the Heart in the Face on 't and 't is Pity but Posterity should have it Entire The Bill amended as the House had order'd was read Intituled An Act for securing of the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging WHEREAS James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest then that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the prevention whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Iurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Iurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Iurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the pains penalties and forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of November 1680. return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of High Treason and further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such return of the said James Duke of York that then every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and suffer as in cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Noli prosequi
draw from This Preposterous way of Proceeding is that the Whole Story from End to End was a Practice that the Suborners of the Perjury were also the Protectors and the Patrons of it Both under One And that they had their Accomplices in the House of Commons upon This Crisis of State that play'd the same Game which their Fore-fathers had done upwards of Forty Years before The Earl of Shaftsbury a Busie Man in our Late Troubles BUt after the History of the Wickedness of These People it will be Needfull to look a little into the Woe they Wrought us Or at least to Compute upon the Calamitous Infelicities of That Season and Whence they took theâ—r Rise The Man knows little of the Histoâ—y of Our Troubles that 's a Stranger to the Life Practice and Character of the Late Earl of Shaftsbury who had the Wit in All Changes and Revolutions of State still to Turn Tail to the Weather and Swim with the Tyde And he did This too by Nature as well as by Application for beside the Advantages of a Mercurial Humour a Ready Tongue And a Dext'rous Address he had none of Those Vulgar Barrs upon him of Honour Shame or Conscience to put any Checque to the Impetuous Course of his Ambitious Lusts I am not upon the Story of his Life but it shall serve My Purpose to say that thorough All the Vsurpations from Forty to Sixty he came Sailing down still before the Wind and so from that time forward steer'd by the same Compass ON November 17. 1672. His Lordship being already Chancellour of the Exchequer and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury was further Advanc'd by his Majesty to the Keeping of the Great Seal with the Title of Lord Chancellour of England And upon the 8th of November 1673. He was Discharg'd of That Commission Upon the Opening of the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. His Lordship in a Large and Elegant Speech Blesses God and the King as follows LEt us Bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which Rages in our Neighbours Countrys our Garners are full and there is no Complaining in our Streets c. Let us Bless God that he hath given This King Signally the Hearts of his People and most Particularly of This Parliament Let us Bless the King for taking away All our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies for those Assurances and Promises he hath made us Let us Bless God and the King that our Religion is Safe That the Church of England is the Care of our Prince That Parliaments are Safe That our Properties and Liberties are Safe What more hath a Good Englishman to Ask but that This King may Long Reign and that This Triple-Allyance of King Parliament and People may never be Dissolv'd HIs Lordships Matters as yet went Merrily on and his Good Humour kept pace with his Good Fortune But so soon as ever the Wind came about All these Blessings were thrown over the Left Shoulder The Clouds began now to Gather and soon after Discharge themselves in a Storm upon Papists and Publique Ministers In This Mood they brought-on the Bill about the Test whereof Andrew Marvel for the Honour of his Noble Patron gives This Account The Parliament having met the 5th of Feb. 1672. Prepared an Act before the Mony-Bill Slipt thorough their Fingers by which the Papists were Obliged to Pass thorough a New State-Purgatory to be Capable of Any Publique Employment Vpon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellor of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of That Act and of the Protestant Religion that in due time it Cost him his Place and was the First Moving Cause of all Those Mis-adventures and Obloquy which since he lies ABOVE not UNDER IT deserves a Note the Libellous Deduction Marvel gives the World of the Kings Administration of Affairs as well Before as After This Celebrated Exploit of my Lord Shaftsbury's in a flat Contradiction to his Lordships Character of the King and to his Report of the Happy the Safe and the Peaceable State of the Government For whoever reads That Pamphlet will find it only an Artificial Scandal Imposture Cast-out to the Multitude upon set Purpose to make his Majesty Odious to his People One would have thought that the Gaining of the Test-Bill should have set their Hearts a little at Ease but That was not sufficient without calling for Fast upon Fast Raising the Militia Voting down the Guards Enquiring into Publique Grievances c. which being Said and Done with a Noverint Vniversi in the Eyes and Ears of the Nation is all one in many Cases with Ringing the Bells Backward and Firing the Beacons as if the Town were a Burning or an Enemy Landed and as far as Black-Heath in their March to London And all upon the Old and Everlasting Ground of Iealousie and Apprehension still That is to say BECAVSE The Restless Practices of Popish Recusants threatn'd the subversion both of Church and State. The Wheel was now in Motion and they drove like Iehu 'till they Dropt at last into Otes's Bottomless Plot. Shaftsbury had been a long time at the Trade of Fast and Loose and what with Industry Craft Malice and Experience the Fittest Man perchance in the Three Kingdoms to be the Head of a Faction And he was the Fitter for 't because his very Inclination prompted him to Mischief Even for Mischiefs sake It was his Way and his Humour to Tear All to pieces where he could not be the First Man in Bus'ness Himself And yet All this while his Faculty was rather a Quirking way of Wit then a Solidity of Iudgment and he was much Happier at Pulling-down then at Building-up In One Word He was a man of Subtlety not of Depth and his Talent was Fancy rather then Wisdom His Arts were Popular and after All his Politiques he was as great an Hypocrite in his Vnderstanding as in his Manners But the Best Incendiary yet upon the Face of the Earth for he had an Excellent Invention and a Protesting Face without either Faith or Truth Now when the Common People are to be Couzen'd One Imposture puts off Another and False Conclusions follow Naturally upon False Premises This is the Brief of his Character from those that knew and understood him Best and a man cannot do Right to the History without giving the Next Age a True Account of a Person that had so Great a Hand in the Confusions of This 'T is with the Mobile as with the Waters the very Blowing upon them makes them Troublesom and Dangerous and in the End to Overflow their Banks His Author sets him forth as the Great Advocate and Champion for the Bill of the Test and makes him Effectually
Labour'd so long under the Scandal of Oppression Cruelty and Injustice upon the Testimony of so Infamous so Sottish and so Despicable an Impostor Never so many Persons of Honour met in a Court to give Evidence toward the Confounding of so Contemptible a Miscreant Never was any Perjury made-out by so many Vnquestionable Witnesses and Demonstrative Proofs and yet for the Honor of the Criminal it must not be Forgotten how he stood his Ground to the Last I Appeal says he to the Great God of Heaven and Earth the Iudge of All and once more in his Presence and before All This Auditory I Avow my Evidence of the Popish Plot All and every Part of it to be nothing but True and will expect from the Almighty God the Uindication of my Integrity and Innocence THis Last Effort of his from any Other Lips would have Stagger'd a man if the Exact and Wonderfull Agreement of the Testimonies against him and the Palpable Contradictions of his Own Witnesses had left any Possibility for Doubting But from a fellow so Flagitious in the Habit and through the Whole Course of his Life This Last Defyance of God's Power and Iustice Compar'd with the Ordinary Course of his Conversation and Manners did but serve to make the Man All of a piece The Practice and Attempts of Bestiality upon his own Servants after he was preferr'd from a Street-Begger to be a King's Evidence the Falseness of his Malicious Oath against Parker at Hastings His taking the Holy Sacrament over and over so many times for a Cover for his Malitious Treasons These and the Like are Things so Certain and so Notorious that no Mortal that knows his Person can be a Stranger to his Villany My Lord Chief Iustice says indeed that There was a Consult and there was a Conspiracy against the Life of our King our Government and our Religion Not a Consult at the White-Horse in the Strand but a Caball and Association of Perfidious Rebels and Traytors who had a mind to Embroil us in Bloud and Confusion This is the very Truth and may serve for the Winding-up of That Point There was most Indubitably a Republican Plot as has been made appear from the Express Acts of the Plotters Themselves and Trac'd through Every Step of the Proceeding from the very Project and Foundation of it to the Last Resolve of putting it in Execution But This Plot was to be Call'd a Popish Plot according to the True Intent and Meaning of the Revenging Vote which by Interpretation was no more then This That The True-Protestants were to Kill the King and the Papists to be Hang'd for 't Our Accounts Cast-up whether we have Got or Lost by the PLOT WE are now at the Bottom of This Bottomless Bus'ness and we should do very well and like Sober Men and Good Managers of our Honour Time Peace and Mony to Compute a little upon matters So much for Double Guards So much for Treating the King's Witnesses So much among Catch-poles So much in Pensions So much for a Fond to Defray Plot-Charges So much in Narratives So much in Processions and Pope-Burnings So much to Re-imburse Otes and Bedloe the Seaven Hundred Pound a Man they were out of Pocket for the Protestant Cause So much upon Well-Affected Elections So much in Ignoramus Iuries but Discounting All this while for what we have Receiv'd from the Westminster-Insurance-Offices upon the Whole Charge and in One word to see at the Foot of the Account Paper and Pack-Thrid pay'd for whether we have Got or Lost by Part'ner-Ship with Otes and his Adherents and Abetters in This Loyal forsooth This Religious and This English Bloud-Adventure IT is not to be Deny'd and it is already Agreed that King Nation and People have Suffer'd All manner of ways and in a very Great Measure too quite thorough This Period of Otes'es Administration and All for Fear of the Damnable Hellish Popish-Plot Because and by Reason of it and that we were Necessitated to do what we did to secure his Late Majesty and his Government against Popish Conspirators and his Sacred Person against Poyson and Silver Bullets Had it not been for That Damnable Plot the King had been Safe The Queen and the Duke Vntainted and the People had still continu'd in their Wits and in their Duty The Popish Lords had been yet at Liberty the Priests Iesuits and the Godfrey-Men Vnhang'd The Papists might have had Tolerable Quarter among the rest of the King's Subjects and the Honour and Iustice of the English Nation might have yet stood as Fair in the Esteem of Other Christian Princes and States as ever it did So that upon the Vpshot what have we now to say for the Wickedness the Folly and the Madness of Those Times if there was NO Popish Plot at all nor any thing Like it but the Seditious Confederacy of an Ambitious Caball of Iuggling Canting Hypocrites to Murder the King Themselves from behind That Stale What Reparation now for Innocent Bloud and Oppression What Satisfaction or What Effectual Repentance for Those that Preach'd Pleaded Supported Assisted how Innocently soever the Credit of that Diabolical Imposture without making the Churches the Courts of Iustice Coffee-Houses and Other Publique Places Ring as Loud of their Mistakes as ever they did of their Invectives and Clamours The Misleading of People into a Belief of Falsities of This Desperate Kind and Consequence even though I my self take them to be Truths is but next door to the Swearing Men into a Belief of That which I Know to be False That is to say If when I come to find My Own Error I do not Endeavour to set All Those People Right that I Carry'd out of the Way The Shame of a Repentance is not far Remov'd from the Wilfull and Deliberate Committing of a Sin. I do not Expect that My Sermonizing here shall Work upon Those that Shut their Eyes against the Light of Experience and Example though One would think that men should be very Wary of Setting That Door Open over and over again that had been still the Inlet to all our Former Confusions If a Thief Breaks into my House at a Garret-Window I 'le provide Better Barrs and Bolts And Undoubtedly a Government may have a Weak side as well as a Private Habitation and there ought to be as much Care taken to Secure a State against Political House-Breakers upon That Quarter where they ever Enter'd Before A Caution against the same Cheat over again THE President of This Cheat and Pretext and the Sense of the Ruinous Calamities which the Belief of it has brought upon us should methinks Fortifie men against Those Panick Frights and That Childish Ielousie and Credulity that has Wrought us All This Misery And it is not to say that there may be more Reason for This Apprehension at One Time then at Another for let the Reason be Great Little or None at all it works the Same Effect
61. Order'd to Manage the Fire at the Hermitage 71. To carry the White-Horse Consult from Company to Company fol. 18. And was not Our Discoverer Privy to Wakeman's Poyson Conyers'es Dagger Pickerings Screw'd-Gun and the Silver Bullets The History of the Black-Bills the Pilgrims Ruffians and the Levies of Men and Mony c. Was not Otes privy to a matter of Eighteen Commissions Military and Civil under the Hand of Ioannes Paulus De Oliva by Vertue of a Brief from the Pope as he Swore before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs One of them to Iohn Lambert to be Adjutant-General to the Army and Nine or Ten of them Deliver'd with his Own Hand Was he not Privy in fine to the Price of the Whole Villany to a Single Six-Pence So that as to the matter of Privity the Privity of Habernfeld and his Principal is quite Out-done by the Privity of Tong and Otes who according to their Narrative and Pretensions were Vndoubtedly Privy to Fifty times more then ever any Two men upon the face of the Earth were Privy to before them The Discoverer says the Preface again was Troubled in Conscience and Therefore Disclosed the Conspiracy Renounc'd That Bloudy Church and Religion though Promised Greater Advancements for his Diligence in This Design Ib. And what was it but Horror of Conscience too if we may believe Oaths either Iudicial or Extrajudicial that made our Converted Discoverers whether Papists Bred-up or Proselyted to Disclose This Popish Treason and to Renounce That Bloudy Religion in Defiance of All Offers of Rewards and Advancement Was not Dugdale to have 500 l. Lord Staffords Tryal p. 43. And to be Sainted Ib. 44. Was not Bedloe to have 4000 l. in the Case of Godfrey Greens Tryal p. 30. And might not Otes and all his Fellows have come in for Their Snips to if their Consciences would have Touch'd But This Plot was Discover'd under an Oath of Secrecy says the Preface and the Discoverer Offer'd his Own Oath too in Confirmation of the Particulars Ib. What was Bedloes Sacrament of the Altar Twice a Week to Conceal the Plot Greens Tryal fol. 33. but an Oath of Secrecy Dugdale took at least Ten Sacraments of Secrecy Sr George Wakemans Tryal p. 10. Otes an Oath of Secresy at Weld-House-Chappel Irelands Tryal p. 28. And then there was Another Oath of Secrecy taken at Fox-Hall too And so for the Rest Our Discoverers did not only Offer but Deliver their Own Oaths in Confirmation of Every Article Habernfeld Discovers Persons Places and Times of Meeting too Ib. And does not Otes Discover the Lords in the Tower and such Others of the Nobility and Gentry as are in the Conspiracy See his Narrative from fol. 61. to the End. Their Priests Iesuits and Papists of All Sorts The Times and Places of their Meetings Even to the Year Week Day Nay and sometimes to the very Hour One while at the Savoy Another while at the White-Horse Russel-Street Weld-Street and the like Well! But Habernfeld's Principal Conspirators are known to be Fit Instruments for such a Design Ib. And are not Otes'es as Fit Instruments as Habernfelds The Principals are most of them Men of Quality Brains Interest and Estate and Consequently better Qualify'd then other People for the Execution of any Mischief they have a Mind to Beside that as 't is a Popish Plot they are not only to be All Roman Catholiques but All made Principals too without leaving so much as One Soul of them to Witness for Another Now as there 's no Means of Clearing them on the One hand saving by Palpable Blunders and Contradictions on the Part of the Accusers So if any of 'em will Swear to the Hanging-up of his Fellows on the Other Hand he is presently made Sacred under the Character of a Kings Evidence and Touch not his Majesties Witness carries more Authority along with it then Touch not the Lords Anointed The Preface says further that Sir W. Boswell and the Arch-Bishop if not the King Himself were fully Satisfy'd that the Plot was Reall Ib. Men may be Satisfy'd in the Reality of a Thing and yet Mistaken about it As we have found many Men in Both Plots that have Seem'd to be Satisfy'd and yet afterward abundantly Convinced that they were Abus'd So that the Belief of a Thing does not Necessarily Inferr the Truth of it but it must be the Work of Time and Scrutiny to Perfect the Discovery Neither do I find Effectually that there was so much Credit given to Habernfelds Plot as is here Suggested A Nemine Contradicente is No Article of my Faith Though it says that There Is and Hath been a Damnable and Hellish Plot Contriv'd and Carry'd on by Popish Recusants for Assassinating and Murdering the King for Subverting the Government and Rooting-out and Destroying the Protestant Religion Commons Iournal Oct. 31. 1678. Though I must Confess they had One Powerfull way of Convincing Men by the Argument of Swearing them out of their Reputations Lives Liberties and Fortunes if they would Not Believe it The Parallel holds thus far Exactly and we 'le see now how it Suites with the Minutes of Habernfelds Letter to the Arch-Bishop which I have made as short as I can for the Readers Ease and for my Own. The Minutes of Habernfelds Letter Beside Expectation This Good Man says Habernfeld speaking of the First Discoverer became Known unto me p. 1. By the same Providence it was that Otes Bedloe Prance and Twenty more of our Plot-Merchant-Adventurers came Acquainted Bedloe Swore to the Lords that he did not know Otes 'till it came out by Providence that he knew him as Ambrose but not as Otes And so Otes to requite his Kindness knew Williams though he did not know Bedloe 'T was such another Wonderfull Providence Bedloes knowing Prance over a Pot of Ale at Heaven after he had Enquired and been Told which was Prance in the Commons-Lobby Damme says Bedloe That 's one of the Rogues that Murder'd Sr Edmundbury Godfrey As to the Scottish Stirs he speaks of p. 1. Otes'es Missionaries Answer Habernfelds Scotch Lords of whom hereafter The Factions of the Iesuits thorough England and Scotland p. 2. and the Discoverers Descant we have in Dr. Beale's Readings to Tong upon them Otes'es Narrative â—its the Adjacent Writing there spoken of Ib. Habernfeld got Free Liberty to Treat Ib. And so did Tong. There must be No Delay says Habernfeld Ib. Make Otes'es Enformation a Record Immediately says Tong And so away goes the One to Sr William Boswell Ib. the Other to Sr Edmund-bury Godfrey And now forward As Some Principal Heads in Habernfeld's Relation were purposely Pretermitted p. 3. So Bedloe shorten'd his Evidence against Whitebread and Fenwick in the Iesuits Tryal and Swore Further after he had Sworn All Before And so did Otes and the rest Purposely Pretermit many things
of Christian Charity suffers them not to Conceal These Things Yet both from his Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected p. 8. These are the very Reasonings and Pretences of Ezrel Tong put into the Mouth of Titus Otes No Figments So help me God No Thought of Gain but Pure Zeal and Christian Charity to work upon the Discoverers But yet some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected as a matter of Ten or Twelve Pound a Week-Pension for Otes and the Value perhaps of Four or Five times as much more in Presents and Veils A Deanery or some such Trifle for Tong. What is All This but a Flat Contradiction thrown in the very Face of the Pretext It is as Clear as Day that Tong and Habernfeld in All Things Material Walk Hand in Hand thorough the Whole Story But to avoid Idle Repetitions as much as may be I shall in the Next Place make a Short Abstract of Habernfeld's Last and Long Paper of Intelligence and so Finish my Parallel It bears This Following Title And from thence I shall Proceed to the Heads of it The Large and Particular Discovery of the Plot against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars p. 13. The A King is in Danger of his Life and Crown B England and Scotland to be Subverted The Discoverer of This was Born and Bred in the C Popish Religion being D Fit for the Design p. 13. He was E sent over by Cardinal Barbarini F Troubled in Conscience and G came over to the Orthodox Religion H Reveal'd the Treason to a Friend I Put the Particulars in Writing out of which were drawn K. Articles p. 14. He falls upon the L Iesuitical Off-spring of Cham. p. 15. The M Society are the Conspirators The N Popes Legat is their Chief Patron They hold their O Weekly Intelligences p. 16. Cuneus the Instrument of the P Conjur'd Society He Presents the King with Roman Curiosities Promises but Means it not to Espouse the Cause of the Palatinate p. 17. Offers the Bishop a Cardinals Cap makes use of Court-Instruments and Mediations p. 18. But finding All in Vain Q Ambushes were to be Prepar'd wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be Taken p. 19. They pass R Sentence against the King and lay hold of the Indignities put upon Prynne Burton and Bastwick and the Scotch Service-Book to stir up the Puritans to a Revenge Some Scottish Popish Lords are sent to Enflame S Scotland by which the T Hurtfull Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be Slain V An Indian Nut provided by the Society and shew'd to the Discoverer in a W Boasting Manner To Poyson the X King after the Example of his Father p. 21. Hamilton's Chaplain Private with Cuneus A Chaplain of Richelieu's sent over to Assist the Conspiracy A Character given of Sr Toby Mathews p. 22. And an Account of his Intelligences Haunts and Meetings p. 23. The Story of Reade over again p. 24. Iesuits Letters and Meetings And Y All the Papists of England Contributing to the Design p. 25. One Widow Gave Forty Thousand Pound English toward it And Others beyond their Ability in Proportion He follows This with a Ramble upon Several Persons by Name that were dipt in the Conspiracy And further with This Remarkable Discovery The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest Dead above Three Years since He had a Palace Adorn'd with Lascivious Pictures which Counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was Palliated a Monastery wherein Forty Nuns were Maintained hid in so Great a Palace It is Scituated in Queen Street which the Statue of a Golden Queen Adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought All This Street and have Reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is Tacitly built with the Hope that it might be Openly finish'd as soon as the Universal Reformation was begun p. 29. To pass a Short Note now upon the Whole The Design upon the A King and B England and Scotland is the General Scope of Otes'es Plot. He pretends to come over from C the Popish Religion No man Fitter for the D Design E sent over F Troubled in Conscience and G Converted The General of the Iesuits at Rome and the Provincial Here did the Parts of Cardinal Barbarini and the Popes Legat. Otes H Revealed the Treason to Tong and I put the Particulars in Writing out of which Tong Extracted K Articles Otes makes M the Society the Conspirators The Provincial serves for N The Popes Legat. The O Weekly Intelligences Grove took an Account of and for Instruments of the P Conjur'd Society Otes'es Narrative has them in abundance The Q Ambushes were laid in St. Iames'es and at Windsor The R Sentence pass'd at several Consults The Rebellion in S Scotland by Irritating the Puritans was Manag'd by Otes'es Missionaries and the King to be Murder'd as the T Hurtfull Disturber of their Liberties Wakemans Poyson was V the Indian Nut and Cuneus's Boasting of it Answers Conyers'es shewing Otes the Dagger in Grays-Inn-Walks Habernfelds Talk of Poysoning the X King after the Example of his Father was Match'd both in the Narrative of Otes'es Plot and Expressly in his Epistle before that Narrative to the Eternal Infamy of the Reporters of it And as Habernfeld Y makes All the Papists of England to be Concern'd in This Conspiracy so Otes in his Epistle and Narrative has made an Vniversal Plot on 't Only we want a Forty-Thousand-Pound Widow to Perfect the Parallel But That Defect is Amply Supply'd in Irish Contributions and Other Secret Services As to the Foolery of the Last Paragraph the Man must be a Great Stranger to London as well as to Common Sense that can look upon it as any other then a most Extravagant Foppery and without any Colour or Coherence After This Large Discovery as the Enformer Pretends comes a Summary in Eleven Heads of the Whole Matter which is only the same over again and is Answer'd over again by the same Parallel Only the 10 th Clause has an Expression in it Worthy of Remarque Some says he of the Principal Vnfaithful ones of the Kings Party are Notify'd by Name Many of whose Names Occur Not yet their Habitations are Known p. 31. Now in Otes'es Muster of the Conspirators it runs Whose Names Occurr at Present Nar. fol. 61. One would have thought they might have Vary'd the Phrase a little But our Modern Discoverers have been much better at Copying then at Inventing Witness This Whole Parallel and the Five Iesuits Letters It must not be Omitted neither that the Order of Politicians which Habernfeld speaks of p. 15. is Learnedly Turn'd forsooth into the Order of POLITITIANI by Otes in his Narrative Art. 53. In Conclusion here 's a Plot Copy'd-out to the Life and the Transcript a most Scandalous and Impious Cheat beyond all Controversy whatever the Original was
one anothers Minds had Created so Entire and Mutual a Confidence that from hence-forward their Hearts were as Open to one another as their Faces and the Confederate Guilt of Perjury and Murther with the Varnish of Religion put upon it was no longer a Secret betwixt them After Otes's Return in Iune or Iuly from St Omers he lay Lurching up and down the Town One while in Drury-Lane Another while with Tong at the Flying-Horse in Kings-Street Westminster Kick'd-off by the Iesuits and at his Wits End what to do with himself 'till in the Conclusion he betook himself to his Old Councellor again in the Barbican and there they fell to the Hammering of their First Project over again The Doctor in one of his Diary-Papers gives this Short Account of the Matter About the First of August 1678. Mr Otes brought and read unto Dr Tong at his Chamber in the Barbican his Discovery of the Plot Written in a Hand wherewith the Doctor was not then Acquainted but refused to leave it or to give a Copy of it to the Doctor Now says Young Tong My Father Advis'd Otes to write the Plot in Greek Letters because that None but Themselves might be Privy to what was done The Copy which was in Greek Letters was burnt by Otes When they came to Fox-Hall Mr Kirkby was taken in for an Assistant after he had been Sworn to Secrecy The Dr says likewise to This Matter in a Paper Dated Aug. 11. That Mr Otes put the Discovery of the Plot which he had written in 43 Articles under the Wainscoat at the further end of Sr Richard Barkers Gallery in his House in the Barbican near Dr Tongs Chamber-Door according to the Drs Directions where the Dr took them up and chusing for Privacy to Correspond rather by Papers with an Vnknown Person then Personally with Any man in the Plot gave Mr Otes Direction to Write or Cause his Enformations to be Written in the Greek Character rather then in his Own hand which he could not Vary nor Hide from being Known and gave him Other Directions both to Abscond his Person and Hand which notwithstanding he Observed not That Dr· Tong Copy'd the said Articles forthwith and sought to Communicate them to his Majâ—sty Compare This again with a Passage in The Impartial State of the Case of the Earl of Danby c. concerning Otes'es Narrative which Tong had Presented to his Majesty and the King had put afterward into the Hands of his Lordship It gives an Account of my Lords Discourse with the Dr upon This Subject in Question and Answer The Earl shew'd the Papers to the Dr and Asked if Those were They which he said they Were Qu. Whether they were Originals Ans. No. They were Copies of His the Drs Writing Qu. Who was the Author and where the Original Ans. He did not know the Author for that the Originals which he said were in his Custody had been Thrust under the Door of his Chamber but he did not know by Whom only he did fancy it must be One that had some time before held Discourse with him tending to such Matters Qu. If he knew where to find That Man Ans. No. But he had seen him lately Two or Three times in the Streets and it was likely not to be Long before he should Meet him again What is All This now but Sham upon Sham The Articles were not yet brought to bear and therefore the Plot did Better in Greek then in English 'till upon Further Thoughts it might be Lickt over Corrected and Amended This Conjecture is very Expressly seconded with a Passage of Young Tongs in Another Letter where he says that there were several Copies Written of Otes'es Narrative veâ—y Different the One from the Other It is again to be Noted how Slyly Tong tells the Earl of Danby that they were Thrust under the Door but by Whom he did not know nor where to find the Man When yet the Thing was Done by His Advice The Doer of it in Tong 's Company all this while and the Man as well known to Tong as ever One Man was to Another They went afterward to Fox-Hall says Young Tong by my Fathers Advice to the end they might be more Private where Those Papers that they Wrote at Sr Richard Barkers were put into Form and deliver'd-in to the Councel After They All Remov'd from Fox-Hall and Nail'd up the Chamber-Door having left Several Papers behind And my Father Vnderstanding by Mr Lambert that the Door was broken up by the Landlord and the Papers like to be Seiz'd on was much Troubled at it and sent away the Rent that was Due by his Man Richard This House where my Father and Otes Lodg'd was called by â—he Neighbours the Plot-House and there Otes'es Narrative was Written whereof several Copies were Written Different the One from the Other and the Four Jesuits Letters wherein Otes pretended was the Whole Discovery were Counterfeits The Four Letters here Mentioned were the Four Letters that the Attorny-General says in his State of the Evidence were All Enclosed in One Cover But there was likewise a Fifth Subscribed Nich. Blundel c. which Young Tong it seems had no Knowledge of There are in fine so many Circumstances of Proveable and Open Fact in This Cause that there 's no room Imaginable for so much as the Pretence of a Contradiction But still the Point at last of the Windsor Letters Clears the Proof of a Conspiracy if it were possible even above All the rest I have the Originals at This Present in my Hand and there is the Paw of Tong and Otes so manifestly in the very Writing of them as if they had not thought it worth the while to Disguise the Cheat. It was an Imposture that their very Souls Heads Hearts and Hands were All at Work upon And the Forgery Vndeniable only Tong Himself was the Master-Hocus It makes me think of a Story betwixt a Câ—uncellor and his Clyent about an Answer to a Bill in Chancery You must needs come and draw up your Answer says the Lawyer we shall be under a Contempt else Why draw it up then quoth the Clyent Well! says the Other but what do I know what you can Swear to Never Trouble your Head for That says the Clyent again in a Banter Look You to the Lawyers Part and draw me up a Sufficient Answer and leave it to Me to do the Part of a Gentleman and Swear to 't when you have done This Dialogue in Iest was the very Case of Tong and Otes in Earnest and what the One Dictated the Other Swore to CHAP. VII By what means This Imposture came to be Promoted and the Manner of doing it WE have now brought down This Phantome of a Plot from Forty to Seventy Two From Seventy Two to Seventy Eight From Habernfeld to Sr William Boswell and so to Arch-Bishop Laud to King Charles the First To Prynnes Romes
did if it were not that I find his Enformations strengthen'd and Supported by other Concurring Evidences and by the very Tenour of the History of That Season and if it were not likewise that Notwithstanding the Blasted Infamy of his Charaâ—ter and that his Credit was then at Lowest they were Glad yet to make Fair Weather with him without putting him to the Stress of Proving his Enformations which at That time probably might have been made out by Other Hands It may be made a Question perchance in the Next place What Warrant I have for the Vouching of These Papers of Old Tong 's to be Authentique either as Originals or as True Copies To which I can only say that there was a Trunk of Dr Tongs Papers Seiz'd at Colleges which was brought to Me a Long Time after the Taking of them to be Open'd and Examin'd and so they were and Attâ—sted in the Presence of several Justices of the Peace and Other Gentlemen These were the Papers that Simson Tonge says were Taken at Colleges where the Dr Dy'd And it appears from the very Quality of These Papers that there were others of Greater Consequence Convey'd away which Confirms what Simpson Tong says further about the Administration and the Conveying away of the Other Writing The much Greater Part of the Papers in the Trunk were Whimsyes of Project Calculations about Anti-Christ and the Number of the Beast Snaps of Chimistry Political Speculations Rough Draughts of Cases Petitions and Addresses Several Copies of a Sort But among Others there were Abundance of Dirty Fragments of Paper with a Confusion of Minutes and Memorials upon them of Times Dates Places and Persons and Particularly several Passages according to those Circumstances that I find in the Narrative which Manifestly shews that they were ratâ—er Matters Concerted toward the Making of a Narrative and the Adjusting of Articles that might Hang together then any Report of Otes'es upon the Point of Narration and Fact. In One Word These Broken Snaps of Writing were undoubtedly Forgotten or Not Heeded rather then laid up in this Trunk and a man might easily gather from what was Left that there had been a Cull made out of them Before For there was enough remaining as I have said already to give Light to the Subject and Design of Those that were either Remov'd or Destroy'd But the Doctors Hand is as Distinguishable from any Other Character that I ever saw as ever One mans Face was from Anothers One of the Iesuits Letters says Tonge in his Petition is in my Fathers Hand And any man that has a mind to Compare That Iesuits Letter with the Other Papers of the Doctor 's that I have Cited in These Remarques will no longer be able to Doubt that they were Both Written by the Same Hand And This I suppose may pass for a very Reasonable Account both of my having These Papers in my Possession and of the Credit of them CHAP. IX The Design of Tong 's Plot was upon the Duke of York THe Main and Principal Design says Young Tong in one of his Letters was to Disinherit His Royal Highness Popery was the Colour The Duke of York was brought in Consequently as the Head of the Roman Catholiques The Queen not Spar'd and the Late King Himself more then Innuendo'd into the Conspiracy Plain-Dealing Otes gives his Late Majesty a Touch on 't in the Preface to his Narrative And if it be True as it comes from a very Good Hand and I believe it when Bedloe was Press'd to say Whom he saw about the Murder'd Body of Sr Edmundbury Godfrey he did Heroically Declare that he would not Name the Man Nay and though he was Adjur'd to do it by an Eminent Patron of the Cause that is now in the Grave His Answer was Short and Resolute that there was He and He and a Tall â—lâ—ck Man but he would go no Further So that the King and the whole Royal Family were brought into the Toyle as well as His Royal Highness For Excluding for Popery Involves Deposing and Monarchy it self was to Fall too with his Majesty Witness the Association that was render'd Inseparable from the Exclusion and Carry'd in the Project of it the very Lines and Method of a Common-Wealth Simpson Tong follows the Blow at His Royal Highness with some Particular Names which out of Decency and Respect I shall forbear making Mention of the Lord Shaftsbury c. by whom the Matter was Publiquely and in Truth Carry'd-on But it was no Great Wonder when a Company of Fools had put so many Shams together and given them the Countenance of a Discovery or a Narrative for a Pack of Crafty Blades to Vernish it over afterwards and to put Popular Glosses upon it As to Tongs Aversion to the Duke of York with a Regard both to his Title and Religion the Vein of it runs quite thorough All his Papers where-ever he can but bring in That Subject thougâ— by Head and Shoulders particularly in the Bus'ness of Mr Coleman and in the Cheat of the Five Windsor Letters where he lays the Blasting of That Discovery at the Door of his Then Royal Highness by Possessing his Majesty against the Belief of Bedingfields Letters and over-ruling the Credit of them whereas it is made Sufficiently Notorious already that when the Faction afterward were Audacious and Powerfull enough to â—ress and to Procure his Banishment to Attempt his Exclusion Impeachment nay the making a Traytor of him they had not yet either the Face or the Heart to venture so much as One Syllable of All These Letters into Evidence But One Instance shall serve for All. In Tong 's Iesuits Assassins being the Enformation of One Green a Weaver drawn up and made Parliament-Proof by Dr Tong he brings in a Discourse betwixt One Mr â—oyer and Green a Weaver concerning the Titles of the Duke of York and Duke of Monmouth If there be a Difference says Green between the Duke of York and the Duke of Monmouth and the Parliament do not Settle it I believe that All the Protestants in England will venture theiâ— Bloud before the Duke of Monmouth shall lose his Birthright and We lose the Liberty of Our Religion too Bâ—yâ—r And We will Venture All our Lives and Fortunes on the Behalf of the Duke of York and for the Interest of Our Religion Green. What can You do for You be Nothing to Vs. Boyer Do not you Think so for although we are but Thin here yet there be Many in Other Places and Powerfull Persons too I will raise a Company c. I am now gotten into the Acquaintance of them by whose Assistance I can get a Commission from the Duke of York as well as Another fol. 2. And now comes Tong with a Politique Nota Bene upon 't N. B. This agrees well with Mr Jenisons Relation of a Commission promised Him c. And here it may be Noted by what False Sly and Pernicious Suggestions and
on the 8 th he gave the Lords Committees a General Touch of the Popish Lords Commissions Armies to be rais'd of Coleman's being a Great Agitator in the Design against the King The Iesuits in the Conspiracy c. Desiring Time to put the Whole Narrative in Writing which he had Begun Now to Explain the Amusement of This Wild and Uncertain Generality the Revelation was but of One Days standing and they had not as yet Time enough to Concert the Particulars so that the Bare Naming of the Lords and their Commissions The very Hinting of Armies to be Rais'd and the simple Mention of Coleman for an Agitator was as much as Bedloe durst venture Upon without further Lights and Instructions Coleman's Accusation was then upon the Anvil and the Plot the Ground-Work of the Whole Transaction but there was No want of Heart and good Will All this While to the Emproving of This Occasion and his desire of Time to put the Whole Narrative in Writing carry'd the very same Countenance as if he should have said Pray My Lords spare us but Three or Four Days to Confer with the Managers of the Intrigue and let us alone for a Damnable Hellish Popish Plot ready Cut and Dry'd and a Second Witness to support it This is so fair and Reasonable a Gloss upon the Text That the Lords Committees were not without some Jelousies of it even in the very First Instance as appears upon the same Journal by their asking Bedloe Whether he knew Otes or not And why should Bedloe then Deny the knowledge of him if he had not been Conscious that the Owning of an Acquaintance with him would have made the Evidence smell too Rank of a Confederacy But to Touch This Matter to the Quick It will appear by and By upon the Comparing of Notes and Resemblances that Bedloe and Prance were Initiated into This Mystery by the same Lesson of Instructions only with This Difference in the Motives to what they did that the One Forswore himself for Fear and the Other for Mony. Bedloe as I have sayd gave Evidence to the Murther upon the 7 th of November 1678. Prance was Committed on Saturday the 21. of December following for Assisting in the Murther of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey He was Examin'd the same Night and stood stiff in 't that he knew Nothing either of the Death of Godfrey or of the Popish Plot and Bedloe was as Positive upon the First Examination that He knew Nothing of the Plot neither Now the Plot was a Thing so Necessary that the Five-hundred-Pound-Murther would not have been worth Fifty Farthings without it and though the Bait was thrown out for the Discoverers of the Murther the Anglers were yet secur'd before-hand that upon a sound Bite they should draw up a Discoverer of the Plot for the Matter being Equally Both ways a Perjury the One they knew as I have noted before would be as Cheap as the other They had both of them however only One Night and no more to Sleep upon 't And it was Impossible in that Pinch of Time to bring their Matters to Agree in Every Point like a Pair of Tallyes And therefore Bedloe was fain to Content himself at Present with a Tale of a Cock and a Bull Just as the Journal sets it forth without any Pregnancy of Likelyhoods or Particularity of Circumstances to give it Credit Now Prance was upon his Peril to speak out at Four-and-Twenty-hours-warning too for on the same Day that he was taken up and Examin'd Damning himself to the Pit of Hell if he knew any thing either of the Death or of the Plot he was Committed to the Condemn'd Hole in Newgate Loaden with Heavy Irons And for That Night left to Chew upon 't whether he would venture his Soul or his Carcass which was the very Choice Before him In This Condition he lay both of Body and of Mind till Early next Morning being Sunday when Up comes a Person to him Wholly Unknown Layes down a Paper upon a Form just by him and so goes his way Soon after This Comes Another with a Candle sets it down and Leaves him By the light of that Candle Prance read the Paper Wherein he found the Substance of These Following Minutes So many Popish Lords mentioned by Nameâ— Fifty Thousand Men to be Rais'd Commissions given out Officers Appointed Ireland was acquainted with the Design And Bedloes Evidence against Godfrey was Summ'd-up and Abstracted in it too There were Suggestions in 't that Prance must undoubtedly be Privy to the Plot with Words to This Purpose You had better Confess then be Hang'd Prance fancy'd This presently to be a Contrivance of Shaftsburyes and Design'd for Hints of what he was to Swear to Novv These vvere the very Points also of Bedloe's Depositions And as Bedloe vvas to second Otes in the One So Prance was to second Bedloe in the Other Prance Ponder'd for some hours upon the Heads of his Paper and the Circumstances of his Condition and what with the Noisomness of the Place the Cold of the Season the Weight of his Chains the Sense of his Misery Want of Health and the Dread of Death upon the laying of things together he took the right Quene and desired the Master of the Prison to Carry him to my Lord Shaftsburys under Pretence of Matters of Great Moment to Communicate to his Lordship Captain Richardson gave his Lordship an Account of it and Thereupon received An Order for Bringing of Miles Prance to Shaftsbury-House to be farther Examin'd He vvas Carry'd thither betwixt Five and Six the same Evening and there Continued till about Eleven that Night So soon as he came thither he was Call'd into a Low Parlour where was Shaftsbury and Three more And there Examin'd strictly upon the Points of the Paper and Threatned with Hanging if he did not Confess Upon these Menaces Prance Yielded and so fram'd a Pretended Discovery in Part with a Promise to speak out more at Large if he might have his Pardon VVhereupon there was a Paper drawn up vvhich Prance Sign'd and he vvas then return'd to the Place from vvhence he came By this time they had secured Three Strings to their Bovv and it is vvorthy of a Note that Bedloe and Prance like a Couple of School-Boys of the same Form had in Effect the very same Lesson given them and the very same Allovvance of Time to get it by Heart in But to come now to the Matter Bedloe was upon his Oath as I have said Already to Deliver the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth And the Lords Committees did over and above Conjure William Bedloe to speak Nothing but Truth And he did in the Presence of God as he should Answer it at the Day of Iudgement assure All to be True he had Depos'd Lords Journal Nov. 12. â—678 It was upon the same Terms too and Under the same Conditions that he gave his Evidence upon all Tryals of the Pris'ners
in Question The Next Point will be how far he was True to his Matter and to Himself without either Stretching Shortning Suppressing or Clashing with his own Testimony but with a Charitable Abatement of and a Christian Allowance still for Humane Frailty The Point in Issue was a Plot or No Plot upon the Life of the King c. So that all Omissions upon That Mortal Article are Mightily to be suspected of Malice and Iniquity where they carry the Face of a Direct Tendency to That Execrable End. CHAP. V. Notes upon Certain Omissions Enlargements Disagreements and Contradictions in the Evidence of Bedloe and Prance concerning the Plot together with the True Reasons Thereof WE have Already given a General and a Sufficient Account in the Last Chapter but one of the Evidences Deliver'd by Bedloe and Prance upon the Subject of the Plot And we are now to take into Consideration the Competency the Fairness the Fulness and the Consistency of Those Depositions In the First Place the Omissions and Enlargements that appear in the several Enformations upon Comparing them One with another Now this is a Point not to be Cleared without References Repetitions and Recitals So that there 's No help for 't but by making them as Few and as Short as may be 1. I find it upon the Lord's Journal that the Monks of Doway gave Bedloe the Sacrament Four Times upon a Charge of Secrecy Nov. 12. 1678. 2. And again That Bedloe Demanded of Mr. Gage the Rector of the English College what they would do with the King. He Answered They would keep him well in a Convent 3. Bedloe then Demanded who should Govern in Chief He told him there should be a Tender made to ONE of the Crown if he would Acknowledge it from the Church but they did believe he would not Accept of it and then the Government should be left to some Lords that the Pope would appoint which Lords he would not tell me but said I should know it from the Monks at Paris Lords Journal Ib. 4. He says again in the same Deposition as is Already hinted in the Third Chapter Who were to Govern Who Told him so Ten Thousand from Flanders to Land at Bridlington-Bay The Lord Powes Petres c. to Rendezvous in South-Wales with Another Army and They to Ioyn Twenty or Thirty Thousand more that were to Land at Milford Haven from the Groin in Spain which Army was to be RELIGIOVS Men and PILGRIMS from St. Jago in Spain c. Lords Journal Ibid. 5. Forty Thousand Men ready in London Beside Those that would on the Alarum be Posted at Every Ale-House Door to have Kill'd the Soldiers as they went out of their Quarters 6. Le Phaire told him also that when any Plotter was taken up he should be kill'd before he was brought to his Tryal or the Prison Burnt 7. And That Guernsey and Jersey were to be surpriz'd by a Power from Brest and other Places of France and that several French Ships have layn in and about the Channel All This Summer upon the same Occasion 8 And further Le Phaire Pritchard c. as before had often told him that there was not a Roman Catholique in England that was not Privy to the Design and had not Received the Sacrament from their Father Confessors to be secret and assistant to the carrying of it on To Pass a Note or Two upon the Particulars above they are of so great Importance to be Thoroughly Sifted and made out that the Plot it self the Credit and the very Being of it stands or falls upon the Truth or Falsity of these Enformations But the Stress does not lye so much upon True or False as whether this be the Whole Truth or Not For All these Heads and Circumstances of the Story upon the Lords Iournal and the Four Evangelists over and above are utterly Forgotten in the Evidence upon the Tryal of the Pris'ners Now if Bedloe Deliver'd the Whole Truth at First how came he afterwards to Enlarge his Evidence But to Expound this Riddle now he swore before the Lords to the Generals only of Otes's Plot for Otes himself was not yet Resolv'd upon the Particulars So that which way soever Titus Led William was bound to Follow and the Point of his Oath in Westminster-Hall was not Levell'd at the Plot it self but at the Persons of the Pretended Conspirators Now to trace Things in order as they lye before us We hear Nothing of Four Sacraments The Convent The Tender of the Crown and the Pope's Resolution upon 't The Ten Thousand and the Twenty or Thirty Thousand the Pilgrims and the Religious The London Forty Thousand The Posting of People at Ale-House Doors The Killing of Plotters or the Burning of Prisons The Surprizing of Guernsey and Iersey Every Roman Catholique of Quality under a Sacrament to serve the Design We have not one Syllable of All this in the Printed Tryals though upon the same Oath and froâ— the same Lips that swore to the Whole Truth upon the Lords Iournal But here 's the Scheme of Otes's Plot yet upon the whole Matter And then for the Tender of the Crown as it is Pointed at in the Third Article it is so exactly the Drift and the Case of a Whimsey set forth in Otes's Narrative only in other Words viz. The Pope hath ordered says Otes That in case the Duke of York which is the ONE he speaks of will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope as of his Gift and settle such Prelates and Dignitaries in the Church and such Officers in Commands and Places Civil Naval and Military as he hath Commissioned as above Extirpate the Protestant Religion and in Order thereunto Ex post Facto consent to the Assassination of the King his Brother Massacre of his Protestant Subjects Firing of his Towns c. by Pardoning the Assassins Murtherers and Incendiaries that then HE be also Poysoned or Destroyed after they have for some time abus'd his Name and Title to strengthen their Plot Weakned and Divided the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland thereby in Civil Wars and Rebellions as in his Fathens Time to make way for the French to seize These Kingdoms and totally ruine their Infantry and Naval Force Otes's Narrative p. 64. This Paragraph comprizes in few Words a General View of the whole Project and it was but Swearing so many Men to such and such Parts and Offices in this Fiction of a Conspiracy to Compleat the Reputation of the Discovery that is to say some were to have Publique Charges and Commissions Others to carry on the Massacres Murthers Assassinates Poysoning and Conflagrations And after the Digesting of the Treasons they could not well fail of Discovering the Traytors especially when the same Oath that made the One made the Other It is not to be Imagin'd that Bedloe upon his repeated Oaths before the King and the Lords could Honestly forget so many remarkable Instances of
some Illuminations in Aldersgate Street he began to see Day-Light and to Promise Discoveries if he Might be sure of a Pardon On Munday the 23. The House was Inform'd as I find it upon the Lords Journal That Miles Prance hath made some Discovery of the-Plot and hath offer'd to make further Discovery of the Plot and also touching the Death of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey and the Whole Manner of it If he might First be fully Assured of his Majesties Gracious and General Pardon c. The Plot goes First I perceive but upon This Report Immediate Application was made to His Majesty a Full and General Pardon Promis'd and it was forthwith Order'd that certain Lords should acquaint Miles Prance in Newgate That Afternoon with his Majesties Gracious Assurance and that they should then and there Proceed to Examine him thorougly in Order to a True and perfect Discovery and that Care should he taken that No other Person Lord or Commoner should be present at the said Examination but the said Lords and the Pris'ner The House of Commons pass'd Two Orders of the same Date likewise upon the same Subject 1. Order'd That the Committee of Secrecy or any Three of them do repair to the Prison and take the Examination of Mr. Prance touching the Plot and the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Post Meridiem 2. Ordered That the Committee of Secrecy appointed to Examine Mr. Prance do Impart to the Pris'ners in Newgate the Contents of His Majesties Proclamation in Relation to the Discovery of the Plot against his Majesties Person and Government Commons Journal pag. 206 207. It makes a Man Tremble to think what a Iayl-Delivery of Discoverers this Temptation might have Produced The Assurance of a Pardon had by This Time Mellow'd Prance and made him Ripe for a Further Examination so that upon Tuesday Morning Decemb. 24. He was Examin'd by the King in Council about the Plot and about the Murther with a Promise of Pardoâ— upon a Full Discovery Hereupon he Declar'd That One Girald an Irish Priest spoke to him about the Killing of a Man not saying who it was this was about a Fortnight before the Murther And about a Week after Girald Green and Hill told him they would Kill Sir Edmundbury Godfrey for he was an Enemy to the Queen or her Servants He had us'd some Irish Men Ill and Girald told him the Lord Bellassis would see the Action rewarded Girald owning an Old Grudge to Sir Edmund about a Bus'ness of Parish-Duties He said they had Watch'd him a Week or Fortnight before his Death Green had call'd at his House that Saturday Morning and that He Girald and Hill had Dogg'd him That Day until he came by his Death His Majesty thereupon appointed the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Ossory to take Prance's Enformation at Somerset-House from Place to Place where the Things were acted which they did accordingly and reported the Matter to his Majesty in Council which Report we shall here Insert at Length as the very Key of the Imposture to any Man that shall but Trace the Story through the Lodgings May it Please your Majesty IN Obedience to your Majesties Order signified to us this Morning in Council we have been at Somerset-House and there taken the Examination of Miles Prance a Silver-Smith touching the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey upon the Place where the same was Committed and in Virtue of the Oath taken before your Majesty he declared as followeth That it was either at the Latter End or the Beginning of the Week that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey did about Nine of the Clock at Night pass from towards St. Clements as far as the Great Water-gate at Somerset House being watched and followed by Lawrence Hill one Green and one Gerald that Hill making some hast before stept within the Wicket which was open and turning soon out again call'd to Sir Edmund as he was Passing and said there were two Men quarrelling within who might soon be quieted if once they saw him Whereupon he entred through the Wicket and after him Green and Gerald and down they all went till they came to a Bench that is at the Bottom of the Deep Descent and joyning to a Rail next to the upper end of the Stables on the Right hand That upon the said Bench there were sitting and attending their coming the Examinate Miles Prance and one Berry the Porter of the Other Gate together with an Irish-man that Lodg'd at Green's House whose Name 〈◊〉 knows not And by that time they were come half way down he the said Prance went up to the Wicket there to attend and give notice if any came and at the same time the said Berry went streight on from the Bench toward the Stone Stairs which led to the Upper Court and when Sir Edmundbury Godfrey came down to the Bench Green who follow'd him put about his Neck a large Twisted Handkercher and thereupon all the rest Assisted and dragged him into a Corner which is behind the said Bench and the said Rail and Green who Inform'd him in the manner hereof and with whom he had before Seen the large Twisted Handkercher added that he had Thumped him on the Breast and Twisted his Neck untill he Broak it And the Examinant saith that he did in about a Quarter of an hour after he had been standing at the Wicket come down to see what was done and found that they had Throatled him but his Body remain'd Warm and seem'd hardly Dead But He together with the said Hill Green Gerald and Berry and the Irish-man took him up and convey'd him through a Door that is on the Left Hand coming down at the Corner of the Coach-House which leads up several Stairs into a long dark Passage or Gallery opening at last into the Upper Court in which Passage there is a Door on the Left hand which being open'd leads up with Eight Stairs into Another House adjoyning but Immediately upon the Right hand being got up there is a little Closet or Square Room into which they convey'd the Body and there set the Body Bending with the Back against a Bed which the Examinant having now seen again thinks to be the same Bed that was there at the said Time. He further said that Hill lived at this House and the Body was for Two Days Left there in his care but then being afraid of Discovery Hill Gerald Green Berry and the Irishman as they told him did Take and Convey the Body from thence about Nine or Ten of the Clock at Nâ—â—ht and carry'd it into the House and into some Room towards the Garden and that while the Body lay there he was by Hill conducted to see it and saw the Body as it lay Bended and Green and Gerald were present That from Thence upon a Tuesday Night the Body was brought back near to the Place where first it lay into a Room in the said Gallery over-against the first Door somewhat higher up
that the Men he had sworn against were All Innocent and that All he had sworn against them was False which he Affirmed with great Passion and Earnest Asseveration The Late Blessed King Pressing him in These very Words as I have good Authority for 't Upon your Salvation is it so Prance Replying Upon my Salvation the whole Accusation is False He was Carry'd thence to the Council where he fell down upon his knees also and Deny'd All that he had sworn at First Insomuch that the Duke of Monmouth Inferr'd that Certainly they had let Priests and Iesuits come to him he could Never have gone off as he did else He told the very same story to the King in Council upon the 30 th as he had done upon the 29 th To Conclude He stood Firm to This Denyal against All Terrors and Temptations from the 29 th of December to the 11 th of the Following Ianuary and his Carcass had not as yet gotten the full Mastery of his Conscience but when he once overcame That scruple He Proceeded by Degrees from a sin of Infirmity to the Habit of a Most Malicious Wickedness Though upon the VVhole Matter I have Charitable Reason yet to Believe that God has vouchsaf'd him the Mercy and the Grace of an Vnfeigned Repentance I should now come to take his Westminster-Hall Evidence to Pieces but telling his Tale by Book and having Little or No occasion to Change his Note His running the History over and over in his Evidence was in Effect but the so many times saying of the same Lesson again Not but that there are Blunders abundantly and Incongruities upon the Connexion that are never to be Justify'd or Reconcil'd As for Example Prance swears before the King and Council Decemb. 24. 1678. That Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was Murther'd either the Latter end or the Beginning of the Week and afterward that the Body lay about Six or Seven Days in Somerset-house before it was Carry'd out But he swears Punctually upon the Tryals to the Saturday Morning Nay to the very Hour of Nine or Ten fol. 15. to the Dogging of him till about Seven to his coming to Somerset-house about Eight or Nine where he lay till Munday-Night and what became of him 'till Tuesday and so to the Chairing of him away to Prim-Rose-Hill upon Wednesday about Midnight which amounts to but Four Days from Saturday Night and from Munday but Two. But we shall have Work enough to Observe upon Contradictions and Absurdities when we come to Confront Prance and Bedloe One with Another and in the Mean time it shall suffice that he has given Himself the Lye with the Horridest Solemnity of Imprecations Imaginable in Denyal of Every Article of his Accusation Besides that he was as much Out when he was to shew the Duke of Monmouth and My Lord Ossory the Room in Somerset-house where the Body was First Lay'd December 24. as Otes was to bring the Earls of Ossory and Bridgwater to the Stair-Case that led to the Place where he Overheard the Queen speaking Treason Nov. 26. Nay My Lord Ossory Himself had such an Opinion of the Story that Mr. Vincent who was then Attending the Duke of Monmouth heard my Lord Ossory tell his Master upon Asking What he Thought on 't that it was All a Great Cheat. CHAP. VIII The Secret History of Prance's Condition from December 29. 1678. to January 11. 1679. and the Secret Manage of him in the Prison THE Readers Memory must be Refresh'd once again with it that Prance was Taken-up by the Lords Committees Examin'd and Committed to Newgate Decemb. 21. 1678. Finally Denying every Point that was Charg'd upon him On the 22 d. Shaftsbury c had the Handling of him as Captain Richardson well knows and by the Help of a Preparatory Paper of Instructions formerly spoken of Wrought upon Good Nature so far as the next Morning to obtain the Promise of a Pardon for him upon the Plot-Condition of Making out a Full and Perfect Discovery and on the same day he was Close Ply'd in the Prison with Two Committees one after another upon the Subject to Cross the Proverb of Confess and you shall Not be Hang'd On the 24 th he Deliver'd his Enformation at large to the King in Council from whence he was Remov'd back again and according to Order put into a Better Lodging There he continued near a Week with his Irons sometimes off sometimes on During which Time he was taken out by one of the Keepers who told him You are now going to be hang'd but they Carry'd him to my Lord Chief Iustice And upon his Refusal to Answer to Certain Interrogatories he was taken back again to Prison There pass'd Nothing Considerable till the 29 th and 30 th Upon which Two Days he did with Dreadful Imprecations Declare and Affirm both to the King and Council upon his Knees and upon his Salvation tho Those Words are left out of Mr. Chiffinche 's Evidence in the Tryal that his Depositions are wholly False and the Persons Innocent that he had Accus'd Affirming likewise to his Majesty and Council that he had no other Hints to the Story he had told then what he took from the aforesaid Paper of Instructions that was laid by him in the Condemn'd Hole in Newgate as is set forth in another place Now That which I call Prance's Secret History is the Account of what pass'd in the Interval betwixt his Falling off from his Former Evidence and his returning to it again a Parenthesis that lyes much in the Dark and a Period too Remarkable to be Bury'd in Silence Soon after This Vehement Denyal and Retractation of Prance's the Lords Committees Ian. 2. Order'd one William Boyce to Attend them about Miles Prance who accordingly with his Wife Attended their Lordships on the 4 th And being Interrogated upon the Enformation of Iohn Wren about Prances Lying abroad at His House they made This Answer WILLIAM BOYCE Enforms That upon Clapping up of the Jesuits into Newgate he was in a Coffee-House with Miles Prance who hearing thereof Lamented their Misfortune and openly Declar'd them to be such Honest Men that some of the Company said they would Complain of him to the Council-Board whereupon Prance being affraid did on Wednesday and Thursday Night the Second and Third of October Last come and lye at his House but never before nor since And the Wife of Boyce also being call'd-in Deposed the same Now This Enformation of Boyce Destroys the Oath of Iohn Wren that says he was out Tuesday and Wednasday Night when Godfrey was Missing and of Margaret his Wife that says he was Missing Four Nights that Week And so of Charles Manning and Elizabeth Trevor that swear to his Lying abroad some Nights More or Fewer betwixt the 12 th and the 17 th of October according to the Entryes of them made in the Council Books He Persisted in his Denyal of All and from the 30 th of December to the 8
th of Ianuary following what with the Deadly Cold and Nastiness of the Place the Distress of his Condition the Agony of his Thoughts under the Horror of Drawing upon himself the Guilt of Innocent Bloud and the Galling Weight of his Irons he lay in such Torments both of Body and Mind that he spent his Hours in Roaring and Groaning and Restlessly Exclaiming and Crying out Not Guilty Not Guilty No Murther And so the same Out-Cryes or Clamours at least to that Effect Over and Over that they had no way to Cover the Scandal and the Inhumanity of his Usage but either by Imputing the Anguish of a Wounded Conscience to the Ravings of a Distemper'd Brain or else to make a worse Matter on 't by Ridiculing a True Repentance into the Story of a Counterfeit Madness But when Things were at the worst Miles Prance was now and then by Fits as the Good Humour Prevail'd Eas'd of his Irons Comforted with Good Words and nothing of Manage Omitted for the bringing Him to Understand Reason Upon the 8 th of Ianuary 1678 9. Captain Richardson attended the Lords Committees about the Safe Custody of Miles Prance according to an Order of the Day before He was call'd-in to give some Enformation in Writing concerning him as Also the Enformation of his Servant Charles Cooper and it appearing to the Lords that Prance strives what he can to Counterfeit being Mad and that he spake Plainest when he was in Irons their Lordships therefore Direct Captain Richardson to return him to the Condition he was first in hoping by some Streightness he may be brought to stand to the Truth Their Lordships further Order'd that Dr. Lloyd the Dean of Bangor be Desired to Discourse with Prance in order to settle his Mind if there be any real Occasion for it and that Mr. Dean do attend their Lordships to Morrow to receive Directions therein On the Day following Dr. Lloyd Attended the Council-Chamber according to Order And thereupon a Letter of Instructions was sent to Richardson as folows Sir THe Lords of the Committees have This Morning Discoursed Dr. Lloyd the Dean of Bangor concerning Miles Prance and the Various Tempers he hath appeared in and their Lordships have Desired the Dean to try whether he can Compose his Mind by such Methods of Discourse and Persuasion as he shall think fit to use Wherefore the Lords Direct that you do from Time to Time permit Mr. Dean to have Access to him as he shall desire and as well All the Papers of Mr. Prance's Evidence here Depending as also what your Man Cooper hath Certify'd touching his Behaviour there have been sent to Mr. Dean for his Better Enformation c. It appears likewise upon the Council-Books that a Servant of Captain Richardson 's Attended their Lordships the same Day Cooper a Servant from Captain Richardson acquainted the Lords that he sate up last Night with Prance who is according to Directions put in Irons He says that he slept very Little and used much Raving Talk but having Drink by him and pretending to have spilt it by Flinging down the Vessel there did not appear one quarter of the Drink to be spilt That when he put on his Stockings having Stirrups within and one of them Tore he layd the Pieces over each other before he drew the Vpper Stocking on and having put on his Shoes with the Buckles Wrong he presently Alter'd them to Rights The Next day Ian. 10. Captain Richardson had another Letter about giving Boyce Liberty to Visit Prance in the Words following SIR THE Lords of the Committee did think fit This Morning to send for William Boyce who was an old Friend and Acquaintance to Miles Prance and believing that he may do much toward the Composing of the Mans Mind the Lords have Discoursed with him at Large and would have you also Enform him in what you can and to permit him from time to time to have Access to the said Prance and he will come and Enform the Lords how things do Pass which is all I have in Command from the Lords to signifie and am c. On the Next Day came Cooper again with Another Report from Newgate about Prance Charles Cooper Servant to Captain Richardson gave their Lordships an Account how that Prance had Yesterday Rav'd very much but in the Afternoon grew more Mild and desir'd to speak with Captain Richardson which he did and soon after Dr. Lloyd came to him That he rested well till Midnight but then fell to Rave Crying out frequently that it was not He Murther'd him but They kill'd him He having long forborn to Eat Cooper told him he would lose his Stomach if he did not Eat whereupon he fell to Eat very Heartily and having the last Night thrown in to him a Flock-Bed with a Piece or Two of Blanket to cover him he made use of all to his Conveniency rather than to Continue on the Boards On Ian. 11. Captain Richardson receives Another Letter as follows about Prance SIR THE Lords of the Committee having put into the hands of Dr. Lloyd his Majesties Warrant for Prance's Pardon and Instructions how to make use of the same you are to follow such Direction as the said Doctor shall give you either to the taking off Mr. Prance's Irons or for his Better Accomodation notwithstanding their Lordships former Order to the Contrary And the same Day Mr. Dean of Bangor tells their Lordships that having been several times with Prance he first found him very Sullen and Denying all but at last his Speech was Consistent and he desired the Doctor to come the next day as if then he would say more which the Doctor doing he appear'd very well compos'd and in good humour saying that he had Confess'd Honestly before and had not Wrong'd any of those he had Accus'd This Report of the Doctors is follow'd with another of Boyces of the same Date William Boyce who had also been with Prance tells the Lords That he Enquir'd for his Wife and was glad to hear she was not in Prison That he fear'd he should be Hang'd by what my Lord Shaftsbury told him That if he did not Confess and Agree with Bedloe in what Concern'd the Murther that he should be Hang'd He also seem'd to fear that Those Three whom he accus'd meaning Green Berry and Hill were set at Liberty That he would Confess All if he were sure of his Pardon That he desired to speak with the Lord Shaftsbury about Four Men that had a Design to Murther him Captain Richardson tells the Lords that Prance sent Yesterday for him while he was in his good Temper told him that Four Persons Named in the Following Warrant together with Young Staley and Himself were lately Drinking at the Cross-Keys over against Staley's Shop and that their Discourse was how that the Lord Shaftsbury was a great Persecutor of the Catholiques and must be taken off by shooting or some Other way and that he would have told
Vouchsafe me upon This Subject and in particular I Begg'd a Word from his Lordship to These Following Queries In what State he found Prance in Newgate with Respect to his Owning or Denying the Murther In what Condition of Health and in what Manner he was Chain'd and Fetter'd and whether he did not Condition upon his Discovery to be Eas'd of his Irons His Lordship was pleased to return me an Answer to this Question bearing Date April 16. 1686. in the Words following It was late as I remember on a Friday in the Afternoon Jan. 10. 1678 9. when I was call'd before his Majesty in Council and there Order'd to go to Prance Then in Newgate and it was quite Dark before I got thither When I came to Captain Richardson with my Order he brought me up into the Room where Prance was I never saw it before or since that I remember nor saw it then but only by a small Candle Light. It was wall'd strong and close with great Pieces of Timber And yet it was very Cold through the Extreme Hardness of the Weather Prance lay in the furthest Corner of the Room from the Door Wrapt up in a Coverlet or some such kind of Thing Now This was the Flock-bed and Blanket before mentioned by Cooper When the Captain call'd him up he seem'd to have very little Strength in him but with much ado he came to me at the Chimney where I think there was a little Fire but I am not certain of this The Captain withdrew and I said to him what I ought in Obedience to the Order that was given me He at first Deny'd his Privity to the Murther with which he was Charg'd and he Confess'd Nothing of it at That Visit. But at last he desired me to come again and then he would tell me Every thing that he knew When I came the next Day in the Evening Jan. 11. 1678 9. he was brought down to the Hall Fire where for a good while I spoke All that was said and he did not Answer a Word to me perhaps he could not for he seem'd to be Stupified with Cold. By Degrees he seem'd to come to himself and then complained Extremely of Pains one while in his Arms Another while in his Legs Roaring with it till the Natural Heat had prevail'd Then he seem'd to be a New Man and spake to me of his own Accord to This Purpose I remember you were with me the last Night and then I promised you I would tell you All that I knew and then he began to open to me so freely not only of the Murther of Sir E. G. but of Designs against the Kings Life by some Persons whom he then mentioned by the way Vernatti was not mentioned at that Time that I began to be affraid of him and warn'd him of so wicked a Thing as the Accusing of Innocent Persons and thereby drawing the Guilt of Their Bloud upon his Head but he protested very solemnly he Had told me and would tell me nothing but the very Truth So then I heard him out till he said he had told me All that he knew or all that he could Think of Then I caus'd him to repeat it before Captain Richardson and told him I would acquaint his Majesty with it which he Earnestly Desired me to do for fear These Designs should take Effect Then and as I think not before he desir'd he might be Eas'd of his Irons and that he might be Lodg'd in a Warmer Room He also desired me to help him to a Physician complaining very much of the loss of his Health I promis'd to remember These Things and so left him and went Immediately to wait on his Majesty with an Account of All that had pass'd by whose Order I deliver'd the Enformations in Writing that Night to Secretary Coventry but first by his Majesties Order likewise I sent Dr. Dickinson to him to be his Physician from whom you may have a better Account of his Health then I am able to give you For that which is suggested of a Chain layd a-cross him to keep him down upon the Floor I saw no such Thing neither do I believe it because I found him wrapt up as I have said Note that this was the 10 th of Ianuary that Prance was found wrapt up in This Coverlet Cooper gave it him the same Night as is said Already and the Captain had received an Order the Day before for the Admittance of the Dean So that there was both Notice and Preparation for his Reception Once more yet in Another of Ian. 18. For that Complaint of the Severity of his Vsage in Prison if there was no other Cause then that which I saw there was too much in That as you will find by the Account I have given you But whether this Severity was a Fault of the Jaylor or the Sheriffs or whose else I know not I found him Lodged in That which I take to be the Common Room for Guilty Felons and Murtherers the Condemn'd Hole and such he had made himself by His Own Former Confession He lay there in Irons which I suppose is the usual Accomodation of the Place But besides he was very slenderly Provided against the Extreme Coldness of the Weather which alone I did Believe would have kill'd him if he had continued there a few days These Things I faithfully represented to his Majesty and did not Conceal them from any one that ask'd me of him at That Time. I was then so much affraid that this Hardship to a White-Liver'd-Man of No Principles might drive him into That Fit of Confession that I made my Visits to him the more sparingly I think I went not once but when I had a Command for it either by my Lord Clarendon or one of the Secretaries But from the Credit of the Story to the Credit of the Man. The Commission of Enquiry to the Reverend Dean of Bangor both from his Majesty and the Lords Committees into This Bus'ness of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey gave his Present Lordship great Advantages of seeing further into This Intrigue then another Man and if they had left the Story to Common Fame without bringing in such Witnesses to make good the Imposture as were sufficient to Blast the Credit even of Truth it self I see nothing to the Contrary but that it might have liv'd many a fair Day without Controll I never saw says the Dean April 16. 1686. how Prance's Evidence could stand and I never went about to Support it As for Otes's and Bedloe 's and Prance 's Enformations they would make me says he Renounce Any Thing that Dependeth on their Credit His Lordship says again in Another of April 18. I believe Prance can say nothing more then every one knows of the Murther of Sir E. G. Yet he is best able to Confute his own Fictions concerning it and his Word may be of some Credit in This though of None in any thing else And a Little Lower Thus. It
Godfrey enjoyn'd Secrecy as aforesaid And that on the Same Day after Evening Service Mr. Michael Godfrey and Mr. Benjamin Godfrey came to their Brothers House to this Deponent as Mr. Michael Godfrey had Promis'd and then they did agree to make Enquiry at all Places where they knew the said Sir E. Godfrey did use to frequent to make Discovery of him but withal did then likewise Oblige this Deponent to Secrecy And amongst the Places where They with This Deponent did make Enquiry they went to the House of one Captain Gibbons and did enquire of Mrs. Gibbons for him as This Deponent believes for as soon as they came out from Mrs. Gibbons they told this Deponent that Mrs. Gibbons said he had not been there That Day and the same Day they went to my Lady Prats living near Charing Cross and several other Houses but could not hear any thing of him upon which Both the said Mr. Godfreys commanded him This Deponent to keep his Masters Absence Secret untill the Next Morning being Monday when they would come to this Deponent again and so they continued their Search and Enquiry after his said Master all That Day and at Night they return'd home charging him this Deponent still to keep it Secret But that Night after their Departure he this Deponent hearing of a great Funeral that was to be Next Night he writ to Mr. Michael Godfrey to know whether it would not be convenient to have his said Masters Absence Divulg'd abroad amongst that Number of People which would be there together to which he return'd for Answer That he should Divulge it at the Funeral but the next morning being Tuesday he was Countermanded by a Messenger from the said Mr. Michael Godfrey not to Divulge it till they both had Communicated it to my Lord Chancellor which after they had done he this Deponent did make known the Absence of his said Master at the said Funeral Here are Five Several Injunctions of Secrecy And Nothing to be Divulg'd 'till the Brothers had been with the Lord Chancellor Now there may seem to be Another Secret yet even in the Mystery of This Secrecy for they were enquiring after him all This while and the Town Rung on 't that he was Gone and that the Papists had Murther'd him So that the Secrecy seems to look rather toward a Concealment of their Opinion what was Become of him then to the Concealment of his Absence But it hangs very strangely together for People to run up and down Enquiring after Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and yet not so much as Own that he is Missing And a Man might as well Suppose the Publishing of a Proclamation or a Hue and Cry upon the Caution of making No Words on 't as such an Order given to Enquire up and down after him upon the same Condition which looks like a Design rather of Concealing One thing then of Discovering Another But however as to the Inquisitive Part Heark'ning after him was a Thing Natural and Proper to be done and as much as Could be done upon That Occasion Mrs. Gibbon speaks to the Same Effect Mrs. Gibbon Senior Deposeth That upon Tuesday Morning as she was going down Stairs from Mrs. Pamphlin she met Henry Moor desiring him to tell her the Truth how Sir Edmund did and whether he was Alive or Not the said Mr. Moor Swearing that he was as well in Health as he himself It was Order'd That at the Funeral this Enformant should be led to Church by the said Sir Edmund's Clark And This Enformant asked him by the Way Why he made such Protestations to her as aforesaid that Sir Edmund was Alive Who reply'd that Sir Edmund's Brothers had commanded him to keep All Things Private and Charg'd him to say so to Save the Estate Iudith Pamphlin Deposeth That upon Tuesday Morning after Sir Edmunds Going away she ask'd Henry Moor what was become of his Master To which the said Moor reply'd To tell you the Truth We are affraid he is Murther'd and his Brothers have been with the Lord Chancellor and my Lord Privy Seal about it and they are to attend the Council this Morning Mr. Aaron Pengry Deposeth That about the Time of the Prosecution against Mr. Payne Mr. Farwell and Thompson about the Letters pretended to be written to Prance upon the Account of the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey he This Enformant being in Company of Several Persons where mention was made about the said Prosecution one of the said Company to the best of This Informants Knowledge said That the Brothers of the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had been to Wait upon the late Lord Chancellor Nottingham about Saving their Brothers Estate But this Enformant not well remembring who it was that said those words and discourse about two Months since upon that account being had between This Enformant and several others in Company among whom was Mr. William Fall who was formerly related to the said Lord High Chancellor as one of his Gentlemen attending him This Enformant asked the said Mr. Fall before the said Company Whether he had not Vtter'd such or the like Words who Answer'd to him this Enformant and the rest of the said Company then present that he had Declar'd as much and would at any time Testify the same if occasion should be given or Words to that or the like Effect Mr. William Fall Deposeth That at the Time when Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Missing from his House Two of his Brothers came several times to the Lord Chancellor Notinghams and that it was a Common Talk in the Family that their Bus'ness with the Lord Chancellor was to beg his Lordships Assistance to secure their Brother's Estate in case he should be found to have made Himself away And then again there 's an Enformation of Mr. White 's the Coroner of Westminster that looks a Little This way too Robert White Deposeth That this Enformant hearing that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Missing went to Mr. Weldens to Enquire after him where he found Sir Edmund's Clark Sitting by the Fire-side in Mr. Welden's Private Room Smoaking a Pipe of Tobacco This Enformant reproving him for spending his Time There since there was such an Uproar in the Town about his Masters Absence To which he gave very little Answer And further That this Enformant then discoursing with Mr. Welden about the said Sir Edmunds Absence The said Welden said He could not tell what to think of it And This Enformant Frequenting the House of the said Welden afterward to hear what News of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey the said Mr. Welden at the last told This Enformant that he did very much suspect him to be Murther'd by the Papists And That between the Pall-Mall and Arundel-House And that if there were a Search made he the said Welden doubted not but it would appear so Vpon which This Enformant told the said Welden That if Sir Edmundbury Godfreys Brother This Enformant knowing but of One Brother had a Desire to
Citations are from a Tryal Printed by the Lord Chief Iustice Pemberton's Order There was Another Pretended Account of the same Tryal Published without Order and said to be Printed for William Mason Wherein by way of Abstract the Evidence against the Pris'ners is strain'd and Falsified and being much Harder upon them then That in the Authentique Tryal 't is to be presum'd that for the Honour of the Court Nothing was Omitted that might give Reputation to the Iustice of the Proceeding I must take Notice again that there 's an Appendix of Affidavits and Observations Annexed to the Licens'd Tryal in the Course of Signature and Folio to support the Credit of Prance's Evidence which looks as if the Whole had been Printed by the same Authority Whereas my Lord Chief Justice only Licens'd the Tryal These surreptitious Pieces are of No Weight and it is but reason to Reject what is Spurious on the one side as it is Fair to Allow the Vttermost Force of All that has been or can be said on the Other There was a Great stir made about Fly-blows or No Fly-blows and whether his eyes were shut or Open. But I shall Touch upon Those Points as they fall in My Way without laying more stress upon the Matter then 't is VVorth To do Right to All People and to All Things and to All Purposes I must Recommend here one Note to the Reader upon the Testimonies Deliver'd and as they are here represented by the Gentlemen above Named They do Not speak to the Whole History of the Bus'ness according to the Literal strictness of the Oath or Duty of an Evidence so as to Expatiate upon All the Minutes of their Knowledge or Thoughts as to the Thing in Question but according to the Equity and the Intent of Publique Iustice For the Court puts the Questions and it is their Part Truly to Answer them without running into Matters Forreign to the Interrogatory They Believ'd upon what they had in Sight that he was strangled and so That was a safe and Convenient Question and the Signs of it about his Neck were emprov'd in favour of That Opinion if he had Dy'd of the Wound they say there would have been a Great Evacuation of Bloud and so the Question upon That Point was in a Manner Restrain'd to the Ditch only some superficial Enquiries about the Dreining of it at the White-house into the Celler and the like As if the Evacuation of a Gallon of Bloud in Another Place were not as Competent a Ground to Conclude upon as One Drop of Bloud in the Ditch But if These Gentlemen had had the Body before them in the Ditch as they had it in the House they would never have troubled themselves with his Neck his Bruises or his Circles having so Demonstrative a Certainty of the True Cause of his Death before them For there was not any Part about him Not so much as a Finger that they would not have read the Workings of Nature in There would have been No Doubt in fine Whether he Dy'd by a Sword or by a Crevat but Who Kill'd him might perchance have Yielded Matter for Another Question if they could have thought it Possible for Mortal Hands to have Drawn so Accurate and Natural a Counterfeit of a Man that had Kill'd Himself To Conclude the Surgeons were Consulted in their Faculty upon what Appear'd to Them without any Obligation upon them to Pronounce upon a Fact that was Wholly out of their Ken As if a Man should ask the Iudgment of the College of Physicians concerning such or such a Disease They may be Great Philosophers and Doctors and yet Mistake the Distemper and much more lyable were These Gentlemen to a Mistake upon the Iudgment of This Iustice's Death In one Word more This Evidence was Effectually but the Repeating of a Lesson and the saying of the same Things over again which they had Declar'd before They were in Truth Leading Questions that Required Following Answers and as it happen'd there was not One Interrogatory that came near the Quick. I will add one Word more and so make an end of This Chapter I am my self Perswaded that there were such Signs of Suffocation as if his Body had been found Hung up in a Room with a Sword thorough it and an Effusion of Bloud upon the Floor too supposing the Wound before he was quite Dead one might have at least divided the Death betwixt the Sword and the Halter But upon the finding of a Sword through a Body in a Ditch and in such a Position too and No visible or Hardly Imaginable Hanging in the Case to Conclude that he was strangled and that the Sword had No Part in his Death was a Thing that Most Infallibly These Gentlemen would never have Agreed to at least 'till they had satisfy'd themselves that there was No Possibility of any Other Cause for Those Signs of Suffocation and 'till they had fully Consider'd whether there Might not be something of Equivalence to such a Suffocation in the Circumstances of the State and Condition wherein they found him CHAP. XII The Iuror's Reasons for the Verdict they gave upon the View of Sir E. B. Godfrey's Body THomas Harris Deposeth That He this Enformant some few Days after Sir Edmundbury Godfrey went Last from his House heard that he was Missing And saith That the said Sir Edmund's Body being found Dead in a Ditch at or near Prim-rose-Hill He this Enformant was Summon'd upon the Coroners Inquest to attend at the White-House near the said Primrose-Hill where there were Two Persons suppos'd to be Surgeons to View and to Probe the Body The One's Name was Cambridge The Other this Enformant doth not know The said Surgeons upon Examining the Body found Two Wounds which they said they Believ'd were given after the Body was Dead And observing a Streak about his Neck they said they Believed he was First Suffocated and some time afterward run Through And this Enformant did not take Notice of any other Surgeons there then Those Aforesaid The matter was there Debated by the Jurors who were not as yet satisfied how he should come to his End There being Evidence of the Place and the Manner of finding him but None of the Particular Manner of his Death So that the Jury Adjourn'd till they should have a Further Summons Vpon Saturday the Day following the Jury met again at the Rose and Crown in St. Giles's in the Fields where they came after a Long Debate to a Verdict Agreeing that the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Strangled by Persons Unknown c. And being further asked How it came to pass that this Enformant and the Jury not being satisfied in the Manner of the said Sir Edmund's Death by any Proofs at the White-House they came Now to be better Satisfy'd therein at the Rose and Crown then they were Before To which this Enformant maketh Answer That an Oyl-man and Some Others made Oath That they saw him in
205 208 324 328 Gibbon Mary Iun. 179 181 182 190 191 193 199 Giles Walter Shoemaker Girle Joseph Kings Bench. 216 244 265 Goffe Robert Goodall Charles M. D. St. Martins in the Fields 316 Goweth James Ioyner Lond. 269 Grundy Tho. Gent. Westm. 174 H. Haddon Thomas Perriwig-maker St. Giles's p. Harris Thomas Cheesmonger 242 Hartwell John Wheelwright Marybone 215 249 319 Hassard John Vintner 268 Hayes Richard Sword-Cutler 318 Hill John Sword-Cutler 318 Hill Eliz. Widow St. Clements-Danes 135 Hills Christopher Shoemaker Saâ—voy Hobbs Thomas Chirurgeon St. Clements Danes 317 Huysman James Painter St. Martins in the Fields 175 267 J. Jennings Edward Cowkeeper 333 L. Lasinby Richard Chirurgeon Coâ—vent Garden p. 258 Leeson Mary Pewterer St. Martins in the Fields 173 Leigh Lucy St. Giles's in the Fields L'Loyd Bishop of St. Asaph 82.87 M. Mason Thomas Gardner of Marybone p. 209 248 252 265.319 Merydale John St. Giles's in the F. Milward Thomas Esq of Grays Inn. Moor Henry of Little-Port 171 191 203 207 Moreton Sarah Searcher of St. Martins in the Fields 254.259 N. Newens Elizabeth London p. 77 O. Oswald John Clark. p. 89 P. Pamphlin Judith St. Martins in the Fields 191 194 200 205 208 Paris John of Marybone 216 267 Parsons John Coachmaker of St. Annes Paulden Captain St. Giles's 200 Pengry Aaron Esq 205 Prance Miles 126 Preston Mary St. Clements Danes 76 Primat Stephen Esq Grays Inne 218 R. Radcliffe Joseph Oylman St. Martins in the Fields p. 178 300 301 307 Rawson John Hamstead 216 267 Rawson Margaret 218 267 Richardson George Beadle S. Skillarne Zachariah Chyrurgeon St. Martins in the Fields p. 230 234 235 257 263 266. Smith John St. Dunstans in the West Smith Joseph Sword-cutler 318 Smith Mary Searcher 254 Snell Thomas Grocer 174 Standever Simon Cordwayner Marybone 244 319 T. Trotton Robert Taylor St. Giles's in the Fields p. 246 265 U. Urwin William Coffee-man W. Wallis Catharine Norfolk p. 77 Walters John Farrier St. Giles 's in the Fields p. 99. Warrier Avis St. Martins in the Fields 142 Warrier James Taylor St. Martins in the Fields 137 Weeks Alice Searcher St. Giles 's in the Fields 255 256 Wheeler Richard Hosier New Exchange 177 209 217 293 313 White Robert Gent. Westm. 199 Whitfield Tho. Gent. 146 Whitfield Robert 148 Whitehall Rob. Gent. Southw 199 Woollams Thomas of St. Giles 's in the Fields Chandler 244 264 319 Wyanes Philip Pump-maker St. Giles 's in the Fields 248 265 Wynel Tho. Esq Cranbrok Essex 180 187 183 195. Y. Yeomans Edmund Millener p. 171 II. Enformations before the Coroner ZAch Skillarne 279 Zach. Skillarne 279 Nicholas Cambridge Ibid. John Wilson 280 Tho. Morgan 280 W. Bromwell 281 John Walter 281 John Rawson 281 Caleb Winde 281 Richard Duke 281 John Brown 286 John Brown 286 Henry Moor 297 Joseph Radcliffe 299 Eleanor Radcliffe 300 Mary Gibbon 322 III. Depositions and Reports promiscuously as they Occur BEdloe's Narrative at the Lords Bar Nov. 8. 1678. p. 16 His further Examination Nov. 12. 1678. 19 His Enformation Nov. 18. 1678. 19 His Enformation before the Council June 24. 1679. 20 His first Appearance to his Majesty Nov. 7. 1678. His Narrative to the Lords Nov. 12. 1678. 29 His Deposition in the Council-Chamber June 24. 1679. 37 His Evidences compared 44 Prance's first Deposition before the Lords Committee Dec. 21. 1678. p. 43 His Enformation to the Committee of Secrecy 55 His Deposition to the Duke of Monmouth and my Lord Ossory 57 His Denyal of his Evidence before the Council 61 His Evidence of the Murther Dec. 24. 1678. 163 Boyce's Enformation about Prance to the Lords Committees Jan. 2. 1678 9. 65.69 Captain Richardson's Account of Prance to the Lords Jan. 3. 1678 9. 66 70 Charles Cowper's Account of Prance 67 68 69 70 71 Prance's Enformation to the Earl of Shaftsbury 80 81 The Enformation of Mrs. Mary Tilden 137. Catharine Lee 137. Nicholas Cambridge 151 235. Eliz. Curtis at the Tryal 151. Eliz. Curtis to the Lords Committees Jan. 8. 1678 9. Richard Spence 336. John Okeley 337. Henry Moor. Justice Balaam Elizabeth Dekin Robert Breedon Ralph Oakley 338. Benjamin Man 339. Robert Fawcet 339. THE END See Obs. 10.32.33.39.42.44 Vol. 3. See the Commons Votes of Jan. 10. 1680. Oâ—s Num. 38. Vol. 3. Obs. 39. Vol. 3. (a) See Ote'es Veracities Num. 60.61.62.72 Vol. 2. (b) 140.141.142.180 Vol. 2. (a) Oxford Debates Fol. 1. (b) Ibid. Fol. 2. (c) Ibid. (d) Ibid. Commons Journal Oct. 31. 1687. A Plot Uoted According to Order Two Plots in Question Otes's Plot. Tonge's Evidence The Shammer Shamm'd p. 26. Ib. p. 35. Ib. p. 39.40 Obs. N. 138. Vol. 1. The Party Conscious that Otes was a Cheat. (a) Nov. 19. 1678. (b) Mar. 21. 1678. (c) Nov. 4. 1680. (d) Nov. 12. 1680. Jan. 7. 1680. Ibid. Ibid. Commons Votes Dec. 21. 1680. (a) Com. Votes Jan. 4. 1680. Com. Votes Jan. 6. 1680. Com. Votes Jan. 7. 1680. Com. Votes Add. Dec. 21. 1680. No Mony but in Composition for his Crown Journal Mar. 24. 1678. No Power of Life and Death Com. Journal Dec. 21. 1678. Collection of Debates Dec. 23. 1680. p. 215. Bethel and Cornish's Scruple about the Execution of the Lord Stafford Lord Staffords Tryal Fol. 217. Bethel's Quaeries Coll. of Debates Dec. 23. 1680. Ibid. (a) fol. 4. Lord Stafford's Tryal (b) fol. 5. (c) fol. 6. Commons Votes Nov. 22. 1680. Commons Votes Nov. 26. 1680. Commons Votes Jan. 10. 1680. Vox Patriae f. 3. Ibid. fol. 4. See Whitlock's Memor fol. 43. Votes Dec. 30. 1680. Collection of Debates p. 218. (a) Votes Address Dec. 21. 1680. The 19 Propositions over again (b) Ibid. Attempts upon the Militia Journal Oct. 24. 1678. Journal Nov. 22. 1678. Journal Ap. 1. 1679. Journal May 10. 1679. A Libellous Address Votes Nov. 29. 1680. p. 77. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. The King's Friends were either Papists Convict or Reputed Papists Their Proceeding with Papists Journal Oct. 23. 1678. Nov. 8. 1678. Nov. 16. 1678. Nov. 23. 1678. Dec. 3. 1678. Dec. 7. 1678. Nov. 16. 1678. Ap. 27. 1679. Journal May 7. 1679. Bold Addresses Jour Nov. 8. 1678. May 11. 1679. Ibid. Votes Nov. 2. 1680. Address against the Queen Journal No. 28. 1678. Ibid. The Revenging Address May 14. 1679. Walcot's Tryal Fol. 9. Ibid. Vo. Dec. 15. 1680. Dec. 15. 1680. An Address against Prorogations Coll. of Debates No. 11. 1680. Notes upon the Address The Bill of Exclusion The Meaning of Reputed Papists Votes Nov. 29. 1680. p. 75. Votes Jan. 7. 1680. Ibid. The Meaning of Evil Counsellors The Vnaccountable Prerogative of the Commons Loyalty and Religion the Pretext Journal Nov. 8. 1678. Nov. 10. 1678. Mar. 21. 1678. and Nov. 25. 1680. The Old Humiliation-Stile over again L. Chancellours Speech Ap. 30. 1679. Journal May. 11. 1679. Exclusion Alone would not do the Bus'ness Votes Dec. 21. 1680. Ibid. Ibid. A Manifest Conspiracy The Witnesses and the Conspiratours agreed upon 't Otes'es Narrative fol. 58.59.60.61 Their