A True and Plain ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERIES Made in SCOTLAND Of the Late CONSPIRACIES Against His Majesty and the Government Extracted from the Proofs lying in the Records of His Majesties Privy Council and the High Justice Court of the Nation TOGETHER With an Authentick Extract of the Criminal Process and Sentence against Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood Extracted by Command of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council of Scotland And Published by His Majesties Command Reprinted at London by Thomas Newcomb for Susanna Forrester in Kings-Street Westminster 1685. A true and plain Account of the Discoveries made in Scotland of the late Conspiracies against His Majesty and the Government THE King's Majestie having on certain great considerations indicted a Parliament to hold at Edinburgh 28 of Iuly 1681. Did render that Meeting the more illustrious by nominating His Royal Brother Commissioner to represent His Majesty in it The Fanatical Party who let no occasion slip to promove their Designs and to disturb the settled Government did at this time use all their endeavours to have as many of those infected with their principles elected Commissioners for the Parliament as the little power and Interest they had in the Nation could procure and even where they could not hope to succeed they had the insolence to attempt thereby pursuing closly what they constantly design that is pertinaciously to disturb where they cannot alter and to found a Reputation to their Party by much noise though to little purpose At the time of meeting of the Parliament their first consult was to strick at the Head and by invading the Right of the Monarchy to pull it down so far as to have the King in the Person of His Commissioner subjected to the same Rules and Inquisitions with other subordinat Members The King by His Laws having prescribed Rules to those who Serve Him in that Great Court and Council They according to the Laws of their Leagues and Covenants propose that the Parliament should prescribe the same to the King consonant enough to their beloved Design of Co ordination in Power Had this succeeded they with this one Blow had overthrown the Parliament by laying the Commissioner aside But as men oft-times design bold Treasons with abundance of Resolution yet are frighted from the Execution by the danger as well as ugliness of the Crime So this insolent Resolution dar'd not shew its Face being strangl'd by their own Fears And seeing they could not dissolve the Parliament they in the next place resolv'd to disappoint the Design of it and indeed if the maintaining of an unjust Interest could warrand the action they had reason so to do For the Fanatical-Party having by their own great industry and the supine negligentâ— to say no worse of these Trusted by the King to suppress them not only kept up but encreased their pernicious Brood So that they began to appear formidable both to the King and the Countrey and one of their great Hopes whereby their Party increased being founded on the short continuance of the Supply granted by the Nation for maintaining the Forces they could little doubt but that all Loyal Subjects would not only continue but also further augment them rather then leave the Seditious in a capacity to disturb the Government Therefore as a necessary expedient to preserve Fanaticism they resolved by all possible means to hinder any continuation of the Supplie But they soon found that the Votes of their Party had neither number nor weight These well-natur'd Subjects finding that they could not disappoint thought it convenient to perplex and since they could not do what they would they resolv'd to do all they could And albeit the late Earl of Argile and some others who were under too great obligations to the King's Majesty and His Royal-Highness to appear on the side of their Friends in the good old Cause whilst the opposition was so bare-fac'd and the hope of success so little Yet lest their little Flock should be discouraged they began then to animat them the more close and as they thought undiscern'd methods And now the Cause being in an apparent decay they labour'd to refresh it with its first milk the Pretence of Religion Wherefore a new Security for Religion was proposed And albeit our Laws had formerly provided what was necessary for this yet it could not be expected that those who aimed at debate for Religion should rest-satisfied with what settled it So the Doctrine of the Church the Canons of Councils and the Laws of the Kingdom being all lookt upon as nothing Argyle Sir Iohn Cochran Salton the Earl of Tarras Philiphaugh Stairs Gallowsheils and others of that Crew would needs provide a greater security than these afforded and indeed it was congruous for those who were tainted with new Doctrines to desire new Sanctions For this end they pressed a Committee for drawing an Act to secure the Protestant Religion which was no sooner proposed then granted accordingly a Committee was appointed consisting for the most part of West-countrey men who upon short deliberation prepared a long Act which at its first appearance in the Articles was soon discerned to be an Invasion upon the Prerogative under the name of a Defence for Religion and not to have many more Lines than Incroatchments upon the Royal Right whereupon it was rejected and in place of it a general and plain Ratification of all the former good Laws which had past for security of the Protestant Religion was drawn approven and acquiesced in by the Parliament But Fanaticks are not of a temper to give over for notwithstanding of this good Law Murmurings were heard Clamors were raised and open Protestations were made for fâ—rther security in Religion Wherefore a new Committee was appointed for preparing an Act to be drawn from the proposals for that end The Party which clamored for the Protestant Religion but in effect intending good Offices to the Fanatical party did seek after what conduc'd to their by-ends which as they were easily discovered were as soon rejected Argyle Sir Iohn Cochran the Earl of Tarras Stairs Philiphaugh Gallowshiels and their adherents fall at last on an expedient as they thought insuperable by the Kings Servants and which would force them on the Dilemma of opposing Religion or the Soveraignity In the first Year and Parliament of King Iames the sixth when the differences betwixt Queen Mary and many of the Nobility were in their greatest hight and she forc'd to resign her Government being a Prisoner there were several Acts past in that and some subsequent Parliaments which incroached on the Prerogatives of the Crown the King being then an Infant and amongst others that wherein the Confession of Faith was insert had in it several Clauses altogether extrinsick to a Confession of Faith for which that Act by its Title was chiefly design'd And tho these Acts and Clauses which derogated from the Rights of the Crown were often rescinded or corrected and the Prerogative fully
vindicated in many succeeding Parliaments yet these who intended more disturbance to the State nor security for Religion took occasion after their other Proposals were rejected to offer the renewing of the said Act of the first Parliament of King Iames the sixth as an expedient for securing the Protestant Religion as it is there profess'd concluding that if that Act were renewed it would derogate from the pesterior Laws which corrected what related to the Prerogative or if the renewing of it were refus'd they might take occasion from that refusal to impose on the People that the Kings Commissioner and the Parliament design'd not the security of the Protestant Religion But the Parliament defeated both these Projects by taking into the Test not that Act but the Protestant Religion contained in it for the Parliament was far from reviving much less for inserting in the Test any part of that Act which did incroach on the Royal Prerogative the Episcopal Government and Policy or whatever was extrinsick or contradictory to the Protestant Religion contained in it This as all other disappointments incited rage in those who resolved not to be satisfied and those pretended Patrons of the Protestant Religion will overturn it and tear the securest Test that could be made for it rather then permit that Monarchy and it should stand together and finding that this Test as it did absolutely secure the Protestant Religion so in just consequence thereof it knocked Fanaticism on the head Therefore to work they fall against it with all the force of their imaginations and none appeared more violent then those who formally with undiscreet violence had press'd it whilst they hop'd to invenom it with a mixture of the poison of the Covenant But 'mongst them all none acted with more industry or more malice then the late Earl of Argile who being by Education and Choice sufficiently Fanatical yet having dissembled it for a while thereby to keep himself in the Government and to draw it to a concurrence in his particular designs and oppressions whereby he kept a great Estate defrauding all Creditors and bringing many Families to beggary he found this Parliament pry a little into these Mysteries for they having made some motion in doing right to the Earls of Errol Marischal and Strathmore whose Estates were exposed for Argiles Debt whilst he enjoy'd his own Estate without owning a relief to them Therefore albeit in the beginning of the Parliament he professed a fervour for carrying on of the King's Service yet his zeal to the Old Cause being prick'd on by this Invasion of his new Right in the course of it none was so active or used more indirect ways to disappoint it But being over-power'd by the Loyal Members who were Ten to One of the dis-affected albeit he and other Sticklers were allowed to word the Test at their pleasure and did accordingly add to it all those Clauses which since hath given pretences of scruple to many who have refused it yet no sooner was the Session of Parliament adjourned but the said late Argile industriously first at Edinburgh and afterward in traversing several Shires did insinuate all the prejudices he could devise against the Tenor of the Test Thereby endeavouring and not without some success to increase the dissatisfied Party and fit the Nation the more for Cumbustion So passing home to the Shires of Argile and Tarhet he fix'd the Clergy and Laity thereof in these seditious Sentiments Thereafter he returns to Edinburgh giving it out openly that he would not take the Test but to make his refusal the more malicious proposes to his Royal Highness and those of the Government that he might be allowed to take it with his own Explanation which Exposition he put in Writ and dispersed it being of that Tenor and Contryvance as to cast all the Obligations therein loose making his Fancy the rule of his Religion and his own Loyalty the standard of his Allegeance according to which he was only to ty himself His Majesties Commissioner and the Council being well informed of his seditious Carriage both in City and Countrey and fully confirmed in their Judgments of his malicious Design in this his Paraphrase on the Test and finding that thereby he had not only perverted the Sense of his Majesties Laws contrary to their true Meaning and Intention but that he had endeavoured to shake the People loose from their Allegeance and make all Obligations thereto illusory and that by these Methods he did with boldness and impudence found a Schism in the Church and Faction in the State publickly owning them in the face of Council On which grounds he was most justly pursued by the Kings Advocat before the Soveraign Justice Court and there by Learn'd Judges and a Jury not only of his Peers but many of them his nearest Relations his Accusation was found relevant and proven and judged a sufficient ground to infer the Pains appointed by Law for Treason Albeit his Father had been one of the most obstinate and most pernicious Rebels against the Royal Family and that he himself had been educated in these Principles and had entered early into those Practices and albeit it be notourly known that his private Discontents and Debates against his Father and the penury to which those had reduced him were the Motives which made him joyn with Middleton in the Hills bringing no Power with him to that Army and acting as little in it but by assuming the Honour of what was acted by Mâ—naughton and that at last he was instrumental to break that Party by Faction which though this was clearly discerned by Middleton at the time yet he judged fit to dissemble it both for encouraging the High-landers and giving reputation to His Majesties Affairs upon which account also at Argiles then Lord Lorn's earnest suit he did give Testificates to him of his own wording which those of undoubted Loyalty did not require and indeed were only useful to such whose Actions and Principles needed vindication yet under pretence of these together with the great Assistance of the Duke of Lauderdail having attained to so immense Donatives from His Majesty both in Estate and Dignity it was not easie to believe he should retain that hereditary Malignity at least to such a degree as to become an open Rebel but the Ethiopian cannot change his Skin for albeit the Kings Majesty and his Royal Highness were so far from any resolution of taking his life that he was allowed all freedom in Prison even after he was found Guilty and that no further prejudice was design'd to him than to take from him those Jurisdictions and Superiorities which he and his Predecessors had surreptitiously acquired and were used by him and them to destroy many honest and considerable Familes sometimes by stretches of Law and at other times by Violence and Force but always under shelter and pretence of these Jurisdictions And that some reparation might have been made to his just Creditors and some
Comitem de Linlithgow Dominum Livingstoun c. Iusticiarium generalem totius Regni Scotiae honorabiles viros Dominos Jacobum Foulis de Colintoun Iusticiariae Clericum Ioannem Lockhart de Castlehill Davidem Balfour de Forret Rogerum Hoge de Harcarss Alexandrum Seaton de Pitmedden Patricium Lyon de Carss Commissionarios Iusticiariae dicti S. D. N. Regis Curia legitime affirmata Intran Mr. Robert Baillie of Jerviswood Prisoner INdited and accused that where notwithstanding by the Common Law of this and all other well Governed Nations the Conspiring to overturn the Government of the Monarchy or of the Established Government of this Kingdom or the concealing and not revealing of any Treasonable Design Project or Discourse tending thereto Or the assisting aiding or abaiting such as have any such Designs does infer the Pains and Punishment of Treason And by the third Act of the first Parliament of King Iames the first The Rebelling openly against the Kings Person and by the thretty seventh Act of His second Parliament The Resetting Maintaining or doing favours to open or notour Rebellers against the Kings Majesty is Declared Treason and punishable by Forefaulture And by the hundred fourty and fourth Act of the twelfth Parliament of King Iames the Sixth It is Declared Treason to Reset Supply or Intercommune with Traitors And by the first Act of the first Session of His Majesties first Parliament It is Declared That it shall be High Treason for the Subjects of this Realm or any number of them less or more upon any ground or pretext whatsomever to rise or continue in Arms to make Peace or War without His Majesties special Approbation And by the second Act of the second Session of His Majesties said first Parliament To Plot Contrive or intend Death or Destruction or to put any Restraint upon His Majesties Royal Person or to Deprive Depose or Suspend Him from the Exercise of His Royal Government or to levy War or take up Arms against His Majesty or any Commissionated by Him or to intice any Strangers or others to Invade any of His Majesties Dominions or to Write Print or speak any thing that may express or declare such their Treasonable Intentions it declared Treason and punishable as such Likeas by the second Act of His Majesties third Parliament It is Declared High Treason in any of the â—ubjects of this Realm by Writing Speaking or any other maâ—ner of way to endeavour the alteration Suspension or Diversion of the â—ight of Succession or debarring the next lawful Successour Nevertheless it is oâ— veâ—ity that the said Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood shaking off all fear of God respect and regard to His Majesties Authority and Laws and having conceived most unjustly a great and extraordinary malice and hatred against His Majesties Person and Government and having designed most Traâ—â—erously to debar His Royal Highness His Majesties only Brother from His due Right of Succession did amongst many other Traiterous Acts tending to promove that wicked Design endeavour to get himself Elected one of the Commissioners for Negotiating the settlement of a Colony of this Nation in Carolina in one or other of the days of the Moneths of Ianuary February March April or May One thousand six hundred and eighty three years and that he might thereby have the freer and better access to Treat with the Earls of Shaftsbury and Essex the Lord Russeb and others who had entered into a Conspiracy in England against His Majesties Person and Government and with Colonel Rumsay Walcot West and Ferguson and others who had likewise Conspired the Murder of His Majesties Sacred Person and of the Person of His Royal Highness and finding that he could not get himself Elected one of the said Commissioners he resolved to go to London upon his own expenses and declared to severals whom he took great pains to draw in to be his accomplices that his Design was to push foreward the People of England who did nothing but talk that they might go on effectually and after he had settled a Correspondency here he did go up to London in one or other of the saids Moneths with Sir Iohn Cochran and Commissar Monro and did then and there Transact with the saids Conspirators or one or other of them to get a sum of Money to the late Earl of Argile a Declaired Traitor for bringing home of Men and Arms for raising a Rebellion against His Majesty and Invading this his Native Countrey and so earnest was he in the said Design that he did chide those English Conspirators for not sending the same timeously and lamented the delayes used in it and perswaded the late Earl of Argile and others in his name to accept of any sum rather than not to engage and amongst the many meetings that he hâ—d at London for carrying on the said Traiterous design there was one at his own Chamber where he did meet with the Lord Melvil Sir Iohn Cochran and the Câ—ssnocks Elder and Younger and amongst others with Mr. William Veatch a declared Traitor and there he did treat of the carying on of the said Rebellion and of the money to be furnished by the English for Argyle for buying of Armes And that if the Scots would attempt any thing for their own relief they would get assistance of Horse from England and from that meeting he or ane or other of them did send down Mr. Robert Martin to prevent any rysing till it should be seasonable for carying on of their Designs which Mr. Robert after he came to Scotland did treat with Palwart and others for carying on of the said Rebellion by securing His Majesties Officers of State His Castles and Forces and by putting his Correspondents here and there Associates in readiness to assist the late Earl of Argyle and after the said Mr. Baillie had engadged many of his Countrey-men in England and had assured his Correspondants here that the English were resolved to seclud his Royal-Highness from his due right of Succession thereby to encourage them to concur in the said Rebellion and Exclusion he slew to that hight that he did particularly and closly correspond with Mr. Robert Ferguson Sir Thomas Armstrong Collonel Rumsay and Walcot who were accessory to that horrid part of the Conspiracy which was designed against the sacred Life of His Majesty and the Life of His Royal-Highness and did sit up several nights with them concerting that bloody Massacer at least the said Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood was and is guilty of having correspondence with the late Earl of Argyle and Mr. William Veatch declared Traitors and of being art and part of an Conspiracy for assisting of these who were to rise in arms against His Sacred Majesty and for exclusion of His Royal Brother and of concealing and not revealing the accession and proposals of others for that effect Wherethrow he has committed and is guilty of the Crymes of High Treason Rebellion and others above specified and is
art and part of the famine which being found by ane Assize he ought to be punished with Forfaulture of Life Land and Goods to the terror of others to commit the like hereafter HIS Majesties Advocat produced an Act and Warrand from the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council for pursuing and insisting against the said Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood whereof the Tenor follows Edinburgh The twenty two day of December one thousand six hundred and eighty four years The Lords of his Majesties Privy Council do hereby give Order and Warrand to His Majesties Advocat to pursue a Process of Treason and Forfaulture before the Lords of His Majesties Justiciary against Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood to morrow at two a clock in the afternoon preceisly and the said Lords do hereby Require and Command Sr. George Lockhart of Carnwath and Sr. Iohn Lauder Advocats to concur and assist in the said Process with His Majesties Advocat from the intenting until the end thereof as they will be answerable upon their alledgance Extract by me sic subscribitur Colin Mckenzie Cls. Sti. Concilij Pursuers Sir George Mckenzie of Roshaugh Our Soveraign Lords Advocat Sir George Lockhart Advocat Sir Iohn Lauder Advocat Procurators in Defence Sir Patrick Hume Mr. Walter Pringle Mr. Iames Graham Mr. William Fletcher Mr. William Baillie Advocats THE Pannals Procurators produced ane Act of His Majesties Privy Council in their favours whereof the Tenor follows Edinburgh the twenty third of December one thousand six hundred eighty four years The Lords of His Majesties Privy Council having considered ane Address made to them by Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood now indited at the instance of His Majesties Advocat before the Lords Commissioners of Justiciary of Treason do hereby Require and Command Sir Patrick Hume Mr. Walter Pringle Mr. Iames Graham Mr. William Fletcher Mr. Iames Falconer Mr. William Baillie Advocats to Consult Compear and Debate for the Petitioner in the Process of Treason mentioned in his Address without any hazard as they will be answerable at their peril Extract by me sic subscribitur William Paterson Cls. Sti. Concilij AFter reading of the Inditement the Lord Justice General required the Pannal to make answer thereto The said Mr. Robert Baillie Pannal pleaded not Guilty MR. Walter Pringle Advocat as Procurator for the said Mr. Robert Baillie of Ierviswood Pannal alleadges that he ought not to pass to the knowledge of an Assize because he had not got a Citation upon fyfteen days or at least on a competent time which is usual and absolutely necessar in all Actions and much more in Criminal Pursuits especially seing if a competent time be not allowed to the Pannal he is precludit of the benefit of ane exculpation without which he cannot prove his Objections against Witnesses or Assyzers or any other Legal or competent Defences And by the late Act of Parliament concerning the Justice Court all Pannalls are allowed to raise Precepts of Exculpation and thereupon to cite Witnesses for proving the Objections against Witnesses and Assyzers which necessarily presupposeth that a competent time must be allowed to the Pannal to execut his diligence or otherwise how is it possible he can prove an Defence of alibi or any other just Defence and as this is most consonant to that clear Act of Parliament and to material Justice and to the Rules of Humanity so this point has been already fully and often decided and lately in the case of one Robertson in Iuly 1673. The Instance whereof is given by His Majesties Advocat in his Book of Criminals and Title of Libels where the Lords found that albeit Robertson got his Inditement in Prison yet he behoved to get it upon fifteen dayes HIS Majesties Advocat oppons the constant Tract of Decisions whereby it is found that a person Incarcerated may be Tryed upon twenty four houres and the late Act of Parliament is only in the case where a Summons or Libel is to be Raised but here there is no Libel or Summons but only an Inditement nor was any Exculpation sought in this case before the Tryal which is the case provided for by the Act of Parliament THe Lords Justice-General Justice-Clerk and Commissioners of Justiciary Repell the Defence in respect the Pannal is a Prisoner and that it has been the constant Custom of the Court and that the Pannal made no former application for an Exculpation SIR Patrick Hume for the Pannal alleadges alwas denying the Libel and whole Members and Qualifications thereof that in so far as the Libel is founded upon Harbouring maintaining and Intercommuning with the persons mentioned in the Dittay the Pannal ought to be assoylzied because it is res hactenus judicata he having been formerly pursued before the Lords of his Majesties Privy Council for the same Crimes and Fined in an considerable Sum and therefore that Crime cannot now â—e made use of as a ground of Treason against the Pannal HIS Majesties Advocat answers That he Restricts his Libel to the Pannals entering in a Conspiracy for raising Rebellion and for procuring Money to be sent to the Late Earl of Argile for carrying on the said Rebellion and for concealing and not revealing neither of which is referred to his Oath and consequently was not res judicata there being nothing referred to his Oath but his Converse and Correspondence with some Ministers and others within the Kingdom and his own Gardiner and his Writing Letters to my Lord Argile and oppons the Decreet of Council it self and restricts the Libel to all the Crimes not insisted on in the Decreet SIr Patrick Hume Replyes That as to the Corresponding with the late Earl of Argile at any time since his Forefaulture was expresly proponed as an Interrogator to the Pannal in that Pursuit at His Majesties Advocat's Instance against him before the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council and that not only his own Correspondence by himself but also by Major Holms Mr. Carstares Robert West Thomas Shepherd Richard Rumbold and Collonel Rumsay as the Interrogator bears as appears by a double of the Act of Council written by the Clerk of Councils Servant and is offered to be proven by my Lord Advocats Oath And as to any Correspondency with Mr. Veitch it is not Relevant since he was not Declared Rebel SIr Iohn Lauder for his Majesties Interest answers That he oppons thâ— Decreet of Privy Council where no such Interrogator was put to the Pannal and the Decreet must make more Faith than any pretended Scroll and cannot be taken away by His Majesties Advocats Oath to His Majesties prejudice and for Mr. William Veitch he stands expresly Forefault in anno 1667. and the Doom of Forefaulture is Ratified in the Parliament 1669. SIR Patrick Hume oppons the Reply That as to the Corresponding with Mr. Veitch it does not appear that he is the person mentioned in the Act of Parliament and albeit he were as he is not he having thereafter come
Edinburgh Castle the 8. of September 1684. and renewed the 18 of the same Month. William Carstares PERTH CANCELL I. P. D. Edinburgh Castle 18 September 1684. MR. William Carstares being again Examined adheres to his former Deposition in all the parts of it and Depones he knows of no Correspondence betwixt Scotland and England except by Martin before named for those Gentlemen to whom he was sent were left to follow their own Methods Veitch sometimes as the Deponent remembers stayed sometimes an Nicolson Stabler's House at London-wall sometimes with one Widow Hardcastle in More-fields The Deponent did Communicate the Design on foot to Doctor Owen Mr. Griffil and Mr. Meed at Stepney who all concurred in the promoting of it and were desirous it should take effect and to one Mr. Freth in the Temple Councellor at Law who said that he would see what he could do in reference to the Money but there having gone a Report that there was no Money to be raised he did nothing in it nor does the Deponent think him any more concerned in the Affair Nelthrop frequently spoke to the Deponent of the Money to be sent to Argyle whether it was got or not but the Deponent used no freedom with him in the Affair Goodenough did insinuate once that the Lords were not inclined to the thing and that before they would see what they could do in the City The Deponent saw Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Rumsay lurking after the Plot broke out before the Proclamation having gone to Ferguson in the back of Bishopsgate-street at some new Building whether he was directed by Ierviswood who was desirous to know how things went Rumsay was not oâ— the Deponent his acquaintance before but they knew as little of the matter as the Deponent This is what the Deponent remembers and if any thing come to his Memory he is to deliver it in betwixt the first of October And this is the truth as he shall answer to God William Carstares PERTH Cancell I. P. D. At Edinburgh the 22. of December 1684. THese foregoing Depositions Subscribed by Mr. William Carstares Deponent and by the Lord Chancellor were acknowledged on Oath by the said Mr. William Carstares to be his true Depositions and that the Subscriptions were his in presence of us Under subscribers William Carstares PERTH Cancell David Falconer Queensberry George Mckenzie Athol HIs Majesties Advocat for further probation adduces the Examinations of Mr Shepard taken before Sir Leolin Ienkins Secretary of State for England with the Information or Deposition of Mr. Zachary Bourn relating to the Plot sign'd by him and Secretary Ienkins of which Depositions the tenors follow THe Examination of Thomas Shepard of London Merchant taken upon Oath before the Right Honourable Sir Leolin Jenkins Knight His Majesties Paincipal Secretary of State the 23. day of December 1683. THe Deponent saith That Ferguson told him on or about the Moneth of April last that an Insurrection was intended both in England and in Scotland and that for the settling that Affair betwixt the two Nations Mr. Baillie Mr. Monro Sir Iohn Cochran Sir Hugh and Sir George Campbels with some others whose names this Deponent heard not were come to London That the Deponent had some acquaintance with Mr. Baillie Mr. Monro and Sir Iohn Cochran and none at all with Sir Hugh and Sir George Campbels that Mr. Baillie told the Deponent that the Earl of Argile demanded Thirty Thousand Pounds of the English to capacitat him to begin the business effectually in Scotland and that he the said Baillie likewise told the Deponent that having concerted things with the Lord Russel and others he the said Baillie found an impossibility of raising that Sum After which the said Baillie had acquainted the Deponent that they were certainly promised Ten Thousand Pounds which Sum was agreed to be payed into the Deponents hands in order to be remitted into Holland for the providing of Arms and that the said Baillie told the Deponent at divers times that the said Sum or at least one half of it would be payed such a day and such a day and sometimes asked the Deponent if he had received any part of the said Money to which the Deponent replyed that he had not and that he the Deponent scarce thought any would be payed And the Deponent also saith that having had some little conversation with Sir Iohn Cochran he remembers well that both of them did sometimes lament the delays in not paying in the Money and said that although the said Ten thousand Pounds were pay'd in they the said Sir Iohn Cochran and Mr. Monro fearâ—d it would be too little and this Deponent further sayeth not as to any new matter But the Deponent being asked to Explain what he thought was meant by the words above-written viz. to capacitat him the Earl of Argile to begin the business he this Deponent sayeth that he did understand by the Word business an Insurrection in Scotland Sic subscribitur Iurat coram Thomas Shepard L. Ienkins THe Information of Zachary Bourn of London Brewer taken upon Oath the tenth day of December 1683. before the Right honourable Mr. Secretary Ienkins THe Informant Deposeth and sayeth that Mr. Baillie set up one Night if not two with Mr. Ferguson and went several times in the Evening with him to the Duke of Monmouth and the chief mannagers of the Conspiracy That Ferguson told the Deponent that he the said Baillie was the chief man for the Scots next to the Lord Argile that the said Baillie did sit up the greatest part of one night with the said Ferguson at which time this Deponent believeth they were busie in preparing the intended Declaration which the Deponent has the more reason to believe in as much as the said Ferguson did go about to show him the Deponent such a Paper wherein the said Ferguson was hindered by the coming up Stairs of some person to speak with the said Ferguson that the said Ferguson told the Deponent that the main business of the said Baillie in meeting the saids Conspirators was in order to get from them the Ten thousand Pounds promised for the buying of Arms for the Insurrection intended in Scotland That the Deponent saw Mr. William Carstares come often to the Lodgings of the said Ferguson but that the said Ferguson never told the Deponent of any Discourse held by him with the said Carstares and further this Deponent saith not sic subscribitur Zac. Bourn Iurat coram L. Ienkins HIs Majesties Advocate likewise produced several Warrands and Papers to prove that those Depositions are sign'd by Sir Leolin Ienkins HIs Majesties Advocate also produced the Books of Adjournal bearing Mr. William Veitch to be a Forefault Traitor and the Act of Parliament whereby the Forefaulture is Ratified His Majesties Advocat's Speech to the Inquest My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have now a Conspiracy against His Majesties Sacred Person and Royal Government so fully discover'd that they must want Reason as
with Ferguson upon the said Conspiracy and who should be better believed then Fergusons confident and one who was so far trusted in the whole affair that he was to take away that Sacred Life which Heaven has preserv'd by so many Miracles Against these three Depositions you have heard it objected that non testimonia sed testes probant especially by our Law in which by an express Act of Parliament no Probation is to be led but in presence of the Assise and Pannal To which it is answered that these Depositions are not meer Testimonies for I call a Testimony a voluntar Declaration emitted without an Oath and a Judge but these Depositions are taken under the awe of an Oath and by the direction of a Judge 2. Shepard was confronted with the Pannal himself and he had nothing to say against him whereas the great thing that can be objected against Testimonies and by our Statute especially is that if the Party who emits the Testimony had been confronted with the Pannal the impression of seeing a person that was to die by his Deposition would have made him afraid to Depose laxly and the Pannal likewise might by proposing Interrogators and Questions have cleared himself and satisfi'd the Judges in many things Depos'd against him But so it is that Mr. Shepard having been confronted with the Pannal before the King Himself who is as â—ar above other Judges in His Reason and Justice as He is in His Power and Authority He Deposes that the Pannal was the chief Mannager of this Conspiracy next to Argile and that he was so passionate to have this Money to buy Arms that he lamented the delays and can it be imagined that Mr. Shepard whom he trusted with his Life and his Fortune and whom all their Party trusted with their Cash would have Depos'd any thing against him that was not true especially when he knew that what he was to Depose was to take away his Life and his Fortune or that if the Pannal had been innocent he would not when he was confronted with Mr. Shepard before the King Himself have roar'd against Mr. Shepard if he had not been conscious to his own Guilt There is a surprise in innocence which makes the innocent exclaim and it inspires men with a courage which enables them to confound those who Depose falsly against them and in what occasion could either of these have appear'd more than in this wherein this Gentleman was charg'd to have Conspir'd with the greatest of Rascals against the best of Princes and that too in presence of the Prince himself against whom he had Conspir'd but Guilt stupifies indeed and it did never more than in this Gentlemans Case whose silence was a more convincing Witness than Mr. Shepard could be Mr. Carstares likewise knew when he was to Depone that his Deposition was to be used against Ierviswood and he stood more in awe of his love to his Friend than of the fear of the Torture and hazarded rather to die for Ierviswood than that Ierviswood should die by him How can it then be imagin'd that if this man had seen Ierviswood in his Tryal it would have altered his Deposition or that this kindness which we all admir'd in him would have suffer'd him to forget any thing in his Deposition which might have been advantageous in the least to his Friend And they understand ill this hight of Friendship who think that it would not have been more nice and careful than any Advocate could have been and if Carstares had forgot at one time would he not have supplyed it at another but especially at this last time when he knew his Friend was already brought upon his Tryal and that this renew'd Testimony was yet a further confirmation of what was said against him and albeit the Kings Servants were forced to engage that Carstares himself should not be made use of as a Witness against Ierviswood yet I think this kind scrupulosity in Carstares for Ierviswood should convince you more than twenty suspect nay than even indifferent Witnesses nor can it be imagined that the one of these Witnesses would not have been as much afraid of God and his Oath at London as at Edinburgh and the other in the Council Chamber in the Forenoon as in the Justice-Court in the Afternoon 3. The Statute founded on does not discharge the producing of Testimonies otherways than after the Jury is inclos'd for then indeed they might be dangerous because the party could not object against them But since the Statute only discharges to produce Writ or Witnesses after the Jury is inclos'd it seems clearly to insinuat that they ought to prove when they are produc'd in presence of the Party himself as now they are And though the Civil Law did not allow their Judges to believe Testimonies because they were confin'd to observe strict Law yet it does not from that follow that our Juries whom the Law allows to be a Law to themselves and to be confin'd by no Rule but their Conscience may not trust intirely to the Depositions of Witnesses though not taken before themselves when they know that the Witnesses by whom and the Judges before whom these Depositions were emited are persons beyond all suspition as in our case But yet for all this I produce these Testimonies as Adminicles here only to connect the Depositions of the present Witnesses and not to be equivalent to Witnesses in this legal Process albeit as to the conviction of mankind they are stronger than any ordinary Witnesses When you my Lords and Gentlemen remember that it is not the revenge of a privat party that accuses in this case and that even in privat Crimes such as Forgery or the murder of Children c. many Juries here have proceeded upon meer presumptions and that even Solomon himself founded his illustrious Decision approv'd by God Almighty upon the presum'd assertion of a mother I hope ye will think two Friends Deposing as present Witnesses adminiculated and connected by the Depositions of others though absent should beget in you an intire belief especially against a Pannal who has been always known to incline this way and who though he was desired in the Tolbooth to vindicate himself from those Crimes would not say any thing in his own defence and though he offers to clear himself of his accession to the Kings murder yet sayes nothing to clear himself from the Conspiracy entered into with the late Earl of Argile for invading his Native Countrey which is all that I here Charge upon him and which he inclines to Justifie as a necessary mean for redressing Grievances I must therefore remember you that an Inquest of very worthy Gentlemen did find Rathillet guilty tho there was but one Witness led against him because when he was put to it he did not deny his accession And two Rogues were found guilty in the late Circuit at Glascow for having murdered a Gentleman of the Guard though no man