It must be admitted that the accounts of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, do not mention this monument.

It is probable that Duval did really introduce gentler methods into the practice of robbery. The author of “Hudibras” in a “Pindaric Ode” claims this merit and one other for Duval:—

The third chapter of Macaulay’s History gives an excellent account of highwaymen in the reign of Charles II.

1677. Thomas Sadler is said to have been in prison fifteen times before he planned his last and greatest exploit. With the aid of two accomplices, he stole from Great Queen Street, the Lord Chancellor’s mace and purse (the official purse, one of the emblems of the office). Sadler was so delighted with his success, that in crossing Lincoln’s Inn Fields he made one of the confederates precede him with the mace on his shoulder, while he himself strutted behind him, followed by the purse-bearer. They bore their plunder to a house in the City, where it was locked up in a cupboard. Curiosity led a maid to look through a chink in the door, when to her wonderment she saw what she took to be the King’s crown. This led to the discovery of the robbery. On his trial Sadler behaved with superb frankness. “‘My lord,’ he said, addressing the court, ‘I own the fact, and it was I and this man’ (pointing to one that stood by him at the bar) ‘that robbed my Lord Chancellor: and the three others are clear of the fact, though I cannot say but they were confederates with us in the concealment of the prize after it was taken. This I declare’ (said he) ‘to the honourable bench, that I may be clear of the blood of these other three persons.’”… “However, the court went on in a legal way, and another witness began to demonstrate in what manner he was taken: to whom the prisoner answered in this manner: ‘Prithee, fellow, do not make such a long narration of my being taken; thou seest I am here, and I own that I and this man, as aforesaid, are guilty of the fact.’”

It seems that one of the confederates was reprieved. Sadler, and Johnson, one of his companions, were among the five men executed at Tyburn on March 16, 1677 (“A Perfect Narrative,” &c., 1676-7, reprinted in Harleian Mis., v. 505-6).

1678. We now come to one of the blackest pages, not only in the history of England, but in the history of civilised communities.

Eighteen years of misgovernment had brought the people to a point at which an outbreak of some kind became inevitable. Dunkirk had been ceded to the French: the sound of Dutch guns had been heard in the Thames. The Court was known to be under French influence. “There were two things,” says Bishop Parker, “which, like Circe’s cups, bewitched men and turned them into brutes, viz., popery and French interest, and, if either of these happened to be whispered in the House of Commons, they quitted their calm and moderate proceedings, and ran immediately into clamour and high debates.” Politicians had for years played on the fears of the people. France was to send a great army to reduce the country to popery and slavery. “They kept the people in constant fear: and there was scarce greater uproar when Hannibal was at the gates of Rome.” Charles had no successor in direct line; on his decease the crown would fall to his brother, the Duke of York, known to be a catholic. This was the position “when the Popish Plot broke out, a transaction which had its roots in hell, and its branches in the clouds.”

Two men saw a private advantage in this state of things. It is impossible to say anything of the infamy of Titus Oates which would not fall short of the reality; his associate in the invention of the Popish Plot, Tonge, was a fanatic, who could forge on occasion.

“God Almighty,” he said, “will do His own work by His own methods and ways.” Between them the two produced a story of murder and massacre, which they contrived to lay before the King. It was so manifestly absurd that it would have failed of its effect but that Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, a magistrate, who had taken the depositions of these men, suddenly disappeared. His body was found a few days later at the foot of Primrose Hill, transfixed by Godfrey’s own sword. There is little doubt that, but for family interests, the case would have been recognised as one of suicide. But the discovery came in the very nick of time to save the authors of the Popish Plot. It was set about that Godfrey had been murdered by the papists in Somerset House, the palace of the Catholic queen. The politicians, Lord Shaftesbury at their head, were not slow to see the advantage to be gained by playing upon the credulity of the people.

The word went round that the plot must be handled as if it were true, whether it were so or not. It soon became dangerous to express doubt. To do this was to incur the certain danger of being reckoned a papist, a concealed papist, one inclined to popery; and the prison or the gallows was the fate of the doubter. The courts sat merely to condemn men denounced by Oates and his gang. Three men were hanged at Tyburn as guilty of the murder of Godfrey. Even those who to-day contend that Godfrey was murdered admit that these men were innocent. Theories have been constructed based on the evidence of infamous informers who contradicted one another on every point, and when this fails, the writer’s imagination is employed to patch up the story.

On November 26, 1678, William Stayley was drawn to Tyburn and there hanged and quartered. He had been convicted, on the evidence of two infamous informers, of a design to assassinate Charles. But this case, a judicial murder, does not properly belong to the Popish Plot.

On account of the plot were executed sixteen persons, three for the murder of Godfrey, thirteen for high treason. Except perhaps in the case of one, Coleman, it is now universally admitted that not one was guilty of the crime for which he suffered. Here is a list of the victims:—

1678. December 3. Edward Coleman, secretary to the Duchess of York.

1679. January 24. William Ireland and John Grove.

February 21. Robert Green and Lawrence Hill, for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey.

February 28. Henry Berry, for the same.

May 9. Thomas Pickering, for high treason.

June 20. Thomas Whitebread, William Harcourt, John Fenwick, John Gavan, and Anthony Turner, known as “The Five Jesuits,” all for high treason.

July 14. Richard Langhorn, for high treason.

1680. December 29. Viscount Stafford, for high treason.

1681. July 1. Dr. Oliver Plunket, the catholic primate of Ireland, for high treason.

Lord Stafford was executed on Tower Hill all the others at Tyburn. The sixteenth victim was Thomas Thwing, drawn, hanged, and quartered at York. In addition to these, eight priests were executed in 1679, under the penal laws, now revived, making it death for a priest to be in England. Many died in prison, thousands suffered imprisonment, banishment, loss of goods.[197]

Together with Dr. Plunket was executed Edward Fitz-Harris, but this case, like that of Stayley, does not properly belong to the Popish Plot.

The story would be incomplete without telling what befell the infamous creatures by whose means this innocent blood was shed. Shaftesbury, the politician who took up the Plot and directed the operations of the perjurers, died in exile. Bedloe, one of the chief witnesses, died in his bed, asserting with his last breath the truth of his perjured evidence.

On May 8 and 9, 1685, Oates was tried on two indictments for perjury. The evidence was full and complete. The sentence passed upon him was that he should pay a fine of a thousand marks on each indictment: that he should be stripped of his canonical habits: that he should be put in the pillory at Westminster and at the Royal Exchange: that he should be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and on the next day but one from Newgate to Tyburn. Further, that on April 24, as long as he lived, he should stand in the pillory at Tyburn: every ninth of August in the pillory at Westminster: on every tenth of August in the pillory at Charing Cross: on every eleventh of August in the pillory near the Temple Gate, and on every second of September, in the pillory at the Royal Exchange.

Of the sentence and its execution more presently.

Dangerfield was, next to Oates and Bedloe, the worst of the informers. He also was brought to trial. He was condemned to be put in the pillory and whipped. On July 4, 1685, he was being brought back from Tyburn, having been whipped on the road thither, when a Mr. Francis jeered at him, as he sat in the coach. Dangerfield replied by an insult, and Francis struck at him with a cane, the point of which entered Dangerfield’s eye. Of the wound he died the next day. For this, Francis was tried, found guilty of murder, and executed at Tyburn, he being carried thither in a coach.[198]

Miles Prance, a third informer, was also brought to trial. He had been dragged into the business of informing by Bedloe, and, in fear of his life, concocted a story of Godfrey’s murder. He confessed his perjuries, and was, in consequence, let off with standing in the pillory, a fine and a whipping being remitted.

To return to Oates. In sentencing him the judge remarked upon the inadequacy of the punishment allotted by the law to a perjurer whose false testimony had shed innocent blood. Indeed, if the punishment of death was ever due to any man, it was due to Oates. The whipping was so severe that none but Oates could have survived it. That he did survive was hailed by his partisans as a miracle.

Luttrell records that in September, 1688, “Oates stood in the pillory over against the Royal Exchange, according to annual custom.” This was his last appearance in the pillory prior to his re-establishment as Protestant champion by the following resolution of the House of Commons:—

1689. June 11. Resolved that the Prosecution of Titus Oates, upon Two Indictments for Perjury in the Court of King’s Bench, was a design to stifle the Popish Plot: And that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt: And that the Judgments given thereupon were cruel and illegal.

A heated contest arose between Lords and Commons on the subject. The sentence was illegal,[199] and finally Oates received a pardon and was set at liberty. But it was not alone a passion for justice which animated those who insisted on the illegality of the sentence. Oates was by many regarded as one who had rendered inestimable services to the cause of liberty and religion.

Paul may plant, Apollos may water: the labour of each supposes that of the other. Shaftesbury, Burnet, Oates—to which of the three are we to award the palm? It is certain that but for Oates there would have been no Popish Plot; it is arguable that but for the Popish Plot there would have been no Glorious Revolution.

Oates’s services were rewarded with a considerable pension.

To recur to the executions on account of the Popish Plot. Most unfairly Charles has been blamed for these executions. Never once, says Fox, did he exercise his glorious prerogative of mercy. At the outset Charles was warned from the bench that the two Houses would interpose if he attempted to exercise this prerogative. Had he done this, it would probably have led to a general massacre of Catholics. Grave crimes are with justice laid to the charge of both Charles I. and Charles II., but against these crimes must be set the fact that each did what in him lay to prevent the shedding of innocent Catholic blood. We have seen how Charles I. resisted the importunities of the Commons, thirsting for the blood of priests against whom was no charge but that of being priests. Charles II. strove in vain against the mad fury of the times. Here is a revolting account, recently published, showing the influences brought to bear on Charles when he scrupled to order the execution of men whom he believed to be innocent, as we now know they were:—

Mr. Speaker told him frankly how universal an expectation was fixed upon the execution of Ireland, Grove, and Pickering, who are condemned. But His Majesty did, on the other side, manifest wonderful reluctance thereunto—that he had no manner of satisfaction in the truth of the evidence, but rather of its falsehood.… Most of the Board did labour with His Majesty to show … the ill-grounded scruple His Majesty had taken, and that the evidence and trial were much fairer than His Majesty had been told, and that he could not be answerable for any wrong done or innocent blood shed, but it lay upon the witnesses and jury, if such a thing could be thought of in this case. None laboured herein more vigorously than the Lord Treasurer, Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Lauderdale, who, it seems, had in private done their uttermost before. At last it was ordered that when the Judges come on Friday, so many of them as sat upon that trial are to inform His Majesty how the proofs appeared. And the Bishops that are of the Board are then to be present, and to assist His Majesty as to the point of conscience in this matter.[200]

Ireland and Grove were executed on January 24, 1679. Pickering was respited. On April 27th the Commons voted an address praying for his execution. Finally in this case also Charles had to yield. Lord Russell was the bearer of Charles’s answer that he would comply with the prayer. Pickering was executed on May 9th.

1680. March 8. Was executed at Tyburn twelve men and three women for several crimes (Luttrell, i. 38).

1683. In this year we have the executions for the Rye House Plot, the object of which was to capture Charles II. on his return from Newmarket.

July 20. Capt. Thomas Walcott, John Rouse, and William Hone, were drawn, about 9 in the morning, upon sledges, the two last in one, and the 1st by himself, to Tyburn, and there hanged and quartered, according to the sentence past on them on the 14th at the Old Baily, for the late conspiracy.

July 21. The quarters of Walcot, Hone, and Rouse are buried, but their heads are sett on these places following: Hone on Aldersgate, Walcot on Algate, and Rouse on Guildhall (Luttrell, i. 270-1).

William lord Russell was executed in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on July 21, 1683.

1684. Sir Thomas Armstrong was concerned in the Rye House Plot, but had fled to Holland and was outlawed. He was taken at Leyden by order of the States, brought to England, and committed to Newgate. Brought to the king’s bench bar, he was refused trial, and sentence of death was passed upon him as an outlaw:—

The 20th June, Sir Thomas Armstrong was drawn upon a sledge, with a very numerous guard to Tyburn; where being come, Dr. Tenison prayed with him, who seemed very penitent: he prayed himself also very fervently; which done, he delivered a paper to the sheriffs, and submitted himself to the sentence: after he had hang’d about half an hour he was taken down, and quartered according to his sentence, and his quarters were brought back in the sledge to Newgate.… Sir Thomas Armstrong’s quarters are disposed off: a fore-quarter is sett on Temple bar, his head on Westminster, another quarter is sent down to the town of Stafford, for which he was a Parliament man (Luttrell, i. 311-2).

The head was taken down after the Revolution.

We now enter on the short and troubled reign of James II.

1685. James Burton was outlawed for having taken part in the Rye House Plot (1683). Elizabeth Gaunt, a poor woman, gave him shelter and finally got him a passage to Holland. Burton returned, took part in Monmouth’s rebellion in 1685, and after Monmouth’s defeat again sought refuge in London. At the entreaty of his wife, Fernley, a barber, a neighbour of Mrs. Gaunt, gave him shelter. To save his own neck Burton gave information against his benefactors for protecting him. He was not ashamed to appear in court against them, and the Crown lawyers were not ashamed to produce his evidence. Fernley was hanged at Tyburn, Elizabeth Gaunt was burnt in the same place on October 23, 1685. In prison she wrote her Last Speech. She says, “I did but relieve an unworthy, poor, distressed family, & lo I must dye for it; well, I desire in the Lamb-like nature of the Gospell to forgive all that are concerned, & to say, Lord, lay it not to their charge; but I fear it will not; nay I believe, when he comes to make inquisition for blood, it will be found at the door of the furious Judge: … my blood will also be found at the door of the unrighteous Jury, who found me guilty upon the single oath of an out-lawd man.”

“Pen, the quaker,” says Burnet, “told me, he saw her die. She laid the straw about her for burning her speedily; and behaved herself in such a manner, that all the spectators melted in tears” (Burnet, “Hist. of his Own Time,” i. 649).

“Since that terrible day,” writes Macaulay, “no woman has suffered death in England for any political offence.” This is true only if we except the cases in which women were burnt as guilty of treason for coining. It was by a narrow chance that Mrs. Gaunt was the last. On January 19, 1693, Mrs. Merryweather was sentenced to be burnt for printing treasonable pamphlets, but, after being more than once reprieved, was pardoned on February 23rd (Luttrell).

1686. May 20-2. Sessions at Old Bailey, when 16 received sentence of death.

The 28th, five men of those lately condemned at the Sessions were executed at Tyburn; one of them was Pascha Rose, the new hangman, so that now Ketch is restored to his place (Luttrell, i. 378).

1686. On the night of April 12 two of his Majesty’s mails from Holland were robbed, near Ilford, of £5,000 in gold, belonging to some Jews in London. Richard Alborough, Oliver Hawley, and John Condom were indicted for the robbery. Alborough pleading guilty was sentenced to death, & the same sentence was passed on the others after trial.

July the 2d, Oliver Hawley and John Condom were executed at Tyburn (Luttrell, i. 374-82.)

Here is a strange incident:—

At the Sessions at the Old Baily held on October 13-16 fourteen persons received sentence of death.

Edward Skelton, one of the criminalls that received sentence of death this last sessions at the Old Baily, has been beg’d of the King by 18 maids clothed in white, and since is married to one of them in the Presse yard (Luttrell, i. 387.)

1686. Samuel Johnson, rector of Corringham, is described as a “political divine.” In 1682 he published a famous piece, “Julian the Apostate,” Julian being for the nonce the Duke of York. Johnson represented that popery was a modern form of paganism; he argued against unconditional obedience to the Crown. After the Rye House Plot proceedings were taken against him, and he was fined and imprisoned. On his release he wrote and distributed other tracts, one, published after the Duke of York came to the throne, was “An Humble and Hearty Address to all the English Protestants in this present Army.” In this he appealed to the soldiers not to be “unequally yoked with idolatrous and bloody Papists”:—On November 16, 1686, Samuel Johnson, clerk, convicted upon an information of writing and publishing two libells, was this day brought to the court of Kings bench, where he offered something in arrest of judgment, but the Court overruled it, and the chief justice told him he blasphemously wrested scripture; so the court pronounced judgment on him, to stand thrice in the pillory, pay a fine of 500 marks, and to be whipt from Newgate to Tyburn.…

The 20th, Samuel Johnson, clerk, was brought before the commissioners for the diocese of London, and other the clergy in the chapter house of St. Pauls, and there degraded and devested accordingly, and delivered over as a secular person (Luttrell, i. 388).

The execution of the sentence on Mr. Johnson is thus described: And immediately they proceeded to execute the said Sentence, and to degrade him by putting on his Head a square Cap, and then taking off again; then they pulled off his Gown, then his Girdle, which he demanded as his proper Goods, bought with his Money, which they promised to send; but they cost him Twenty Shillings to have them again. After all, they put a Bible into his Hand; which he would not part with, but they took it from him by Force.… On the Monday after, viz. Two-and-twentieth of November, the judgment in the King’s Bench were executed with great Rigour and Cruelty, the Whipping [from Newgate to Tyburn] being with a Whip of Nine Cords, Knotted, shewed to the Committee; and that Mr. Rouse the Under Sheriff tore off his Cassock upon the pillory and put a Frize Coat upon him (“Journals of the House of Commons,” June 24, 1689, x. 194).

In 1689, after the accession of William III., Parliament annulled the judgment.

1690. The same day [September 12] 6 persons were executed at Tyburn; some of them behaved themselves very impudently, calling for sack, and drank king James’s health, and affronted the ordinary at the gallows, and refused his assistance; and bid the people return to their obedience and send for king James back (Luttrell, ii. 103).

1690. In this year occurred a famous case of stealing an heiress. This was made a felony by 3 Henry VII. (1487), c. 3:—

Where Wymmen aswell Maydens as Wydowes and Wyfes havyng substaunce somme in goods moveable, and somme in landes and tenements, and summe beyng heires apparaunte unto their auncesters, for the lucre of suche substaunce been oft tymes taken by mysdoers contrarie to their Will, and after maried to such mysdoers or to other by their assent, or defoulled, to the great displesire of God and contrarie to the Kyngs lawes and dispargement of the seid Women and utter hevynesse and discomforte of their frendes and to the evyll example of all other.…

The Act goes on to make the offence a felony.

We will let Luttrell tell the story of the abduction and its result, day by day:—

November 7. One Mrs. Mary Wharton, a young heiresse of about £1500 per ann., and about 13 years of age, comeing home with her aunt, Mrs. Byerley, in their coach about 9 at night, and alighting out of it at her own aunt, was violently seized on and putt into a coach and 6 horses and carried away.

November 15. Mrs. Wharton, who was lately stole, is returned home to her friends, having been married against her consent to Captain Campbell [brother to Lord Argyle].… A proclamation hath been published by their majesties for the discovering and apprehending captain James Campbell, Archibald Montgomery, and sir John Jonston, for stealing away Mrs. Wharton. [The proclamation included “divers others.”]

November 25. Sir John Jonston, concerned in the stealing of Mrs. Wharton, is taken and committed to Newgate.

December 10. The sessions began at the Old Baily, and held the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 17th dayes of this month, where 22 persons received sentence of death (and among them sir John Jonston, for stealing Mrs. Wharton), 9 were burnt in the hand, 1 ordered to be transported, and 6 sentenced to be whipt.

December 18. Intercession has been made to his majestie on the behalf of sir John Jonston, lately condemned, for his pardon; which he hath denied unlesse it be desired by the friends of Mrs. Wharton.

December 23. Sir John Jonston, condemned for stealing Mrs. Wharton, went up in a mourning coach to Tyburn, and was executed for the same; and his body was delivered to his friends, in order to it’s being buried (Luttrell, ii. 128-48).

Here is a further notice of Mistress Wharton. Let us hope she was happily married:—

1692. March 19. On Thursday last colonell Byerley was married to Mrs. Wharton, stole formerly by Campdell (Luttrell, ii. 394).

1690. December 22. Thirteen persons were executed at Tyburn for several crimes; also a woman at Newgate for setting the prison on fire; and also a notorious highway man, commonly called the Golden Farmer [this was William Davis, known by this title], was executed in Fleetstreet, at the end of Salisbury court, and is after to be hang’d in chains upon Bagshott heath (Luttrell, ii. 148).

1692. September 22. Information is given of near 300 coyners and clippers dispersed in divers parts of this citty, on which warrants are out against severall; one from the lords of the treasury, another by the cheife justice, and a 3d by the masters of the mint (ii. 571).

1692. Towards the end of the year Luttrell has several entries in his diary relating to a celebrated highwayman, “captain” James Whitney:—

December. Witney, the notorious highway man, offers to bring in 80 stout men of his gang to the kings service, if he may have his pardon (ii. 630).

December 6. This morning his majestie sent a party of horse to look after Whitney, the great highwayman, on some notice he was lurking between Barnet and St. Albans: they mett with him at the first of the said towns, who finding himselfe attackt, made his defence and killed one of them, and wounded some others: but at last was taken and brought to London. His majestie was very glad he was taken, being a great ringleader of that crew (ii. 633).

This must have been a mistake, as shown by the following entries:—

December 20. The lords C. and B. were on Satturday last to meet Whitney, a great highwayman, on honour; he offers to bring in 30 horse, with as many stout men, to serve the king, provided he may have his pardon, and will give a summe of money besides: but the issue thereof not known (ii. 644).

1693. Tuesday, 3d January. On Satturday last Whitney, the famous highwayman, was taken without Bishopsgate; he was discovered by one Hill as he walkt the street, who observed where he housed, then, calling some assistance, he went to the door; but Whitney defended himselfe for an hour, but the people encreasing, and the officers of Newgate being sent for, he surrendered himselfe, but had before stabb’d the said Hill with a bagonet, but not mortall: he was cuff’d and shackled with irons and committed to Newgate; and on Sunday 2 more of his gang were also seized and committed; one kept a livery stable in Moor feilds (iii. 1).

January 7. Strongly reported yesterday that Whitney had made his escape out of Newgate, but he continues closely confined there, and has 40 pound weight of iron on his leggs; he had his taylor make him a rich embroidered suit, with perug and hatt, worth £100; but the keeper refused to let him wear them, because they would disguise him from being known (iii. 5).

On the 8th five of Whitney’s gang apprehended but 2 of them escaped.

1693. At the Old Baily sessions “8 highwaymen received sentence of death, Whitney, Grasse, Fetherstone, Nedland, Poor, Holland and 2 more” (iii. 16).

January 28. Yesterday 9 persons were carried to Tyburn, where 8 were executed, 7 hyghwaymen, and one for clipping; Whitney was brought back, having a repreive for 10 dayes, and was brought back to Newgate with a rope about his neck, a vast crowd of people following him.

Last night Whitney was carried in a sedan to Whitehall and examined; ’tis said he discovers who hired the persons to rob the mailes so often.

Whitney, ’tis said, has been examined upon a design to kill the King.…

Whitney, ’tis said, will be executed next week; others say his repreive is grounded on the discovery of his accomplices, with their houses of reception, and way of living (iii. 24).

1693. February 2. Yesterday being the 1st instant, capt. James Whitney, highwayman, was executed at Porter’s block, near Cow crosse in Smithfeild; he seemed to dye very penitent; was an hour and halfe in the cart before turn’d off (iii. 27).

Luttrell mentions that in January there were near 20 highwaymen in Newgate (iii. 10).

1693. April 27. A person was this day convicted at sessions house for sacriledge, rape, burglary, murder, and robbing on the highway; all committed in 12 hours time (Luttrell, iii. 85).

October 24. Yesterday, 14 malefactors were executed at Tyburn; 6 of them clippers (Luttrell, iii. 212).

1694. July 19. Yesterday 11 men and 3 women were executed at Tyburn; amongst them was Wilkinson the goldsmith, with several others for clipping; one Paynes, convicted for murder, who by the confession of one of his accomplices has killed 5 or 6 persons in a short time; he kickt the ordinary out of the cart at Tyburn, and pulled off his shoes, sayeing, hee’d contradict the old proverb, and not dye in them (Luttrell, iii. 345).

1694. On Wensday the 12th instant 18 persons were executed at Tyburn; 7 men, and 1 woman burnt for clipping and coyning [this does not mean that the men were burnt, but the woman only], 8 highway men, and 2 for burglary (Luttrell, iii. 413).

1695. January 10. Several persons have malitiously spread abroad that Tyburn was hung in mourning, but upon examination it proves a mistake (Luttrell, iii. 424).

The Queen had died on December 28.

1695. At the Old Bailey Sessions:—

July 6. Mr. Moor, the rich tripeman of Westminster, was found guilty of clipping and coyning; and some others will be tried for the like offence (Luttrell, iii. 495).

July 13. Yesterday four men were executed at Tyburn, three of them for clipping, one of which was John Moore, the tripeman, said to have gott a good estate by clipping, and to have offered 6000 l. for his pardon (Luttrell, iii. 497).

July 16. Moor the tripeman being hang’d for clipping, the duke of Somerset has seized upon his house, worth 1000 l., being within his mannor of Isleworth.

This day a rich chandler of Lambeth and a housekeeper in Long Acre were seized for clipping (Luttrell, iii. 499).

1695. About this time Luttrell tells of the arrests of “nests” of coiners, among them an attorney in the Temple, and a merchant in Birchin Lane; at one time 105 coiners and clippers lay in Newgate awaiting trial. The condition of the coinage became a great question of State so pressing that after six Proclamations on the subject an Act 7 and 8 William III c. 1 (1695-6) was passed “An Act for remedying the Ill State of the Coin of the Kingdome.” The Act recites that “the Silver Coins of this Realm (as to a great part thereof) doe appeare to bee exceedingly diminished by such persons who (notwithstanding several good laws formerly provided and many examples of justice thereupon) have practised the wicked and pernicious crime of Clipping until att length the course of the Moneys within this Kingdom is become difficult and very much perplext, to the unspeakable wrong and prejudice of His Majestie and His good Subjects in their Affairs as well Publick as particular and noe sufficient Remedy can bee applied to the manifold Evils ariseing from the clipping of the Moneys without recoining the clipt pieces.”

Then follow very lengthy provisions for dealing with coins of “Sterling Silver or Silver of a courser Allay then the Standard” from which we may infer that the Government had played its part in the debasing of the coinage.

This was followed, in the same year, by an Act, c. 19 “to incourage the bringing Plate into the Mint to be coined and for the further remedying the ill State of the Coine of the Kingdome.” The next year saw another Act 8 and 9 William III. c. 2, “for the further remedying the ill State of the Coin of the Kingdome,” an Act, c. 8, for “Incouraging the bringing in wrought Plate to be coined”; c. 26, “for the better preventing the counterfeiting the current Coine of the Kingdome.” Other Acts of the same kind were 9 William III. c. 2; c. 21; these are in addition to numerous Proclamations. Nothing can better show the state of the coinage than the record of petitions of seamen and shipwrights in the King’s yards who had been paid in clipped and counterfeit half-crowns.

In February, 1696, came to a head “the Assassination Plot,” the most dangerous of all the Plots formed against William III. The King was, according to custom, to go to hunt in Richmond Park on February 15. Advantage was to be taken of this to assassinate him. For some reason he did not go, and the execution of the scheme was deferred. But meanwhile one of the conspirators gave information to the Government. Numerous arrests were made, followed by trials and executions. On March 18 Robert Charnock, Edward King, and Thomas Keys were executed at Tyburn. They were followed on April 3 by Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins. The populace of London flocked to Tyburn in numbers exceeding all precedent to witness the execution of Friend, found guilty by the Court of high treason, and by the people of a crime that touched them more nearly—the brewing of execrable beer. Three non-juring divines attended the condemned men to the scaffold, Jeremy Collier, and two of less note, Shadrach Cook and William Snatt, who absolved the criminals “in a manner more than ordinarily practised in the Church of England.” For this Cook and Snatt were committed to Newgate. Macaulay says that they were not brought to trial. It appears, however, that they were actually indicted, and found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours (Luttrell, iv. 80) and imprisoned for a short time. Collier kept out of the way, and was in consequence outlawed, remaining under the sentence to the end of his days. Numerous tracts were written on the subject.

On April 29 Brigadier Rookwood, Charles Cranburne, and Major Lowick were executed at Tyburn, they also having been condemned for the Plot.

This completes the story of the executions at Tyburn for the Assassination Plot, but it is impossible to refrain from mentioning a case dismissed by Macaulay in a sentence referring to “Major John Bernardi, an adventurer of Genoese extraction, whose name has derived a melancholy celebrity from a punishment so strangely prolonged that it at length shocked a generation which could not remember his crime.” It is hardly fair to call Bernardi an adventurer. Apart from this, the reader would certainly not gather from Macaulay’s remark that no crime was ever proved against Bernardi. In writing of a shocked generation the historian probably referred to some very mild remarks of Dr. Johnson, in his “Life of Pope.” Pope wrote an epitaph on Secretary Trumball, who, from his official position, took a leading part in persuading Parliament to consent to the imprisonment of Bernardi. The concluding lines of Pope’s epitaph are:—

On this Johnson wrote: “The thought in the last line is impertinent, having no connection with the foregoing character, nor with the condition of the man described. Had the epitaph been written on the poor conspirator who lately died in prison, after a confinement of more than forty years, without any crime proved against him, the sentiment had been just and pathetical; but why should Trumball be congratulated upon his liberty, who had never known restraint?”

Major Bernardi was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the Assassination Plot; he was in the company of Rookwood when the latter, afterwards condemned and executed, was arrested. Against Bernardi there was but one witness, an informer. Even taking this informer’s testimony without abatement the case against Bernardi did not reach higher than suspicion. But the resources of civilisation were equal to the occasion. A clause in an Act, 8 & 9 William III. (1696-7) c. 5, gave power to keep in Newgate Bernardi and five others named, till January 1, 1697-8. An Act, 9 William III. (1697-8) c. 4. gave power to prolong the imprisonment for a second year. A third Act, 10 William III. (1698) c. 19, enacted that the same six persons should be kept in custody during his Majesty’s pleasure.

The rest of the story would be incredible if it were not supported by Acts of Parliament. The Act last mentioned necessarily expired on William’s death, but on the accession of Anne another Act was passed, 1 Anne (1701) st. 1, c. 29. for continuing the imprisonment of these men during the Queen’s pleasure. Anne, however, released one. This Act lapsed on the Queen’s death. On the accession of George I. a similar Act was passed, 1 George I. (1714) st. 2, c. 7. During this reign two of the prisoners died in Newgate. Once more the death of the sovereign put the prisoners in a position to move to be brought to trial or admitted to bail. But an Act of the same tenor as the preceding Acts was passed, 1 Geo. II. (1727) st. 1, c. 4, once more continuing the imprisonment during the sovereign’s pleasure. In vain was the king petitioned; in vain did Bernardi’s doctors depose to his lamentable state, “his miserable lameness, and swelling in his arms, by humours flowing to an old wound”; in vain did his wife pray for her husband’s liberation. Finally, in 1736, after an imprisonment of 40 years, Bernardi, then in his eighty-second year, was set free, not by the clemency of the King, but as he had himself foreseen, “by the great and merciful God himself above, the King of Kings and only Ruler of Princes.”[201] Thus ended the imprisonment of this sick and aged man, the longest imprisonment recorded in the law-books, an imprisonment awarded and continued through several reigns on mere suspicion of one never brought to trial. The case is instructive, as showing how with strict observance of constitutional forms, it is possible to emulate the dark deeds of uncontrolled despotism.

Magna Carta, the magnificent conception of a great English ecclesiastic of the thirteenth century, would perhaps be found even to-day, if a time of stress came upon us, to be still a counsel of perfection. If that is so, the blame must rest upon William III. and his advisers. Strange that men to whom power was given in order that they might protect us from arbitrary government should have exceeded those they displaced in the exercise of arbitrary power! Cromwell derided Magna Carta in terms not to be reproduced here.[202] The accession of William was almost immediately followed by the suspension of habeas corpus, resting upon the great Charter.

Macaulay tells us that Charles II. “would gladly have refused his assent to that measure,” the habeas corpus Act. We will not dispute it; but Charles did not ask for the suspension of habeas corpus when the Rye House Plot broke out. Macaulay tells us that James II. hated the Act. This, again, we will not dispute. But he did not ask for its suspension when Monmouth invaded England. William did not wait for the Assassination Plot to ask Parliament to suspend the Act. Before he had been on the throne a month he established an evil precedent which has ever since been followed; no minister has since ever hesitated to ask Parliament to suspend habeas corpus, and no Parliament has ever refused the request when made. Suspended four times in the reign of William and Mary and William, once in the reign of Anne, thrice in the reign of George I., four times in the reign of George II., and twenty times in the reign of George III. (Ireland is left out of account), habeas corpus was reduced to the point at which it afforded exactly the amount of protection that a man would receive from a waterproof coat, worn in sunshine, and carefully left at home when rain falls.[203]

1696. December 31. Yesterday 14 men were executed at Tyburn, 10 of them for clipping and coining, the other 4 for robbery (Luttrell, iv. 162).

1697. July 20. The 16th past, 14 malefactors were executed at Tyburn; 3 men and 1 woman for coining, 2 men for counterfeiting stamp’t paper, a woman for murthering her bastard child; and 7 more for robbery and burglary; and the French woman, who murdered Mrs. Pullein, was hanged at the end of Suffolk Street, where the fact was committed (Luttrell, iv. 254).

1697. November 4. Yesterday 6 persons were executed at Tyburn; two for coining, one for robbing on the high way, and 3 for counterfeiting stampt paper, of which Mr. Salisbury the minister was one; he had the favour to goe to Tyburn in a mourning coach, and his body was brought back in a herse.

Salisbury was a non-juring parson of Sussex; the evidence against him showed that he did not commit the forgery for want, “as having a good estate and a good living, but only to prejudice king William’s Government” (Luttrell, iv. 292, 302).

A few days later Luttrell records the committal of another parson for the same offence.

1698. December 22. Yesterday fourteen men and one woman were executed at Tyburn; two of the men were drawn in a sledge, and were for coining; one man was carried in a coach, for robbing on the high way; and the rest in carts, for burglary and robbery on the high way; and one for murther (L., iv. 464).

Including these, Luttrell records the execution at Tyburn this year of 62 persons.

1699. Luttrell records the execution this year at Tyburn of 51 persons.

In this year was passed the Act so often and so strongly denounced by Romilly in later years (10 William III., c. 12 in the folio edition of the Statutes), which came into operation after May 20. It was directed against burglary and horse stealing as well as against “the crime of stealing goods privately out of shops and warehouses, commonly called Shoplifting.” The notoriety of the Act was earned by its inflicting the penalty of death for shoplifting to the value of five shillings. This Act also established the “Tyburn ticket,”[204] as it came to be called, a certificate awarded for the apprehension and prosecution of offenders. This gave exemption from parish and ward offices. It further enacted that all persons convicted of theft, who had benefit of clergy should, instead of being burnt in the hand, be “burnt in the most visible part of the left cheek nearest the nose,” the burning to be done in court in presence of the judge. Luttrell records in connection with the May sessions that “two were burnt in the left cheek, according to the new act of parliament”; at the next sessions eighteen were so branded. But the innovation did not prove successful. Luttrell says that retaliation was threatened—“the said offenders for the future threaten whatever house they break into, &c., they will mark the persons on the cheek to prevent distinction.” The provision was repealed by 5 and 6 Anne (1706), c. 6, and burning in the hand was again established. The repealing Act states in the preamble that “the said punishment [of burning on the cheek] hath not had its desired effect, by deterring such offenders from the further committing such crimes and offences, but on the contrary, such offenders being rendered thereby unfit to be intrusted in any service or employment to get their livelihood in any honest and lawful way, become the more desperate.” But the penalty of death for stealing to the value of five shillings remained.

1700. March 16. Three prisoners were this week taken in the very act of coining in Newgate.

April 20. Yesterday, one Larkin, alias Young, with another, were executed at Tyburn; the former for coyning in Newgate (Luttrell, iv. 624, 636).

1705. December 12. “One John Smith, condemned lately at the Old Baily for burglary, was carried to Tyburn to be executed, and was accordingly hanged up, and after he had hung about 7 minutes, a reprieve came, so he was cutt down, and immediately lett blood and put into a warm bed, which, with other applications, brought him to himself again with much adoe” (Luttrell, v. 623).

The story is told at greater length by James Mountague in “The Old Bailey Chronicle,” 1700-83, i. 51-3:—

“After hanging five minutes and a quarter, a reprieve was brought.… The malefactor was cut down and taken with all possible expedition to a public house where proper means was pursued for his recovery, and with so much success that the perfect use of all his faculties was restored in about half an hour.”

The account given by Smith of his sensations was that when first turned off he felt excessive pain, but that it almost immediately ceased. The last circumstance he recollected was like an irregular and glimmering light before his eyes: the pain he felt in hanging was infinitely surpassed when his blood was recovering its usual course of circulation.

Hatton, in his “New View of London” 1708, i. 84-5, says that Smith hanged for about a quarter of an hour; he adds that the executioner, while Smith was hanging, pulled his legs, and used other means to put a speedy period to his life.

Smith did not profit by this severe lesson. For a while indeed he served the cause of law and order, as will be seen by the following:—

1706. March. Smith, who, sometime since was half-hanged and cut down, having accused about 350 pickpockets, house breakers, &c., who gott to be soldiers in the guards, the better to hide their roguery, were last week upon mustering the regiments drawn out and immediately shipt off for Catalonia: and about 60 women, who lay under condemnation for such crimes, were likewise sent away to follow the camp (Luttrell, vi. 25).

And again: 1706. November 9. The officers of her majesties guards yesterday drew out their companies in St. James’s Park, which were viewed by Smith (sometime since hang’d at Tyburn, but a reprieve coming was cut down before dead) and two other persons in masks, in order to discover felons and housebreakers: out of which 2 serjeants with 6 soldiers were seized as criminals and committed to the Marshalsea prison (Luttrell, vi. 105).

Smith had received an unconditional pardon; later he was again tried for burglary, and acquitted on a point of law. Lesson number 2. But Smith was a third time apprehended on a charge of burglary and committed for trial. The prosecutor died, and Smith was discharged. It is said that finally he was drowned at sea.

Smith’s recovery from hanging does not stand alone. In 1740 there was a case of a man who was left hanging for the usual time, and recovered:—

1740. November 25. “Yesterday only five of the Malefactors were executed at Tyburn: two of them, viz., George Wight and Abraham Hancock having obtain’d a Reprieve thro’ the Intercession of a Noble Peer.

“Duel, executed for the Rape, was brought to Surgeons-Hall, in order for Anatomy, but after he was stripp’d and laid on the Board, and one of the Servants was washing him, to be cut up, he perceived Life in him, and found his Breath to come quicker and quicker, on which a Surgeon bled him, and took several Ounces of Blood from him, and in about two Hours he came so much to himself as to sit up in a Chair, groan’d very much, and seem’d in great Agitation, but could not speak: tho’ it was the Opinion of most People if he had been put in a warm Bed and proper Care taken, he would have come to himself. Whether he’s now living we know not, but a great Mob assembled at Surgeons-Hall on this Occasion, and according to their Law, he could not be executed again: but according to the Law of the Land, the Sheriffs have a Power to carry him again to Tyburn and execute him, his former sentence, of being hung till he was dead, not having been executed. Its reckon’d his coming to Life was owing to the wrong Disposition of the Halter” (London Daily Post and General Advertiser).

Duel or Dewell did not recollect being hanged: he said that he had been in a dream; that he dreamed of Paradise, where an angel told him his sins were forgiven. He made a complete recovery. At the next sessions at the Old Bailey he was ordered to be transported for life.

Some years before this, the problem of the recovery of persons hanged had received careful attention. Thus, we find the following in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1733 (April 27), p. 213:—

Mr. Chovet, a Surgeon, having by frequent Experiments on Dogs, discovered, that opening the Windpipe, would prevent the fatal Consequences of the Halter, undertook Mr. Gordon, and made an Incision in his Windpipe: the Effect of which was, that when Gordon stopt his Mouth, Nostrils, and Ears for some Time, Air enough came thro’ the Cavity to continue Life. When he was hang’d he was perceived to be alive after all the rest were dead: and when he had hung 3 quarters of an Hour, being carried to a House in Tyburn Road, he opened his Mouth several Times and groaned, and a Vein being open’d he bled freely. ’Twas thought, if he had been cut down 5 Minutes sooner, he might have recover’d.

Two cases of recovery, not assisted by the surgeon, are recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1736. On July 26 one Reynolds, a turnpike leveller,[205] was hanged and cut down in the usual course. But as the coffin was being fastened down, Reynolds thrust back the lid, whereupon the executioner was for tying him up again. This however the mob would not suffer. Reynolds was carried to a house where he vomited a quantity of blood, but he died after being made to drink a glass of wine.

On September 23rd two men were hanged at Bristol, cut down and put into coffins, when both revived. One died later in the day; what befel the other is not told.

The Gentleman’s Magazine for 1767 (p. 90) records the execution at Cork, on January 24th, of Patrick Redmond who hung for twenty-eight minutes. “The mob carried off the body to a place appointed, where he was, after five or six hours actually recovered by a surgeon who made the incision in his windpipe called bronchotomy. The poor fellow has since received his pardon, and a genteel collection has been made for him.”

More interesting than any of these cases is an earlier one fully recorded in a little book published in 1651, “Newes from the Dead, or a true and exact narration of the miraculous deliverance of Anne Greene, who being executed at Oxford, December 14, 1650, afterwards revived, and by the care of certain Physitians there is now perfectly recovered. Together with the manner of her suffering, and the particular means used for her recovery. Written by a Scholler in Oxford for the satisfaction of a friend who desired to be informed concerning the truth of the businesse. Whereunto are prefixed certain Poems casually written upon that subject.”

One of the poems is by “Chris. Wren, Gent. Com. of Wad. Coll.”

Anne Greene was convicted of killing her newly-born child, but it is open to doubt whether the child was born alive. This is the account of the execution: “She was turned off the ladder,[206] hanging by the neck for the space of almost half an houre, some of her friends in the meantime thumping her on the breast, others hanging with all their weight upon her legs, sometimes lifting her up, and then pulling her doune again with a sudden jerk, thereby the sooner to despatch her out of her pain; insomuch that the Under-sheriff fearing lest thereby they should break the rope forbad them to do so any longer.”

The body was carried in a coffin into a private house, and showing signs of life, “a lusty fellow that stood by (thinking to do an act of charity in ridding her out of the small reliques of a painfull life) stamped several times on her breast and stomach with all the force he could.” Dr. Petty, the Professor of Anatomy, coming in with another, they set themselves to recover her. They bled her freely, and put her into bed with another woman. After about two hours she could speak “many words intelligible.” On the 19th (having been hanged on the 14th) she was up; within a month she was recovered, and went to her friends in the country, taking her coffin with her.

On June 19, 1728, Margaret Dickenson was hanged at Edinburgh. After hanging for the usual time, the body was cut down, put into a coffin, and so into a cart for carriage to the place of interment. The man in charge of the cart stopped in a village to drink, and while so engaged, saw the lid of the coffin move: at last the woman sat up in her coffin. Most of those present fled in terror, but a gardener, who happened to be there, opened a vein. Within an hour Margaret was put to bed, and on the next day walked home. The story is told in the “Newgate Calendar” of 1774, with a picture of Margaret sitting up in her coffin.

These cases, astounding as they are, are eclipsed by one known only by the barest statement of the fact. In the 28th of Henry III. (1264) a woman, Ivetta de Balsham, was, for some felony, hanged at three o’clock one afternoon. She was let down from the gallows at sunrise the next morning, and found to be alive. A pardon was granted to her. The date of the pardon is August 16th, and the execution must have taken place some time before this date. But even if Ivetta was hanged on midsummer day she must have been hanging twelve long hours.[207]

1712. December 23. Richard Town was executed at Tyburn. Being bankrupt, he absconded, and was apprehended, having twenty guineas and other money in his possession (Montague, “The Old Bailey Chronicle,” i. 69-70).

Sir James Fitzjames Stephen says that setting in the pillory for fraudulent concealment of goods to the value of £20 “continued to be the statutory penalty for fraudulent bankruptcy from 21 James I. (1623) c. 19, s. 7 till the year 1732.”[208] The reference is to the Act 5 George II. c. 30. Sir James appears, however, to have overlooked a previous Act, 4 & 5 Anne (1705), c. 4, s. 1 of which made fraudulent bankruptcy a felony without benefit of clergy. It is said that there were but few executions for this offence. The most remarkable case is that of John Perrott, who was executed at Smithfield (not at Tyburn) on November 11, 1761. The story, of singular interest, is told in great detail in the Gentleman’s Magazine for the year, xxxi. 585-92.

1715. December 7. Nine adherents of the Pretender were executed at Tyburn.

There followed other executions:—

1716. May 14. Colonel Oxburgh.

May 25. Richard Gascoign.

July 18. Rev. William Paul and John Hall.

In his account of the execution of Paul and Hall, Mr. Lorrain, the ordinary of Newgate, says: “The cart being drawn away, and they being turned off, the People gave a mighty shout, and with loud Acclamations said, God save King George. To which I say, Amen.”

As mention has been made of Mr. Lorrain, it may be not amiss to say something about him. The Rev. Paul Lorrain, probably of Huguenot extraction, was the ordinary of Newgate from 1698 to 1719. The British Museum possesses nearly fifty of the broadsheets issued by him, giving accounts of the behaviour, last speeches, and execution of the criminals who came under his care in Newgate. The worthy ordinary was perhaps inclined to estimate too highly the effect of his ministrations on these criminals. His representations of their penitent attitude procured for them the name of “Paul Lorrain’s Saints” (Tatler, No. 63). There is a good-humoured reference to this weakness in the Spectator, No. 338.

1718. March 17. Execution of Ferdinando Marquis de Palleotti.

The Duke of Shrewsbury, being at Rome, fell in love with Palleotti’s sister, and upon the lady’s conversion to Protestantism, married her. Ferdinando visited his sister in England. He was addicted to gambling, and made such demands upon his sister’s purse that at length she refused further supplies. He was arrested for debt, and liberated by her. Walking in the street one day, he ordered his servant to call upon a gentleman in the neighbourhood, and ask for a loan. The servant showing reluctance to fulfil the order, the marquis drew his sword and ran him through the body. According to the ordinary, the marquis thought it a great hardship that he should die for so small a matter as killing his servant (James Mountague, “The Old Bailey Chronicle,” i. 185-8).

A few hours after the execution of the marquis, James Shepherd, an adherent of the Pretender, was drawn to Tyburn and there hanged and quartered.

1718. May 31. The hangman of Tyburn, John Price, known by the common name Jack Ketch, was hanged, for murder, near the scene of the crime, in Bunhill-Fields.

1721. February 8. On this day were executed at Tyburn four men, one of whom had undergone the peine forte et dure.

Four men were indicted for highway robberies. Two refusing to plead, the court gave orders to read the judgment appointed to be executed on such as stand mute or refuse to plead to their indictment.

“That the prisoner shall be sent to the prison from whence he came, and put into a mean room, stopped from the light, and shall there be laid on the bare ground without any litter, straw, or other covering, and without any garment about him except something about his middle. He shall lie upon his back, his head shall be covered and his feet shall be bare. One of his arms shall be drawn with a cord to the side of the room, and the other arm to the other side, and his legs shall be served in the like manner. Then there shall be laid upon his body as much iron or stone as he can bear, and more. And the first day after he shall have three morsels of barley bread, without any drink, and the second day he shall be allowed to drink as much as he can, at three times, of the water that is next the prison door, except running water, without any bread; and this shall be his diet till he dies: and he against whom the judgment shall be given forfeits his goods to the King.

“This having no effect on the prisoners, the executioner (as is usual in such cases) was ordered to tie their thumbs together, and draw the cord as tight as he was able, which was immediately done; neither this, nor all the admonitions of the court being sufficient to bring them to plead, they were sentenced to be pressed to death. They were carried back to Newgate. As soon as they entered the press-room, Phillips desired that he might return to the bar and plead, but Spiggott continuing obstinate was put under the press. He bore three hundred and fifty pounds weight for half an hour, but then fifty more being added,[209] he begged that he might be carried back to plead, which favour was granted.”

After the treatment he was very faint and almost speechless for two days. One of his reasons given to the ordinary of Newgate for enduring the press was that none might reproach his children by telling them their father was hanged. Before he was taken out of the press, he was in a kind of slumber and had hardly any sense of pain left.[210]

1721. July 5. Barbara Spencer was burnt at Tyburn for coining. At the stake “she was very desirous of praying, and complained of the dirt and stones thrown by the mob behind her, which prevented her thinking sedately on futurity. One time she was quite beat down by them” (Villette, i. 32-6).

1721. December 22. Nathaniel Hawes, a young man of 20, had been out of prison but a few days when he robbed a man on the highway of 4s. He refused to plead, because a handsome suit of clothes had been taken from him, and he was resolved not to go to the gallows in a shabby suit. The court ordered that his thumbs should be tied together. The cord was pulled by two officers till it broke, and this was repeated several times without effect. He was then put in the press, and gave in when he had borne a weight of 250 lbs. for about seven minutes. (Reference has already been made to this case on p. 41 in treating of the peine forte et dure).