The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 1, Thomas Babington Macaulay [ebook pc reader txt] 📗

ordinaire des autres nations" 13-23, 1685.


425 Burnet. i. 644; Evelyn's Diary, July 15; Sir J. Bramston's

Memoirs; Reresby's Memoirs; James to the Prince of Orange, July

14, 1685; Barillon, July 16-26; Bucclench MS.


426 James to the Prince of Orange, July 14, 1685, Dutch Despatch

of the same date, Dartmouth's note on Burnet, i. 646; Narcissus

Luttrell's Diary, (1848) a copy of this diary, from July 1685 to

Sept. 1690, is among the Mackintosh papers. To the rest I was

allowed access by the kindness of the Warden of All Souls'

College, where the original MS. is deposited. The delegates of

the Press of the University of Oxford have since published the

whole in six substantial volumes, which will, I am afraid, find

little favour with readers who seek only for amusement, but which

will always be useful as materials for history. (1857.)


427 Buccleuch MS; Life of James the Second, ii. 37, Orig. Mem.,

Van Citters, July 14-24, 1685; Gazette de France, August 1-11.


428 Buccleuch MS.; Life of James the Second, ii. 37, 38, Orig.

Mem., Burnet, i. 645; Tenison's account in Kennet, iii. 432, ed.

1719.


429 Buccleuch MS.


430 The name of Ketch was often associated with that of Jeffreys

in the lampoons of those days.


"While Jeffreys on the bench, Ketch on the gibbet sits,''


says one poet. In the year which followed Monmouth's execution

Ketch was turned out of his office for insulting one of the

Sheriffs, and was succeeded by a butcher named Rose. But in four

months Rose himself was hanged at Tyburn, and Ketch was

reinstated. Luttrell's Diary, January 20, and May 28, 1686. See a

curious note by Dr, Grey, on Hudibras, part iii. canto ii. line

1534.


431 Account of the execution of Monmouth, signed by the divines

who attended him; Buccleuch MS; Burnet, i. 646; Van Citters, July

17-27,1685, Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, July 15; Barillon,

July 19-29.


432 I cannot refrain from expressing my disgust at the barbarous

stupidity which has transformed this most interesting little

church into the likeness of a meetinghouse in a manufacturing

town.


433 Observator, August 1, 1685; Gazette de France, Nov. 2, 1686;

Letter from Humphrey Wanley, dated Aug. 25, 1698, in the Aubrey

Collection; Voltaire, Dict. Phil. There are, in the Pepysian

Collection, several ballads written after Monmouth's death which

represent him as living, and predict his speedy return. I will

give two specimens.


"Though this is a dismal story


Of the fall of my design,


Yet I'll come again in glory,


If I live till eighty-nine:


For I'll have a stronger army


And of ammunition store."


Again;


"Then shall Monmouth in his glories


Unto his English friends appear,


And will stifle all such stories


As are vended everywhere.


"They'll see I was not so degraded,


To be taken gathering pease,


Or in a cock of hay up braided.


What strange stories now are these!"


434 London Gazette, August 3, 1685; the Battle of Sedgemoor, a

Farce.


435 Pepys's Diary, kept at Tangier; Historical Records of the

Second or Queen's Royal Regiment of Foot.


436 Bloody Assizes, Burnet, i. 647; Luttrell's Diary, July 15,

1685; Locke's Western Rebellion; Toulmin's History of Taunton,

edited by Savage.


437 Luttrell's Diary, July 15, 1685; Toulmin's Hist. of Taunton.


438 Oldmixon, 705; Life and Errors of John Dunton, chap. vii.


439 The silence of Whig writers so credulous and so malevolent

as Oldmixon and the compilers of the Western Martyrology would

alone seem to me to settle the question. It also deserves to be

remarked that the story of Rhynsault is told by Steele in the

Spectator, No. 491. Surely it is hardly possible to believe that,

if a crime exactly resembling that of Rhynsault had been

committed within living memory in England by an officer of James

the Second, Steele, who was indiscreetly and unseasonably forward

to display his Whiggism, would have made no allusion to that

fact. For the case of Lebon, see the Moniteur, 4 Messidor, l'an

3.


440 Sunderland to Kirke, July 14 and 28, 1685. "His Majesty,"

says Sunderland, "commands me to signify to you his dislike of

these proceedings, and desires you to take care that no person

concerned in the rebellion be at large." It is but just to add

that, in the same letter, Kirke is blamed for allowing his

soldiers to live at free quarter.


441 I should be very glad if I could give credit to the popular

story that Ken, immediately after the battle of Sedgemoor,

represented to the chiefs of the royal army the illegality of

military executions. He would, I doubt not, have exerted all his

influence on the side of law and of mercy, if he had been

present. But there is no trustworthy evidence that he was then in

the West at all. Indeed what we know about his proceedings at

this time amounts very nearly to proof of an alibi. It is certain

from the Journals of the House of Lords that, on the Thursday

before the battle, he was at Westminster, it is equally certain

that, on the Monday after the battle, he was with Monmouth in the

Tower; and, in that age, a journey from London to Bridgewater and

back again was no light thing.


442 North's Life of Guildford, 260, 263, 273; Mackintosh's View

of the Reign of James the Second, page 16, note; Letter of

Jeffreys to Sunderland, Sept. 5, 1685.


443 See the preamble of the Act of Parliament reversing her

attainder.


444 Trial of Alice Lisle in the Collection of State Trials; Act

of the First of William and Mary for annulling and making void

the Attainder of Alice Lisle widow; Burnet, i. 649; Caveat

against the Whigs.


445 Bloody Assizes.


446 Locke's Western Rebellion.


447 This I can attest from my own childish recollections.


448 Lord Lonsdale says seven hundred; Burnet six hundred. I have

followed the list which the Judges sent to the Treasury, and

which may still be seen there in the letter book of 1685. See the

Bloody Assizes, Locke's Western Rebellion; the Panegyric on Lord

Jeffreys; Burnet, i. 648; Eachard, iii. 775; Oldmixon, 705.


449 Some of the prayers, exhortations, and hymns of the

sufferers will be found in the Bloody Assizes.


450 Bloody Assizes; Locke's Western Rebellion; Lord Lonsdale's

Memoirs; Account of the Battle of Sedgemoor in the Hardwicke

Papers. The story in the Life of James the Second, ii. 43; is not

taken from the King's manuscripts, and sufficiently refutes

itself.


451 Bloody Assizes; Locke's Western Rebellion, Humble Petition

of Widows and Fatherless Children in the West of England;

Panegyric on Lord Jeffreys.


452 As to the Hewlings, I have followed Kiffin's Memoirs, and

Mr. Hewling Luson's narrative, which will be found in the second

edition of the Hughes Correspondence, vol. ii. Appendix. The

accounts in Locke's Western Rebellion and in the Panegyric on

Jeffreys are full of errors. Great part of the account in the

Bloody Assizes was written by Kiffin, and agrees word for word

with his Memoirs.


453 See Tutchin's account of his own case in the Bloody Assizes.


454 Sunderland to Jeffreys, Sept. 14, 1685; Jeffreys to the

King, Sept. 19, 1685, in the State Paper Office.


455 The best account of the sufferings of those rebels who were

sentenced to transportation is to be found in a very curious

narrative written by John Coad, an honest, Godfearing carpenter

who joined Monmouth, was badly wounded at Philip's Norton, was

tried by Jeffreys, and was sent to Jamaica. The original

manuscript was kindly lent to me by Mr. Phippard, to whom it

belongs.


456 In the Treasury records of the autumn of 1685 are several

letters directing search to be made for trifles of this sort.


457 Commons' Journals, Oct. 9, Nov. 10, Dec 26, 1690; Oldmixon,

706. Panegyrie on Jeffreys.


458 Life and Death of Lord Jeffreys; Panegyric on Jeffreys;

Kiffin's Memoirs.


459 Burnet, i 368; Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 4, 1684-5, July 13,

1686. In one of the satires of that time are these lines:


"When Duchess, she was gentle, mild, and civil;


When Queen, she proved a raging furious devil."


460 Sunderland to Jeffreys, Sept. 14, 1685.


461 Locke's Western Rebellion; Toulmin's History of Taunton,

edited by Savage, Letter of the Duke of Somerset to Sir F. Warre;

Letter of Sunderland to Penn, Feb. 13, 1685-6, from the State

Paper Office, in the Mackintosh Collection. (1848.)


The letter of Sunderland is as follows:-


"Whitehall, Feb. 13, 1685-6.


"Mr. Penne,


"Her Majesty's Maids of Honour having acquainted me that they

design to employ you and Mr. Walden in making a composition with

the Relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high Misdemeanour

they have been guilty of, I do at their request hereby let you

know that His Majesty has been pleased to give their Fines to the

said Maids of Honour, and therefore recommend it to Mr. Walden

and you to make the most advantageous composition you can in

their behalf."


I am, Sir,


"Your humble servant,


"SUNDERLAND."


That the person to whom this letter was addressed was William

Penn the Quaker was not doubted by Sir James Mackintosh who first

brought it to light, or, as far as I am aware, by any other

person, till after the publication of the first part of this

History. It has since been confidently asserted that the letter

was addressed to a certain George Penne, who appears from an old

accountbook lately discovered to have been concerned in a

negotiation for the ransom of one of Monmouth's followers, named

Azariah Pinney.


If I thought that I had committed an error, I should, I hope,

have the honesty to acknowledge it. But, after full

consideration, I am satisfied that Sunderland's letter was

addressed to William Penn.


Much has been said about the way in which the name is spelt. The

Quaker, we are told, was not Mr. Penne, but Mr. Penn. I feel

assured that no person conversant with the books and manuscripts

of the seventeenth century will attach any importance to this

argument. It is notorious that a proper name was then thought to

be well spelt if the sound were preserved. To go no further than

the