must tell you, that Mr. Attorney, sent you no- | tice with the rest; but because you might be led into another opinion, that the council did not order it, you have the favour to be put off till to-morrow: Get your witnesses ready if you out. L. C. J. Call the Jury. Cl. of Cr. Thomas White alias Whitebread, hold up thy hand (and so as to the rest). You the prisoners at the bar, those men that you shall hear called or personally appear, are to pass between our sovereign lord the king and you, upon trial of your several lives and deaths; if therefore you or any of you will challenge them, or any of them, your time is to speak unto them as they come to the book to be sworn, and before they be sworn. Call sir Philip Matthews. Whitebread. We challenge him. My lord, that there may not be any further trouble, it is our general petition, that none of those that were for any of the former trials may be of this Jury, they having already passed their judgment upon the evidence they have heard. L. C. J. You may challenge them. And therefore (speaking to the Clerk of the Crown) don't take any that were upon the last Jury for this cause. Gavan. Nor any of the former Juries; we do this that we may avoid giving your lordship any further trouble, because if we should stay upon particulars we should too much trouble the Court. L. C. J. North. Look you, I will tell you by the way, you have the liberty to challenge peremptorily so many. All we can do, is to give direction to the Clerk; if he do not pursue it, we do not know them, we can't tell, you must look after that. Recorder. You have the books wherein are notes of all their names, by you. Then the Jury that were sworn were these twelve: Thomas Harriot, William Gulston, Allen Garraway, Richard Cheyney, John Roberts, Thomas Cash, Rainsford Waterhouse, Matthew Bateman, John Kaine, Richard White, Richard Bull and Thomas Cox. Cl. of Cr. Crier, count these: Thomas Har riot. Crier. One, &c. Cl. of Cr. Thomas Cox. Crier. Twelve good men and true, stand together and hear your evidence. Then the usual Proclamation for information was made, and the Jurymen of Middlesex summoned and not sworn were dismissed till next morning, 8 o'clock. Cl. of Cr. Thomas White alias Whitebread, hold up thy hand (and so to the rest). You Then Mr. Belwood, of counsel for the king in this cause, opened the indictment thus: May it please your lordship, and you gentlemen of the Jury: the prisoners at the bar, Thomas White alias Whitebread, John Fenwick, William Harcourt alias Harrison, John Gavan and Anthony Turner, together with James Corker, stand indicted of High Treason. It is charged in the indictment, That the 24th of April, in the 30th year of the king that now is, these persons, with other traitors unknown, did purpose and conspire to stir up sedition and rebellion; to cause a miserable slaughter of the king's subjects; to depose the king of bis government, and bring him to death; and to change the government and religion by laws established, and to levy war against the king. And it is further charged in the indictment, that pursuant to this intention of theirs, and the better to bring it to pass, they did assemble, consult, and agree, first to bring his majes ty to death, to murder the king, and thereupon to change the religion established by law to the superstition of the Romish Church, and to subvert the whole government; and it was agreed, that Pickering and Grove should murder the king; and that therefore Whitebread, and the rest of the persons indicted, should say a number of masses for the soul of Pickering And Grove, for this piece of service, was to have a sum of money. And the Indictment says further, That these persons did take the Sacrament to commit this treason with more secrecy; and that they did likewise prepare, excite, abet and counsel four other unknown persons to kill the king at Windsor. All these facts are said to be done advisedly, maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, and against their allegiance to the king. To this they have pleaded Not Guilty; if the king's evidence prove it, you are to find it so, : And then Sir Creswel Levinz, one of the king's learned counsel in the law, opened the Charge thus: May it please your lordship, and you gentlemen of the Jury: These prisoners at the bar are by persuasion Papists, by order and degree they are all priests. By the law of the land, viz. by a statute made the 27th of Eliz. they are all guilty of treason, for being priests, and they might be tried as such, and ought to die for it; but that is not the fact they are charged with, nor will they have the satisfaction to say that they suffer for their religion: No, they are charged with a treason of a blacker and darker nature. And though I must tell you, that it is now almost 100 years ago since that statute was made against priests coming into England, yet examples have been very rare, that any of this sort of men have died for their religion within that queen's time, or any of her successors; yet they have died upon worse accounts, and upon such accounts as they are now brought to this bar for. Such is the difference between their religion and ours, they have been suffered to live here under a law by which they ought to die. They kill the Protestants by thousands, without law or justice, witness their bloody doings at Mirendol, their massacre at Paris, their barbarous cruelty in Ireland, since the year 1640, and those in Piedmont, since 1650. But these are not the crimes they are charged with, they are not accused for their religion, but for the blackest and darkest treason that men can be charged with. They are charged with an endeavour to murder the king, under whose protection they lived. This murder of the king hath been carried on in the design of it, with all the malice and resolution that can be, from the first time that we can give you an account of it, which was the 24th of April, 1678, when these persons, and several others, did first assemble about other matters of their own, and among the rest to murder the king: There they came to a resolution that it should be done, and persons were appointed to do it; these were Grove and Pickering, who have been executed for it; they were to kill the king in St. James's park; but it pleased God that the flint of the pistol failed, to which we are more beholden than to them, that he escaped that time. They were not satisfied with that, but they send down four butchers to murder him at Windsor, who being disappointed, they sent down others after that to murder him at Newmarket; and when all these failed, they had recourse to that treacherous and unmanly way of poisoning him, and hired one so to do; and they did not only intend to murder the king, but to make it good by force when they had done. They intended to raise an army; they had got commissions to several persons in the kingdom, to command these forces. They designed to raise 50,000 men to maintain the injustice, when they had done it. And that was not all; they had recourse to foreign assistance, and depended upon foreign succours, if they were not made VOL. VII. good at home. Gentlemen, they have been intention further, as I find it in my brief, to disappointed in all these things; they had an make a general massacre of all Protestants here. A thing that they have done, and we have heard of it abroad, but thanks be to God, we never knew it experimentally at home. And I hope God that bath preserved us hitherto, will preserve us still.-The mercy these men have met with, in being suffered to live under the danger of the statute, by which they might have justly died, hath not prevailed upon or bettered them at all, but been turned into monstrous ingratitude, and made them more desperate than other people would have been. Gentlemen, when all this is opened, I must tell you, if these persons be innocent, God forbid they should suffer; but if they be guilty, surely they are not fit to live among men: And truly if they be guilty, they do not only deserve to die, but to die a more cruel and miserable death, than either the mercy of our prince, or the moderation of our laws hath provided for such offenders. I shall detain you no longer, but will call the witnesses, and then you shall judge whether they be guilty or not. And we begin with Mr. Oates.-Who was sworn. Sir Creswel Levinz. Pray what can you say to these gentlemen? begin with Mr. Whitebread first. L. C. J. Mr. Oates, apply your evidence as distinctly as you can to one person at first, unless where the matter will take in all, or more than one of them. Oates. My lord, I have evidence I desire may be called in, I shall have occasion to use them. Gavan. It may be inconvenient. He may instruct his witnesses. L. C. J. North. No, he shall not, for we will take care of that: But name your wit L. C. J. Now, Mr. Oates, go on with your evidence; and when there is occasion to make use of these persons they shall be called. Oates. The prisoner at the bar, Mr. Whitebread, was made and constituted provincial, so as it was publicly known to us, in the month of December last was twelvemonth; and he did order by virtue of his authority, one Father George Conyers to preach in the sodality of the English seminary, on the holyday which they call St. Thomas of Canterbury, i. e. Thomas of Becket's day, in which there was order given that Mr. Conyers should preach and assert this doctrine: That the oaths of allegiance and supremaey were heretical, antichristian and devilish: accordingly, this order was executed, and the sermon preached. Mr. Whitebread in the month of January wrote letters (or at leastwise, in the beginning of February, I will not Y be positive as to the time, because it does not occur to my memory) to St. Omers, concerning the state of Ireland, of which he had an account from archbishop Talbot, who wrote him word, that there were several thousands of Irish that were ready to rise, when the blow should be given in England. / purpose, he should be dispatched.' Upon the 18th of June, Old Stile, the 23d New Stile, I had orders to come for England; according to which order I came, and did take the Packetboat, as near as I can remember, the 24th, which was the 14th Old Stile, and we landed at Dover, the 25th, very early in the morning; and when I was at Dover, I met with the prisoner at the bar, Mr. Fenwick, and he, myself, and some others, did take coach, and come as far as Canterbury; after we had eaten and drunk there, we came six miles further, where there was a box seized by the searchers of the town of Borton, and this box was brought up by Mr. Fenwick, and directed to one Blundel, and the superscription was, as near as I can remember, in these words, To the honourable Richard Blundel, esq. at London.' And this prisoner at the bar, Mr. Fenwick, did desire that the searchers would send it to him (it was full of beads and crucifixes, and such things) to the Fountain tavern near Charing Cross, and write a letter to him, by the name of Mr. Thompson, as that was the name he usually went by, when he came to Dover, and he had then brought some students there, to send over to St. Omers. L. C. J. Was that in Whitebread's letter? Oates. Yes, my lord, and Mr. Whitebread did say, He did hope it would not he long ere it was given. Now, my lord, by the word Blow, we did use to understand, and had instructions to understand the death and murder of the king; and in the month of January, I think it was, that he sent over two Jesuits into Ireland, to see how the state of affairs stood there: In the beginning of April they returned, of which we had an account from Mr. White bread, by letters, wherein there was mention of a consult to be held in the month of April, Old Stile, and May, New Stile; and according to the order there given, there met at that consult, the prisoners at the bar, Whitebread, Fenwick, Harcourt and Turner; and if it please your lordship, all these at that consult did sign a resolve, Mr. Whitebread at his chamber, which was at Wild-house, Mr. Fenwick at his lodgings in Drury-lane, and Mr. Harcourt who had some at his chamber in Duke-street. But, my lord, I am to premise this, before I go any further, That the consult was begun at the White-horse tavern in the Strand, and there they did agree to send Father Cary to be their procurator at Rome; and after some such things were done, they adjourned into several clubs or colloquies, or what you please to call them. One was at Mr. Whitebread's chamber, another at Ireland's chamber, that is executed, another at Harcourt's, and another at Fenwick's; now here was a resolve signed by these prisoners at the bar, in which L. C. J. That is four of them, Whitebread, L. C. J. Was Gavan there? Oates. I dare not, my lord, affect him with that, because I cannot be positive, but I will give you my evidence against him by and by. My lord, these four gentlemen, with the rest of their accomplices, did sign a resolve, which was this,' That Pickering and Grove should go on in their attempts to dispatch the king; and this they did resolve upon, and gave it as their judgment, as a very excellent expedient. My lord, after this consult we did return (we were eight or ten that came over); and may it please your lordships, in the month of June, I think it was June, he came to Flanders, in order to visit his colleges, being provincial of the Jesuits of England: He did stay there, as near as I can remember, till the tenth of June, and enquiring of the Fathers how squares went in town, among other expressions he used, this was one, "That he hoped to see the black fool's head at Whitehall laid fast enough; and that if his brother should appear to follow in his footsteps, bis passport should be made too,' or to that L. C. J. When went Fenwick? Oates. When I came to Dover, I met Fenwick, by the name of Thompson, going to send over the students, and Fenwick did say, If they had searched his pockets, as they had searched his box, they had found such letters, as would have cost him his life; for, saith he, they were about our concern in hand. Then we came up to London, and arrived at London the 17th of June, Old Stile, for we lay a part of the way at Sittenburn, in the morning, and in the afternoon we came to Dartford, and came to London, Monday noon, the 17th Old Stile. And in the month of July, there was one Richard Ashby, whose right name indeed is Thimbleby, but he went by the name of Ashby, and this gentleman, did bring over instructions from the prisoner at the bar, Mr. Whitebread, who was abroad in Flanders, wherein he was to propose 10,000l. to sir George Wakeman, to poison the king; and several other instructions there were, of which I cannot now give you an account; and withal, that a blank commission should be filled up, and ordered for sir John Gage, to be a military officer in the army, and by that gentleman's own order I delivered that commission into sir John Gage's own hand, on a Sunday. L. Č.J. Where had you that commission from Whitebread? Oates. It was signed and sealed by him, but Oates. It was filled up by Mr. Whitebread's order, it was signed and scaled blank, and he ordered it to be filled up, and me to take that commission and carry it to sir John Gage. Whitebread. Did I order you? Oates. You ordered Ashby; I saw the letter, and knew it to be Whitebread's hand. L. C. J. Was it before he went to St. Omers? Outes. It was while he was at St. Omers. Whitebread. What time of the month? Oates. The beginning, or middle. Whitebread. Are you sure it was in July? Oates. I cannot be positive, but I think it to be in July; for Ashby went to the Bath the latter end of July, or the beginning of August, and it was before he went. Whitebread. Who was present at the signing of this commission? Oates. There was present at the filling up of this commission, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Ashby, and Mr. Ireland. Fenwick. Was not I there? Outes. I think I filled it up. I will tell you when you were there presently. My lord, when Ashby went away, Fenwick went out of town, but returned again presently, to give an account how squares went, and really I cannot remember where he had been, but as near as I can, it was in Essex, I will not be positive in it; but, my lord, this same gentleman, Mr. Fenwick, with Mr. Harcourt, did advise Mr. Ashby, that as soon as he had been at the Bath, he should go and give an account to the people in Somersetshire, and there-away, his circuit would be short and very easy, and he did not question, but before he came up to town again, to have the gentleman at Whitehall dispatched, whom they called the Black Bastard; now I leave that to the jury to expound who the meant by it. Fenwick. What time was that, Sir, pray? You must time things, or you do nothing at all. Oates. It was the latter end of July, or the beginning of August, it was about the time of Ashby's going to the Bath. Fenwick. Just now he said, it was the beginning or middle of July. Oates. I will tell your lordship what I said, that this Ashby, or Thimbleby, came from St. Omers with those orders or instructions, either the beginning of July, or the middle of July. Fenwick. I would not interrupt you, Mr. Oates, this was some time before Mr. Ashby went to the Bath, was it not? Oates. It was about a day before. L. C. J. He says a thing that is plain enough: Ashby came over about the beginning or middle of July, with instructions about the commission; and about the latter end of July or beginning of August, as he remembers, this advice was given. Oates. And so we are arrived at the affairs in August, which reflects upon these gentlemen; but now I must speak a word to this gentleman, Mr. Gavan, the prisoner at the bar, whom when I saw come into the lobby, he had gotten on a perriwig; so there was one asked me, whether I knew him? I know him now, but truly then I did not well know him, because he was under that mask, and I could not say any thing against him then, because he being under an ill favoured perriwig, and being a man that I knew had a good head of hair of his own, I did not well understand the mystery of it, and so spared my evidence at that time from informing the council against him; but the prisoner at the bar came by the name of Gavan, and we used to call him by the name of Father Gavan: and this gentleman did in the month of June write lettersGavan. What year? Oates. In the year 1678, and did give the Fathers at London an account how affairs stood in Staffordshire and Shropshire, and how diligent one Father Evers was to manage affairs in those countries. Gavan. From whence were those letters sent ? Oates. There was only the day of the month, you know it is not the custom to date the place. When I saw the letter first, I did not know it was his hand, I took it upon report; but I will tell the jury, by and by, how I came to know it was his band: as near as I can remember, it was in the month of July (it was July or August, this gentleman came to town, and I saw this gentleman at Mr. Ireland's chamber. Gavan. What time of the month? Oates. It was in July 1678, as near as I can guess. Gavan. Upon my salvation, I am as innocent as a child unborn. L. C. J. North. By this means you put out any witness in the world, by interrupting of them. When the witness hath done his testimony, you may ask him any questions, to ascertain the time or any thing, but you must not interrupt him till he hath done. Oates. In the latter part of July, I think it was, but it was, as I remember, while Mr. Ashby was in town, I met him at Mr. Ireland's chamber, for he was a saying he would go see Father Ashby before he went out of town, and he gave such an account to Father Ireland, of the affairs in Staffordshire and Shropshire, as he had given in the letters before; but to prove his hand, he did draw a bill upon one sir William Andrews in Essex, for the payment of some money, of some little sucking priests, that were strolling up and down the country. I saw him write it, and it was the same hand with that letter. Gavan. What did I write ? L. C. J. You drew a bill such upon and he names him. a person, Oates. We are now come to August. L. C. J. But you say he discoursed about the same things with Ireland, that he had wrote in the letter.-Oates. Yes, my lord, Gavan. And what were those same things; Oates. Why how the affairs stood in Staffordshire and Shropshire, how my lord Stafford was very diligent. I desire to be excused as to that, because it will diminish my evidence in another part of it: I will tell you part of what was then discoursed of. Gavan. My lord, he is sworn to speak all the truth. L. C. J. You must speak the whole truth, as far as it concerns any of these persons. Oates. He gave an account how prosperous things were in those countries, and did say, that there was at least two or three thousand pounds that would be ready in that country for the carrying on the design, I think it was three, but it was betwixt two and three. Now, my lord, we are arrived to our business in August; about the 12th of August, as near as I remember, but it was between the 8th and the 12th, therein I am positive, Ireland, who is executed, took his leave of us, as if he were to go to St. Omers. L. C. J. Where did he take his leave? Oates. At his chamber in Russel Street. Ireland went out of town, and Fenwick, by that means, was to be treasurer and procurator to the society altogether. He had that employ afterward upon him during his absence, let Mr. Ireland go whither he would. And the 21st of August, which, as near as I remember, fell upon a Wednesday, Mr. Fenwick and Mr. Harcourt were met together at Wild-House, and some other Fathers, as Father Kaines, and one Father Blundell, and some other Fathers, whom I cannot remember. Gavan. Was I there, pray, Sir? bishop Talbot, who did give an account of the Irish affairs, how they did conspire the death of the duke of Ormond; and desired to know how affairs went in England, and desired some commissions might be sent over to some particular persons there to raise forces for the carrying on of the design, and some money to be transmitted to them. And Mr. Fenwick did bring the commissions from Wild-House (as near as I remember), but he did bring them with him, and sent them down by a special messenger to Chester, and some letters by the post. That of the post I know of my own knowledge, but that of the special messenger I had only from his own mouth. My lord, from the 24th of August, as near as I remember it fell of a Saturday, Bartholomew-day it was, but whether it fell of a Saturday I cannot be positive; but if the Court please to inform themselves of it by their Almanacks, they may. L. C. J. There is no great matter in that, I suppose. Oates. But this gentleman, Mr. Fenwick, did deliver me some money for my necessary' incident charges, but did admonish me to procure some Masses to be said for a prosperous success upon the design. Upon the 25th day, I saw Mr. Fenwick in the afternoon at his chamber, and he was to go on the 26th day, the next day, to St. Omers, and to carry 8 or 10 students to go there to study humanity: And this is the account I have to give of Mr. Fen Oates. No, no, Sir; I am not to talk to you wick: For after I took my leave of him here, still, I am to speak to the Court. I saw him no more till he was apprehended. L. C. J. This was about the 26th of August, was it not? L. C. J. North. We would recommend this to you, to name persons when you speak of them. Outes. Where I have occasion I will name them, my lord. Mr. Fenwick and Harcourt were together at Wild-House, and Mr. Kaines, and Mr. Blundell, and, as near as I remember, Mr. Langworth was there, but I will not be positive. And there lay before them at WildHouse fourscore pounds, the most of that money was guineas, which was to be paid to the 4 Irish ruffians that were to murder the king at Windsor. After it was agreed that they should do it, and Coleman, who was executed, came thither, and gave the messenger a guinea to expedite the journey; we drew off from Wild-House, and went to Mr. Harcourt's chamber; and because Mr. Harcourt had there left his Papers that were to be sent down to Windsor, there he paid the messenger the money. And that gentleman was present there, Mr. Fenwick, and this is another part of August's business. No sooner was this messenger dispatched, but within a day after, or a day before, but it was a day after, as near as I can remember, there was a consult held at the Benedictine's convent, at which Mr. Fenwick was present, and Mr. Harcourt, and there they had some more Irish news from the Irish arch Oates. Yes, my lord, it was the 26th of August. L. C. J. Well, go on, Sir. Oates. The 1st or 2nd of September, we received a letter (in the beginning it was) from Mr. Whitebread, and this letter they did say was a foreign letter, and yet it paid but twopence, by which I did conclude that Mr. Whitebread was come into England, and lay somewhere privately, or was not yet come to town. On the 3rd of September. I went to Mr. Whitebread's chamber, at night, but he being at supper, was not to be spoken with; but when he saw me the next morning, he did revile me, and strike me, and asked me with what face I could look upon him, seeing I had dealt so treacherously with them? Now, after that I had enquired in what respect? He answered, in the discovering of the business, for there was a gentleman that went to the king in this business, to whom I had communicated much of my information by Dr. Tongue. This gentleman had the same coloured clothes that I had, and so they not being able to give an account of the name of the person, gave only an account of the habit he was in, and therefore they charged me with it. After I had justified myself as well as I This was the perjury assigned in the second could, Mr. Whitebread did shew me a letter, count of the indictment upon which Oates was which came from one Beddingfield, alias Benconvicted, May 9, 1685, See the Trial, infra,ningfield, which did shew the Plot was disco |