muskets, rapiers and swords, and other wea
pons, ammunition, and warlike things, and mi-
litary instruments, falsly, maliciously, secret-
ly, and traitorously you did obtain, buy, gather
together, and procure, and to be bought, ob-
tained, gathered together, and procured, did
cause, with that intent to use, employ, aud be-
stow them in and about the detestable, horrid,
and execrable assassination, killing, and murder
of our said lord the king that now is, as afore-
said; and the same premisses the more safely
and surely to execute, do, and perform, you
the said Alexander Knightley, with one Ed-
ward King, late for high treason, in contriving
and conspiring the death of our said lord the

by the consent and assent of divers of the trai-
tors and conspirators aforesaid, in the said tenth
day of February, in the seventh year abovesaid,
traitorously did go and come to the place pro-
posed, where such intended assassination, kill-
ing, and murder of our said lord the king, by
lying in wait, should be done, performed, and
committed, to view, search, and observe the
conveniency and fitness of the same place for
such lying in wait, assassination, and killing
there to be made, performed, and committed;
and that place so being seen and observed, af-
terwards, to wit, the said day and year, your
observations thereof to some of the said trai
tors and conspirators you did relate, and im-
part, to wit, at the parish aforesaid, in the
county aforesaid, against the duty of your al-
legiance, and against the peace of our said so-
vereign lord the king that now is, his crown
and dignity, and against the form of the sia-
tute in this case made and provided. How
sayest thou, Alexander Knightley, art thou
guilty of the high-treason whereof thou
standest indicted, or Not Guilty?
Knightley. Not guilty.

and bring, and his faithful subjects, and the freemen of this kingdom of England, into intolerable and most miserable slavery to Lewis the French king to subdue and inthral; the tenth day of February, in the seventh year of the reign of our said sovereign lord the king that now is, and divers other days and times as well before as after, at the parish of St. Paul Covent Garden aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, falsely, maliciously, devilishly, and traitorously you did compass, imagine, and contrive, purpose, design, and intend our said Sovereign lord the king that now is to slay, kill, and murder, and a miserable slaughter among the faithful subjects of our said lord the king, throughout this whole kingdom of Eng-king that now is, duly convicted and attainted, land, to make and cause; and your said most wicked, most impious, and devilish treasons, and traitorous compassings, contrivances and purposes aforesaid to fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect, you the said Alexander Knightley afterwards, to wit, the same tenth day of February, in the year abovesaid, at the parish aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, and divers other days and times, as well before as after, there and elsewhere in the same county, falsly, maliciously, advisedly, secretly, traitorously, and with force and arms, with very many other traitors to the jurors unknown, did meet, propose, treat, consult, consent, and agree him our said lord the king that now is, by lying in wait and deceit, to assassinate, kill, and murder; and that execrable, horrid, and detestable assassination and killing the sooner to execute and perpetrate, afterwards, to wit, the same day and year, and divers other days and times, at the parish aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, traitorously you did treat, propose, and consult with those traitors, of the ways, manner, and means, and the time and place where, when, how, and in what manner, our said sovereign lord the king, so by lying in wait, might be slain and killed; and that you did consent, agree, and assent with the same traitors, that forty men on horseback, or thereabouts, of whom you the said Alexander Knightley were to be one, with guns, muskets, and pistols, charged with gunpowder and leaden bullets, and with swords, rapiers, and other arms armed, should lie in wait and be in ambush, the same our lord the king in his coach being when he should go abroad to attack; and that a certain and competent number of those men so armed, upon the guards of our said lord the king, him then attending, and being with him should set upon, and should fight with them and subdue them, whilst others of the same men so armed, him our said lord the king should assassinate, kill, slay, and murder; and you the said Alexander Knightley, your treasons and all your traitorous intentions, designs, and contrivances aforesaid to execute, perform, fulfil, and bring to effect, afterwards to wit, the aforesaid tenth day of February, in the seventh year abovesaid, at the parish aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, divers horses, and very many arms, guns,

Cl. of Ar. Culprit, How will you be tried?
Knightley. By God and my country.
Cl. of Ar. God send you a good deliver-
auce!

Knightley. With submission to your lordship, I did not expect, in this weak condition that I am in, to be brought at this time to the bar; that having taken me off extremely from the application that I should have otherwise made of myself to my defence; but seeing there is no mercy to be had here, I will endeavour to have patience, and undergo my fate as well as I can.

L. C. J. (Holt.) Mr. Knightley, you have no reason to find fault; for when I was acquainted you were ill, and desired a physician, I ordered one to be sent to you; and yesterday in the afternoon you sent word you were so sick, that you could not be brought hither to day; but your doctor was with me last night, and upon discourse with him, I did apprehend you were not so ill, but that, especially considering the weather, you might very safely be brought to the bar to day.

Knightley. The gentlemen that brought me the copy of the indictment found me very ill,

L. C. J. We shall not give judgment now. Att. Gen. If the prisoner have any thing to say for himself, your lordships, I suppose, will hear him to it.,

L. C. J. But I say, we cannot by the course of the court give judgment now; for after a person is convicted here, whether by confession or verdict, he ought to have four days from the time of such confession or verdict, to move in arrest of judgment, if there be so many days of the term remaining; if not, then the longest time that can be had in the term is allowed. In Stayley's Case * it was otherwise practised, udgment was given the same day; that was n the time of the Popish-Plot, and is a case not to be imitated, because not justified by any precedent before that time or since; but it has been always observed to have four juridical days for moving in arrest of judgment, if so many remain of the term.

Monday, May 25, 1696.

Att. Gen. If your lordship please, I desire the judgment of the court to be pronounced upon Mr. Knightley upon his conviction.

Cl. of the Cr. Alexander Knightley, hold up thy hand, (which he did). Thou hast been indicted and arraigned for high-treason in compassing and imagining the death of the king, and adhering to the king's enemies; what can'st thou say for thyself, why judgment should not be given against thee to die according to the law?

Knightley. I have nothing more to say, my lord, than what I have said.

Cl. of the Cr. Crier, make proclamation for silence. (Which was done on both sides the court.)

Cryer. Oyez: Our sovereign lord the king straitly charges and commands all manner of persons to keep silence while judgment is in giving, upon pain of imprisonment.

and was an active instrument in the carrying it on, being sent to view the ground on both sides the water, and with others that were sent with you reported your opinion, which was the most convenient place to attack the king and his guards.

And though you did, the last time you were at the bar, urge by way of extenuation of your crime, that you being engaged in the interest of the late king, and thereby supported, you was surprised into this barbarous design, which being proposed to you, you thought yourself obliged in honour to engage in it; which is so far from an extenuation, that it is an high aggravation: for men of honourable principles, though most zealously disposed to the advancement of any particular interest, yet always de-1 test the use of base and vile means. Therefore when the assassination of the king was proposed, you had an opportunity to have retreated with honour, and might have refused to be further concerned: but you rather pursued this wicked enterprise with great zeal. Roman Catholic, and may for that reason And though you are by your profession a think that your crime is mitigated, because you acted in the behalf of a prince of your own religion, which you hoped thereby to introduce: notwithstanding all which, your offence is highly aggravated in respect of the ingratitude and folly with which it is attended. For there is no English Papist that is master of any property, but he is interested in the preservation of this government, to which the whole party of them hath been, and still are continually obliged for its moderation and justice; for instead of being exposed to the seve rity of those laws to which they are obnoxious, they have had the same indulgence in the enjoy ment of their religion, and the same protection, and as much benefit in the distribution of the common justice of the realm, as any other of the king's subjects; therefore none of them could ever expect to mend their condition under a French domination. But the contrary is foreseen by all considering men; for the English Papist, as well as Protestant, would have been reduced to a most dismal state, if you had ob

L. C. J. Mr. Knightley, you are by your own confession convicted of high-treason in designing the murder of the king, and the sub-tained your end. version of the whole state of England, in promoting an invasion from the French, its most ancient and inveterate enemies.

It hath appeared before your arraignment, not only by the evidence that hath been given at former trials, but even by the signs of the times and the manner of some men's actings, that there hath been for some years last past a train of plots and conspiracies against this government; and when the various means which the conspirators did project among themselves for its ruin proved ineffectual, it was at last resolved among some of the conspirators to assassinate the king, as the most certain way of accomplishing their end.

In which design you were deeply engaged,

* *. See vol.-6, p. 1501, of this Collection.

For it is against all the rules of reason, and the experience of all ages, to imagine, that the French king would spare English Papists more than Protestants; for it is not zeal to religion, or affection to the interest of the late king, that hath excited him to invade England, but it is his pride and ambition to conquer the three kingdoms, and to reduce this to be a province to France: indeed the pretence of restoring the late king, and introducing the Popish religion, may serve to delude some warm and unwary zealots to engage in his assistance, who do not consider, that if they should be successful, they would be as certainly destroyed as others, but with more disadvantage to themselves. For after they shall have survived the liberty of their country, have embrued their own hands in their countrymen's blood, they

will be at the mercy of their conqueror, who can never think it his interest to trust them, but will despise them for being such villainous traitors to their own country. Nay, rather, these Englishmen, who by their courage and resolution shall endeavour to defend their country, though they should be unfortunately vanquished, will meet with a much better reception, for they will have given assurances that they may be confided in, when the others have by such a wicked treason given a demonstration to the contrary.

There being then nothing to be said that can palliate such a crime as that of which you are convicted; but you having taken a different course the last time you were at the bar from what you took at first, you have relinquished your plea of not guilty, and have confessed the indictment; I wish out of charity to your person, it was as sincere as (I think it) it was prudent in you; for after several convictions of others that were your accomplices, you could not be a stranger to the evidence upon which they were grounded: you must therefore in all probability have expected to have undergone the same fate. If your confession be a real effect of your repentance, you will reap the advantage of it in the next world; but what consequence it will have in this, I cannot say; "For the heart of the king is in the hand

of the Almighty, which, as the rivers of water, he turneth whithersoever he will." Live therefore for the time to come in expectation of a speedy death, and prepare yourself to appear before another judgment-seat; to the making of which important preparation 1 shall dismiss you, first discharging the court of the duty now incumbent upon it, in giving that judgment which the law hath appointed. And the court doth award,

، That you be conveyed from hence to Newgate, the prison from whence you came, and from thence you are to be drawn upon a 'hurdle to Tyburn; where you are to be hanged by the neck, and while you are alive cut off, and your bowels to be cut out of your ، to be cut down, your privy-members are to be body, and burnt in your view; your head is to be cut off, and your body is to be divided ، into four parts, and your head and your quarappoint. And I pray God to have mercy 'ters are to be disposed where his majesty shall upon your soul.'

Knightley. My lord, I am truly sorry for what I have done, and I humbly thank your lordship and the rest of the judges for your favour to me.

Then the prisoner was carried back to Newgate, and afterwards was graciously pardoned.

391. The Proceedings against the Three Nonjuring Clergymen, Mr. COLLIER, Mr. Cook, and Mr. SNATT, for publicly absolving Sir William Parkyns and Sir John Freind at Tyburn: 8 WILLIAM III. A. D. 1696.*

|

Sir WILLIAM PERKINS, and Sir Joun
FRIEND, at Tyburn, on Friday, April 3,

1696.

THE publicly absolving sir William Perkins | escape." The Account published at that time, and sir John Friend at the place of execution by permission of the Sheriffs, is as follows: made a great noise at that time. Burnet says, An Account of what passed at the Execution of "A very unusual instance of the boldness of the jacobites appeared upon that occasion : these two had not changed their religion, but still called themselves Protestants; so three of the nonjuring clergymen waited on them to The prisoners being drawn in a sledge from Tyburn; two of them had been oft with Friend, Newgate to the place of execution, were perand one of them with Perkins; and all three, mitted to have the assistance of three nonjuring at the place of execution, joined to give them ministers of their own chusing, viz. Mr. Collier, public absolution, with an imposition of hands, Mr. Cook, and Mr. Snatt. Sir William Perin the view of all the people: a strain of impu-kins came first up into the cart, and had some dence, that was as new as it was wicked! since private discourse with one of the ministers. these persons died owning the ill designs they Sir W. Perkins. When must I deliver my had been engaged in, and expressing no sort of paper?-Minister. When all is over. repentance for them. So these clergymen, in this solemn absolution, made an open declaratron of their allowing and justifying these persons in all they had been concerned in. Two of them were taken up, and censured for this in the King's-bench, the third made his

|

Then the Executioner went to put the rope about sir William Perkins's neck.

Sir W. Perkins. May not I pray before it be put on

Executioner. Yes, sir, if you please.

Then sir John Friend came into the cart; and the three ministers and prisoners all kneeling down, Mr. Cook read some prayers out of the morning-prayer, and the office for visita

tion of the sick: and then the ministers standing up, asked them, Whether they were in charity with all the world? and if they had offended any, whether they did ask them forgiveness? And whether they did desire the absolution of the Church? Upon their answer, that they did, they all laid their hands upon their heads, and Mr. Cook pronounced the absolution, which ended in these words: "And by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father,"&c.

Sir W. Perkins. When are we to deliver our papers?-Minister. Now, if you please. Sheriff. Take what time you please, Sir, for your devotions, we will wait your leisure.

Then the two prisoners continued in their private prayers, sir W. Perkins making use of the prayers in the Whole Duty of Man, and sir John Friend read some prayer out of a written paper; and afterwards, sir W. Perkins delivered to the sheriffs a paper.

Sheriff. If you require any more time, you shall have it. You say this is your paper? Sir W. Perkins. Yes, Sir; and I desire you to dispose of it as you think fit.

Sheriff. Have you any thing to say, by way of confession or denial, of the fact for which ye

come hither to suffer?

Sir W. Perkins. What I think fit to say, is contained in that paper.

Sheriff. If you desire any more time, you may have it; you shall have your liberty. Then sir John Friend held a paper up. Sheriff. What do you say, sir John? Sir J. Friend. Sir, here is a paper, I desire it may be printed; for I came here to die, and not to make a speech; but to die, and to resign myself to God; and I desire it may be printed, for all people to see it. (For both their Speeches, see p. 136 of this volume.) And I have no more to say, but to beg of God to receive my soul; I resign my soul to him.

Sheriff. The Lord have mercy upon you. Sir J. Freind. I hope the Lord will have mercy on me.

Sheriff Sir John, if you desire any more time, you shall have it; we will wait on you with great willingness.

Sir J. Freind. I thank you, Sir. Mr. Sheriff, I desire the cart may not be too hasty to go away, till we give a sign.

Sheriff. You shall have your own time; take your time, communicate your own sign, and the cart shall not go before.

Then the ropes were tied about them. Sir J. Freind. I have no animosity against any man; I freely forgive all, and I hope God, for Christ's sake, will forgive me.

Then their caps were put on.

Sir J. Freind. My Saviour had a crown of thorns for me; the Lord receive my soul! the Lord have mercy on me!

Then the Executioner asked them both forgiveness; and they answered, We freely forgive you.

Sir J. Freind. Will not the things lie in my way?

Executioner. I will remove them. If you please, tell me when I may pull your caps over your eyes.-Prisoners. When you will.

Sir W. Perkins. The Lord receive my spirit! Executioner, had I best hold up my legs, or stand in the cart when it goes away?

Executioner. It is best to stand, Sir, I think. Sir W. Perkins. But then my feet will hang in the cart.

Executioner. If you please, give me notice when you will have the cart go away.

Sir J. Freind. Stretch forth thy arms, O Lord, and receive my soul, and carry it into heaven, I beseech thee! Executioner, when we knock, go away.

And after a few ejaculations, they gave the sign, and the cart drew away. They both of them gave money to the Executioner; and having hung above half an hour, being a considerable time after they were dead, they were cut down and quartered, according to the sen

tence.

Snatt were committed to Newgate, and ordered
For this act of theirs, Mr. Cook and Mr.
Mr. Collier kept out of the way, and was not
to be prosecuted by the Attorney General; but
taken. On this occasion, Mr. Collier published
the following Defence of himself:

A DEFENCE OF THE ABSOLUTION GIVEN TO SIR
WILLIAM PERKINS AT THE PLACE OF EXECU-
TION, APRIL 5, 1696.

My being present, and in some measure officiating, at the place of execution on Friday last, has been extremely misunderstood. The Weekly Intelligence, together with the Remarker, have censured this action with great deal of liberty and heat. I thank God I am not easily disturbed with intemperate language, especially when it is given without occasion. So that if matters had gone no farther, I could have passed over the ill usage, and said nothing. I confess, having received notice that some persons of figure threatened me with imprisonment, I took a little care of myself; and as it happened, not without reason: For on Monday about twelve at night, six or eight persons rusbed into my lodgings, broke open a trunk, and seized some papers of value, though perfectly inoffensive and foreign to their purpose. And since, I understand there is a Bill found against me for High Misdemeanors. And now one would think I had done something very extraordinary.

I shall therefore make a brief report of mat. ters of fact, and leave the world to judge, whether all these censures and severities are deserved or not.

Sir William Perkins (whom I had not seen for four or five years last past) after his trial, desired me to come to him, in order to his preparation for another world. I accordingly visited him in Newgate, as I thought myself obliged by my character. I was put in the list of those who had leave to see him by publie