Notes to The Conspiracy. 313 Holland; where the other fugitives avoided his society (too disreputable even for their loose morals), because his Mistress, not his wife, accompanied him. The third verse of the plain-spoken "Song sung before the King at Winchester" (see p. 335) refers to this incident in his career. As usually happened, the seducer of others could not preserve his own wife's honour. It was wickedly said, in answer to his boastful excuse for licentiousness, that he had nevertheless been baffled all round: He had experimented on the whole family, but could not find what he desired. We meet him again at Sedgemoor. A year later, viz. in 1686, Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, girds at this contemptible wittol, coward, and betrayer, in his Faithful Catalogue of the Most Notorious Ninnies, saying, Virtue, thy weak Lieutenant ran away, Just like that cursed miscreant Coward G[re]y. We shall return to Sir Thomas Armstrong after his capture in Holland, 1684. John Trenchard, always seditious, boastful, and procrastinating: he was long afterwards fined 40,000l. 5 Major John Wildman, afterwards dismissed by course of law, and still later rewarded in London. He was to have provided the cannon, and two small pieces called "Drakes" were found in his possession. 6 Captain Thomas Walcot, described as an Irish gentleman of about a thousand a year which, remembering his nationality, is open to suspicion. Irish rentroll, perhaps. He had accompanied Shaftesbury to Holland and brought back his corpse. He acknowledged his guilt in planning the surprisal of the Guards, whilst others were to assail the King. 7 William Hone, a melancholy enthusiast, another "Protestant Joiner," to emulate his predecessor Stephen College; whose halter he inherited, not without desert. Hone's fall excited no similar attention, he having invented no flail. He had been first examined before Sir William Turner. 8 Aaron Smith, formerly solicitor for Stephen College, the original "Protestant Joiner" (none are genuine without the Hicks-Hall mark). He had been sent into Scotland, his charges being paid by Algernon Sydney, fourscore guineas, to treat with Sir George Campbell and others for a rising. "And Mr. Ferguson hath since told this Examinant [West] that the said Aaron Smith behaved himself very indiscreetly in the said Journey, and run a hazard of discovering the design.' One Matthew Mead of Stepney, "a Nonconformist minister, zealous in the business of an Insurrection, but was not for beginning it in London," as Robert West declared. Through Mead, John Nisbet was in direct communication with Alexander Gordon of Earlston alias " Pringle." 10 Zachary Bourne, a brewer, turned evidence against Walcot (who had offered to turn evidence himself, before arrest), with West, the Keelings, and Rumsey. 11 William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Escrick, Yorkshire (on whom see pp. 340, 402, and elsewhere; also Vol. IV., and Bagford Ballads). His wife was Frances, daughter of Sir James Bridgeman of Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, and niece of the Lord-Keeper Orlando Bridgeman. It is satisfactory to remember that, although the title descended to his son Charles from this utterly degraded man (he died in 1694), it in him became extinct, as he left no issue, and all his three brothers and two sisters died sine proles. The curse seems to have weighed on the traitor's family. The allusion to his having "formerly dealt in Lamb's-wool" has been already explained in our pages. During his former confinement in the Tower, Howard had taken a false oath, or an allegation in which he prevaricated with mental reservation, and then "took the sacrament on it," but sacrilegiously profaned the rite by substituting "Lamb's-wool" (i.e. ale poured on roasted apples) for the consecrated wine. This, and his generally degraded character, had not been forgotten in the Satire of this date, entitled "The True Englishman" (not Defoe's Wherever God erects a house of Prayer "), beginning, "Curst be the tim'rous Fool, Whose feeble mind Is turn'd about with ev'ry blast of wind." Here, with allusion to his profanity, is Howard's portrait: 314 Notes to The Conspiracy. Let a mean scoundrel Lord (for equal fear 12 Charles Gerard Lord Brandon, son of Charles, first Viscount Brandon (the first Earl of Macclesfield) and "a French Lady." When his father died, in 1693, he succeeded as 2nd Earl of Macclesfield. He had been a Colonel in the army; was ambassador to Hanover in later years. He divorced his first wife, daughter of Sir Richard Mason, Knight, of Shropshire, for her adultery with Earl Rivers, and she afterwards was married to Colonel Brett (see p. 95). After his brother's death, unmarried, in 1702, the titles became extinct. The notoriety of Brandon's wife, before the divorce, is shown in "Lady Fretchwell's Song of the Wives," fifth verse (from Trowbesh MS.), daughter being written for daughter-in-law :— Old Macclesfield's daughter, whom Gerrard did wed, : [Danby's Son. That her eyes cannot kill, tho' she wounds with[in rea]ch. 13 John Hampden, Junior (grandson of the Chalgrove field Hampden, who died from an explosion of his own pistol, shattering his arm, through his own heedlessness in allowing his orderly to keep adding charges, one on another): against whom Monmouth expected to be summoned as a witness after falling back rebelliously on receiving his pardon. Hampden was condemned to pay a fine of 40,000l., with imprisonment. He became gloomy in his remorse, and afterwards committed suicide, Dec., 1696. The ballad marks that "he did abandon all Loyalty, Religion and Grace." The "free thought" of these extreme Whigs, having left them destitute of religious principle and consolation, in many instances terminated in self-murder: thus was it with Essex, Ayloffe, Hampden, etc. 14 John Rouse, servant of Sir Thomas Player the Chamberlain, had long been disaffected and under suspicion. Thus, at the same time as Stephen College, he was in June, 1681, apprehended, examined by Sir Leoline Jenkins, and committed to the Tower for High-Treason; but in October an Ignoramus Jury saved him. He was released on bail, and afterwards discharged on proclamation. Not having learnt caution by this experience, he entered into the Rye-House Plot, was arrested in Essex, 4th July, 1683, tried at the Old Bailey on the 12th, condemned, and executed with William Hone on the 20th at Tyburn, after owning the conspiracy. 15 Major Abraham Holmes, an undaunted Fifth-Monarchy man, who corresponded in cypher with Argyle and was his friend. Taken in London, examined at the Gate-House on 27th June, he confessed his share. He survived Sedgemoor fight, in which he had engaged and been wounded, losing an arm. He was believed to have obtained a free pardon from James II., but was sent back to the West, where Chief-Justice Jeffereys had marked him down for slaughter, and he fell. 16 Robert Blaney, a barrister of the Temple, who had been a witness for Sir Patience Ward in the trial for perjury, in previous May. Blaney was arrested. on 30th June, as was also Thomas Lee, a dyer and anabaptist. Both confessed 17 Thomas Lee, the dyer, of Old Street: see previous Note, and p. 304. 18 Robert West, a barrister of the Middle-Temple, turned Evidence, after having led many into treason. See pp. 285, 302, 304, 309. Whig upon Whig. 1683. "What should I do? should I the Godly seek, -Otway: Prologue to the Orphan. 1680. THE following savage howl of exultation over the defeated con spirators dates itself as belonging to the day of Russell's trial and the suicide of Arthur Capell (second Baron, but commonly called Earl of Essex) in the Tower. It was maliciously appointed to be sung to the tune belonging to a lament for a much earlier unfortunate, Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, who had been favourite of Queen Elizabeth, viz. the ballad beginning "Sweet England's Pride is gone: O hone! O hone!" It gave opportunity for wailing or howling, accordingly as grief or buffoonery and mocking might be the intention of the singer. Thus, at the line, "Essex has cut his throat! O hone, O hone!" hearers would be expected to enjoy all the associations of incongruity in the ridicule applied to the melancholy son of a brave and distinguished father, who had died as a loyal Cavalier. Party spite was so strong that the past services of Arthur Earl of Essex were forgotten, in the horror excited by revelation of the Rye-House Plot. His own self-reproaches for having caused the ruin of his friends Algernon Sydney and William Russell, by influencing them to admit the double-dyed traitor Howard of Escrick, seems to have been the sole cause of unbalancing his mind and causing him to destroy himself. As is well known, his death powerfully impressed the jury assembled to try Russell, and was held to have swayed them to condemnation. Nothing can excuse Ferguson and Monmouth for afterwards availing themselves of the malice and ignorance which resided amid the rabble, whom they attempted to persuade that Essex had been murdered. 1A Loyal Song begins, "Be my Shoul and Shalvation! O hone, O hone! " Another, to the same tune, of date early in 1685, began thus: What have the Whigs to say? O hone, O hone! "Tories have got the day, O hone, O hone! Lord Shaftesbury is dead, and Duke of Monmouth fled; "Our gracious Soveraign too, O hone, O hone! Tho' he the best of men, yet we try'd too, and agen 316 Whig upon Whig: 1683. Monmouth's 'Declaration' at Lyme, in 1685, written by Ferguson, charged the crime on James II., and also accused him of having murdered his brother Charles. To this we shall come hereafter. We notice the testimony of the French valet, Paul Bomeny, on p. 345. It is beyond our purpose to trace the infamous libels which Lawrence Braddon affected to believe, and to gather evidence for supporting, as to an alleged impossibility of Essex inflicting so ghastly and deep a wound upon himself; therefore that he must have been murdered. There have been frequent cases known since (one of the wife-murderer, committing suicide in October, 1882, who had "nearly severed his own head from his body "), and only malice could have imagined so incredible and utterly unnecessary a crime against the Duke of York or his brother. In truth, the news of Essex having committed suicide occasioned grief to Charles; who, on good authority, is reported to have said, "Alas! Lord Essex might have trusted my clemency, for I owed his family a life." This alluded to the death of the father (Arthur, first Baron Capell of Hadham), who had died bravely for the monarchy: beheaded on March 9th, 1648. We may here take notice of a Poem "Upon the Execrable Murder of the Right Honorable Arthur Earl of Essex," which begins, Mortality wou'd be too frail to hear How Essex fell, and not dissolve with Fear; And to be slaughter'd, he is first confin'd; &c.-State Poems. Instead of this we add an elegy, following the ballad; and hereafter give the New Poem, "Come, with a nimble thrust of Rapier'd Wit." There is also a Pepysian ballad (II. 172) "On the Barbarous, Execrable, and Bloody Murder of the Earl of Essex. To the Tune of, My Life and my Death [they are both in your power]. Printed and sold by J. Wallis, in White-Friars." It begins, "Attend, and give ear, good Christians, to me." Also another (Pepys Coll., II. 177), entitled "Rome's Cruelty; or, The Earl of Essex barbarously murthered in the Tower." It begins, "The Earl of Essex in the Tower," and was sung to the tune of There is one black and sullen hour; but as this takes its name from Tom D'Urfey's song in "The Banditti," Act i., the date of which is believed to be 1686, it follows that either this Pepysian broadside, printed for Philip Brooksby, must have been a three years later reprint, or, more probably, that D'Urfey's song belonged to the year 1683, revived in 1686. N.B. All the other names besides Essex's are annotated elsewhere. Whig upon Whig ; Or, A pleasant dismal Song, on the Old Plotters newly found out. TO THE TUNE OF, O hone, O hone, &c. [See p. 315.] Eloved, hearken all, O hone, O hone! BE Το my sad Rhimes that shall (O hone, O hone!) Essex has cut his throat: O hone, O hone! [a.l., "gone to pot." Walcot being of the Crew, and Hone the Joyner too, Must give the Devil his due: O hone, O hone! Rumsey swears heartily; O hone, O hone! West swears he does not lie: O hone, O hone! Lord Howard vows by 's troth, That they are good men both, I heard some People say, (O hone, O hone!) "Monmouth is fled away: O hone, O hone!" And some do not stick to say, If he falls in their way, "Armstrong and Grey, God wot: O hone, O hone! Are all run God-knows-where, 'cause stay they dare not here, "Juries (alas!) are thus: O hone, O hone! But you 'I have Justice done, to ev'ry Mother's Son, "Now how like Fools we look: O hone, O hone! Unto our Trades and Wives, and have kept in our Hives? "The King He says, that all (O hone, O hone!) "The Sisters left behind, O hone, O hone! "The Tories now will drink, (O hone, O hone!) The King's Health with our Chink: O hone, O hone! Journée, Morblew! Morblew! O hone, O hone!" "Jerney."] 40 [Date, between the 12th and the 20th of July, 1683.] |