LC.J. What, of Sussex? Oates. Yes, of Sussex. Mr. Justice Atkins. Who did you receive the mission from? Outes. My lord, when he went over, he left get many blank patents to be filled up, and teleone ready sealed for a commission to sir Teha Gage. This was delivered into my hands bea he was absent, but it was signed by him, and delivered to me while he was in his visitabeyond the seas, but I dare swear it was sband, as I shall answer it before God and de king. Mr. Justice Atkins. Who had it you from? Outes. From Mr. Ashby, but by Whitebread's intment in his instructions, which I saw and read. LC.J. What was the commission for? Outes. To be an officer in the army. LC.J. Did you see the instructions left wr Astby? Octa. I did see them, and read them, and I did then, as I always did, give it as my judg well, that was more safe to poison the king, than to pistol or stab him. Mr Justice Bertue. Was the commission you delivered to sir John Gage, from aby or from Whitebread? Os. I had it from Ashby, but Whitebad, who was then beyond sea, had signed commission before he went. My lord, I have something more yet to say, and that is its Mr. Grove, That he did go about with one to gather Peter-pence, which ther to carry on the design, or to send them Rone. I saw the book wherein it was ened, and I heard him say that he had been eng of it. Gre. Where was this? was tes. In Cockpit-alley, where you know I deed. Grote. Did I ever see you at your lodging? L. C. J. Where? did you never see him at Whitebread's? Grove. As I hope to be saved, and before the eternal God, I did never. Oates. I will convince him and the court, that he does know me, and is well acquainted with me: In the mouth of December last I went to St. Omers, I went first to the then provincial's house, to take my leave of him, and there I met Mr. Grove, and he appointed to come to my lodging the next morning, near the Red Lion in Drury lane, at one Grigson's house, and he was so well acquainted with me then, that he had lent me eight shillings to hire the coach. L. C. J. Did you lend him eight shillings? Grove. did, my lord, I do not deny it. La C. J. How came you to do it, when it you say true, he was a stranger to seems, if you? I I thought I should have it again. What, of him? Yes. Grove. L. C. J. Grove. L. C. J. eight shillings? Grove. Did he desire you to lend him the Yes, he did, my lord. Oates. Then there is one time that he confesses he saw me. L. C. J. Did you not know him before? Grove. I had no acquaintance with him, I had seen him. L. C. J. How came you then to lend money to one you had no more acquaintance with? Grove. I knew I should go along with him to the coach, then I thought I should have it again, L. C. J. Mr. Oates, were you going beyond sea then? Oates. L. C. J. Yes, my lord, I was. Mr. Oates, did you pay him that No, my lord, I did not: Did you ask him for the money, and Grove. He did not pay it me. L. C. J. How then were you sure you should have it? Grove. He did order me to go to such-aone for it. LC. J. Grove. Who was that? Mr. Fenwick, I think. L. C. J. Then Mr. Oates was known to you all, he was no such stranger to you as you would make us believe. Oates. Thus he confesses three times h had seen me, once before he lent me the money, another time when he lent it, and the third time the next day.. And I will put him in mind of another time, when he and I were in company, where one brought us a note of what was done in the House of Commons, turned into burlesque, for they used to turn all that was done at the council, or at the parliament, or at the courts in Westminster-hall, into burlesque, and then translated it into the French, and sent it to the French king, for him to laugh at too. But that by the way. Twice more he drank in my company, at the Red Posts in Wild-street, and once more when he owned to me, that he fired Southwark. L. C. J. Now by the oath that you have taken, did he own to you that he had fired Southwark? Oates. My lord, he did tell me that he with three Irishmen did fire Southwark, and that they had 1,000l. given them for it, whereof he had 400l. and the other 2001, a piece. L. C. J. Now for Mr. Fenwick. Do you know Mr. Oates ? Fenwick. Yes, my lord, I do. L. C. J. Were you well acquainted with him? speak plain. Oates. He was my father-confessor, my lord. L. C. J. Was he so? were you his confessor? Fenwick. I believe he never made any confession in his life. Fenwick. My lord, I have seen him. L. C. J. I wonder what you are made of: Ask a Protestant, an English one, a plain question, and he will scorn to come dallying with an evasive answer. Fenw. My Lord, I have been several times in his company. L. C. J. Did you pay 6s. for him? L. C. J. How came you to do it? L. C. J. Why, were you Treasurer for the Society? Fenw. No, my Lord, I was not. L. C. J. You never had your 8s. again, bad you? Fenw. It is upon my book, my Lord, if I ever had it. L. C. J. Did Mr. Oates ever pay it again? Fena. No, sure, he was never so honest. L. C. J. Who had you it of then? Fenw. I am certain I had it not from him; he did not pay it. L. C. J. How can you tell you had it then? Fenw. I do suppose I had it again, but not of Mr. Oates. L. C. J. Had you it of Ireland? Fenw. I do not know who I had it of, my lord, nor certainly whether I had it. L. C. J. Why did you not ask Mr. Qates for it ?. Fenw. He was not able to pay it. turn again, and betake myself to the ministry to get bread, for I have eaten nothing these two days and I then gave him five shillings to relieve his present necessity. Oates. My Lord, I will answer to that; I was never in any such straits, I was ordered by the provincial to be taken care of by the Procurator. Fenw. You brought no such order to me. Oates. Yes, Mr. Fenwick, you know there was such an order, and I never received so little in my life as five shillings from you: I have received 20 and 30 and 40s. at a time, but never so little as five. L. C. J. You are more charitable than you thought for. Fenw. He told me he had not eaten a bit in two days. Oates. I have indeed gone a whole day without eating, when I have been hurried about your trash; but I assure you, my lord, I never wanted for any thing among them. L. C. J. Perhaps it was fasting-day. L. C. Baron. My Lord, their fasting-days are none of the worst. Oates. No, we commonly eat best of those days. L. C. J. Have you any thing to ask him, any of you? Whitebread. My Lord, will you be pleased to give me leave to speak for myself. Just. Atkins. It is not your time yet to make your full defence, but if you will ask him any questions, you may. Whitebread. I crave your mercy my Lord. L. C. J. Will you ask him any questions? Fenw. Did not you say that you were at my chamber the 24th of April, with the resolve of the consult? Oates. That resolve I did then carry to your chamber. Fenw. Then was he himself at St. Omers. L. C. J. The difference of old stile, and new stile may perhaps make some alteration in that circumstance. Whitebread. But, my Lord, be bath sworn he was present at several consultations in April and May, but from November till June he was constantly at St. Omers. L. C. J. If you can make it out that he was at St. Omers all April and May, then what he hath said cannot be true. Ireland. He himself hath confessed it that he was at St. Omers. L. C. J. If you mean by confession, what stands upon the evidence he hath given, I will remember you what that was. He says he came L. C. J. Why did you then lay it down for to St. Omershim. Oates. Will your lordship give me leave to satisfy the court: in the month of December, or November, I went to St. Omers: I remained there all January, February, March, and some part of April: then I came over with the Fathers to the consult that was appointed the 24th of that month. Fenw. Did you go back again? Oates. Yes Fenw. When was that? 1 Oates. In the month of May, presently after the consults were over. Fen. And we can prove by abundance of witnesses that he went not from St. Omers all that month. L.C.J. You shall have what time you will to prove what you, can; and if you can prove what you say, you were best fix it upon him; for he saith he was here at the consults in April and May; if you can prove otherwise, pray do. Fena. We can bring an authentic writing (if there be any such) from St. Omers, under the seal of the college, and testified by all in the college, that he was there all the while. LC. J. Mr. Fenwick, that will not do; for first, if it were in any other case besides this, it would be no evidence; but I know not what you cannot get from St. Omers, or what you will not call authentic. Pen. Does your lordship think there is no justice out of England? LC. J. It is not, nor cannot be evidence here. Fen. It shall be signed by the magistrates of the town. L. C. J. What, there? LC. J. You must be tried by the laws of England, which sends no piece of fact out of the country to be tried. Fena. But the evidence of it may be brought bither. L.C.J. Then you should have brought it. You shall have a fair trial; but we must not depart from the law or the way of trial, to serve your purposes. You must be tried according to the law of the land. Just. Atkins. Such evidences as you speak of we would not allow against you; and therefore we must not allow it for you.. Whit. May this gentleman be put to this; to produce any two witnesses that saw him in town at that time? Outes. I will give some circumstances and what tokens I have to prove my being here: Father Warner, sir Tho. Preston, Father Williams, and sir John Warner, they came hither with me from St. Omers; there was one Nevil, &c. I cannot reckon them all. L. C. J. You have named enough. Oates. But to convince them, there was a lad in the house that was got to the end of his Rhetorick; this lad was whipt and turned out of the house, and had lost all his money: Father Williams did re-imburse this lad in order to his bringing home, I think the lad's name was Hilsley, or some such name. And we came up to London together. Whit. I can tell it very well, for he had no order to come, nor did conie. L. C. J. How can you undertake to say that he did not come ? Whit. Because he had no order to come. L. C. J. How do you know he was not here? L. C. J. Have you any other circumstance,⚫ Mr. Oates, to prove that you were here then? Oates. My lord, when I came to London, I was ordered to keep very close, and I lay at Grove's house; let him deny it if he can, I will tell you who lay there then Grove. Did you ever lie at my house? Oates. There lay a flaxen-haired gentleman, I forgot his name: but I will tell you who lay there besides; that is Strange, that was the late provincial. L. C. J. Did Strange ever lie at your house? L. C. J. Did he lie there in April or May? L. C. J. Have you any more questions to ask him? If you have, do: If you can prove this upon him, that he was absent, and not in England in April or May, you have made a great defence for yourselves, and it shall be remembered for your advantage when it comes to your turn: in the mean time, if you have no more to say to him, call another witness. Let Mr. Oates sit down again, and have some refreshment. Mr. Serj. Baldwin. We will now call Mr. Bedlow, my lord. Then Mr. Bedlow was sworn. Mr. Serj. Baldwin. Mr. Bedlow, pray do you tell my lord and the jury what you know of any design of killing the king and by whom. Bedlow. My Lord, I have been five years almost employed by the society of Jesuits and the English monks in Paris to carry and bring letters between them from England and to England for the promoting of a design tending to the subversion of the government, and the extirpating of the Protestant Religion, to that degree (which wherein I was) that they would not leave any was always concluded on in all their consults member of any Heretic in England, that should survive to tell in the kingdom hereafter that there ever was any such religion in England as the Protestant Religion Here White bread would have interrupted him. My lord, I am so well satisfied in their deniC. J. What say you to this circum-als, that I cannot but believe they who can stance? give a dispensation, and have received the sacrament to kill a king and destroy a whole kingdom, do not scruple to give a dispensation for a little lye to promote such a design, for so much as this expiates any lie or greater crime. Sir Cr. Levinz. Pray, sir, will you be pleased to tell your whole knowledge concerning the prisoners at the bar. Bedlow. The first letter I carried was from Mr. Harcourt, at his house next door to the archin Duke-street. He hath been Procurator for the Jesuits about six years. He employed me first, and sent for, me over, for I was then lieutenant in Flanders, and coming home to receive my pay that was due to me L. C. J. How long is it ago? Bedlow. Michaelmas last was four years; when I came to Dunkirk I went to visit the English nunnery there, and the lady Abbess finding me very pliable and inclinable, made very much of me, and I did adhere to her. She kept me six weeks in the convent,and afterwards when I went away, recommended me to sir John Warner, as an instrument fit to be employed in the carrying of letters, or doing any thing that would promote the design against England. He kept me at St. Omers a fortnight and after sent me to Father Harcourt to be instructed in my employment. It was then winter; the next spring he sends me into England with divers letters, where by Mr. Harcourt I was employed to carry several letters to Morton and Doway, and other places: that summer I was sent into England without an answer: but afterwards,in 1676,which was the next summer, I was to carry another pacquet of letters to the monks at Paris, who sent it to other English Monks in France L. C. J. Who sent that pacquet of letters in 1676? Bedlow. I had it from Mr. Harcourt, and it was written by Harcourt, Pritchard and Cary. L. C. J. To wtrom? Bedlow. To the English Monks in France, and in it there was a letter to La Chaise. Upon the receipt of these letters at Paris La Chaise had a consultation with ¿e Monks and a French | bishop or two about them; I did not then speak French enough to understand what it was they said, but it was interpreted to me by Mr. Stapleton an English Monk, who told me that it was a letter from my lord Bellasis and others of the Catholic religion, English gentlemen that were contrivers of the plot here, to satisfy them in what state things stood in England as to popery. I was sent back again with a pacquet of letters directed to Mr. Vaughan of Courtfield in Monmouthshire. L. C. J. From whom was that? Bedlow. From the English Monks at Paris. From that consultation I went to Ponthois, I there received other letters to carry into England, I had a course to open their letters, and read what was in them; and in those letters was contained, that the prayers of that house were for the prosperity of that design, and they would not fail to be at the consultation at of Warwickshire gentlemen. I fell sick at Monmouth, and Mr. Vaughan sent to me a Jesuit to confess me; but I was well before he came, and so was not confessed by him. I now come to the latter times. L. C. J. You must speak it over to the Jury, that they air the prisoners may hear you. Bedlow. The 25th of May, 1677, which was last year, I was sent over with another pacquet of letters. I had no letters of consequence forward, and therefore did not call then at Wotton, but I called upon the lady Abbess at Dunkirk, and I went thence to Bruges and to Ghent, where I had some letters for the English nuns, which I delivered to them. When I came to Doway, I found there that the monks were gone, that was Sheldon, Stapleton, and Latham, but the letters were directed to Paris, and therefore I made haste, and at Cambray 1 overtook them. And the letters were to give an account of the consultation held in the gallery at Somerset-house: All tending to the destruction of the Protestant religion, and killing the king; but I do not think fit to declare here who were the persons that were present at that consultation. At Cambray they were very joyful that there was so good a proceeding in England. At Paris when the letters were shewed, there was a letter written in a language which I did not understand, but, as I was told, in that letter they were charged in Paris by my lord Bellasis, that they did not proceed according to their promise to them in England; but, said Stapleton to me, My lord Bellasis nor the society in England need not to write thus to us for we are not so backward but that we can lend men, and money, and arms too, and wil upon occasion. From thence they sent me to Spain with a letter to an Irish Father: I d overtake him at Sa Mora. From thence I went with another letter to the rector of a College of Irish Jesuits in Salamanca. By their con trivance I was sent to St. Jago in Spain, where was another college of Irish Jesuits: there I sta till I had an answer to sir William Godolph and when I had the answer to that letter, went for the letter from the rector at Sal manca. The Jesuits there told me, they wou take care to send their own answer another way And when they had made me that promise, came away for England, and landed at Milford Haven; All this reaches to none of those p sons in particular; But what I now shall s shall be about them, only it was necessary should speak of what I have said. L. C.J. The meaning of all this is only t shew the Jury and satisfy them, that he wa an agent for these men, and hath been employ ed by them for five years together, and he name you the particular places whither he hath bet sent, to show you the reasons of his knowledg in this matter, and upon what account he come to be informed of this design. Bedlow. Having received the news of the country, I did there take water, and lands again at Pensans, and when I came to Long I gave the letter to Harcourt: what was in the pacquet I cannot particularly tell, for I w not so inquisitive as to look into the contr of it, but I know it was tending (as all the re did) to the carrying on of this plot : Afterwar I was employed by Harcourt and Coleman go to some parts of England to communic the letters to some of the popish party. L. C. J. Now turn to the Jury. Bedlow. The Summer was past in the doing of that: In the beginning of August last there was a consultation and a close one at Harcourt's chamber, so as that they did not permit me to know any thing of it. I went out of town for a fortnight, and when I returned, I understood there had been such a meeting; I charged them with their privacy in it, and asked what was the private design of that consultation; they said it was something I should know in time: That it did not signify much at present, bat io time I should know it: But then I understood by Pritchard, who was more my confident than any of the rest, that it was a desiga to kill the king: That Pickering and Grove had undertaken it a great while, and that they had been endeavouring a long while to bring it to pass. Fenwick. Where was this meeting, and when? Beda. Last August,at Harcourt's chamber. Fennick. Who were present there? Bedlow. Be pleased to give me leave to go on; I will tell you by and by: Then I understood as I said, that it was to kill the king, but that Pickering and Grove failing of it, they had hired four ruffians that were to go to Windsor, and do it there and that if I would come the next day, I should hear from Coleman the effect; When I came there I found Coleman was gone but Pritchard said there were some sent to Windsor, and that Coleman was going after them, and that he had given a messenger a guinea that was to carry the moHey to them. And he would presently be after them, for fear they should want opportunity to effect their design. Then I discoursed them, why they kept theis design so long hid from me? They said it was a resolve of the society, and an order of my lord Bellasis, that none should know it but the society, and those that were actors in it. I seemed satisfied with that answer at present. About the latter end of August, or the beginning of September, (but I believe it was the latter end of August) I came to Harcourt's chamber, and there was Ireland and Pritchard, and Pickering, and Grove. L. C. J. What part of August was it? L. C.J. Do you say it positively, that it was the latter end of August. Bedlow. My lord, it was in August; I do not swear positively to a day. L.C.J. But you say it was in August? Ireland. And that we were there present? Bedlow. You were there, and Grove, and Pickering. Ireland. Did you see ine before? Bedlow. You were present there, and Grove, and Pickering, and Pritchard, and Fogarthy, and Harcourt, and I. L.C. J. What did you talk of there? Bedlow. That the ruffians missing of killing the king at Windsor, Pickering and Grove should go on, and that Conyers should be joined with them; and that was to assassinate the king in his morning walks at Newmarket: and they had taken it so strongly upon them, that they were very eager upon it: And Grove was more forward than the rest: And said, since it could not be done clandestinely, it should be attempted openly. And that those that do fall, had the glory to die in a good cause. But (said he) if it be discovered, the discovery can never come to that height, but their party would be strong enough to bring it to pass. L. C. J. And you swear Ireland was there? Bedlow. He was there, my Lord. L. C. J. Bedlow. And heard all this? Yes, my Lord; and so did Grove and Pickering, and the rest. Ireland. in my life. L. C. J. What was the reward that you were to have for your pains in this business? Bedlow. My Lord, the reward that I was to have (as it was told me by Harcourt) was very considerable: I belonged to one particular part of the society. There are others; and I presume, they each kept their particular messengers. L. C. J. What was Grove to have? Bedlow. Grove was to have fifteen hundred pound, if he escaped, and to be a continual favourite, and respected as a great person by all the church. My Lord, I never saw him before L. C. J. What was Pickering to have? Bedlow. He was to have so many masses, I cannot presume to tell the number; but they were to be as many, as at twelve pence a mass should come to that money: These masses were to be communicated to all the Jesuits beyond the seas, that when he had done it, he might be sent away immediately. L, C. J. What can you say of any of the rest? Bedlow. My lord, I do not charge any more but them three. L. C. J. Bedlow. active in the What say you to Whitebread? They have said, that he was very plot; but I know it not. L. C. J. That is not any evidence against him. What can you say, as to Fenwick? Bedlow. No more than I have said, as to Mr. Whitebread: I only know him by sight. L. C. J. Then he charges only these three upon oath, Ireland, Pickering, and Grove. Ireland. Do you know sir John Warner? Bedlow. I know Father Warner at St. Omers, and sir John Warner at Wotton by St. Gamers. Ireland. He named sir John Warner to be at Paris. Bedlow. It was Sheldon I spoke of (my lord) at Paris. Ireland. At least you are certain, that I was present at that consultation. : Bedlow. Yes I am certain, you were there. Ireland. Can you produce any witness, that you ever spoke to me before in your life? Mr. Serj. Baldwyn. Do you know any thing of Mr. Whitebread's being present at any of the consults? |