Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/137

 sides sides and libels, in which he was commonly designated by the nickname of ‘Mouth.’ The popular opinion was that Scroggs had been bribed by Portuguese gold (, i. 17–18; Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. pp. 474, 495, 12th Rep. App. vii. 160). This he solemnly denied, but the worth of his denial is questionable. Wood says that Scroggs mitigated ‘his zeal when he saw the popish plot to be made a shooing-horn to draw on others’ (Athenæ Oxon. iv. 116). One of his reasons for changing sides in this case was doubtless the implication of the queen in the charge brought against her physician, Wakeman; another, the discovery that Shaftesbury had not ‘really so great power with the king as he was thought to have’ (, Lives, i. 196). At the Hereford assizes Scroggs tried Charles Kerne for high treason as a popish priest; the evidence, however, was insufficient, and the prisoner was acquitted (, State Trials, vii. 707–16). Andrew Bromwich and William Atkins, who were tried before Scroggs at the Stafford assizes, were not so fortunate, and both were condemned to death. To Bromwich Scroggs playfully said: ‘Come, jesuit, with your learning, you shall not think to baffle us; I have of late had occasion to converse with your most learned priests, and never yet saw one that had either learning or honesty.’ To the jury in the same case he significantly pointed out that they ‘had better be rid of one priest than three felons’ (ib. vii. 715–26, 725–39). After the assizes were over Scroggs visited Windsor, where he was received with great favour by the king, who ‘tooke notice to him how ill the people had used him in his absence. “But,” said he, “they have used me worse, and I am resolv'd we stand and fall together”’ (Hatton Correspondence, i. 192).

On the first day of term (23 Oct. 1679) Scroggs in the court of king's bench made an exceedingly able speech in vindication of his own conduct. He declared that he had followed his conscience according to the best of his understanding in Wakeman's trial, ‘without fear, favour, or reward; without the gift of one shilling, or the value of it, directly or indirectly, and without any promise or expectation whatever’ (, State Trials, vii. 701–6). On 25 Nov. Scroggs presided at the trial of Thomas Knox and John Lane, who were convicted of a conspiracy to defame Oates and Bedloe, but he declined to sum up the evidence, as the case was too clear (ib. vii. 763–812). In the following month Scroggs unexpectedly met Shaftesbury at the lord mayor's dinner-table, and, to the confusion of the exclusionists present, proposed the Duke of York's health (Hatton Correspondence, i. 207–10). He took part in the trial of Lionel Anderson, James Corker, William Marshal, William Russell, and Charles Parris, who were convicted at the Old Bailey of high treason as Romish priests on 17 Jan. 1680. Corker and Marshal had been acquitted with Wakeman of the charge of being concerned in the ‘popish plot.’ The principal witnesses against the prisoners were Oates, Bedloe, and Prance, but Scroggs on this occasion made no attempt to disparage their testimony (, State Trials, vii. 811–66).

Meanwhile Oates and Bedloe exhibited before the privy council thirteen ‘articles of high misdemeanors’ against Scroggs, charging him, among other things, with setting at liberty ‘several persons accused upon oath before him of high treason;’ with depreciating their evidence, and misleading the jury in Wakeman's case; with imprisoning Henry Carr for printing the ‘Weekly Packet of Advice from Rome, of the History of Popery;’ with refusing to take bail in certain cases; with being ‘much addicted to swearing and cursing in his discourse,’ and to drinking in excess; and with daring to say in the king's presence that the petitioners ‘always had an accusation against anybody.’ Scroggs having put in an answer, the case was heard on 21 Jan. 1680 before the king and council, who were pleased to rest satisfied with Scroggs's ‘vindication, and leave him to his remedy at law against his accusers’ (, i. 32; see, Lives, i. 196; , State Trials, viii. 163–74). He presided at the king's bench on 3 Feb., during the greater part of the trial of John Tasborough and Anne Price for attempting to suborn Dugdale, of whom he thought ‘very well’ (, State Trials, viii. 881–916). At the trial of Elizabeth Cellier, who was acquitted of the charge of high treason in the king's bench on 11 June, Scroggs refused to receive Dangerfield's evidence, and after exclaiming ‘What! Do you with all mischief that hell hath in you think to brave it in a court of justice?’ committed him to the king's bench prison (ib. vii. 1043–55). Scroggs presided at the trial for high treason of Roger Palmer, earl of Castlemaine [q. v.], in the king's bench on 23 June. Though Dangerfield on this occasion was allowed (after a consultation with the judges of the common pleas) to give evidence, Scroggs again attacked his credibility, and summed up in favour of the prisoner, who was acquitted by the jury (ib. vii. 1067–1112). An application