Page:Monthly scrap book, for April.pdf/11

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THIS infamous judge died in the Tower of London, in 1689, whither he had been committed by the lords of the council, after he had been taken in the disguise of a common sailor for the purpose of leaving England. He was born at Acton, near Wrexham, in Denbighshire, and being raised to the bench, polluted its sancity by perversions of the law. His habits and language were vulgar and disgusting. John Evelyn says, “I went this day wedding of one Mrs Castle, to whom I had some ob'igation; and it was to her fifth husband, a lieutenant-colonel of the city. She was the daughter of one Bruton, a broom-man, by his wife, who sold kitchen-stuff in Kent-street, whom God so blessed, that the father became very rich, and was a very honest man; and this daughter was a jolly, friendly woman. There were at the wedding the lord mayor, the sheriff, several aldermen, and persons of quality; above all Sir George Jefferies newly made lord chief justice of England, who, with Mr justice Withings, danced with the bride, and were exceeding merry! These great men spent the rest of the afternoon, till eleven at night, in drinking healths, taking tobacco, and talking much beneath the gravity of judges that had but a day or two before condemned Mr Algernon Sidney, who was executed the 7th of December, 1683, on Tower-hill, on a single witness of that monster of a man, lord Howard of Escrick, and some sheets of paper taken in Mr Sidney's study, pretended to be written by him, but not fully