Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/367

us. VIIL NOV. s, 1913.1 NOTES AND QUERIES.

361

NOTES:—The Forged 'Speeches and Prayers' of the Regicides, 361—Charles Lamb's "Cancellarius Magnus," 362—'The Freeman's Journal,' 363—Hugh Rich, Franciscan, 1534—A Letter of Charlotte Corday—H. S. Ashbee: "Pisanus Fraxi," 365—Col. Elizeus Burges—Toft of Leeke, co. Stafford—Leprosy of Houses—A Bohemian "Pied Piper," 366—John Bellamy, Translator of the Old Testament—Earliest Railway, 367.

QUERIES:—Life of Lord Mansfield—Sir Henry Manwayring's 'Seaman's Dictionary,' 367—Registers of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside—Garibaldi: Reference Wanted—'The Tribune' (Eighteenth Century)—Flora Macdonald's Jailer—General Wolfe—Tarring—Old Stories Sought For, 368—The Bennetts of Wallhills, Ledbury, Hereford—Indian Queries—Richard Moresby, Archdeacon of London—Collins's Bower at Holloway—Abraham Ezekiel Ezekiel—References Wanted, 369—'Guy Livingstone'—Yorkshire Place-Names—Haytmarket Theatre in the Seventies—Dryden's 'Parnassus'—Pragell Family—Quartermaine—Author Wanted—General Edward Braddock—"Barring-out"—Benefit of Clergy—William Simson, 370.

REPLIES:—The Identity of Emeline de Reddesford, 371—Charles Lamb's "Mrs. S—," 375—Fire and New-Birth—The Roar of Guns—The Pilgrim Fathers: John Alden—Mount Krapak—'Fudge in Ireland'—Statue of William III., Hoghton, Lancashire, 376—Throwing a Hat into a House—"Esquire" by Charter—Almshouses near the Strand—Cathedral Bell Stolen—Colonial Governors—Knight's Cap worn underneath Helmet, 377—Carnwath House—History of Co. Down—Whichcote in Wilts—English Regiments in Canada, 1837—Robin Hood Romances—"Gas" as a Street Name—"Marriage" as Surname, 378.

NOTES ON BOOKS:—'Ulster Folk-Lore—Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

THE FORGED 'SPEECHES AND PRAYERS' OF THE REGICIDES.

<See 11 S. vii. 301, 341, 383, 442, 502; viii. 22, 81, 122, 164, 202, 242, 284, 324.)

XVI. FRENCH EVIDENCE ABOUT HARRI- SON, CAREW, COOKE, AND PETERS.

THE Gazette of Paris published on 12 Nov., 1660, a special number (No. 131, pp. 1103- 1118) giving an account of the trials of the English regicides. This number was re- printed in the Recueil des Gazettes, and is entitled as follows :

" Le procez de vingt huit des exceptez par I'amnistie ge'ne'rale que le Boy d'Angleterre a accorded a sea sujets ; avec les particularitez de la condamnation & execution du Major General Harrison, & des Sieurs Adrian Scroop, John -Carew, Thomas Scot, Gregoire Clement, John Jones, John Cook & Henry [sic} Peters ; le tout content! en la lettre d'un gentil'homme Anglois."

The " English gentleman " gives the following account of the behaviour of Harrison and Carew :

" Le 23, sur les dix heures du matin, ce dernier [Harrison] fut conduit sur un claye, depuis les prisons de Newgate jusques a la Place enfermee de barrieres oil estoit, autresfois, Charing Crosse, & oil Ton avoit dress un gibet pour son execution. Apres avoir dit plusieurs choses qui ne pouvoyent venir que d'une personne desesperee et tesmoignans son endurcissement dans sa faute, il fut pendu, la face tourn^e vers la salle des Banquets a White- hall, oil il avait inhumainement verse, avec les autres regicides, le sang precieux de nostre souve- rain. Lors qu'il fut a demi-estragle Ton coupa la corde et il fut eventr, ses entrailles bruises, sa teste spare et le corps mis en quartiers qu'on remporta, sur la mesme claye, a Newgate, pour en estre dispose ainsi qu'il plaira a sa Majeste\

" Le 24, le sieur Carew, ayant est amen< de la mesme facon en la place du supplice, apres avoir confesse qu'il avoit condamn^ le Boy et le reste de son accusation, fut execute, ainsi que le g6nral Harrison."

It will be noticed that while this account corroborates generally all that the other witnesses state about Harrison, it gives no colour to the bogus ' Speeches and Prayers.' The same remarks apply, with greater force, to the description of the end of Cooke and Peters :

" Le 26, ils furent conduits au supplice, ou le premier [Cooke] parut beaucoup afflig6 de son crime, et fit une t res-belle exhortation au peuple sur 1'obeissance et la fid^lite que les sujets devoyent a leurs souverains, puis demanda pardon et les prieres a toute 1' assistance. Mais Peters se comporta si ind^cemment en cette occasion ; n'y faisant parestre, qu'une ridicule apprehension de la mort, que tout ce qu'il dist ne servit qu'a exciter a rire les spectateurs, qui regard ere nt son execution comme une farce."

The account does not mention the be- haviour of any other of the regicides, and is very accurate in its description of the trials.

I have been asked why no official account of the behaviour of the regicides executed in 1660 was printed. The answer to this question was given in the printed short- hand report of their trials, entitled ' An Exact and most impartial Accompt of the Indictment, Arraignment, Trial and Judg- ment, according to Law, of nine and twenty Regicides,' &c., ascribed by Anthony a Wood to Heneage Finch. This report contains 287 pages, and on p. 285 it is stated :

" For their [the regicides'] last discourses and prayers, as they were made in a crowd, and, there- fore, not possible to be taken exactly, so it was thought fit rather to say nothing than give an un- true account thereof, choosing rather to appear lame then to be supported with imperfect assistance."

This is one of the pages of this book omitted in ' State Trials,' in order to condone the