Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/305

 ii s. VIL APRIL 19, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

301

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1013.

CONTENTS. No. 173.

NOTES : The Forged ' Speeches and Prayers ' of the Regi cides, 301 "Gutpiuda": the Folk -Name of the Goths 302 Inscriptions at St. James's, Piccadilly, 303 Pepys's Birthplace, 304 Two Kentish Memorials : Dickens and Charles I. The Bobbery on Gadshill Jane Maxwell's Mother, 305 Election of Mayors in the (Jinque Ports "Hunger Strike" ' Hamlet,' I. ii. The Drowning of Katharine Hamlett, 306.

QUERIES: The Younger Van Helniont, 307 Barnard Family "Si vis paceui, parabellum" Early Shorthand Society Earliest Age of Knighthood "Itte-dhandu," Indian Game Poem Wanted, 308 Brigadier Walter Stapleton " Merrygreek "Obelisk at Orange Grove, Bath Jarman Family Biographical Information Wanted Epitaph : Author Wanted Smuggling Poems, 309 _ Woodroffe " Domicellus" " Yeoman " of the Signals Old-time Children's Books The Assyrians and Fish as Religious Symbol, 310.

REPLIES: St. Katharine's-by-the-Tower, 310 Christmas Rimers in Ulster, 311 Chantrey W. Carr, Artist- Medal, 312 Early Railway Travelling, 313 The Wax- work Effigies in Westminster Abbey Dr. Johnson's Copies of Burton's 'Anatomy,' 314 Miss Scott Alms- houses near the Strand The Inquisition in Fiction and Drama Norleigh " Killing the calf in high style," 315- Weston Patrick and King Family Lions in the Tower 4 London,' ' British,' and ' English ' Catalogues Memoir of J. Wilson Croker " The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea," 316 The Roman Rite in England Washing- ton's Connexion with Selby, 317 Earth-eating Sir E. Hitchius ' Comus' and Gray's Elegy,' 318.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' English Local Government : the Story of the King's Highway' " Bohn's Popular Library " ' Old Eastbourne ' ' English Catalogue of Books' '"Queen" Book of Travel.'

THE FORGED 'SPEECHES AND PRAYERS' OF THE REGICIDES.

I. THE FIKST EDITION OF THE * SPEECHES AND PRAYERS.'

THE first test for an unlicensed seditious or libellous book in the seventeenth century is to look to see whether it has a printer's or publisher's name attached to it. If not, it was unlicensed, and the publisher had to be sought for and discovered before he could be prosecuted. With one exception, all the books to which I wish to draw attention viz., the forged ' Speeches and Prayers ' of the regicides, Thos. Harrison, John Carew, John Cooke, Hugh Peters, Gregory Clement, Thos. Scott, Adrian Scroop, John Jones, Daniel Axtel, and Francis Hacker, and the fraudulent litera- ture connected with them are of this class, and the ' Speeches and Prayers ' of the regicides executed in 1660 was first published at a time when there was no penalty in existence for unlicensed prints. In the case of most fraudulent books there

is generally some foundation of fact, but in the case of the ' Speeches and Prayers ' of the regicides enumerated above there was none whatever. There were four editions of the book, the first being the most important. All the regicides named in it were executed between 13 and 19 Oct., 1660 (inclusive).

According to Thomason's note on the title-page of his copy, the ' Speeches and Prayers ' appeared on 1 Dec., 1660. The title-page of this copy runs :

"The Speeches and Prayers of Major-General Harrison, Octob. 13 ; Mr. John Carew, Octob. 15 ; Mr. Justice Cooke, Mr. Hugh Peters, Octob. 16 ; Mr. Tho. Scott, Mr. Gregory Clement, Col. Adrian Scroop, Col. John Jones, October 17 ; Col. Daniel Axtel and Col. Fran. Hacker, Oct. 19. The times of their death. Together with severall occasional Speeches and Passages in their imprisonment till they came to the place of Execution. Faithfully and impartially collected for further satisfaction. Heb. ii. 4. And by it he being dead yet speaketh. Printed Anno Dom. 1660."

The printers of this edition, Simon Dover and Thomas Creeke, were not discovered until the year 1663, and then only because Creeke turned King's evidence. By the King's leniency Dover was tried, in 1664, not for high treason, but for misdemeanour, together with Brooks, the binder, Thomas Brewster, a bookseller, and one John Twyn, a printer, who was tried for " compassing the King's death " by his share in a plot for the rising of 1663, for which all the literature I am about to describe had paved the way. Twyn's book was called * A Treatise of the Execution of Justice,' and for it he was executed, 'as it deliberately urged the extirpation of the Royal family. Part of the book remains at the Record Office. Masson's account of this trial is based upon the reprint of the ' Exact Narrative of the trial ' of John Twyn and the others in ' State Trials,' vol. vi. This reprint is mutilated, in order to condone the appearance in vol. v. of a mutilated reprint of the untrue ' Speeches and Prayers.' There are three copies of the * Exact Narrative ' at the British Museum, from which it appears that Dover and Creeke printed the book simultaneously, there being two editions of 1,000 copies (96 pp.). Of one edition Dover printed the first half ; and of the other, the second half of the 96 pages. Thus there are slight variations in the title, one impression commencing " The Speeches and Prayers of some of the late King's judges viz.," the rest running as before. This impression was given in evidence as it was the first. Thoma- eon's copy was the second impression, and