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manger in which he was laid, by the gifts the wise men brought, by the star that appeared in the east, by the swaddling-cloaths he wore, by the milk he sucked, by the tears he shed in his agony, by the kiss given him by Judas, by the halter with which Judas hanged himself, and the bag that he had to bear; by the lance that pierced our Saviour's side, by the water and blood that came out, by the tomb in which he was laid, by the spices with which he was embalmed, by the ointment with which he was anointed unto his burial, by the cross on which he suffered, by the two thieves that together died with him, by the choir of angels at his birth, and the choir of angels that were his attendants at his resurrection; by the superscription of Pilate, by the high-priest's earthat was cut off, by the name of woman, with which Christ pleased to signify thy pre-eminence over all women, &c. I beseech thee to hear me. Let not the scepter depart from Amalek, nor a lawgiver from the Jebusites; nor a cardinal from England, nor a Peters from the court, so long as the sun and moon endure. Pray for us, O Blessed Virgin, that all our designs and contrivances may have good success; and command thy son to be so careful of the good of his society, that it may be implanted in all the nations of the world; and particularly, in this wherein we live. Let the king hearken to me, the charmer, who charms wisely; nor be as a deaf adder, that will not hear; nor stiff-necked as his people, that will not obey. Make him resolute in his religion, and true to the cause which he has promised to maintain; and let the abundance of his merits wash away the many religious vows and oaths, which he has made and broke, for the honour of the Roman church. We

We are thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture; if thou hadst not been for us, we had been swallowed up quick in this heretical, damnable, prejudiced kingdom, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us; but thou hast fought for us, and defended us. O go on to perfect this work of thine, which thou hast, in some measure, begun; and make us all one sheepfold, under one shepherdess, the Blessed Mary. Make Peter open to all, that will open the door of their hearts to thee; and damn all those eternally that shall presume to refuse it, for thy name's sake, and mine, the Lord Chancellor's, Salisbury's, Chester's, Peterborough's merit, &c. Amen.

THE

TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION

OF

Colonel ADRIAN SCROOPE, Mr. JOHN CAREW, Mr. THOMAS SCOTT, Mr. GREGORY CLEMENT, and Colonel

JOHN JONES,

Who sat as Judges upon our late Sovereign Lord King Charles.

Together with their several Auswers and Pleas, at the Sessions-House in the OldBailey, Friday the 12th of October, 1660, before the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, appointed by his Majesty for that purpose.

James ii. v. 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that shewed no mercy.

London: Printed for John Stafford and Edward Thomas. 1660. Quarto, containing eight pages.

TH

IIIS day being Friday the twelfth of October, 1660, the king's lords justices, for trial of several persons, who had a hand in the death of our late sovereign, sat in the sessions-house in the Old Bailey, and called to the bar the persons following, viz. Col. Adrian Scroope John Carew

Thomas Scott

Gregory Clement
John Jones

. Col. Adrian Scroope was first called to his trial; who, having excepted against several of the jury, at last had such a one as he agreed to.

Proclamation being made, and silence commanded, the indictment was read, and one of the king's council stood up, and spoke to this effect:

Gentlemen of the Jury,

You have heard by the indictment of several that did assemble themselves together, to compass and take away the life of the king our late sovereign, among which persons the prisoner at the bar was one, who, under his hand and seal, did consent to the said murther: First, by setting hand to the commission, which gave being to that bloody court, and afterwards by signing that bloody. warrant, which occasioned the severing his head from his body, which we can prove by several witnesses.

The court calls for the warrant of the king's execution, and went to shew it to one of the witnesses; which, when Col. Scroope saw, he said, " My Lord, let me see it; if it be my hand, I will ̧

not deny it."

[The warrant is carried to him.]

Scroope. My Lord, I do not deny but it is my hand.
Mr. Masterton, one of the witnesses, is sworn.

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King's Council. Whether did you see this gentleman sitting amongst the judges of the king?

Masterton. My Lord, I was at the High-Court of Justice so called, several times, and I saw the prisoner at the bar sitting amongst them, and particularly on the 27th of December, being the day on which sentence was given.

Scroope. My Lord, pray ask this gentleman whether he and I were ever in company together, that he should know me so well, for I never saw him in my life before to my knowledge.

To which it was answered, that he in person answered to that name, and was the man.

Several other witnesses were sworn to the same purpose.

Col. Scroope desired that one might be asked, if he could tell whereabouts he sat; to which the witness answered,

My Lord, I cannot say that positively; I cannot remember such a circumstance so long; but, to the best of my remembrance, he was the uppermost judge on the right-hand.

Sir Richard Brown was sworn, to give evidence concerning several treasonable words that he should speak about the king's murther.

The act for constituting the High-Court of Justice was likewise read; and Col. Scroope owned that to be his hand which subscribed thereunto; saying, he did not desire that witnesses should be sworn to more than was needful.

The king's council then spoke to the jury, and told them, that they had heard by six several witnesses, that the prisoner had sat amongst the king's judges; and by three, that he sat the day which was by them called, The Day of Judgment.

The prisoner said, that he had a great disadvantage in answering to such learned men, who were to plead against him, and said, that he would not undertake to justify his person, but desired time and council to answer to matter of law.

The Judge. That is where you have matter of law.

The prisoner answered, My Lord, I was not of the parliament, I beseech you take notice of that; and that which was done, my Lord, was by a High Court of Justice, who had a commission from the parliament. My Lord, it was that authority which was then accounted the supreme authority, that the generality of the nation submitted to; having received command from that authority, it was, in obedience to the same, that I sat; I was promoted thereunto by that command: I have not time to bring these matters to a head, because I have been these six weeks close prisoner in the Tower, that I could not get council to prepare myself: Therefore, my Lord, let me have some time, and council, to provide myself to plead. My Lord, I was no contriver of that business, only executed the command.

To which was answered, that that, which he called the parlia ment, was no parliament; that there was no colour of authority to justify them; and that, if the whole house of commons had been sitting, as these pretending that authority were not a sixth part,

yet they could not act against the life of the least cripple at the gate, without the king, much less against himself.

Col. Scroope. I say, my Lord, I am but a single person; and, if there be mistakes, I am not the only persor. that have been misled; I hope that an error in judgment will not be accounted an error in will, and shall not be accounted malice: Truly, my Lord, I must say this, and I desire your lordship to take notice of me, that I am without any malice at all.

After several things of the like nature, hoping the authority of the rump-parliament would clear him, and be taken as a sufficient plea for his aforesaid treasonable conspiracy, the judge asked him, If he had any thing further to offer in the case? Which he being not able to do, the charge was given to the jury, who never went out of the court to give in their verdict; and being asked, according to the form, Whether the prisoner at the bar was guilty of the high treason whereof he stood indicted, or not guilty?

The foreman said, guilty; and so they said all.

Whereupon the prisoner was taken from the bar, and shackled with chains.

The next, who was called to the bar, was Mr. John Carew, who, after the formalities of the court were passed as aforesaid, and the indictment read, he was charged by the king's council as followeth:

The prisoner at the bar stands indicted for (not having the fear of God before his eyes) imagining, contriving, and compassing the death of our late sovereign of blessed memory; for the proof of this, there are several things in the indictment which do discover their private imaginations, which is, that they did meet and consult, &c. there is a statute of the 25th of Edward the Third, against imagining, designing, or compassing the death of the king, which ye are to enquire after.

There was a thing called the High Court of Justice, in which bloody court our sovereign was tried, and this gentleman was ' one of those miscreants that had the confidence, nay, the impudence to sit amongst them, and afterwards sealed to that bloody roll whereupon he was executed.'

Several witnesses, being examined, spoke to this effect:

That they saw him several days in that court sitting amongst those who were called the king's judges, and particularly on the twenty-seventh day of January, 1648, on which day the sentence was passed; also knew that to be his hand, which was to the warrant for the king's execution, and for establishing a High Court of Justice.

Whereupon the prisoner was asked, What he had to say for himself? Who answered, that he came not there to deny any thing that he had done; that whereas what was done in the case, was ushered in with these words [not having the fear of God before his eyes] he did declare it was not done in such a fear, But in the fear of the Holy and Righteous Lord, the Judge of the Earth.'

Whereat the court was much troubled and disturbed, that he should make God the author of their treason and murder.

But he went on to this purpose:

When this came about, there was an ordinance wherein my name was set, which, when I saw, I struck it out; I leave it to the Lord to judge, I thought not well of it, and so was very unwil ling to appear in it, there being, as I thought, enough besides me to be employed in it, and therefore I speak the truth, as it is in Jesus, to shew how I had the fear of the Lord before me; I say, as to what I did was upon this account; I did it, first, in obedience to the then supreme authority of England, and after the Lord gave answer to solemn appeals.

Running on after this rate, the court was wearied with his discourse, and put him on to plead to his indictment.

He desired he might declare the grounds whereupon the parlia ment proceeded, and give the grounds and reasons of the fact.

To which the king's council said, then you must needs confess it. Whereupon he acknowledged that he was there, and proceeded according to the act of parliament: But was told, as the court had often said before, that neither the lords nor the commons, jointly or severally, had any power without the king; and that the power then in being had not the least colour of authority for what they did; and that it was not a thing to be debated with out denying our allegiance, that the subject can hold up his haud against his sovereign.

After, the Lord Annesley made a learned speech, declaring the illegality of their proceedings, that when a treaty was concluded with the king, and accordingly all things like to be settled, he and some other had contrived and designed to keep the far greater part of the members out against their allegiance, the laws of the land, and against the privileges of parliament, &c. making themselves an arbitrary parliament, and driving away the rest, &c.

But Mr. Carew being not able to say any thing in defence of his high charge; the jury never went out for it, but presently brought him in guilty.

Mr. Scott was brought next, and, after all the formalities of the court were over, he first pleaded the privilege of a parliament-man; several witnesses were produced against him, that he so gloried in the death of the king, as to say, That he desired it might be written upon his tombstone, to the end all the world might know it;" as also other things, which expressed his malicious forwardness in that horrid murther. The main part of his pleading, was to justify the authority of the rump-parliament, which, being so often answered before, need not here be inserted. The jury soon concluded with him likewise, and found him guilty.

Mr. Gregory Clement petitioned the court to wave his plea of Not Guilty; which the court granting, he confessed the indict

ment.

Col. John Jones confessed, that he was present at giving sentence against the king, only denied the form of the indictment;

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