No. I.—See Vol. I., p. 60.
I find in the Record Office a very curious letter, dated Llanothyng,[610] the 8th of April, and addressed to Linwell Chapman. There is placed in the same bundle in which I discovered it a fairly transcribed copy. As the contents are remarkable, I shall give a full description of them, and supply a few extracts.
The letter purports to come from more persons than one, and it commences by expressing their joy on account of suffering for Christ’s sake, their spirits being borne up by the fury of the adversary, by the patience dispensed to the godly, and the great spirit of prayer poured out, together with active faith in the most precious promises. They had sent messengers to their brethren, all over the nation, including three to South Wales, exhorting them to stand by the good old cause, once the most precious in the eyes of the saints. They mention “Dr. Owen, that precious servant of Christ,” as having had a sinecure in their neighbourhood, and as having sent them word “that he doubted not of good issue.” “We hope very speedily,” they proceed, “to give you a good account when that discontented part of the army we expect is come up, to countenance us until we can get together. We have laid out £10,000 in arms, and distributed most of them; we have raised such a jealousy here between the Cavaliers and Presbyterians as opens us a wider door than otherwise could be expected; and, indeed, were we considerable, the Presbyterians would close with us, upon any terms, rather than undergo an intolerable yoke under an implacable enemy.” The writers refer to an attempt upon “Charles Stewart,” which, they heard, “did not succeed in the way intended, but there was another way more successful.” They afterwards state,—“Mr. Kiffin, and Mr. Cockam, Mr. Hudson, Mr. M. the Committee-man, and Mr. Feake, write to us of securing the General and the Parliament about the 6th of May, to which they say all the congregations in London agree, except Mr. Caryles and Mr. Griffiths. Mr. Nie [Nye] doth great service in it, we hear. Mr. Brooks is very willing. Mr. Barker is, they say, indifferent. Indeed Sir Harry Vane is a man that seems to be born for such a time as this. He will come up, we hear, to head us; for we shall rise first, being furthest off.” After further explanation of their policy, they continue: “This we know, that we shall be (the Lord assisting us), a month hence, so considerable, coming towards London, that most of your Londoners must draw out, and then you have your opportunity. We hope you have received the arms, ammunitions, &c. V. A. L. was appointed to bring from C. to B., and then to D., where your carts were to meet him. What use you may make of the training day at London we leave to your discretion. Would we were rid of all the carnal and self-interested men on our side, and we doubt not but to do well. Mr. Thomas, the bearer hereof, will tell you how far we prevailed upon the Irish Brigade, and pray do you tell him how far you prevailed upon your London forces. The report of their being to be disbanded makes much for us here; what it doth there we know not. Col. Okey is very successful, and it’s believed his agitation may produce what may make both their ears tingle. Whether Mr. Powell, Mr. Mostyn, and Mr. Lloyd, be come up to you, we hear not. When they come, we doubt not they will put life in the cause. Mr. Jessey, with the brethren of Swan Alley, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Spilsbury, &c., are very zealous. And it’s good to be zealous in a good matter. Mr. Row, of Westminster, hath been very instrumental in a late design. The Lord strengthen the hands of such faithful souls. I pray, let us hear what the brethren of Gloucestershire intend to do. Mr. Helme, of Winchcombe, is diligent, spending himself and being spent among the neighbouring congregations if they be not already at London.” (The congregations referred to were either Independents or Baptists.) The writers further state that they heard a piece was “coming out on the character of the wretched villain Monk,” and an account of his plots. They advised that the first work should be to secure the militia and gentry, seize several of the Welsh castles, and be at Gloucester by the 12th of May, and tempt the General out. “Let the Quakers,” the letter goes on to say, “have the knottiest piece, for they are resolute in performing, though but rash in advising. It were to be wished the House had some bones to pick, that they might determine nothing until the 12th of May.” The writers then ask, whether the Long Parliament members, under whose authority they and their friends were acting, would sit at Shrewsbury as a place of rendezvous; that would be the safest place. They refer to Scotland, adding, “If it may be, it were well all places were at once disordered by a common alarm, while one place is chiefly aimed at. We expect Sir Arthur here suddenly, and then, when a convenient number of the old Parliament and army are met, we declare. The declaration is already agreed on.” ... “We are apt to believe that every honest man of all interests will acquiesce in it. Verily some Presbyterians, upon their late experience, are ready to hear and submit to the reason of it, when proposed to them. The press is free enough for it, there being no restraint upon that as yet.” The letter concludes with an exhortation to prosecute the design on the Tower, the House, and the head-quarters.
Besides this letter, there is another dated a few days earlier, addressed to Master Evan Thomas Taylor, relating to the same subject, but not containing any important information.
When I first lighted upon the letter of the 8th of April, 1660, with the actual outbreak under Lambert, in the same month, fresh in my mind, I was startled at the sight of these extraordinary statements, and began to think that they supplied new and important information respecting Republican movements going on at that confused period. A little reflection, however, sufficed to raise very considerable doubts as to whether much reliance could be placed upon several parts of the letter of the 8th, in which mere rumours are related, and accounts are given of what was going on at a distance. Further consideration made me suspicious as to the origin of the papers altogether. For the fabrication of letters said to be intercepted, and containing treasonable matter, was no uncommon device in those days, of which a signal instance is furnished in our notice of William Kiffin (Vol. I., p. 211). Besides, there are certain things about these professed communications from Wales, which the more I thought of them the more suspicious they appeared,—such as the statement respecting Dr. Owen, the expenditure of so large a sum as £10,000 by poor Welshmen in procuring arms, the reference made to Quakers as engaged in military movements, and the engagement of all the Congregational Churches in London, with two exceptions, in a plot to secure Monk and the Parliament. The more I considered these circumstances the more incredible they looked. Impressed with very strong doubts, I applied to my kind friend, the late Mr. John Bruce, whose judgment on the point I felt would be most valuable.
He gave the following opinion:—“I have looked at the letters dated 4th and 8th of the 2nd month of 1660, and the copy of the latter, which is endorsed in the handwriting of the Secretary, Sir Joseph Williamson. That they are all of the period assigned to them is, I think, pretty certain, but whether they are genuine or fabricated is a question not easily answered.
“It seems to me probable that the two letters were written by the same hand, the writing of the letter of the 4th being a feigned hand. That of the 4th was intended to contain that of the 8th, which is rather strange, and the oddity is increased by the circumstance, that in that of the 4th there is an allusion to that of the 8th as if it were already written:—‘Pray tell Mr. Chapman, which I forgot to write.’
“The letter of the 8th, purporting to be dated at ‘Llanothyng,’ a place I do not know; that of the 4th at ‘Llanvaire,’ I suppose in Monmouthshire. The former mentions ‘Dr. Owen, that precious servant of Christ,’ as having had a ‘sinecure here.’ If this be John Owen, it seems very like a blunder.
“Probably many other strangenesses might be discovered upon a close study of the letters, but that which in my mind makes most against the genuineness of the letter of the 8th, is the enormous improbability that any one would have sent a letter in such manner as this has been forwarded, which disclosed a plot to kill the King and other members of the Royal Family, and implicated in movements connected with it, not one or two persons only, but all the most conspicuous persons of the Republican party. The letter is in this respect so overdone as on that account alone to be a subject of very great suspicion. But, supposing it possible that a man could be found who was fool enough to write such a letter, I cannot believe that it would have been transmitted in the careless, half-open way in which these have been sent to Master Thomas in Quart-Pot Alley, Philpot Lane—if that be the address.
“My present impression is that these letters are not genuine, but if anything turns upon a point, or you are about to publish an opinion, I should like to reconsider the question.”
A little while afterwards, Mr. Bruce wrote the following:—“I have looked again at the letters said to have been intercepted, and am more and more convinced they are not genuine. Contents, handwriting—everything—is against them. They are not papers upon which any one ought to found an historical conclusion.
“Mr. Hardy came in just as I was putting up the bundle which contains these letters. I took them out and asked him what he thought of them. He shook his head, and pronounced them to be most suspicious-looking papers.”
After such an opinion, confirmatory of my own strong doubts, I could not think of using these documents in the text, but, as curiosities, I have transferred them to this Appendix.