THEIR TRIALS.
For Towneley, it was alleged that he first fled from his own house to avoid the militia, and that in his flight he was taken by rebels and kept under constraint in Preston, whither he had sent horses and servants for safety. This statement was treated with scorn by the king’s counsel, especially the idea of his flying from the king’s forces to find refuge with traitors. The answer to this—that a Romanist under suspicion was exposed to loss of property and freedom—was but a poor one. It was more successfully established that the man in the red waistcoat who rode at the head of the Towneley troop, blunderbuss in hand, was one Leonard. It was reasonably suggested that the rebel leaders called troops by the names of wealthy landowners, to give dignity to those companies; and that, in such cases, the consent of the gentlemen was not asked. For Tildesley, Sir George Warrender swore that he was an inoffensive person, not given to speak against King George. Tildesley’s housekeeper deposed that he was carried away from his residence by rebel forces, against his inclination; and the owner of the house in Preston where Tildesley lodged, testified that he had expressed dissatisfaction at the manner of his coming there. Further, that female attire had been prepared, and a horse was about to be hired, in order to enable him to escape. This statement elicited an observation from the opposite side, to the effect that, doubtless, when the fatal end of the affair at Preston was imminent, very many of the rebels would have been glad to have had disguises and horses to facilitate their escape. The prisoners were tried separately. The judge, in both cases, summed up vigorously for a conviction. The jury, after half an hour’s consideration, found Towneley ‘not guilty.’ They hardly considered at all in Tildesley’s case, but acquitted him at once. The Jacobites in court shouted! The judge could hardly contain himself for indignation. Mr. Baron Montague protested that all good subjects would be lost in amazement at finding that rebels, who ought to be convicted, could actually find favour. The angry baron pointed out, not without force, that five men who had followed Towneley and Tildesley into making war against the king, had been hanged for it in the country, and yet the two who had drawn them into it, were allowed to escape! Such a jury was no longer to be trusted with the lives of alleged traitors, and that judicial body was ignominiously discharged.
THEIR ACQUITTAL.
Friends and enemies were alike amazed at these verdicts. Joy possessed the one, rage affected the others. The two Jacobite gentlemen left the court with their friends, and went through Southwark in a sort of delirious ecstacy. On the following day, says ‘Mercurius,’ ‘Mr. Towneley gave a handsome Treat among his Friends, as a Testimony of his Thankfulness for his Deliverance, and sent a good sum of money to be distributed among the poor Men in Prison for Debt, in the Marshalsea, where he had been confined.’
Towneley very wisely considered that, acquitted as he was, he might not be as safe in England as abroad. Consequently, he rode out of London one morning in June, after taking leave of the friends who accompanied him to the outskirts. He made quietly for France, and had got undisturbed into Sussex, when he was arrested and brought before a magistrate. As Towneley of Towneley showed he had a right to ride in whatever direction he listed, and the country Minos could not deny it, the great and thrice lucky Lancashire Jacobite continued his ride, unmolested, towards the coast.
THE CHAPLAIN AT TOWNELEY HALL.
The Towneleys continued to ignore King George. In the fourth Report of the ‘Historical Manuscripts Commission,’ published in 1874, record is made of a MS., now among the papers of Colonel Towneley of Towneley Hall, Burnley, endorsed, ‘Baptisms and Anniversaries’—the memorandum book of the priest who acted as family chaplain. The most interesting entries are the ‘intentions’ of the masses which the priest celebrated, from May 1706, to the 31st December, 1722. Among these, frequent mention is made of masses celebrated ‘pro Rege nostro Jacobo!’ King James was honoured in similar manner by many a Jacobite chaplain.
JUSTICE HALL AND CAPTAIN TALBOT.
The theory that if a man was seen among rebels (although he might be there only by force laid upon him, and did not avail himself of every opportunity to escape, but by his presence abetted and comforted them)—he was guilty of high treason, prevailed with the jury assembled at Westminster on the 11th. They had to try separately, Mr. Hall, of Otterburn, a county magistrate, and Robert Talbot who served as captain of a troop of four-and-twenty horse, the whole way from Kelso to Preston. Hall proved clearly that as he was riding home from Alnwick, he and his man were surrounded and carried off by mounted rebels. The ‘man’ himself deposed that, after they were carried to the rebel head-quarters, his master rode about at pleasure. Patten swore that Hall of Otterburn, moved about as freely as that ordained knave did himself. In Robert Talbot’s case, two of his own troopers swore away the life of their old captain by their testimony, which saved their own necks. They swore, however, to what was true. In Robert Talbot’s case there was no doubt. He had been a dangerously active Jacobite. Poor Hall had been merely passive, and he protested that he was no Jacobite at all, but a loyal supporter of the king on the throne. Both were found guilty. Talbot did not pretend to have anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on him. ‘He had drawn the wine,’ he remarked, ‘and now he must drink it.’ Justice Hall pleaded that he was in a strange place, friendless, and tried by a new law which he did not understand. If time were given him, he could prove that his principles were sound, and that he had never been disaffected to the Government. Time was refused. Justice Hall and Captain Robert Talbot were condemned to be hanged.
GASCOGNE’S TRIAL.