The Popish Plot: A study in the history of the reign of Charles II

by John Pollock

Bedloe’s evidence varied greatly on points of detail. The amount of the reward which he was offered varied from two guineas to four thousand pounds; the time at which Godfrey was killed from two o’clock to five; the day on which his corpse was removed from Monday to Wednesday. Sometimes he was stifled with one, at others with two pillows. Once Bedloe said that the body was placed in the room where the Duke of Albemarle lay in state, while according to another statement it was hidden in the queen’s chapel. When his evidence was heard in court, a multitude of further alterations was introduced. In all the different versions of his story however there appeared with but little variation the statement that Godfrey had been murdered in Somerset House in the course of the afternoon on Saturday, October 12, by the means or at the direction of three Jesuits, Walsh, Pritchard, and Le Fevre, and that on the night of the following Monday he had seen the body lying in Somerset House in the presence of these three, and of a man whom he thought to be a waiter in the queen’s chapel.

Of all those mentioned only one fish had been netted, and it was certain that even he could not be brought to land. At the trial of Atkins the Attorney-General darkly hinted that had it not been for the conviction on the previous day, the prisoner would have been indicted as a principal in Godfrey’s murder, and would probably have been condemned.[216] But it may be doubted that this was more than a piece of bravado. The evidence of Captain Atkins was worth nothing; that of Bedloe little more. If the informers had expanded and defined their information to an extent unparalleled even in the history of the Popish Plot, where such things were not rare, it would hardly have produced much effect. The evidence produced for Atkins’ alibi was too strong to be seriously shaken. By the middle of November the investigation into the murder had thus come to a halt. Proclamations were out for the rest of the men accused by Bedloe, but there seemed to be every probability that they would escape. If Atkins were brought to trial and acquitted, consequences which would be serious to the policy of the Whigs on the committees of secrecy might ensue. Consequences almost as serious were to be expected in the event of his being released without a trial. In either one case or the other the failure to obtain a conviction for the murder of Godfrey would be damaging to their cause. They had staked much on the cards, and it seemed as if the game was going against them. Unless fortune came to their aid, the murder of which there had been so much talk would go unpunished, and the sensation which it created would die down.

Meanwhile the public mind was occupied on other points. The trials of Staley, Coleman, and Ireland for high treason filled the greater part of one excited month.[217] Almost till Christmas the great murder case made no progress. Just then, when it must have seemed less than likely after the lapse of eight weeks and after the only hopeful trail had disappeared that any substantial advance should be gained, an extraordinary incident occurred. There was living in Covent Garden a Roman Catholic silversmith, by name Miles Prance, who did a fair business with those of his own religion and was occasionally employed by the queen. He was a friend of the Jesuits who had been imprisoned on account of the plot and, being in liquor one day at a tavern, had declared loudly “that they were very honest men.” Suspicion was aroused, and on inquiry it was found that he had slept away from his house for three nights about the time of Godfrey’s disappearance. In point of fact this had been before the date of the murder, and Prance’s subsequent connection with the case was due to this initial mistake. His landlord laid information, and on Saturday, December 21, Prance was arrested for being concerned in Godfrey’s murder. He was taken into the lobby of the House of Commons and was there waiting until the committee was ready to examine him, when Bedloe happened to pass through. His eye fell upon Prance and he cried out without hesitation, “This is one of the rogues that I saw with a dark lantern about the body of Sir Edmond Bury Godfrey, but he was then in a periwig.”[218] Prance was taken before the committee of the House of Lords and strictly examined. He denied knowing Walsh, Pritchard, or Le Fevre. He denied that he was guilty of Sir Edmund Godfrey’s death and that he had assisted in removing his body. When he spoke of Fenwick and Ireland in the coffee-house he was drunk. He had not worn a periwig once in the last ten years, but he owned one at home which had been made twelve months since from his wife’s hair. He had not been to the queen’s chapel at Somerset House once a month. After denying that he had received money from Grove, he confessed that Grove had paid him for some work. He first denied, but afterwards admitted that he had hired a horse to ride out of town. He had intended to leave London to escape the oaths administered to Roman Catholics, but had in the meantime been arrested.[219] Prance was committed a close prisoner to Newgate, and was lodged in the cell known as the condemned hole. There he remained during the nights of December 21 and 22. On the morning of Monday, December 23, he sent a message to the committee of inquiry offering on the assurance of pardon to confess. By order of the House of Lords the Duke of Buckingham and other noblemen were sent to Newgate with the promise of pardon and to take his examination.[220] At the same time the Commons ordered that the committee of secrecy or any three of them should examine Prance in prison, and acquaint his fellow-prisoners in Newgate with the king’s assurance of pardon consequent on discoveries relating to the plot.[221] Prance confessed that he had been engaged in the murder and had much information to give on the subject. He was examined by the lords, and on the next day repeated his deposition before the privy council. At the beginning of October one Gerald, or Fitzgerald, an Irish priest belonging to the household of the Venetian ambassador, had approached him on the subject of putting out of the way a man whose name was not divulged. About a week later he learned that this was Sir Edmund Godfrey. Two other men were also concerned in the matter. Green, a cushion-layer in the chapel at Somerset House, and Laurence Hill, servant to Dr. Gauden, the treasurer of the queen’s chapel. They told him that Godfrey was to be killed, “for that he was a great enemy to the queen or her servants, and that he had used some Irishmen ill.” Lord Bellasis, said Gerald, had promised a reward. Prance consented to their proposals, the more readily because he had a private grudge against the magistrate. During the next week they watched for an opportunity to waylay Godfrey, and on Saturday, October 12, “did dodge him from his house that morning to all the places he went to until he came to his death.”[222] The same day the king ordered the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Ossory to accompany Prance to Somerset House and examine him on the spot where he said that the murder had taken place. There he entered into a detailed account of the crime. At about nine o’clock at night[223] Godfrey was coming from St. Clement Danes down the Strand, followed by Hill, Green, and Gerald. Hill walked on ahead, and as Godfrey came opposite the water-gate of Somerset House begged him to come into the court and put an end to a quarrel between two men who were fighting. The magistrate turned in through the wicket, with Hill, Green, and Gerald following them. Prance, who was waiting inside, came to the gate to keep watch. The others went down the court until they came to a bench in the right-hand corner close to the stable-rails, where Berry, the porter of Somerset House, and an Irishman, whose name Prance did not know, were sitting. Green crept up close behind, and when they had reached the bench threw a large twisted handkerchief round Godfrey’s neck and pulled it tight. The three other men set upon him and dragged him down into the corner behind the bench. Green knelt upon his chest and pounded it, and then wrung his neck round until it was broken. This, said Prance, Green had told him a quarter of an hour afterwards when he came down from the gate to see what had happened. The body was carried across the court, through a door in the left-hand corner, from which a flight of stairs led to a long gallery. From the gallery a door opened on to a flight of eight steps, leading into Hill’s lodgings. In a small room to the right of the entrance the body was set on the floor, leaning against the bed. There it remained for two days. On Monday night at nine or ten o’clock the same men removed the corpse to another part of Somerset House, “into some room towards the garden.” As it lay there Prance was taken by Hill to see it. He could not say if he had seen Bedloe there, but Gerald and Green were present. Thence twenty-four hours later the body was taken back, first to a room near Hill’s lodging, and on Wednesday evening to the same room in which it had been at first. At midnight Hill procured a sedan chair, and Godfrey’s corpse was put inside. Berry opened the gate of the court, and Prance, Gerald, Green, and the Irishman carried the chair as far as the new Grecian Church in Soho. There Hill met them with a horse, upon which the body was set. Sitting behind the body. Hill rode off in company with Green and Gerald, and deposited it where it was found, having first transfixed it with the sword.

Having taken his examination, Monmouth and Ossory bade Prance guide them to the places he had mentioned. Without hesitation he led the way to the bench, and described with assurance the manner in which the murder had been committed. Then he shewed the room in which the body had first been laid, and conducted his examiners to every spot of which he had spoken with unerring direction. To this process there was one exception. Prance could not find the room in which he said the corpse had been placed on the night of Monday 14. The three passed up and down, into the corner of the piazza, down a flight of steps, up again, across the great court which lay towards the river, into and out of several rooms, but without success. The room could not be found. Finally Prance desisted from the search, “saying that he had never been there but that once, when Hill conveyed him thither with a dark lantern, but that it was some chamber towards the garden.” Monmouth and Ossory returned to the council-chamber with the report of Prance’s examination, upon which the council made a note, “that the said particulars were very consonant to what he had spoken at the board in the morning, before his going.”[224] The council sat again in the afternoon. Green, Hill, and Berry were summoned. All denied with emphasis the charges which Prance had made against them, and denied that they knew Sir Edmund Godfrey. Green and Hill admitted knowing Father Gerald, and Green identified the Irishman mentioned by Prance as a priest named Kelly. In one point Hill confirmed Prance’s evidence. While they had been in his lodgings that morning, Monmouth and Ossory had examined Mrs. Broadstreet, the housekeeper of his master, Dr. Gauden. She affirmed that Hill left the lodgings at Michaelmas to move into a house of his own in Stanhope Street. When Prance said she was mistaken, since Hill had not left his rooms in Somerset House until a fortnight after Michaelmas, Mrs. Broadstreet contradicted him angrily. Hill now declared that in the middle of October he had been busy making arrangements for the move; on the day of Godfrey’s disappearance he was still occupied with his landlord in drawing up terms of agreement, and the agreement was not concluded until the Wednesday following.[225]

In addition to his evidence about Godfrey’s murder, Prance made a statement concerning the plot. Fenwick, Ireland, and Grove, he said, had told him that “Lord Petre, Lord Bellasis, the Earl of Powis, and Lord Arundell were to command the army.” As more decisive evidence had already been given against all these, his information was of little consequence. He also desired to be set at liberty, that he might be able to discover some persons connected with the plot whose names were unknown to him. The request was naturally refused, but Prance was removed from the dungeon and Hill was confined there in his place.[226] Within forty-eight hours from this time Prance had recanted his whole story. On the evening of Sunday, December 29, Captain Richardson, the keeper of Newgate, received an order of council to bring Prance before the Lords’ committee for examination. Prance was in a state of great agitation and begged to be taken to see the king. Charles received him in the presence of Richardson and Chiffinch, his confidential valet. Prance fell upon his knees and declared that the whole of his evidence had been false, that he was innocent of the murder, and the men whom he had accused as far as he knew were innocent too. The next day he was taken before the council and persisted that he knew no more of Godfrey’s murder than was known to the world. He was asked if any one had been tampering with him and answered, No. Hardly had he been taken back to Newgate when he begged Captain Richardson to return to the king and say that all his evidence had been true, and his recantation false.[227] From this he again departed and reaffirmed his recantation. He was heavily ironed and a second time imprisoned in the condemned hole. Here he remained until January 11, 1679, when to complete the cycle of his contradictions he once more retracted his recantation and declared that the whole of his original confession was true.

On February 10, 1679 Green, Berry, and Hill were brought to the bar of the Court of King’s Bench to be tried upon an indictment for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. The prosecution began by evidence to shew that for some days before his disappearance Godfrey had been in a state of alarm. Oates swore that Godfrey had complained to him of the treatment he had received in consequence of having taken his deposition; on the one hand those who wished to accelerate the discovery of the plot had blamed him for not being sufficiently eager in its prosecution; those, on the other, who were endangered by Oates’ revelations had threatened the magistrate for the action which he had taken. Godfrey told Oates that “he went in fear of his life by the popish party, and that he had been dogged several days.” The testimony of Oates carries no greater weight on this than on any other occasion, but he was supported by another and a more respectable witness. Mr. Robinson, chief protonotary of the court of common pleas, gave evidence of Godfrey’s disturbance of mind. The two had met on October 7, and Robinson questioned the magistrate about the depositions which he had taken. Godfrey replied that he wished that another had been in his place, for he would have small thanks for his pains; the bottom of the matter had not yet been reached, he said; and then, turning to Robinson, exclaimed, “Upon my conscience I believe I shall be the first martyr,”[228] This was the prelude by which the evidence of Prance and Bedloe was introduced. Bedloe retold the story to which he had treated the council, the committee, and the House of Lords. This time it differed in almost every point of detail from the statements which he had previously made. The Jesuits who tempted him into the murder had sent him about a week before to effect an acquaintance with Godfrey. There were several separate schemes on foot to dispatch the justice. After seeing the body upon Monday night he had gone away and never seen the murderers again. The Jesuits told him that Godfrey had been strangled, but how he did not know. His account of his many interviews with Le Fevre were hopelessly at variance with what he had said about them before.[229] But as the rules of legal procedure did not admit as evidence depositions and reports of testimony given elsewhere, it was impossible to convict the witness of these alterations. Bedloe’s evidence too shewed striking points of difference from that of Prance, who preceded him, even after he had toned it into better accord. The prisoners, excited and ignorant, unused to sifting evidence and wholly unskilled in examining witnesses, failed altogether to detect and point out the discrepancies.

The evidence given by Prance was, on the contrary, remarkably consistent with the information which he had furnished on other occasions. He went through all the incidents which he had detailed first to the council and then on the spot to the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Ossory. He described each point with perfect decision and answered the questions put to him without hesitation. The only point on which he showed uncertainty was when he was asked to describe the room in which the body lay on the night of October 14. He said frankly, “I am not certain of the room, and so cannot describe it.” In one particular alone did a statement vary from his previous evidence. He had told the council that on the morning of the fatal Saturday Green had called at Godfrey’s house and inquired if he was at home.[230] Now he said that he could not be certain whether it was Green or Hill who went to Hartshorn Lane.[231] His motive in altering the distinct statement is not far to seek. Elizabeth Curtis, who had been maid at Godfrey’s house, was called as a witness. She testified that on the morning of October 12 Hill came to see her master and had conversation with him for several minutes. He wore the same clothes, she said, in which he appeared in court; and Hill admitted that he had been dressed in the same way on that day. Green had come to Hartshorn Lane about a fortnight before to ask for Godfrey, but on the date of his disappearance Hill was there alone.[232] The suspicion is difficult to stifle that Prance had some knowledge of the evidence which the maid would give, and altered his own in order not to contradict it. When he afterwards published his True Narrative and Discovery of several Remarkable Passages relating to the Horrid Popish Plot, he simply stated in accordance with the evidence of Curtis that it was Hill who spoke with Godfrey on that morning.[233] In some other points Prance’s evidence was supported by independent witnesses. He had spoken of meetings held by Gerald, Kelly, the prisoners, and himself at a tavern with the sign of the Plow, where he was enticed to be a party to the murder. The fact that they were frequenters of the Plow was proved by the landlord of the inn and his servant.[234] About a fortnight after the murder Prance had entertained a small party at the Queen’s Head Inn at Bow. Gerald was there, and a priest named Leweson, and one Mr. Vernatt, who was described as being in service to Lord Bellasis. They were joined by a friend of Vernatt, named Dethick, and dined on flounders and a barrel of oysters. According to Prance’s statement Vernatt should have been present at the murder, but as he had been prevented, Gerald furnished the company with an account of the manner in which it had been accomplished. While the talk ran thus, Prance heard a noise outside the door. Opening it suddenly, he caught the drawer eavesdropping and sent him off with threats of a kicking.[235] This was confirmed by the evidence of the drawer. He had listened at the door and heard Godfrey’s name mentioned, and one of the party had threatened to kick him downstairs.[236] Several important witnesses were called for the defence. Mary Tilden, the niece of Dr. Gauden, and his housekeeper, Mrs. Broadstreet, gave evidence that Hill was at home on the evening of the murder and the following nights, when he was accused of being busy with the body, and that the corpse was never brought to their lodgings. The judges continually bullied and sneered at the witnesses. The room in which Prance said the body was laid was described by Sir Robert Southwell as “an extraordinary little place.” Mrs. Broadstreet said that it was impossible for a corpse to be placed there without their knowledge. On this Mr. Justice Wild told her that it was very suspicious, and Dolben remarked, “It is well you are not indicted.” The hostile attitude of the court was not mollified when it appeared that there was some confusion in the evidence of both witnesses. Mary Tilden stated that during the time when they were in town she had never been out of the lodgings after eight o’clock in the evening. “When were you out of town?” asked Mr. Justice Jones. “In October,” the witness answered. The judge pointed out that October was just the month in question. Mistress Tilden said that she had made a mistake; she had meant to say that they were out of town in September. She said too that there was only one key to the door of the lodgings; but Prance declared, and was not contradicted, that in her examination before the Duke of Monmouth, Mrs. Broadstreet had admitted that there were several. The latter made the mistake of saying that Hill occupied the rooms until a fortnight after Michaelmas, whereas she had before sworn, as Sir Robert Southwell testified, that he left them in the first week in October.[237] The workman who had been employed at Hill’s new house in Stanhope Street proved that he had been in Hill’s company from nine to two in the afternoon of Saturday, October 12, and a neighbour that Hill had been at his house from five to seven o’clock on the same evening.[238] Green called for his defence his maid, his landlord, and the landlord’s wife. The maid testified that Green was always at home before nine o’clock at night; James Warrier and his wife that he was within doors in their company till after ten o’clock on the night of October 12. Mrs. Warrier however made the mistake of saying that this was a fortnight after Michaelmas day, which it was not, and so raised a doubt that the evidence was directed to a time a week later than the date in question.[239] The most weighty evidence for the defence was produced by Berry in the persons of the sentries who had kept guard at the gate of Somerset House on the night of Wednesday, October 16. On that night Prance swore that Berry had opened the gate to let the sedan chair containing Godfrey’s corpse pass out. From seven to ten o’clock Nicholas Trollop had kept guard, Nicholas Wright from ten to one, from one to four Gabriel Hasket. During the first watch a chair had been carried into Somerset House, but all three men were confident that none had been carried out. They were equally positive that at no time had they left the beat to drink at Berry’s house or with any one else. If the gate had been opened and a sedan taken through, it would certainly have been seen by the soldier on duty. Berry’s maid also testified that her master had come in that evening at dusk and had remained at home until he went to bed at midnight.[240] The only part of the evidence for the prisoners to which the Lord Chief Justice devoted attention in his summing up was the testimony of the sentries. He remarked to the jury that it was a dark night and that the soldier might not have seen the gate opened, or, having seen, might have forgotten, Scroggs went over the evidence of Bedloe briefly and of Prance at length, and delivered a harangue on the horrors of the Plot, of which Godfrey’s murder, he said, was “a monstrous evidence.” After a short deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty against all the prisoners. The Chief Justice declared if it were the last word he had to speak in this world he should have pronounced the same verdict, and the spectators in court met his announcement with a shout of applause.[241]

On February 11 Green, Berry, and Hill came up to receive sentence, and ten days later Green and Hill were hanged at Tyburn, denying their guilt to the last. Berry, who was distinguished from them by being a Protestant, was granted a week’s respite. To the indignation of Protestant politicians he made no confession, and when he was executed on February 28, declaring his innocence to the end, a rumour was spread that the court party had gained him to a false conversion in order to give the Roman Catholics the chance of saying that he at least could not have lied in hope of salvation.[242] It was afterwards remembered that by an extraordinary coincidence Primrose Hill, at the foot of which Godfrey’s body was found, had in former days borne the name of Greenberry Hill.[243]

CHAPTER IV

PRANCE AND BEDLOE