The writer is Sir John Finch; he directs his letter to Lord Conway:—"My dearest and best Lord,—As for news, my last acquainted you with the Duchess of York's coming to Court. I forgot to tell you that the child was christened Charles, and created Duke of Cambridge, and that His Majesty in person and the Duke of Albemarle were godfathers, and my Lady of Ormond personated the Queen for godmother. Our great news here is, that since His Majesty's departure to Portsmouth there have been two great alarms. Upon Sunday night about fifty Fifth Monarchy men, at ten o'clock, came to Mr. Johnson, a bookseller at the north gate of St. Paul's, and there demanded the keys of the Church, which he either not having, or refusing, they broke open the door, and, setting their sentries, examined the passengers who they were for, and one with a lantern replying that he was for King Charles, they answered that they were for King Jesus, and shot him through the head, where he lay as a spectacle all the next day. This gave the alarm to the mainguard at the Exchange, who sent four files of musketeers to reduce them. But the Fifth Monarchy men made them run, which so terrified the City, that the Lord Mayor in person came with his troop to reduce them. Before he arrived they drew off, and at Aldersgate forced the constable to open the gate, and so marched through Whitecross Street, where they killed another constable, and so went into the woods near Highgate, where being almost famished, on Wednesday morning, about five of the clock, fell again into the City, and, with a mad courage, fell upon the guard and beat them, which put the City into such confusion, that the King's Life and all the City regiments advanced against them. These forty men beat the Life Guard and a whole regiment for half an hour's time. They refused all quarter; but at length, Venner, their captain, a wine-cooper, after he had received three shots, was taken, and nine more, and twenty slain. Six got into a house, and refusing quarter, and with their blunderbusses defending themselves, were slain. The Duke and the Duke of Albemarle, with 700 horse, fell into the City; but all was over before they came. This, my Lord, is strange, that all that are alive, being maimed, not one person will confess anything concerning their accomplices, crying that they will not betray the servants of the Lord Jesus to the kings of the earth. Ludlow Major is committed close to the Tower for saying he would kill the King. These things have produced their effects: that no man shall have any arms that are not registered; that no man shall live in the City that takes not the Oath of Allegiance; that no person of any sect shall, out of his own house, exercise religious duties, nor admit any into his house under penalty of arrest, which troubles the Quakers and Anabaptists, who profess they knew not of this last business. And, besides all this, His Majesty is resolved to raise a new Army, and the general is not known; but I believe it will be the Duke of Albemarle, rather than the Duke of York or Prince Rupert, in regard he hath the office by patent, and in regard of his eminent services. The Duke took it very unkind of my Lord Chamberlain that upon information of Prince Rupert's attendants, his Lordship, in the Duke's absence, searched his cellar for gunpowder, it being under the King's seat at the Cockpit, and the Duke with his own hands so cudgelled the informer that he hath almost maimed him; and Prince Rupert assured the Duke that he so resented it, that he was not content to put away his servant, but offered to fight any person that set the design on foot. However, the business is not made up, though my Lord Chamberlain told the Duke he had done over hastily. The Princess Henrietta is sick of the measles on shipboard; but out of danger of wind. Dr. Frasier hath let her blood; I hope with better success than the rest of the royal blood have had."[180]
VENNER'S INSURRECTION.
It may be mentioned, that this insurrection had been hatched at the same place as the former one; and the conspirators are said to have marched first to Rogers' old quarters at St. Thomas the Apostle, to join nine of the party, and thence to Whitecross Street. It came as the expiring flash of a fanatical creed, which had blended itself with Puritanism, greatly to the detriment of the latter; and, dying out rather slowly, it left behind the quiet element of Millenarianism, which, at the present day, we find largely infused into the tenets of a considerable class of Christians.
Venner's explosion occurred on the 6th of January; but it is remarkable, that four days before that date, an order was issued from Council, forbidding the meetings of Anabaptists, Quakers, and other sectaries, in large numbers, and at unusual times, and restricting their assembling to their own parishes. Rumours of plots are alleged as reasons for the decision thus adopted upon the 2nd of January; but that decision plainly shows, that ere the insane enthusiasts of Coleman Street had fired a shot, whatever liberty had been conceded at Worcester House was now to suffer great abridgment. Venner's insurrection could not be the cause of curtailing the liberty of the subject at that moment, though it proved a plausible argument for the Proclamation which followed. The Proclamation appeared four days after the riot; yet the terms of the document agree so closely with those employed in the records of Council, as to indicate that, with the exception of a reference to the disturbance of the peace by bloodshed and murder, and some mention of Fifth Monarchy men, little or no alteration could have been made in the phraseology. All meetings, except those held in parochial churches and chapels, or in private houses by the inhabitants, were declared seditious, and were peremptorily forbidden.[181]
1661.
Against Venner's insurrection the Independents protested; disowning "the principles of a Fifth Monarchy, or the personal reign of King Jesus on earth, as dishonourable to him and prejudicial to His Church," and abhorring "the propagating this or any other opinion by force or blood."[182] The Baptists declared their obedience to Government, and expressed a hope that they might enjoy what had been granted by His Majesty's Declaration, and be protected, like other subjects, from injury and violence.[183] The Quakers also expressed their loyalty; praying that their meetings might not be broken up, and that their imprisoned members might be set at liberty. But these addresses neither blunted the edge of Royal displeasure, nor removed the public suspicion that many Nonconformists sympathized with the Fifth Monarchists. Peaceable subjects, therefore, suffered insult and interruption. Horns were blown at the doors of their houses, and stones were thrown at them whilst they were at prayer; also, magistrates enforced the Oath of Allegiance, which many Nonconformists, on different grounds, declined to take.[184]
BAXTER.
1661.
Amongst other methods of annoyance was that of opening suspected letters—a practice of which numerous illustrations will presently appear. "I wrote a letter at this time," says Richard Baxter, "to my mother-in-law, containing nothing but our usual matter. Even encouragements to her in her age and weakness, fetched from the nearness of her rest, together with the report of the news, and some sharp and vehement words against the rebels. By the means of Sir John Packington, or his soldiers, the post was searched, and my letter intercepted, opened, and revised, and by Sir John sent up to London to the Bishop and the Lord Chancellor, so that it was a wonder, that having read it, they were not ashamed to send it up; but joyful would they have been, could they but have found a word in it which could possibly have been distorted to an evil sense, that malice might have had its prey. I went to the Lord Chancellor and complained of this usage, and that I had not the common liberty of a subject, to converse by letters with my own family. He disowned it, and blamed men's rashness, but excused it from the distempers of the times; and he and the Bishops confessed they had seen the letter, and there was nothing in it but what was good and pious. And two days after came the Lord Windsor, Lord-Lieutenant of the County, and Governor of Jamaica, with Sir Charles Littleton, the King's cupbearer, to bring me my letter again to my lodgings; and the Lord Windsor told me, the Lord Chancellor appointed him to do it. After some expression of my sense of the abuse, I thanked him for his great civility and favour. But I saw how far that sort of men were to be trusted."[185]