“Before this,” adds my informant, “one of the ‘Taunton maids,’ who assisted in working a banner for Monmouth, was sent away, to be hidden from Judge Jeffreys and his creatures, who where hunting up all they could lay hands upon to extort fines from; and our ancestors having an estate near, and perhaps connections at Taunton, the girl was sent to Totnes to them, and was hidden in the roof of their house for some time. The place could only be reached by a ladder, which was removed when not wanted. There the poor girl’s food was taken to her at night, and her presence was only known to the heads of the family. The house stood where the entrance to the Priory now is.”
[47] Harl. Miscell., i. 449.
“But being soon undeceived on our landing, we found the benefit of their provision; and instead of ‘Votre serviteur, Monsieur,’ they were entertained with ‘Mynheer, can ye Dutch spraken,’ upon which they ran away from the house, but the Lady Carey and a few old servants.”
[48] “A farmer, named Searle, had holdings at this time, under the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, in the parish of Staverton. One of his grandsons died at an advanced age about seven years ago. He used to state that when he was a boy there lived an old man at Staverton, over ninety years of age, who told him that he, and others, were sent by his master, Mr. Searle’s grandfather, to the high road, with cartloads of apples, that the Prince’s troops might help themselves.
“Macaulay mentions the fact that Sir Edward Seymour was the first person of importance who joined the Prince at Exeter. It is however believed that the two had met privately, before Sir Edward publicly gave in his adhesion. A cottage still exists near Longcombe, on the borders of the parish of Berry Pomeroy, adjoining Totnes, still known as ‘Parliament House,’ where the Prince is said to have held a Council. The cottage is situated on the property of Sir Edward, in a retired spot, and not above two miles from the line of march from Brixham to Newton.” MS. Information.
[49] Le Neve’s Archbishops, 269.
[50] Quoted in Smiles’ Huguenots, 256.
[51] I give this story as it is found in the Harleian Miscellany, and Murch’s Hist. of the Presbyterian Churches. Ferguson was first a Presbyterian, then an Independent, and for some time he acted as assistant to Dr. Owen. Calamy, chiefly on the authority of Burnet, gives him a bad character, and this is endorsed in Palmer’s Nonconf. Memorial, and by Wilson in his Dissenting Churches, i. 284.
It is said that there are letters in existence which authorize a different idea of Ferguson than the current one. However this may be, there can, I apprehend, be no doubt of his eccentricity and violence, and of his taking the side of the Jacobite plotters after the Revolution, as he had taken the opposite side before. See his own extraordinary letter to Secretary Trenchard. Ralph (ii. 524) gives a full account of it.
[52] Dalrymple, i. 225.