‘About three dayes before he died he lay speechlesse, uttering many a sigh and heavy groan and so in a most desperate manner departed from his bed of sorrow. For the buriall whereof great store of wines were sent in by the sheriff of the City of London, and a great multitude of people stood wayting to see the Corps carried to the Church-yard, some crying out Hang him Rogue, bury him in the Dung-hill; others pressing upon him saying, They would quarter him, for executing of the King; insomuch, that the Church Wardens and Masters of the Parish were fain to come for the suppressing of them, and (with great difficulty) he was at last carried to White-Chappell Church-yard, having (as it is said) a bunch of Rosemary at each end of the coffin, on the top thereof, with a Rope tyed crosse from one end to the other.
‘And a merry conceited Cook, living at the sign of the Crown, having a black Fan (worth the value of 30 shillings) took a resolution to rent the same in pieces, and to every feather tied a piece of packthread dy’d in black ink, and gave them to divers persons, who (in derision) for a while, wore them in their hats.
‘Thus have I given thee an exact account and perfect relation of the life and death of Richard Brandon, to the end, that the World may be convinced of those calumnious speeches and erroneous suggestions which are dayly spit from the mouth of envy, against divers persons of great worth and eminency, by casting an odium upon them for the executing of the King; it being now made manifest that the aforesaid Executioner was the only man that gave the fatal blows, and his man that wayted upon him was a Ragman, living in Rosemary Lane.’
Subjoined is a copy of the cut on the title-page of this tract.
| EXECUTION OF CHARLES I., 1649. |
The death of Richard Brandon is entered in the register of St. Mary’s, Whitechapel, under date June 21, 1649. To the entry is appended a note, evidently of about the same date, to the effect that ‘this R. Brandon is supposed to have cut off the head of Charles the First.’ The ‘calumnious speeches and erroneous suggestions’ had indicated several persons as having struck the fatal blow on that dismal morning in January. Amongst them, besides those already named, were ‘Squire Dun,’ William Walker, Hugh Peters, Lord Stair, and William Hewlett. The last-named person was actually tried for the crime at the Restoration. The evidence against him went to show that ‘his voice was heard upon the scaffold, and his Breeches were seen under his Frock, that he confest he was to have £100 and preferment in Ireland to doe it; that being asked whether he cut off the King’s head or no, he said what he had done he would not be ashamed of; and if it were to doe again he would doe it; more to the same purpose was witnessed by several witnesses, and by one, who being sworn, said that the Common-Hangman profest he did not doe it.’ This sort of evidence was not fit to hang a dog; and, though Hewlett was found guilty and sentenced to death, the sentence was never carried into effect—a proof that public opinion must have been too strong even for the hardihood of those who had foredoomed Hewlett to the gallows. The Government had evidently determined to fix the treason on this man with the sanguinary idea that some person ought to be made to expiate the deed, even though that person might be innocent. The prevalent belief, however, was that it was the common executioner who had been employed; and it is highly improbable that a mere amateur would have been permitted to officiate on such an important occasion.
Although I have met with no native contemporary production representing the execution, other than the rude woodcuts before mentioned, there is in the British Museum a collection of broadsides relating to the period of the Civil War, one of which has a large and well-executed copperplate engraving representing the execution of Charles I. It was published at Frankfort, and the descriptive text is in German. The view of Whitehall is correctly given, and the engraving looks like a genuine representation of the event.
[1] There is an Admiral Batten often mentioned by Pepys. If this is the same man who was an active commander under the Parliament he must have trimmed his sails well to hold a place in the Navy office under Charles II.
[2] Old and New London. By Edward Walford.