Saith he, Why do you ask me this question? I told him I had heard so by several, namely by Hewson and Pretty; upon that he said, 'Well, what I did, I will not be ashamed of; if it were to do again I would do it.' Once since that time, about half a year afterwards, I was in the same place, and there talking about the King's death, he was telling me it was true, he was one of the two persons that were disguised upon the scaffold. I desired to know what if the King had refused to submit to the block? saith he, there were staples placed about the scaffold, and I had that about me that would have compelled him, or words to that effect; other times I have heard him speak something to this ... I have observed in Ireland, that it hath been generally reported that he was either the man that cut off the King's head or he that held it up, as I said before, and I have heard them sometimes call him Grandsire Greybeard.
Walter Davis had two years before been drinking with Hulet in Dublin, and
said I to Hulet, I pray resolve me this one question; it is reported that you took up the King's head, and said, Behold the head of a traitor; Sir, said he, it is a question I never yet resolved any man, though often demanded; yet, saith he, whosoever said it, it matters not, I say it now; it was the head of a traitor.
Lieut.-Colonel Nelson had asked Colonel Axtell (who had just been tried and condemned) who were the two disguised persons on the scaffold.
He told me I knew the persons as well as himself; saith he, they have been on service with you many a time; pray, sir, said I, let me know their names? Truly, said he, we would not employ persons of low spirits that we did not know, and therefore we pitched upon two stout fellows. Who were those? said I. It was Walker and Hulet, they were both serjeants in Kent when you were there, and stout men. Who gave the blow? said I. Saith he, poor Walker, and Hulet took up the head; Pray, said I, what reward had they? I am not certain whether they had thirty pounds apiece or thirty pounds between them.
Col. Thompson and Benjamin Francis both saw the execution, and said that it was a man disguised in a light wig that cut off the King's head.
Hulet said he could bring thirty or forty witnesses to prove that some one else did the act, and others to prove that he was not there on that day; he also produced a paper of examinations taken before the Lord Mayor, being of Mary Brandon and others. He was reminded that he had been examined in the Tower, and admitted that he was then charged with cutting off the King's head. 'Then,' said the Chief-Baron, 'you had time to provide your witnesses,' to which Hulet replied that he had been a close prisoner since then. He further said that he had been a prisoner, together with six or eight others, on the day of the execution; they were imprisoned because they refused to be on the scaffold. Hulet wished to call Hacker, Huncks, and Phayre, but the Court pointed out that Hacker had already been tried for his life (and condemned), and that Phayre was a prisoner in the Tower. Huncks had been called as a witness against Axtell. Hulet then called a Sheriff's Officer, who said that he had been told by one of his fellow-officers
that he was in Rosemary Lane a little while after the execution of the King, drinking with the hangman [i.e. George Brandon], that he did urge him whether he did this fact; God forgive me, saith he, the hangman, I did it, and I had forty half-crowns for my pains.
Abraham Smith—My Lord, as soon as that fatal blow was given I was walking about Whitehall, down came a file of musketeers; the first word they said was, Where be the bargemen? Answer was made, Here are none; away they directed the hangman in my boat; going into the boat he gave one of the soldiers a half-crown. Said the soldiers—Waterman, away with him, be gone quickly; but I fearing this hangman had cut off the King's head, I trembled that he should come into my boat, but dared not examine him on shore for fear of the soldiers; so I launched out, and having got a little way in the water, said I, who the devil have I got in my boat? Says my fellow, says he, why? I directed my speech to him, saying, Are you the hangman that cut off the King's head? No, as I am a sinner to God, saith he, not I; he shook every joint of him; I knew not what to do; I rowed away a little further, and fell to a new examination of him, when I had got him a little further, Tell me true, said I, are you the hangman that cut off the King's head? I cannot carry you, said I; No, said he, I was fetched by a troop of horse, and I was kept a close prisoner at Whitehall, and truly I did not do it; I was kept a close prisoner all the while; but they had my instruments. I said I would sink the boat if he would not tell me true; but he denied it with several protestations.