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they have found you guilty, so that it is not in my power either to acquit or condemn you; I am only to pass sentence according to that conviction. If you have any thing to say wherefore judgment should not be pronounced, I am ready to hear you.

Thwing. All that I can say is to declare my innocency, and that these men are of no credit and reputation. It is very hard I only should be guilty, and none of the rest, who were arraigned for the same crimes.

Justice Dolben. No, it is not impossible; it is possible you may be guilty, and the rest inno

cent.

Thwing. For my part, I told your lordship that I was but once or twice in a year at sir T. Gascoigne's, being my uncle, and I do protest I know nothing of the consult these men do charge me with.

Justice Dolben. You say one thing, they swear another, and for aught I know they are honest men; they are lawful men, and not convicted in the main; for I do believe there were many great and dangerous consults held at sir T. Gascoigne's by several persons, and that there have been many horrid and treasonable things acted there. You have been indicted for high-treason, the highest treason that ever any subject was guilty of, for attempting to kill the king, for resolving so to do upon deliberate advice and consultation; and this for no other end or purpose, but that you might have your religion set up, for that was your design, to change this religion here, and to settle popery in England; and the better to bring that to pass, you thought to take away the king's life, knowing you could not otherwise accomplish it. You are, I am satisfied, a priest of the Romish church; therefore all that I can say to you in reference to your future state you will not value, for you account me an heretic as you do the king, and I am content to be so esteemed in so good company, therefore I shall wave it. As you are a gentleman, I will give some respect to you, and will not pass sentence on you among the rest of the prisoners that are found guilty of felony and murder, but will do it by yourself.

all that was sworn against him, but gloried that he was a priest, and had performed the priestly function about 15 years; and desiring all true catholics, if any such were there, to pray for him; and begging God to bless and preserve the king, his queen, the duke of York, and all other good christians, he yielded himself to the executioner. He delivered in writing this following Speech:

"This sudden news of my execution (after my reprieve) coming so unexpectedly, made me fear I should have more severity shewed me than has been to others; and consequently, that I should not have my full liberty to declare my mind in the place of my execution; therefore I have briefly expressed myself in writing, as followeth :

"First, as I hope for salvation and benefit of the blood and passion of my blessed Saviour, I most sincerely protest, that what Rob. Bolron, and L. Mowbray swore against me, was absolutely false; for here, in the presence of the eternal God, I declare I never knew of any consult at Barnbow, the least prejudicial to the king or kingdom; nor was I ever at any, such consult, or meeting, with sir T. Gascoigne, Mr. Gascoigne his son, sir Miles Stapleton, the lady Tempest, Mr. Ingleby, or any other, where any thing was treated, spoken, or written, about killing the king, or alteration of the government; nor did I ever see, or know of any List of names of persons mentioned, and sworn by them against me.

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Thirdly, That although I have, and do declare against the oath of allegiance, as it is worded, yet it is only by reason of some clauses therein contained, not pertaining to allegiance; and therefore if an oath, containing nothing but allegiance, had been legally tendered me, I should have thought it a sin to refuse it.

"Lastly, I acknowledge myself a priest, and to have (about 15 years) performed the priestly function; which I am so far from denying, that I thought it the greatest honour imaginable.

The law doth command the court, and the court doth award, "That you be carried from hence to the place from whence you came, that "Now, dear countrymen, having made this is, the prison, and from thence you are to be protestation in the most plain and serious terms drawn to the place of execution: you are there I could, without all equivocation, or mental reto be hanged by the neck, you are to be cut servation whatsoever; I appeal to the eternal down before you are dead, and your entrails are judge, whether all good christians ought not rato be taken out of your body, and thrown into ther to believe what is here in this manner the fire before your face, and your head is to be sworn by me, in my present circumstances, parted from your body, and your body separat-than what was sworn by my accusers, whom, ed in four quarters, and your head and your quarters are to be disposed according to the king's pleasure. And the Lord have mercy on your soul."

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Thwing. Innocens ego sum.'

A reprieve being obtained for him, he remained condemned in the castle of York, till the 23d of October, when, according to the sentence, he was drawn, hanged and quartered at York, having first protested his innocence of

notwithstanding, I beg of God Almighty to forgive; as also the jury, and all others, who have in any kind, concurred to my death.

Then again professing his innocence, and praying for his king and country, he concluded with these seeming prophetic words.

"Though I know the affairs of the kingdom are in a bad posture, yet I hope they will be cleared ere long; and then the actors thereof will be more fully known."

270. The Trial of ELIZABETH CELLIER,* at the Old Bailey, for writing and publishing a Libel,† September 11th and 13th, 32 CHARLES II. A. D. 1680.

Clerk of the Crown. MRS. Cellier, look | Popish Religion, not having the fear of God beto your challenges; for the Jury that is to be fore her eyes, but being moved and seduced by sworn is to pass upon you.

Cellier. Am I for my life?

Cl. of Cr. No, but look to your challenges. Lord Mayor. But if you challenge, you must give a reason for it, Mrs. Cellier.

Cl. of Cr. Swear John Ainger. [Which was done.]

Cl. of Cr. Swear Richard Boys.
Cellier. I challenge him.

the instigation of the devil, falsly and maliciously endeavouring and intending our sovereign lord king Charles the 2nd that now is, and the government of this kingdom of England, as also the true Protestant Religion, within this kingdom of England by law established, to bring to hatred and contempt; and also to bring scandal and infamy upon divers persons produced as witnesses, that gave evidence on

Lord Mayor. Mrs. Cellier, you must shew a the part and behalf of our sovereign lord the cause for your challenge.

Cellier. I did not know that, my lord. Baron Weston. You can challenge none in this case without a cause.

Cellier. My lord, I did not know that: Then I agree he shall be sworn. [Which was done.] Then the rest of the Jury, without any more challenges, were sworn; and they were all as follows: John Ainger, Richard Boys, John Stephens, Thomas Phelps, Gilbert Urwin, Edward Allanson, Richard Liveing, John Coggs, Henry Hogsden, John Barnard, Edward Low, James Southern.

Then Proclamation was made in common form for Information; and the clerk charged the Jury thus:

Cl. of Cr. You gentlemen that are sworn, Elizabeth Cellier stands indicted by the name of Elizabeth Cellier, wife of Peter Cellier, of the parish of St. Clement-Danes, in the county of Middlesex, gent. For that she being of the

From a pamphlet intituled "The Trial and Sentence of Elizabeth Cellier; for writing, printing, and publishing, a scandalous Libel, called Malice Defeated, &c. At the Sessions in the Old-Bailey, held Saturday the 11th and Monday the 13th of Sept. 1680. Whereunto is added several Depositions, made before the right honourable the Lord Mayor. London, printed for Thomas Collins, at the Middle-Temple-Gate, 1680."

"September 13th, 1680. I do appoint Thomas Collins stationer, to print the Trial of Mrs. Cellier at the Sessions, and that no other do presume to print the same.

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king, against her the said Elizabeth Cellier, and other persons indicted of High-Treason; the 1st of September, in the 32nd year of our sovereign lord king Charles the 2nd that now is, at the parish of St. Clement-Danes, in the county of Middlesex aforesaid, falsly, maliciously and seditiously did write and publish, and did cause to be writ, imprinted and published a scandalous Libel, intituled, Malice Defeated: Or, a brief Relation of the Accusation and Deliver. ance of Elizabeth Cellier: Wherein her Proceedings, both before and during her confine'ment, are particularly related, and the Mystery ' of the Meal-Tub* fully discovered: Together 'with an abstract of her Arraignment and Trial:

Written by herself for the satisfaction of all 'lovers of undisguised truth.' In which said Libel are contained these false, feigned, scandalous words and figures following, to wit: I hope it will not seem strange to any honest and loyal person of what way or religion soever, that I being born and bred up under 'Protestant parents, should now openly profess myself of another church (meaning the church of Rome;) for my education being in those times, when my own parents and relations, for their constant and faithful affection to the

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Of her concern with the Meal-Tub Plot, sce some accounts in the Report of her Case for High Treason, supra, p. 1043.

Sir William Temple calls the Meal-Tub Plot an intrigue, which he could never make any thing of nor thought worth his enquiry; and he says, that lords Essex and Halifax, upon the private examination of it, took such a distaste at finding themselves mentioned in it, and yet left out of the secret examinations about it, that their discontents grew open against the court, and lord Essex left the Treasury.

Sir William Williams, the Speaker, in pro

ROBERT CLAYTON, Mayor." + See her Trial for High Treason, supra, p. 1043. In the 4th vol. of the Harleian Miscellany, p. 136, is printed, "A Scheme for the Foundation of a Royal Hospital, and rais-nouncing Sentence of Expulsion upon sir Roing a Revenue of 5 or 6,000l. a year, by and for the maintenance of a Corporation of skilful Midwives, and such Foundlings or exposed children as shall be admitted therein, as it was 'proposed and addressed to his majesty king James the Second, by Mrs. Elizabeth Cellier, in the month of June, 1687."

bert Peyton, for "negociating with the duke of York, by means of lord Peterborough, Mrs. Cellier and Gadbury, when they were turning the Popish Plot upon the Protestants, told him, "You have sat betwixt the Devil and the Witch-Mr. Gadbury and Mrs, Cellier." See 4 Cobb, Parl. Hist. 1233.

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offices of charity I was obliged to; and on Thursday, January the 9th (1678.) I dined in Newgate in the room called the Castle, on the 'master's side debtors, and about four in the

• king and royal family, were persecuted, the king himself murdered, the bishops and church ، destroyed, the whole loyal party, merely for ⚫ being so, oppressed and ruined; and all, as 6 was pretended by the authors of these vil-afternoon I came down into the Lodge with ، lainies, for their being papists and idolaters, the constant character given by them to the king and his friends to make them odious, they assuming to themselves only the name of protestants, and making that the glorious title by which they pretended right to all things: ، These sorts of proceeding, as I grew in understanding, produced in me more and more horror of the party that committed them, and ⚫ put me on enquiry into that religion to which ، they pretended the greatest antipathy; where، in, I thank God, my innate loyalty not only ' confirmed, but encouraged me. And let 'calumny say what it will, I never heard from any papists, as they call them, priest nor lay، man, but that they and I, and all true catholic's owe our lives to the defence of our lawful king, which our present sovereign Charles 2, ، is, whom God long and happily preserve so. These sorts of doctrines agreeing to my pub، lic morals, and no way, as ever I was taught, 'contradicting my private ones, commending at f the same time to me charity and devotion; I without any scruple have hitherto followed, glorying to myself to be in communion with those who were the humble instruments of his majesty's happy preservation from the ، fatal battle at Worcester; and who, though poor, no temptation could invite to betray him to those who by a pretended protestant ، principle sought his innocent blood. These ، truths, I hope, may satisfy an indifferent per4 son in my first change; nor can they wonder at my continuance therein, that notwithstanding the horrid crimes of treason and murder ، laid to the charge of some persons, considera'ble for their quality and fortunes in that party: 'For, when I reflected who were the witnesses, and what unlikely things they deposed, and observed that many of the chiefest sticklers for the Plot were those, or the sons of those, that acted the principal parts in the last 'tragedy, which history told me too had the 'prologue of a pretended Popish Plot; I say, "these things made me doubtful of the whole; ' and the more I searched for truth, the more I 'doubted that the old enemies of the crown were again at work for its destruction. I being fully confirmed in this, thought it my 'duty through all sorts of hazards, to relieve the poor imprisoned catholics, who in great numbers were locked up in gaols, starving for 'want of bread: And this I did some months 'before I ever saw the ceuntess of Powis, or 'any of those honourable persons that were ac.cused, or receiving of one penny of their money directly or indirectly, till about the latter end of January (1678.) And in another part of the said Libel are contained these false, feigned and scandalous words and figures following; to wit, About this time I 'went daily to the prisons to perform those

VOL. VI

'five women, of which three were protestants,
' and we all heard terrible groans and squeaks,
which came out of the dungeon called the
، Condemned Hole. I asked Harris the turn-
key what doleful cry it was; he said it was a
woman in labour. I bid him put us into the
، room to her, and we would help her. But
'he drove us away very rudely, both out of the
lodge and from the door. We went behind
'the gate and there listened, and soon found
'that it was the voice of a strong man in tor-
ture, and heard as we thought between his
groans the winding up of some engine.
'These cries stopped the passengers under the
gate, and we six went to the turner's shop
without the gate, and stood there amazed
with the horror and dread of what we heard;
'when one of the officers of the prison came
out in great haste, seeming to run from the
، noise. One of us catched bold of him, say-
ing, Oh! what are they doing in the prison?
'Officer. I dare not tell you, mistress. It is a
man upon the rack: I'll lay my life on it.
Officer. It is something like it. Čellier. Who
is it, Prance? Officer. Pray, madam, do not
' ask me, for I dare not tell you. But it is that
I am not able to hear any longer. Pray let
، me go. With that he ran away towards Hol-
، born as fast as he could. We heard these
'groans perfectly to the end of the Old Bailey.
، They continued till near seven o'clock, and
then a person in the habit of a minister, of
middle stature, grey-haired, accompanied with
two other men, went into the lodge. The
prisoners were locked up, and the outward
door of the lodge also, at which I set a person
to stand, and observe what she could, and a
prisoner loaded with irons was brought into
'the lodge, and examined a long time. And
the prisoners that came down as low as they
could, heard the person examined with great
vehemency say often, I know nothing of it, I
am innocent, he forced me to belie myself
، What would you have me say? Will you
'murder me because I will not belie myself and
'others? Several other such like expressions
they heard spoken as by one in great agony.
، About 4 o'clock next morning, the prisoners
that lay in a place above the Hole heard the
same cry again two hours, and on Saturday
morning again; and about 8 o'clock that
morning a person I employed to spy out the
truth of that affair, did see the turnkeys car-
'rying a bed into the Hole. She asked who it
was for; they told her it was for Prance who
was gone mad, and had tore his bed in pieces.
That night the examiners came again, and
'after an hour's conference Prance was led
away to the Press-Yard. This and many
، things of the like nature, made me very in-
'quisitive to know what passed in the prison.
Soon after this Francis Corral a coachman,

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Then Robert Dormer, esq. of Lincoln's-Inn, opened the indictment thus:

that had been put into Newgate upon suspi- 'Protestants as others in the three kingdoms, ، cion of carrying away sir Edmundbury God- are concerned.' And in another part of the 'frey's body, and lay there thirteen weeks and said Libel called, A Postscript to the impar، three days in great misery, got out. I went 'tial readers,' are contained these false, feignto see him, and found him a sad spectacle, ed, and scandalous words following, to wit, having the flesh worn away, and great holes And whensoever his majesty pleases to make ' in both his legs by the weight of his irons, and it as safe and honourable, as it is apparent it 'having been chained so long double, that he 'hath been gainful and meritorious to do the ، could not stand upright; he told me much of ، contrary; there will not want witnesses to his hard and cruel usage, as that he had been testify the truth of more than I have written, squeezed and hasped into a thing like a and persons that are above being made the trough, in a dungeon under ground; which hangman's hounds for weekly pensions, or put him to inexpressible torment, insomuch any other considerations whatsoever;' to the that he swooned, and that a person in the evil and dangerous example of all others in the habit of a minister stood by all the while. like case offending, and against the peace of That a duke beat him, pulled him by the our sovereign lord the king, his crown and dighair, and set his drawn sword to his breast nity. Upon this indictment she hath been ar'three times, and swore he would run him raigned, and thereunto hath pleaded, Not through; and another great lord laid down a Guilty, and for her trial hath put herself upon 4 heap of gold, and told him it was 5000. and the country, which country you are; so your that he should have it all, and be taken into issue is to try whether she be Guilty of this of"the aforesaid duke's house, if he would con- fence in manner and form wherein she stands fess what they would have him; and one F. indicted, or Not Guilty. If you find her Guilty, "a vintner, that lives at the sign of the Half- you are to say so; and if you find her Not ، Moon in Ch-si- by whose contrivance he was | Guilty, you are to say so, and no more, and 'accused, took him aside, and bid him name hear your evidence. some person, and say, they employed him to 'take up the dead body in Somerset-Yard, and gave him money for so doing; that if he would • do this, both F. and he should have money enough. He also told me, that he was kept from Thursday till Sunday without victuals or drink, having his hands every night chained ، behind him, and being all this time locked to a staple which was driven into the floor, with a chain not above a yard long: That in this great extremity he was forced to drink his own water; and that the jailor beat his wife ' because she brought victuals, and prayed that "he might have it, and threw milk on the 'ground, and bid her begone, and not look at him.' And in another part of the said Libel, is contained, amongst other things, these false, feigned, and scandalous words and figures following, to wit, My arraignment (which in ، confidence of my own innocency, I continu ally pressed for) not but that I knew the danger, as to this life, of encountering the devil in the worst of his instruments, which are perjurors encouraged to that degree as that ' prodigated wretch' (meaning Thomas Dangerfield, produced as a witness against her for High Treason) was, and hath been since his 'being exposed to the world in his true colour, 'both at mine and another's trial.' And in another part of the said Libel are contained these false, feigned and scandalous words and figures following, Nor have I since received any thing towards my losses, or the least civility from any of them, whilst Dangerfield' (meaning the said Thomas Dangerfield) when "made a prisoner for apparent recorded rogueries, was visited by and from persons of con⚫siderable quality, with great sums of gold and 'silver, to encourage him in the new villanies he had undertaken, not against me alone, but 'persons in whose safety all good men, as well

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Mr. Dormer. May it please your lordship, and you gentlemen of the jury: Elizabeth Cellier, the gentlewoman at the bar, the wife of Peter Cellier of the parish of St. ClementDanes in the county of Middlesex, gentleman, stands indicted of being the author and publisher of a Libel, intituled, “Malice defeated, or a brief Relation of the Accusation and Deliverance of Elizabeth Cellier." You have heard the indictment read, wherein some clauses of this Libel are recited in the words they were written, and in Mrs. Cellier's own words, and in other words I will not undertake to repeat them to you.-Gentlemen, this is a Libel so complicated and general, that within this book are contained as many libels of several natures, and against different persons and orders of men, as there are paragraphs; his majesty, the Protestant religion, our laws, government, magistrates, counsellors of state, courts of judicature, the king's evidence, and the public justice of this kingdom are all aspersed and defamed, by the virulency and malice of this woman's pen.-She hath charged upon the principles of our religion, the murder of his late majesty, and the greatest impieties that ever were committed.-She accuseth all that have done their duties, or been active in the discovery of the present Popish Plot, to be enemies of the crown, and to be acting over again the tragedy of our late civil war -She chargeth our laws with cruelties, as inhuman as they are false, in permitting prisoners to starve under their confinement, in admitting of racks and tortures to be used, and that for the worst purposes, thereby to extort perjuries and false evidences against the innocent; to which she would make persons of the best quality of

our nobility, magistracy and clergy, privies and parties. She libels the king's evidences under the characters of the devil's instruments, and the hangman's hounds; and defames his majesty's government, in saying, it is not safe to speak truth, but meritorious and gainful to do the contrary. She will appear to you to be so eriminal, that nothing can aggravate her offences, unless the impudence of the delinquent, who hath set her name to almost every page of this scandalous Libel; and since the indictment hath been depending, owned, published, and put a value on herself for being the author of so excellent a book.-To the indictment she hath pleaded Not Guilty; if the king's evidence prove the charge, you are to find her Guilty.

Baron Weston. Gentlemen, the charge is but this: First, she is charged with the setting forth this book; in the next place, there are several clauses in that book which she is particularly charged with. Now that which the evidence will prove, must be, first, that the book was owned by her, and published by her; and then, that these particulars charged in the indictment, were in the book; and then you will receive the directions of the Court, of what nature the proofs are. Go on to the evidence, that is your work, fall to your proof.

Mr. Dormer. My lord, we will call our witnesses. William Downing, John Penny, and Robert Stevens. Who appeared and were sworn. Mr. Dormer. Will. Downing, Do you tell my lord and the jury what you know of the printing of this libel (shew him the libel), and who brought the sheets to the press.

Downing. My lord, about the 224 or 23d of August

Baron Weston. Begin with Penny first. Pray what say you to that book?

I

Mr. Penny. My lord, I was bid to buy a book of that gentlewoman, and I did so. asked for her by her name.

Bar. Weston. By what name
Penny. Mrs. Cellier.

?

Bar. Weston. Is that the gentlewoman? Penny. Yes, that is the gentlewoman. And she came out to me, and asked what my errand was? I told her it was to have a book: that you may have, said she, if you please. Madam, said I, what is the price? two shillings, said she. Cannot I have them cheaper, said I, no, said she, I sell them to shopkeepers for 18 shillings a dozen, and I must not sell them under here. With that she fetched me a book, and I gave her two shillings, and when she had done, she gave me another little paper.

Bar. Weston. That is not in issue, nor your question now. Did you ask her for the book she published and set out?

Penny. Yes; and she did acknowledge that was her book.

Bar. Weston, What! she did own the book she sold you to be hers?

Penny. This is the book I have in my hand, and I marked every sheet of it; and she told

me there was another little sheet to be added to it; and if any gentleman pleased to send it into the country, that might be put up in a letter to send by the post.

Cellier. May I ask him a question?

Bar. Weston. Tell me your question, and I will ask it.

Cellier. I desire to know if I said any more, than, you may have a book, or there is a book. And who asked for a book?

Bar. Weston. Did she say any more than, you may have a book, or, this is the book that I have published?

Penny. When I got the book and paid for it, I turned about again and asked her if it was her own? she told me it was; and more than that, if occasion were, she could have put more in it.

Bar. Weston. Why, Mrs. Cellier, you did not deny this book yesterday; for you may rewitnesses, and if you could but have time to member when you did say you wanted your bring them, you would prove the truth of it: issue of Not Guilty, but that somebody else did we told you you had nothing to prove on this publish the book, and you did not. You owned you writ it yourself every word with

your own hand.

Cellier. My lord, if I was a foolish vain woman, and did seem to speak some vain words about myself which I did not understand the consequence of, I hope a word vainly spoke by me shall not be brought against me to convict me of a crime.

Bar. Weston. Mrs. Cellier, you do not seem so negligent about yourself, that we may not believe what you say of yourself.

Cellier. But vain foolish words spoke in that nature, I hope shall be no evidence against

me.

Bar. Weston. But, however, it is proved against you.

Cellier. Did I say I writ it?

Penny, You told me that was your book,

Cellier. I told you? pray, my lord, put one question to him upon the oath he hath taken : did I say any more, than it was mine, and I sold it? not that I writ it, or was the author of it?

Bar. Weston. Mrs. Cellier, this is a book that is intitled with your name, and sold by yourself. Now in any one's judgment, this is both an owning of the book, and publishing of the book. When you sold it, you gave it out as your book, and it hath in the title page your name as the author of it.

Cellier. My lord, if I could have produced my witnesses, I could have made my defence; they have been at several places for them, they have been all about town, and several ways, at sir Joseph Sheldon's, and a great many other places, and can find none of them.

Bar. Weston. To what purpose should your witnesses come?

Cellier. I should with them have made my defence.

Bar. Weston. If you would have said to us

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