Excellency, and my Enemies fhall be found Lyars, Amen, yea, and Amen.

AMES MITCHEL.

The Execution of THOMAS WHITEBREAD,' WILLIAM HARCOURT, ANTHONY TURNER, JOHN GAVAN, and JOHN FENWICK, at Tyburn, on Friday the 20th of June, 1679.

F

RIDAY the 20th of June, being the Day appointed for the Execution of the Perfons aforefaid, they were drawn on three Hurdles from Newgate to the Place of Execution.

In the firft Hurdle went Thomas Whitebread and William Harcourt; in the fecond, Anthony Tur ner and John Gavan; and in the third, John Fenwick. And being come to the Place of Execution they were all put into one Cart.

Then Gavan faid, if God give us his Grace its no Matter where we die, at the Gallows, or elfewhere. The Executioner being faftning the Halters, Gavan faid, I hope you will be civil to dying Men.

Executioner, I will be civil to you.

Gavan. I hope they will give us leave to speak.

The laft Speech of THOMAS WHITE BREAD.

I fuppofe it is expected I should speak fomething to the Matter I am condemn'd for, and brought hither to fuffer; it is no less than the contriving and plotting his Majesty's Death, and the Alteration of the Government of the Church and State. You all either know, or ought to know, I am to make my Appearance before the Face of Almighty God, and with all imaginable Certainty and Evidence to receive a final Judgment, for all the Thoughts, Words, and Actions of my whole

Life. So that I am not now upon Terms to fpeak other than the Truth; and therefore, in his most holy Prefence, and as I hope for Mercy from his divine Majefty, I do declare to you here prefent, and to the whole World, that I go out of the World as innocent and as free from any Guilt of thefe Things, laid to my Charge in this Matter, as I came into the World from my Mother's Womb: And that I do renounce from my Heart, all manner of Pardons, Abfolutions, Difpenfations for Swearing, as Occafions or Interest may seem to require, which fome have been pleas'd to lay to our Charge, as Matter of our Practice and Doctrine, but is a thing so unjustifiable and unlawful, that I believe, and ever did, that no Power on Earth can authorize me, or any Body, fo to do. As for those who have most falfely accus'd me (as Time, either in this World or in the next, will make appear) I do heartily forgive them, and beg of God to grant them his holy Grace, that they may repent their unft Proceedings againft me; otherwife they will, in Conclufion, find they have done themselves more Wrong than I have fuffer'd from them, though that has been a great deal. I pray God blefs his Majefty both temporally and eternally, which has been my daily Prayer for him, and is all the Harm that I ever intended or imagin'd against him. And I do, with this my last Breath, in the fight of God declare, that I never did learn, or teach, nor believe, nor can, as a Catholick, believe, that it is lawful, upon any Occafion or Pretence whatsoever, to defign or contrive the Death of his Majefty, or any Hurt to his Perfon; but on the contrary, all are bound to obey, defend, and preferve his facred Perfon, to the utmost of their Power. And I do moreover declare, that this is the true and plain Senfe of my Soul, in the fight

D

of

of him who knows the Secrets of my Heart, End as I hope to see his blessed Face, without any Equivocation, or mental Reservation. This is all I have to fay concerning the Matter of my Condemnation; that which remains for me now to do, is to recommend my Soul into the Hands of my bleffed Redeemer, by whose only Merits. and Paffion I hope for Salvation.

The laft Speech of WILLIAM HARCOURT.

The Words of dying Perfons have been always efteem'd as of greatest Authority; because utter'd then, when shortly after they are to be cited before the high Tribunal of Almighty God. This gives me hopes that mine may be look'd upon as fuch; therefore I do here declare, in the Prefence of Almighty God, the whole Court of Heaven, and this numerous Affembly, that as I ever hope, by the Merits and Paffion of my Lord and fweet Saviour Jefus Chrift, for eternal Bliss, I am as innocent as the Child unborn of any thing laid tò my Charge, and for which I am here to die.

Sheriff How. Or Sir Edmundbury Godfry's Death? Harcourt. Or Sir Edmundbury Godfry's Death. Sheriff How. Did not you write that Letter con cerning the Dispatch of Sir Edmundbury Godfry? Harcourt. No, Sir, these are the Words of a dying Man, I would not do it for a thoufand Worlds.

Sheriff How. How have you liv'd?

Harcourt. I have liv'd like a Man of Repute all my Life, and never was before the Face of a Judge till my Tryal: No Man can accuse me, I have, from my Youth, been bred up in the Education of my Duty towards God and Man.

Harcourt. And I do utterly abhor and deteft that abominable falfe Doctrine laid to our Charge,

that

that we can have Licences to commit Perjury, or any Sin to advantage our Cause, being exprefly against the Doctrine of St Paul, faying, Non funt facienda mala, ut eveniant bona; Evil is not to be done that Good may come thereof. And therefore we hold it in all Cafes unlawful, to kill or murder any Perfon whatsoever, much more our lawful King, now reigning, whofe perfonal and temporal Dominions we are ready to defend with our Lives and Fortunes, against any Opponent whatsoever, none excepted. I forgive all that have contriv'd my Death, and humbly beg Pardon of Almighty God for them. And I ask Pardon of all the World. I pray God bless his Majefty, and grant him a profperous Reign. The like I wish to his Royal Confort, the best of Queens. I humbly beg the Prayers of all thofe who are in the Communion of the Roman Church, if any fuch be present.

The laft Speech of ANTHONY TURNER.

Being now, good People, very near my End, and fummon'd, by a violent Death, to appear before God's Tribunal, there to render an Account of all my Thoughts, Words, and Actions, before a juft Judge, I conceive I am bound in Confcience to do myself that Justice, as to declare upon Oath my Innocence from the horrid Crime of Treafon, with which I am falfely accufed: And I efteem it a Duty I owe to Christian Charity, to publish to the World before my Death, all that I know in this Point, concerning thofe Catholicks I have converfed with fince the first Noife of the Plot, defiring from the Bottom of my Heart that the whole Truth may appear, that Innocence may be clear'd, to the great Glory of God, and the Peace and Welfare of the

S

King and Country. As to myself, I call God to witnefs, that I was never in my whole Life prefent at any Confult or Meeting of the Jefuits, where any Oath of Secrecy was taken, or the Sacrament, as a Bond of Secrecy, either by me, or any one of them, to conceal any Plot against his Sacred Majefty; nor was I ever prefent at any Meeting or Confult of theirs, where any Propofal was made, or Refolve taken or figned, either by me or any of them, for taking away the Life of our dread Sovereign; an Impiety of such a Nature, that had I been prefent at any fuch Meeting, I fhould have been bound by the Laws of God, and by the Principles of my Religion (and by God's Grace would have acted accordingly) to have difcovered fuch a devilish Treason to the Civil Magiftrate, to the end they might have been brought to condign Punishment. I was fo far, good People, from being in September laft at a Confult of the Jefuits at Tixall, in Mr. Ewer's Chamber, that I vow to God, as I hope for Salvation, I never was fo much as once that Year at Tixall, my Lord Afton's Houfe. 'Tis I was at the Congregation of the Jefuits, held on the 24th of April was twelve-month; but in that Meeting, as I hope to be fav'd, we meddled not with State-Affairs, but only treated. about the Concerns of our Province, which is ufually done by us, without Offence to temporal Princes, every third Year, all the World over.

true,

Sheriff How. You do only juftify yourselves here. We will not believe a Word that you say. Spend your time in Prayer, and we will not think your time too long.

I am, good People, as free from the Treason I am accused of, as the Child that is unborn; and being innocent, I never accus'd myself in Confeffion of any thing that I am charg'd with. Cer