CHARLES II
SESSIONS FILE
OCTOBER
r681
345
to enable them to carry on their Hellish Fanatick Intrigues The Committee are to report the matters (as they shall find them) to the Court in Order to the bringing those that are Guilty to Condign Punishment In Contempt' dicti Domini Regis nunc legumque suaru' Ad magn' opprobriu' scandalu' defamacionem et infamiam preÂŁat' Johannis Jekyll In magn' Perturbacionem & violacionem pacis dicti Domini Regis et Populi sui inquietud' In malu' exemplu' omniu' al' in Consimili casu delinquen' Ac contra pacem dicti Domini Regis nunc Coron' et dignitat' suas Alice Green Rebecca Peyton* [Endorsed] Billa Vera (2)
SESSIONS OF NEWGATE GAOL DELIVERY, BEGINNING 17 OCTOBER, 1681. ~
(a)
[Indictment of Henry Nevill and twelve other persons for recusancy. ] London ss. J ur' pro Domino Rege super sacramentum suu' presentant quod Henr' Nevill nuper de paroch' sancti Andree Holbome in ward' de Farringdon extra London Armiger Johannes FitzGerrard nuper de paroch' et ward' pred' Generos' Jacobus his Thumbs under his Girdle he flang away in a great passion not giving me the Opportunity of answering him. I (being amazed at those irreverent an[dJ undecent expressions;) told Spineage I thought he was Mad, and that he ought to bleed; Spine age said I need not have stood up so much for Sr John Moor and those words of Mr Oates's, to well I thought fit to give no answer, but being much Mov'd to heare so worthy a person abus'd, I related these passages immediately tho without any designc of doing Mr Oates injury having ever had a respect for everything well I saw that was good in him, and in particular for the Discovery he hath made of ye Popish Plot. [signed] T: Novell. [Endorsed: Dr Novell N° (6).] Other papers signed by Robert J enkes, Citizen and Leatherseller, Henry Hunter, John Sweetaple, and Mr Smyth, Apothecary, complete the series. There is no evidence in these archives that Jekyll and his companions were further prosecuted in this matter. In this Q.S.P. section of the file occurs also a bill against Samuel Mearne (the bill is ignored in his case) and James Wade (Vade), bookseller, of St. Dunstan's in the West, for publishing a" malicious libel" against the retiring Lord Mayor (Sir Patience Ward), Sheriffs (Slingsby Bethell and Heruy Cornish) and Sirs Robert Clayton and Thomas Player, Aldermen-all Whigs and Dissenters-entitled" A new Ballad of London's Loyalty To a pleasant new Tune call'd Burton Hall." Several verses of this diverting productionstrongly Tory in character-are quoted in the indictment. No minute occurs indicating proceedings against 'Vade. Witnesses for the prosecution. ~ In this G.D. section of the file is to be found an indictment against Benjamin Tooke, stationer, of the parish of St. Gregory, Farringdon Within, for printing and publishing on 10 May, 1681, a " malicious libel" (in three parts) against the House of Commons and Dissenters, entitled" Heraclitus Ridens or a Dialogue between Jest and Earnest concerning the Times"evidently a Tory production. Several offending passages are quoted from this trenchant satire on the Whig intrigues of the times. A minute on the bill states that Tooke" was allowed a writ of certiorari returnable [to King's Bench] within the octave of St Hilary's day [168I/2J."
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