Percy sank down, also wounded to death; he expired the following day.
John Wright, recovering somewhat from his wound, called to Bates, and
delivered him a bag of money, entreating him to fly and take it to Mrs
Wright at Norbrook. Winter was seized; Grant, Rookwood, and Morgan,
yielded themselves to the Sheriff: but the exasperated mob, rushing in,
while the Sheriff's men were lifting one of the wounded, seized upon the
others, stripped and ill-used them, until wounds which might possibly
have been healed were past cure. John and Christopher Wright died in
two or three days.
One or two fugitives were brought into Holbeach later; five were
arrested at Stourbridge, Sir Everard Digby at Dudley. Bates succeeded
in making good his escape with the bag, and reached Wolverhampton in the
night. His wife Martha, who lived at Ashby, hearing a false rumour of
his capture and imprisonment in Shrewsbury Gaol, went to see him, and
both stayed for the night in the same inn at Wolverhampton, neither of
them knowing the nearness of the other. Bates, finding himself unable
to reach Lapworth, and with no hope of escaping finally, delivered the
bag of money to a friend to convey to Martha, and departed, not wishing
to endanger his friend. He then went to Oldfield, in Shropshire, to the
house of his cousin, Richard Bates, by whom having been betrayed, he was
apprehended, and brought to London. By his confession on his
examination, Garnet and Greenway were implicated, though Bates tried his
best to prove them innocent.
Sir Richard Walsh conveyed his prisoners to Worcester, where he occupied
himself in taking their examinations, and sending the information
obtained to the Lords of the Council. Sir Richard Verney was sent to
scour the country on the recent track of the fugitives, and to arrest
the relatives and servants of every one of them. John Winter, Gertrude
Winter at Huddington, Ludovic Grant at Dudley, Dorothy Grant at
Norbrook, and at Lapworth John Wright's wife Dorothy, and Christopher's
wife Margaret; Ambrose Rookwood's wife, and her sister; and Thomas
Rookwood of Claxton, at Bidford, were all gradually added to the group.
Mrs Dorothy Grant, whether from fright or loquacity, proved very candid
in answering questions, and from her they learned that the missing
Martha Percy was "not far off." Sir Richard Verney, however, found it
no easy matter to keep his prisoners when he had got them. Twice his
house was set on fire, evidently by design; but he held stoutly to the
lively ladies in his care, and delivered them all safely in London in
due time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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