“JOHN SMYTH, “Curate of St. Pancras, in Chichester.” * * * * * “Both Carter and Tapner, a few hours before their execution, confessed to me that they with several others assembled together with a design to rescue Dimer out of Chichester gaol; that the only person amongst them who had arms was Edmund Richards; but that being disappointed by a number of persons who had promised to join them from the East, their scheme was frustrated and their purpose carried no further into execution; that one Stringer[9] was at the head of this confederacy, but not present with them at the time of their assembling together. “SIMON HUGHES, “Vicar of Donnington in Sussex.” “Benjamin Tapner, of West Stoke, in Sussex, labourer, son of Henry Tapner, of Aldingbourne, Sussex, bricklayer, aged 27, before he was turned off, owned the justice of his sentence, and desired all young persons to take warning by his untimely end, and avoid bad company, which was his ruin. When in gaol, before he was brought out for execution, he said he did not remember he put the rope about Chater’s neck. “William Carter, of Rowland’s Castle, thatcher, son of Wm. Carter, of East Meon in Hants, aged 39, at the place of execution and in gaol, confessed the justice of the sentence passed upon him, and acted more suitably to a person in such unhappy circumstances than any of them; he likewise at the gallows, cautioned every one against those courses that had brought him to so shameful an end. “Tapner and Carter, when all the ropes were fixed, shook hands, but what or whether any words then passed between them, was not heard. “Richard Mills the elder, of Trotton, in Sussex, colt-breaker, son of ---- Mills of List, in Hants, labourer, aged 68, was unwilling to own himself guilty of the fact for which he died, and said he never saw Chater; but being asked whether he never heard him, as he was confined so long in the next room to that in which he generally sat, made no answer. “Richard Mills the younger, of Stedham, colt-breaker, son of the aforesaid Richard Mills, aged 37, would willingly have been thought innocent; and it being put to him whether he made that speech about the council of war, &c., and whether he was not at the consultation, denied both; but in the latter Tapner confronted him, and said, ‘Yes, young Major, you was there;’ to which Mills replied, ‘Ay, for a quarter of an hour or so,’ or to that purpose. It so happened that his rope was first fixed to the gallows, and a considerable time was taken up in fixing the rest, which interim he might have much better employed than he did in gazing at the spectators, and then at the hangman (while tying the ropes of the other malefactors) till the cart was almost ready to drive away.