[42] Sir Edward Nevill was called in 1658. He was knighted in 1681, on presenting an address to Charles II. as Recorder of Bath. He became Serjeant in 1684, and a Baron of the Exchequer in 1685. He was dismissed six months afterwards for refusing to support the royal assumption of the dispensing power. Fosse gives a striking extract from his evidence before Parliament in 1689, to show how the power of the Executive was actually brought to bear on the Stewart judges. He was restored to his office after the Revolution, removed to the Common Pleas in 1691, and died in 1705. SPENCER COWPER AND OTHERS Spencer Cowper,[43] a barrister; Ellis Stephens and William Rogers, attorneys; and John Marston, a scrivener, were indicted at the Hertford Summer Assizes in 1699 for the murder of Sarah Stout, on the 13th of the previous March. They were tried at the same Assizes, before Baron Hatsell,[44] on the 16th of July. The indictment alleged that they had murdered Sarah Stout by strangling her, and had then thrown her body into the Priory River to conceal the body. To this, all the prisoners pleaded Not Guilty. _Jones_ appeared for the prosecution; Cowper defended himself, and practically the other prisoners as well. The prisoners agreed that Cowper's challenges should be taken to be the challenges of all of them; and enough jurors were then challenged to exhaust the panel. Accordingly, after some discussion, Jones was called upon to show cause for his challenges. CLERK OF ARRAIGNS--Call Daniel Clarke. HATSELL, BARON--Mr. Jones, if you can say any juryman hath said anything concerning the cause, and given his verdict by way of discourse, or showed his affection one way or the other, that would be good cause of challenge. JONES--My lord, then we should keep you here till to-morrow morning. HATSELL, BARON--If there hath been any great friendship between any juryman and the party, it will look ill if it is insisted upon. COWPER--My lord, I do not insist upon it, but I profess I know of no friendship, only that Mr. Clarke in elections hath taken our interest in town; I know I have a just cause, and I am ready to be tried before your lordship and any fair jury of the county; therefore I do not insist upon it. A jury was then sworn, and _Jones_ opened the case for the prosecution. JONES--May it please your lordship, and you gentlemen that are sworn, I am of counsel for the king in this cause, and it is upon an indictment by which the gentlemen at the bar stand accused for one of the foulest and most wicked crimes almost that any age can remember; I believe in your county you never knew a fact of this nature; for here is a young gentlewoman of this county strangled and murdered in the night time. The thing was done in the dark, therefore the evidence cannot be so plain as otherwise might be.