The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
She appeared more gay and brisk than ever on the day of her execution.
When the irons were removed from her on her starting for Tyburn, she
pinned the picture of her husband Carelton to her sleeve, and carried it
with her to the gallows. She discovered herself to a gentleman in the
crowd as a Roman Catholic, and having conversed with him for some time
in French, on parting said, _Mon ami, le bon Dieu vous benisse_. At the
gallows she harangued the crowd at some length, and died as she had
lived, a reckless although undoubtedly gifted and intelligent woman.
Prominent among the criminal names of this epoch is that of the
informer, Titus Oates, no less on account of the infamy of his conduct
than from the severe retribution which overtook him in the reign of
James II. The arraignment of Green, Berry, and Laurence Hill for the
trial of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, who were brought for the purpose “from
Newgate to the King’s Bench Bar,” is a well-known judicial episode of
the year 1678. Oates was the principal witness against them; but he was
followed by Praunce, an approver, and others. After much evidence for
and against, and much equivocation, the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs
summed up the evidence strongly for conviction. When the jury soon
returned a verdict of guilty, the Lord Chief Justice commended them, and
said if it were the last word he had to speak he would have pronounced
them guilty. Sentence was then given, and within a fortnight they were
executed. These victims of the so-called Popish Plot were, however,
amply and ruthlessly avenged. Macaulay tells the story. Oates had been
arrested before Charles II.’s death for defamatory words, and cast in
damages of £100,000. He was then, after the accession of James II.,
tried on two indictments of perjury, and it was proved beyond doubt that
he had by false testimony deliberately murdered several guiltless
persons. “His offence, though in a moral light murder of the most
aggravated kind, was in the eye of the law merely a misdemeanour.” But
the tribunal which convicted made its punishment
[Illustration: OATES IN THE PILLORY.]
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