Upon which his majesty (being then returned from Hanover) was pleased to order his most gracious Pardon, for the said William Chetwynd, to be made out. As soon as this came to be known, a caveat was entered against passing the same at (lord Gower's) the lord privy seal's office; whereupon the lord privyseal sent to sir Thomas Abney, knt. one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, to assist him at the hearing the same ; sir Thomas in a very genteel letter begged to be excused, on account of his former intimacy with Walter Chetwynd, of Grendon in Warwickshire, esq. the young gentleman's late father; upon which the Lord Privy-seal sent to the Lord Chief Baron, to desire his assistance at the hearing of counsel (at Whitehall) for and against passing the said Pardon; when after hearing the arguments, (serjeant Wynne and ther and heir was beyond sea, but expected in time; and it was also insisted, that by virtue of 5 and 6 W. and M. c. 13, the Court should take security for the good-behaviour. "The statute 3 H. 7, c. 1, runs: 'That if any person charged as principal or accessory, be acquitted at the king's suit, within the year and day, the justices, before whom he is acquitted, shall not suffer him to go at large; but either remit him again to the prison, or else let him to bail, after their discretion, till the year and day be past.' "Upon this clause it was argued, that the case of pleading a pardon after a special verdict, was stronger than the case of an acquittal by a jury, which took away all the presump tion of guilt; and that this was an actual acquittal, and is called so in the pardon. The judgment is Quod eat inde sine Die,' and if he is again indicted, he may plead Autre foits acquitte, 11 H. 4. 41 Bro. 20. Coron. 29. 133. Fitz. N. B. 251. G. and the record being moved into the King's bench, this Court are the justices before whom he is acquitted; * and it is * Slaughterford was acquitted before Holt, at Surrey assizes; and he took bail to answer an appeal; which was afterwards tried at bar, and the party convicted and hanged. Strange, Mr. Moreton for the caveat, and Mr. Lloyd vol. 2, p. 1204. Slaughterford's case was this: and Mr. Legge against it) the Lord Privy-seal declared he had heard no reasons sufficient given against allowing the same, and put the privy-seal to the said pardon. After which the friends and relations of the deceased entered a caveat against passing the same at the Lord Chancellor's; when the right honourable the earl of Hardwicke ordered the counsel on both sides to attend him at his house in Ormond-street; when after hearing the arguments on both sides, his lordship said, he had no doubt with him about passing the said Pardon, and ordered the great seal to be put to it. When the prisoner came to Westminster-hall in Hilary Term to plead this Pardon, it was strongly opposed by counsel; but after hearing the arguments on both sides, lord chief justice Lee declared, he had heard no sufficient reasons offered against the prisoner's taking the benefit of his majesty's pardon; which he did directly by pleading it on his knees, and was immediately discharged. Hilary Term, 17 George 2. "A special verdict, on an indictment for murder, was found at the Old Bailey, and removed into the King's-bench; but before argument the defendant obtained his majesty's pardon, which he pleaded upon his knees; and it was allowed. Then the counsel for the prosecutor insisted, that by virtue of 3 H. 7, c. 1. the Court ought to require bail for his appearance to answer an appeal; there being an affidavit produced, that the bro. * Strange's Reports, vol. 2, p. 1203, 4, 5, Christopher Slaughterford (son of a miller, himself a maltster of some substance, near Guildford in Surrey) courted one Jane Young, who thereupon left her service in order to be married to him; was seen in his company October 5, 1708, but never heard of afterwards; whereupon he was suspected of murdering her, taken up, and committed to the Marshalsea; and at the Lent assizes following, was tried at Kingston in Surrey, for the said murder, and acquitted. However, he was ordered to remain in gaol, many people thinking him guilty. The father and friends of the deceased being poor, a subscription was set on foot and money raised, and an appeal was brought against the said Slaughtsrford by Henry Young, brother of the deceased. He was brought to the Queen'sbench bar at Westminster, the second day of the term following, and tried before the lord chief justice Holt, on the said appeal, and convicted on very strong circumstances, and ordered for execution on Saturday July 9th. Slaughterford being led to the gibbet from Guildford (to which place he was carried from the Marshalsea), the only request he had to make to the executioner was, That he might throw himself off: and they were almost the only words he uttered there; for being tied up, before the executioner could descend to do the rest of his office, in turning him off the ladder, he had swung himself off. He seemed to die with a resolute obstinacy, but delivered the following paper to the sheriff. "Guildford, July 9, 1709. "I being brought here to die, according to the sentence passed upon me at the Queen's not discretionary only as to the point between | seven years; and if the party be an infant bail and imprisonment, the latter of which the prosecutor did not insist upon. "But as to this point, the Court were of opinion, that the present case was not such as the act of parliament meant; and this being to subject the prisoner to a second trial, which before he was not, he not being indictable (Kelynge 23.) till the time to appeal was elapsed, till this act gave such a prosecution; it was therefore to be construed strictly, and confined literally to an acquittal by verdict (Kelynge 104.) upon an arraignment at the king's suit; and it was material, that no instance could be shewn of requiring such bail upon pleading a pardon; on the contrary, Bowen in Mich. 8 Ann. was discharged with out bail. Acquittal, they said, must be understood in a course of law, and not an interposition of the crown's mercy. "The other point, as to sureties for the good behaviour, depended on the 5 and 6 W. and M. c. 13, which enacts, That the justices before whom any pardon for felony shall be pleaded, may, at their discretion, remand or commit the person pleading it to prison, till he shall enter into a recognizance with two sureties, for his good behaviour, for any time not exceeding bench bar, for a crime of which I am wholly innocent, thought myself obliged to let the world know (that they do not reflect on my friends and relations whom I have left behind me much troubled for my fatal end), that I know nothing of the death of Mrs. Jane Young; nor how she came by her death directly or indirectly; though some have been pleased to cast reflections on my aunt. However, I freely forgive all my enemies, and pray to God to give them a due sense of their errors, and in his due time to bring the truth to light. In the mean time, I beg every one to forbear reflecting on my dear mother, or any of my relations, for my unjust and unhappy fall, since what I have here set down is the truth and nothing but the truth, as I expect salvation at the hands of Almighty God; but I am heartily sorry that I should be the cause of persuading her to leave her dame; which is all that troubles me, as witness my hand this 9th day of July.C. SLAUGHTERIORD." Former Edition. (which was the present case) then he is not to "The counsel for the prisoner did not much oppose giving sureties, and said, they had them ready; and Mr. J. Wright and Mr. J. Dennison were inclined to take them; but as there had yet been no instance since the act, and this was merely discretionary, the chief justice (sir William Lee,) was unwilling to make the precedent in the case of an infant, where some favourable circumstances were stated in the verdict. And the case Hale cites out of Rastal's tnm fuit cur' per fide dignos,' that the defendentries, was, where (as the record says)' testaant was of ill fame; and at last the others came in to discharge him without security." "N.B." I [sir John Strange] " on behalf of the prosecutor, (the heir being beyond sea) desired it might be taken notice of, that we did not waive our demand; and upon that the Court said, it should be their own act, upon the dis cretion of the Court." tion, at consultations, fees to counsel heir-male of the Chetwynds of Grendon in This William Chetwynd, esq. was the last Warwickshire, and Rudgley in Staffordshire. For though (on the death of his elder brother, attending captain Clark's trial at the Old BaiWalter Chetwynd, esq. who catched a fever by ley, April 1749, of which he died) he came into a good estate, as heir at law (his brother Walter's will being in part set aside on a trial in B. R.,) he enjoyed it but a few years. Crown, book 2, c. 37, § 70. East's Pl. Cr. c. * See Leach's Hawkins's Pleas of the 5, § 185. : 507. The Trial of FRANCIS TOWNLEY,* esq. for High-Treason, (in levying War against his most Sacred Majesty King George the Second) at the Court-House at St. Margaret's-Hill, Southwark, before the Right Hon. the Lord Chief-Justice Lee, the Right Hon. the Lord Chief-Justice Willes, Mr. Justice Wright, Mr. Justice Dennison, Mr. Justice Foster, Mr. Justice Abney, Mr. Baron Reynolds, and Mr. Baron Clive; with Sir Thomas De Veil, knt. and Peter Theobalds, esq. (both Justices of the Peace for the County of Surry, and Gentlemen named in the Special Commission) July 15:20 GEORGE II. A. D. 1746. "Vacation after Trinity Term, 1746. DURING the rebellion, which began in Scotland in the summer 1745, an act [19 Geo. 2. c. 9.] passed empowering his majesty to issue commissions for trying the rebels in any county of the kingdoin, in the same manner as if the treasons bad been committed in that county. "Pursuant to this act, a commission of oyer and terminer, and gaol-delivery, for the county of Surry,† passed the great seal about the latter end of Trinity term. It was directed to every privy-counsellor by name, to all the judges, and to some private gentlemen, empowering them, or any three of them, (quorum un' &c.) to execute the commission. "The precept was signed by the three chiefs and the three senior judges, and was returnable the 23d day of June 1746; which made fifteen days exclusive between the teste and return. "This was ordered on great deliberation and search of precedents. "On that day most of the judges met at • Though there were no trials of the rebel commoners in 1715, printed in the collection of State Trials; yet we shall insert here a short account of a few of the trials of the principal commoners concerned in the rebellion in 1745-6, as printed at that time, (with additions) to shew they were persons of no consequence or estate, concerned in that unnatural rebellion; being either men of small fortunes, or who had run out what they had, or tradesmen, who took part in that desperate undertaking. Former Edition. † "Another commission of the like kind issued at the same time for Middlesex; but there were no proceedings on it." Foster. Serjeants-Inn; and from thence proceeded in order of seniority to the court-house at Saint Margaret's Hill in the borough of Southwark. "Lord Chief Justice Lee gave the charge; and the grand jury found bills against the earls of Kilmarnock and Cromartie, and the lord Balmerino: which bills were soon afterwards removed by Certiorari into parliament. "On the two following days bills of indictment were found against thirty-six of the principal rebels taken at Carlisle; and against one David Morgan, a barrister at law, who was taken in Staffordshire. "The prisoners were then brought to the bar and informed that bills were found against them, of which they should soon have copies; and the Court adjourned to that day se'nnight: and copies of the indictments with the caption were delivered the same day to the prisoners after the Court rose. "By this measure the prisoners had copies of their indictments five days before their arraignment, exclusive of that day and of the day copies were delivered, and also exclusive of the intervening Sunday. This was done ex majori cautelá, and in favour of life, Sunday not being a day on which the prisoners may be presumed to be advising with counsel and preparing for their defence. It was so done upon the commission which sat the same summer in the north; and had been done upon a like commission in the north after the rebellion of 1715. But the statute doth not require this caution with regard to Sunday, nor is it of absolute necessity; though in cases of life it is best to follow precedents, if the time will allow of it. "July 3. Upon the adjournment-day the prisoners were severally arraigned. Three pleaded guilty. The rest pleaded not guilty; and each of them produced an affidavit, to which they were sworn in court, setting forth that a material witness or witnesses (naming the witnesses and the places of their abode) would be wanted for their defence; and their counsel, who had before been assigned them, moved that their trials might be put off for a reasonable time for bringing up their witnesses. "The attorney-general (sir Dudley Ryder) prayed time to consider of the motion; and thereupon the Court adjourned to the next day. " In the evening all the judges in town met at lord chief justice Lee's chambers, and agreed that the case of these prisoners differs greatly from the common cases of trials in the circuits, where affidavits of this kind ought very sparingly to be admitted. For in circuittrials the prisoners from the time of their commitment may and ought to be preparing for their defence. The place where they are to be tried is in most cases well known, and they have likewise a reasonable certainty of the time long before the circuits begin. "But in the present case the prisoners are to be tried at a great distance from the places where the treasons were committed; and neither time nor place for their trial can be said to have been certainly fixed till bills of indictment were found against them, and copies delivered to them; from which time it was incumbent on them to be preparing for their defence and getting their witnesses to town. " And in regard that the affidavits mentioned the witnesses to reside at different distances from town, some in England, and others in Scotland, it was thought reasonable, that, in fixing the times of trial, regard should be had to the several distances. "Accordingly it was agreed, that with re gard to those prisoners whose witnesses reside in England, their trials should be put off to the 15th of July; and that the Court would from thence proceed de die in diem till those trials should be dispatched; and with regard to those whose witnesses reside in Scotland, their trials should be put off to the 25th. And on the next day the Court ordered accordingly, and adjourned to the 15th of July. "N. B. The act of the 19th of the king, c. 1, directing that no judge shall, during the time therein mentioned, try or bail any prisoner committed for high treason without a warrant signed by six of the privy-council, it was thought proper, ex majori cautela, to have such warrant directing the commissioners to proceed to the trial of those prisoners: and such warrant was procured before the trials came on. "The like caution had been before used with regard to the trial of Christopher Layer, while a like act was in force." * " Upon the like commissions in Middlesex and Surry, anno 1716, the prisoners had three weeks from their arraignment." Foster. + "That act was made to continue only till April 19, 1746, but by 19 Geo. 2, c. 17, & 20 Geo. 2, c. 1, was farther continued till the 20th of February following." Foster. ‡ See his Case, vol. 16, p. 94. wark, brewer. 11. T. Lintall of the same, cloth-worker. 12. James Paine of Seal, yeoman. Then the Clerk of the Arraigns (after silence commanded) read over his indictment to him, which was as follows : Surry. Be it remembered, that at a special session of Oyer and Terminer, and gaol-delivery of our sovereign lord the king, of and for the county of Surry, holden at the borough of Southwark in the said county, on Monday the 23d day of June, in the 20th year of the reign of our said present sovereign lord George the 2d, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, and so forth, before sir William Lee, knight, chief-justice of our said present sovereign Jord the king, appointed to hold pleas before the king himself, sir John Willes, knight, &c. (naming the rest of the judges and commissioners present) and others their fellow-justices and commissioners of our said present sovereign lord the king, assigned by letters patent of our said present sovereign lord the king under his great seal of Great Britain, made by virtue of the statute made in this present parliament, intitled, An Act for the more easy and speedy trial of such persons as have levied or shall levy war against his majesty, and for the better ascertaining the qualifications of jurors in trials for high-treason, or misprision of treason, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, to the said justices and commissioners abovenamed and others, and to any three or more of them (of whom our said present sovereign lord the king willed that any of them the said sir William Lee, (naming some others of the judges) and others in the same letters patent named and appointed shall be one,) to deliver the gaol of the said county of the prisoners therein being, or such as shall or may be detained in the same, on or before the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord 1746, for or on account of the high-treason mentioned in the said statute in levying war against our said present sovereign lord the king within this realm, and to enquire by the oath of good and lawful men of the same county of all such high-treasons in levying war against our said present sovereign lord the king within this realm by the said prisoners, or any of them, or by any other person or persons who are now in actual custody for or on account of the same, or who are or shall be guilty of high-treason in levying war against our said present sovereign lord the king within this realm, and shall be apprehended and imprisoned for the same on or before the said 1st day of January, in the said year of our Lord 1746, and the same high-vereign lord the king to death and final de the rule and government of this kingdom, duly and happily established under our said present sovereign lord the king, and also to depose and deprive our said present sovereign lord the king of his title, honour, and royal state, and of his imperial rule and government of this kingdom, and also to put and bring our said present so treasons to hear and determine according to the form of the said statute, by the oath of sir William Richardson of Bermondsey, knt. sir Abraham Shard of Kennington, kut. sir Thomas Hankey, of Clapham, knt. sir Peter Thompson of Bermondsey, kut. Josias Wordsworth of Adscombe, esq. Percival Lewis of Putney, esq. Samuel Atkinson of Croydon, esq. John Copeland of Camberwell, esq. Charles Hoskins of Croydon, esq. Joseph Cres-dom, upon the tenth day of October, in the struction, and to raise and exalt the person pre tended to be prince of Wales during the life of James the second, late king of England, and so forth, and since the decease of the said late king, pretending to be, and taking upon himself the stile and title of king of England, by the name of James the third, to the crown and to the royal state and dignity of king, and to the imperial rule and government of this king wick of Stretham, esq. William Clarke of Southwark, esq. Joseph Willoughby of Croydon, esq. Thomas Bevois of Bermondsey, esq. Elias Bird of Rotherhith, esq. Thomas Tarrant of Southwark, esq. Edward Steavens of Southwark, esq. Henry Robinson of Wandsworth, esq. John Heathfield of Croydon, esq. Nathaniel Green of Southwark, esq. Isaac Eeles of Lambeth, esq. John Smith of Lambeth, esq. Hammett Richardson of Bermondsey, esq. Samuel Nicholson of Croydon, esq. good and lawful men of the said county, being then and there sworn and charged to enquire for our said present sovereign lord the king, touching and concerning the premises in the said letters patent mentioned, it is presented, that the bill of indictment to this schedule annexed is a true bill. nineteenth year of the reign of our said present sovereign lord the king, at the city of Carlisle aforesaid, in the county of Cumberland aforesaid, with a great multitude of traitors and rebels, against our said present sovereign lord the king (to wit) to the number of three thousand persons (whose names are as yet unknown to the said jurors), being armed and arrayed in a warlike and hostile manner (to wit), with colours displayed, drums beating, pipes playing, and with swords, clubs, guns, pistols, and divers other weapons, as well offensive as defensive, with force and arms, did falsely and traitorously assemble and join themselves against our said present sovereign lord the king, and then and there with force and arms did falsely and traitorously, and in a warlike and hostile manner array and dispose themselves against our said present sovereign lord the king, and then and there with force and arms, in pursuance and execution of such their wicked traitorous intentions and purposes aforesaid, did falsely and traitorously prepare, order, wage, and levy, a public and cruel war against our said present sovereign lord the king, then and there committing and perpetrating a miserable and cruel slaughter of and amongst the faithful subjects of our said present sovereign lord the king, and also then and there during the said war with force and arms did with the said traitors and rebels so assembled, armed and arrayed as aforesaid, falsely and traitorously against the will of our said present sovereign lord the king, enter into and take possession of the said city of Carlisle, and the castle thereto belonging within the same city, (the said city and castle being a city and castle of our said present sovereign lord the king) and the said city and castle with force and arms then and there did falsely and traitorously possess, hold, keep, maintain, and defend, against our said present "The jurors for our present sovereign lord the king upon their oath present, that Francis Townley, late of the city of Carlisle, in the county of Cumberland, esq. otherwise called Francis Tow nley, late of the same place, gentleman, John Hamilton, late of the city of Carlisle, in the county of Cumberland, esq. otherwise called John Hamilton, late of the same place, gentleman, Alexander Abernethy, late of the same place, gentleman, otherwise called Alexander Abernethy, late of the same place, surgeon, and George Abernethy, late of the same place, gentleman, &c. being subjects of our said present most serene sovereign lord George the second, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, and so forth, not having the fear of God in their hearts, nor having any regard for the duty of their allegiance, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, as false traitors and rebels against our said present sovereign lord the king, their supreme, true, natural, lawful, and undoubted sovereign lord, entirely withdrawing that cordial | sovereign lord the king, against the duty of love, and that true and due obedience, fidelity and allegiance, which every subject of our said present sovereign lord the king should and of right ought to bear towards our said present sovereign lord the king; and also devising, and (as much as in them lay) most wickedly and traitorously intending to change and subvert their allegiance, against the peace of our said present sovereign lord the king, his crown and dignity, and also against the form of the statute in such case made and provided." To this Indictment the prisoner pleaded, Not Guilty. : |