The Monmouth Rebellion 1685 - Luppitt



The Monmouth Rebellion 1685

Somerset Record Society. Volume 79. Page 208.

Roll Call Luppitt Devon.

Bird Bernard. Yeoman of Luppitt. Supposed CP;Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR.

Bird John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Bird Nat'. Yeoman of Luppitt. Absent CP; Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR.

Braddick John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Bradley George. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Bradley Jas. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Broome John. Of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Browne John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Burrough Ezekiel. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion

CP; Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Burrow John. (Wick). Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion

CP; Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Coleman Jas. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Coombe John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Supposed CP; Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR. Excepted from the GP.

Dare Gideon. Convicted, Transported. See main text. (a).

Deeme John Senior. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion

CP; Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Deeme John Junior. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion

CP; Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Evans Edward. Yeoman of Luppitt. Absent CP; Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR.

Farmer Jos. Yeoman of Luppitt. Presented at Exeter,but at

large JR.

Ferrer Jos. Yeoman of Luppitt. Absent CP.

Francklin Thomas. Convicted. Transported. see main text (b).

Hamme Edward. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Huggins Edward. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Huggins Jos. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Huggins Richard. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Lambert John Juinior. Of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

See Humphrey Lambert of Combe Raleigh.

Lowman George. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Middleton John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Pulman Thomas Junior. Of Luppitt. Supposed CP;

Quick Thomas. Convicted. Transported.see main text (c).

Rogers Christopher. Yeoman of Luppitt. Absent CP; Presented

at Exeter,but at large JR.

Sheppard John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Absent CP; Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR.

Thomas Moses. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Thomas Phillip. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Willcox Phillip. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Woodroffe John. Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

Presented at Exeter,but at large JR.

Combe Raleigh Roll Call Extract

Lambert Humphrey. Yeoman of Combe Raleigh. In the rebellion

and not yet taken CP. Presented at

Exeter,but at large JR.

CP = Constables Presentments eg; "supposed", "absent".

JR = Judge Jeffrey's report to King James.

GP = General Pardon. Issued 10th March 1686.

Excepted from the General Pardon,

Henry Quick of Upottery.

John Comb of Luppitt.

Convictions & Transportations.

(a) Gideon Dare.

Husbandman of Luppitt. In prison, supposed CP.

In the High Gael, Exeter, Devon. DLD; presented at Exeter,

but at large; tried at Taunton; to be hanged but omitted

from the warrant JR; transported by Howard, November 12th,

on the Constant Richard to Jamaica SL; land forfeit and for

sale TB: named on the 1689 petition for return CSPD,W&M

1,43. Returned with Coad 1690 CM.

(Sir Philip Howard, Governor of Jamaica)

(b) Thomas Francklin.

Husbandman of Luppitt. Supposed CP; in prison in Wiltshire

DLD; tried at Dorchester JR; transported for Nipho on the

Betty from Weymouth, November 25th, to Barbados; sold to

Thomas Pearce SL. Also presented at Exeter and misreported

at large JR. Land forfeit and for sale TB. Named on the 1689

petition for return CSPD, W&M, 1,43.

(Sir Jerome Nipho, the queen's secretary)

(c) Thomas Quick.

Yeoman of Luppitt. Out in the rebellion CP;

in Dorchester gaol, tried at Dorchester JR: transported

for Nipho from Weymouth, November 25th, on the Betty to

Barbados, sold to Ralph Lane SL. Also misreported presented

at Exeter and at large JR.

One of two Thomas Quick's the other being a silk weaver from

Membury, one of these two was named on the petition for

return of 1689.CSPD, W&M, 1,43.

CP = Constables Report.

JR = Judge Jeffrey's report to King James.

DLD = List compiled for the Deputy Lieutenant of Devon of

persons in prison in Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset,

and Devon.

SL = Sailing and Shipping list. Public Records Office,

Colonial Office. List of persons of quality,

emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, who

went from Great Britain to the American plantations.

TB = Calender of Treasury books is a schedule of people

whose lands were forfeit and in some cases were for

sale. HMSO Volume VIII pp 2002/6.

CSPD = Calender of State papers Domestic.

CM = J.Coad. Memorandum of the Wonderful Providence of

God. 1849.

Chronology

James Duke of Monmouth illegitimate son of Charles II by

Lucy Walter was born in 1649, he was created Duke of

Monmouth in 1663. Married Anne Scott. In 1684 he fled to

Holland after being implicated in a conspiracy to claim the

throne. On 11th June 1685 he landed at Lyme Regis and

claimed the crown from James II. On the 18th June he arrived

in Taunton. On the 5th,6th July he fought and lost the

battle of Sedgemoor. On the 8th July he was captured. On the

15th July he was beheaded on Tower Hill.

Assizes began at Winchester on 25th August 1685 then moved

on to Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton and then Wells on 23rd

September.

In all 1400 cases were heard, 300 sentenced to be hanged

drawn and quartered, 600 transported mainly to the West

Indies.

Honiton and the Vale of the Otter.

By

Capt' J.R.W.Coxhead.

Page 26,27.

The following copy of a contempory broadside gives names of

the men of the Honiton district who were tried before the

Court at Exeter on 14th September,1685, fourteen of them

being executed:

An Account

of the

PROCEEDINGS

against the

REBELS

at an Assize holden at

EXETER,

On the 14th of this instant September, 1685, where to the Number of 26 Persons were tryed for High - Treason, and found Guilty.

As also an Account of the several Persons Names that were appointed to be Executed, and the places they are to be Executed at.

Sir

I Having already given an Account of the Proceedings at

Dorchester; I shall now proceed to that at Exeter; where on

the 14th of this Instant, were arraigned for High - Treason

the Persons whose names follow :-

JOHN OLIVER, THOMAS BROUGHTON,

HENRY KNIGHT, PETER BIRD,

ABRAHAM HUNT, JOHN KAMPLIN,

CHRISTOPHER COOPER, JOHN GOSLING,

EDMOND BOVET, JOHN SPRAKE,

SAMUEL POTS, WILLIAM CLEGG,

WILLIAM SILLER,JUN. WALTER TEAPE,

JOHN KNOWLES, JAMES COX,

JOHN FOLLET, TIMOTHY DUNKIN,

ELIAS HOLMAN, JOHN ROSS,

WILLIAM PARSONS, THOMAS CONNET.

THOMAS QUINTIN,

The Persons above - named, being in Numer, Twenty Three,

were Indicted for High - Treason, and upon their Arraignment

of Death pleading Guilty, an have since received Judgment.

John Foweracres, and Robert Drower, puting themselves upon

Tryal were found Guilty, and received Judgment as the

former.

Thomas Hobbs, Tryed for Proclaiming Monmouth King at

Crediton in the County of Devon, was found Guilty, and

received Judgment.

These are all the Persons that were Tryed at Exeter and

received Judgment, in Number Twenty Six, out of which

Number, Fourteen are ordered to be Executed at the several

places following, viz.:-

THOMAS HOBBS, at Crediton.

WILLIAM PARSONS

THOMAS QUINTIN at Ottery St.Mary.

JOHN SPRAKE

WILLIAM CLEGG at Collyten.

JOHN OLIVER

HENRY KNIGHT

SAMUEL POTS

JOHN KNOWLES at Honiton.

THOMAS BROUGHTON

JOHN GOSLING

TIMOTHY DUNKIN

JOHN ROSS at Axminster.

The Heads and Quarters of these Persons are to be fixed

where the King shall appoint.

Your Servant, T.S.

September the 15th, 1685.

This may be Printed, R.L.S.

September the 25th, 1685.

LONDON : Printed by E.Mallet, in Black Horse Alley, near

Fleet - Bridge, 1685.

In the neighbourhood of Luppitt Common to the north of

Honiton there is an area of ground containing a number of

small depressions or craters measuring roughly eight feet

across by about three feet deep; tradition has it that these

pits were used as bivouacs by men of the district while they

were mustering before joining Monmouth's main force.

Number of suspected rebels from surrounding parishes.

Honiton. 62. Luppitt. 34.

Combe Raleigh. 6.

Upottery. 33.

Sheldon. 2

Hottens List of Emigrants.

Page 317 *

A receipt of one hundred prisoners on Mr Nepho's Acco' to be

sent to Barbados.

Prisoners in Dorchester Gaol to bee Transported.

List includes:-

Thomas Quick of Luppitt.

Thomas Franklyn of Luppitt.

Rec'd according to his Ma'ties direccons ye warr't from ye

LORD CHEIFE JUSTICE with a schedule therunto annexed of one

hundred p'son attainted of High Treason which are by JEROM

NEPHO to bee transported unto some of His Majesties

Plantacons in America according to a Recognizance entered

into by me for this purpose. In witness whereof I have put

my hand this six & Twentieth day of September in the first

year of his now Majesties reign A.D. 1685

George Penne

Charles White

Witness,

Rob't Hyde

Sam'l Gee

Certificate of Mr Nipho's prisoners landed at Barbados.

A list of convicted Rebells put on Board the Betty of London

at the Port of Weymouth in the County of Dorset. James May

Commander, and according to Bill of Ladeing by him signed

bound for the Island of Barbados.

List Includes:-

Thomas Quicke of Luppitt.

Thomas Francklyn of Luppitt.

Arrived in Barbados on 8th January 1686. 8 prisoners having

died on the journey and were buried at sea.

Masters to whom the rebels were sold in Barbados.

Master Rebels

Thomas Pearce John Cooke

Thomas Franklyn

Ralph Lane Thomas Quicke

John Baker

William Clarke

The Monmouth Rebellion

Robert Dunning

The history of the reign of Charles II is a story of

political intrigue. When the King was restored in 1660 after

eleven years of republican rule, a settlement was reached to

restore govrernment by cooperation between Parliament and

Crown, the Anglican Church and Anglican land owners. The

same issues which dominated politics and divided the country

in the years before the Civil War dominated and divided it

again - constitutional or arbitary government, taxation by

consent and religion - but divided it in a different way,

largely in the form of organised political parties. these

parties came later to be distinguished as the Court party

(Tories) supporting the Crown and Establishment, and the

Country party (Whigs), poorly represented in Parliament

early in the reign, who were often against the monarchy as

well as Crown polices, and were for religious toleration. It

was to these Whigs such as Thomas Thynne of Longleat, George

Speke of Whitelackington House, Sir Thomas Sydenham of

Brympton and Edmund Prideaux of Forde that the Duke of

Monmouth came in 1680 on a progress to the West Country. He

found great support for his claim to the throne from the

large estate owners and also from the general populace.

In 1684 Monmouth was implicated in the Rye House Plot to

assasinate the King and the Duke of York and to avoid

testifying against sympathetic Whigs he left the country for

Belgium.

Who were the Rebels?.

It used to be thought that the men who followed Monmouth

were largely an illiterate rabble, attracted by a popular

hero into a rebellion engineered by political agitators.

John Evelyn the diarist recorded that " most of his party

were Anabaptists and poor clothworkers from the country",

and that most of the slain were Mendip miners. An eminent

historian of the 20th century, David Ogg, declared that

"the majority of the rebels were peasants, not craftsmen".

In the past few years two scholars have been testing these

conflicting options. Peter Earle in his "Monmouth Rebels"

made a careful analysis of a document now in the British

Library known as the "Monmouth Roll", an official list of

rebels based on the returns of parish constables from East

Devon, West Dorset and Somerset of those who for whatever

reason, were away from their homes during the rebellion and

who were thus suspected of being involved. This list

records the names, the home parishes, and sometimes the

occupations of 2,611 men. These names, of course, amount to

only a third of the rebel army at its largest, and there is

no means of knowing whether it is a representative sample of

Monmouth's support. Yet Mr Earle's general conclusion is

that, given the small proportion of people with known

occupations, the rebels were drawn not from the lowest but

from the middle ranks of society, and that Monmouth's cause

proved most attractive to urban communities where many were

engaged in making cloth. This was not to say that the

rebellion had much, if anything to do with a possible crisis

in the cloth export business. The rebel banners declared

"Fear Nothing but God", and the expressed motives in the

dying speeches of several of the rebels and the testimony of

nonconformist ministers makes that clear.

More recent work by W.Macdonald Wigfield has recovered from

many sources beyond the "Monmouth Roll" the names of almost

4,000 rebels, the largest number yet established,

representing about half of Monmouth's force at its largest.

An analysis of those whose occupations are known, a total of

1,053 or just over a quarter, produces a rather different

picture than that painted by Mr Earle. The rebels fall very

clearly within a group of people who Daniel Defoe, himself

accused of taking part in the rebellion in his youth, was

later to describe as "the middle sort, who live well... the

working trades, who labour hard but feel no want, and the

ordinary country people, farmers etc., who fare

indifferently'. The figures, it must be said, still

represent only a small proportion of the total, but the

overall proportions may well accurately reflect the general

social structure of the "middle " class in the West Country.

The figures are as follows:

Total Percentage

Agriculture 462 36.6

Cloth Making 408 32.3

Clothing Trades 117 9.3

Building and Metals 104 8.2

Food, Drink,etc. 57 4.5

Professionals 31 2.45

Carrying Trades 28 2.2

Gentlemen 21 1.7

Servants etc 21 1.7

These broad categories cover a wide spectrum of professions

and occupations. The agricultural group comprised 373

yeomen, 74 husbandmen and 15 carters. The clothworkers

revealed the breadth of the industry: craftsmen in wool,

worsted, serge and silk, weavers of broad and narrow cloth

and ribbon, cardmakers, shuttlemakers and combmakers; and

the fullers, dyers and clothiers who processed the finished

cloth and distributed it through the region's cloth fairs or

the ports of Bristol, Exeter or Lyme. Among the clothing

trades, tailors, shoemakers and cordwainers accounted for 81

of the total of 117, and among the building trades were 27

carpenters, 16 blacksmiths and 14 masons. The food and drink

group was more evenly divided: 7 chandlers, 7 butchers, 7

millers, 6 soapers and 5 pipemakers. The professionals

included 8 surgeons, 3 apothecaries and 2 doctors, 4 lawyers

and 3 goldsmiths. The carriers included 8 seamen. 15 men

were described as "gentlemen", one of whom was also a

mercer; 5 were esquires and 1 a landowner. The smallest

category comprised 15 servants, 5 labourers and a pauper.

These figures incomplete as they are, indicate the breadth

of the support for the rebellion. The landed gentry, it is

true, were hardly represented, but the urban "gentry", the

merchants, goldsmiths, mercers and the like, were men of

substance. So many yeomen compel a correction to recent

suggestions that the rebellion was essentially urban: so far

as they are traceable these men had modest estates. The very

few servants, labourers and the single pauper were clearly

untypical of the rebels. Monmouth's support came

unequivocally from those who worked well and felt no want.

Of the 34 people from Luppitt included in the "Monmouth

Roll" 29 were yeomen and 2 husbandmen. The two husbandmen

along with one yeoman were convicted and transprorted for

their part in the rebellion. The "Roll Call" for Upottery

consisted of 33 people, Combe Raleigh 6 people, Sheldon 2

people and Honiton 62 suspected rebels.

The support in the towns of the region provides a study in

urban contrasts. From Lyme came 99 rebels of whom 13% were

tailors, 12% seamen or mariners, 9% shoemakers, 6%

carpenters, and 4% engaged in cloth manufacture. Unique to

Lyme were a printmaker and a "cobb mason". Axminster, by

contrast with 104 rebels with known occupations produced 67

yeomen one of whom was a clothier and another a dyer, and

there were 11 others in the cloth industry. Honiton's 47

rebels comprised 19 craftsmen, 6 in the cloth trade,

including 2 lacemakers and only one yeoman.

The towns and villages from which the rebels came present in

themselves some fascinating questions. There is no doubt

about the massive support from the villages of West Dorset

and East Devon; hardly a village is not represented in a

wide band running north from Lyme. In Somerset, although

there was greater support from particular centres like

Chard, Ilminster and Taunton and from neighbouring villages

like Trull, Pitminster, Wilton and Stoke St Gregory, some

villages seem not to be represented. Loss of records and

perhaps a reticence on the part of captured rebels to admit

to a home in case of recriminations may be part of the

reason. Why should Bishop's Lydeard, so near to Taunton not

produce a rebel? And perhaps the most curious problem is

Bridgewater. Only 17 men from the town are said to have been

involved, despite two visits by Monmouth's army; and that

number is noticeably small in relation to the support given

by surrounding villages like Durleigh (8) and Huntspill

(15). Were the town's constables lax in reporting their

friends and possibly over zealous in other areas.

"Fear Nothing but God" was the motto embroidered on the Duke

of Monmouth's banner, and there seems to be no doubt that

for many of his followers religion was an important factor,

or rather liberty to worship in the way each one might

choose. There were of course, other reasons , some of which

were plainly political, reason which together harked back

to the "Old Cause" for which so many had fought and died

during the Civil War.

Religious reasons certainly inspired the members of the

Congregational church at Axminster, at least eight of whom

joined the Duke, led by their minister Stephen Toogood and

their ruling Elder Thomas Lane. Nonconformists had

undoubtedly experienced trouble and persecution for twenty

years and more. Puritanism had been firmly planted in parts

of the West Country for a century. By 1653 there were, for

instance, nine Baptist churches in Somerset including

Taunton, Bridgwater, Chard, Stoke St Gregory and Hatch

Beauchamp, places from which substantial numbers of rebels

were later to come. There were others in West Dorset and

East Devon, including the church at Loughwood, whose

charming chapel is said to have been built by the Baptists

of Kilmington. Quakers had also established themselves in

the West in the 1650s' and among theri meetings was one at

Musbury, a Devon village which produced a remarkable number

of Monmouth sympathisers.

And what clearly inspired their sympathy was the promise of

liberty of worship. For more than twenty years the

religious toleration which had persuaded many to accept the

restored monarchy of Charles II had been too often religious

persecution instead; and persecution in the name of a king

at least nominally Anglican. But with King Charles dead his

openly Catholic brother was king. For nonconformists the

future appeared bleak indeed - popery meant suppression and

foreign interference. Where was the liberty of the grand old

cause?

Under King Charles there had at least been some periods of

freedom. The higher Anglican Cavalier Parliament had taken

its revenge on nonconformists and repulicans by removing the

former from local government office and had forced many

worthy clergymen by the Act of Uniformity to leave their

parishes. From 1664 the first Conventicle Act forbade

religious worship outside the parish church except for

family prayers for no more than five at a time, and heavy

fines or transportation could be imposed for breach of the

law. It was suspicious, to say the least, that in 1665 four

nonconformist ministers were living at Thorncombe, a parish

near the boundaries of Dorset, Devon and Somerset, so that

avoiding the eyes and the officers of local magistrates was

a relatively easy business.

For two years from 1668, when the first Conventicle Act

expired, there was little opposition, but a survey made in

1669 revealed how strong was the dissenting movement despite

legal penalties: 400 worshipped in and near West Monkton,

230 in St Mary's parish Taunton, 200 at Creech St Michael.

The numbers were "always very great" at Chard, ranging from

200 "oftentimes" to 700; there were "nigh 500" at

Cullompton.

The second Conventicle Act of 1670 reduced the penalties

against dissenters but made prosecution much easier,

awarding informers a portion of fines imposed. The Axminster

nonconformists, like most of their breth, determined to face

the consequences of continuing to worship after the second

Act, resolving on the first Sunday after it came into

force ;

"to retire into a solitary wood, only judging it prudent to

change the houre of the day: and through the good hand of

God towards this people they assembled together every Lord's

day, and very frequently on other daies of the week also,

and never met with any conviction by informers. . . they

have assembled peace-ably together . . . in the Pastor's own

hired house . . . sometimes . . . into more solitary places,

and to change the place of their assembling up and down, in

woods, in fields, in obscure desert places. Sometimes . . .

constrained to take the solitary night watches to asseble

together to worship the Lord . . ."

"but still", as they triumphantly declared, "members have

been added to this church in the worst of times", Evasion of

magistrates and informers, and growing congregations were

common experiences.

Charles II's attempt to increase toleration through his

Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 was not given legal

sanction by an increasingly intolerant parliament, but the

licences under the Declaration for preachers to exercise

[pic]

their ministry and for houses in which to worship are

witness to the growth of nonconformity. Presbyterians and

Congregationalists were particularly active in the region,

with two meeting houses in Honiton, three in Luppitt, one in

Chard, two in Ilminster, two each in Taunton and Trull.

Beaminster, Lyme Regis and Wootton Fitzpaine were the

strongest centres in West Dorset. The places of origin of

many of the rebels coincide closely with the centres of

Dissent.

After the battle at Sedgemoor.

Some 700 hundred rebels were killed during the battle and a

further 300 taken prisoner according to Captain Dummer one

of the king's artillery officers. 150 rebels are said to

have retreated to Bridgwater, this was out of total number

of rebels said to be 4,000 when the battle began. So one

must assume that a great number of rebels must have escaped

the battle and returned to their home towns and villages.

Most of the King's forces returned to London but two

regiments under Colonel Kirke and Colonel Trelawney remained

in Somerset to mop up the rebels and parish constables were

instructed to report on all who had been absent from home

during the time of the rebellion, the (Monmouth Roll).it is

clear that the Luppitt rebels did not return to their homes

after the battle as the roll states that they are "at large"

and were probably hiding out in the Blackdown Hills. The

small depressions found upon Luppitt Common that were

once used as bivouacs, described by Captain J.R. Coxhead in

his book are probably all that remains of the hiding places

used by the rebels , which would have been close enough to

their homes to have been supplied with food and clothing and

yet remote enough to provide security, not as Captain

Coxhead states as mustering points used before joining

Monmouth's main force. The majority of people would have

heard nothing of the imminent arrival of the Duke of

Monmouth and would have gone straight from their homes to

join his force as it marched towards Taunton. It is possible

that a great number of rebels fleeing after the battle would

have found sanctuary in the wilderness of the Blackdown

Hills and safe in the knowledge that the many local

sympathisers would not inform on them, even so with a reward

of 5 shillings for every rebel captured the jails of the

West Country gradually filled up with suspected rebels

awaiting trial. For the rebels not captured it must have

been a very uncertain time not being able to return home for

fear of arrest and so this went on throughout the last

months of 1685, eventually on the 10th March 1686 a "General

Pardon" was issued and with a few exceptions the main group

of suspected rebels were allowed to return to their homes

without fear of arrest after spending most of the winter

months in hiding. The 30 or so yeomen farmers on the

"Monmouth Roll" for Luppitt must have represented a large

proportion of Luppitt farmers and in many families father

and son were suspected together, one can only assume that

their belief that if the Duke of Monmouth became king then

freedom of worship would be granted to everybody, but if

this is so then one can only admire their conviction of

religion.

The Bloody Assizes

The Autumn Assizes of 1685 began in Winchester on the 25th

August with five judges in attendance under the Lord Chief

Justice, George, Baron Jeffreys. After hearing some routine

cases they proceeded to the case of Dame Alice Lisle of

Moyles Court a widow of over 80 years, she was accused of

harbouring an escaping rebel named John Hickes a dissenting

minister and for her crime of treason she was condemned to

be burnt alive, after pleas to the king for mercy she was

beheaded instead. This set a pattern for the rest of trials

in showing that no mercy was to be given to those implicated

in the rebellion. From Winchester the next Assize town was

Salisbury where six people were sentenced to be whipped and

fined for "seditious words" and then on to Dorchester on the

5th September where 340 men were on trial including Thomas

Francklin and Thomas Quick of Luppitt. Out of that number

Judge Jeffreys condemned 74 to be hanged, 175 to be

transported, 55 were pardoned, 15 remanded in custody and 15

set free for lack of evidence, the hangings were followed by

drawing and quartering: entrails were removed from the

hanged corpse and burnt, and the corpse was then beheaded

and quartered, the head and limbs being boiled in salt and

then tarred for preservation, to be displayed in towns and

villages throughout the area. Sampson Larke a Baptist

minister from Combe Raleigh was one to meet his fate in such

a way. The Assizes then moved to Exeter on 14th September

where over 500 names appeared on a list suspected of

participation in the rebellion but who were still at large.

Only 28 men were tried as rebels, 13 were sentenced to be

hanged, drawn an quartered including the 4 from Honiton. Why

there were so many suspected rebels still at large is a

interesting question, were the Devon authorities not being

as vigilant in rounding them up as other counties seem to

have been, a certain proportion of the suspected rebels

from Devon were probably held and tried out of the county

for example the three Luppitt men were held one in Taunton,

one in a Wiltshire jail and one in Dorchester. the reason

might have simply been logistic in that holding the

suspected rebels in one or two places made the task of

prosecution easier, but even if a certain amount of

misrepresentation did occur in Exeter it must still leave a

large number at liberty. From Exeter the assizes travelled

to Taunton and on 18th September the trial started of 514

prisoners, of these 144 were condemned to hang and 284 were

to be transported, including Gideon Dare for Luppitt who was

condemned to hang but ommited from the warrant and

eventually sentenced to be transported, the sentence of

hanging once handed down was usually carried out within

several days, why Gideon Dare's sentence was commuted to

transportation we may never know, there are recorded

cases of bribery being offered to the judges for

commuting a death sentence to transportation instead.

Bristol was the next stop for the Assizes, but no rebels

were to be tried there. The last Assize was held in Wells on

23rd September where some 540 names were on record, 518

accused of rebellion against the king. 99 were sentenced to

be hanged, drawn and quartered, one of these was John Hookes

the dissenting minister that Dame Alice Lisle was convicted

for sheltering. After the Assizes many of the supposed

rebels were held in custody in various jails awaiting new

evidence before they could be tried, indeed many were

released from prison without trial when the general pardon

was issued in March 1686. For others who had already been

tried and sentenced to transportation it meant a long wait

in prison before ships could be arranged for the voyage, for

example Thomas Francklin and Thomas Quick were held in

Dorchester jail from their trial date 5th September 1685,

transfered to Sir Jerome Nipho's account on 26th September

1685, but still held in Dorchester jail until shortly before

their embarkation to Barbados on November 25th 1685,

arriving there on 8th January 1686, needless to say that

many prisoners weakened by months in jail did not survive

the journey being struck down with infectious diseases such

as smallpox and the plague. The length of transportation was

initially thought to be for four years, but in October 1685

while the convicts were still in jail a letter was sent to

each of the colonial governors requesting them reform this

to a ten year period of servitude. the people who benefited

most from this increase were those whom were in the kings

favour, such as Sir Jerome Nipho the queen's secretary, and

Sir William Stapleton, Governor of the Leeward Islands and

Sir Christopher Musgrave who were each alloted 100

prisoners; Sir Philip Howard, Governor of Jamaica, and Sir

Richard White who were each alloted 200 prisoners. In total

890 prisoners were sentenced to transportation and 8 ships

were used, the Betty, the Rebecca, the Constant Richard, the

Jamaica Merchant, the Port Royal Merchant, the John, the

Indeavour and the Happy Return, leaving from the ports of

Bristol and Weymouth making for either Barbados where 388

prisoners were sent, Jamaica or the Leeward Islands. In 1688

at the invitation of opponents to King James II, William of

Orange became joint sovereign with Mary and in 1689 a pardon

was issued to all those transported, but the rebels were

already under contract to their employers who had paid good

money to have them work for the ten year period, a

compromise seems to have been reached that the rebels work

until five years had passed from their arrival, but many

rebels seem to have left the Caribbean and returned to

England after the pardon was granted in 1689. Quite how they

afforded their return passage, as slaves they were drawing

no wage and had to rely on their masters for food and

clothing remains a mystery, there was no provision made for

their return in the pardon with the idea that they might

stay in the Islands longer and eventually settle and

integrated into the Islands society which I am sure some did

despite the return of many to their homeland.

Notes on John Coad.

Captain General & Rebel Chief. by J.N.P.Watson 1979

Coad was with the Somerset Militia under Sir Edward Phelips,

"wading through a river [Axe] to escape the watches, and

come to Axminster, and tendered myself and arms to the Duke,

and was kindly accepted ,where I found Mr Ferguson at

prayer.

John Coad who was badly hurt at the barricade, (Phillips

Norton 27th June 1685) recalled the journey. "My wounds

being judged mortal and wondering I was not dead the

chirurgeons refused to dress [them]; but the same evening,

notwithstanding the great rain that fell, our camp was

moving southward, I was cast on a wagon with few clothes

about me. The shaking of the wagon made my wounds bleed

afresh and [later] one Mr Hardy, an apothecary from Lyme,

cutting off my body clothes, ketched and stuck fast to my

body, in searching found the bullet lodged in the loins of

my back, cut it out..."

The Monmouth Episode. by B.Little.1956.

John Coad who had been out with the Somerset Militia since

the 13th June, had determined, as he left home , to join

Monmouth when he could; his puritan soul was more offended

by the "hellish oaths and ribaldry" of many of his

companions in arms. It was at Chard , while his officers

wrote cheerfully to the Lord Lieutenant, that he retired

alone into a garden and completed his resolve.

(After Coad's wounding)

So in the end , after another long,untended spell, he came

with his wife to Long Sutton, near Langport, where the

village midwife charitably tended him towards the time of

his arrest.

The soldiers, whether Regulars or Militiamen, were also

active in other areas such as Long Sutton, for there they

apprehended John Coad and brought him before Sir Edward

Phelips. That gentleman, less harsh, apparently than Lord

Stawell would have been, got a surgeon to tend his wounds

and sent him by horse litter to Ilchester gaol.

Worst of all conditions in the county prisons was at

Ilchester, John Coad , when there for 10 or 11 weeks was

comparitively lucky, for his wound partly healed and he

regained some of his strength.

At Dorchester the numbers dealt with were far larger. The

Gaol, a noisome place , was in All Saints parish, so All

Saints church at least for a time , was used as an extra

prison. The prisoners not unnaturally from their loyalties,

did some damage inside, and the County Justices had to pay

to make it good. (Dorset Q.S.Minutes.)

At Exeter rebel prisoners were lodged in the cloisters of

the Cathedral. (Exeter City Records.)

Coad gives one example of how diminutions could occour:

We see a vivid scene in Wells cloisters while the prisoners,

a throng of frantic relatives around them, were picked for

their respective fates. Coad, of course, was due for death,

but his sister found that an officer was calling out the

names of 200 men allocated for Jamaica. Coad offered the man

a bribe to include him among the transportees. The officer

declined, but kindly advised him to step forward when he

called a name and its owner failed to answer. At first Coad

missed his chance, while about thirty of his comrades so

saved themselves by exchanging certain death for exile and

servitude. At length the list of 200 was made up, but a poor

woman, seeing a man of her acquaintance who longed to be

kept back from the plantations, seized Coad, put him in the

mans place, and quietly told him that his name must now be

John Haker. So Coad, like may hundreds from the Wessex

gaols, set forth to that distant servitude which was the lot

of most who faced Judge Jeffreys and his colleagues.

The Axminster non - conformists also recorded that one of

their munber, Thomas Smith, escaped execution when another

"stood forth in his name" (Ecclesiastica, ed 1874 pp 85-6)

Convicted Rebels were allocated to Queen Mary of Modena, The

elderly Italian Secretary Jerome Nipho, Sir William

Stapleton non resident Governor of the Leeward Islands, who

acted for a larger factor, Lieut'Colonel Charles Pym, to Sir

Phillip Howard, the Governor of Jamaica, and to a few

London merchants like Sir Christopher Musgrove and Sir

William Booth. To those not at Court they were presumably

made over for a price, but at figures less helpful to the

Treasury than the œ10 or œ15 a head of which Jeffreys had

Heard. Some of the recipients - Nipho for example, or Booth,

handed over their rebels to other large scale factors, who

in their turn arranged shipment to labour dealers in the

Islands. In Nipho's case, the agent in England was George

Penne a Dorset Roman Catholic (a needy Papist,) as Pitman

calls him, whose relations, Charles Penne in England and

John Penne in Barbados, were also in the business. For then,

as we find from the account of the London ship Betty

(Captain James May) took aboard her unhappy passengers at

Weymouth, the freight charge was œ5 per rebel for the voyage

to Barbados; Jamaica, perhaps cost more for the longer run.

The tranactions and the shipments were carefully invoiced,

with copies of the documents sent out to the Caribbean and

returned with accounts of what had happened to the prisoners

on the voyage and on arrival; for this and other reasons no

events in the whole Rebellion are better documented than

these. Nearly all the rebels went to Barbados, Jamaica or

Nevis. A few may also have reached St Kitts, and two of

Booth's rebels, consigned to York River, Virginia, in a ship

from Topsham, seem to have been the only prisoners sent to

work in Mainland America.

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