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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