The Bloody Assizes
By Sunny Chung
The Beginning of the Atrocities:
The
trials of hundreds of defeated rebels followed the Protestant rising led by
James, Duke of Monmouth and bastard son of Charles II against the Roman
Catholic James II in 1685. The Bloody
Assizes trials occurred at Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton, Wells and other
towns of South West England. The Bloody
Assizes mark the beginning of James’ system of measure which characterizes his
reign and eventually led to his demise.
After Monmouth
was captured and the rebellion quashed at the battle of Sedgemoor,
the king was anxious that an example should be made to deter any similar
attempts to overthrow his rule. James II
sent a large troop of cavalry under Colonel Percy Kirke, known for their ferocity
but ironically called “Kirke’s Lambs,” to “teach the rebels a lesson.” The moniker originates from the days when
Kirke’s regiment was in Tangiers. The
troops under Kirke had the figure of a lamb painted on their banners as a badge
of their warfare against the enemies of the Christian faith. Kirke replaced Feversham in the aftermath of
Battle of Sedgemoor, three days after the end of the battle, and put to death
at least nine of his prisoners. He simply
entered their names in the parish register as executed for high treason. But as many as a hundred were suspected to
have died at the hands of Kirke and his men. Kirke fulfilled his principal duty to flush
out any rebels by engaging the services of mercenary informers. Kirke
was already well-versed in the art of cruelty, as his position in Tangier
allowed him to test the boundary of tyranny. His only fear was the preoccupied English
government’s reprimand. As Lord Macaulay
described, Kirke “lived with boundless dissoluteness and procured by extortion
the means of indulgence. No goods could be sold till Kirke had had the refusal
of them. No question of right could be
decided till Kirke had been bribed.” It was common for Kirke to “stave all the
wine in a vintner’s cellar” or to “[drive] all the Jews from Tangier,” and to
“[conquer] the virtue of a beautiful woman by promising to spare the life of
one to whom she was strongly attached” only to “[show] her, suspended on the
gallows, the lifeless remains of him for whose sake she had sacrificed her
honor.”
Interestingly
enough, it was not Kirke’s barbarity that the government eventually grew to
disapprove; it was his leniency for those delinquents rich enough to satisfy
his love for money. On
the tenth of August, Kirke was ordered to come to court to give information on
the state of the West and was replaced by Colonel Trelawney who continued the
atrocities by illegally executing three persons for rebellion.
Although
James II was fully informed of Kirke’s progress and pronounced himself well
satisfied, he still sent Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys to the West Country, to
hold special assizes – to round up those Kirke had missed. The king believed that in order to secure the
support of the Pope as well as the bishops and clergy of the Church England,
crushing the dissenters was necessary. By the end of August, the appointment for a
Special Commission was decided and Jeffreys was appointed to preside as the
lead justice. Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys was assisted by
four other judges: Baron Montagu, Baron Wright, Justice Wythens, Justice Levinz
and Sir Henry Pollexfen. Many
of the accused were persuaded to confess, hoping for mercy after a plea of
“Guilty.” Unfortunate were those who
stood in the path of Jeffreys because the range of his personality was
somewhere between megalomania and insane.
The Condemned:
The
Assize began at Winchester on 27th August 1685 in the
aftermath of Battle of Sedgemoor which ended the Monmouth Rebellion. This is where Dame Alice Lisle was condemned
to death for helping two of the rebels – a harsh and terrible judgment on an
old and sympathetic lady. The jury reluctantly found her guilty with
the law conveniently ignoring the distinction between principals and
accessories in treason, and she was sentenced to be burned. The sentence was followed with imploring and
intervention of many, including Lord Feversham, Lord St. John, and Lady
Abergavenny. But, despite the fact that Lady Lisle was the
widow of Mr. Lisle, one of the judges of Charles the First, and that her son
served in the King’s army against Monmouth, her life was not spared by James. Lady Lisle herself petitioned for a change in
the sentence to beheading which was carried out in Winchester market-place on 2 September 1685.
The
proceedings in Dorchester
began on September 5th in Shire Hall which was aptly draped with scarlet cloth. Jeffreys made it clear that he was there “to
breathe death like a destroying angel and to sanguine his very ermins in
blood.” The
full horror of the Assize began to be felt as three hundred and twenty
prisoners were arraigned, thirty five of whom pleaded “not guilty.” Of the ones that plead not-guilty, five were
acquitted, and thirty were convicted. Lord Jeffreys implied that confession was the
only road to mercy by sending twenty-nine of the convicted to immediate
execution. This had the intended effect – two hundred
and eight confessed at once. According to accounts, anywhere from seventy
four to eighty persons were executed. This
horrifying spectacle included public hanging, disemboweling and then
quartering, after which the heads and quarters were dipped in pitch and salt
and sent to villages around to be displayed in public on poles. Many who were condemned to death had their
sentences reduced to transportation – in effect, long years of slavery in the
colonies. Jeffreys kept James informed
of the progress all throughout the Assizes starting at Dorchester.
In one early correspondence in which Jeffreys accounted minute details, Earl of
Sunderland the Secretary of State, assured Jeffreys that the King approved all
his proceedings.
One
effect of Jeffreys’ bullying and silencing the accused was that the prisoners
were processed on a timely basis. On
Saturday, September 5th the Grand Jury was charged and by Monday, the 7th,
thirteen of those found guilty were executed. Among those tried and executed in those two
days, Mathew Bragge was an unfortunate lawyer who was in the wrong place at the
wrong time. Jeffreys already had a bias
against lawyers and had often boasted that “if any lawyer or parson came under
his inspection they should not escape.” The crime for which Bragge was charged was so
benign that no one supposed that he would be convicted. He had shown Monmouth’s soldiers to the house
of a Roman Catholic where they looked for arms. Monmouth’s soldiers also seized his horse,
cane, and gloves for the Duke, forcing Bragge to walk home to Sadborrow. Although Bragge surrendered himself according
to order, Jeffreys showed no mercy and swiftly convicted and executed the
lawyer.
John Tutchin was
indicted under the assumed name of Thomas Pitts, but later brought before
Jeffreys under his proper name for having said that Hampshire was up in arms
for the Duke of Monmouth. Tutchin was twenty four years old at the time
of the rebellion and was an ardent opponent of James’s introduction of
Catholicism.
Jeffreys presided over the Court “more as though he were a Romish Inquisitor
than a Protestant Judge.” Upon
his conviction, Tutchin was sentenced to be whipped through every market town
of Devonshire for seven years. Even the Clerk of Arraigns protested on his
behalf, tactfully mentioning to Jeffreys that the sentence meant that Tutchin
would receive a whipping about once a fortnight and that he was very
young. Jeffreys responded, “Aye, he is a
very young man but an old rogue, and all the interest in England shan’t
reverse the sentence I have passed on him.” Although Tutchin appealed to the King for a “lenient”
punishment of being hanged, he instead contracted small pox in prison and
escaped both fates by being released a year later.
None
of those implicated in the rebellion and brought to trial was allowed to defend
himself. Any defense was useless against Lord Jeffreys
who delighted in roaring out sentences of torture of death to those brought
before him. The
crueler Jeffreys turned, the more unfettered, manic elation he displayed in
court. Even an interjection by the
mighty Sunderland could not impede the
momentum of the executions. Sunderland
had repeatedly spoke on behalf of a youth named William Jenkins, the son of an
eminent clergyman who had recently died in Newgate after a long imprisonment;
the younger Jenkins was imprisoned for distributing mourning rings that were
inscribed, “William Jenkins, murdered in Newgate.” The young Jenkins was released by Monmouth’s
army and subsequently joined them against James.
He was executed despite Sunderland’s efforts.
Despite
Jeffreys’ utmost efforts to terrorize, there were those who would not be
spiritually defeated by him. Among the
few, was young Christopher Battiscombe, who managed to drive Jeffreys to “foam
at the mouth” by zealously defending his religious and political principles. To the end, Battiscombe steadfastly held to
his convictions and resisted Jeffreys’ offers of his life and refused to betray
his neighbors. The youth met his end with genuine joy as he
was being transported to his execution, crying out, “Farewell, temporal
inheritance, I am now going to my heavenly eternal one.”
The
utter lack of mercy in the Hewling brothers’ execution caused a national
grief. William 
Hewling was
nineteen years old and at a boarding school in Holland when he accepted a lieutenancy with
Monmouth. Benjamin was little older and arrived with
artillery from Somerset
after the battle was over. The two attempted to escape by boat, but were
driven ashore by a storm.
Seeing that any chance of escape was impossible, they surrendered. They were transported to London
before being sent to Dorchester to be
sentenced. Their maternal grandfather, Alderman Watkins
Kyffin, a London merchant, unsuccessfully petitioned for their pardon and
release with the offer of 3000£ to the London authorities but no amount could
have placated Jeffreys’ fury at deals made without his sanction. When William was sentenced in Dorchester, Jeffreys told him that his grandfather
deserved death as much as he did. The remains of William was not quartered with
the rest of the victims; his sister Hannah paid 1000£ to stay the procedure. There was some hope of Benjamin being
pardoned and Jeffreys gave the impression that he would be lenient. In truth, Jeffreys was strongly petitioned by
one of his kin, whom he could not treat like any other interceder. But James proved to be obdurate and Benjamin could
not escape the gallows.
No
act escaped the critical inspection of Jeffreys whose mind construed an offense
in innocent and harmless actions. There
was an alehouse keeper who told the Excise officers that “she would pay no more
excise till the Duke of Monmouth was King of England.” For this, she was
sentenced to be whipped through all the market towns in Dorsetshire. A fifteen year-old barber’s boy’s sentence
was even more heinous for his only crime was his literacy. When Monmouth’s proclamation was posted in Weymouth, he was asked to
read it by those who could not read. For this crime, he was also ordered to be
whipped through all the market towns in Dorsetshire.
To
add insult to injury, the districts were made to bear the burden of the costs
associated with the executions.
The mayor of Lyme was ordered to erect gallows, provide halters to hang the
prisoners, provide adequate supply of kindling to burn the corpses, a furnace
or caldron to boil the heads, tar, spears and poles to affix the heads. Furthermore, oxen were furnished by the mayor
to carry the remains away to their destinations, as well as men to carry out
the orders, all under the threat of being executed himself.
The
judges entered Exeter on Saturday, September 12th, read
their commission that day, and opened the Assizes on the following Monday,
September 14th. Twenty six men were charged with high
treason; 3 were tried, convicted, and executed. The remaining prisoners plead
guilty and were sentenced to death. Their bodies were quartered and sent for
display into towns and villages in Devon. By now, the executions’ intended effect of
instilling fear had gradually waned, and instead there was a growing
resentment. The local magistrates were
not only sickened at the sight of slaughter they were hit economically by the
Bloody Assizes. The massacres wiped out a large number of
craftsman and skilled laborers and left behind widows and orphans. New jails had to be built in order to accommodate
a growing number of prisoners. To make matters worse, in the crowded prison
cells small pox and typhoid mushroomed and spread to the general population.
The
judges began their work in Somerset, “the chief seat of the rebellion,”
on Friday, September 18 at Taunton, in the Great
Hall of Taunton Castle (now the home of the Somerset County
Museum). On the same day, three hundred eighty five
prisoners were convicted of high treason. All but four plead guilty; all four were subsequently
convicted and sentenced to death. On September 19th, one hundred and twenty
more prisoners plead guilty to treason charges. A total of five hundred prisoners convicted
on the 18th and 19th were sentenced to death.
The
judges took only six days to indict the prisoners, arraign them, try the few
who appealed to the legal system, record the confessions of the rest, and examine
the circumstances which ought, in each case to aggravate or extenuate the
punishment. To spread the terror as widely as possible,
the executions were directed to take place in thirty-six towns and villages,
one of which was Wrington, the birthplace of Locke. Two hundred and thirty-five prisoners were
hanged, drawn, and quartered. Evidences of Jeffreys’ atrocities were
displayed fastidiously. “At every spot where two roads met, on every
market-place, on the green of every large village which had furnished Monmouth
with soldiers, ironed corpses clattering in the wind, or heads and quarters
stuck on poles, poisoned the air, and made the traveller sick with horror.”
During
the proceedings, Jeffreys overwhelmed his victims with scornful mockery. One of them pleaded that he was a good
Protestant: “Protestant!” cried Jeffreys, “you mean Presbyterian; I’ll hold you
a wager of it. I can smell a
Presbyterian forty miles.” Someone tried to move his compassion in favor
of one of the accused. “My lord, “he said, “this poor creature is on the
parish.” “Do not trouble yourselves,” was the only answer given, “I will ease
the parish of the burden,” and he ordered the man to be hanged at once.
It
was here that innocent Simon Hamlyn was convicted of being involved in the rebellion. Although Hamlyn was a dissenter, he had
nothing to do with the rebellion and ended up becoming another victim of Jeffrey’s
thirst for dissenters’ blood. When the Mayor of Taunton intervened on his
behalf, insisting that Hamlyn was innocent, Jeffreys merely sneered at him
saying, “You have brought him on: if he be innocent, his blood be upon you.”
Not even children
were safe. Young girls in Taunton, children of
eight to ten years old, were convicted of treason that they didn’t even know
was a crime. When Monmouth came through
the town, these maids presented a banner and a bible to him. Ms.
Blake, one of the schoolmistresses of the young girls in Taunton,
who actually made the banners the girls waved to Monmouth died of smallpox
while being held in Dorchester jail. One of the girls, an eight year-old was
brought before Jeffreys who proceeded with his usual brutal tirade and
sentenced her to prison which caused the child to die of fear a few hours
later.
The
King had bestowed a thousand convicts on several courtiers and one hundred onto
the Queen, with the order that the prisoner should be enslaved for ten years in
some West India island. Jeffreys protested to such disposal because
each was worth ten or fifteen pounds a head. But by now it was clear that transportation
was to be the fate of the majority, especially as each man transported would be
worth more than £12, a source of considerable profit for the Crown. The 284 who were transported were treated
worse than slaves. This was because
unlike slaves, who had to be bought and paid for, the prisoners cost nothing
and were therefore expendable. The
final decision was delayed for some time while the judges moved on to Bristol
where there were no rebels held for trial.
On
September 23, the last day of the Bloody Assizes, they came to Wells. A makeshift court, shut in by wooden screens, was
held in the space under the Market Hall. In one day’s sitting, five hundred and forty
one men were tried and the majority sentenced to death. Charles
Speke, a filacer for the
western counties, was arrested for high treason in Wells. His crime was shaking Monmouth’s hands at
Ilminster when the Duke passed through the town. Despite testimony that another Speke had been
an active rebel Jeffreys refused to show any leniency and stated that “he shall
die for his namesake.”
Many,
who were not executed, suffered worse at the hands of Jeffreys and his
henchmen. Those condemned to
transportation – eight hundred forty-one in all – were sent off for a period of
ten years to the West Indies. The conditions on these ships rivaled those
on slave ships between West Africa and the Americas. One fifth of those shipped were flung to the
sharks before the end of the voyage.
They were never allowed to go on deck.
And in the dark, confined space below, the prisoners were cramped and
left to wallow in waste and disease. Others were imprisoned to await further trials.
Many did not live long enough, succumbing to Gaol Fever (Typhus) which was rife
in the unsanitary conditions common to most English gaols at that time. Others who had been involved in giving
support of almost any kind to the rebellion were heavily fined and had their
land or property confiscated.
On
September 30th, Jeffreys returned to London
where he and his fellow judges were formally thanked by the king and Jeffrey’s
promotion to the office of Lord Chancellor was announced in the Gazette.
Those Spared:
Kirke
imprisoned the young maids of Taunton
for showing support for Monmouth and demanded over £1,000 in ransom from their
parents. Even the Queen’s maids of honor
extorted large sums of money for the pardon of a number of these country
schoolgirls who had been convicted of presenting Monmouth with a royal flag.
Roger
Hoare, an eminent trader of Bridgewater
saved his own life by paying 1000£.
However, he was not told of his pardon until he was marched to the
gallows, just so that the maximum amount could be extorted out of him. Mr. Hampden was initially tried for
misdemeanor on the evidence of Lord Howard and ordered to pay a fine of
40,000£. After Monmouth’s defeat, he was
again brought to trial for high treason based on the same act of consulting
with Lord Russell and Mr. Sidney, under the pretense that a second witness had
been found. It was
secretly arranged between Hampden and Jeffreys that if he plead guilty, he
would be pardoned upon payment of a large fine. After eventually paying a 6000£ bribe,
Hampden’s attainder was reversed.
Jeffreys,
motivated by personal reasons, bribed 2 prisoners, Dare and Malacke. They were to testify against Prideaux, a
gentleman of West of England, who was apprehended on the landing 
of Monmouth for
no other reason than that his father had been attorney-general under the
Commonwealth and the Protectorate. Although unable to procure enough information
from the two bribed convicts to obtain the whole of Prideaux’s large estates by
a conviction, Jeffreys managed to take 15,000£ from Prideaux by the end. This was the highest price paid for an
innocent life during the Bloody Assizes.
Often
those spared were not necessarily proven innocent, but had in possession a
large sum of money that would not be accessible if found guilty. Grey was a high ranking commander in the
rebel army, yet his life was spared. His
wealth was in life estate which meant that “if he died, his lands devolved to
the next heir. If he were pardoned, he
would be able to pay a large ransom.” Grey was forced to pay a bond for more than
forty thousand pounds for his release.
John
Cochrane’s life was similarly spared because only in pardon could the treasury
be handsomely paid. His father paid five
thousand pounds for his son’s pardon.
The Aftermath:
When
the court had finished its sittings, the guideposts of the highways were
converted into gibbets, from which blackened corpses swung in chains, and from
every church tower in Somersetshire ghastly heads looked down on those who
fathered there to worship God. Batches of rebels were given as presents to
courtiers, who sold them for a period of ten years to be worked or flogged to
death on West India plantations. By the end of the circuit, Jeffreys had
hanged three hundred and twenty “rebels.”
A
graphic account of the country-side after Jeffreys had finished his campaign
paints the horrors vividly.
Jeffreys made all the West an Aceldama; some places quite depopulated and nothing to be
seen in ’em but forsaken walls, unlucky gibbets and ghostly carkases. The trees were loaden almost as thick with
quarters as leaves; the houses and steeples covered as close with heads as at
other times with crows or ravens.
Nothing could be liker hell than all those parts; nothing so like the
devil as he. Caldrons hizzing, carkases
boyling, pitch and tar sparkling and glowing, blood and limbs boyling and
tearing and mangling, and he the great director of all.
In
the one month that the Bloody Assizes lasted, James II with the aid of Judge
Jeffreys irreversibly damaged his credibility as a leader. Against any notion of fairness, many
low-level dissenters were sentenced while the ring-leaders were let go. Not only was Jeffreys’ barbarity
overwhelming, the trials themselves were a farce. The rebellion and its consequences made a
deep and lasting impression on the minds and memories of Westcountry folk, but
it was in Somerset
that there was the most lasting bitterness.
The king had raised a far larger standing army to be ready to face any
similar threat to his position, and this added another factor to the growing
antagonism in the country. Only three
years later he was faced with another invasion, this time by William of Orange
with a well equipped army.
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