The Strange Death of Edmund Godfrey

by Alan Marshall

  35. Robinson, Register, I, p. 272. Life of Titus Oats, p. 2. HMC, Report 2, appendix, p.117.

  36. A. Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England (New York, 1995 edn) remains a standard work on this matter. However, much can be gained from the significant work of T. Hitchcock, English Sexualities, 1700–1800 (1997). See also T. Hitchcock and M. Cohen (eds), English Masculinities, 1660–1680 (1999). R. Trumbach, ‘Sodomitical subcultures: sodomitical roles, and the gender revolution of the eighteenth century; the recent historiography’ in R.P. Maccubbin (ed.), ’Tis Nature’s Fault, Unauthorized Sexuality during the Enlightenment (Cambridge , 1987 edn), pp. 109–21. R. Trumbach, ‘London’s sodomites: Homosexual behaviour and western culture in the eighteenth century’, Journal of Social History, XI (1977), 1–33. R. Norton, Mother Clap’s Molly House: Gay Subculture in England 1700–1830 (1992). S.O. Murray ‘Homosexual acts and selves in early modern Europe’, Journal of Homosexuality, XVI (1989), 457–77. Hammond, ‘Titus Oates and Sodomy’, pp. 85–101.

  37. Brown, Salamanca wedding, pp. 2–3. Oates’s Manifesto, pp. 2, 5–6, 16.

  38. See Bray, Homosexuality, chapter three. Hitchcock, English Sexualities, chapter five.

  39. North, Examen, p. 224.

  40. Smith, Intrigues, pp. 3–4.

  41. Life of Oats, p. 2. Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 26–9.

  42. Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 31–4

  43. Smith, Intrigues, pp. 3–4.

  44. Ibid., pp. 3–4. State Trials, X, pp. 1183–4. See also E. Everard, The depositions of Mr. E. Everard concerning the horrid Popish Plot (1679). A true narrative and manifesto set forth by Sir Robert Walsh, knight (1679). For Medburne see P.H. Highfill, K.A. Burnim, E.A. Langhans (ed.), A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800 (15 vols, Edwardsville, 1984), IX, pp.164–5. L. Hotson, The Commonwealth and Restoration Stage (New York, 1962), pp. 212–14. M. Summers, The Playhouse of Pepys (New York, 1964 edn), p. 108.

  45. Hammond, ‘Titus Oates and Sodomy’, p. 100.

  46. Kenyon, Popish Plot, p.54. Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 48–9, 238–9. Burnet, History, II, p. 156.

  47. Tonge, ‘Journal’, pp. 3, 44–5. For some examples of Tonge’s later writings, the titles alone that give a flavour of his eccentricities and fads, see E. Tonge, The northern star: the British monarchy: or, the northern, the fourth universal monarchy: Charles II and his successors the founders of the northern, last, fourth and most happy monarchy, being a collection of many choice ancient and modern prophecies (1680). E. Tonge, Jesuits assassins, or the popish plot further declared and demonstrated in their murderous practices and principles, the first part (1680).

  48. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 2.

  49. Kenyon, Popish Plot, pp. 54–5.

  50. A vindication of the English Catholicks from the pretended conspiracy against the life and government of his scared majesty discovering the chief lies and contradictions contained in the narrative of Titus Oates (second edn,1681), p. 85. Smith, Intrigues, pp. 5–6.

  51. M.E. Williams, St Alban’s College, Valladolid (1986), pp. 48–51. Records of the English province of the society of Jesus (7 vols, 1877–83), VII (1882), pp. xxi–xxiii.

  52. Quoted in Williams, St Alban’s College, p. 49. Vindication, pp. 73, 75, 77, 85.

  53. Williams, St Alban’s College, pp. 49–50, 53–4.

  54. The life and death of Captain William Bedloe, one of the chief discoverers of the horrid Popish plot (1681) gives one, very romanticised, version of Bedloe’s life. See also Vindication of the English Catholicks, pp. 93–4. Life of Titus Oats, p. 2. E.C., A full and final proof of the plot from the revelations whereby the testimony of Dr Titus Oates and Mr. William Bedloe is demonstrated by Jure Divino (1680). The examination of William Bedlow deceased, relating to the Popish Plot taken in his late sickness by Sir Francis North (1680). M. Petherick, Restoration Rogues (1951), pp. 40–102. Burnet, History, II, p. 158.

  55. Longleat MSS, Coventry papers (Microfilm), XI, ff. 272–272v.

  56. Ibid. R. Head and F. Kirkman, The English rogue described in the life of Meriton Latroon, a witty extravagant comprehending the most eminent cheats of both sexes (1680). Compare with Life and Death, pp. 46–56

  57. Petherick, Restoration Rogues, pp. 40–102.

  58. Ibid. Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 58–60. Kenyon, Popish Plot, p. 57.

  59. Vindication of English Catholicks, pp. 81, 90–1. Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, VII, pp. xxxvi–xl. Longleat MSS, Coventry papers (Microfilm), XI, ff. 205–6

  60. Vindication of English Catholicks, p. 81.

  61. State Trials, X, pp. 1200–3.

  62. Ibid. Vindication of English Catholicks, p. 81.

  63. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p.34. Tuke, Memoires, pp. 52–3. According to William Smith he ‘sculckt about the Town in a secular habit’ and renewed his intimacy with Medburne: Smith, Intrigues, p. 6.

  64. Browning, Danby, I, p. 291.

  65. Ibid., I, pp. 493–95 and see below chapter six.

  66. Kenyon, Popish Plot, p. 72.

  67. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 35. For Williamson’s career see A. Marshall, ‘Sir Joseph Williamson and the conduct of Administration in Restoration England’, Historical Research, LXIX (1996), 18–41.

  68. For the Hastings affair see p. 162. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 35. PRO, SP29/409, f. 58.

  4. THE LAST DAYS OF EDMUND GODFREY

  1. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 35. PRO, SP 29/409, f.58.

  2. Tonge, ‘Journal’, pp. 36–7.

  3. HMC, Kenyon MSS (1894), p. 106.

  4. Smith, Contrivances, p. 8.

  5. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 37.

  6. HMC, Kenyon MSS, p. 106.

  7. North, Examen, p. 174.

  8. HMC, Kenyon MSS, p. 107.

  9. Ibid., p. 106. North, Examen, pp. 174, 200–1. L. Echard, History of England (3 vols, 1718), III, p. 467. BL, Add. MSS 63097B, ‘Burnet’s MS History’, f.41. North, Examen, pp. 200–1. An answer to the earl of Danby’s papers touching the murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey (1679), p. 2.

  10. North, Examen, pp. 200–1.

  11. Misprision of treason was a serious crime in itself. In such cases it meant knowing that another person had committed treason, and not giving the information to the authorities within a reasonable amount of time. In common law it was punishable by imprisonment and forfeiture of property. But in the era of the Popish Plot such a revelation might well have led to Godfrey’s death. For a definition of the crime see D.M. Walker, The Oxford Companion to Law (Oxford, 1980), p. 844.

  12. Tonge, ‘Journal’, p. 39. For the Yorkshire plot of 1663 see A. Marshall, Intelligence and espionage in the reign of Charles II, 1660–1685 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 98–115. This was the only real attempt by a group of minor Cromwellians and Republicans to raise the northern counties against the regime of Charles II. It failed and many of those involved were imprisoned or executed as a result. Among them was a man named Oates who may have been related to Titus.

  13. Ibid., p.41. Burnet, History, II, p. 156.

  14. Burnet, History, II, p. 156.

  15. Ibid. ‘Sir Robert Southwell’s diary of what I did about the business in the council chamber October 1678’, in Greene, Diaries, pp. 51–4.

  16. Tonge,’ Journal’, p. 45. PRO, PC2/66, f.392.

  17. HMC, Kenyon MSS, p.106. Tonge, ‘Journal’, pp. 46–7. PRO, SP/409, ff. 14–36. Kirkby, Compleat true narrative, pp. 2–3.

  18. PRO, SP 409, ff. 14–36. T. Oates, A true narrative of the horrid Plot and conspiracy of the Popish party against the life of his scared majesty, the government and the protestant religion (1679). See also Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 91–102. Kenyon, Popish Plot, pp. 63–7.

  19. See Marshall, Intelligence, pp. 142–68. Abbott, ‘Origin of Titus Oates’, pp. 26–9.

  20. State Trials, X, pp. 1183–4. Lane, Titus Oates, pp. 91–102, Kenyon, Popish Plot, pp. 63–7.

  21. HMC, MSS of the House of Lord
s (Lords Committee on the Plot) (1887), p. 3 and also The compendium or a short view of the late tryals in relation to the present plot (1679), p. 69.

  22. This evidence is in PRO, PC 2/66, ff.392–397. CSPD, 1678, pp. 425–8, 431–3, 434, 451–3, 544–5, 550–1, 622–3. HMC, Ormonde MSS, NS, IV, pp. 455–8

  23. PRO, PC 2/66, f.392.

  24. PRO, PC2/66, ff.393–5. CSPD, 1678, pp. 425–6. Longleat MS Coventry papers (Microfilm), LXXXVII, ff.106, 227–227v. HMC, Ormonde MSS, NS, IV, pp. 454–5.

  25. PRO, PC2/66, ff. 394–5. PRO 31/3/141, Barrillon to Louis XIV, 10 October 1678. HMC, Ormonde MSS, NS, IV, pp. 207, 455–6. Secretary of State Coventry noted of Oates that ‘if he be a liar, he is the greatest and adritest I ever saw’.

  26. PRO, PC2/66, ff.396–7.

  27. Ibid., f. 396.

  28. Ibid., f.396.

  29. Ibid., ff.398 et passim. PRO, 31/3/141, Barrillon to Louis XIV, 13 October 1678. HMC, Ormonde MSS, NS, IV, pp. 457–60.

  30. HMC, Ormonde MSS, NS, IV, p.458. Also North, Examen, p. 196.

  31. What follows is based on the evidence from a number of core sources: State Trials, VII, pp. 159–230; L’Estrange, Times, III, 171–236; North, Examen, pp. 198–205; HMC, Lords, pp. 1–3, 46–52; Thompson, A true and perfect narrative.

  32. Or so she claimed see PRO, SP 29/423, f.7.

  33. PRO, SP 29/423, ff.7–10. SP29/366, f.305.

  34. HMC, Lords, p. 9.

  35. PRO, SP29/423, f.67. Echard, History, pp. 502–3. Also PRO, SP29/366, f.305.

  36. PRO, SP29/366, f.305.

  37. State Trials, VII, p. 168.

  38. Ibid., p. 168.

  39. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 180.

  40. Ibid., p. 181.

  41. PRO, SP 29/423, f.10 also L’Estrange, Times, III, p.181. L’Estrange seemingly tidied up Mrs Gibbon’s statements for publication, as can be seen by comparing the two statements given here. This is significant for the other evidence given by L’Estrange in his book. He seems to have clarified the sense but not necessarily to have altered all the meaning. A comparison of the manuscript deposition by Gibbon with L’Estrange’s published version is pertinent at this point. Unfortunately the original depositions he used seem to have disappeared, possibly in the wake of the 1688 Revolution.

  42. PRO, SP 29/423, f.10.

  43. Westminster City Archives, F2004 Vestry Minutes, 11 October 1678, fo.236.

  44. HMC, Lords, p. 48.

  45. PRO, SP 29/423, f. 8. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 178–9. State Trials, VII, p. 187.

  46. BL, Add. MSS, 38015, f.317.

  47. BL, Add. MSS, 38015, f.317. Or was she? In fact the author of An answer to the Earl of Danby’s papers touching the murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey (1679), p. 2 later claimed that Godfrey had complained to ‘divers people how he was fallen into Danby’s displeasure . . . [and this] has not only been declared to the Privy Council by the Lady Prat, but has been attested by the King himself in open discourses, acknowledg’d by a great courtier, Danby’s own relations, and confess’d by himself.’ There is little further evidence of Lady Pratt’s part in this affair.

  48. State Trials, VII, p. 186. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 171, 188. Several affidavits lately taken upon oath by divers of his majesties Justices of the peace which further confirm the testimony given concerning the murther of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (1683), pp. 4–5.

  49. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 188 see also Mrs Gibbon’s evidence PRO, SP 29/423, f. 7–9.

  50. PRO, SP 29/423, f.9. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 172.

  51. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 208.

  52. PRO, SP 29/366, ff. 305–305v.

  53. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 172–3.

  54. Ibid., pp. 174, 188–9.

  55. Ibid., p. 196.

  56. PRO, SP 29/366, f 305–305v.

  57. Ibid. HMC, Lords, p. 47

  58. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 175, 196, 201. HMC, Lords, p. 47. PRO, SP29/366, f.305v. Lloyd, Sermon, p. 20.

  59. PRO, SP.29/423, f.9. North, Examen, p. 201. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 203.

  60. PRO, SP.29/423, ff. 7–8.

  61. BL, Add. MSS 38015, f.317.

  62. North, Examen, p. 201.

  63. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 198–9. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 7. State Trials, VIII, p. 1396.

  64. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 203.

  65. Ibid., p. 210.

  66. North, Examen, p. 201. BL, Add. MSS, 38015, f.317. See also HMC, Report 6, p. 388. The latter gives important contemporary and independent evidence that Godfrey was thought to be ‘melancholy and much discomposed a day or two before’ he died.

  67. PRO, SP29/423, f. 9.

  68. Ibid. L’Estange, Times, III, pp. 190–2, 194.

  69. PRO, SP29/366, f. 305. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 209.

  70. Ibid., State Trials, VIII, pp. 1394–5. HMC, Lords, p. 47.

  71. BL, Add. MSS, 38015, f.317. HMC, Report 6, p. 388; Report 7, p. 494b. Lloyd, Sermon, p. 17. Lloyd claimed that the killers themselves spread such rumours.

  72. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 197. State Trials, VIII, p. 1392. See also below chapter five.

  73. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 88–9. Burnet, History, p. 164.

  74. HMC, Lords, p. 47. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, pp. 4–5. G. Manley, ‘A preliminary note on early meteorological observation in the London region 1680–1717, with estimates of the monthly mean temperatures, 1680–1706’, Meteorological Magazine, XC (1961), 303–10. G. Manley, ‘Seventeenth-century London temperatures: some further experiments’, Weather, XVIII (1963), 98–105. J. Playford, Vade mecum or the necessary companion (second edn, 1680), pp. 11, 15. Playford gave the time for sunrise on 12 October as 7.05 a.m. and claimed it set at 5 p.m. The sunrise for 17 October he has at 7.10 a.m., and it set at 4.50 p.m. For the moon at this time see S. Morland, The description and use of true arithmetick instruments &c (1673).

  75. For this newsletter see ‘Family of Godfrey’, pp. 489–90. Also State Trials, VIII, p. 1396.

  76. Muddiman in particular was to use this tale. See below chapter five.

  77. HMC, Lords, pp. 46, 51. PRO, 30/24/43/63, ff. 438–438v. J. Timbs, Curiosities of London (1876), p. 692. J. Richardson, Camden Town and Primrose Hill Past (1991).

  78. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 5. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 2. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 212.

  79. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 213. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 5. Timbs, Curiosities, p. 692.

  80. PRO, SP29/423, f.9. ‘Family of Godfrey’, pp. 489–90.

  81. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 5. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 2. HMC, Ormonde MSS NS, IV, p. 219. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 212–13. PRO, SP29/366, f.305.

  82. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 2. HMC, Lords, pp. 46, 51. PRO 30/24/43/63, ff. 438–438v. Timbs, Curiosities, p. 692. Richardson, Camden Town and Primrose Hill.

  83. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 5. PRO SP.29/423, f.9. The band was a collar or ruff worn about the neck; the cravat a neck tie, a bow with long flowing ends. The latter could have made a useful ligature for strangulation.

  84. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, p. 8. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 5. PRO, SP 29/366, f.305.

  85. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 213–22. CSPD, 1678, p. 466.

  86. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, pp. 6–7. HMC, Report 3, p. 306. R.F. Hunnisett, The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1961). T.R. Forbes, ‘Inquests into London and Middlesex homicides 1673–1782’, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, L (1977), 207–20. M. MacDonald and T.R. Murphy, Sleepless Souls, Suicide in Early Modern England (Oxford, 1990), pp. 57–8, 74, 80, 100, 110–12, 222. D. Harley, ‘The scope of legal medicine in Lancashire and Cheshire, 1660–1760’ in M. Clark and C. Crawford (ed.), Legal Medicine in History (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 45–63.

  87. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 3. L’Estrange, Times, III, p. 224.

&nb
sp; 88. Ibid.

  89. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 230–1, 244–6.

  90. State Trials, VII, p. 184.

  91. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 4. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, pp .6–7.

  92. State Trials, VIII, pp. 1384–5, L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 230–1.

  93. State Trials, VIII, pp. 1380. Also Marks, Who Killed Edmund Berry Godfrey, pp. 86–8.

  94. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 230–1, 249. State Trials, VII, pp. 185–6. PRO, SP 29/366, f.305.

  95. PRO, SP 29/366, f.305. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 230–5. State Trials, VII, p. 186; VIII, pp. 1361, 1369, 1381–5. Thompson, True and perfect narrative, pp. 6–7. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 3. HMC, Lords, p. 46.

  96. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s Ghost, p. 4.

  97. L’Estrange, Times, III, pp. 243–4, 246.

  98. Ibid., pp. 246–7.

  99. PRO, SP 29/423, f.9. PRO, 31/3/141, Barrillon to Louis XIV, 31 October 1678. CSPD, 1678, p. 478. PRO, SP 29/366, f.305.

  5. REACTION

  1. North, Examen, p. 202. Reflections upon the murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (1682), pp. 17–18.

  2. Burnet, History, II, pp. 164–5.

  3. A. Marshall, ‘To Make a Martyr: The Popish Plot and Protestant Propaganda’, History Today, XLVII (1997), 39–45. T. Dawks, The murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (1678). See also D. Kunzle, The History of the Comic Strip, the early comic strip narrative strips and picture stories in the European broadsheet, c. 1450–1825 (Berkeley, 1973), p.130. The dreadful apparition (1680). Anon, ‘On the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey’ in F. Mengel, Poems on affairs of state, Augustan satirical verse, 1660–1714 (7 vols, Yale, 1965), II, pp. 5–7. The proclamation promoted or a hue and cry and inquisition after treason and blood upon the inhumane and Horrid murder of that late noble knight, impartial justice of the peace and zealous protestant sir Edmund Berry Godfrey of Westminster, a hasty poem (1678). See also To the right honourable the lord mayor at the anniversary entertainment in Guildhall (1680). K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century England (1980 edn), pp. 711–19. T. Harris, London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis (Cambridge, 1987), p.145. An elergie sacred to the memory of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, knight, 30 October 1678 (1678). E. Hawkins, Medallic Illustrations of the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the death of George II (2 vols, 1969 edn), I, pp. 576, 577, 579. J.R.S. Whiting, A Handful of History (Dursley, 1978), pp. 50–63. ‘Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey’, Gentleman’s Magazine, CXXIV (1848), 365–9. The solemn mock procession of the Pope, Cardinals, Jesuits & Fryers &s through the city of London November 17th 1679 (1679). London’s drollery (1680). O.W. Furley, ‘The pope burning procession of the late seventeenth century’, History, XLIV (1959), 16–23. M.D. George, English Political Caricatures to 1792, a Study of Opposition and Propaganda (Oxford, 1959). S. Williams, ‘The Pope burning processions of 1679, 1680 and 1681’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXI (1958), 104–18. This was not merely a London phenomenon, see The Pope’s downfall at Abergavenny or a true and perfect relation of his being carried through the fair on a solemn procession with very great ceremony (1679), p. 3. London’s defiance to Rome, a perfect narrative of the magnificent procession and solemn burning of the pope at Temple-Bar November 17th 1679 (1679), p. 2. J. Dryden, Prologue to the Royal Brother, a play (1682).