Continuing fears of military subversion lay behind the publication of another proclamation the next day, ordering officers to ‘repair to their said quarters and there to attend their . . . duties, notwithstanding any licence formerly granted for [their] absence . . . Wherefrom they may not fail as they will answer [to] the contrary at their peril’.21 Vernon was typically more forthright, believing that the ‘naked truth’ was that there were only ‘four troops [of cavalry] in Ireland [that] I dare [give] my word for’. Six troops of horse had rounded up the suspects, ‘yet upon my conscience, had the enemy attacked them, they [would have] beaten our [soldiers]’.
I confess I saw little safety in this kingdom before the design was broke [n] but my Lord Arran’s regiment and a few old cavaliers and the prudence of a government must protect us for a time, by making the English and Irish balance each other.
Vernon then turned to the fate of his spy Alden:
My friend will be able to do us good service and I will endeavour to protect him. He is now in prison but if I can manage it he shall leap out of prison into England, where nothing can stir but that he will be able to detect it.22
It soon became apparent that many leading conspirators had evaded arrest, slipping quietly out of Dublin before they could be detained. Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery and president of Munster, harboured some rather snide criticisms of Ormond’s tactics, and claimed some kudos for himself in foiling the plot. In a pointed letter to the king on 23 May, he announced that he had learned of the conspiracy on 8 May and had
spent the night in writing dispatches which I sent to the lord lieutenant, giving him full account of the plot and stating where its conspirators met in Dublin; who are the heads, whom they employ into Scotland and whom to the north of Ireland, [and] also that they intended speedily to surprise your castle and city of Dublin, his grace’s person and the State there.
I advised that the chief fanatics in the country should at once be secured to prevent their designs from being executed, for I could not but believe some dare not attempt that wickedness unless many were engaged in it.
I considered also . . . how ill the army was paid . . . the soldiers yet unclothed . . . [and most] parts of the kingdom unsettled . . . If a fire should be kindled . . . no one knows how far it might burn.
But his grace was rather inclined to give the conspirators more rope to hang themselves, being confident that we could quell the rebellion when it took place.
I cheerfully submitted to his view and kept on sending him what news I received.
Orrery had then diligently arrested ‘the most fractious Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists23 and Quakers in the southern Ireland – for some bragged, at their arrest in Dublin, that though prevented, they would soon meet us [to fight] in the field. I therefore acted promptly.’ In another sly dig at Ormond, he added:
Things of this nature, in my humble judgment, must not be dallied with, but be crushed in the very egg and a rebellion is easier prevented than suppressed . . .
There is one Capt. Browne, governor of Liverpool under the usurper, who lies in Dublin, [and who holds] a correspondence between the fanatics of England and Ireland. I have sent his grace notice of where he lies, for if his papers be took, they may discover much.24
On 23 May, Ormond and his Council of Ireland issued yet another proclamation, this time offering rewards of £100 (£12,500 in today’s money) for the arrest of thirteen conspirators wanted by the government.
The name of Thomas Blood headed the list.
In its ponderous, verbose fashion, the proclamation noted that by ‘the blessing of God’ the government had ‘discovered and disappointed a traitorous conspiracy’. Although many plotters were apprehended, others had ‘found means to escape, namely Lieutenant Thomas Blood late of Sarney near Dunboyne, Co. Meath; Colonel Daniel Abbot; Major Abel Warren; Andrew McCormack, lately a pretended minister of Magherally in Co. Down; Robert Chambers, another minister; Col Gilbert Carr, commonly called Gibby Carr; John Chamberlin, late of Dublin, brewer; John Fooke esquire, late of Ardee, Co. Louth; Lieutenant John Ruxton, late of the same place; Major Henry Jones, late of Stillorgan, Co. Dublin; Lieutenant De la Rock; Major Alexander Staples, late of Derry; Lieutenant Colonel William Moore, who was recently disbanded from the army, after being garrisoned at Galway and Athlone.
We therefore, by this proclamation, in his majesty’s name, strictly charge and command all and every the said forenamed persons that within eight and forty hours after publishing this proclamation . . . he and they do render his and their persons to us, or to any one of his majesty’s Privy Council or to one of the Justices of the Peace.
Wherein, [if] they or any of them fail, we do hereby declare and publish them and every one of them so failing, to be rebels and traitors against his majesty, his crown and dignity and to be accordingly prosecuted by all his majesty’s good subjects.25
Failing any such surrender, this handsome reward would be paid to anyone who handed over one of the conspirators to a sheriff before 24 June. Those who harboured them or failed to deliver them to justice would be declared ‘rebels and traitors against the Crown’. All the majesty and force of the law had been thrown at Blood and his co-conspirators.
Ormond busied himself dispatching instructions the length and breadth of Ireland to destroy the conspiracy, root and branch. He warned Colonel Gorges in Derry that, the plot to capture Dublin having failed, ‘attempts upon other places will probably be laid aside. Yet, lest desperation should drive on some . . . the utmost vigilance is recommended. It is certain that the conspirators had some intelligence in Derry, by means of one Staples, some of whose former company are . . . in that garrison still.’26
Orrery dutifully ordered his governors and garrison commanders to hunt down the fugitives in this ‘horrid plot’ with ‘all possible diligence’ and to reward generously any who captured them for ‘their pains and service’.
I have already found some of the emissaries of those traitors, who endeavoured to impose upon the soldiery by telling them the foulest lies imaginable, thereby to debauch [corrupt] them to their rebellious party.
The soldiers were so loyal and honest as to discover to me this seducer, whom forthwith I apprehended and have sent up a prisoner to his grace, to receive his due punishment . . .
The soldiers that so loyally and honestly discovered this villain I have rewarded with money and him that first revealed it I have made a corporal that they may see there is more advantage in being a good subject than in being a knave.27
Such was the climate of fear now in Ireland that no man, fugitive or pursuer, could be entirely sure of the loyalty or the motives of anyone. Rumours and accusations spread like dry leaves blowing in the wind.
Robert Green in Dublin told Colonel James Walsh that ‘disguised men have been passing about these parts’ and there had been suspicious night meetings,28 and at Loughbrickland in Co. Down John Thompson reported an example of bold Irish opportunism. ‘Much mischief is being done here by unruly persons spoiling [robbing] people’s houses in the night under [the] pretence of taking prisoners for being [in] the plot.’29 Poor Major Thomas Barrington wrote pitifully to the Irish Secretary Sir George Lane on 22 May after hearing that his name ‘has been mentioned’ during the investigation of the conspiracy. He now ‘expects every hour to be arrested, to his disparagement’ but if he was given safe conduct and the protection of some guards, he would come instantly to Dublin Castle and clear his name.30
Still fearing the flight of some of the plotters, on 30 May Ormond signed a warrant for the removal of Dubliners who lived in rooms overlooking the city’s quays and replacing them with soldiers ‘for the better security of the city’.31
Nine days after the plot was broken, Ormond reported to Charles II that the conspiracy could well be rekindled ‘unless we show that we are prepared to foil such attempts and [demonstrate] that they mean absolute ruin to the contrivers’.
They will never be put down, however, till the army is
so paid that we can march out with a great part of it to any spot where disturbance may break out.
I find that the conspirator[s] relied much on the existence of divisions in your majesty’s court and councils and unless these [are] diminished, the recent attempt will be repeated.
I enclose an intercepted letter from a person on whom I cannot yet light [name]. I think the information which he contains was furnished by Gibby Carr, who, I am sure, was lately here and a prime conspirator and is said to have been a remonstrator in Scotland.32
The lord lieutenant acknowledged that, despite further arrests having been made, ‘it would be impossible to get full evidence against any of the conspirators but at the price of pardoning some to give testimony against the rest. I shall select for pardon those who most deserve it and who can tell the most.’33
The same day, Vernon announced triumphantly that the arrested plotters were now telling the truth ‘and say that the design was . . . wholly Presbyterian and was [alive] long before [the dissent over] the commissioners’ [decisions on land claims]:
Blood, one of the chiefs, and Col. Gibby Carr are certainly . . . fled to Scotland.
[Henry] Cromwell may, I think be concerned, for many of the rebels named him for general and his own chaplain, Charnock, came privily hither and [?]proposed him [and] told them they had £20,000 ready in England and that on any good success, the [Royal Navy] fleet would revolt.
But in a short time, I shall be able to give you the truth, for my friend [Alden] . . . has increased his reputation [with the conspirators] by his obstinacy upon his examinations.34
Meanwhile, one of those arrested on 21 May had pragmatically decided to make a clean breast of all he knew, much to his interrogators’ delight. James Tanner was brought before Ormond and dictated a long and detailed deposition. He did not hesitate to name names – and that of Thomas Blood featured prominently among them. Early that April, he claimed, Blood had proudly brandished a letter addressed to him from Stephen Charnock announcing that Henry Cromwell would lead the coup.
Shortly after, Charnock had arrived from England and lodged at the home of a Mr Phillips, a glover, of Castle Street, Dublin, where Tanner met him, together with Blood and Major Alexander Staples.
Blood told [the] witness that he had spoken of the matter to Col. Robert Shapcott who had advised him to speak of the design only to one person at a time in order to secure secrecy. Blood had also [said] that Col. Alexander Barrington was in the said design.
The interrogators showed Tanner one of the plotters’ declarations and he identified the handwriting as Blood’s, ‘as he knew his writing well’.
Blood had told him ‘that the taking of the castle had been put off until 21 May when Col. Abel Warren would arrive in Dublin’. A curiously imprudent, if not boastful, Blood also disclosed that Captain John Chambers would raise forces in Co. Louth to support the rebellion ‘which would be brought hither by one Fooke, whose Christian name he [Tanner] knew not’.
Chamberlin told him that McCormack, a Scottish minister, had been lately at Dublin and came in disguise to see in what readiness they were for the design and that he went into the north [of Ireland] and that they expected to hear from him the Tuesday next before 21 May . . .
[Major] Staples, when departing from Dublin, told witness that he was going to deal with the Scots [settlers in Ulster] for their conjunction [assistance] in the design of taking the castle and that he would try to secure Derry.
Since then, [the] witness had heard from Staples that men were coming in to him apace and that he was to send a man to Newry to carry news from one to the other and that when they heard that the castle was taken, they in the north would take the field.
[Tanner] did not know Col. Gilbert or ‘Gibby’ Carr, but Blood had told [him] that the lord lieutenant had sent horse to arrest Carr at Blood’s house and that Carr . . . was now in the north collecting men to aid the design.35
Ormond recognised a familiar name in Tanner’s five pages of breathless testimony – an individual who had caused him much trouble before. He told Bennet that the main instigators of the plot were members of the Irish House of Commons, some of whom he had now imprisoned. ‘One of these is called Shapcott, a lawyer, and a very leading man in the House, of a bold and seditious spirit and it is likely that the Commons may, if they meet, call . . . for his trial with which we may not be ready to proceed. I do not know what appeals or declarations this may lead to and this is the reason against summonsing Parliament.’36 Accordingly, the meeting of the Irish Parliament was postponed to 25 August and later to 1 October.
This was a wise move on Ormond’s part, as disorder and confusion seemed likely to continue in Ireland, although he had nearly fifty prisoners under lock and key. Sir Nicholas Armorer told Joseph Williamson: ‘The jails are full of these rogues and we have enough to hang them and most of the party. Now is the time to smite them.’37 Sir Thomas Clarges observed: ‘This kingdom is in great disorder. Both the ancient and new English Protestants are very bigoted in their opinions and zealous against the Irish . . . The settlement of this kingdom will be one of the knottiest pieces in the king’s government.’38 Ned Vernon admitted the English settlers were discontented ‘and the Irish do not carry themselves prudently, being too much puffed up’.39
The lord lieutenant was delighted to receive royal endorsement for his tactics and actions, being told by Bennet that Charles II had his letter detailing the discovery of the plot ‘to be twice read to him’ and had ‘notified his approval, as well as the extension of mercy to certain participators willing to give evidence as of the speedy execution of the chief criminals’. In general, the king had approved of Ormond’s ‘vigour and steadiness in abiding the plot’.40 He wrote back to Whitehall, expressing gratification for the king’s reaction and promising that ‘no time will be lost in trying those who are [held] and indicting those who are fled, but the lawyers tell me great care must be taken in putting together evidence as any flaw may lead to a failure and the prisoners are too well friended not to have any point taken which is to their advantage’.41
He also urged the arrest of Stephen Charnock, who had fled to London via Chester, using the alias of ‘Clark’ – information given him by James Tanner, now a much-relieved recipient of the royal prerogative of mercy. This ‘pretended minister . . . is deeply implicated in the late plot’ and after going to England
and whilst the plot was in contriving, he wrote hither a letter signifying that if the business was ripe here a person (not named in the letter but interpreted by one Thomas Blood . . . to be Henry Cromwell) would soon be here ‘to seal the writings’ but [this was] interpreted by Blood to be ‘head the party’ [or coup].
Charnock lodges with Robert Littlebury, stationer, at the sign of the Unicorn in Little Britain [in London]42 and Littlebury can say where he is if he is not there.
It is absolutely necessary that he be sought out and apprehended . . .43
Ever co-operative, Tanner disclosed that letters to Charnock should be addressed to Littlebury but have the letter ‘C’ inserted below the address, so the minister would know they had been sent by the Dublin conspirators. ‘Unless you go warily’, he warned Sir George Lane, ‘you will hardly meet with Charnock.’ He also penned a letter to Charnock himself.44
Additional proof of Tanner’s value as a turncoat came a few days later, when he wrote to another plotter, Major Staples, urging him to turn himself in and ‘make an ingenuous confession of his whole knowledge of the plot. The evidence is clear’, he warned him, adding ominously: ‘and the law will condemn us all. The duke [Ormond] inclines to mercy.’45
Arrests continued throughout Ireland and, with seventy suspects now crowding the prison in Dublin Castle, there was a need to find additional accommodation to house the detainees. Eventually, a nineteen-year lease was procured on Proudfoot’s Castle, a four-storey square tower on the city quay wall alongside the River Liffey at the southern end of Fishshamble Street, and work began on its conversion
into a new jail.46
Ormond remained worried about the chances of convicting the conspirators, taking advice from Patrick Darcy, ‘a learned counsel’47 lodging at the Boar’s Head, Dublin, on a number of occasions in May and June on various points of law.48 The lord lieutenant reported that Sir James Barry, First Baron Santry,49 chief justice of the Irish court of King’s Bench, ‘who is an honest man and good lawyer, thinks that the prisoners should be tried by a special commission . . . I have ordered him to consult with the other justices and king’s counsel and agree on the easiest and quickest way of proceeding’.50 Later Ormond acknowledged that, in deciding to ‘proceed promptly to prosecute the conspirators’, he had ‘overruled the scruples of some of the judges’.51
Vernon had few doubts about the legal methodology necessary to win successful convictions. In a letter to Williamson, he radiated confidence not only that the prosecutors possessed sufficient proof against the ringleaders, but also that an existing criminal law could be deployed effectively:
[There is] an excellent statute of tenth [year] of Henry Vllth.52 ’Tis but ten lines but they are pithy and make [clear] that all persons who shall design against the lord lieutenant [or] deputy or stir up the Irishry against the Englishry or Englishry against the Irishry are, to use their own words, guilty of treason.
It is plain that we are in danger between two rebellious people and I, between two stools, am going to the ground.
Whilst serving my prince here, my own family wants me. You taste the delights of England whilst I eat shamrocks.53
In a further attempt to suppress Presbyterian unrest, on 16 June, Ormond and his Irish Council signed a proclamation instructing the presidents of the Irish provinces to arrest all ‘such ministers or pretended ministers that you find cause to suspect (to have had any hand in the late conspiracy or to be likely, by their preaching,) to seduce the people from their due obedience and subjection to his majesty’s authority, ecclesiastical or civil’.54 He also signed orders for the seizure of unauthorised firearms, ordering searches in the city and county of Dublin. Confiscated weapons should be placed ‘in a secure place’ and anyone who did not surrender their firearms ‘shall be deemed disaffected to the king and will be proceeded against accordingly’.55
The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood Page 5