The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood

by Robert Hutchinson

  46 ff.51–2 – Bennet to Ormond; the king ‘wonders if [Ormond] could get further [details about] the last plot’ and discover whether it had ‘any connections with England and Scotland in both which there is certainly much combustible matter, if a fire should ever break forth, from which God keep us’; Whitehall, 15 May 1663.

  f.55 – Bennet to Ormond; the king ‘approves in general of [Ormond’s] vigour and steadiness in abiding the plot’; Whitehall, 1 June 1663.

  ff.61–4 – Bennet to Ormond. Despite diligent inquiries, no trace of Charnock has been found in London. Colonel Gibby Carr’s wife, also in London, has produced testimony from magistrates in Rotterdam that he had been ‘constantly seen there these six months’ . . . but ‘perhaps ’tis a bought testimonial only’; Whitehall, 27 June 1663.

  ff.357–8 – Arlington to Ormond. Reports on the arrival in Ireland of ‘Blood and other notorious conspirators’ who were ‘hoping to work effectually their wicked ends upon the . . . militia especially’. Some of his informers had offered to go to Ireland; Whitehall, 28 August 1666.

  ff.363–4 – Arlington to Ormond. The government was unable ‘to trace out or suspect that [the Great Fire of London] was either contrived or fomented by any of the discontented party’; Whitehall, 7 September 1666.

  f.383 – Arlington to Ormond. The bearer of this letter, is sent into Ireland, with the intention of taking Blood; Whitehall, 12 October 1666.

  49 f.193 – Ormond to Colonel Gorges, urging ‘uttermost vigilance’ – it was certain that the plotters had intelligence from Derry by means of one Staples, some of whose former company remain in the city’s garrison; Dublin Castle, 25 May 1663.

  f.216 – Ormond to Clarendon, announcing Colonel Vernon’s departure to London; Dublin Castle, 14 July 1663.

  59 f.86 – Instructions by the lord lieutenant for the seizure of firearms in Ireland; 16 June 1663.

  68 f.562 – Report of the trial of prisoners upon commission of oyer and terminer; 23 February 1664.

  f.564 – Ormond and Council of Ireland to Bennet; reporting that some two months ago, intelligence had been supplied to the lord lieutenant of a conspiracy to seize Dublin Castle and his own person. Due precautions were taken and some conspirators seized; Dublin, 23 May 1663.

  f.574 – Alexander Jephson’s last speech on the gallows; Dublin, [July] 1663.

  ff.576–8 – Edward Warren’s speech at his execution; Dublin, 15 July 1663.

  f.580 – Instructions by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the governors of Carrickfergus, Derry and Galway to search diligently for conspirators and to secure the security of their garrisons; Dublin Castle; 19 May 1663.

  69 f.164r – Blood’s apology to Ormond.

  71 ff.388–9 – Proclamation ‘upon the occasion of the late conspiracy’ signed by the lord lieutenant and members of the Council of Ireland.

  114 f.505 – Edward Tanner to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Staples, recommending that Staples throws himself on Ormond’s mercy and ‘make an ingenuous confession of his whole knowledge of the plot. The evidence is clear and the law will condemn us all’; 15 June 1663.

  118 f.63 – Narrative of the discourse between Alexander Jephson of Trim, Co. Meath and Sir Theophilus Jones; Lucan, 19 May 1663.

  143 ff.96–97 – Ormond to Edward Hyde, lord chancellor, on how the plot against Dublin Castle was discovered; Dublin Castle, 7 March 1663.

  ff.128–31 – Ormond to the king: memorandum on the constitution of his majesty’s army in Ireland and proposals to ‘bring it to the condition’ his majesty would have it in, with details of what had been discovered about the late plot; Dublin Castle, 8 May 1663.

  f.133v – Ormond to the king, reporting that the conspiracy was more widespread than he first believed and warning that a coup d’état could still be mounted, with an intercepted letter about the plot; Dublin Castle, 30 May 1663.

  f.133r – Ormond to Bennet, urging that some conspirators should be pardoned to entice them to turn king’s evidence and praising Colonel Edward Vernon’s role in uncovering the plot; Dublin Castle, 30 May 1663.

  ff.142r–v – Ormond to Bennet, warning of the problems of bringing prosecutions under martial law; Dublin Castle, 13 June 1663.

  144 f.26v – Order signed by Ormond for the immediate return of all officers of His Majesty’s Army in Ireland to their respective garrisons and quarters; Dublin Castle, May 1663.

  f.123 – Petition of Mary Roberts, widow, to Ormond, praying for the satisfaction of a debt owed to her by Lieutenant Richard Thompson, executed for treason, from his estate forfeited to the crown; c. 10 November 1663.

  159 f.66 – Elizabeth Warren, widow to Ormond: Edward Warren, her late husband, ‘in time of great sickness was wrought upon by the pestilential insinuation of one Blood to join with him in his plot against the castle of Dublin for which offence he hath satisfied the sentence of the law by the loss of his life . . . ’. Her marriage portion of £400 was used to purchase land in Ballybrittan, Co. Meath, which, ‘with other [confiscated] lands, worth about £500, a year, were since lost to him, and restored to the proprietors, by decree of the Court of Claims . . .’. She begs that her late husband’s small remaining estate, now forfeited, may be remitted to her and her seven children.

  f.175 – Petition of Captain Toby Barnes to Ormond to become custodian of Blood’s former lands in Counties Meath and Wicklow; [? 1 February] 1664.

  f.175v – Warrant signed by Ormond to the Barons of the Exchequer for the grant of custodian of Blood’s former lands, if found to be at his majesty’s disposal; 4 February 1664.

  165 f.111 – Warrant signed by Ormond for the removal of Dubliners living in rooms overlooking the city’s ports and replacing them with soldiers ‘for the better security of the city’; Dublin Castle, 30 May 1663.

  f.116v – Warrant, signed by Ormond, for the recapture of Philip Alden, ‘late a prisoner in Dublin Castle’ under charge of high treason; Dublin Castle, 18 June 1663.

  214 f.438 – Major Thomas Barrington to Sir George Lane, reporting rumours that his name was mentioned during the investigation of the Dublin Castle plot and that he expected every hour to be arrested ‘to his disparagement’. If Sir George sent a guard, he would ‘instantly wait upon him’; Dublin, 22 May 1663.

  f.442 – Ormond to Philip Alden, sent via Colonel Vernon ‘for security’ seeking more information about the plot to help find ‘the bottom of the plot . . . in some way that it may not spoil the use of future intelligence’; Dublin Castle, 18 March, 1663.

  f.446 – Ormond to Philip Alden, seeking information on ‘who are at the head of the design for taking the castle’; Dublin, 4 March 1663.

  f.448 – Philip Alden to Ormond, disclosing details of a plot to capture Dublin Castle; 4 March 1663.

  f.534 – Earl of Mount-Alexander to Ormond, announcing the capture of ‘Blood’s only guide and protector in the County of Antrim’ and entreating Ormond always ‘to have about his person a sufficient guard’; Newtown, 25 August 1663.

  221 ff.52–3 – Bennet to Ormond: the king has had Ormond’s letter to him about the late conspiracy read twice to him and has agreed to extend mercy to those willing to turn king’s evidence; Whitehall, 6 June 1663.

  228 f.151 – Newsletter addressed to Thomas Wharton at Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, about Lord Sunderland’s interview with Thomas Blood; Whitehall, 3 March 1679.

  Clarendon MSS

  34 f.27v – Account of the attempted kidnapping of Colonel Thomas Rainborowe at Doncaster, Yorkshire; 29 October 1648.

  MSS English History

  C.487 – Edmund Ludlow, A Voyce from the Watchtower.

  MSS English Letters

  C.53 f.131. P. Maddocks to Sir Robert Southwell, 14 November 1684 about Ormond’s reactions to reform of the standing army in Ireland and of the administration in Dublin.

  D.3 f.84 – Letter from Williamson describing Blood’s attempted theft of the Crown Jewels as ‘one of the strangest any story can tell’ and that his capture was worth ‘ten times the
value [of the] Crown’.

  Rawlinson MSS

  A.185 (Pepys Papers) f.471r–472r – Narrative describing Blood’s attempt to steal the crown.

  f.473v – Joseph Williamson’s ‘address-book’; correspondence with a ‘Mr. T.B.’ in Zeeland in the Dutch United Provinces in 1666; entries 38–44.

  f.473r–475 – Copy of notes from Blood’s pocketbook, listing his ‘deliverances since I was for the Lord’s cause’ including his wanderings in the north of England in late 1663 and his near-arrest in London around the time of the Great Fire of 1666; also his religious resolutions and duties.

  C.978 – Life of John Wallis, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford, by Rev. John Lewis, minister at Margate, 1735. (Another copy is in BL Add. MS. 32,601.)

  D.916 f.99 – Description of Captain Martin Beckman.

  f.101 – Instructions by Charles II to investigate Beckman’s contacts with the Dutch ambassador in London.

  Western MSS

  28,184 f.250 – Account of the two licensed nonconformist congregations in Oxford, 1672.

  The British Library 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB

  Additional Manuscripts

  10,115 – Williamson papers on projected war with France in 1677.

  f.73 – Blood’s two sons serving in Royal Navy.

  28,077 – Minute book recording business in the office of Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, lord high treasurer; 19 June 1673–31 March 1675.

  f.139 Payment of £4,000 to secretaries of state for intelligence purposes, to be paid from funds collected by the hearth tax or ‘chimney money’; October 1674.

  32,99 f.377 – Letter from Dr John Wallis, Savilian professor of geometry, to his friend, John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, denying the truth of charges made against him of deciphering letters of Charles I, captured by parliamentary forces after the Battle of Naseby; Oxford, 8 April 1685.

  36,916 – Ashton Papers. Newsletters sent to Sir Willoughby Aston by John Starkey and H. Skipwith from London; 17 October 1667–9 January 1672.

  f.233 – Capture of Blood reported and his description as ‘formerly a captain in the old king’s army under Sir Lewis Dyve’.

  41,254 – Letter book of Thomas Belasyse, Second Viscount Fauconberg, lord lieutenant of North Yorkshire; 16 June 1665 to 18 August 1684.

  f.7r – Letter to Charles II naming John Mason as being involved in the Great Fire of London.

  44,915 – Papers collected by Robert Cole on the provision of the new regalia for the coronation of Charles II.

  f.1–2 – Treasury order for payment to Robert Viner (later lord mayor of London) of £21,97 9s 11d for the new regalia.

  f.3 – Receipt signed by Robert Viner for £5,000 in part payment for the regalia.

  ff.5–12 – Lists of the regalia provided for Charles II’s coronation in the custody of Sir Gilbert Talbot, master and treasurer of the jewels and plate.

  47,128 – Egmont Papers. Miscellaneous poems copied by First Lord Egmont before 1748.

  f.13r – Poem beginning: ‘When daring Blood his Rent to have regained . . .’ attributed to Andrew Marvell, 1671.

  47,133 – Egmont Papers. Morland’s Brief Discourse containing the nature and reason of intelligence, ff.8–13.

  Egerton MSS

  2,539 – Official and private correspondence of Sir Edward Nicholas, secretary of state, and his son, Sir John, clerk to the Privy Council, 1660–1704.

  f.101 – Petition of William Garret to Williamson for the position of ‘tide-waiter’ in reward for his past service in sending intelligence to Williamson’s predecessor as secretary of state; October, 1662.

  ff.142–3 – Letter from Sir John Nicholas to his father.

  Harley MSS

  2,161 f.158 – Pedigree of Richard Hunt of Limehurst, showing Margaret Hunt’s marriage to John Holcroft.

  6,859 – Memoirs and narratives by Sir Gilbert Talbot.

  ff.1–17 – Account of Blood’s attempt to steal the Crown Jewels.

  Lansdowne MSS

  1,152, vol. 1 – Papers of William Bridgeman, later under-secretary of state to the Earl of Sunderland in the reign of James II.

  f.238v – Nicholas Cooke and Henry Lavening to Sir Bourchier Wrey, bart., on the capture of [Captain Robert Perrot], one of the Monmouth rebels, Brendon, Somerset; 30 July 1685.

  f.238r – Ralph Alexander named as being suspected of involvement in the attempted theft of the Crown Jewels.

  Sloane MSS

  2,448 – ff.15 – ‘Necessities for fortifying Tangier’ noted by ‘T.S. Bekman’ [Captain Martin Beckman] c.1661.

  1,941 – Papers of Dr Nehemiah Grew of London, mainly seventeenth-century poems and songs.

  f.18 – A stanza ‘upon Blood’s attempting to steal the crown’ in Latin and English.

  3,413 – Papers of Dr Walter Charleton [d.1707] of Norwich.

  - f.29r – Poem by Andrew Marvell on Blood’s attempted theft of the Crown. Latin and English.

  Stowe MSS

  202 Essex Papers, May–August 1673.

  f.81 – Warrant in favour of Thomas Blood senior in Ireland, 1673.

  John Rylands Library 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH

  Tatton Park MS 68.20 – Nehemiah Wallington, Great Marcys Continued: or yet God is good to Israel; f.210, an account of the siege of Sherborne Castle, Dorset, 1645.

  Lancashire Record Office Bow Lane, Preston PR1 2RE

  DDX 2670/1 – Notes on the Holcroft family, compiled by J. Paul Rylands, 1877.

  DP/23 – Depositions of Leonard Egerton esquire of Shawe; Holcroft Linford gentleman, of Little Walden and John Peers, yeoman, of Glas-brooke, in Egerton v John Holcroft esquire of Holcroft concerning money borrowed for the purchase of the manors of Holcroft and Pursfurlong; November 1666; certified by Hugh Standish and William Berrington, 6 May 1683.

  DP/397/25/4 – Notes on defendants’ title in lawsuit over the manors and lands of Holcroft, Pesfurlong, Culneth and Risley, Lancashire, c.4 December 1657.

  QSP/147/3 – Information of Margaret, widow of Colonel John Holcroft esq., against Thomas Holcroft esq., Hamlet Holcroft the younger, gent., Joseph Key, Robert Drinkwater, husbandman and Richard Deane, miller, all of Holcroft, Culcheth; Quarter Sessions petitions, Ormskirk, Lancashire, midsummer 1657. Damaged.

  QSP/547/15 – Ejection of John Southworth of Cadeshead, Lancashire, and his mother Margaret by Richard Caveley, c. 1681–2.

  House of Lords Record Office Houses of Parliament, London SW1A OPW

  HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352 – Records of House of Lords’ inquiry into the assault on the duke of Ormond; 14 January 1671.

  (b) Attestations of Mathew Pretty and William Wilson at the Bull Head tavern, London.

  (c1) Information of William Done.

  (C2) Information of John Jones, victualler at the White Swan tavern in Queen’s Street, London.

  (C4) Information of Thomas Trishaire, W. Tayler and Michael Beresford.

  (d1) Examination of John Hurst.

  (e1) Deposition of Thomas Drayton, a constable of Lambeth, Surrey.

  (e2) Deposition of John Buxton, of Bell Alley, Coleman Street, London.

  (e3) Deposition of Margaret Boulter, aged twelve years, niece of Richard Halliwell.

  (e4) Deposition of John Buxton.

  (e5) Deposition of Elizabeth Price.

  (e6) Deposition of Samuel Holmes.

  (e7) Deposition of Holmes’s servant.

  (e9) Deposition of Thomas Weyer.

  (e10) Deposition of William Gant.

  (e11) Deposition of Mrs Price and William Mumford.

  (e12) Deposition of Katherine Halliwell.

  (e13) Deposition of Barnaby Bloxton, tailor.

  (g1) Letter of Judge Morton to the Duke of Ormond.

  (g2) Copy of JPs’ warrant.

  (g3) Record of conviction against Hunt.

  (g4) Receipt of Thomas Hunt, dated 17 October 1670, relating to the recovery of his pistol, sword and belt, in the custody of Thomas Drayton, constable of Lambeth.

 
(g6) Letter from T[homas] A[llen] to Mrs Mary Hunt, dated 17 November 1670, and addressed to ‘Mr Davyes’ house at Moreclack’ (Mortlake, Surrey).

  (h) Summary of previous depositions relating to Halliwell.

  (h1) Letter from T[homas] A[llen] to Mr Holloway [Halliwell].

  (h2) Letter from T[homas] A[llen] to Mr Holloway [Halliwell].

  (h4) Paper endorsed ‘Fifth Monarchy’.

  (h6) Letter from Richard Halliwell.

  (h7) Letter from Richard Halliwell to the lord mayor.

  (h8) Depositions of William Mosely and his daughter Honour Mosely, of Blue Anchor Alley, Bunhill, London.

  (h9) Petition of Katherine Halliwell, wife of Richard Halliwell, tobacco-cutter.

  (l) Examination of Francis Johnson, ‘a pretended minister’, living in Gray’s Inn Lane, London, 19 December 1670.

  (m) Information of John Wybourne and George Baker about John Washwhite.

  (m1) Petition of John Washwhite.

  (m2) Petition of John Washwhite.

  (n3) Examination of Thomas Dixey (named in the information John Dixey).

  (n4) Letter from Judge Morton to Mr James Clarke.

  (o) Paper endorsed: ‘An information given to the Lord Arlington concerning the persons that assaulted the Duke of Ormond’.

  (p) Report of the House of Lords’ Committee; 17 February.

  (q) Draft order of the House of Lords; 9 March.

  Manchester Archives Marshall Street, Manchester M4 5FU

  L89/1/23/1 – Commission on Chantries addressed to Sir Thomas Holcroft, John Holcroft and two others relating to chantries of Stretford and Manchester; 13 February 1546.

  National Archives of Ireland Kildare Street, Dublin 2

  MSS

  451 – Pedigrees and other genealogical data compiled by Alfred Molony relating to the Brereton, Blood and Blount families.

  12,816 – An account of the family of Blood, mainly of Co. Clare, descended from Edmond Blood MP, with blazons of arms.

  The National Archives Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU

  America and Colonial Papers

  CO/21, no 170. West Indies papers, 1667.

  Assize Records

  ASSI 35/111/5, f.4 – Surrey assizes at Guildford; Indictment of Thomas Hunt, alias Thomas Blood, for highway robbery at Croydon; 4 July 1670. Damaged.