The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Allen
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history and antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and other parts adjacent ... Continued to the present time / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![pocket; but nothing was about his neck, [although when he went from home he had a large laced band on,] and a mark was all round it, an inch broad, which shewed he was strangled. His breast was likewise all over marked with bruises, and his neck was broken :— and it was visible he was first strangled, and then carried to that place, where his sword was run through his dead body.”^ This full confirmation of the suspicions of the public, for that sir Edmondbury was murdered, had been the general discourse long before any proof appeared, was regarded as a direct testimony of the existence of the Popish Plot ; and though the king, in his opening speech to the parliament, which met on the 25th of the month, took but a very slight notice of the rumoured conspiracy, both houses entered into the examination with great ardour; and the commons ordered war- rants to be signed for the apprehension of twenty-six persons, who had been implicated by Oates, and among whom were the lords Powis, Stafford, Arundel of Wardour, Petre, and Bellasis, and Sir Henry Tichborne, Bart.; these noblemen surrendered themselves, and were committed to^he Tower. Shortly afterwards, all popish recusants were commanded, by proclamation, to depart fiom the ,cities of London and Westminster, and all places within ten miies. The papists, says Rapin, accordingly departed out of London ; though for so short a space, that in less than a fortnight they returned again, whether they had leave from their leaders to take the oaths, or knew that such proclamations were never strictly en- forced.” t On the last day of October, the remains of sir Edmondbury ^Oodfrey, which had been embalmed, were carried with great so- Jemnity from Bridewell hospital to St. Martin’s church, to be in- /terred. The pall was supported by eight knights, all justices of the peace, and the procession was attended by all the city aldermen, together with seventj^-two London ministers, who walked in cou- ples before the body ; and great multitudes followed after, in the same order. As yet, however, the perpetrators of his murder had not been discovered, though a reward of 500/. and the king’s pro- tection had been offered to any person making the disclosure; but within a few days afterwards, one William Bedloe, a man of aban- doned character, who had once been servant to the lord Bellasis, and afterwards an ensign in the Low Countries, was brought to London from Bristol, where he had been arrested by his own desire, on affirming that he was acquainted with some circumstances relat- ino* to Godfrey’s death. On his different examinations, he stated that he had seen the murdered body in Somerset-house (then the queen’s residence,) and had been offered a large sum of money fo assist in removing h.l He also corroborated Oates’s testimony in * Bur. Hist. i. 429. Purnet, “ that he saw Godfrey’s body in T Bap. nis5t. ii. 692. Somerset-house, it was remembered X “ Besides Bedloe’s oath,” says that, at that time, the queen was for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29310775_0462.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
