For Liberty's Sake

Front matter

STfcAHAN k CO., 56, LUDJATE HTLL, L0NDi.»N. ■ MUIR AND PATERSON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. By JOHN B. MARSH AUTHOR OF " THE STORY OF HARECOURT " "VENICE AND THE VENETIANS*' ETC. ETC. ETC. STRAHAN & CO. 56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON £tt0cti&sti WITH SINCERE RESPECT TO JOHN JAFFRAY, ESQ. OF PARK GROVE, EDGBASTON WARWICKSHIRE PRE FAC E "D OBERT FERGUSON, the hero of these pages, has one great claim to public attention. He has been abused by every historian of the seventeenth century, and has never been heard in his own defence. So far as he is con cerned, I have allowed him to speak for himself; and the share he is represented as taking is drawn entirely from letters in his handwriting now in existence. While searching in the State Paper Office for documents relating to another person, I accidentally found a number of letters, written in such a peculiar style, that there could be no doubt they were all from the same pen.

Only two out of thirty-eight bore the name of the writer, " Robert Ferguson ;" the others being signed either " Thine " or " R. ff." One letter is dated 1668, one is pro-

Preface

bably 1679 j six written in Holland are dated 1682 ; eight, also written in Holland, bear date 1683 ; eighteen of the same year, were written in various places of concealment in London ; and one, the last, was probably also written in 1683, from Holland. The whole of these letters were intended for his wife Hannah Ferguson ; and by far the greater portion were intercepted before reaching her hands. A few did reach her, and one bears upon it some notes, probably in her handwriting, of the way in which she laid out four or five shillings. The letters appeared to me to furnish such an interesting insight into the domestic relations of one of the most celebrated men of the age, that I determined to use them as the groundwork of this story. There is also in the same Office a closely written MS., relating to the Rye House Plot, sufficient to fill five columns of the Times, in the handwriting of Ferguson, which supplies facts relating to that conspiracy that have never been brought before the world.

Taking that MS., and the letters, a complete account was furnished of events by an active partisan, in the most interesting period of English history, from 1682 to 168S. The

PREFACE.

IX explanation they give of the part taken by Fergu son in the Rye House Plot is quite natural ; and one that better consorts with his character than that attributed to him by every writer up to the present time. To this brief statement of the origin of these pages I have only to add my warm acknowledg ments of the valuable assistance and the unvarying courtesy I have received from the able staff of officials in the State Paper Office. JOHN B. MARSH. London. CONTENTS Chap. Page I. The Bookseller of Hatton Garden, . . i II. A Desperate Plot, . . . . 21 III. Shaftesbury in Hiding, .... 36 IV. Plot and Counter- Plot, .... 52 V. Fugitives from England, .... 72 VI. Mrs. Ferguson at the Crown Inn, . . 93 VII. Letters from Holland, . . . .112 VIII. More Letters from Holland . . . 132 IX. Hiding and Conspiring, .... 157 X. Country Friends and City Adventures, . . 1S1 XL Witchcraft and Dissent .... 203 XII.

The Conspirators Dispersed, . . . 226 XIII. In Newgate, ..... 255 XIV. Marriage and Death, .... 276 XV. In Holland and in Newgate . . . 305 XVI. Lovers, ...... CONTENTS XII Chap. Pace XVII. Dashed Hopes, ..... 335 XVIII. The Two Friends, 351 XIX. Escaped Again, ..... 375 XX. Liberty, ...... 395 Notes, . . . . . .411

Chapter I. The Bookseller Of Hatton Garden

"TV /TARRY, is it May-day to be lip-clapping in that manner? Saturday, go to the shop : Moll, I'm ashamed of you." The culprits so addressed were a youth and maiden who were scuffling in a little room behind a bookseller's shop, in Hatton Garden, and the speaker Mrs. Ferguson, who entered at the moment when the object of the romp had been obtained. Saturday slunk off, muttering that Moll had called him, and joined another youth who was engaged removing books which lay during the day on wooden ledges before the shop. " There were loud shouts in the street, Mistress : some cried, ' God bless Papillon and Dubois,' and some 'God bless the Mayor,' and I did, but call Saturday to know what it was all about." A ? i - The look of innocent simplicity on the girl's face appeased her angry mistress. " 'Twas not the time then," said she, " to call Saturday from his work, leaving Roger to take care of the books alone.

There may be sad work this night, and the sooner every door is fast the better. Prythee, where are Hannah and Frank ? " " Here I am mother, and Frank is now in bed." This was the voice of Hannah, a graceful little maiden, fourteen years of age, who entered the room, just in time to answer the question. Like her mother, she wore a plain grey dress, with long sleeves, and her shoulders were covered with a white collar which came to a point below the breast. The similarity in the costumes was almost ludicrous ; and the resemblance in features was very marked. There was this difference only between them, that little Hannah had black eyes to match her raven hair, while her mother had grey eyes. For one so young there was too much gravity in her face ; but this only seemed to be the reflection of the careworn countenance of her mother.

THE BOOKSELLER OF HA TTON GARDEN 3 " I was sitting above, in the window seat, mother, reading to Frank about Christian in Vanity Fair, when the shouting in the streets startled me ; and Frank would go to bed. Will they come here, mother, and shall we be taken to Newgate ?" , Her mother sat upon a stool, and drawing Han nah to her side, imprinted a kiss upon her forehead. " No, my child," she said, " not to-night certainly. But what may happen in the suture only God can tell." The thought of that future appeared to give Mrs. Ferguson intense sorrow, and tears unbidden flowed down her cheeks. Little Hannah, with a gravity born of rude experience, vanquished the fear that oppressed her for the moment. " Surely, mother, Christian's Guide will be with us in the future. I know I am a silly child to ask you such a question.

Marry, now be comforted : is not father coming on the morrow?" Mrs. Ferguson restrained herself with an effort ; and hand in hand the two passed out of the kitchen and sat down on a rude bench under the garden porch of the house. Moll bustled about the kitchen, rattling the pewter plates on one another, and hurrying from cupboard to dresser, as though her situation de pended on the amount of noise she could pro duce. But it was evident that no work remained to be done below, and seeing that her mistress intended to remain in the porch, Moll crept upstairs to amuse herself with such glimpses of the street as she could obtain through the narrow casement of a room above. Mrs. Ferguson and her daughter Hannah (both bore the same Christian name) each drew solace from the presence of nature. They sat for some time in silence, little Hannah with one arm clasped about her mother's waist, and her mother's arm round hers.

The flowers with their bright colours and sweet scents, the trees with their waving branches full of merry birds, the clear blue sky, telling of Him whose presence was all around, subdued and harmonized the hearts of both mother and daughter. Mrs. Ferguson's path for several years prior to that September afternoon in 1682 had lain through difficulties and sorrows, which advanc ing time increased instead of diminished. Robert Ferguson, her husband, was one of those ejected in from their livings for Nonconformity ; and the twenty years that had elapsed were consumed in a fruitless striving with the persecution to which they were subjected, in common with thou sands of others. That day the apprehensions of all dissenters in London had reached a climax by the fraud perpetrated at the Guildhall, in the election of Sheriff Peter Rich to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Master Box.

Sir John Moore, the Lord Mayor, had managed, in accordance with the suggestion of Charles II., to put in two Sheriffs of acknowledged Tory principles — Dudley North and Peter Rich. Charles was determined to bear down the stubborn inde pendence of the City, which had up to that time resisted alike his threats and his solicitations. But with sheriffs devoted to him he knew well he could crush any opposition to his will. As mother and daughter sat beneath the porch they were separately revolving the same problem. Hannah was the first to break silence. " Mother, Frank asked me such a strange question this afternoon. He wanted to know if he went after Christian, which way he would have to go — along Cow Lane, through Smithfield, or up Snow Hill, through Newgate?" " I should have replied ' through Newgate,' Hannah," said her mother, just because that answer fitted most naturally with the course of thought running through her own mind.

At that moment there was borne upon the evening breeze a dull roaring sound, as of a multitude shouting at no great distance. Mrs. Ferguson started in sudden alarm. " I fear there is a rising, Hannah. The City was dreadfully excited this afternoon over the election. Would to God my Robert was at home! We had better fasten the house." They rose from the bench, and stepping within, bolted and barred the door. By this time the shop was also shut. A huge shutter suspended on hinges closed the space where the books were exhibited, and was fastened on the inside by heavy iron bars. " Where is Saturday ? " said Mrs. Ferguson noticing his absence from the shop. " He is gone, mistress, to see the riot," replied Roger Sitwell, the junior apprentice. " And has taken his club with him, I warrant." "Yes, forsooth, he said if heads were to be cracked his club should speak," replied Roger, laughing.

" I am glad you did not go fooling about the streets. Now your master is away, I need a stout hand and a brave heart like you have to help, if need be, to defend the house." Roger blushed with pleasure at the compliment of his mistress, which was appropriate ; for she knew it was not from want of courage that he stayed at home. Roger closed the shop door ; and then drawing a lute from his pocket, commenced playing one of the most popular songs of the day. He was an excellent musician ; and could play any tune after hearing it two or three times. Assured of the safety of the lower part of the house, Mrs. Ferguson betook herself to an upper chamber, from the projecting window of which she could see up and down Hatton Garden, while the small diamond shaped glass screened her from observation.

There she sat for more than an hour, Hannah by her side, talking in low tones about Providence and God, the noisy shouts in the streets adjacent putting strange periods to their sentences ; and above them, Moll, with her head stretched through the open casement, drank in as much excitement and gratification as the distant uproar afforded. Thus the evening passed in that household ; and as darkness rose Mrs. Ferguson dismissed all to bed. She was too excited to sleep herself, and a train of thought took possession of her mind to which she gave full play. That day marked another period in her life ; of that she felt assured ; and memory set before her other periods about which there clung sad or tender reminiscences. Associated with her thoughts there was a certain letter written to her by her husband fourteen years before, which she treasured as carefully as her marriage certificate ; and both lay together in the secret drawer of a work-box, the first gift of her husband.

She got a brass candlestick, removed the false bottom, which contained flint, steel and tinder, and in a few minutes had kindled a light. Then she drew forth the letter. There was not the least necessity for her to do so in order to recall the words, because they were engraven on her mind, but it was pleasant at such a time to trace the writing of his hand, whose absence from her grew every day more irksome. Opening the sheet carefully, and shading the light with one hand, she read the words aloud, as though by so doing she derived a fresh meaning from them. The letter ran thus : " My own and only dear, — I already find that whatever I enjoy at home cannot complete a satisfaction while thou art wanting, neither have I the least desire to raise a contentment from the company of friends, as knowing it were but vainly to pursue that elsewhere which you alone can perfect.

How ever, these little divorces are sometimes requisite to enchance a value. What we are constantly in the fruition of that we seldom justly prize. I desire to esteem thee next to Him who is above all esteem, and oh ! that both solitude and society might further lead us into love of, and admiration of Him, who must be our all when all ceases to be. Im prove the country to the utmost of what it can yield, and let not my absence eclipse the content that otherwise thou wouldest find. After due com mandment to friends, I subjoin that I am, dearest io FOR LIBERTY'S SAKE heart, entirely thine, Ro. FERGUSON. August 22 1668." How sweetly every word sounded in that silent chamber, after the roar and confusion of the day. " Dearest heart, entirely thine," she murmured, and then again, " My own and only dear.

Wrhat a life is this that separates husband from wife, father from children, friend from friend. Even now" (she glanced as she spoke nervously around the room) " I fancy I can hear the rattle of bolts and bars; that child's question haunts me." She stopped in her soliloquy. The sound of rattling bolts smote distinctly on her astonished ear. There was no doubt now in her mind. She rose hastily, and sped down the stairs. In a moment the door was unfastened, and she was clasped in her husband's arms. This was an un expected pleasure; he had returned several hours before she anticipated. The object of his journey was not exactly known to her ; but she knew it related to the same issue for which at that time the Duke of Monmouth was making a tour in Cheshire. He wore the gay dress of a gentleman, a costume which at night enabled the wearer to pass with ease the constables who watched for rogues at certain points, and who from bitter experience had learned not to meddle with one carrying a sword.

As he entered the house he flung his feathered hat upon the floor, then unbuckled his sword, and in a few seconds his embroidered tunic lay with the other articles in a heap. Had the slightest examination of his person been instituted by the civic watchmen they would have found Puritan stamped upon him. His dark brown hair was cut close to his head ; his cheeks were hollow with painful study ; his eyes were sharp and piercing ; one cheek starred with a black patch, not for ornament, but to conceal an issue. A plain white collar lay beneath the cambric of his tunic, and his close fitting grey coat was concealed by a rich vest. Nor had he been so careful in his disguise as to complete the suit ; for his trunk breeches were of the homeliest pattern ; and ribbon bows in place of buckles ornamented his shoes.

Ferguson's first words were those of caution — " Where are the apprentices ?" " Both in their counter-bed — now," replied Mrs. FOR LLBERTYS SAKE 12 Ferguson, pausing slightly before finishing her sen tence. Saturday has been out, then ?" " Yes. Roger remained with us ; but more than an hour ago I heard Saturday enter, and go at once to bed" " Roger is a good lad, — a good lad.' While Ferguson was speaking his wife busied herself with flint and steel, kindled a light, and fixed a candle in a pewter stick upon the oak dresser. " My dearest, I am well nigh famished. I have been in the City these five hours, among the rioters, and have not tasted a morsel of anything to eat. The evil days have come upon us in a flood. We are all as dead men if we do not rise. Let the righteous prepare for the day of God in battle."

As he spoke he clasped his hands together, and raised them for an instant in the air, as though invoking the help of God. Then he shambled to a high-backed wooden chair, richly carved, a relic of happier days, and dropped upon the seat with the air of a man utterly weary and dispirited. A horn of milk and a dish of porridge, with a platter of bread, were quickly produced and set before him on a little round table. Mrs. Ferguson saw that her husband was more than usually excited and depressed, so for several moments she sat on a stool beside him, silent. She noticed that he ate as one ravenously hungry, and drank the milk in great gulps, and, unlike himself, spoke no word to her. What new sorrow was born ? Was this strange change in him the substance of the shadow which, with deepening gloom, was oppress ing her ?

Would this heaviness soon pass away ? These were some of the perplexing thoughts which agitated her mind as she watched him satisfy his hunger and thirst. For up to that night no grief had oppressed the one which the other had not helped to bear and sweeten. But now he was wrestling with some new trouble by himself; she was shut out from that fellowship heart-born of true love. She felt convinced that there was no lessening of love between them, but there was a diminution of confidence; and of the precise object of his journey into Shropshire she was unaware. Her husband divined her thoughts. He read her heart by a glance at her face. " Hannah," he said, in a low and gentle tone, "have no doubt of my love to thee and ours. You and they fill up every chink in my heart ; but press me not to tell all the work I am engaged in.

Are the darling children well?" "Both well; we are all well, my husband, and never think that I shall doubt your love." She spoke as calmly as he had done; but a blanched face told of the secret anguish of her heart as she continued — "But, Robert, why are we to be separated thus; and in your letter you wrote, ' My habit is like to be uncertain.' Was that written of the future?" " It was, my dearest." "And who has called you to this mysterious work?" " God, and our friends, "Were I but certain that you were chosen of God in this I should be silent, though I esteem it a heavy cross to bear; but name your friends to me." " Hannah, I will name some of them to you — I will name three; but, mark me, one day soon, I fear, there will come those who, if they knew you could tell aught, would cast you into Newgate, until the secret was dragged from you."

" Robert, they should drag me on a hurdle to Tyburn, and quarter me alive, ere they got from me the knowledge of anything that you, or any one of our friends, is doing to free the land from that oppression under which it is groaning." She spoke without faltering then; and a few years later, when her husband's suggestion was almost realized, passed the ordeal in triumph. " I believe you. I know I can trust you ; but because I love you I will never let you run such risk unnecessarily. Therefore, my dearest, I must ask of you that faith which believes even where the natural eye cannot see. The friends I would name, by whose special request I journeyed into Shropshire, were Sir Thomas Armstrong, the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the Duke of Monmouth." " Now St. Anthony defend us from evil ! Mis chief, as I live.

Shaftesbury and Monmouth." Those two names were spoken incautiously loud by Ferguson, and had reached the ears of Saturday Jack, who, because of sundry blows he had received, lay awake in pain upon his counter-bed. " The same for whom you took that journey to Holland three years ago, Robert." "The same, Hannah — three men who will save England from the destruction which threatens." Mrs. Ferguson knew of certain business relations between her husband and those named. She was also aware that Shaftesbury and the Duke were meditating a general insurrection, therefore she comprehended at once the character of that work to which her husband referred ; and again she per ceived the rising of a shadow which stretched across her life from that moment, and in the dark gloom of which she was destined to pass away.

" I can trust you, Robert, but the cross laid upon me is a heavy one. I am hardly able to bear the weight with which I am oppressed already. Sepa ration is so like death, where hearts have been accustomed to such love as ours have been en joying." " Hannah, you forget the saying you once quoted to me, when we were turned from our living at Godmarsham, and set our faces towards London, — ' There is a blessing hidden in the worst of things to God's children.' " THE BOOKSELLER OF HA TTON GARDEN 17 "'To God's children!'" she emphasized, "to His children who will come after us, but not to us. Never more to us. Not to any man or woman living. We shall die in Egypt. The mention of the Earl's name reminds me," she added, with a sigh, "that a messenger came from Shaftesbury House yester-noon, a man wearing the Earl's livery, and he bade me say to you, that his master, in the name of Harmony, would see you as soon as you returned."

Her husband clutched her by the arm as she spoke, as though in sudden alarm. " Did the man say those words, did he say ' in the name of Harmony'? " The word " Harmony " was one of the pass words adopted by the leaders of the insurrectionary movement. When spoken, it was accompanied by the rapid unbuttoning and buttoning again of the two top buttons of the tunic or vest. If the action was imitated by the person addressed, they con versed without reserve upon the plot. " Yes, forsooth, those very words," she replied, and I wondered at their strangeness. " Then I must see him at once ; bring hither B those devices of a man-fool and a vain world. How I hate disguise!" Ferguson rose from his chair, and flung off all semblance of weariness with the ease that he had thrown off his disguise on entering.

He seemed suddenly to become endowed with fresh vitality, and in that mood his wife knew no persuasion of hers could turn him from his purpose. He gave her a hurried kiss, and as he left the house the clock of St. Dunstan's struck one. Mrs. Ferguson watched him pass up the street into Holborn, and then with a heavy heart closed the door. The two names which Saturday heard and repeated formed the only portion of the conversa tion which reached his ears. But he heard Fer guson leave the house, and the conviction became settled in his mind that something was going on which he might as well find out. As soon as he heard Mrs. Ferguson ascending the stairs, he awoke Roger, who was sleeping beside him. "Ay, Roger, Roger, good Roger, prythee Roger, give me help." This appeal, seconded by sundry applications of his heels, quickly roused his bed-fellow.

THE BOOKSELLER OF HATTON GARDEN 19 " I cannot sleep," said Saturday, " my head is swelling, and the pain is awful ; put me a plaister thereon, good Roger." There was no better application at hand than one of brown paper steeped in water, and this Roger was not long in applying to a protuberance on the head of Saturday about the size of a pigeon's egg. " I will tell you how it occurred," said Saturday. " The Trainbands were out, and would not let me pass over Fleet Bridge, so I wandered up the street towards Temple Bar. Dost hear, Roger ? " " Ay, forsooth." " Over against the 'Young Devil ' were two butchers setting upon one weaver. ' Marry,' said I, ' two to one is one too many' ' Up with your club for the weaver,' said the butchers ; and I, nothing loth, raised my club. ' Tickle me quickly! ' quoth I. Whereupon one caught me a whirret on the ear, and before I could return the blow crack went the club on my pate, and down I fell.

Upon this the butchers ran away." Roger laughed. FOR LIBERTY S SAKE 20 " 'Twas no laughing matter. By St. Anthony I will crack every butcher's head I meet. ' Tickle me quickly!' quoth I, whereupon one caught me a whirr — rr — et." The plaister numbed the pain, and the sufferer slumbered before he could repeat the sentence.

Chapter II

A DESPERATE PLOT. A T the moment Ferguson left his house in Hatton Garden his name was spoken in an inner room of a mansion in Aldersgate Street, known as Shaftesbury House. The Earl and Colonel Rumsey were sitting at a table covered with a costly Turkey cloth, littered with letters, the ink on which sparkled with silver sand. The chamber served as study and library to the noble Earl, the great defender of the rights of the people of Eng land. There was a magnificently carved cabinet behind the Earl's chair, on which lay ponderous quarto volumes bound in parchment, the edges clasped with steel. There was little display in the furniture of the room. The cabinet, the plain table, four carved high backed chairs ; the walls pannelled with oak, a ceiling wrought in quaint device : such was the chamber and its contents.

The Earl appeared to be much excited about something. He could not rest. Twice in a quarter of an hour he rose from his chair, and paced the room hurriedly. He was short of stature, on account of which the common people styled him " the little Earl." He was habited in a light-coloured stuff suit, ornamented with black and silver lace. The ten years which had elapsed since he sat at the King's council table were years of constant anxiety to him, and they wrought sad havoc both in body and mind. His face, which was wrinkled, had lost all expression of hope or joy ; his eyes, which were deep sunk in his head, were spiritless, and his voice weak and hesitant. He was the mere wreck of his nobler self, and the easy victim of such a man as Rumsey. The coarse features and showy dress of this man presented a singular contrast to the face and attire of the Earl.

Rumsey was a man of vicious habits : a boaster, a flatterer, and a coward ; and his face, disfigured with a sword cut, was rendered hideous by the effects of small-pox. He wore a gay-coloured cloth suit, adorned with gold buttons, and a cherry satin waistcoat, while his neck and wrists were encircled with costly lace. To him was chiefly due the origina tion of the assassination plot, in the promotion of which he was at that time closeted with the Earl. " I fear Ferguson has miscarried," said the Earl, " he is several days behind the time appointed." " Trust him, my Lord," said Rumsey, " he has failed in nothing yet that he has had the carriage of." "True, true; I owe to him in great measure my release from the Tower." At that moment there was a low tap outside. It was repeated after the invitation to enter had been given.

Rumsey rose to his feet and opened the door. One of the watchmen, enveloped in the garb of the old City watch, was there. He was search ing the wall with his hand in the vain attempt to find the handle of the door. Although the night was sultry, the man's face was hardly visible, in consequence of the prodigious size of his slouched hat and the height of the collar of his coat. He held an old brown bill in one hand ; and a lantern, which contained no candle, was set on the ground between his legs. Rumsey had some difficulty in making him comprehend that the Earl wanted to know his business. After his entrance to the chamber, he made such profound bows to Lord Shaftesbury, as to move him and Rumsey to hearty laughter. The man rarely had the opportunity of standing in the very presence of his master.