The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood (43 page)

41
   ‘Stuff' is a coarse, thickly woven cloth formerly manufactured in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Originally it was probably made entirely of wool, but later with a warp of linen, yarn and a worsted web. Lawyers' gowns in England are still made of ‘stuff' while those worn by queen's counsels are of silk – hence the distinguishing nickname for QCs of ‘silks'.

42
   This refers to a row of red-brick houses erected by the Earl of Craven in 1665 to receive victims of the Great Plague of London on the site of a defensive battery and breastwork erected in 1642 by order of Parliament to protect the western outskirts of London. The pest houses were also known more prosaically as ‘Five Houses' or ‘Seven Chimneys'.

43
   Tothill Fields occupied a roughly diamond-shaped area, south of St James's Park, which today would be bounded by Vauxhall Bridge Road, Francis and Regency Streets. Vincent Square occupies the
central portion. The name ‘Tothill' is probably derived from a ‘toot', or beacon mound, and the name was most likely given to this district from a beacon being placed here on the highest spot in the flat lands of Westminster. See: Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford,
Old and New London
, vol. 4, pp.14–26.

44
   Smitham Bottom, which today is part of Coulsdon and has the A23 Brighton Road running through it, is located at the junction of three dry valleys which flooded in the seventeenth century. It expanded greatly in the nineteenth century because of the construction of the London-Brighton railway.

45
   
London Gazette
, issue 529, 8–12 December 1670, p.2, col. 2.

46
   
London Gazette
, issue 531, 15 December–19 December 1670, p.2, col. 2.

47
   Viner lent large sums of money to pay for the extravagances at court. He showed Pepys over his fine mansion at Swakeleys at Ickenham in Middlesex, including ‘a black boy that he had [as a servant] that died of a consumption. He caused him to be dried in an oven and lies there entire in a box.' ‘Pepys Diary', vol. 5, p.64; 7 September 1665.

48
   RCHM,
Eighth Report
, pt. 1, appendix, p.155.

49
   
HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(e3). Deposition of Margaret Boulter, 10 December 1670.

50
   
HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352 (h4). Halliwell's letter, endorsed: ‘Fifth Monarchy', seized by Sir Robert Viner at Halliwell's home in Frying Pan Alley.

51
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(h1) and (h2).

52
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(h8).

53
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(h6). Halliwell's letter to Howell, a constable.

54
   The Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity and Oblivion (12 Caro. II,
cap
. 11) became law on 29 August 1660 and pardoned all those fighting for Parliament during the Civil War, save those with a direct hand in the execution of Charles I.

55
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(h7) – Halliwell's letter to Sir Richard Ford, lord mayor. Halliwell was a cavalry cornet in the parliamentary army. The ‘Act of Free and General Pardon' forgave treasons and other offences committed since 1 January 1637.

56
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352 (e12 and h9). Statement by Katherine Halliwell before Arlington, 10 December 1670, and petition of Katherine Halliwell, 26 January 1671.

57
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(c1). Information of William Done and (c2) information of John Jones, victualler of the White Swan.

58
   Arundel House, demolished in the late 1670s, was located between the Strand and the River Thames, near the church of St Clement Danes.

59
   The ‘Heaven' tavern adjoined Westminster Hall. There were two other alehouses nearby, called ‘Hell' and ‘Purgatory', that dated from the Tudor period.

60
   RCHM,
Eighth Report
, pt. 1, appendix, pp.155–6.

61
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(c4). Information of Thomas Trishaire and W. Taylor.

62
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(d1). Examination of John Hurst, taken before Arlington on 17 December.

63
   HMS
Portland
was a fifty-gun fourth-rate frigate launched at Wapping in 1653 and burnt to avoid capture in 1692. The eighth Royal Navy ship to bear this name, a ‘Duke' class Type 23 frigate, was launched in 1999 and commissioned in May 2004.

64
   TNA, SP 29/281/77 f.103.

65
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(e6). Evidence of Samuel Holmes.

66
   The Gatehouse prison was built in 1370 as the gatehouse of Westminster Abbey and first used as a prison by the abbot. It was used to detain those awaiting trial for felonies and petty offences as well as state prisoners. It was demolished in 1776 and its site is now marked by the column of Westminster School's Crimean War and Indian Mutiny memorial, erected in 1861 in Broad Sanctuary.

67
   
CSP Domestic 1670
, p.573.

68
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(e2 and e4). Evidence of John Buxton.

69
   
CSP Domestic 1670
, p.573.

70
   RCHM,
Eighth Report
,
part 1, appendix, p.156.

71
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(l). Examination of Francis Johnson by Arlington, 19 December 1660.

72
   This was Sebastian Jones, who had been condemned in Ireland for producing counterfeit coins and was afterwards convicted, with eight others, of stealing £1,500 of silver plate from the Earl of Meath and from Alderman Pennington's home in Dublin. The others were executed, but Jones was due to be transported to the West Indies. He was pardoned, bailed and fled to England. He had offered a man called Sharpe, living in Soho, £50 to go to Ireland and retrieve the stolen plate ‘which was hidden underground'. Judge Morton employed Jones to find Blood and Moore in London ‘since he knew them in Ireland . . . and knew some acquaintances of theirs here'.
CSP Domestic 1671
, p.37.

73
   Henry Davis, ‘one of the guards in the Queen's troop', had a sword which Thomas Peachy, one of Williamson's informers, believed ‘to be the same as was taken from the attempted assassin of the Duke of Ormond and is deposited at Clarendon House' (TNA, SP 29/281/24, f.28). Later, he retracted his suspicions of Davis's involvement ‘in the horrid business connected with the Duke of Ormond' and begged Williamson: ‘Do not inform Davis that I gave information against him.' (TNA, SP 29/281/99, f.132.)

74
   Greaves,
Enemies Under His Feet
, p. 208.

75
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(g1). Judge Morton to Ormond.

76
   The committee was nominally led by the lord chamberlain of the royal household, the sixty-eight-year-old Edward Montague, Second Earl of Manchester. It consisted of two marquises, twenty-three earls, two viscounts, twenty-seven dukes, the archbishops of Canterbury and York and ten Anglican bishops. Not all would have attended the committee hearings.

77
   ‘Lords
Jnls,'
vol. 12, 1666–75, p.404.

78
   
CSP Domestic 1670
, pp.576 and 582.

79
   RCHM,
Eighth Report
, pt. 1, appendix, pp.156 and 158.

80
   An alcoholic drink made by infusing cherries and sugar in brandy. Perhaps Dixey's brother was an imbiber?

81
   
CSP Domestic 1670
, pp.615–16.

82
   RCHM,
Eighth Report
, part 1, appendix, p.156.

83
   TNA, SP 29/289/283 f.284. Petition ofThomas Drayton, constable, and Henry Partridge of Lambeth for £100 reward. ? April 1671.

84
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(g4). Receipt of Thomas Hunt, dated 17 October 1670, for sword, belt and pistol, from the custody of Thomas Drayton, constable of Lambeth.

85
   Abbott,
Colonel Thomas Blood
, p.19

86
   ‘Lords
Jnls', vol.
12,1666–75, pp.447–8.

87
   Carte,
Life of Ormond
, vol. 2, p.424.

88
   Haley,
The First Earl of Shaftsbury
, p.188.

89
   In November 1668, Sir Ellis Leighton, Buckingham's secretary, told the French ambassador that Ormond was about to be removed and that this demonstrated the extent of Buckingham's power and influence. (McGuire, ‘Why was Ormond Dismissed in 1669?'
Irish Historical Studies
, vol. 18, p.299.)

90
   Marshall, ‘Colonel Thomas Blood and the Restoration Political Scene',
Hf
, vol. 32, p.565.

91
   Carte,
Life of Ormond
, vol. 4, p.448.

92
   Carte,
Life of Ormond
, vol. 4, p.424.

93
   Carte,
Life of Ormond
, vol. 4, pp.447–8.

94
   HoL Record Office MS HL/PO/JO/10/1/344/352(g6). Thomas Allen to Mrs Mary Hunt at Mr Davies' house at Mortlake, Surrey, 17 November 1670.

95
   Marshall, ‘Colonel Thomas Blood and the Restoration Political Scene',
Hf
, vol. 32, p.566.

96
   Carte,
Life of Ormond
, vol. 2, p.449.

97
   ‘HoC
Jnls
', vol. 9, 1667–87, p.188.

98
   ‘Burnet's History', vol. 1, p.488 and Kennett,
Compleat History of England
. . ., vol. 3, p.280.

99
   22 & 23 Caro. II,
cap
. 1. It was repealed in 1828.

100
 Greaves,
Enemies Under His Feet
, p.208.

101
 TNA, SP 29/281/74, f.100. Robert Pitt to Prince Rupert, 23 December 1670.

102
 TNA, SP 29/281/911, f.120.

103
 Greaves,
Enemies Under His Feet
, p.209.

CHAPTER 6: THE MOST AUDACIOUS CRIME

1
     
London Gazette
, issue 572, 8–11 May 1671, p.2, col.2

2
     Sitwell,
Crown Jewels
. . ., p.79.

3
     ‘HoC
Jnls
',vol. 6, p.276, 9 August 1649. Other royal regalia were stored in the Tower Wardrobe, the department of state that held hangings, jewellery and other items for the royal court.

4
     These were purchased by a private individual at the sale of King Charles's goods in 1649 and returned to his son Charles II after he was restored to the throne in 1660.

5
     Sitwell,
Crown Jewels
. . ., p.79 and Cole, ‘Particulars relative to that portion of the Regalia of England which was made for the Coronation of King Charles the Second',
Archaeologia
, vol. 29, p.262–5. Sitwell,
Crown Jewels
. . ., p.48.

6
     Sitwell,
Crown Jewels
. . ., p.48 and p.44.

7
     The ‘Black Prince's Ruby' was worn by Henry V on his helmet at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and was incorporated in the state crown by James I early in the seventeenth century. After the Crown Jewels were broken up under the Commonwealth, the gem was purchased by a London jeweller and goldsmith who sold it back to the monarchy at the Restoration. The Imperial State Crown was remodelled for the coronation of George VI (the present Queen's father) in 1937, and incorporates more than 3,000 gemstones. See Treasury order for payment to Viner (BL Add. MSS 44,915, ff.1–2 and his receipt on f.3) and the list of regalia provided for Charles II's coronation in Sir Gilbert Talbot's custody (
ibid
., ff.5–12).

8
     No regalia for the coronation of a queen was made as Charles II had not then married. When James II was crowned on 23 April 1685, new regalia had to be made for his queen, Mary of Modena. Lists of regalia for this coronation and their valuation are in BL Add. MSS 44,915, ff.43
r
.

9
     Impey and Parnell,
The Tower of London
. . ., p.106.

10
   Strype,
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster
. . ., vol. 1, p.97.

11
   Dixon,
Her Majesty's Tower
, vol. 2, pp. 244–7. Eleven German spies were imprisoned in the Martin Tower in 1914–16 and executed in the
Tower of London, nine of them shot in the fortress's indoor rifle firing range. Hence, the First World War saw more executions in the Tower than occurred in the reigns of the Tudors.

12
   John Talbot was the nephew of Sir Gilbert Talbot. For Wythe Edwards' wife, see Strype,
A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster
. . ., vol. 1, p.98.

13
   TNA, WORK 31/22. Plans of Jewel House in Tower of London, 15 August 1702, and plan of first storey showing dining room, parlour, kitchen and staircase, dated 1668, both bearing the stamp ‘I.G.F.' for Inspector General of Fortifications. A second drawing, WORK 31/68, shows a plan and section of the Jewel Tower in the early eighteenth century.

14
   ‘Remarks . . .',p.227.

15
   Charlton,
Tower of London: Its Buildings and Institutions
, p.63.

16
   The king gave with one hand and took away with the other. Talbot expected annual profits of £1,200 from the post, but received only £200 a year.

17
   Younghusband,
The Jewel House: an Account of the Many Romances connected with the Royal Regalia
. . ., pp.177 and 247.

18
   Charlton,
Tower of London: Its Buildings and Institutions
, p.63.