PEDIGREE OF MORLEY, Showing the connection of the present Marquess of Winchester, more honourable than the "pride of heraldry,” with Morley. VISITATION 1686. ARMS: : Argent, a lion rampant Sable, ducally crowned Or. Robert Morley, descended from Anne, dau. of Richard Tancred, of Pannel, co. Ebor. Francis Morley, Sarah, dau. of William Denham, and sister of of London. Sir J. Denham, Baron of the Exchequer. 1. George Morley, Bp. Winton, ob. 2. Thomas Jane, dau. of 1684, s. p. of Droxford, Hants. Morley. .... Collins. Captain T. Morley. Penelope, daughter of Denham Hancock. Sir Charles Morley, Master of Requests to Chas. II. of Droxford, Hants. Elizabeth Jane, co- Magdalene, daughter of Sir Norton Paulet, 2d son of Lord Henry George Paulett, eighth son, who, surviving all his brothers, became Marquess of Winchester on the death of Harry 6th Duke of Bolton in 1794. He was the father of the present Marquess. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PERSECUTED CLERGY. During the period intervening from the commencement of the Long Parliament to the Restoration, the Clergy had to undergo three distinct persecutions. First, when they were expelled from their livings for not taking the Presbyterian Covenant; secondly, when they were arbitrarily dismissed from their colleges at the visitation which was to purify Oxford; and thirdly, when the inquisitorial "Tryers" of Oliver Cromwell were sent into every county, with full powers to question and examine the Parochial Clergy, chiefly regarding their views of Calvinism. LILLY AND HUGH PETERS. PRÆDESTINARIANISM AND ASTROLOGY. Most memorable is the Judicium Merlini Anglici on the aristocracy of the Presbytery, and spoken from his heart: "These men, to be serious, preach well, but they were more LORDLY than BISHOPS, and USUALLY, in THEIR PARISHES, more TYRANNICAL than the GREAT TURK!" Lilly had prophesied against them, and his delight seems to be beyond bounds when Oliver dispersed the Presbyterian Parliament, for he singeth: "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut, &c. "For these enemies of mine, viz. PARLIAMENT-MEN, were turned out of doors by Oliver Cromwell. 16 Feb. 1653-4.” * Of all who suffered after the Restoration, for being concerned in the murder of the King, that poor pulpit pantaloon, Hugh Peters, seems to have suffered most undeservedly; for he was tried and condemned, and executed, under circumstances of peculiar cruelty — not for what he did, but only for what, it was reported, he said! * Lilly's Life. An anecdote respecting him, in Lilly the astrologer's Life, will elucidate his self-importance in a tragedy, where he was not allowed to act any part beyond that of a horn-blower. "Just before the King's Tryal," Lilly says, "in Christmas holy-day, the Lord Grey of Groby and HUGH PETERS sent for me to Somerset-house, with directions to bring them two of my Almanacks. I did so. Peters and he read January's observations. "If we are not fools and knaves, said he, we shall DO JUSTICE! Then they whispered: I understood not their meaning till his Majesty WAS BEHEADED! * 66 They applied what I wrote of JUSTICE to be understood of his Majesty, which was contrary to my wishes; for JUPITER, the first day of January, became direct, and LIBRA is a sign signifying justice! "I had not then heard the least intimation of bringing the King unto his tryal, and yet the first day thereof I was casually there, it being upon a Saturday; for, going to Westminster every Saturday upon the afternoon, in these times, I CASUALLY met Peters.Come, LILLY; wilt thou go hear the King try'd?' 'When?' said I. • Now, just now; go with me!'"+ Lilly must have been intent indeed upon the stars, all the week, never to have heard a word about this trial, with which "All England rung from side to side," till, "casually," (for the stars unaccountably gave him no notice,) on the very day, and at the very hour, he met Peters ! I have observed elsewhere, that ASTROLOGY Seems a natural part of Predestinarianism-being both derived from Chaldea, and part of the Oriental system, of two principles, of Good and EVIL, contending like the good and evil genii of Oriental tales. Cicero exactly describes the astrology of the times of Lilly, in * This whispering of the two conspirators is marvellously like the whispers of the two conspirators in the Rehearsal. + Lilly's Life. his book De Divinatione, chap. i. And Horace, speaking of the same astrology applied to DESTINY, says, Nec BABYLONIOS Tentaris numeros, meaning, by "numeros," not numbers, but figures of astrology. The battle of Dunbar was determined by Lilly's prophecies; for, at the onset, when each party had "sought the Lord," and the Lord had answered each, that he would surely deliver their enemies into their hand! a soldier was posted, with Lilly's Almanack in his hand, as the troops marched on, and cried, "Hear what Lilly says! hear what Lilly says!" JOICE, EXECUTIONER OF CHARLES THE FIRST. There is a very curious account respecting the Executioner of the King, on the 30th of January, in Lilly's Life. Lilly could have had no motive for saying what he did, but he seems to have related faithfully what he heard and believed; and Cornet JOICE, among those great actors of the bloody drama, receiving his MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE AT OXFORD, under the Saints, seems to me an extraordinary corroboration of the truth of Lilly's account, which is as follows: "In June of that year (1660) a new Parliament was called, whereunto I was unwillingly invited by two messengers of the Serjeant at Arms. The matter whereupon I was taken into custody was, to examine me concerning the person who cut off the King's head, viz. the late King's, &c. At last, I desired to be fully heard, &c. and liberty being given me to speak, I related what follows: "That, the next Sunday but one after Charles the First was beheaded, Robert Spavin, Secretary to Lieutenant-Colonel Cromwell at the time, invited himself to dine with me, and brought Antony Peirson, and several others, along with him to dinner: That their principal discourse all dinner-time was only who it was that beheaded the King; one said it was the common hangman, another HUGH PETERS, &c. Robert Spavin, as soon as dinner was done, took me by the hand, and carried me to the South window- These are all mistaken; they have not named the man that did the fact-it was Lieutenant-Colonel JOICE! I was in the room when he fitted himself for the work; STOOD BEHIND him when he did it; when done, went in again with him. There's no man knows this but my master, Cromwell, Commissioner Ireton, and myself.' Doth not Mr. Rushworth know it?' said I. No, he doth not know it,' said Spavin. The same thing Spavin since hath often related to me, when alone."* It is a curious circumstance that high words passed between Joice and Cromwell, LORD PROTECTOR! Joice spoke of his "services," when Cromwell bid him BE GONE!' MILTON THE SUGGESTER TO CROMWELL OF THE KING'S TRIAL, AS A GRAND NATIONAL SPECTACLE OF JUSTICE. I have thrown out an idea that Milton was the first to suggest the trial of the King. The idea of an august national exhibition, in which a King should hold up his hand and plead guilty or not guilty, to his subjects whom he had sworn to govern according to Law, I cannot conceive at first entered into the ideas of those who, in possessing the person of the King, sought only to gain additional strength against the Parliament. The bloody Harrison offered to assassinate him, after he had sought the Lord! From the time when his chaplains and children were permitted to see him, there seems to have arisen an after-thought in the Leaders of the army. Their language, on a sudden, was changed; some awful event seemed to take possession of their minds; and from this time no concession had any weight with them. Such an idea as a public trial for offences against the Laws of a King, responsible to that great Nation, never could have occurred, except to the Lilly's Life, page 90; London, printed for J. Roberts, Warwick-lane, 1715. |