about your reference to this purpose, that if you can get power over the whole title, it may be safe for his majesty to assent, that you may try the right upon the deed. This is the farthest Ï I ever rest can go. February 28, 1614. Yours assured, FR. BACON. To the King. May it please your most excellent Majesty, I send your majesty enclosed a copy of our last examination of Peacham,* taken the 10th of this present; whereby your majesty may perceive that this miscreant wretch goeth back from all, and denieth his hand and all; no doubt being fully of belief that he should go presently down to his trial, he meant now to repeat his part which he purposed to play in the country, which was to deny all. But your majesty in your wisdom perceiveth that this denial of his hand, being Edmund Peacham, a minister in Somersetshire [MS. Letter of Mr. Chamberlain, dated January 5, 1614-5]. I find one of both his names, who was instituted into the vicarage of Ridge, in Hertfordshire, July 22, 1581, and resigned it in 1587 [Newcourt Repertor, vol. i. p. 864]. Mr. Peacham was committed to the Tower for inserting several treasonable passages in a sermon never preached, nor, as Mr. Justice Croke remarks in his Reports during the reign of King Charles I. p. 125, ever intended to be preached. Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter of the 9th of February, 1614-5, to Sir Dudley Carleton, mentions Mr. Peacham's having been "stretched already, though he be an old man, and, they say, much above threescore; but they could wring nothing out of him more than they had at first in his papers. Yet the king is extremely incensed against him, and will have him prosecuted to the uttermost.' In another letter, dated February 23, we are informed that the king, since his coming to London on the 15th, had had "the opinion of the judges severally in Peacham's case; and it is said, that most of them concur to find it treason: 'yet my lord chief justice [Coke] is for the contrary; and if the Lord Hobart, that rides the western circuit, can be drawn to jump with his colleague, the chief baron [Tanfield], it is thought he shall be sent down to be tried, and trussed up in Somersetshire." In a letter of the 2d of March, 1614-5, Mr. Chamberlain writes, "Peacham's trial at the western assizes is put off, and his journey stayed, though Sir Randall Crew, the king's serjeant, and Sir Henry Yelverton, the solicitor, were ready to go to horse to have waited on him there." "Peacham, the minister," adds he in a letter of the 13th of July, 1615, "that hath been this twelvemonth in the Tower, is sent down to be tried for treason in Somersetshire, before the lord chief baron and Sir Henry Montagu, the recorder. The Lord Hobart gave over that circuit the last assizes. Sir Randall Crew and Sir Henry Yelverton, the king's serjeant and solicitor, are sent down to prosecute the trial." The event of this trial, which was on the 7th of August, appears from Mr. Chamberlain's letter of the 14th of that month, wherein it is said that "seven knights were taken from the bench, and appointed to be of the jury. He defended himself very simply, but obstinately and doggedly enough. But his offence was so foul and scandalous, that he was condemned of high treason; yet not hitherto executed, nor perhaps shall be, if he have the grace to submit himself, and shew some remorse." died, as appears from another letter of the 27th of March, 1616, in the jail at Taunton, where he was said to have "left behind a most wicked and desperate writing, worse than that he was convicted for." VOL. XII. U He not possible to be counterfeited, and to be sworn by Adams, and so oft by himself formerly confessed and admitted, could not mend his case before any jury in the world, but rather aggravateth it by his notorious impudency and falsehood, and will make him more odious. He never deceived me; for when others had hopes of discovery, and thought time well spent that way, I told your majesty, pereuntibus mille figura; and that he now did but turn himself into divers shapes, to save or delay his punishment. And, therefore, submitting myself to your majesty's high wisdom, I think myself bound in conscience to put your majesty in remembrance, whether Sir John Sydenham shall be detained upon this man's impeaching, in whom there is no truth. Notwithstanding that farther inquiry be made of this other Peacham, and that information and light be taken from Mr. Poulet† and his servants, I hold it, as things are, necessary. God preserve your majesty. Your Majesty's most humble and March 12, 1614. To Mr. Murray.‡ Good Mr. Murray, FR. BACON. According to his majesty's pleasure by you signified to me, we have attended my Lord Chancellor,§ my Lord Treasurer, and Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, concerning Sir Gilbert Houghton's patent stayed at the seal; and we have acquainted them with the grounds and state of the suit, to justify them that it was just and beneficial to his majesty. And for any thing we could perceive by any objection or reply they made, we left them in good opinion of the same, with this, that because my Lord Chancellor (by the advice, as it seemeth, of the other two) had acquainted the council-table, for so many as were then present, with that suit amongst others, they thought fit to stay till his majesty's coming to town, being at hand, to understand He had been confronted, about the end of February or beginning of March, 1614-5, with Mr. Peacham, about certain speeches which had formerly passed between them.-MS. letter of Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, from London, March 2, 1614-5. John Poulet, Esq. knight of the parliament which met April 5, 1614. St. George, June 23, 1627. Harl. MSS. vol. 6986. Thomas Howard, earl of Suffolk. shire for the county of Somerset in the He was created Lord Poulet of Henton § Ellesmere. Sir Fulk Grevile advanced to that post October 1, 1614, in the room of Sir Julius Cæsar, made Master of the Rolls. his farther pleasure. We purpose, upon his majesty's coming, to attend his majesty, to give him a more particular account of this business, and some other. Meanwhile, finding his majesty to have care of the matter, we thought it our duty to return this answer to you in discharge of his majesty's direction. We remain, July 6, 1615. Your assured Friends, To the King.* FRANCIS BACON, HENRY YELVERTON. It may please your excellent Majesty, I received this very day, in the forenoon, your majesty's several directions touching your cause prosecuted by my Lord Hunsdon,+ as your farmer. Your first direction was by Sir Christopher Parkins, that the day appointed for the judicial sentence should hold: and if my Lord Chief Justice, upon my repair to him, should let me know that he could not be present, then my Lord Chancellor should proceed, calling to him my Lord Hobart, except he should be excepted to; and then some other judge by consent. For the latter part of this your direction, I suppose there would have been no difficulty in admitting my Lord Hobart; for after he had assisted at so many hearings, it would have been too late to except him. But then your majesty's second and later direction, which was delivered unto me from the Earl of Arundel, as by word of mouth, but so as he had set down a remembrance thereof in writing freshly after the signification of his pleasure, was to this effect, that before any proceeding in the Chancery, there should be a conference had between my Lord Chancellor, my Lord Chief Justice, and myself, how your majesty's interest might be secured. This latter direction I acquainted my Lord Chancellor with; and finding an impossibility that this conference should be had before to-morrow, my lord thought good that the day be put over, taking no occasion thereof other than this, that in a cause of so great weight it was fit for him to confer with his assistants before he gave any decree or final order. After such time as I have conferred with my lords, according to your commandment, I will give your majesty account with speed of the conclusion of that conference. *Harl. MSS. vol. 6986. + John Carey, Baron of Hunsdon. He died in April, 1617. Farther, I think fit to let your majesty know that, in my opinion, I hold it a fit time to proceed in the business of the rege inconsulto, which is appointed for Monday. I did think these greater causes would have come to period or pause sooner: but now they are in the height, and to have so great a matter as this of the rege inconsulto handled, when men do aliud agere, I think it no proper time. Besides, your majesty in your great wisdom knoweth, that this business of Mr. Murray's is somewhat against the stream of the judges' inclination: and it is no part of a skilful mariner to sail on against a tide when the tide is at strongest. If your majesty be pleased to write to my Lord Coke that you would have the business of the rege inconsulto receive a hearing when he should be animo sedato et libero, and not in the midst of his assiduous and incessant cares and industries in other practices, I think your majesty shall do your service right. Howsoever, I will be provided against the day. Thus praying God for your happy preservation, whereof God giveth you so many great pledges, rest your Majesty's most humble and devoted Subject and Servant, FR. BACON. November 17, 1615. Sir, To Sir George Villiers. The message which I received from you by Mr. Shute hath bred in me such belief and confidence as I will now wholly rely upon your excellent and happy self. When persons of greatness and quality begin speech with me of the matter, and offer me their good offices, I can but answer them civilly. But those things are but toys: I am yours surer to you than to mine own life; for, as they speak of the turquois stone in a ring, I will break into twenty pieces before you have the least fall. God keep you ever. Your truest Servant, February 15, 1615. FR. BACON. My Lord Chancellor is prettily amended. I was with him yesterday almost half an hour. He used me with wonderful tokens of kindness. We both wept, which I do not often. Indorsed-A letter to Sir George Villiers, touching a message brought to him by Mr. Shute of a promise of the Chancellor's place. Mr. Tobie Matthew* to Sir Francis Bacon, AttorneyGeneral. May it please you, Sir, The notice I have from my Lord Roos, Sir Henry Goodere, and other friends, of the extreme obligation wherein I continue towards you, together with the conscience I have of the knowledge how dearly and truly I honour and love you, and daily pray that you may rise to that height which the state wherein you live can give you, hath taken away the wings of fear, whereby I was almost carried away from daring to importune you in this kind. But I know how good you have always been, and are still, towards me; or rather because I am not able to comprehend how much it is; I will presume there is enough for any use, whereupon an honest humble servant may employ it." It imports the business of my poor estate, that I be restored to my country for some time; and I have divers friends in that court, who will further my desire thereof, and particularly Mr. Secretary Lake and my Lord Roos, whom I have desired to confer with you about it. But nothing can be done therein, unless my Lord of Canterbury + may be made propitious, or at least not averse; nor do I know in the world how to charm him but by the music of your tongue. I beseech you, sir, lose some minutes upon me, which I shall be glad to pay by whole years of service; and call to mind, if it please you, the last speech you made me, that if I should continue as then was, and neither prove ill-affected to the state, nor become otherwise than a mere secular man in my religion, you would be pleased to negotiate for my return. On my part the conditions are performed; and it remains, that you do the like: nor can I doubt but that the nobleness of your nature, which loves nothing in the world so well as to be doing of good, can descend from being the attorney-general to a Son of Dr. Tobie Matthew, Archbishop of York. He was born at Oxford in 1578, while his father was Dean of Christ Church, and educated there. During his travels abroad, he was seduced to the Romish religion by Father Parsons. This occasioned his living out of his own country from the year 1607 to 1617, when he had leave to return to England. He was again ordered to leave it in October 1618; but in 1622 was recalled to assist in the match with Spain; and, on account of his endeavours to promote it, was knighted by King James I. at Royston, on the 10th of October, 1623. He translated into Italian Sir Francis Bacon's Essays, and died at Ghent in Flanders, October 13, 1655, N. S. + Dr. George Abbot. |