CHAPTER 1 (10)

After the assize, Colonel Kirby and some other justices were very uneasy with my being at Lancaster; for I had galled them sore at my trials there, and they laboured much to get me removed to some remote place. Colonel Kirby threatened I should be sent far enough, and sometimes said, I should be sent beyond sea. About six weeks after the assizes, they got an order from the king and council to remove me from Lancaster; and with it they brought a letter from the Earl of Anglesea, wherein was written, “that if those things were found true against me, which I was charged withal, I deserved no clemency or mercy:” yet the greatest matter they had against me was, because I could not disobey the command of Christ, and swear.

When they had prepared for my removal, the under-sheriff and the head-sheriff’s man, with some bailiffs, came and fetched me out of the castle, when I was so weak with lying in that cold, wet, and smoky prison, that I could hardly go or stand. They had me into the jailer’s house, where were William Kirby, a justice, and several others, and they called for wine to give me. I told them, “I would have none of their wine.” Then they cried, “Bring out the horses.” I desired them first to show me their order, or a copy of it, if they intended to remove me; but they would show me none but their swords. I told them, “there was no sentence passed upon me, nor was I premunired, that I knew of; and therefore I was not made the king’s prisoner, but was the sheriff’s; for they and all the country knew, that I was not fully heard at the last assize, nor suffered to show the errors that were in the indictment, which were sufficient to quash it, though they had kept me from one assize to another, to the end they might try me. But they all knew, there was no sentence of premunire passed upon me; and therefore not being the king’s prisoner, but the sheriff’s, I desired to see their order.” Instead of showing me their order, they haled me out, and lifted me upon one of the sheriff’s horses. When I was on horseback in the street, the town’s-people being gathered to gaze upon me, I told the officers, I had received neither Christianity, civility, nor humanity, from them. They hurried me away about fourteen miles to Bentham, though I was so very weak, I was hardly able to sit on horseback; and my clothes smelt so of smoke, that they were loathsome to myself. The wicked jailer, one Hunter, a young fellow, would come behind, and give the horse a lash with his whip, and make him skip, and leap; so that I being weak, had difficulty to sit him; and then he would come and look me in the face, and say, “How do you, Mr. Fox?” I told him, “it was not civil in him to do so.” The Lord cut him off soon after.

When we were come to Bentham, there met us many troopers, and a marshal; and many of the gentry of the country were come in, and abundance of people to stare at me. I being very weak and weary, desired them to let me lie down on a bed, which the soldiers permitted me; for they that brought me thither, gave their order to the marshal, and he set a guard of his soldiers upon me. When they had stayed a while, they pressed horses, and raised the bailiff of the hundred, and the constables, and others, and had me to Giggleswick that night; but exceedingly weak I was. There they raised the constables with their clog-shoes, who sat drinking all the night in the room by me, so that I could not get much rest. Next day we came to a market-town, where several Friends called to see me; and Robert Widders and divers Friends came to me on the road. The next night I asked the soldiers, “whither they intended to carry me, and whither I was to be sent?” Some of them said, “beyond sea;” others said, “to Tynemouth Castle.” A great fear there was amongst them, lest some one should rescue me out of their hands; but that fear was needless.

Next night we came to York, where the marshal put me into a great chamber, where most part of two troops came to see me. One of these troopers, an envious man, hearing that I must be premunired, asked me, “what estate I had, and whether it was copyhold or free land?” I took no notice of his question, but was moved to declare the word of life to the soldiers, and many of them were very loving. At night the Lord Frecheville (so called), who commanded these horse, came to me, and was very civil and loving. I gave him an account of my imprisonment, and declared many things to him relating to truth. They kept me at York two days, and then the marshal and four or five soldiers were sent to convey me to Scarbro’ Castle. Indeed these were very civil men, and carried themselves civilly and lovingly to me. On the way we baited at Malton, and they permitted Friends to come and visit me. When we were come to Scarbro’, they had me to an inn, and gave notice to the governor, who sent six soldiers to be my guard that night. Next day they conducted me into the castle, put me into a room, and set a sentry on me. Being very weak and subject to fainting, they let me go out sometimes into the air with the sentry. They soon removed me out of this room, and put me into an open one, where the rain came in; and smoked exceedingly, which was very offensive to me.

One day the governor, Sir J. Crossland, came to see me, and brought with him Sir Francis Cobb. I desired the governor to go into my room, and see what a place I had. I had got a little fire made in it, and it was so filled with smoke, that when they were in it, they could hardly find their way out again; and he being a Papist, I told him, that was his Purgatory which they had put me into. I was forced to lay out about fifty shillings to stop out the rain, and keep the room from smoking so much. When I had been at that charge, and made it somewhat tolerable, they removed me into a worse room, wherewhere I had neither chimney nor fire-hearth. This being to the sea-side and lying much open, the wind drove in the rain forcibly, so that the water came over my bed, and ran about the room, that I was fain to skim it up with a platter. And when my clothes were wet, I had no fire to dry them; so that my body was benumbed with cold, and my fingers swelled, that one was grown as big as two. Though I was at some charge in this room also, I could not keep out the wind and rain. Besides they would suffer few Friends to come to me, and many times not any, no, not so much as to bring me a little food; but I was forced for the first quarter to hire one, not a Friend, to bring me necessaries. Sometimes the soldiers would take it from her, and she would scuffle with them for it. Afterwards I hired a soldier to fetch me water and bread, and something to make a fire of, when I was in a room where a fire could be made. Commonly a threepenny loaf served me three weeks, and sometimes longer, and most of my drink was water with wormwood steeped or bruised in it. One time when the weather was very sharp, and I had taken great cold, I got a little elecampane beer, and I heard one of the soldiers say to the other, that they would play me a trick, for they would send for me up to the deputy-governor, and in the meantime drink my strong beer out; and so they did. When I came back, one of the soldiers came to me in a jeer, and asked me for some strong beer. I told him they had played their pretty trick; and so I took no further notice of it.

But inasmuch as they kept me so very strait, not giving liberty for Friends to come to me, I spoke to the keepers of the castle to this effect: “I did not know till I was removed from Lancaster castle, and brought prisoner to this castle of Scarbro’, that I was convicted of a premunire; for the judge did not give sentence upon me at the assizes in open court. But seeing I am now a prisoner here, if I may not have my liberty, let my friends and acquaintance have their liberty to come and visit me, as Paul’s friends had among the Romans, who were not Christians but Heathens. For Paul’s friends had their liberty; all that would, might come to him, and he had his liberty to preach to them in his hired house; but I cannot have liberty to go into the town, nor for my friends to come to me here. So you that go under the name of Christians, are worse in this respect than those heathens were.”

But though they would not let Friends come to me, they would often bring others, either to gaze upon me, or to contend with me. One time a great company of Papists came to discourse with me; they affirmed, “the Pope was infallible, and had stood infallible ever since Peter’s time.” But I showed them the contrary by history; for one of the bishops of Rome, (Marcellinus by name,) denied the faith and sacrificed to idols; therefore he was not infallible. I told them, if they were in the infallible spirit, they need not have jails, swords, and staves, racks and tortures, fires and faggots, whips and gallows, to hold up their religion by, and to destroy men’s lives about it; for if they were in the infallible spirit they would preserve men’s lives, and use none but spiritual weapons about religion. I told them also what one that had been of their society told me. A woman who lived in Kent, had not only been a Papist herself, but had brought over several to that religion; but coming to be convinced of God’s truth, and turned by it to Christ her Saviour, she exhorted the Papists to the same. One of them, a tailor, being at work at her house, while she opened to him the falseness of the Popish religion, and endeavoured to draw him from it to the truth, drew his knife, and got between her and the door; but she spoke boldly to him, and bid him put up his knife, for she knew his principle. I asked the woman, “what she thought he would have done with his knife?” She said, “he would have stabbed her.” “Stabbed thee,” said I, “what would he have stabbed thee for? thy religion.” “Yes,” said she, “it is the principle of the Papists, if any turn from their religion, to kill them if they can.” This story I told those Papists, and that I had it from a person that had been one of them, but had forsaken their principles and discovered their practices. They did not deny this to be their principle; but said, “What! would I declare this abroad?” I told them, “yes, such things ought to be declared abroad; that it might be known how contrary their religion was to true Christianity.” Whereupon they went away in a great rage.

Another Papist came to discourse with me, who said all the patriarchs were in hell, from the creation till Christ came, and that when Christ suffered he went into hell, and the Devil said to him “What comest thou hither for, to break open our strongholds?” And Christ said, “to fetch them all out.” So he said, “Christ was three nights and three days in hell, to bring them out.” I told him that was false, for Christ said to the thief, “This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” And Enoch and Elijah were translated into heaven. And Abraham was in heaven, for the Scripture saith, Lazarus was in his bosom; and Moses and Elias were with Christ upon the Mount before he suffered. These instances stopped the Papist’s mouth, and put him to a stand.

Another time came Dr. Witty, who was esteemed a great doctor of physic, with Lord Falconbridge; with these came also the governor of Tynemouth castle, and several knights. Being called to them, Witty undertook to discourse with me, and asked me, “what I was in prison for?” I told him, “because I would not disobey the command of Christ, and swear.” He said, “I ought to swear my allegiance to the king.” He being a great Presbyterian, I asked him, “whether he had not sworn against the King, and House of Lords, and taken the Scotch covenant? and had he not since sworn to the king? and what then was his swearing good for? But my allegiance,” I told him, “did not consist in swearing, but in truth and faithfulness.” After some further discourse, I was sent away to my prison again. And afterwards this Dr. Witty boasted in the town amongst his patients, that he had conquered me. When I heard of his boasting, I told the governor, “it was a small boast in him to say he had conquered a bondman.” I desired to bid him visit me again, when he came to the castle.