Stephen College
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Stephen College
Stephen College (also Colledge) (c.1635–1681) was an English joiner, activist Protestant, and supporter of the perjury underlying the fabricated Popish Plot. He was tried and executed for high treason, on somewhat dubious evidence, in 1681. Life He was born about 1635, and worked in the trade of carpentry, hence his nickname "the Protestant joiner". College was a skilled joiner: evidence of his work still survives to this day, in the form of the wooden panelling that he made for the Stationers Hall in 1674. He became known as an anti-Catholic political speaker. He had been a Presbyterian until the Restoration of 1660 when he conformed to the Church of England. He made himself notorious by his declamations against the papists, by writing and singing political ballads, and by inventing a weapon for self-defence at close quarters, which he called 'the Protestant flail'. He knew many persons of rank. Lord William Russell and Lady Berkeley showed him kindness, which inspired him wi ...
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Perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an instance of a person’s deliberately making material false or misleading statements while under oath. – Also termed false swearing; false oath; (archaically forswearing." Like most other crimes in the common law system, to be convicted of perjury one must have had the ''intention'' (''mens rea'') to commit the act and to have ''actually committed'' the act (''actus reus''). Further, statements that ''are facts'' cannot be considered perjury, even if they might arguably constitute an omission, and it is not perjury to lie about matters that are immaterial to the legal proceeding. Statements that entail an ''interpretation'' of fact are not perjury because people often draw inaccurate conclusions unwittingly or make honest mistakes without ...
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Lord Chief Justice Scroggs
Sir William Scroggs (c. 162325 October 1683) was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1678 to 1681. He is best remembered for presiding over the Popish Plot trials, where he was accused of showing bias against the accused. Youth and early career Scroggs was the son of an Oxford landowner; the story of him being the son of a butcher of sufficient means to give his son a university education is merely a rumour, although one which was widely believed. He spent his youth in Stifford. He went to Oriel College, and later to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1640, having acquired a fair knowledge of the classics. There is some evidence that he fought on the royalist side during the Civil War; certainly, his loyalty to the Crown was never doubted in later years. In 1653 he was called to the bar, and soon gained a good practice in the courts. He was appointed a judge of the Common Pleas in 1676. Two years later he was promoted to the office of Lord Chief Justice on the recom ...
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Lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant — with each role having different functions and privileges. Working as a lawyer generally involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific problems. Some lawyers also work primarily in advancing the interests of the law and legal profession. Terminology Different legal jurisdictions have different requirements in the determination of who is recognized as being a lawyer. As a result, the meaning of the term "lawyer" may vary from place to place. Some jurisdictions have two types of lawyers, barrister and solicitors, while others fuse the two. A barrister (also known as an advocate or counselor in some jurisdictions) is a lawyer who typically specializ ...
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Aaron Smith (treasury Solicitor)
Aaron Smith (died 1701) was an English lawyer, involved in the Popish Plot and Rye House Plot. Life Smith, a man of obscure background, had a career as solicitor and was mentioned as a seditious person in a proclamation of 1 June 1677. A frequenter of the Rose Tavern, he associated with Titus Oates and Hugh Speke. He also got to know Sir John Trenchard, and sought the acquaintance of the pro-Dutch intriguers in the pay of William, Prince of Orange. He was a Green Ribbon Club member, listed by Thomas Dangerfield. On 30 January 1682 he appeared at the bar of the King's Bench on a charge of providing Stephen College with seditious papers for the purposes of his defence. He was tried for this offence the following July, and found guilty of delivering libellous papers to College and using disloyal words. He managed to escape into hiding before the sentence was pronounced, and spent the year in active plotting. He had by this time obtained the confidence of the leaders of the disaff ...
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Grand Jury
A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand jury is separate from the courts, which do not preside over its functioning. Originating in England during the Middle Ages, grand juries are only retained in two countries, the United States and Liberia. Other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most others now employ a different procedure that does not involve a jury: a preliminary hearing. Grand juries perform both accusatory and investigatory functions. The investigatory functions of grand juries include obtaining and reviewing documents and other evidence, and hearing sworn testimonies of witnesses who appear before it; the accusatory function determines whether there is probable cause to believe that one or more persons committed a particul ...
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Whig (British Political Party)
The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs merged into the new Liberal Party with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s, and other Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Liberals' rival, the modern day Conservative Party, in 1912. The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic Emancipation, supporting constitutional monarchism with a parliamentary system. They played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Roman Catholic Stuart kings and pretenders. The period known as the Whig Supremacy (1714–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The W ...
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Henry Cornish
Henry Cornish (died 1685) was a London alderman, executed in the reign of James II of England. Life He was a well-to-do merchant of London, and alderman of the ward of St Michael Bassishaw; in the ''London Directory'' for 1677 he is described as a factor residing in 'Cateaton Street, near Blackwelhall Gate.' He was a presbyterian in religion, and in politics was a strong whig. On 24 June 1680 he was chosen sheriff of London in conjunction with Slingsby Bethel. It was afterwards discovered that Cornish and his colleague had not taken the oath according to the Corporation Act, and the election was declared void. A second election was fixed for 17 July, when Cornish and Bethel took the oath under the Corporation Act, and claimed the appointment. Charles II decided to force on the city two sheriffs of his own choosing, named Box and Nicolson. The latter demanded a poll, which lasted until 22 July, and on the 29th Cornish and Bethel were declared elected. Cornish headed the poll with ...
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Slingsby Bethel
Slingsby Bethel (1617–1697) was a Member of Parliament with republican sympathies, during the period of the English Civil War. Early life Slingsby Bethel was the third son of Sir Walter Bethel of Alne, North Yorkshire, who married Mary, the second daughter of Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven, near Knaresborough and Frances Vavasour, and was baptised at Alne 27 February 1617. Being a younger son, he was placed in business, and went to Hamburg in 1637, staying there until December 1649. Civil war period He was strongly opposed to the cause of the cavaliers, but did not approve of the conduct of the Protector, nor did he, as member for Knaresborough in the parliament of 1659, support Richard Cromwell's adherents in their efforts to procure his succession as protector with unlimited powers of action. In the new council of state appointed to hold office from 1 January 1660, he was the last of the ten non-parliamentary members. When the estates of his uncle, Sir Henry Slingsby, the ...
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Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification's '' bailey'', hence the metonymic name. The Old Bailey has been housed in a succession of court buildings on the street since the sixteenth century, when it was attached to the medieval Newgate gaol. The current main building block was completed in 1902, designed by Edward William Mountford; its architecture is recognised and protected as a Grade II* listed building. An extension South Block was constructed in 1972, over the former site of Newgate gaol which was demolished in 1904. The Crown Court sitting in the Old Bailey hears major criminal cases from within Greater London. In exceptional cases, trials may be referre ...
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Leoline Jenkins
Sir Leoline Jenkins (1625 – 1 September 1685) was a Welsh academic, diplomat involved in the negotiation of international treaties (e.g. Nimègue), jurist and politician. He was a clerical lawyer who served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1668 to 1685, and enjoyed a high reputation for judicial integrity. As a statesman he served as Secretary of State from 1680 to 1684. Biography He was originally from Llantrisant in south Wales, son of Leoline (a common anglicisation of '' Llewellyn'') Jenkins, a small landowner. He himself spoke fluent Welsh, and was fond of quoting Welsh proverbs, sometimes to the bewilderment of his listeners. He went to school in the nearby town of Cowbridge and then to Jesus College, Oxford. Civil War and Interregnum He fought on the Royalist side during the English Civil War. On the failure of the Royalist cause, he retired to Glamorgan in 1648, and entered the household of the Welsh Royalist Sir John Aubrey, first of the Aubrey baro ...
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Edward Fitzharris
Edward Fitzharris (1648? – 1681) was an Anglo-Irish conspirator. His prosecution following the waning of public belief in the Popish Plot hoax became a struggle for jurisdiction involving the courts and the two Houses of Parliament. He was executed for treason in 1681. Life The younger son of Sir Edward Fitzharris (died c.1690), 2nd Baronet of the Fitzharris Baronets of Kilfinin, and his wife Eileen FitzGerald, daughter of Sir Thomas FitzGerald, Knight of Glin, he was born in County Limerick, Ireland about 1648, and brought up a Roman Catholic. His father was described as an "eminent Royalist". According to his own account, he left Ireland for France in 1662 to learn the language, returning home through England in 1665. Three years later he went to Prague with the intention of entering the service of the Emperor Leopold I in his operations against Hungary. Finding that the expedition had been abandoned, he wandered through Flanders to England again. He next obtained a capta ...
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Charles II Of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. But England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. The political crisis that followed Cromwell's death i ...
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