called to account for it by the Council. He therefore wo'd have
them leave whatever business was under debate, and go on to con-
sider the best way to save that part of the Fleet, that was in
danger of being in the Island aforesaid, and having no wind to get
out, and that their advice when agreed on should be sent away by
an express to the Fleet riding without the Island.
I must have been tried ; but as it was only paid to Gilby at Brussels, they could
do nothing.' Perhaps there was also a charge of sending money from London to
Charles I. at Oxford during the Civil War.
1 This was at the Council meeting of May 26, 1657; 'the next day,' i.e.
May 27, the news came that Blake had fired the fleet, &c.
2 ' Query whether it be generally known that the reputation of Admiral Blake
depended on so nice a point as it here appears to have done ? ' [E. F.]
144 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP
The Council resolved to take the matter presently into con-
sideration, so that our cause was laid aside for that time, and the
next day news came to town that General Blague had fired the
Spanish Fleet in the Harbour of Santa Cruz 1 but all the bullion
was taken out and most of their Lading got to land, but after he
had set the ships on fire the wind turned about and he sailed out
without much damage.
By this interval, I seeing the Earl of Leicester that now is 2 go
into the Council, and asking if he was one of them, and being
told he was, I made address to him as being my acquaintance
beyond the seas. He told me he had heard the Petition read, but
knew not that I was the Person concerned, but was sworn to
secrecy, so that he durst not let me know the contents of it, but
withal declared that if one Article was not well proved, all the
others would do me no great harm. To this I replied that I conceived
the Article was for sending the King money to Oxford, for those
who were my Accusers had vented such discourse at the meeting
in Sussex for the election of Knights of the Shire, where I was
chosen one to serve : but I was confident neither they nor any
Witnesses could make it appear to be a truth. He then said I
need not fear, for all the other was more malice that the Country
did not choose them than anything relating to my Person, to
which I answered that if they could prove it I desired no mercy,
but [to] suffer what punishment the crime deserved. He said he
was glad to find me so innocent and so confident of my cause and
would intimate so much to some of my accusers by a third Person,
whereby they might know that what they laid the greatest stress
upon could not be made out a truth ; which he did so effectually,
that the Council breaking up abruptly and leaving me sine die for
1 A town on the east side of the Island of Teneriffe, W.L. 16, N.L. 28. See
Hume, vol. 7, p. 257. N.B. He there says when the treasures arrived at Ports-
mouth the Protector from ostentation ordered them to be transported by land to
London. Query, if the Lading was taken out and all the bullion removed, what
treasures remained on the ships to be removed by land ? ' [E. F.] The transport-
ing of the bullion from Portsmouth had nothing to do with the affair of Santa
Cruz. It was after Blake's attack on the ships in Cadiz harbour, September 8,
1656, when he did get the treasure, that the eight-and-thirty waggon-loads came
' triumphantly jingling up,' probably for the purpose of bringing home to the minds
of the people the reality of the victory over Spain.
2 ' At p. [154] it appears that these memoirs were written after 1679. The Earl
who was ambassador died in 1677, and this must have been his son Philip, who
succeeded him, November 2, 1677.' [E. F.]
MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP 145
a hearing, I had notice from M r Jessop that my accusers had been
dissuaded from any further prosecution, and some of them told him,
if the Council had not set down a time for a hearing they were
agreed to let it fall.
Upon this news, I wrote down to my Wife, who was M r Edward
Hawes's only daughter, who was a merchant of good repute in
London, and grandson to Sir James Hawes sometime Lord Mayor
of London. The said M r Edward Hawes's widow, was my Father's
second wife and after his decease I was married to my Mother-in-
Law's daughter July 12 th 1643 ; by her I had four sons and two
daughters : two of my sons died : the other two were named
George and Edward. My eldest son George was married to
Capt. Fuller's daughter of Waldron in Sussex. She died childless
Dec r 16, 1675 having lived with him a little above a year. The
other son married one M. r Baynes's widow, a Counsellor of the city
of London, on the 28 th of Nov r 1681. She was sister to M r Warner
of Walsingham in Norfolk who was nephew to the Bishop of
Rochester of that name and by changing his name to Warner from
Lea he left him his estate. My eldest daughter Elizabeth was
married to Sir Thomas Pierce's l eldest son of Stone Pit in the
county of Kent. She had several children by him who are at
present living. My youngest daughter Mary 2 is now living with
me unmarried.
But to return from this digression. I wrote word to my wife
that I understood my accusers were of opinion they should make
nothing of their charge against me, so that I was resolved to try
my fortune, by venturing to go into the House of Commons and
there sit, to act in the capacity my Country had chosen me : which
I did, nobody any way interrupting me, and there I remained till
such time as Oliver Cromwell departed this life 3 in White Hall,
which was Sept r 3, 1658. He lay in great state in Somerset House
till Nov r 23 rd following and then was buried in Westm'r Abby.
After whom his son Richard succeeded, but was soon thrust out by
Fleetwood and Lambert, who with the rest of the Army called the
Long Parliament again. After which several gentlemen in
1 ' Should be Piers.' [E. P.]
2 ' See her husband's epitaph, p. [157].' [E. F.]
Mr. Ferrers here confuses two Marys. The epitaph relates to the husband of
Sir George's step-sister, not of his daughter. See note on p. 157, below.
3 No parliament was sitting at the time of the Protector's death. He had
dissolved it seven months before, on February 4.
VOL. XI. L
146 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP
Cheshire, under the conduct of Sir George Boothe, rose for the
defence of their priviledges but were defeated by Lambert, who
soon after turned out the remnant of the long Parliament and
created a Government called the Committee of Safety. 1
In this space of time General Monk hearing Sir George Booth
had a considerable number of men up, and not knowing Lambert
had defeated them, marches from Scotland with a declaration of a
free Parliament ; thinking to join Sir George Booth, and so to
come up to London with both their armies. 2 Upon this news of
General Monk's coming out of Scotland with an army, Lambert
marches towards the North as far as Newcastle to fight against
Gen 1 Monk. But his men would not engage, which the Parlia-
ment hearing of, they got together in the House of Commons and
dissolved the Committee of Safety and invited Gen 1 Monk to march
with his army to London, which he did accordingly, and was
received with great joy, and soon after procured the dissolution of
the Long Parliament, and called another upon April 25, 1660, in
which I was chosen for the town of East Grinstead in Sussex : and
at the opening of the Convention we chose Sir Harbottle Grinstone 3
Speaker, of which his Majesty being in Flanders had notice, who
sent several Letters to the Lords, Commons and Gen 1 Monk : and
likewise his .gracious declaration to his subjects, in which he granted
a free and general Pardon to all excepting only such Persons as shall
here after be excepted by a Parliament lawfully called. His Letter
to the House of Commons was brought to the door by Sir John
Greenville, 4 afterwards Lord Bath, and being read in the House we
1 ' See Echarcl, p. 745, where the names of the members are mentioned. They
were twenty-three in number.' [E. F.]
2 Lambert defeated Booth at Nantwich on August 19, 1659. The Parliament
was turned out by the Army on October 13, after which the Committee of Safety
was appointed, and was the governing power until the restoration of the Parliament
on December 26. The statement that Monck did not know of Booth's defeat is
absurd. The Council of State sent him an official narrative of it on August 25.
There can be little doubt that he intended to join Booth, but before there was time
to do anything the rising collapsed, after which he remained quietly in Scotland and
wrote dutiful letters to the Parliament. When the breach between the Army and
the Parliament occurred in October, Monck declared for the latter ; but even then
he only demanded the restoration of the Rump. Lambert marched out from
London on November 3, and reached Newcastle towards the end of the month.
On November 15 Monck declared for a free Parliament, and announced his inten-
tion of marching into England, but it was not until January 2 that he actually
crossed the Tweed.
3 I.e. Grimstone. 4 Granville.
MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP 147
were all bareheaded, and taking it into debate we resolved upon
500. to be given for a Gratuity to the Messenger, and to let his
Majesty know that in a very short time he should have the answer
of the House. This being performed by M r Holies, afterwards
Lord Holies, it was resolved that 12 Lords and 24 Commoners and
some Citizens of London, should go to the Hague with the Royal
Navy, to fetch home our King (whom God preserve) to sit by
consent of all upon the throne of his Father.
And upon the 29 th of May 1660 His Majesty arrived at Dover
and was there met by the Lords and Commons and Gen 1 Monk
who was there created Duke of Alberrnarle ] and received the order
to be a Knight of the Garter, and from thence all the train'd
Bands in the Country where he passed, waited on him till he
came to London, where he was received, the streets being hung
with the richest furniture the Citizens had, and with all the
acclamations of joy that could be expressed. Coming to White
Hall he sent for both Houses and tho' much wearied with the
ceremony of his reception yet sat so long in the Banquetting House
as both Lords and Commons had time to express their joy in
seeing him and to kiss his hand every one of them before he went
to bed, though it was very late.
The next day at the meeting of the House there arose a debate
that now the King was come, and we having been long humbled
and tost upon unlawful foundations, it were prudent to return to
our ancient Constitution of Government, and to desire his Majesty
that this Convention (which was called the healing Parliament)
might be dissolved, and aiegal Parliament called by the King, Lords
and Commons, which might set the nation upon its old foundation,
and all things would be valid that were past in it. The King
being moved in it readily agreed to it, that the Act of Oblivion
might be the sooner dispatched, and good in law when perfected.
So that was in a short time dissolved and another presently chose
to sit, in which I was chosen to sit for East Grinstead; and
during that Parliament, which I think sat 16 or 17 years. 2
On the 23 rd of April 1661. The King having that day made a
magnificent passage with great splendour and solemnity from the
Tower through the City of London, was crowned at Westminster.
1 A very common mistake for Albemarle.
2 Nearly eighteen years. It met on May 8, 1661, and was dissolved on
January 24, 1678-9.
148 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP
and dined in the great Hall there, with the Lords and Commons
Bishops, Judges and Lawyers, the Representatives of the whole
Nation. I then waited on him at dinner in the quality of a
Gentleman Pensioner, he having given me that place by reason
my Uncle had it before me, and the next day there was a chapter
held at Windsor of the Knights of the Garter where the Duke of
Albermarle with the Earl of Sandwiche, with others were installed, 1
and there the King treated with two dinners the whole order of
the Garter, who are waited on at those solemnities by the Gentle-
men Pensioners, where I waited upon my Lord of Northumberland,
who was Lord Lieutenant of my county in Sussex, and he having
made me one of the Deputy Lieutenants, I was forced to get
William Levett, my countryman, to convey my meat out of the
great hall in a large baskett to a certain lodging that the Captain
of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners had assigned for that
purpose, who was then the Earl of Cleveland, that he and the other
Officers of the Band might dine with us, which course if we had
not taken, we had lost all our meat and dinner also, but meeting
there, we found great plenty of meat, sent in of all sorts by
several of the Band. So having dined, we were presently sent for
to wait on the King to Chapel to hear the evening service for that
occasion. After Church, my Lord Northumberland sent for me,
who passed a compliment upon me and told me I must wait upon
the Lord Chamberlain the next morning, who was the Earl of
Manchester, to go with him to the King in his Bedchamber, for
his Majesty had something to say to me. I guessed what his
Lordship meant, and gave him my humble thanks for the honor I
was likely to receive from the King by his means. The next
morning I did accordingly, and was brought by my Lord
Chamberlain to the King. When the King saw me, he presently
bid me draw my sword, and taking it from me, the Lord Chamber-
lain bid me kneel down, and the King laid my sword on m?
1 The dates here are not quite accurate. The ' magnificent passage ' from the
Tower to Whitehall was on April 22, the day before the Coronation, and the
installation of the Knights of the Garter had taken place the week before, ' apud
Castrum Windesore, decimo quinto die dicti mensis Aprilis,' in order to lend greater
glory to the Coronation itself. The ' two dinners ' to which the King treated the
Order would be on the 15th and 16th, and on this later occasion, no doubt, the
Earl of Northumberland desired Courthope to go next morning to the King, as
the knighthood was conferred on April 17. As regards his uncle's place as
Gentleman Pensioner see petition, p. 138, above, note 3.
MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP 149
shoulder, uttering these words, * Sois Chevalier ' ; so I arose, made
my obeisance and departed. This was noised about the Court at
Windsor on the 24 th of April 1661, and that day the Chapter
broke up, and all feasting was done : so that we all repaired to
London to serve in Parliament, who were Members of it: and
within three days I had a Bill brought me of the Knights fees, to
be paid to the Officers of the Court, according to their several
places, amounting to 72Z. I being one of the King's menial
servants was informed by some of the Band of Pensioners who had
been knighted by the late King that they paid no fees, because
Servants in the same condition were not to receive of one another,
and if I paid it I should do the Band wrong, being one of their
society. I answered, it would reflect much on my Lord Northumber-
land, who was then the only man who held up the nobility of
England, to speak to the King to knight a gentleman who was
not able or willing to pay his fees, and desired leave to wait on my
Lord Northumberland, that I might acquaint him in what con-
dition I was, and that I would willingly pay the money, were it
not a prejudice to the place and my whole Band, and that I had
precedents to bring of some of the Band who on the same occasion
had not paid the Fees. When I had spoke with my Lord, whose
father had been Captain of the Band of the Gentlemen Pensioners, he
said that he had formerly heard such a report, but was informed that
the Officers to whom the Fees did belong, had procured a warrant
from my Lord Chamberlain for me to appear before the King, with
intent to overthrow that custom in case I proved it to be one. I
asked his Lordship if he were willing I should pay it before I
appeared before his Majesty, and I would readily do it, rather than
incurr his Lordships displeasure. He said my best way would be
to wait on my Lord Chamberlain, and to take notice of the
Warrant which I had seen, and know if his Lordship would assist the
Officers of the Court against me, and to let him know I had pre-
cedents then in being of the Band, who paid no Fees on the same
occasion, that I was willing to pay, were it not to the prejudice
of the Society I was of.
When I had waited on my Lord Chamberlain, he said the Officers
were resolved to fling off the custom, if any such there was, and
that the King had appointed a day for the hearing. Upon which
I said I would acquaint my Lord Northumberland and if I should
obtain leave of the Band I would not trouble his Majesty nor him
150 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP
upon so small an occasion, but if they would not agree I should
pay, I would certainly attend the King's pleasure in it. When I
had acquainted my fellow Pensioners, they all resolved to interest
their friends at Court on my behalf, and to stand it out. In the
interim some of them had got Prince Rupert to move the King in
it, and to let him know there were precedents now in being in the
Band, who had been knighted by his Father and had paid no fees.
To this the King replied that my Lord Chamberlain was then in the
wrong : and desired the Prince to acquaint him that the hearing
should be put off for he would not disoblige fifty Gentlemen for so
small a sum : which the Prince did and so I escaped.
At the opening of this Parliament, which was of King, Lords
and Commons, I had lived to see a circular motion of the Sove-
reign Power, thro' two Usurpers, from the late King of ever
blessed memory to this his Son. It moved from King Charles the
first to the Long Parliament, from thence to the Rumps, from the
Hump to Oliver Cromwell and then back again from Richard his
son to the Rump again ; thence to the long Parliament and from
thence to King Charles the Second, where I beseech God it may
long remain. I shall not trouble myself nor the Reader with
what was acted in this Parliament, only observing that the Act of
Oblivion was past in the beginning, and the Act for Settling the
Militia in the King only, without either of his houses of Parlia-
ment, passed presently afterwards, and when the Act of Oblivion
past, there were certain Persons excepted, who had sat in judg-
ment upon the late King, which is needless to name, they being
mentioned in every printed book that treats of the History of
those times.
In this Parliament there were many Prorogations, and one
was in 1665 prorogued to Oxford by reason the Plague raged in
London furiously that year. I had at that time leave of the King
to go into France with my eldest son l provided I returned time
enough to sit in Parliament. I seated my son at Caen in Nor-
mandy with a Doctor of Physick whose name was Mons 1 ' Potelle
by my Cousin Mervins recommendation (a Merchant in London)
to M r Britton a Merchant at Caen, who was to furnish him with
1 ' See pages [145 & 156]. His name was George, born 1646, and then nineteen.
He married first the daughter of Captain Fuller of Waldron, and 2" dly Albinia
daughter of Sir William Elliott of Busbridge in Surry. See his Monument in
Ticehurst Church, Sussex. He left only one son, George Courthop, Esqr.' [E. F.]
MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP 151
money, and to advise him to take good courses, and to follow his
exercises, that were to make him an accomplished person. There
I left him and returned to Paris with my Cousin George Rivers of
Chafford who had been with me from England the whole voyage.
When we had seen the Louvre, the Tuilleries, Luxembourg
and other remarkable things which he had never seen before, we
came to Calais for a passage to our own country. At Calais we
met with Lord Hinchinbroke, eldest son to the Earl of Sandwich
who was then Vice Admiral, and had sent the Blackmore Frigate
to his son to Calais to bring him to Dover, for we had then wars
with the Dutch. Being lodged at Mons r La Forces house at
Calais we heard of this convenience, because the Frigate was then
in the Harbour. My Lord was not willing to go to sea having
just recovered of a great sickness, but we told him we would wait
his leisure, if his Lordship would do us the favour to let us go in
the same frigate with him : which he readily agreed to, and at his
appointed time we set sail, and came to Dover safe, 1 and there
parted with my Lord. We were invited by Sir Henry Palmer to
his house at Wingham in Kent, to lodge till such time as I could
send for my coach to fetch me : and when that came, after a week's
feasting with the Gentry of East Kent, I arrived at Whiligh in
August 1665, time enough to perform my promise to His Majesty
of sitting in Parliament the Winter following.
We sat most part of the Winter, and made such Laws as were
approved of by the three Estates and they being past into Acts of
Parliament towards the heat of the summer we were prorogued again.
Before we came together again the next winter, there happened a
dreadful Fire in the City of London on the 2nd of September 1666,
which burnt on both sides the street from the place where the Monu-
ment is erected to the middle of Fetter Lane before it stopped, in
which were burnt 80 Churches, and houses not to be numbered, for
it extended in length very near two miles : so that in the year 1665
the People were by the plague taken from the city ; in 1666 The
City was by the Fire taken from the People, both judgments
calling upon us for a national repentance. Neither was this all
the Nation suffered in this year, for we having war with the Dutch,
they came up the river with their fleet of ships in a Bravado, and
broke an iron chain that was put across the mouth of the River to
hinder them, and came above Rochester, and fired one of the
1 They landed on August 3. See S. P., Dom., under date.
152 MEMOIRS OF SIR GEORGE COURTHOP
King's best ships in Chatham, and carried away another laying in
the river, and returned without any damage to ships or men,
which was such a disgrace as this nation, always famous at sea,
never had put upon it either before or since the Conquest. This
Parliament continued by several Prorogations, till the year 1678,
always passing such acts as the necessity of the Kingdom required.
Their transactions being in print, I shall take the priviledge of
omitting the relation of them here, for brevity's sake, and come to
a narrative of a most horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish
party against the life of his sacred Majesty the Government and
the Protestant Religion ; sworn before Sir Edmundbury Godfrey,
one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of
Middlesex, IGGS^by Titus Gates, 2 born near Hastings in Sussex,
and brought up to be a Preacher of God's word and afterwards
turned Papist, and went and lived at St. Omers with the Jesuits in
the College, and from thence was sent into Spain to the Jesuits
there, and being of the Confederacy was sent into England to wait
on the Jesuits who lived in Wildhouse in Wild Street, and some
others who lived disguised about London and elsewhere, with
Letters from those of Spain and S fc Omers to the Jesuits here, to
encourage them to perfect their design of killing the King, which
was to be performed by one Coniers, as D r Gates in his 68 th
Article relates : and this Coniers shewed him the dagger that he
brought to do it with : but this man failing, they sent four Irish
Ruffians to Windsor to effect it, and there were sent SQL to them
from the Society of the Jesuits to supply their expences. I shall
not here insert how his Majesty escaped the danger, neither how
Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was murthered in Somerset House 3 by
their consults held at the White Horse Tavern by S* Clements ;
nor how many of the Jesuits discovered were executed : all these
occurrencies are set down in the narratives that were made by
some of their own party, who saved their lives by confessing the
Conspiracy, which was examined by the Lords and Commons and
found to be a design of the Pope and the Society of Jesuits and
1 1668 is a mistake (probably merely a mis-script) for 1678.
2 ' N.B. Gates was tried and convicted of perjury May 1685. Sir George Court-
hop died Nov. 18, 1685.' [E. F.]
3 The scene of the' murder was never identified. Godfrey was at St. Martin's
in the Fields at noon (of October 12, 1678), and was reported to have been seen in
the Strand, between St. Clement's Church and Somerset House, later in the day.
His body was found on the slopes of Primrose Hill.