| Citation |
BNL.747.001
8 Jan 1747:11 (2334)
From the St. James's Evening Post. London, October 9. 1746.
The enemies of the government affecting to represent the
necessary severities practised in the Highlands, and few
executions there have been out of a great number of guilty,
as so many acts of cruelty, we have thought proper to
transcribe from Rapin, an account of what passed in the
West, under King James II, after the suppression of
Monmouth's Rebellion.
The King being thus eased of his greatest fears, gave
himself entirely to the passion of revenge, on all those who
directly or indirectly had assisted the Duke of Monmouth.
To this intent, the Lord Chief Justice Jefferies, was sent,
with four assistant-judges, into the West, with a special
commission of oyer and terminer, to try the late rebels; and
major General Kirk was ordered to attend him with a body of
troops, to keep the people in awe. . . [4th para.] In fine,
not to enlarge on such a scene of horror, it suffices to
say, that Jefferies condemned five hundred persons, whereas
two hundred and thirty were executed, according to the
lowest computation (a) and their quarters set up in the
highways. Jefferies himself glorified in his barbarity and
boasted, that he had hanged more men than all judges in
England since William the Conqueror. And yet he would have
carried this cruelty further, had not many purchased his
favour with their estates. . . As for those that had not
money to buy pardons at this price, they were either hang'd
or cruelly whipp'd, or sold for slaves in the American
plantations. Kirk was not behind Jefferies, either in
cruelty or insolence. Immediately after the Duke of
Monmouth's defeat, being sent to Taunton, he caused nineteen
persons, by his own authority, without any trial or process,
and without suffering their wives or children to speak with
them, to be hang'd with pipes playing, drums beating, and
trumpets sounding. It was this doubtless, that made him
worthy to be an assistant to Jefferies.
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