nn
n
n
n
n The optimism, confidence and expectations that hadnfilled the hearts of the West Country men during June 1685 vanished in the dawnnlight of July 6th. Monmouth’s rebellion ended when it was crushed bynthe efficiency and experience of King James II’s army. The remnants ofnMonmouth’s raggle-taggle band of farmers, apprentices and shop keepers werenchased from the battlefield of Sedgemoor, into the fields, ditches and lanes ofnSomerset by James’s trained killers, where they were mopped up in theirnhundreds. Some were slaughtered on the spot, others were taken prisoner andnmarched or shipped in carts to local towns and villages.
n
n
n
 |
| Hanging Rebels |
n
n
n
nThe Earl of Feversham,ncommander of the King’s army, left Bridgwater in the command of Colonel PercynKirke, a corrupt, merciless adventurer who had made his brutal reputation innTangier, where he had ruled with a rod of iron. He brought his own regimentnwith him, called with cruel irony Kirke’s Lambs, from the paschal lamb on itsnbadge, who were the most vicious, ferocious soldiers in the whole army. Kirkenmarched his train of prisoners from Bridgwater to Taunton, hanging men alongnthe roadside as he went, and at Taunton he hanged the rest, some from thensignpost of the White Hart Inn, others from trees and hastily erected gibbets.
n
n
n
 |
| An improvised gibbet |
n
n
n
nHe set his trumpeters to sound, his fifers to play and his drummers to strikenup a paradiddle as the rebels jerked and danced on the ends of their ropes, tonwatch them dance and to drown out their cries and those of their watchingnfriends and relations. His executioner was ankle deep in blood as he quarterednthe dying, and a local ploughman, cruelly nicknamed Tom Boilman, was pressedninto sealing the quarters of his neighbours’ bodies in a vat of boiling pitch.nLocal legend has it that, although he escaped the vengeance of the Lambs,nHeaven punished him later, as he was sheltering beneath an oak tree during anstorm and was killed by a bolt of lightning. Rumour says Kirke hanged onenhundred men in the week following Sedgemoor and many more bought their livesnwith bribes paid to him, but when news of this reached London he was recalled,nnot for the bribery but because he was letting wealthier rebels escape withntheir lives.
n
n
n
 |
| Judge George Jefferys |
n
n
n
nKirke’s place was taken by five judges sent from London; SirnWilliam Montague, Sir Robert Wright, Sir Francis Wythens, Sir Creswell Levinznand Sir Henry Polexfen, all under the command of Lord Chief Justice Sir GeorgenJeffreys. Jeffreys was the rising star in the legal world, although only fortynat the time, he had already become Lord Chief Justice and had tried andnsentenced Titus Oates for his part in the Popish Plot. The Western Circuitnconvened first at Winchester, as many rebels had fled into Hampshire, and onenof their first cases was the trial of Lady Alice Lisle.
n
n
n
 |
| The Arrest of Lady Alice Lisle |
n
n
n
nThis elderlyngentlewoman carried her title by courtesy (her husband had been made Lord bynCromwell), and was known to be a pious and charitable widow. Two fugitives fromnSedgemoor, John Hicks and Richard Nelthorpe sought sanctuary in her house,nwhich was freely given, as might be expected by this virtuous lady. Thenfollowing morning, the house was surrounded by soldiers and Hicks, Nelthorpenand their host were arrested. Lady Alice was brought before Jeffreys, whonswore, ranted and raged at her and the other witnesses. Even though Hicks andnNelthorpe had yet to be found guilty, Lady Alice was tried for harbouringntraitors, which made her guilty by association. With very great reluctance thenjury, brow-beaten by Jeffreys, found her guilty, and although many people spokenon her behalf and pleaded for mercy, Jeffreys and even the King were resolute.nIn recognition of her status, her sentence was commuted from death by burningnbut nevertheless, on September 2nd 1685, she was publicly beheadednin Winchester market place, (one of the first acts of parliament under Williamnand Mary, in 1688, was to reverse the guilty verdict, on the grounds of annirregular prosecution by Jeffreys).
n
n
n
 |
| Judge George Jeffreys |
n
n
n
nOn the day following her execution,nJeffreys moved on to Dorchester, where he had the courtroom hung with scarlet, asnif to presage his grisly purpose. He suffered from kidney and bladder stones,nwas in constant pain and consequently was always in an evil temper. Hensentenced thirteen men to be hanged on the first day, followed by another twonhundred and ninety two on a single day, although he hanged only seventy four inntotal, the rest being flogged, fined, imprisoned or transported to the WestnIndies, where they were sold into slavery on the plantations. By September 14th,nJeffreys had moved on to Exeter, where another thirty-seven were executed, andnthen made for Taunton in Somerset, the county at the heart of the rebellion.nThere were five hundred and twenty-six prisoners held there, and Jeffreysnordered the deaths of one hundred and forty-four.
n
n
n
 |
| In Jeffreys’ Court |
n
n
n
nBodies were quartered, boilednin pitch or pickled in brine, and placed in each place where Monmouth hadnformerly found supporters. The butchered parts of the rebels, stuck on spikes,npikes and poles, adorned every crossroads, every marketplace, every villagengreen, and every church across Somerset. The stench of death was so bad on somenroads that people stopped using them all together. Two hundred and forty-twonmen were transported, others were flogged or fined, with some imprisoned wherenmany died from typhus, a condition so common that it was called ‘gaol fever’.nJeffreys laughed, joked, shouted and swore so much during these days that thosenwho saw him believed that he was drunk from morning to night. He became knownnas the ‘Hanging Judge’ and the circuit was known as the ‘BloodynAssizes’.
n
n
n
 |
| The Bloody Assizes |
n
n
n
nFrom Tauton he went to Wells, where another ninety-seven werenkilled and another three hundred and eighty-five sentenced to transportation.nPacked below decks in fetid slave ships, at least one fifth of thosentransported died before reaching the Indies; those that made it were sold, tonwork on the plantations. In all, Jeffreys executed over three hundred rebels,nwith over eight hundred more transported for life into slavery; on one daynalone he issued one hundred and forty-four death sentences. For his zeal, JamesnII rewarded him by making him Lord Chancellor, but following the GloriousnRevolution he tried to flee to the continent but was arrested in a pub innWapping, allegedly disguised as a sailor.
n
n
n
 |
| Judge Jeffreys arrested |
n
n
n
nHe was placed in the Tower of London,nlargely for his own safety, as the public threatened to dismember him. He diednin the Tower in the following year, in 1689, probably from kidney failure.nHistory has not remembered him well, and he has the reputation of being one ofnthe worst human beings who have ever lived.
nnn
n
nnn
