Trial of Alice Lisle 1685 - Diary of Events | |
1649 | King Charles I is murdered by decapitation in Whitehall, on the orders of an illegal 'High Court' set up by Cromwell's satraps. One of the principal architects of this 'trial' is John Lisle a rebel lawyer, who signs the 'death warrant'. Contemporary pictures shew him sitting on the right hand of Bradshaw the 'Lord President'. His wife Alice is widely reported to have rejoiced at the murder. |
Note by TFPL: John Lisle’s signature is not on the copy of the Execution warrant sold by the House of Lords. |
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1660 | King Charles II is restored to the throne. The regicides of Charles I are ordered to give themselves up. Lisle has fled to Switzerland. There, at Lausanne, he is murdered by an Irish Knight. He is nonetheless attainted of treason by the new Parliament. The King however does not proceed against Lisle's wife Alice, but even allows her the estate at Moyle's Court, despite the attainder. She now professes loyalty to the Crown. |
Note by TFPL: Moyle’s Court was owned by Alice’s father White Beckonshaw, so it had never really been John Lisle’s property. Alice was co-heir of her father with her younger sister Elizabeth who married Sir Thomas Tipping of Wheatfield, Oxon. |
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1685 | With James II on the throne, the west country 'Dissenters' rebel; notably, but not only the Cromwellians, led by the Duke of Monmouth, bastard son of Charles I. |
Monday 6th July | Battle of Sedgemoor. Rebels flee, mainly across the south. |
Friday 24th July | A man named Dunne at Warminster is asked by small dark man to go to Moyle's Court to request accommodation from 'The Lady Lisle' for Hicks. Hicks has been named on a warrant for his preaching, as well as being a traitor from Monmouth's army. |
Saturday25th July | Dunne persuades a man named Barter from the Fovant area to act as guide to Moyle's Court. They go there and see Carpenter, Alice Lisle's bailiff. Dunne tries to hand him a letter. Carpenter refuses to have anything to do with it, sending him to Lisle, and later denies knowledge of the letter. She agrees to the request, arranging for Hicks to come following Tuesday evening. Barter is paid 2/6d (12 ½ p) by Dunne. |
Note by TFPL: the 12 ½ p would be perhaps £20 in today’s money. | |
Sunday 26th July | Dunne & Barter return home. Dunne tells Barter the men are rebels, and boasts of the funds they possess. He also admits that he has hidden them for ten days, sending them out at night because that is when the troops come to search for rebels. At the trial he denies this. Barter is not happy about this. |
Monday 27th July | In the morning Barter reports these proceedings to Colonel Penruddock(e). He has arranged to meet Dunne with the rebels, on or near Salisbury Plain at 9-11 am on Tuesday. Penruddock arranges to catch them and orders a servant to observe them. He is the son of Colonel Sir John Penruddock who fought very bravely in the Salisbury attack during the 1645 Royalist rising and was beheaded at Exeter on the orders of a Cromwellian 'court' presided over by Windham, which apparently included Alice Lisle's late husband. |
Tuesday 28th July | At 7 am three men come to Dunne; these are Hicks Nelthorp and the unknown small dark man who first approached Dunne. Fours later all but the small man set out via Deveral, Chilmark, and Sutton to Salisbury Plain meeting Barter as guide Barter is ordered to use a different way from Fovant to Moyle's Court. As this would prevent Penruddock from capturing the rebels he refuses and is dismissed. A man named Fane from Marton is fetched by Dunne to shew a secret way, different from the way taken on Saturday. The use of this way prevents Penruddock from taking them, as his servant is watching the other route. Barter is paid off with five shillings(25p) 8miles from Moyle's Court, then reports to Colonel Penruddock. Dunne and company arrive at Moyle's Court at 9-10 pm. And are fed in a room in the presence of Alice Lisle. There is conversation about the war and about Nelthorp. |
Note by TFPL: 25p is perhaps £40 in today’s money. | |
Wednesday 29th July | Colonel Penruddock with soldiers besets Moyle's Court in the early morning. After they have knocked for half an hour, Carpenter the bailiff comes to the door. He confesses that there are strangers there, and points out where the strangers lie, begging the colonel not to tell Lisle that he has given this away. The soldiers search in the malthouse finding Hicks and Dunne; the latter in a hole and covered over. Alice Lisle appears later. Chided for harbouring the rebels she denies all knowledge of it. Penruddock accuses her of harbouring another, and says he will trouble her no further if she will give him up. She again denies it, but on a further search the soldiers discover Nelthorp hiding in a hole by the chimney. Nelthorp has been named as a traitor in a proclamation. Lisle is arrested with Hicks and Nelthorp. |
Thursday 27th Aug 1685 |
Trial of Mrs Lisle for harbouring Hicks commenced at Winchester Castle. This is the first trial of the 'Bloody Assizes'. It is also the only one for which there are minutes of the proceedings. It lasts six hours into the evening. Lisle is convicted. The point of law is raised that Hicks, who was named in the charge sheet as having been harboured, had not yet been convicted of treason. Jeffreys overrules the plea; a ruling which is still valid and often quoted in court in modern times. |
Friday 28th Aug 1685 | Lisle sentenced to be burned that afternoon. Burning is customary for a female traitor, as it avoids the bloodiness and indecency of the hanging sexual mutilation drawing and quartering awarded to male traitors. Under Protestant government it was also customary for the hangman to secretly strangle the victim once the smoke from the faggots started to rise. Winchester divines intercede. Burning respited to 2nd September. She petitions the King. He commutes the burning to beheading, and grants head and body to her family. Correspondence between Lisle and Nelthorp comes to light which suggests Lisle's guilt. She complains that this should not be considered as it was not available in court. |
Wed 2nd September 1685 |
Lisle beheaded in the afternoon in Winchester market place. |
(Dec 1688) | Note by TFPL: The Bloodless revolution: James II deposed. |
1 William and Mary (1686) TFPL: [sic] |
Following the invasion by William of Orange who usurps the Throne assisted by the Whigs, a campaign of denigration of James II and the Tories commences, including the reversal,of attainders suffered by rebels under his reign. Lisle's attainder is reversed by private Act of the Whig Parliament. A process of near canonisation by the Whigs follows in which Alice Lisle 'was innocent and was judicially murdered.' This is difficult to reconcile with the trial proceedings but as, until the last century most histories were written by Whig historians this hyperbole is still in print and widely believed. It has improved in the telling to the point where the jury are said to have thrice acquitted her! All the proceedings shew is that the jury were uncertain as to whether the evidence shewed that she knew Hicks had been in the (Monmouth) army. Jeffreys strongly indicated that it did which was indeed the case. It has also been alleged that she slept through the trial and could not hear what was said. The proceedings tell us that she was allowed a 'prisoner's friend' Matthew Brown, to stand by her, assist her, and to ensure that she knew what was said. In these circumstances it is difficult to see how she could have been asleep or unaware of what was said. She also put up a spirited if less than honest defence, even raising a point of law, and interrupting Jeffreys. Much has been made of Jeffrey's bullying of Dunne. Dunne's behaviour in lying prevaricating and insolently standing mute while he thought up different answers justified a little bullying! There are not a few judges in our own times who have behaved in this way towards witnesses without damaging their careers. One thinks of Goddard, Melford Stevenson, and a certain Law Lord who no longer sits on criminal cases, to name but a few. |
Topography | |
Moyle's Court lies at Ellingham, a few miles north of Ringwood on the A338 about a mile and a half to the east of the road. Alicia Lisle lies buried (both head and body) in a tomb in Ellingham village churchyard. Here she is styled 'Alicia Lady Lisle'. Her title was not of course recognised once the rebellion was overturned for her husband's 'title' as Viscount Lisle was granted illegally by Cromwell in 1658. She was again known simply as 'Mrs Lisle' or 'Dame Lisle'. The village church has memorials to her family. |
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Copyright © 2001 P.Roberts | |