William Hulet was arraigned on the 15th of October, and tried on the
same day. He challenged no jurors, and refused pen and ink because he
could not write; but as he had not well understood the indictment he
desired it to be read over again, which was done.
Sir Edward Turner opened the case, alleging that Hulet was on the
scaffold, in disguise, on the occasion of the execution, and suggesting
that it was he who actually beheaded the King; a fact which he proposed
to prove chiefly by Hulet's own admissions.
_Gittens_ was the first witness. He stated that he and Hulet were both
serjeants in the same regiment at the time of the execution. A day or
two before the King came to the scaffold about thirty-eight of them were
sworn to secrecy by Colonel Hewson, and they were all asked whether
they would behead the King for a hundred pounds, and a promise of
preferment in the army. They all refused. At the time of the execution
it seems that part of the regiment was on guard in Scotland Yard, and
part in the Banqueting Chamber and on the scaffold. The witness was with
the former part, but managed to get near the scaffold before the
execution actually happened. 'Hulet (as far as I can guess), when the
King came on the scaffold for his execution, and said, Executioner, is
the block fast? fell on his knees.'
COUNSEL--Who did?
GITTENS--Hulet, to ask him forgiveness; by his speech I thought
it was he. Captain Atkins said, who would not undertake to do
this fact? I told him I would not do it for all the city of
London; no, nor I neither for all the world, saith Atkins; you
shall see Hulet quickly come to preferment; and presently after
he was made captain-lieutenant.
COUNSEL--Was he with his regiment that day?
GITTENS--We could not see him with the regiment all that day; he
was never absent at any time before.
COUNSEL--Did you know his voice?
GITTENS--Yes, sir. He had a pair of freeze trunk breeches, and a
vizor, with a grey beard; and after that time col. Hewson called
him 'father grey beard' and most of the army besides, he cannot
deny it.
In cross-examination Gittens repeated that he knew Hulet by his voice,
and that he was by Captain Webb at the door of the Banqueting House.
_Stammers_ was afterwards in Hewson's troop when Hulet was
captain-lieutenant, and marched at his orders to Luttrels-town; there
Hulet questioned him as to his previous service, and asked whether he
had ever served in the King's army: 'with that he walks about the room
two or three turns; saith he, I was the man that beheaded King Charles,
and for doing it I had an hundred pounds, saying I was a serjeant at
that time.'
Cross-examined, he said that he had been in the troop about a fortnight;
and that when he first saw Hulet he pretended that he was brother to one
Chambers. Hulet said that his evidence did not agree with that which he
had given in his examination at Dublin, and desired that the latter
might be read; which was done, and it agreed with the testimony he had
just given.
_Toogood_ was in Dublin in 1650, about September; he had some business
with Hewson, where he saw Hulet, and observed that he was very familiar.
I asked Hewson what he was, he told me he was his
captain-lieutenant of horse; I desired to know where he had him?
he told me he made him so from a serjeant, and a very mettled
fellow he was; it was he that did the King's business for him
upon the scaffold. In 1653 there was a disbanding of the army in
Ireland; this gentleman was then continued captain-lieutenant
in Pretty's regiment; I discoursed with Pretty concerning him,
and one part of it, I remember, was about the King's death; and
he did tell me that he was assured by col. Hewson that Hulet
either cut off the King's head, or held it up, and said, 'Behold
the head of a traitor.' Col. Pretty could not tell me which of
the two it was; but I saw the person that did it, and methought
he did resemble this person.
Twelve months afterwards he came to live near the prisoner in Ireland,
and meeting him at the White Horse in Carlow, asked whether he was the
man that cut off the King's head or not.
Saith he, Why do you ask me this question? I told him I had
heard so by several, namely by Hewson and Pretty; upon that he
said, 'Well, what I did, I will not be ashamed of; if it were to
do again I would do it.' Once since that time, about half a year
afterwards, I was in the same place, and there talking about the
King's death, he was telling me it was true, he was one of the
two persons that were disguised upon the scaffold. I desired to
know what if the King had refused to submit to the block? saith
he, there were staples placed about the scaffold, and I had that
about me that would have compelled him, or words to that effect;
other times I have heard him speak something to this ... I have
observed in Ireland, that it hath been generally reported that
he was either the man that cut off the King's head or he that
held it up, as I said before, and I have heard them sometimes
call him Grandsire Greybeard.
_Walter Davis_ had two years before been drinking with Hulet in Dublin,
and
said I to Hulet, I pray resolve me this one question; it is
reported that you took up the King's head, and said, Behold the
head of a traitor; Sir, said he, it is a question I never yet
resolved any man, though often demanded; yet, saith he,
whosoever said it, it matters not, I say it now; it was the head
of a traitor.
_Lieut.-Colonel Nelson_ had asked Colonel Axtell (who had just been
tried and condemned) who were the two disguised persons on the scaffold.
He told me I knew the persons as well as himself; saith he, they
have been on service with you many a time; pray, sir, said I,
let me know their names? Truly, said he, we would not employ
persons of low spirits that we did not know, and therefore we
pitched upon two stout fellows. Who were those? said I. It was
Walker and Hulet, they were both serjeants in Kent when you were
there, and stout men. Who gave the blow? said I. Saith he, poor
Walker, and Hulet took up the head; Pray, said I, what reward
had they? I am not certain whether they had thirty pounds apiece
or thirty pounds between them.
_Col. Thompson_ and _Benjamin Francis_ both saw the execution, and said
that it was a man disguised in a light wig that cut off the King's head.
Hulet said he could bring thirty or forty witnesses to prove that some
one else did the act, and others to prove that he was not there on that
day; he also produced a paper of examinations taken before the Lord
Mayor, being of Mary Brandon and others. He was reminded that he had
been examined in the Tower, and admitted that he was then charged with
cutting off the King's head. 'Then,' said the Chief-Baron, 'you had time
to provide your witnesses,' to which Hulet replied that he had been a
close prisoner since then. He further said that he had been a prisoner,
together with six or eight others, on the day of the execution; they
were imprisoned because they refused to be on the scaffold. Hulet wished
to call Hacker, Huncks, and Phayre, but the Court pointed out that
Hacker had already been tried for his life (and condemned), and that
Phayre was a prisoner in the Tower. Huncks had been called as a witness
against Axtell. Hulet then called a _Sheriff's Officer_, who said that
he had been told by one of his fellow-officers
that he was in Rosemary Lane a little while after the execution
of the King, drinking with the hangman [_i.e._ George Brandon],
that he did urge him whether he did this fact; God forgive me,
saith he, the hangman, I did it, and I had forty half-crowns for
my pains.
ABRAHAM SMITH--My Lord, as soon as that fatal blow was given I
was walking about Whitehall, down came a file of musketeers; the
first word they said was, Where be the bargemen? Answer was
made, Here are none; away they directed the hangman in my boat;
going into the boat he gave one of the soldiers a half-crown.
Said the soldiers--Waterman, away with him, be gone quickly; but
I fearing this hangman had cut off the King's head, I trembled
that he should come into my boat, but dared not examine him on
shore for fear of the soldiers; so I launched out, and having
got a little way in the water, said I, who the devil have I got
in my boat? Says my fellow, says he, why? I directed my speech
to him, saying, Are you the hangman that cut off the King's
head? No, as I am a sinner to God, saith he, not I; he shook
every joint of him; I knew not what to do; I rowed away a little
further, and fell to a new examination of him, when I had got
him a little further, Tell me true, said I, are you the hangman
that cut off the King's head? I cannot carry you, said I; No,
said he, I was fetched by a troop of horse, and I was kept a
close prisoner at Whitehall, and truly I did not do it; I was
kept a close prisoner all the while; but they had my
instruments. I said I would sink the boat if he would not tell
me true; but he denied it with several protestations.
WILLIAM COX--When my lord Capel, duke of Hamilton, and the Earl
of Holland were beheaded in Palace Yard in Westminster,[40] my
lord Capel asked the common hangman, saith he, Did you cut off
my master's head? Yes, saith he. Where is the instrument that
did it? He then brought the ax. This is the same ax. Are you
sure? saith my lord. Yes, my lord, saith the hangman, I am very
sure it is the same. My lord Capel took the ax, and kissed it,
and gave him five pieces of gold. I heard him say, Sirrah, wert
thou not afraid? Saith the hangman, they made me cut it off, and
I had thirty pounds for my pains.
_Richard Abell_ heard one Gregory confess that he cut off the King's
head. The Lord Chief-Baron then asked Hulet whether he wished for any
further time to examine into the truth of the matter; but on his saying
that he needed a fortnight for the purpose the trial was proceeded with
at once.
A STRANGER--My Lord, I was with my master in the company of
Brandon the hangman, and my master asked Brandon whether he cut
off the King's head or no? He confessed in my presence that he
did cut off the King's head.
The Lord Chief-Baron then summed up the case, briefly repeating the
substance of the evidence. He pointed out that the evidence went two
ways, meaning apparently that Hulet either cut off the King's head, or
held it up after it was cut off, and whichever he did, the jury ought to
find him Guilty. He concluded by telling them that they were not to
consider what was said of the prisoner by another unless it was
corroborated by what the prisoner said.
After a more than ordinary time of consideration the jury returned to
their places, and found the prisoner Guilty.
Hulet was brought up for sentence on the 16th of October, and sentenced
to death in the usual way, with other prisoners. At the same time he was
informed that his execution would be delayed in order that the King's
pleasure might be known. He was eventually reprieved.[41]