TURNER--You cannot, it is as well; pr'ythee sit down, dear Mall,
sit thee down good child, all will be well.
Mrs. Turner, in short, brought back the jewels which were given to
Tryon, in Chamberlin's presence, and Turner offered to forego his L500,
but was nevertheless committed by Sir T. Aleyn.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Have you any witnesses to prove
all this discourse passed between you and Wild?
TURNER--I have by, witnesses to prove I said this, that there
was such discourses between us.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--No doubt of it; and so will many a
man at Newgate frame such a story as this.
HYDE, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You have told a long story about Wild,
that you took him by the throat, and that you were alone: what
weapons had you?
TURNER--None, my Lord.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--Had you a lanthorn with you?
TURNER--No, my Lord.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--What time of the night was it?
TURNER--Twelve o'clock, my lord.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You staid till four, so they were
four hours a-bringing of the money.
TURNER--Yes, my Lord.
HYDE, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--You took a man in the dark by the
throat, that man that was guilty of such a thing, as when that
you did let him go to call his companions to bring the money,
brings fellows to you single; I would be glad to know, whether
in this case they would not have knocked you on the head, and
killed you?
TURNER--My lord, Wild had engaged his soul, and I my soul to
him, that if I would not discover him, I should go away free.
BRIDGMAN--Great security indeed!
TURNER--I desire my maid may be called; pray ask Sir T. Aleyn
what he hath done with my maid; he took her up with Sir R.
Brown, and two marshal's men (pray gentlemen, make not a
laughing business of this), Sir Thomas pray, where is my maid?
SIR T. ALEYN--I had this maid upon examination, I found cause of
further examination, thereupon directed an officer to take her,
and she is now in the garden.
_Mosely_ the constable, the Marquis of Dorchester's servant, and
Turner's maid were called to prove that Turner and his family were in
bed at the time that the burglary took place; but proved nothing
material, the maid in particular becoming confused and contradicting
herself several times.
Various witnesses were called to character, and _Sir T. Aleyn_,
_Chamberlin_, _Millington_, and others were recalled, and all agreed
that Turner, when he was in custody, asked to be allowed to go to fetch
the jewels, but did not offer to arrest the thief.
BRIDGMAN, LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE--This is a notable piece of
cunning; when he was moved by Alderman Smith and others, all
this while he names no man; but now he was under an action, he
would have them go with himself out of the Liberties, and yet
saith never a word to take the man; he knew very well it was out
of the Liberties. Truly, I think if Sir T. Aleyn had done it, I
should not have taken him to be Sir T. Aleyn.
_William Turner_ denied all knowledge of the charge.
_John Turner_, questioned by the judges, said that he had carried two
bags of money from Fry's house to Wild on the Saturday morning; he made
two journeys with one bag each time; he delivered them to Wild in the
street at Tower-Ditch.
_Hyde, Lord Chief-Justice_, then summed up. He began by pointing out
that as to Mrs. Turner,
though it appears all along that she had a hand in this
business, yet nothing appears at all, but doing only that which
her husband had directed; then by law she cannot be accessory
for committing of felony.
As to Ely, there was nothing against him.
Then the matter is to James, John, and William Turner; I hope,
and I am sure you are nearer, and you take note of what hath
been delivered; I have not your memories; you are young and no
persons better; you are men of understanding, I need not repeat
particulars to you.
He points out, very shortly, that John and William Turner had not proved
that they were in bed at home all that night, and that even if they were
in bed when the constable came to the house, that proved nothing,
because the crime had then already been committed. As to Col. Turner,
you see when he comes the next day, he undertakes to find out
the thieves, and that only upon a suspicion; that there being a
purpose to rob Mr. Tryon a year before, he goes to the same
place now, he found Wild out then. He had very good luck; that
because he lodged there a year before, he must have the same
lodging now: It is a likely matter that thieves, as Wild is,
should keep their lodgings thus constantly. There he finds him,
takes him by the throat, and there they were playing a while:
There one comes, goes, and brings some part of the money. After
all this, the next day he must take his word to come again and
bring the jewels. Observe but this; after which time as the
money was received yet by a token, though he never saw the
woman before, describing her a short fat woman, with a long
black scarf, he must meet her, asked her what she wanted, and
must give her jewels of that value: 'Tis one of the finest
framed stories that I have heard, that this man should come to
be thus privy after himself stood charged and the jewels brought
for all this; and yet he must know nothing of it. You observe
the evidences, and their circumstances themselves: The witnesses
he called in point of reputation, that I must leave to you. I
have been here many a fair time: Few men that come to be
questioned, but shall have some come and say, he is a very
honest man; I never knew any hurt by him: But is this anything
against the evidence of the fact? But you have here the whole; I
shall leave it to you.
_Bridgman, Lord Chief-Justice_, summed up even more shortly, mentioning
a few of the absurdities of Turner's story. The jury withdrew for an
hour, and then returned with a verdict of Guilty against Col. Turner,
and Not Guilty against all the others.
On the 19th of January Col. Turner and William Turner made a confession
as to their share in the crime. From this it appears that the burglary
was planned entirely by Col. Turner, and was committed by him, his son
William, one White, a solicitor, and an unnamed friend of White's. Col.
Turner procured an impression of Tryon's door-key in wax, and had
another key made to the pattern. By means of this all four men entered
Tryon's house about nine o'clock, and having bound and gagged Tryon,
stole his keys, opened the doors of the counting-house and the
warehouse, found the keys of his iron chest, and took the money and
jewels out of it. How much money or how many bags they took does not
appear, but everything was taken to a house in Duke's Place, from which
Col. Turner fetched away the money and the jewels to his own house the
next morning. The money was still in his house when it was searched by
the constable and the marshal on Friday night. William Turner was to
have L100, and White and his friend L20 a-piece for their pains. Neither
Mrs. Turner, John Turner, or Ely Turner knew of the robbery, but they
helped to move the money on Saturday morning. On being asked on Saturday
morning where the jewels were, Col. Turner said he had given them to
White at six o'clock that morning.
Col. Turner afterwards restored the carcanet, the only jewel which he
had not restored before.
On the same day in the evening he was condemned to be hung.
On the occasion of his execution, two days afterwards, he made a dying
speech of some length. After admitting the justice of his fate, and
declaring that he died in peace with all the world, he said--
Truly it is my sins, and the greatness of my sins hath brought
me hither, and the greatest sin that troubles me, and lies on
me, is that sin which I was much addicted to, and that was the
sin of profaneness, of blaspheming God, of taking his name in
vain. I never heard any man or woman, or whatever they were,
swear in my life but I did tremble for them, to hear them; for
keeping company with men of honour (they were men of quality,
though that was an ill quality in them) was the occasion of it I
never kept company with any poor, base, inferior people, with
any thief, or any suchlike base person in all my life, but fled
from them and avoided them till this accident. As I was telling
you, for that great sin of swearing; keeping company with
persons that did swear, I did get a habit of swearing, though I
hated it and loathed it, when I observed it in myself, and yet,
may be, did it again, forgetting presently, and not observing,
being of a hasty nature.
He then goes on to say that his sons were innocent of the present
matter, and asks the sheriff to procure their liberation from prison,
which he promises to do if he can. He laments the present state of the
world.
I must deal really with you, this nation is very full of sins,
of crying sins, of sins that the land will suddenly mourn by
God's hand; I have every year expected the sweeping plague to
come and take away two-thirds of the nation for the sins that
lie upon us.
It is expected of him that he should clear himself from accusations that
have been made against him. He knows nothing of having received L20
from Dr. Hewyt's wife to procure him a pardon, his wife will soon
receive a certificate from her to show that this is true. He did not
cheat the king out of money when he was beyond the seas with him; for he
was never out of the country. He relates various sufferings that he
endured on the royalist side during the civil war, but being reminded by
the sheriff that this is not a proper subject for a dying man to
discourse about, he points out that Tryon got back all his property, and
then goes on rather inconsistently:--
But, Mr. Sheriffs, assure yourselves, so sure I am going to
heaven, I shall be there in glory, so sure had Mr. Tryon (if I
had not met with those two foolish timorous officers) have had
his goods and money again; there had never had one word of this
business been known. It was a sad fate, that these two fellows
out of a little fear should be the occasion of my coming here;
but God forgive them, Stubs and Lyon I mean, these two villains,
I have nobody to thank for my blood but them; and yet I do free
them, and freely forgive them. Mr. Sheriffs, are you satisfied
in this? Would you have me say any more touching the fact?
MR. SHERIFF--It is satisfaction to us if you are satisfied
yourself.
Turner then goes on to deny other charges that have been made against
him; particularly he asserts that a man of the same name who died in his
house was not poisoned by him, and that he knows nothing of a 'glass
jewel' which the ordinary suggests that he delivered to the Countess of
Devonshire in place of another. He expresses his faith in the Protestant
church, and his belief in the chief tenets of the Christian religion,
and denies that he had been drunk and abused the ordinary, swearing, and
boasting that he had L5000, and could have a pardon when he pleased. On
the contrary, he had acted as clerk in the prison chapel.
About eight or nine o'clock Justice Stringer came to me in
Chancery-Lane, and two or three knights and persons of quality,
eight or nine in all; they had one bottle of sack among them, of
which I drank one little cup ... and God forgive them that
raised the scandal.
He then complains of the Hole where he was confined the night after the
Sessions--
It is a most sad deplorable place; Hell itself, in comparison
cannot be such a place; there is neither bench, stool nor stick
for any person there; they lie like swine upon the ground, one
upon another, howling and roaring ... I would humbly beg that
the Hole may be provided with some kind of boards like a court
of guard, that men may lie down upon them in ease.
JACKSON (the gaoler)--Seventeen out of nineteen made their
escapes out of that Hole, they having only a form there.
SIR R. FORD--If I did think there were a reprieve to come for
you I would be contented to spin out the time thus; but in good
earnest I expect none; unless you had an apprehension you were
not to die you would not spin out the time thus, not thus run
to many impertinences.
Turner then finished his speech, and after he had prayed a little the
executioner fitted the rope round his neck--
TURNER--What, dost thou mean to choke me? pray fellow, give me
more rope; what a simple fellow is this! How long have you been
executioner that you know not yet how to put the knot?
In the midst of his private ejaculations, offering to pull down
the cap, he espied a gentlewoman at a window nigh, kissed his
hand, said 'Your servant, Mistress.'... His cap being pulled
down he gave the sign and the executioner turned him off.
The confluence of people from the gaol to the place of execution
was very great, beyond the memory of any upon the like occasion.
During his imprisonment, and to the last breath of life, his
carriage was very undaunted.