Mr. Hallam (_Const. Hist._, vol. ii. p. 26. ed. 1850), after some
remarks on the execution of Vane, who was brought to trial together with
Lambert in 1661, asserts that the latter, "whose submissive behaviour
had furnished a contrast with that of Vane, was sent to Guernsey, and
remained a prisoner for thirty years." Mr. Hallam does not quote his
authority for this statement, which I also find in the older
biographical dictionaries. There exists, however, in the library of the
Plymouth Athenaeum, a MS. record which apparently contradicts it. This is
a volume called _Plimmouth Memoirs, collected by James Yonge_, 1684. It
contains "a Catalogue of all the Mayors, together with the memorable
occurrences in their respective years," beginning in 1440. Yonge himself
lived in Plymouth, and the later entries are therefore made from his own
knowledge. There are two concerning Lambert:
"1667. _Lambert, the arch-rebell, brought prisoner to this
Iland."_
[The Island of St. Nicholas at the entrance of the harbour, fortified
from a very early period.]
"1683, Easter day. My Lord Dartmouth arrived in Plimmo. from
Tangier. In March, Sir G. Jeffry, the famously [Query,
_infamously_] loyal Lord Chief Justice, came hither from
Launceston assize: lay at the Mayor's: viewed ye citadells, Mt.
Edgecumbe, &c.
"The winter of this yeare proved very seveare. East wind, frost,
and snow, continued three moneths: so that ships were starved in
the mouth of the channell, and almost all the cattel famisht. Ye
fish left ye coast almost 5 moneths. All provisions excessive
deare; and had we not had a frequent supply from ye East, corne
would have been at 30s. per bushell,--above 130,000 bushells being
imported hither, besides what went to Dartmo., Fowy, &c.
"The Thames was frozen up some moneths, so that it became a small
citty, with boothes, coffee houses, taverns, glasse houses,
printing, bull-baiting, shops of all sorts, and whole streetes
made on it. The birdes of the aire died numerously. _Lambert, that
olde rebell, dyed this winter on Plimmo. Island, where he had been
prisoner 15 years and mo._"
The trial of Lambert took place in 1661. He may have been sent at first
to Guernsey, but could only have remained there until removed in 1667 to
Plymouth. His imprisonment altogether lasted twenty-one years.
Lambert's removal to Plymouth has, I believe, been hitherto unnoticed.
Probably it was thought a safer (and certainly, if he were confined in
the little island of St. Nicholas, it was a severer) prison than
Guernsey.