[33] Thomas Syddall was a barber in Manchester and acted as adjutant
of the Manchester regiment. Some interesting particulars about him
and his family will be found in _Manchester Collectanea_, vol.
lxviii. of the Chetham Society, pp. 208-225, where this speech is
also printed.
[Sidenote: 30 July 1746]
[Sidenote: _fol._ 45.] Friends, Brethren and Countrymen,--Since I am
brought here to be made a sacrifice for doing the duty of a Christian
and an Englishman, it may be expected I should give some account of
myself and the cause for which I suffer. This expectation I will
gladly indulge. And I wish the whole kingdom might be inform'd of all
that I now say at the hour of death when there is the least reason to
doubt my sincerity.
I die a member, not of the Church of Rome, nor yet of that of
England, but of a pure Episcopal Church, which hath reformed all
the errors, corruptions and defects that have been introduced into
the modern Churches of Christendom--a church which is in perfect
communion with the ancient and universal Church of Christ by
adhering uniformly to antiquity, universality and consent, that
glorious principle which if once [Sidenote: _fol._ 46.] strictly
and impartially pursued would, and which alone can, remove all the
distractions and unite all the divided branches of Christendom. This
truly Catholick principle is agreed to by all Churches, Eastern and
Western, Popish and Protestant, and yet unhappily is practised by
none but the Church in whose holy communion I have the happiness to
die. May God in His great mercy daily increase the members thereof!
And if any would enquire into its primitive constitution I refer them
to our Common Prayer Book which is intitled 'A compleat Collection
of Devotions, both publick and private, taken from the Apostolical
Constitutions, the ancient Liturgies, and the Common Prayer Book of
the Church of England, printed at London in the year 1734.'
I most humbly and heartily offer up my praises and thanksgiving to
Almighty God that He hath been pleased of His great goodness to give
me grace to follow the pious example of my father,[34] who enduring
hardships, like a good soldier of [Sidenote: _fol._ 47.] Jesus
Christ, was martyred under the government of the late Usurper in the
year 1715, for his loyal zeal in the cause of his lawful King.
[34] Thomas Syddall, a blacksmith, who on 10th June 1715, the
anniversary of the birthday of the Old Pretender, headed a party of
rioters in Manchester, and wrecked Cross Street Chapel. He was seized
and sentenced to the pillory and imprisonment in Lancaster Castle.
The Jacobite army, however, released him and some of his comrades,
but he was retaken at Preston, and after trial at Liverpool was
executed at Manchester on 11th February 1716.--Axon's _Annals of
Manchester_, p. 76.
And I solemnly declare that no mean, wicked motives of revenging my
father's death (as hath been uncharitably said) induced me to join
in attempting a restoration of the royal family. I think I had no
occasion to be displeased with his murderers, when I reflect (as
I firmly believe) that instead of punishing they sent him to his
everlasting rest sooner than he would have gone according to the
course of nature. And so far from doing an injury to his family, they
pointed him out by his sufferings an excellent example of Christian
courage, and contributed by that means to the good of his innocent
children.
Neither was I tempted to enter into the army commanded by the Prince
of Wales by any ambitious or self-interested [Sidenote: _fol._ 48.]
views. I was easy in my circumstances and wanted no addition of
riches to increase my happiness. My desires were limited within
reasonable bounds, and what I thought I had occasion for (I bless
God) I was able to procure. And to make my joy as full as in this
world ought to be wish'd, I was blessed with an excellent, faithful,
religious, loving wife, and five children, the tender objects of our
care and affection. In this situation I was void of ambition and
thankful to God for His gracious disposal of me.
My motive for serving in the Prince's army was the duty I owe to
God, the King and the country, in endeavouring the restoration of
King James the Third and the royal family; which I am persuaded is
the only human means by which this nation can ever become great and
happy. For altho' I have never had the honour of seeing his Majesty,
yet I am well [Sidenote: _fol._ 49.] assur'd by others of his
excellent wisdom, justice and humanity and that he would think it his
greatest glory to rule over a free and happy people without the least
innovation of their religion or liberties.
For this we have not only the royal promise of the King himself
(than which a reasonable people cannot desire a greater security)
but we have also the word of a young Prince who is too great and
good to stoop to a falsity or to impose upon any people--a Prince
blessed with all the qualities which can adorn a throne, and who may
challenge his keenest enemies to impute to him any vice which can
blacken his character, whom to serve is a duty and a pleasure, and to
die for an honour.
And here I cannot but take notice that if his Royal Highness had any
of that cruelty in his temper which hath so abundantly displayed
itself in his enemy, the pretended Duke of Cumberland, [Sidenote:
_fol._ 50.] he would have shewn it upon Mr. John Weir,[35] when he
had him in his power, and knew that he had been a spy upon the royal
family abroad and upon the Prince at home, almost from the time of
his first landing. But the brave unfortunate young heroe, with noble
compassion, spared that life which hath since been employed in our
destruction. If I might presume to say that the gallant good Prince
hath any fault it would be that of an ill-timed humanity. For if he
had been so just to himself and the righteous cause wherein he was
engag'd as to have made examples of some of those who betrayed him,
in all human probability he had succeeded in his glorious undertaking
and been reserved for a fate to which his unequall'd virtues justly
entitle him.
[35] Captain John Vere, or Weir, in service under the Duke of
Newcastle. He had been taken prisoner by the rebels about the time
they held Carlisle, and was employed by them in negotiating the
terms of capitulation.
There is one thing I am bound in justice to others to take [Sidenote:
_fol._ 51.] notice of in respect to Mr. Samuel Maddox, who for
prudential reasons was not produced upon my trial to imbrue his
hands in my blood, as well as in that of my fellow-sufferers. Yet I
solemnly declare in the presence of Heaven (where I hope shortly to
be) that in the trial of Mr. Thomas Deacon and Mr. John Berwick,[36]
I heard him perjure himself, as I verily believe he did in every
trial upon which he was produced as an evidence. To this sin of
perjury he hath also added the odious crime of ingratitude, for to
my own knowledge he was under great obligations to the very people
against whom he has falsly sworn, and was supported and kept from
starving by them and me for a considerable while in prison when
nobody else would assist him.
[36] Or Beswick. A Manchester linen-draper, aged about thirty-one
years. He was known by the soubriquet of 'Duke' in the rebel
army.--'History of the Rebellion' in _Scots' Magazine_, pp. 295-299.
I heartily forgive all who had any hand in the scandalous surrender
of Carlisle; for as it was the opinion of every one of [Sidenote:
_fol._ 52.] the garrison who had been in foreign service that the
place was tenable many days, and as the Elector's troops then lying
before the town were in a bad condition, it is highly probable that
a gallant defence (which I strenuously insisted upon) would have
procured us such terms as to have prevented the fate to which we are
now consign'd. I also forgive the pretended Duke of Cumberland for
his dishonourable and unsoldierly proceeding in putting us to death
in violation of the laws of nations after a written capitulation
to the contrary, and after the garrison, upon the faith of that
capitulation, had surrendred the place and faithfully performed all
the conditions required of them.
I pray God to forgive and turn the hearts of the bishops and
their clergy who, prostituting the duty of their holy profession,
have departed from their function as messengers of peace, and
scandalously employed themselves in their pulpits to abuse the
[Sidenote: _fol._ 53.] best Prince engaged in the most righteous
cause in the world, and against their own consciences and opinions,
represented him and his army in a disadvantageous and false light,
in order to get the mob on their side and spirit up an unthinking
people to a blood-thirsty, cruel and unchristian disposition. I
could heartily wish these men would prefer suffering to sinning, and
consider how contrary it is to the character of a truly Christian
pastor to receive instructions about what doctrine to preach from the
baneful Court of an impious Usurper. The credulous, deluded mob, who
have been thus set on by their teachers, I also pray God to forgive
for the barbarous insults I received from them when in chains.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!
As I have before given thanks to Almighty God for the example of my
honest father, so I beseech him that the same [Sidenote: _fol._ 54.]
Christian, suffering spirit may ever be in all my dear children;
praying that they may have the grace to tread the same dangerous
steps which have led me to this place, and may also have the courage
and constancy to endure to the end and despise human power when it
stands oppos'd to duty.
I pray God of his great mercy and goodness that he would be pleased
to pour down the choicest of his blessings upon the sacred head of
his Majesty, King James the Third, and his royal sons, the Prince
of Wales, and the Duke of York; and (although England be not in a
disposition to deserve so great a blessing, yet for the sake of
justice and the love which Nature and duty prompt me to bear my
native country) to restore them soon to their lawful, natural and
undoubted rights, and in the meanwhile to inspire them with Christian
patience and firmness of heart to bear their undeserved misfortunes.
It would be an unspeakable satisfaction to me if my manner [Sidenote:
_fol._ 55.] of dying, or anything I now say, would contribute to
the removing those unhappy and unreasonable prejudices with which
too many of my countrymen are mislead. Danger of Popery and fear of
French power are the idle pretences that wicked and ill-designing men
make use of to misguide and stir up the passions of unwary (though
perhaps honest) people. But if Englishmen would seriously consider
that those who make the most noise about Popery are remarkably
void of any religion at all, and dissolute in their morals; that
Atheism, infidelity, profaneness and debauchery are openly avowed
and practised even within the walls of that very Court whence
they derive all their fancied religious and civil liberties. If
they would reflect (when they talk of French influence) that they
seek protection from a German Usurper, who is hourly aggrandizing
himself and raising his foreign dominions upon the ruines of the
deluded people of England. If they would reflect that I and my
fellow-sufferers are now murdered in [Sidenote: _fol._ 56.] order to
weaken the cause of loyal virtue, and to strike a terror into the
minds of all such as have the honest inclination to do their King,
their country and themselves justice. If they would reflect upon the
calamities, the massacres, the desolation of Scotland, which presage
the destruction of this already more than half-ruined country,
surely they would find but little cause to be pleased with their
situation--a situation so extremely distant from honour and happiness
that it would be uncharitable and misbecoming a dying man to wish
even his most inveterate enemies to continue in it, and which I
therefore pray God, of his infinite mercy, to deliver all Englishmen
from.
If, my dear countrymen, you have any regard to your own happiness,
which, in charity, I have endeavoured to point out in my dying
moments, let me beseech you, in the name of God, to restore your
liege sovereign, and with him the glorious [Sidenote: _fol._ 57.]
advantages of an excellent constitution under a lawful government.
This is every man's duty to aim at. And if your honest attempts
should fail, remember it is a great blessing to die for the cause of
virtue, and that an almighty power can and will reward such as suffer
for righteousness sake.
To that God, infinite in his goodness and eternal in his providence,
I commend my soul, imploring his forgiveness of all my sins, and
hoping for a speedy translation to eternal joy through the merits and
sufferings of Jesus Christ.--Amen! Amen! Amen!