Part 30

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 £100, and White and his friend £20 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 £20 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 £5000, 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.

FOOTNOTES:

See ante, p. 126.

See ante, p. 125.

1 and 2 Philip and Mary, regulating bail so as to prevent justices admitting prisoners to bail collusively. This statute 'was, in fact, the origin of the preliminary inquiry, which has come to be in practice one of the most important and characteristic parts of our whole system of procedure, but it was originally intended to guard against collusion between the justices and the prisoners brought before them.'--Stephen's History, vol. i. p. 237.

These statements were probably made as answers to questions; but the fact does not appear in the report.

At this point either Turner got into a wild confusion as to time, and nobody noticed it, or the report is wrong. Turner's story as it now stands is quite irreconcilable with the obviously true part of the evidence.

Turner must have said, or intended to say, that he had agreed to pay Wild the £500 that White had given him the night before, as black-mail for the rest of the money and the jewels; but nothing of this appears in the report. It does not appear from the report how much money Tryon lost in all, nor how much was found at Fry's. It does not follow that evidence on the subject was not given at the trial.