GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE AND HISTORICAL REVIEW. THE MAIDS OF TAUNTON.-MR. MACAULAY AND WILLIAM PENN. FEW parts of Mr. Macaulay's recent brilliant work more promptly attracted attention and comment than those in which he considered and condemned the conduct of the great founder of Pennsylvania in connection with the cruelties and the tyranny of the reign of James II. This result was a curious proof of the power of Mr. Macaulay's captivating style, for, in truth, there was nothing new in the facts which he brought forward. His own information respecting them was principally derived from the papers of Sir James Mackintosh, and all the circumstances had been already stated by Sir James. The historical authorities respecting two of the charges had also been recently published by Mr. Roberts, in his Life of the Duke of Monmouth, and those respecting one of them by Mr. Wilmot, in his Life of Hough, and also by several other writers of more or less celebrity. But in the publications of these authors the facts had fallen to the ground almost unnoticed. The public ear was deaf to their charming. No sooner were the same charges re-echoed by the trumpet-note of Mr. Macaulay than every one was aroused to the consideration of them, and many persons who had been accustomed to regard Penn's name as "a synonyme for probity and philanthropy," at once deposed him from the place which he had occupied in their imagination, and, like idolaters converted to a purer faith, were inclined to destroy the image which had so lately been the object of their worship. The Quakers, * however, did not abandon their hero so easily. A deputation from their body obtained an interview with Mr. Macaulay, in order to remonstrate with him; and we have now a publi cation by Mr. W. E. Forster, a member of that same religious body, in which he grapples with the acute historian, and contests the ground with him step by step, producing Mr. Macaulay's original authorities, and examining the use which he has made of them with patient care, and occasionally with impatient and unquakerly sharpness. The charges are principally three. The first relates to Penn's interference in reference to the punishment of the maids of Taunton; the second to his dealing with Alderman Kiffin; the third to his attempted mediation in the case of Magdalen College. We shall on the present occasion examine the first of them; but before we enter upon it we must say a preliminary word or two in elucidation of the peculiar and, in many respects, anomalous position occupied by Penn during the reign of James II. It requires explana tion how it came to pass that the prim philanthropist, the leader of a sect which renounced and openly protested against all worldly vanities and distinctions, fluttered round the courtly frivolities which he professedly despised, and added a figure as singular as it was picturesque to the motley assemblies which thronged the court of the royal bigot. James's interference in naval affairs * William Penn and Thomas B. Macaulay: being brief Observations on the Charges made in Mr. Macaulay's History of England against the Character of William Penn. By W. E. Forster. 8vo. London, 1849. had made him acquainted, long before his accession to the throne, with Admiral Penn, the father of the owner of Pennsylvania. The son not only inherited the regard which the hard impolitic Duke of York had bestowed upon his father the old admiral, but was drawn towards his sovereign by an attraction of which his father knew nothing. Both were members of persecuted sects, and both professed a desire for universal toleration; Penn sincerely, the king in all probability hypocritically. The sufferings of the persecuted members of the religious bodies to which they respectively belonged constituted a bond of union between the sovereign and the subject. Both desired the abrogation of the harsh enactments of existing laws, and over and above the personal regard which James may have really entertained for his precise and formal "friend," there can be little doubt that he used him and his sect, as he did the other Dissenters, as a lever to overturn the Established Church. Flattered and blinded by the enchantments of royal friendship, Penn had probably no very clear view of the full designs of the king. It might, one would think, have startled a good man to have found that he was sharing a favour which was partaken by such a person as Jeffreys, and it is not unlikely, that in spite of royal smiles, and the distinction which he enjoyed as being a channel through which the royal bounty flowed, Penn was not unfrequently aroused to reflection by the obvious suspicion with which his conduct was universally regarded. It is easy to understand the unheroic weakness which refused to yield to such reflections, but at the same time that we condemn such conduct, as indicating neither strength of mind nor strength of principle, it must be admitted that Penn's power, whatever was its extent, was characteristically exercised for the relief of his persecuted brethren. When James came to the throne no fewer than 1200 Quakers were languishing in prison throughout the country. In a short time they were all released, and the letterbook of Lord Sunderland, the Secretary of State, contains many solid proofs of the peculiar favour which it was James's pleasure to extend to the whole sect. Nothing of the kind appears in reference to other Protestant dissenters, but there are many direct and authoritative interferences of the royal power on behalf of the Quakers. Letters were written to magistrates to discourage common informers against them, to exempt them from serving in offices which rendered it necessary to take an oath, to return their goods seized in execution under penal Acts of Parliament, and in various other ways to give them relief or secure them protection, on the ground that they were a people to whom the King had personally extended his grace. This favour may be attributed to the influence of Penn. He received also special personal proofs of royal kindness. We will print an evidence of the fact, which has hitherto escaped attention. When James was in the full swing of his career against the corporate bodies throughout the kingdom, calling in question charters in every direction, the Attorney-general was instructed to issue writs of quo warranto against the chartered holders of lands in America. This of course affected Penn. His empire in the West seemed about to vanish from his grasp; but he was fortunate enough to procure exemption from the general legal persecution, and the following document will show in what manner. It is a letter from Lord Sunderland, the Secretary of State, addressed to the Attorney-general, and entered in his lordship's letterbook, preserved in the State Paper Office. (Domestic Various, No. 629, p. 337.) "Mr. atturney-generall. "Windsor, June 6th, 1686. "Sir,-His majesty having, by order in councill, directed you to bring writs of quo warranto against the proprietors of Pensilvania, Carolinas, and the Bahama Islands, &c. in America, his majesty commands me to acquaint you that he has thought fit, for some particular considerathe proprietor of Pensilvania, and accordtions, to suspend the proceedings against ingly would have you forbeare to do any thing further in that matter till further order from him; his intention being, neverthelesse, you should continue to proceed against the rest. "I am, sir, "Your most humble servant, "SUNDERLAND P." Having thus exhibited something of the position of Penn at the court of James II., we will now proceed to the story of the Maids of Taunton. The 18th June was a day memorable in the annals of Taunton long before it became famous in the history of the world. On that day, in the year 1685, Monmouth, who had landed at Lyme Regis just one week before, marched into Taunton, then one of the chief seats of the national woollen manufacture, at the head of a company, rather than an army, of several thousand men. The people of Taunton, long celebrated for their resolute and manly character, received him with the wildest enthusiasm. His way was strewed with flowers; the windows were thronged with spectators; almost every house and every door-way was decked with some ornament in his favourite colour, green; and hardly a hat was unadorned with a green bough. An historian who was then a youth resident in the neighbourhood, declares, that "one would have thought the people's wits were flown away in the flights of their joy."* But the day following was still more important in reference to the subject before us. On Friday the 19th June, the popular favour exhibited itself in a little scene which would have been long ago overwhelmed by ridicule if it had not been for the melancholy consequences by which it was followed. Two school-mistresses at Taunton, Mary Blake and Susanna Musgrave, partook of the general fervour in behalf of Monmouth. They engaged their scholars in adorning standards for the Protestant champion, and waited upon him in procession to present the results of their labours. Twenty-five scholars, many of them children about eight and ten years of age, accompanied their mistresses to the Duke's lodgings. Mary Blake walked at their head, bearing in one hand a naked sword, and in the other a Bible. Each child followed in turn with the banner which she had embroidered; one, which was borne by a certain Mary Mead, being "a golden flag" inscribed J. R., ornamented with a crown, and surrounded by a fringe of lace. Monmouth received these Maids of Taunton with the most winning rvice ; t, let evi ere courtesy. When the Bible was h to him, he declared that he had t arms to defend the truths contai in that holy book, and was ready seal his devotion to them with his blood. He mounted his horse, and paraded through the town exhibiting the offerings which had been made to him, and followed by his youthful standard-bearers. Full particulars of this incident were duly chronicled and reported by the adherents of the King, and when the day of vengeance arrived the Maids of Taunton were not forgotten. Several of them - probably all that could be found-were thrown into prison. Mary Blake the schoolmistress was committed to jail at Dorchester. The small pox was raging there. caught the infection and died. When the judges were on their bloody circuit, one of the poor girls who had hitherto contrived to evade pursuit surren dered herself in open court, and begged for mercy of the judge. Jeffreys darted on her one of his fiercest scowls, and in a voice of "raving commanded the gaoler to take her away." Terrified by the looks and language of the legal monster, the poor innocent 66 She pulled her hood over her face and fell a-weeping." The gaoler hurried her off to a loathsome dungeon, where in a few hours she expired of mere fright and horror. After the more important criminals had been dealt with, the King issued a general pardon, but these poor children were excepted from its operation, and in due time their turn for punishment arrived. The first tidings we learn of them are contained in a letter from Charles, the sixth or, as he is customarily termed, the proud, Duke of Somerset, to Sir Francis Warre, Bart. of Hestercombe, in the neighbourhood of Taunton. The Duke inclosed to Sir Francis a list of the Taunton Maids, and directed him, if any of them were not already in custody, to procure them to be secured, and also to send to his grace such information respecting them as might serve for the guidance of " some friends" of the Duke's, who had it in mind to procure from the King a grant of the profit * Oldmixon, Hist. Stuarts, p. 702. And see the histories of Fox, Mackintosh, and Macaulay, and Roberts's Life of Monmouth, i. 301. from selling them pardons. had matter ran as follows:: his ac doe here send you a list of the ral ton Maydes, you being soe nere to Punton makes me think that you know some of them, therefore pray send me word by the first opertunity whether any of these are in custody, and whoe they are; and if any one of these are not in custody lett them be secured, especially the schoole mistresse; and likewise send me word if you know any one of these, because there are some friends of mine that I believe upon easy terms might get theire pardon of the King. Pray send me an answer by the first opertunity, and in so doing this you will oblige your "humble servant, "SOMERSET." "London, Dec. 12, 1685." [The address torn off.*] Sir Francis's answer does not appear, nor have we another letter which was written by the Duke about the end of December, in which he informed the Baronet, that his grace's friends alluded to in his last letter, were the maids of honour in attendance upon her majesty, and that since that time these ladies had, with very unfeminine inhumanity, procured the King to grant them, as a Christmas box, such fines as could be wrung out of the parents of these poor children. His grace also went on to request Sir Francis to take in hand the business of negotiating and collecting these fines for the maids of honour. It was a business which a man of ordinary humanity would avoid, and one cannot doubt that Sir Francis was delighted to be able to reply, that the work was already in the more fitting hands of Mr. Bird, the town clerk of Taunton. But the Taunton legal official was not approved as an agent by the maids of honour. The Duke probably led the ladies to believe that the higher influence of Sir Francis would be more likely to be productive, and on the 14th January 1685-6 the Duke again urged him to proceed with his discreditable commission. The following is the letter: "I have acquainted the Maydes of Honour with this buisinesse of Mr. Birde, and they do all say that he never had any authority from them to proceede in this matter, and that they have this post writt to him not to trouble himself any more in this affaire; so that if you will proceede in this matter, according to my former letter, you will infinitely oblige "your humble servant, "Jan. 14, 1685. "If you can secure any of them pray doe, and lett me have account of this letter as soon as you can. "For Sir Francisse Warre, Bart. "To be left at the post-house in Taunton, Somersetsh."+ After the lapse of a week, and probably after the receipt of a letter from Sir Francis urging inability to execute the commission on account of his not being on the spot, the Duke wrote again, suggesting that some person recommended by Sir Francis sbould be appointed to "bustle and stir about to ease" Sir Francis, and requesting him to name such a person. The Duke also urged promptitude, and threatened that the maids of honour would proceed to outlawry if a reasonable sum, that is, as he considered, 7000l., was not paid without delay: but we will give the whole letter. "We have here thought fitt that things would be better managed if there was a letter of atturney given to some body (that you should think fitt and capable of) for to ayde and assist you in it, that there may be no other to transact this buisenesse but your selfe and another of your recommending that should bussle and stir about to ease you; if that you know of any such man that you can trust, pray lett me know it by the first opertunity, that the Maydes of Honour may signe his letter of atturney. Pray lett them know that if they do thus put it off from time to time, that the Maydes of Honour are resolvid to sue them to an outlary, so that pray do you advise them to comply with what is reasonable (which I think 7000 is) for them. I must beg a thousand times over your pardon for giving you this trouble, and will never omitt anything wherein I can serve you. "Sir, I am, "Your very humble servant, "London, Jan. 21, 1685-6. "For Sir Francisse Warre, Bart. "To be left at the post-house in Taunton, Somersetts."‡ Thus driven, Sir Francis Warre positively excused himself from further interference, representing to the Duke that the schoolmistress (that is, Susanna Musgrave, the only one then surviving) was a woman of mean birth, and that the scholars worked the banners by her orders, without knowing of any offence. But the maids of honour were not to be thus foiled of their Christmas-box, Another agent must be found, and it was at this point, it is thought, that the great Quaker stepped upon the scene. There exists in the State Paper Office, in that letter-book of Lord Sunderland's to which we have already referred, a letter in the following words: "Whitehall, February, 13th, 1685-6. "Mr. Penne,-Her majesties Maids of Honour having acquainted me that they designe to employ you and Mr. Walden in making a composition with the relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high misdemeanor they have been guilty of, I do at their request hereby let you know, that his majesty has been pleased to give their fines to the said Maids of Honour, and therefore recommend it to Mr. Walden and you to make the most advantageous composition you can in their behalfe. "I am, sir, "Your humble servant, This letter tells its own tale. The maids of honour, foiled in their endeavour to interest Sir Francis Warre through the influence of the Duke of Somerset, made an attempt to procure the services of "Mr. Penne" and Mr. Walden. These gentlemen were to do that dirty work which had been repudiated by the Member for Bridgewater, and had been taken out of the hands of the town clerk of Taunton; and they were urged by the President of the Council to do it effectually, that is, with hard heart and grasping hand, so that the Christmas-box of her majesty's expectant ladies of honour might not fall short of its anticipated amount. There is something discreditable even in hav ing been thought of for such a service; but, without waiting to comment, let us proceed to state what further evidence exists upon the subject. There is a copy of one other paper in the State Paper Office, a Secretary of State's warrant (Warrant Book, vol. xxi. p. 219), designed to strengthen the hands of the agent of the maids of honour. It runs as follows: "Whereas his Majesty, at the humble request of the Queens Majesties Maids of Honour, is graciously inclined to extend his mercy to those deluded young women, commonly called the Maids of Taunton, in the county of Somersett, who presented the late Duke of Monmouth with certain colours or ensignes which he made use of in his late rebellion in the west; It is therefore his Majesties pleasure, that those maids, or their relations and friends, who have compounded, or shall compound, with the agent employed by her Majesties sayd Maids of Honour, shall not be molested in their persons or possessions upon account that they have not yet obtained their pardon for the sayd crime under the great seale; and if any of them are or shall happen to be taken into custody for the sayd crime, it is his Majesties pleasure, likewise, that they be admitted to give such bayle for their appearance when required as the agents of the sayd Maids of Honour shall accept and approve of, nor are they in the meane time to be prosecuted or any wayes molested till his Majesty shall think fitt to declare his further pleasure. Given at Whitehall the 11th day of March, 1685-6, in the second yeare of his Majesties reigne. "MIDDLETON. "To all deputy Lieutenants, Justices of peace, maiors, bailiffs, and constables, and all others whom it may concern. "Like certificate to the effect above for Susanna Musgrave, Schoole mistris at Taunton." Thus armed with royal authority, the agent of the maids of honour executed the shameful work assigned to him. The 7,000l. was not indeed obtained; the Christmas-box dwindled down to a comparatively small amount; from 507. to 100l. was all that could be wrung *Mr. Forster has here printed "her majesty" instead of "his majesty." This mistake, although not affecting the question against Penn, is calculated to introduce into our history considerable injustice against the queen, who has already been very severely handled for her share in the plunder of the rebels in the West. It leads to the inference that the Taunton Maids were " given" to the queen, and by her turned over to the tender mercies of the maids of honour, which certainly was not the case, |