The speech of James Bird, gent Who was executed at Tyburn, on Friday the 18th day of September, 1691. for the willful murther of his wife Elizabeth Bird. Bird, James, d. 1691. 1691 Approx. 3 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A76726 Wing B2951A ESTC R232598 99900214 99900214 171018 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A76726) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 171018) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2550:2) The speech of James Bird, gent Who was executed at Tyburn, on Friday the 18th day of September, 1691. for the willful murther of his wife Elizabeth Bird. Bird, James, d. 1691. 1 sheet ([1] p.) printed for W. Humphries, London : 1691. Reproduction of original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, England. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Last words -- Early works to 1800. Fathers and sons -- Early works to 1800. 2008-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-08 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-09 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2008-09 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE SPEECH OF James Bird , Gent. Who was Executed at TYBURN , on Friday the 18th Day of September , 1691. for the willful Murther of his Wife Elizabeth Bird. Mr. Sheriff . I Know it hath been expected by this Company , that I should give some particular Account to the World of this Fact for which I dye : It is from God alone from whom I must expect a Pardon , and God only knows how far I am concern'd in it ; so I shall not trouble my self with any Publick Declaration of the matter here , but this far I take my self obliged to let the World know , That it hath been Deposed by Mr. Willis , That my Father should desire me to get my Wife made away ; but I do protest , solemnly , and as ever I hope for Salvation in and through Christ's Merits , That my Parents were no ways concerned in it ; nay , so far were they from knowing of it , that they did not know that I was Married to her , till I was carried before the Justice of Peace . It hath been also urged by several , That my Father's Severity had caused it , but those are altogether false Suggestions , for my Father hath been always a Kind and very Indulgent Father to me . Another thing is , That my Father had made away , or given his Estate from me ; but that is not true , for I saw his Will , after he had Information given him of my Marriage , and I found that he had given his Estate to me , leaving but very small Portions to the rest . Mr. Sheriff , I shall not make any Reflections upon any Magistrate ; I pray God that they may not deserve any . As for the Witnesses that swore against me , particularly , as to what Mr. Holdernes swore , I have so much Charity for him , as to believe that he did see such a Man walk up and down the Field in the Grass ; and I must say , That they deposed nothing , as to that , but what was really true , And I must do Justice also to the Constable and my Father , that as I am a dying-man , the Crevat was the same that I was taken in , and there was not any Art or Skill used , ( I dare say it upon my Salvation ) to take out any Blood that was in it . Mr. Sheriff , I shall not Reflect upon the Judges of the Court , though perhaps they were a little hard ; and as to any one else that was accessary to the Murther , I know of none : But Mr. Sheriff , Let not any one seek Vengeance , elsewhere , but let my Blood satisfie for it : And let the Queen and the Judges be satisfied in what I have said , as I hope they will ; and that is all that I have to say , Mr. Sheriff , as to this matter , only I desire the Prayers of all good Christians . And Mr. Sheriff , If any thing be made publick concerning me , I desire that you would do me Justice in it . Then he Prayed again for himself , and immediately after he was turned off . LONDON , Printed for W. Humphries . 1691.