Treason and murther discovered Being a true and perfect relation of the tryal & condemnation of James Alsop the father, and William Alsop his son for treason and murder; at the assises held at Chelmsford for the county of Essex, on Wednesday the 25th of March, 1674. Also the wonderfull discovery both of the treason and murder; with the sentence of the court for the manner and places of their execution. Written by a person who was present at the tryal. Alsop, James. 1674 Approx. 16 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 5 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A63087 Wing T2070 ESTC R220707 99832099 99832099 36569 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. A63087) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 36569) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2100:17) Treason and murther discovered Being a true and perfect relation of the tryal & condemnation of James Alsop the father, and William Alsop his son for treason and murder; at the assises held at Chelmsford for the county of Essex, on Wednesday the 25th of March, 1674. Also the wonderfull discovery both of the treason and murder; with the sentence of the court for the manner and places of their execution. Written by a person who was present at the tryal. Alsop, James. Alsop, William, of West Ham, defendant. aut 7, [1] p. [s.n.], London : printed in the year, 1674. Last page unnumbered; text ends on A4v. Copy has considerable print show-through. 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Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. 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 Alsop, James -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Early works to 1800. Alsop, William, -- of West Ham -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Early works to 1800. Trials (Murder) -- England -- Early works to 1800. 2006-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-02 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-04 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2006-04 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Treason and Murther DISCOVERED . Being a True and Perfect RELATION OF THE Tryal & Condemnation OF James Alsop the Father , and William Alsop his Son for Treason and Murder ; At the Assises held at Chelmsford for the County of Essex , on Wednesday the 25th of March , 1674. ALSO The wonderfull Discovery both of the Treason and Murder ; with the Sentence of the Court for the manner and places of their Execution . Written by a Person who was present at the Tryal . LONDON , Printed in the Year , 16●● . Treason and Murder Discovered , &c. UPon Wednesday , March the 25th , 1674. The Court being sate , William Alsop alias Thomas Topham , was called to the Barr , and Two Indictments read against him ; The One of Treason for Clipping of Money ; The other for Murther . That of Treason to this Effect , That he the said William Alsop alias Thomas Topham , and James Alsop senior , and Others , of West-Ham in the County of Essex , had Trayterously and Feloniously against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King , his Crown and Dignity , with certain Iron Instruments , Sheers , Scissers , and other Tools then and there found , Clipped Filed , and Diminished the Kings Coyn , viz. Fourty pieces of Silver , each of them of the value of 12 d. commonly called Queen Elizabeths Shillings , and Clipped from off them silver to the value of three pence ; Forty other pieces of Silver commonly called King James his Shillings , and Clipped off silver to the value of three pence ; Forty pieces of Silver called King Charles the First his Shillings , and clipped off from them silver to the value of three pence ; And Twenty other pieces of Money , called King Charles the First his half Crowns , and clipped silver from each of them to the value of Eight pence , &c. ( according to the usual Form of Indictments . ) To these Two Indictments William Allsop pleaded Guilty , and seemed to Excuse the rest , viz. his Father , Mother , and Brother . William Allsop being set by , James Allsop the Elder , and Dorothy Allsop the Wife of James Allsop the Elder , and James Allsop junior , was called to the Barr , and the Indictments to the same effect with the former was read ; to which they pleaded Not Guilty , and submitted themselves to their Tryal by God and the Country : Upon which , the several Witnesses was called and sworn ; viz. First the Bell-Man , Two Constables of West-Ham , and several others . The Constables and Bell-Man gave in their Evidence thus ; The Bell-man declared ▪ That upon the Tuesday morning , the time that the Murther was committed , he passed by the house of James Allsop senior , and gave him the usual Salute , and the time of the Night , and was answered again by the said James Allsop , and that he saw no light in the house ; neither did he hear the dogs bark as they use to do oftentimes to his Affrightment : which dogs , as he was afterwards informed , were shut up in the Barn ; and , as it was supposed , to prevent any disturbance by their noise , to their intended bloody design . In the morning , the Murther being noised about , several people , as well Officers as others , flocked to the house to enquire about it ; amongst which , he enquired of James Allsop senior , and his Wife , about the Murther ; they both told him , That they had been robbed that night , and the persons that rob'd them , had done the Murther : But the Officers was not sufficiently satisfied with their answer , but made a farther search into the house , and found a Chest in the Chamber , where the Murther was committed , empty ; which they said was their Daughters Chest , wherein was Plate and wearing Clothes ; but searching their Chamber , they found the Clothes which they pretended to be stole ; and also found in their Daughters Chamber a Silver Spoon , and a Silver Cup standing by the Bed ; so that if Robbery was the intention , they would have taken away those things . Next , the Constable agrees in a great part of the Evidence of the Bell-Man , but gives this farther , That when he was about to carry James Alsop before a Justice of the Peace , he desired to go into his house , pretending to make fast his Dores ; which the Constable granted ; but he would have gone into his Chamber by himself , which the Constable would not agree to : Then he desired that he onely would go along with him ; which he did , and being alone , he pulled out of his Breeches a Bundle tyed up in Leather , in which was several Clippings of Money . He tells the Constable , That this Bundle he found last Night coming home between Mile-End , and Bow , and knowing , that upon this unhappy Accident ( as he called it ) these things being found about him , it might do him a great prejudice , he would therefore give him Ten pounds if he would conceal these Clippings ; but the Constable told him , he dar'd not do it , and brought him out to the Company , and shewed what he found about him : Upon this they make narrower search , and find in a Chamber where Wooll used to be laid up , in the Wooll was hid several Sheers , and a Whetstone with several furrows in it , supposed to be for the smoothing of the money after it was clipped . ( Here the Sheers , Scissers , and other Tools , and Whetstone , with the Clippings bound up in Leather , were shewn in Court , and handled and viewed by the Judge , and most of the Jury . ) That when they first heard of these Clippings found , they went to the house , and searched narrowly the parts of the same , in order to make further discovery ; and in a Window in one of the Chambers , they found Clippings and Filings , and the Impression of the Tooles , and spyed in a Crevice something glyster , upon which they took up the boards , and there found hanging in the Cobwebs several small Clippings and filings of Silver , some of which he shewed in Court The next Evidence was the other Constable , which was much to the same effect with his Partners , and agreed in the same Circumstances . Then there was called one that had peen a Servant in his house , and lived so near to the Chamber where they were supposed to Clip , that he and his Wife often heard a Tinckling-Noise ; He declares , That he never saw any thing of their Clipping , but his Wife and he had often been discoursing about the Noise they heard , and she told her husband , That when she lived in Yorkshire , she lived next to a house where she heard such Noises in the Night , and that afterwards there was a Discovery made of clipping of mony ; and she-wished this might not prove so . He declared also that he had taken severall times Clipped many of him for wages , and thought sometimes it looked as if it was but new done ; Whereupon he once said to his Master , when they were drinking together , Master ; I doe not like this Tink-a-tink-tink we often hear in your Chamber , pray God you be John ; Upon which he was very inquisitive to know what he meant by the Tink-a-tink-tink ; he told him , he would say no more . A while after James Allsop arrested this Servant in a vexatious suit , but tould him if he would talke no more of Tink-a-tink-tink , he would release him ; And that after he was apprehended , and the Clippings discovered , he told James Allsop , That now was come to pass what he long feared and expected . And Afterwards when he visited his Master in the Gaol , He told him , That if he had bin worthy to know of his Observations and suspicions of him before , he would have given him two or three hundred pound to have Concealed what he observed . Next was called and sworn a Gold-smith , that bought the melted silver of this James Allsop , he declared that about two years , or two years & half since , this James Allsop came to his shop , and shewed him some burnt Silver , and asked him what he would allow him , an ounce for it , And told him that a Friend of his , had a house burnt down in York-shire , and that all his plate and mony was melted and burnt in the fire ; and tould him , if he would give him as much as it was worth , he could help him to more ; for as fast as they found it , and got it out of the ruins , it would be sent to him ; the Gold smith allowed him four Shillings Ten pence an ounce , and bought at that time about four pound weight of him ; and said , that this James Allsop sould to him about four or five times afterwards , of melted silver about three or four pound weight at a time ; and that he ordered letters to be left for him at his shop , and shewed him some subscribed by one Nich. Campion , who was pretended to be the Person that sent this silver out of York-shire ; the Gold-smith produced some part of the silver and shewed it in Court. Then Allsop was called and asked what he had to say for himself , he made a long , tedious , and impertinent discourse in his defence , endeavouring to lay 't all upon his Son William , that had Confessed , and brought a Boy or two that lived in his house to say , That the Tinking noise in his house was pointing of Nails to hang Leather on , and several other idle excuses he made . Then Dorothy Allsop was called , the evidence against her for this Indictment was onely , That she had bin with her husband at the Gold-smiths . James Allsop Junior was called , and little could be fastened upon him by the evidence . Then the second Indictment was read against Jeames Allsop junior for Clipping , and there was Produced in Court a Portmantle , in which was clippings , and Sheeres , and other Instruments , with some letters subscribed by Nich. Campion , which was after found to be done and Contrived by James Allsop Junior , and William Allsop who personated this Nich. Campion , sometimes went for his man : This was found in an Ale-house in Moore-fields , where a person that went by the name of Campion lodged , and this Portmantle was brought thither by this young Allsop , who went there as Campions man ; There was severall Circumstances to prove this Portmantle to be made in young Allsops house , and that they there contrived it , and carried it from thence to Moor-fields , but nothing positively could be proved . Then there was read the Indictment of Murder against James Allsop , the Elder , and Dorothy Allsop , his Wife , the evidence was first by the Coroner , who said , That when he had , viewed the body , and had examined Allsop and his wife , who tould him , That their house had bin Robbed , and the Theeves had murdered their daughter in bed ; the Coroner demanded of them which way the thieves came in , they tould him , That they came in at such a window , The Coroner went into the yard , and viewed the place , and found the glase lying behind a hedge , and as Carefully set as any Glasier could set it ; there being no part broken : he could likewise discover no foot-steps either in the grass , which was high , or print of any foot or toe in the wall , by which they should ascend to the window ; And viewing the window , they found it full of Cobwebs , which went Cross it , and not a part above the breath of a hand broke in them , so that it was impossible for any person to come in there , the Cobwerbs remaining whole . A little Child was then brought , which was the daughter of the young woman that was murdered ; she said , that she saw some body go out of the chamber in the night without any light she thought , about the height of her Grandmother ; and that she found her self wet in bed , but knew not what was the reason of it ; but in the morning she went and told her Grandfather , That her Mother was kill'd ; who answered , God forbid ; and that was all she could declare . The next was the Surgeons Evidence , who declared , That hearing of the Murther , he came to the house , and viewed the Wound , and came down and found Mris. Allsop smoaking a Pipe of Tobacco by the fire ; he asked her , Who did the Murther ? She answered , The Lord knowes . He enquired for her husband , She told him he was gone out just before he came in . The Surgeon went after him , and over-took him about a Bow shot from his house , and told him he must know something of this Murther ; and ( the Constable being by ) he charged Allsop with the Suspition of this Murther . Then a Person of Quality declared , That he went to view the place , and found it according to the Coroners Evidence ; and that there was shewn to him a Vizard Mask found in Allsops Trunk , having a drop of a Candle newly done , on the out-side , and on the inside a spot of blood , like the print of a Thumb ; and that when he caused Allsops Sleeve to be turn'd up , and found a spot of blood upon his shirt , which Allsop said , was caused by bringing home some Meat the Night before ; and on Mrs. Allsops Neck-kercher there was a spot of blood , which she said , was an Iron-mold ; but a Bason of Water being brought to try it , the blood washed clear out , which no Iron-mould would . Other Circumstances was proved against Old Allsop , as that he was observed in the morning when he rose to have black Breeches on ; and that afterwards he had changed them , and put on other Clothes . To this Evidence , Allsop answered , That his Son William had been a Treacherous Son , and had done this to destroy him ; and talked a great deal , but nothing to any purpose . The wife likewise denyed that she knew any thing of the Murther . Upon which the Jury went out , and returned with this Verdict , That Old Alsop was guilty of Clipping , and the Murther ; and the Wife and James Alsop Junior , not guilty . William Alsop was guilty by his own Confession . William Alsop received Sentence to be drawn upon a Sledge from the Gaol in Chelmsford , to the place of Execution , and there to be hanged by the Neck till his Body be dead . Old Alsop to be conveyed to Stratford Gaol , and to be drawn upon a Sledge from the same Gaol , to the place of Execution , which shall be before his own house in West-Ham ; where he is to be hanged upon a Gibbet by the Neck , till his Body be dead . FINIS .