Note 79 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
The confession, of which a portion is missing, bears date August 24, 1681. State Papers, Dom. Charles II. The dying speech is in MS. in the same collection dated August 31. It was published as a distinct tract, 1681; also it is printed in The Dying Speeches and Behaviour of several State Prisoners. Ed. 1720. The reason for his being called the Protestant Joiner he thus describes:—“The Duke of Monmouth called me to him, and told me he had heard a good report of me, and that I was an honest man, and one that may be trusted: and they did not know but their enemies, the Papists, might have some design to serve them as they did in King James’s time by gunpowder, or any other way; and the Duke with several Lords and Commons did desire me to use my utmost skill in searching all places suspected by them, which I did perform: and from thence I had as I think, the popular name of The Protestant Joiner, because they had entrusted me, before any man in England to do that office.”—Dying Speeches, 387.