Maids of Taunton
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Maids of Tauton
The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 was led by James, Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England who claimed to be rightful heir to the throne and attempted to displace Charles's unpopular successor, the Roman Catholic James II. James II sent a large troop of cavalry under Colonel Kirke to "teach the rebels a lesson". It was a lesson in barbarity and corruption.
James the II
Nasty and Ratlike to let Kirke and Jeffreys do the dirty work?
Monmouth's forces were defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last battle to be fought on English (as opposed to British) soil. Monmouth's makeshift force could not compete with the regular army, and was soundly defeated. Monmouth himself was captured and arrested. Despite begging for mercy, after a trial which was little more than a formality, he was executed on July 15, 1685, on Tower Hill. His followers were brutally suppressed, in part by the infamous Judge Jeffreys, who presided over peremptory trials of rebels and their sympathizers. So ferocious were the reprisals that Jeffries' court became known as the Bloody Assizes. Without any semblance of trial, an unknown number of peasants and miners were strung up on improvised gibbets - unless they had money enough to buy protection. Among those rich enough to pay for their lives was Edward Strode. He handed over a gold apron to Kirke. Strode's daughter was less than pleased - the apron was destined to be her dowry. An example of Kirke's methods: the young girls of Taunton had come out in support of Monmouth when he entered the town (i.e., they had waved their handkerchiefs at the handsome young man), so Kirke imprisoned these young girls (aged between 6 and 14) and demanded ransoms from their parents in the region of over 1,000 pounds.
James was kept fully informed of Kirke's progress, and pronounced himself well satisfied. Even so, he still sent Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys to the West Country, to hold a special Assize court - to mop up those Kirke had missed. Although Jeffreys used the semblance of justice, his "Bloody Assizes" operated on similar principles to Kirke's cruelties. Demand for sugar was growing as did the demand for labor, and it became the custom to "transport" political dissidents, felons, and other undesirables as an alternative to hanging. Oliver Cromwell "barbadoed" hundreds, and these were later joined by the remnants of the Army of the Duke of Monmouth, sent there after the Battle of Sedgemoor by Judge Jeffreys in 1686. Few survived in the climate, and although some of their descendants can still be seen in Barbados, where they are called "Barbados Redlegs". Another source of labor was sought, and it was found in Africa. As bad a man Judge Jeffreys was, it seems it was standard practice at the time.
The ladies-in-waiting at James's Court made a handsome profit out of the Monmouth rebels who were sold as slaves to Barbados. White slaves commanded good prices in the seventeenth century.
Macaulay: Rapacity of the Queen and her Ladies
Some courtiers nevertheless contrived to obtain a small share of this traffic. The ladies of the Queen's household distinguished themselves preeminently by rapacity and hardheartedness. Part of the disgrace which they incurred falls on their mistress: for it was solely on account of the relation in which they stood to her that they were able to enrich themselves by so odious a trade; and there can be no question that she might with a word or a look have restrained them. But in truth she encouraged them by her evil example, if not by her express approbation. She seems to have been one of that large class of persons who bear adversity better than prosperity. While her husband was a subject and an exile, shut out from public employment, and in imminent danger of being deprived of his birthright, the suavity and humility of her manners conciliated the kindness even of those who most abhorred her religion. But when her good fortune came her good nature disappeared. The meek and affable Duchess turned out an ungracious and haughty Queen. The misfortunes which she subsequently endured have made her an object of some interest; but that interest would be not a little heightened if it could be shown that, in the season of her greatness, she saved, or even tried to save, one single victim from the most frightful proscription that England has ever seen. Unhappily the only request that she is known to have preferred touching the rebels was that a hundred of those who were sentenced to transportation might be given to her.(460) The profit which she cleared on the cargo, after making large allowance for those who died of hunger and fever during the passage, cannot be estimated at less than a thousand guineas. We cannot wonder that her attendants should have imitated her unprincely greediness and her unwomanly cruelty. They exacted a thousand pounds from Roger Hoare, a merchant of Bridgewater; who had contributed to the military chest of the rebel army. But the prey on which they pounced most eagerly was one which it might have been thought that even the most ungentle natures would have spared. Already some of the girls who had presented the standard to Monmouth at Taunton had cruelly expiated their offence. One of them had been thrown into prison where an infectious malady was raging. She had sickened and died there. Another had presented herself at the bar before Jeffreys to beg for mercy. "Take her, gaoler," vociferated the Judge, with one of those frowns which had often struck terror into stouter hearts than hers. She burst into tears, drew her hood over her face, followed the gaoler out of the court, fell ill of fright, and in a few hours was a corpse. Most of the young ladies, however, who had walked in the procession were still alive. Some of them were under ten years of age. All had acted under the orders of their schoolmistress, without knowing that they were committing a crime. The Queen's maids of honour asked the royal permission to wring money out of the parents of the poor children; and the permission was granted. An order was sent down to Taunton that all these little girls should be seized and imprisoned. Sir Francis Warre of Hestercombe, the Tory member for Bridgewater, was requested to undertake the office of exacting the ransom. He was charged to declare in strong language that the maids of honour would not endure delay, that they were determined to prosecute to outlawry, unless a reasonable sum were forthcoming, and that by a reasonable sum was meant seven thousand pounds. Warre excused himself from taking any part in a transaction so scandalous. The maids of honour then requested William Penn to act for them; and Penn accepted the commission. Yet it should seem that a little of the pertinacious scrupulosity which he had often shown about taking off his hat would not have been altogether out of place on this occasion. He probably silenced the remonstrances of his conscience by repeating to himself that none of the money which he extorted would go into his own pocket; that if he refused to be the agent of the ladies they would find agents less humane; that by complying he should increase his influence at the court, and that his influence at the court had already enabled him, and still might enable him, to render great services to his oppressed brethren. The maids of honour were at last forced to content themselves with less than a third part of what they had demanded.
Quakers and Slaves?
Macaulay (in his History of England) has accused Penn of being concerned in some of the worst actions of the court at this time. His complete refutation by Forster, Paget, Dixon and others renders it unnecessary to do more than allude to the cases of the Maids of Taunton, Alderman Kiffin, and Magdalen College (Oxford).
Letter of Sunderland to Penn, Feb. 13, 1685-6, from the State Paper Office, in the Mackintosh Collection. (1848.)
The letter of Sunderland is as follows:-
Whitehall, Feb. 13, 1685-6. Mr. Penne, Her Majesty's Maids of Honour having acquainted me that they design to employ you and Mr. Walden in making a composition with the Relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high Misdemeanour 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 behalf. I am, Sir, Your humble servant, SUNDERLAND."