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THE HOTHAMS. 197
with his son and Sir John Rhodes, he was placed on board the Hercules,
conveyed to London, and committed to the Tower.
On Dec. ist, after remaining several months prisoners there, father
and son were brought to trial at the Guildhall before the Earl of Manchester
and others.
The proofs against them were many and full, not the
least being a packet of letters found in the carriage of the Earl of Newcastle
after the ill-advised
battle on Marston Moor, on July 3rd, which Rupert, in
defiance of earnest remonstrances, had insisted on forcing, and from which
the Earl had fled himself, leaving his "Whitecoats" to be hacked to pieces
by the Roundheads. They were both convicted and condemned to death. Sir
John presented a petition for pardon to the House, which the Lords accepted,
but the Commons negatived without debate. On his way to execution,
however, a reprieve arrived, and he was taken back to the Tower. The
House of Commons indignantly resented this, passed a vote that no reprieve
should be granted to any person without the consent of both Houses, and
ordered that the lieutenant of the Tower should proceed to the execution
of Sir John Hotham, according to the sentence of the court-martial.
On January ist, 1644, Captain Hotham suffered death on a scaffold
erected on Tower Hill, and shewed great courage on the occasion, protesting
that he had not been guilty of treason to the Parliament, who were
the principal authors of rebellion by waging an unjust war against their
sovereign and fellow subjects.
On the morning of the following day, fixed for his execution,
Sir John procured a motion to be made in his behalf before the
Commons. A debate ensued, and the time fixed for the execution was
delayed to two o'clock, but the motion was rejected ; and having "suffered
" his ungodly confessor, Peters, to tell the people that ' he had revealed
"'himself to him and confessed his offences against the Parliament,'"*
his head was severed from his body.
At Dalton Holme, the residence of Lord Hotham, there are two touching
relics of this tragical episode in the family history. I suppose that
when the sad news reached Scorborough that sentence of death had been
pronounced, the afflicted family would naturally be anxious to do anything
in their power to shew their respect for their father and brother ;
and they
therefore sent up two fine-linen cloths to receive their heads when they
were severed from their bodies. The cloths are long and narrow, of very
good but rather coarse material, probably "homespun" woven into a rude
damask, the product probably of some local loom. Perhaps they were
cherished treasures of a generation already passed away choice portions
of the family " lingerie " which had hitherto been only brought out on
" high days and holidays," when special honour should be done to persons
B 2
* Clarendon.