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246 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Viscount Stafford was one of the five Roman Catholic peers
Arundel,
Powys, Belasyse, Petre, and Stafford arrested on the charge of being
implicated in the supposed "Popish Plot" in the days of Charles II., on
the information of Titus Gates. They were sent to the Tower, and Viscount
Stafford alone placed upon his trial. Incapacitated by age, and inferior in
abilities to making a strong defence, he could scarcely obtain a hearing
at a trial the evidence adduced at which fills us with indignation for the
honour of the land.
To the lasting shame of Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, who knew the
truth, he forbore to speak in contradiction of a perjured witness, Tuberville.
By a majority of thirty-two of his fellow peers, each laying his hand
upon his breast and appealing to his honour, Stafford was found guilty
and condemned to death. The crowds of spectators which gathered on
Tower Hill showed their opinion by baring their heads when he denied
his guilt on the scaffold, and crying out that they believed his word.
With his last breath he predicted that the time would come when his injured
honour would be vindicated. Eight years after, that virtually came to
pass, for his widow was created Countess of Stafford for life, and his son
Earl of Stafford.
In 1762 the earldom became extinct by the death of the Earl's grandson,
John, 4th Earl, s.p. ; but in 1824 the iniquitous attainder of 1680 was
reversed, and Sir George William Jerningham, the lineal descendant of
the beheaded Viscount, through his daughter Mary, was restored to the
barony of Stafford.
Let us close this foul and blotted page in England's history and
;
while we condemn not the actors who have rendered their account at
bar of perfect
and unbiassed Justice, let us not neglect the warning which
bids us remember how easily religious prejudices may
the
be aroused and
fanned into acts of violence and bloodshed, against even the noblest and
purest of the children of God.