f 
172 Records of the Rising in the West, A.D. 1655. 
that this dictum of these Lord Commissioners of that assize, would 
be of great weight, viz :—that those who levy war against the Chief 
Magistrate of this realm, whatever his name may be (and cordially 
‘do I hope it will never be any other than the present), come within 
this statute. 
With regard to the decision that there should be no count in the 
indictment for compassing or imagining the death of the Protector; 
it should be remembered, that there had ever been great difficulty in 
interpreting these words of the statute. The overt act of levying 
war, provided it were against the person of a King, had been held 
to be within it. But could the risers be said to have disclosed any 
direct purpose against His Highness’s person? It was at least 
argueable ; and possibly might create a flaw in a prosecution, which 
on no account could be permitted to fail. With regard to the Lord 
Chief Justice’s, Mr. Baron Nicholas’s, and Mr. Justice Wyndham’s 
support to the present proceedings, and the view which they then 
took of the Lord Protector and his Government, it will be remem- 
bered that Cony’s case had not been pushed to extremities. 
After the delivery of the charge, the Judges retired, and, as we 
already know, dined in the evening with the Sheriff. 
Next morning the court sat, and the Grand Jury brought in a true 
bill for treason against John Lucas, Wagstaffe, Bowles, Mompesson,! 
Andrews, and Sir Henry Moore. Of these Lucas was the only one 
in custody, and he was accordingly placed at the bar for trial. 
None of “our own correspondents” appear to have furnished the 
various newspapers with any detailed account of the proceedings, 
1Captain Crook was rewarded with £200 a-year out of this gentleman’s 
estate. 2 Ludl., 518. Notices of this family, which is apparently extinct, will 
be found in Hoare’s Mod. Wilts, Hund. Heyt. 218, 219. A Thomas Mompesson 
was M.P. for Wilton, Old and New Sarum, and the county of Wilts, 1661— 
1695. Another, or the same, Thomas Mompesson was a J.P. at Corton, near 
Heytesbury 1659.—Roll of Assize, 1659, Gaol Calendar. Western Circuit 
Records. Ten years later he is mentioned in the Circuit Order Book as having 
a dispute with Mr. Thomas Lambert, of Boyton, about the drowning of water- 
meadows at Boyton and Sherrington. He is there described as ‘‘ of Corton, 
Esquire.” The description given in the list, p. 166, sup., is ‘‘of New Sarum.” 
This may be as accurate as that of Wagstaffe or St. Loe. 
