
By W. W. Ravenhill, Esq. 37 
Rivers was concerned, this forced exile appears to have been illegal. 
The ignoramus should have given him his liberty; even if there 
were other charges which justified his detention, yet he ought not 
to have been transported without a trial. 
And now we must form a judgement on the whole project, in 
which we are largely assisted by the following :— 
A letter of intelligence from Mr. Manning.* 
‘‘The designe was thus layd: A councill erected in London, consisting of 
earles, lords, gentry, lawyers, and divines, who have interest in all counties. 
The persons I cannot name, but have a care of Strafford, Earle, Pofromor, and 
Vaughan, lawyers, who designe all things.t Persons employed are sworne not 
to discover any of them, and seldome any of them know more than one, and 
those hardly one another. They sitt sometimes in the Temple, and sometimes 
in London. The first care was, to fix in every countie some considerable and 
active persons; this don, then to provide armes; which don, then to treat with 
some persons of the army and late parliament party ; which C. Grey, sir H. 
Benet and Browne, were ordered to doe. The account they gave was, that 
the levellers would engage, and Fairfax with his party by States i1/doman.{ 
Harrison, for Charles Howard, sir Arthur Hazelrigg, and all that gange, with 
many of the Anabaptists, which Char. Stew. [Charles II. ]told mee. Now nothing 
but execution, which by some meanes was delayed, at wich Ch. Stew. [Charles 
II.] was impatient, and on several expresses brought by C. Maning, Seymore, 
J. Trelawny and Ross, and by Co. Pofromor, he sent Wilmot, Armourer, one 
Mr. Kalsey of the countie of Lancaster, and Mr. Harwood of Oxf. &e. The 
Savoy is the rendezvous, and Chases, in Covent Garden. Hen. Seymore, 
Progers, Denham, play the courtiers; the Ladies Thin and Shanon have their 
part,to carry letters, and goe up and down on errands. Ch. St. [Charles II.] with 
Ormond and Blase, goe into Zealand. The duke of York prepares in France for 
the West, Ch. Stew. for Kent, or the northern counties. All letters are to Hyde. 
Wilmot goeth to London, and so in to the north with Armourer. The earl of 
Shonbergh raiseth 2000 foot in Germany, pretending for France. 
For the countie of Devon, sir Tricourteny, sir H. Polarde, &c, engage for 
3000 foot and 800 horse, Sir Tricourtenay Sir H. Tichbourne, Jepson and 
Sanbarm engage with Wiltshire, Dorsett and Somersett, to carry 1500 horse 
to sir H. Lendol. For Wales, earl Carherry, lord Sherberry ; in Salop, earl of 
in addition to Rivers, there were Henry and Joseph Collyer. Thomas was dis- 
covered in possession of arms in London, some weeks before the Rising, and 
sent to the Tower. See 3 Thur., pp. 87 and 95. 
* Without date, but placed between April 7th and 9th. 1655, 3 Th. 355. 
+ Ihave not seen the original of this letter, and therefore will not at present attempt to follow 
the lawyers here mentioned, beyond saying that Vaughan may be John Vaughan, who in 1668 was 
created Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. In 1654 he was acting as John Selden’s exe= 
- eutor, and was one of the donors of that great scholar’s library to the Bodleian at Oxford. See 
Wood’s Athen. and Foss’s Judges. 
+A name in cypher. ‘John Wildman? Wilts Mag., vol. xiii., p. 124, 
