54 Bradford-upon- Avon. 
forgiveness of the House, but, being very sick—(perhaps we might 
say indisposed)—is unable to attend at the bar of the House. 
On the 25th he kneels at the bar of the House, and Mr. Speaker 
informs him that he is discharged upon condition of making an 
acknowledgment and submission for his offence at the next General 
Sessions for the County of Wilts. Whilst however the House is 
willing to forgive the said Thomas Beach, Mr. Speaker reminds him 
that he must not forget to pay the customary fees. 
It was during the latter part of this century also that the Mon- 
mouth rebellion took place. One is sorry to throw any doubt on 
the truth of the tradition which still exists in our town that the 
Duke of Monmouth lodged at what a few years afterwards was called 
Kingston House, during one of his progresses amongst the gentry 
of the West of England. It is not impossible, perhaps we might 
say improbable, that the Duke, whose popularity in the West of 
England is well known, may have been received by John Hall, as 
well as by his brother-in-law Thomas Thynne, at Longleat. As yet, 
however, we have found no specific mention of the fact in any 
history of the times. The night after a skirmish at Philip’s Norton, 
Feversham, who commanded the king’s forces, fell back to Bradford, 
and a tradition of their visit, and of some circumstances attending - 
it, is still preserved amongst the old people in Bradford. But of a 
visit from Monmouth himself there is no actual proof. The story 
may perchance have taken its rise from another circumstance which 
certainly did take place. So devoted were the people to the unfor- 
tunate Duke, that, even after his execution, many continued to 
cherish a hope that he was still living,—in fact, that a substitute 
had represented him on the fatal scaffold. In 1686 a knave who 
pretended to be the Duke made his appearance in our neighbour- 
hood, and probably levied contributions /eve, as he had already in 
several villages in Wiltshire. At all events, at Bradford our soi- 
disant Duke was apprehended, and was afterwards whipped at the 
cart’s tail, from Newgate to Tyburn.! 
We have in our parish a memorial in some sort of the Duke of 
Monmouth. After the fatal battle of Sedgemoor (1685), an officer 
1 Macaulay’s ‘ History of England,’ i. 625. (3rd edition, 1854.) 
