498 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 113. 



who confessed that King James at St. Germain, 

 in the presence of the queen, had engaged him to 

 shoot King William. Four years later James 

 had contrived another plot. At the head of this 

 were Sir George Barclay and Sir William Perkins, 

 and under their guidance twenty men were engaged 

 to assist in the assassination of King William. 

 The plan was as follows. It was the custom of 

 the king to hunt near the house of Mr. Latten, in 

 the neighbourhood of Brentford, and they de- 

 signed to surprise the king on his return at a 

 hollow part of the road between Brentford and 

 Turnhani Green, one division of them being 

 placed behind some bushes and brushwood at the 

 western end of the Green. Some of your cor- 

 respondents may perhaps iix the spot ; but as the 

 Green extended then far beyond what it now 

 does, I suspect it was about the road leading to 

 Gunnesbury; the road itself I recollect as a boy 

 seeing much elevated and improved. The design 

 failed, two of the gang betrayed the rest, — Bar- 

 clay escaped, but Perkins and some others were 

 hung. Jeremy Collier attended them on the 

 scafibld, and publicly gave tiiem absolution in the 

 name of Christ, and by imposition of hands, for 

 all their sins. I need not describe to you the 

 excitement caused by this plot of Barclay and 

 Perkins : the event connected with their names, 

 as at our later period — 



" M'^as a theme of all conversation ; 

 Had it been a pillar of church and state, 

 Or a prop to support the whole dead weight. 

 It could not have furnished uiore deliata 

 For tlie heads and tails of the naiion." 

 James closed the drama becomingly; he pub- 

 lished a defence of his conduct in a paper, the 

 style of which has been well described as the 

 " euphemism of assassination." The road between 

 Turniiam Green and Kew was long after asso- 

 ciated with the names of "Barclay and Perkins." 



S.H. 



REMAINS OP KING JAMES II. 



The enclosed copy of an authentic document, 

 obtained through the kindness of Mr. Pickford, 

 Her Majesty's consul in Paris, is communicated to 

 the publisher of " Notes and Queries," in the 

 belief that it may prove acceptable to those who 

 take an interest in the questions raised by the 

 articles in Nos. 46. 48. and 56. of that valuable 

 publication. 



This document is an "Extract from the Register 

 of the Deliberation of the Municipal Council of 

 St. Germain-en-Laye," dated July 12, 1824, con- 

 taining the official report, or proces-verbal, of the 

 discovery made that day of three boxes, in which 

 were deposited a portion of the remains of King 

 James II. and of the Princess Louise-Marie, his 

 daughter. 



The " annexes" referred to, of the respective 

 dates of September 16 and 17, a.d. 1701, leave no 

 doubt as to the disposal of the royal corpse at that 

 time. With respect to its fate, after its removal 

 front the English Benedictine convent in Paris 

 in 1793, as mentioned in the article No. 46., it is 

 most probable that it shared the fate of other 

 royal relics exhumed at the same disastrous period 

 from the vaults of St. Denys, which were scattered 

 to the winds, or cast into a common pit. 



It may be ])resumcd that the epitaph given in 

 the same document, and mentioned as being such 

 as it had existed in the church of St. Germain-en- 

 Laye, had disappeared before the date of the 

 " Extract from the Register." It probably was 

 destroyed during the first fury of the French 

 Revolution in 1793: — 



" Ri'puhlique Franyaise. 

 " Liherte, Egalite, Fraternite. 



" Ville de Saint Germain-en-Laye. 



" Extrait du R^gistre des Deliberations du Conseil 

 Municipal. 



" Seance du 12 Juiliet, 1S24. 



" Aiijourd'hui lundi douze Juiliet mil huit cent 

 vingt-quatre, trois heures de relevee, nous Pierre 

 Danes de Montardat, ancien Colonel de Cavalerie, 

 chevalier de I'ordre royal et militaire de St. Louis, 

 Malre de la ville de St. Germain-en-Laye, ayant ete 

 inforrne par MM. les Architectes de la nouvelle 

 eglise de cctte ville, que ce matin, vers sept heures, en 

 faisant la fouille de remplacenient du nouveau clocher 

 dans I'ancienne chapelle des fonds, on avail decouvert 

 successivement trois hoites en plomb de differentes 

 formes, placees tres pres les unes des autrcs, et dont 

 I'une descpielles portait une inscription gravee sur 

 une table d'etain, constatant qu'elle contient partie des 

 restes du roi Jacques Stuart Second, Roi d'Angleterre, 

 d'Ecosse et d'lrlande. Nous sommes transportc sur le 

 lieu susdusigne accompagne de M. le Comte Bozon 

 de Talleyrand, Lieutenant General honoraire, Grand' 

 Croix de I'ordre de St. Louis, Gouverneur du Chateau 

 de St. Germain-en-Laye, de M. Jean Jacques Collig- 

 non, cure de cette paroisse royale, de MM. Malpiece 

 et !\Ioutier, architectes de la nouvelle ei;lise, de M. 

 Rigault, secretaire de la Mairie, ct de MM. Voisin, 

 Perrin, Baudin, de Beaurepaire (le comte), Dusouchet, 

 (Jalot, Decan, Dupuis, Jeulin, Journet, Griveau, Du- 

 four, Delaval, Casse et Barbe, memhres du Conseil 

 Municii)al, et de BI. Morin, Commissaire de Police, 



" Oil etant, nous avons reeonnu et constate; 



" 1°. Que la premiere des trois boites susdites 

 (figure A) etait en plomb de C". 35^. carres et C". 

 18 centimetres de hauteur, recouverte d'une pla(jue en 

 nieme de O". 22 centimetres carres, sous laquelle 

 plaque on a trouve une table en iitaiu de 0". 20 cen- 

 timetres de haut, Om. \5'^. de large, portant cette 

 inscription : — 



