TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. lj$ 



impeachment of Suffolk. The custom of the time was that 

 travellers made choice in the open country of the road which 

 seemed safest, rarely came back by the same way, and kept their 

 intentions secret. In order to effect their purpose, the conspira- 

 tors sent one of their accomplices, William King, who came to 

 him in the evening of Tuesday, and pretended that he had a suit 

 with the Duke of York, for which he desired Tresham's assistance, 

 asking him at the same time to inform him of the hour of his 

 departure and the road on which he purposed riding to meet the 

 duke, and so got information as to his intended route. He 

 then communicated the information to his accomplices, who 

 thereupon, to the number of one hundred and twenty, eleven of 

 whom are named, hid themselves behind a hedge, at a place 

 called Thorpland Close, near Moulton, about three miles and 

 a half from Northampton, from midnight till six in the fore- 

 noon. At this time Tresham came riding along the high road 

 'singing the matins of our Lady,' when William King met him 

 and gave the signal by which they knew the object of their 

 ambush, and the murderers rose, one of them Evan Ap-Rice 

 instantly running Tresham through the body with a spear. The 

 rest of the party then wounded him with various deadly wounds, 

 took from him a collar of the king's livery, a gold chain, a 

 horse, twenty pounds in money, his signet ring and valuable 

 jewels, and robbed his son and heir, Thomas Tresham, of his 

 horse, his collar, his purse, his money and his jewels. The culprits 

 went about the country boasting of their exploit, and though 

 the widow of the murdered man intreated the sheriff to arrest 

 them, he dared not do it. The coroners too had empanelled 

 a jury, who wished to put off their verdict, since the culprits 

 had threatened the jurors with death, if they gave a verdict 

 according to the facts, or did not find that Tresham com- 

 mitted suicide. The widow, Isabel Tresham, a daughter of 

 William Vaux of Harrowden, therefore petitions the King in 

 Parliament, that a writ should issue from Chancery to the sheriff 

 of Northampton, calling upon the culprits to surrender, and 

 that they should be tried, on the widow's appeal, by a jury of 



