TRIAL OF OWEN. 



though obstinately and doggedly enough,&quot; was convicted, 

 but, some of the judges doubting whether it was treason, 

 he was not executed, (b) 



(b) Edmund Peacham, a minister in Somersetshire [MS. letter of Mr. 



Chamberlain, dated January 5, 1614-5]. I find one of both his names, 



who was instituted into the vicarage of Ridge, in Hertfordshire, July 22, 



1581, and resigned it in 1587 [Newcourt Reporter, vol. i. p. 864]. Mr. 



Peacham was committed to the Tower for inserting several treasonable 



passages in a sermon never preached, nor, as Mr. Justice Croke remarks 



in his Reports during the reign of King Charles I. p. 125, ever intended 



to be preached. Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter of the 9th of February, 



1614-5, to Sir Dudley Carleton, mentions Mr. Peacham s having been 



&quot; stretched already, though he be an old man, and, they say, much above 



threescore ; but they could wring nothing out of him more than they had 



at first in his papers. Yet the king is extremely incensed against him, 



and will have him prosecuted to the uttermost.&quot; In another letter, dated 



February 23, we are informed that the king, since his coming to London 



on the 15th, had had &quot;the opinion of the judges severally in Peacham s 



case; and it is said, that most of them concur to find it treason; yet my 



lord chief justice [Coke] is for the contrary; and if the Lord Hobart, that 



rides the western circuit, can be drawn to jump with his colleague, the 



chief baron [Tanfield], it is thought he shall be sent down to be tried, and 



trussed up in Somersetshire.&quot; In a letter of the 2nd of March, 1614-5, 



Mr. Chamberlain writes, Peacham s trial at the western assizes is put off 



and his journey stayed, though Sir Randall Crew, the king s Serjeant, and 



Sir Henry Yelverton, the solicitor, were ready to go to horse to have waited 



on him there.&quot; Peacham, the minister,&quot; adds he, in a letter of the 13th 



of July, 1615, &quot; that hath been this twelvemonth in the Tower, is sent down 



to be tried for treason in Somersetshire, before the lord chief baron and Sir 



Henry Montagu, the recorder. The Lord Hobart gave over that circuit 



the last assizes. Sir Randall Crew and Sir Henry Yelverton, the king s 



Serjeant and solicitor, are sent down to prosecute the trial.&quot; The eventof 



this trial, which was on the 7th of August, appears from Mr. Chamberlain s 



letter of the 14th of that month, wherein it is said that &quot; seven knights 



were taken from the bench, and appointed to be of the jury. He defended 



himself very simply, but obstinately and doggedly enough. But his offence 



was so foul and scandalous, that he was condemned of high treason; yet 



not hitherto executed, nor perhaps shall be, if he have the grace to submit 



himself, and shew some remorse. He died, as appears from another letter 



of the 27th of March, 1616, in the jail at Taunton, where he was said to 



have &quot; left behind a most wicked and desperate writing, worse than that he 



was convicted for.&quot; 



VOL. XV. 



