By the Rev, Canon Jackson, F.S.A. 



197 



The wooden shoe with its emblems and motto* pretending to come- 

 fro m France, was probably meant as a warning to the English 

 people, through their representatives in the House of Commons, of 

 things having now come to such a pass that the choice lay between: 

 absolute monarchy under Papal influence, on the one hand, or Pro- 

 testant freedom, on the other. It is therefore very likely that the 

 facetious John AylifFe who deposited the shoe was no other than the 

 Colonel Ayliffe who shortly afterwards appeared in arms for this 

 very cause, under the Duke of Argyle, who, in 1685 sailed from 

 Holland to invade Scotland with the object of displacing James II. 

 and setting the crown on the head of the Duke of Monmouth, the 

 champion of Protestant liberty. 



In the account of this unlucky affair it is stated that, besides his 

 Scottish supporters, the duke was attended by " two Englishmen^ 

 Colonel Ayliffe, a nephew by marriage to Lord Chancellor Clarendon, 1 

 and Richard Rumbold, the maltster of Hertfordshire, famous for 

 being concerned in " The Rye House Plot." The expedition failed; 

 a fight took place at Killerne, near Dumbarton ; Argyle and others 

 were made prisoners. Some were hanged at once by my lord of 

 Athole. Colonel Ayliffe and two preachers, who had taken part in 

 the preliminary councils and done actual service in the invasion, 

 were brought to Glasgow. Ayliffe was civilly used, and it was 

 thought he might be saved, upon Lord Dumbarton's intercession. 

 Ayliffe thought otherwise, and to anticipate the vengance of his 

 enemies, who, he was sure, would not spare him, " he got " [says 

 Bishop Burnet] "a penknife into his hands and gave himself several 

 stabs : and thinking he was certainly a dead man, cried out, ( Now 

 I defy mine enemies J " But the wounds not being mortal, he was 

 sent to London to be examined : under the idea of his being able to 

 give much important information. " His relationship to the King's 

 first wife 2 might perhaps be one inducement to this measure, or it 



1 It has been already mentioned in the text that Anne Ayliffe married Edw. 

 Hyde. She was aunt to Colonel Ayliffe. See extract of pedigree printed at p. 201. 



2 Colonel Ayliffe was only connected with King James the Second's first wife, 

 Ann Hyde, the chancellor's daughter, in this way. Ann Hyde's father, the 

 chancellor, had married the colonel's aunt : but she had no surviving child. Ann 

 Hyde was the chancellor's daughter by his second wife, Frances Aylesbury. 



