198 



The Ayliffes of Grittenham. 



might be thought more expedient that he should be executed for 

 the Rye House Plot. When examined he refused to give any in- 

 formation, and suffered death upon a sentence of outlawry which 

 had passed in the former reign. King James examined him per- 

 sonally,, and finding him sullen and unwilling to speak out, said, 

 ( Mr. Ayliffe, you know it is in my power to pardon you, therefore 

 say that which may deserve it ' : to which Ayliffe replied ' Though 

 it is in your power it is not in your nature to pardon.' " He was 

 hanged, drawn and quartered, before the Temple Gate in Fleet Street. 1 



The ignominy of being hanged depends very much upon what a 

 man is hanged for : Colonel AylinVs death was no disgrace to him, 

 for he was a victim for a cause which afterwards triumphed. The 

 same cannot be said of the next of the name who ended his days in 

 a similar manner — John Ayliffe, Esq., executed at Tyburn, 19th 

 November, 1759. 



The writing of this person's history is not a very pleasant or 

 dignified occupation : but as our Magazine professes to preserve the 

 memory of Wiltshire events and persons of former times, it seems 

 not out of place to let our readers, who take interest in things long 

 gone by, know, who this " Wiltshire esquire " was, why he was pro- 

 moted to the gallows, and what the circumstances of his case were. 

 It created at the time a very great sensation, not only in the country 

 but in London : associated, as it was, with the respectable names of 

 Ayliffe of Grittenham, Horner of Mells, Co. Somerset, and more 

 especially with that of the Rt. Hon. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord 

 Holland, one of the most conspicuous statesmen of the day. 



A short distance before reaching the Wootton Basset Station in 

 going from Bath to London, the railway skirts Tockenham Park, a 

 prettily-wooded bank rising on the right hand. The house is still 

 standing, but is hardly visible from the railway. Beyond this is 

 he village. At the beginning of the last century this place had 

 belonged for some years to Matthew Smith, Esq., who had married 

 the daughter of Edward Goddard, of Ogbourne St. Andrew. Their 



1 For an account of this affair see " History of the Stuarts " (folio), p. 700, 

 707 ; C. J. Fox's " James II.," pp. 174, 180, 215 ; and Sir F. Graham's MSS. 

 correspondence, Seventh Report Hist. Commiss., p. 379. 



