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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^ wived , ( which was soon aftef , ) he - ^ returned to the city , and carried on Jits conventicles and disputes for some time without contradictiou . At length , his Majesty Charles JL being restored
to his dominions , and with him the Church of England , he took othtfr measures / held his meetings more private , and but seldom . * However , his waters being narrowly watched , he Was taken in the house of a certain
citizen , while he was convent ! cling , in the beginning of July , [ June , 3 1662 ; whereupon being carried before Sir Richard Brown , then lately Lord Mayor , was by him imprisoned , and used , as his party saitli , with great cruelty , especially in this respect , that lie hindered all sureties or bail to be
given for him . t So that by the filth of a prison in hot weather , contracting a disease , he died thereof in the month of September , ( one tells me the 2 nd , and another the 22 nd day , ) about five of the clock in the morning , J to the
* Short Account , ~ p . 8 . - ' + " On the first of June , 1662 , he was haled out of his lodgings , where he was convened with some few of his friends , for divine worship , and carried before Sir Richard Brown , who forthwith committed them all to the public prison ; J . Biddle to the dungeon , where he lay for fire hours , and was denied the benefit of the law , which admits offenders of that sort to bail
for their appearance . There they lay till the Recorder , moved with more reverence of the laws , took security for their answering to their charge next sessions - > which they performed accordingly . But when the court could not find any statute whereon to form any criminal indictment against
them , they were referred to the sessions following ; and then were proceeded against , by pretext of an offence against common law , ( the rules of which lie mostly in the judges * breasts , ) and thereupon fined , every one of the hearers in the penalty of twenty pounds , and / . Biddle in one hundred ; to lie in prison till paid . Now , though the
Slieriff would generously have been satisfied -with ten pounds "for him , and he would hav « paid it * yet the enmity of Sir Richard Brown was such , as he could not he induced to consent thereto upon' any terms ; but threatened him with a seven years * imprisonment , though he should pay the whole 4 tundr « d pounds . This was the cause of
4 ii « continuing in prfeon . " Ibid , p ; 0 . £ "He had not been therefull five weeks , tillvby reason of the noisomeness of the . place find pent air , to him , whose only jrecrcjatiim mud exetcise had ^ been ,, for many
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great grief of his disciples , in 1669 : whereupon his body being conveyed to the burial place , joining to Old Bethlehem , in Moorfields , near Xoiidon , * was there deposited by the brethren , who soon after took care that an altar monument of stone should be erected over his grave , with an inscription thereon , shewing that he was Master of Arts of the University
years , to walk daily into the free air , he contracted a disease , which in a few days , alas , put a period to liis life . In this extremity , Sir It , Brown could not be moved to grant the sick prisoner the present comfort of a removal , in order to a recovery ; but Sheriff Meynel , to the praise of his great humanity , did grant it ; but , alas , the second day after his removal , between five and six o ' clock in the morning , the 2 * 2 nd of September , 1662 , he quietly gave up his spirit to God , He was then in the strength cf
his ag-e , the 47 tb year of his Jife . Novr it did appear , ( as he had said formerly , ) that by frequent meditations of the resurrection and future happiness , he had made death contemptible to himself . For as soon , as by the disease more strongly annoying -hi * brain , he perceived a great alteration , he
signified it to his friends , and would not be * induced to any discourse , but composed himself as it were to sleep , during that eight hours' tisne , which after that he lived , being very sparing of words , or indeed of groans , that might argue any impatience ; notwithstanding , when a certain pious
matron , who ministered to him , broke forth into this ( as it were ) farewel-saying , * i God grant we nray see one another in the kingdom of heaven : he , now his speech failing , lifted up his quivering hand , shewing therehy ( it seems ) how pleasing that wish was to him . And that he was
not surprised with dying at this time , may be collected from his often saying before , that if he should be once more cast into prison , he should never he restored to liberty 3 and moreover , that the work was done , meaning , that that truth which God
had raised him up to profess , was sufficiently brought to light ; there wanted only ingenuity in men , for the embracing and acknowledging * it . " Short Account , p . 9-Saudi us thus inaccurately charges on Cromwell the death of Biddfe : " Obiit in carcere
m quern Crom well 10 rerum potienteofc reugionem conjectus fuit . " JBib . Ant . p . 169 . * u The new church-yard in Pcttit France which was given by tfee eity , [ for the burial of strangers , ] and consecrated June 4 , . 1617 . " New Vieiv of London , 1 * 708 , I . 169 . Petty France , inhabited chiefly by the French , was oil the site of New Broad Stieet .
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418 Life of Jvhn Biddle , by Anthony Wood .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 418, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/10/
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