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The Sussex Regicides, &c. 167 |
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nearly performing very memorable deeds. It was his soldiers who stopped and questioned Charles the 2nd when that Prince was on his flight from Worcester to Brighthelmstone—a danger from which the ready wit of the King assisted to deliver him —and Evelyn, his old schoolfellow and his friend to the last, thinks Morley might, with a little more decision, have anticipated the part of Monk in the restoration of Charles II., or spoilt that General's game, if he had been so minded. But, though an honourable and a consistent man, and a steady friend to liberty—probably because he was such—Morley shrank from extreme courses, and thus, though he was appointed one of the High Court of Justice and attended three of its sittings, he did not sign the warrant of execution. It has also been surmised that he favoured the escape of Charles II. from his soldiers. So, at the Restoration, he was leniently dealt with, and got off with a fine of £1,000. He died in peaceable possession of his Sussex estates and lies buried in Glynde Church.
Abraham Burrell and Roger Gratwick (Member for Hastings) never attended the High Court of Justice at all, though nominated on it, and, therefore, may be concluded to have disapproved of it.
We now come to the Regicides Proper—to those men who did not shrink from putting their hands to that deed which stands out so prominently in the history of England—nay, of Europe—and which, they well knew, sealed their fate if the tide of fortune ever turned against their cause. Both the gentry and the burgess class were represented amongst these men. To the former belonged Anthony Stapley and James Temple, Peregrine Pelham and Gregory Norton, and to the latter William Goffe, William Cawley, and John Downes.
William Cawley has many titles to be placed at the head of the Sussex Regicides, whether they be looked upon with a favourable or unfavourable eye. He belonged to the burgess class. His father, John Cawley, was a brewer of Chichester, was thrice Mayor, and his monument and eSigy are still to be |
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