Miles Prance

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Miles Prance (fl. 1678) was an English Roman Catholic who was caught up in and perjured himself during the Popish Plot and the anti-Catholicism of London during the reign of Charles II. He was born on the Isle of Ely, the son of a Roman Catholic, and he rose quickly from humble origins as an apprentice goldsmith to servant-in-ordinary to Catherine of Braganza, Charles II's queen. He was married and with a family, living in Covent Garden at the time of his arrest.

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey died in October 1678; he disappeared from his home and was found dead at Primrose Hill, having apparently been strangled and run through with a sword some days before his death. Godfrey, though normally tolerant in religious matters, had been militating against Jesuits around the time of the Popish Plot. Prance was known to be a Roman Catholic and suspicion fell upon him for the death, which was thought by many to be suicide. He unwisely drew attention to himself by attending one of the Plot trials, and then publicly defending the accused as "very honest men". William Bedloe, a notorious confidence trickster and later a Popish Plot accuser, investigated Prance and interrogated one John Wren, Prance's lodger who owed rent. Wren stated that Prance had been out of the house on the night of the murder (this was later found to be untrue). Prance was arrested and sent to Newgate Prison. He was confined to the notorious Little Ease cell, where he nearly froze to death. So anxious was the Crown for him to confess that he was even threatened with the rack, which had been illegal for fifty years.

In prison, Prance confessed and then recanted. He then confessed to a different version and recanted that. Finally, after being visited by William Boys, Gilbert Burnet, and William Lloyd, he confessed and said that two Irish priests, "Fitzgerald" and "Kelly", told him of a plot to kill Godfrey. He said that Henry Berry, Robert Green, Thomas Godden and Godden's servant, Lawrence Hill, followed and strangled Godfrey while Prance kept watch. They then hid Godfrey's body in the palace and waited before placing it in a ditch and running it through with Godfrey's own sword, to look like the discrediting death by suicide. Prance later admitted that all this was pure invention: it is not even clear if the priest called Kelly existed, though Fitzgerald did. Prance could produce no credible motive for the murder, saying vaguely that Godfrey had offended the two priests in some way. Kenyon notes that lack of a plausible motive is the central flaw with all theories about Godfrey's murder; none of the suspects, on careful analysis, seem to have had a sufficient reason to kill him.

Berry, Green, and Hill were arrested, and Godden fled to Europe; the priest Fitzgerald, whom the others admitted to knowing, apparently avoided detection. Prance perjured himself in the trial: Mrs. Hill protested in open court that " Prance knows all of this is as false as God is true and we shall see him recant after, when it is too late." William Scroggs, the Lord Chief Justice, replied that it was impossible that Prance would swear three men to their deaths for nothing. All three men were executed. Prance then split the reward for finding the killers with Bedloe. Bedloe and Titus Oates used Prance to inform on several Roman Catholics during the Popish Plot. He offered evidence against Thomas Whitbread (alias Harcourt) and John Fenwick, two Jesuit priests, in June 1679 and received a £50 pension from the King in January 1680. He also helped Oates attack Roger L'Estrange and wrote pamphlets defending himself against charges of multiple contradictions. After the breaking of the Plot, he assumed a lower public profile.

However, when James II came to the throne, Prance was tried. He was found guilty of perjury in 1686 and was fined £100, ordered to stand in the pillory, and to be whipped. Catherine interceded on his behalf to prevent the last of these punishments, arguing that he had returned to the Roman Catholic faith and was repentant. He said that only fear for his life had compelled him to lie and inform and that his mistreatment in prison had coerced his testimony. In 1688, he tried to flee to France. He was captured, questioned before the House of Lords, and then permitted to leave England.

References

  • Kenyon, J.P. The Popish Plot Phoenix Press Reissue 2000

External links

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