“That where any Lawful Authority shall be opposed by any Riot, or Riotous Assembly, this implied Malice in Law, in the Persons so offending, and they were all equally guilty; and consequently, if the Prisoner did not shoot Chandlor, yet he was guilty of Murther, because he did abet, promote, stir up, and maintain such a Rebellious and Unlawful Assembly.” (Source: Old Bailey Online<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus it was more for insurrection than murder that Winter was found guilty, and he was hanged on the 17th May 1693, at Fryars Gate, the main entrance to the sanctuary.<\/p>\n There are a number of documents relating to this story, and the first I present is the ballad “Francis Winter’s last Farewel.” It is typical of the execution songs of the seventeenth century: a single sheet cheaply produced (the woodcut looks to be recycled), claiming to be the last words of the condemned, confessing to terrible deeds, solemnly making repentance and warning others not to follow in such evil ways. Verses 5 to 7 give the substance of the case: the narrator admits to heading an armed crew against the sheriff, and by extension “against the wholesome laws of this my native land.” But if he concedes to rebellion, he does not admit to murder: “whether I kill’d the man or no, I cannot justly say.”<\/p>\n The last verse mentions “the thousands that are standing by”, witnessing his death. The Ordinary of Newgate wrote “there were several Thousands of Spectators, who thronged to see him.” (Source: Old Bailey Online<\/a>) Given that Winter was executed at the very entrance to Whitefriars, we can presume that all Alsatia turned out to pay their last respects.<\/p>\n Francis Winter’s last Farewel: Behold these sorrows now this day, I spent my days with roaring boys, Alas! the follies of my youth Bold Francis Winter is my name, I must acknowledge this is true, Whether I kill’d the man or no, It was against the wholesome laws Let my misfortunes teach the rest I oftentimes have wish’d, in vain, The thousands that are standing by, Printed for J. Deacon, at the Sign of the Angel in Guiltspur-street.<\/p>\n Plain text<\/a> in the public domain, taken from English Broadside Ballad Archive<\/a>, University of California at Santa Barbara, and corrected against that in the Bagford Ballads<\/a> (p.340) at archive.org<\/a>. Image in the public domain, again taken from the Bagford Ballads at archive.org. The intro is CC-BY-SA<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1691, the lawyers of The Temple, itself a liberty, sought to block up a gate connecting it to Whitefriars. The Alsatians, seeing this as an impediment to their movements in and out of their sanctuary, raised a mob, attacked the builders and demolished the newly-built wall. The Sheriffs of London arrived to restore order, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,21,7,22,24,23,9],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alsatia","tag-c17","tag-francis-winter","tag-illustration","tag-riot","tag-song","tag-temple","tag-whitefriars"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2R9Se-3h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Illustration](\"http:\/\/alsatia.org.uk\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/wintersfarewell-300x166.gif\" "\\"Francis")
<\/a>
\nOR, THE
\nWhite-Fryers Captain’s Confession and Lamentation,
\nJust before his Execution at the Gate of White-Fryers, on the 17th
\nof this instant May, 1693. Tune of, Russel’s Farewel.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nyou that are standers by,
\nAll former joys are fled away,
\nnow I am brought to die:
\nMy heart is fill’d with fear and dread,
\nfor here is no relief,
\nSince I a sinful life have led,
\nI nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nand little thought of death,
\nBut where are all those fading joys,
\nnow I must loose my breath:
\nNow they are clearly fleed from me,
\nand there is no relief,
\nAlas! alas! I nothing see,
\nbut bitter clouds of Grief.<\/p>\n
\ncomes fresh into my mind;
\nHad I been guided by the truth,
\nthen had I left behind
\nA better name then now I shall,
\nalas!\u00a0 here’s no relief;
\nI by the hand of justice fall,
\nand nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nwho seem’d to bear the sway,
\nBut now, alas! in open shame
\nI do appear this day:
\nMy former joys have taken flight,
\nfor here is no relief;
\nGrim Death appears this day in sight,
\nwhich fills my soul with Grief.<\/p>\n
\nthat when in arms we rose,
\nI was the captain of that crew
\nwhich did the sheriff oppose:
\n‘Tis said a man was slain by me,
\ntherefore here’s no relief,
\nFor I must executed be,
\nand nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nI cannot justly say
\nBut since in arms we acted so
\nwe seem’d to disobey
\nThe city’s lawful magistrate;
\ntherefore here’s no relief.
\nAnd I must here submit to fate,
\nI nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nof this my native land,
\nTo rise in arms, and be the cause
\nof that rebellious band,
\nWho broke through law and justice too,
\nof which I was the chief,
\nFor which I bid the world adieu;
\nI nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nobedience to the laws;
\nLet them not magistrates molest,
\nfor that has been the cause
\nOf shedding blood, for which I die,
\nI being there the chief;
\nThe very minute’s drawing night,
\nI nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nthat I had not been there;
\nNay, were it to be done again,
\nI shou’d that deed forbear,
\nAnd not myself with such inthral,
\ntho’ then I was the chief;
\nBut what is past, I can’t recal,
\nI nothing see but Grief.<\/p>\n
\nalas! you little know
\nMy inward grief and misery,
\nand what I undergo:
\nO let me have your prayers this day,
\nmy sorrows here condole:
\nI now have nothing more to say,
\nbut, Lord receive my soul.<\/p>\n