January 1, 2017 | Leave a comment On 17th October 1678, Sir Edmund Godfrey was discovered lying face down in a ditch on Primrose Hill,North West London. He had been strangled and his neck broken. He had also been run through with his own sword. The perpetrator, or perpetrators, had clearly adopted a ‘belt and braces’ approach to the killing. But who had murdered the prominent merchant and Justice of the Peace, and why? Sir Edmund Godfrey (1621-1678) A decent enough chap by all accounts, Godfrey had been knighted in 1666, for services rendered during the great plague of 1665, when he had remained at his post in London, while many others fled to the countryside in the hope of avoiding infection. He was an Anglican by religion, meaning he leaned towards the Protestant theology of the Church of England, although he maintained a number of Catholic acquaintances. On the face of it, Sir Edmund Godfrey seemed like an all round good egg. His money and rings were still about his person when his body was discovered, and so it was clear that robbery was not the motive behind the killing. But why would anybody want him dead? Well, it would appear that all was not quite as it seemed. A Contemporary Image of The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey On 1st June 1670, King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France had signed a treaty, known as The Secret Treaty of Dover. Basically, the treaty entailed the English King and country reverting back to Catholicism in return for monetary gain. As is generally the way with these things, the secret treaty did not remain secret for very long, and many prominent individuals who were opposed to the country’s re-alliance with the Roman Catholic Church, began to hatch a plot to replace the King with a republic. The plotters were led by Sir Robert Peyton, a Member of Parliament, and the ‘Peyton Gang’, as they became known, included our man Godfrey. A further complication concerns an individual by the name of Titus Oates, and a plan known as ‘The Popish Plot’. Irrespective of the secret treaty, King Charles II was still Protestant, whereas his brother James was Catholic. Oates claimed to have uncovered evidence of a plot by prominent Catholics, to assassinate the King and so bring his Catholic brother to the throne of England. No such plan existed, and the plot was a complete fabrication on the part of Oates. As a Justice of the Peace, Sir Edmund Godfrey had been approached by Oates and his conspirator Israel Tonge, and asked to take their oaths that the evidence they presented was true. Godfrey, diligent but perhaps somewhat naive, demanded to see documentary corroboration of the plot, and when this was provided, duly took their depositions on 28th September 1678. Titus Oates (1649-1705) After the discovery of Godfrey’s body, Oates immediately claimed that the murder had been the work of Catholic plotters, and a certain William Bedloe, another of Oates accomplices, maintained that he had been killed in order to steal his papers relating to the depositions. Given that both witnesses were still alive and well, this seems a most improbable motive, as Oates and Tonge would only have needed to repeat their oaths before another magistrate. When Bedloe named John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, as the man behind the deed, even the King was unable to take the matter seriously. Apparently Belasyse was so gout ridden, that he was hardly able to stand. John Belasyse (1614-1689) in His Gout Free Days Nevertheless, two months after the murder, another Catholic, Miles Prance, was accused of involvement in the death. He was arrested and tortured. Unsurprisingly, during torture he confessed to being aware of a plan to kill Godfrey, although he denied any direct connection with the murder. Instead he named three men from the lower echelons of society as the perpetrators. They were Robert Green, Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill. Being unable to afford much in the way of legal representation, they were tried and quickly convicted of the murder. On 5th February 1679 all three were hanged on Primrose Hill, where the body had been discovered. The English are known today for having a slightly dark sense of humour, and it was no different back in the late seventeenth century. Primrose Hill quickly became known as Greenberry Hill, after the surnames of the executed men, and it was many decades before the original name returned to prominence. Even before the hangings, Prance had recanted his confession. However, on being sent back to prison, he quickly recanted his original recantation, and so the men were hastily dispatched before he could change his mind again. It later transpired that Prance’s evidence, obtained under extreme duress, was false, and when he was accused of perjury, he confessed. Thus the murder of Edmund Godfrey remains unsolved to this day. At a distance of almost three and a half centuries, all we are left with today are theories. Was Godfrey killed by Catholics, concerned that he might have incriminating evidence against them, or by Protestants because of his Catholic associations? Could he have been bumped off by Oates or his conspirators, because he knew their claims were nothing but a tissue of lies? Perhaps he was done in by Oates’ cronies, simply so they could blame it on the Catholics and so give credence to the idea of a Popish Plot. There was even a claim, made in 1687, that Godfrey had committed suicide. Quite how you strangle yourself, break your own neck and then run yourself through with a sword postmortem, was not elaborated on. If, however, they had meant that someone wanted to make his suicide look like murder, then presumably we are back to Oates and a variant on the ‘blame the Catholics’ theory. Two investigations undertaken in the twentieth century both concluded that it was unlikely that Godfrey was killed for any of the reasons stated above. He was, after all, a magistrate, and it was deemed more likely that he was murdered by someone who had a grudge against him for having been hauled into court. Chief suspect based on this theory, was Philip Herbert 7th Earl of Pembroke, who some time earlier, had been prosecuted for murder by Godfrey. Philip Herbert 7th Earl of Pembroke (1652/53-1683) All in all, it is beginning to look as though it would have been an easier task to draw up a list of the people who did not have a motive for killing poor old Sir Edmund Godfrey. Whoever did the deed, could well have been standing at the front of a rather long queue! Sources: https://esoterx.com/2015/02/18/puns-kill-the-murder-of-sir-edmund-berry-godfrey/ http://weirdthingshappenalltime.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/mystery-of-greenberry-hill-sir-edmond.html