2d. to the throne of England, in 1660, a number of the judges who sat on the trial of king Charles the 1st, were seized, tried, and condemned at the Old Bailey, and promptly executed. Others foreseeing their fate, fled from the realm before the king was proclaimed; two of those regicides, as they were termed, colonel Edward Whalley and William Goffe, sailed for New England, and arrived at Boston, July, 1660. Whalley had served as a lieutenant general, and Goffe as a major general in Cromwell's army; both had distinguished themselves in various battles, as well as many other important transactons in that period of political convulsion, and they had been much in the confidence of the lord Protector. Both were commissioners appointed for the trial of the king, and both signed the warrant for his execution; they had therefore little expectation of escaping the rigid punishment for treason, should they fall into the hands of the English government. Goffe had married a daughter of Whalley, and was not less attached to his father-in-law, from principle, than from his family connection.

At Boston, they were courteously received by governor Endicott, and the principal gentlemen of the town; and though they did not secrete themselves, they chose a more retired place, and resided some time at Cambridge. In the mean time they visited many of the adjacent towns, were openly seen at public worship, and at other public places, and appear to have been much esteemed by the people. On learning that several of the regicides had been condemned and executed in England, and that Whalley and Goffe were not included in the act of pardon, the people at Boston, who had harbored them, began to be alarmed. The governor assemble a court of assistants, to consult upon measures for the apprehension of the judges; but a majority would not consent to the measure, and several even declared that they would protect them at all hazards. Finding themselves unsafe at Cambridge, and being advised by their friends to remove, the judges left the place, and proceeded to Hartford, in Connecticut, and thence to New Haven, where they arrived the 7th of March, 1661, and took lodging at the house of the Rev. Mr. Davenport. Here they were treated with marked attention by the leading people, not

only as men of great minds, but of unfeigned piety and religion; and finding themselves among such friends, they flattered themselves that they were out of danger.

It was soon known in England, that the two judges had landed at Boston, and the king's proclamation was afterwards received there, requiring that they should be apprehended. The governor of Massachusetts accordingly issued his warrant for this purpose, and a slight search was made through the towns in the province, and particularly at Springfield, and others on Connecticut river, but the judges had previously left the province, and were secure among their friends at New Haven.

Sometime after, the governor of Massachusetts received. a royal mandate, requiring him to apprehend the regicides, accompanied by some intimations that their friendly reception at Boston had been noticed. This produced an alarm, and a more thorough search was made through the towns; Hadley at this time, is said to have been examined by officers sent on the service, but without very nice scrutiny.

In the mean time the judges, secretly apprised of the measures taken for their apprehesion, removed to Milford, where they appeared openly in the day time, but at night often returned to New Haven, and were secreted at Mr. Davenport's. At length two English merchants, Kellond and Kirk, both zealous royalists, were commissioned to go through the colonies as far as Manhattan, in search of the regicides. Seasonably informed of the plan to apprehend them, the harrassed judges removed from Mr. Davenport's, and secreted themselves in various places about New Haven; first at a mill, then in the woods, and at last in a singular natural cave, on west rock, where they continued sometime, and were provided with subsistence by their friends. During this time, Kellond and Kirk arrived at New Haven, and with the reluctant aid of the officers of government, made search for the judges, but without effect. They then passed on to Manhattan, and gaining no information of the objects of their pursuit, returned to Boston, and made report of their proceedings, in which the magistrates at New Ha ven were represented as friendly to the judges, and had used secret means to prevent their apprehension. Mr.

Davenport, and lieutenant governor Leet, were implicated in the affair, and some apprehensions were entertained for their safety, as well as some others in the secret. Informed of this, the judges offered to surrender themselves rather than expose their friends to punishment, and they actually appeared openly at New Haven. But through the advice of friends, they changed their determination, and again retired to their cave, and other secluded places in the vicinity, and were seen occasionally by a few persons in whom they could confide.

During this seclusion in the cave, on West rock, to their fears of apprehension, was added that of the Indians, and ferocious animals. One night as they lay in their hard couch, a huge catamount, with blazing eyes, and furious grin, thrust his head into the aperture of the rock, giving a horrible growl, but departed without injury to the trembling judges. At another time during their absence from the cave, a party of Indians on a hunting excursion, accidentally discovered the cave, and the couch on which the unfortunate exiles lodged; this being reported by the Indians, it was deemed dangerous longer to continue in the place, and they abandoned it for another more secluded.

In 1664, several commissioners arrived at Boston, on business relating to the colonies, and as they were instructed by king Charles, to make inquiry for the two regicides, and as the places of the seclusion of these harrassed men were now known to many at New Haven, they resolved to remove to some distant part of the country.. The reverend Mr. Russel, of Hadley, was sounded relating to their seclusion, and he consented to receive them into his house; and after a dreary pilgrimage of three years and seven months, at and about New Haven, they, on the 13th of October 1664, sat out for Hadley. Travelling in the night only, probably with a guide, they eluded discovery, and arrived at Mr. Russel's hospitable mansion, after a tedious march of about one hundred miles.

The house of the friendly clergyman, situated on the east side of the main street, near the centre of the vil lage, was of two stories, with a kitchen attached, and ingeniously fitted up for the reception of the judges. The

east chamber was assigned for their residence, from which a door opened into a closet, back of the chimney, and a secret trap door communicated with an under closet, from which was a private passage to the cellar, into which it was easy to descend, in case of a search.

Here, unknown to the people of Hadley, excepting to a few confidents, and the family of Mr. Russel, the judges remained fifteen or sixteen years, secluded from the world, constantly exposed to discovery, from some unfaithful person, or from some unfortunate circumstance, in which case, an ignominious death was inevitable. And when it is known that Hadley became the head quarters of the army, employed for the defence of the towns on Connecticut river, in the war with Philip, in 1675 and 1678, while the judges were in the place-soldiers billetted on the inhabitants, and vigilant officers quartered in the village, the non-discovery of the exiles is truly astonishing; and evinces that the faithful minister possessed resources of art far beyond most men. It is not known for certainty, that any more than one gentleman of the village, besides Mr. Russel's family, was in the dangerous secret of the judges concealment; this was Peter Tilton, Esq. whose mansion house stood on the same side of the street with Mr. Russel's, about half the distance towards the south end of the village; and here the judges are said to have occasionally resided. A Mr. Smith, who resided on the same side of the village towards its northern extremity, is also said to have been in the secret; and to have occasionally admitted the exiles to his house.

Mr. Tilton was a magistrate and a man of note, in this part of the country--much employed in public business, and often member of the general court from Hadley. As he was frequently at Boston, attending his official duties, donations to the judges, were made through his hands with safety. Richard Saltonstal, who was in the secret, on his departure for England in 1672, sent them fifty pounds. They received donations also from others, and their wives remitted them money from England, through their secret friends, for whom Tilton was the trusty agent.

During his residence at Hadley, Goffe held a corres

pondence with his wife in England, under the the feigned name of Walter Goldsmith; but his letters were written so enigmatically, that none but an intimate acquaintance could fully comprehend them. By one of the letters, dated April 2d, 1679, it appears that Whalley had deceased sometime previously, at Mr. Russel's. Various accounts are given concerning the interment of his body; but it is now ascertained that it was buried in a sort of tomb, formed of mason work, and covered with flags of hewn stone, just without the cellar wall of Russel's house; where his bones have been recently found, by a Mr. Gaylord, who built a house on the spot, where Russel's was standing, as late as 1794.

Not long after the decease of Whalley, Goffe left Hadley, and travelled to the southward, and no certain information of him has been obtained, Vague rumours however say that he went to Manhattan, or New York, where he tarried sometime in disguise, and supported himself by conveying vegetables to market-where or when he died is unknown. The story of his residence at Petequamscot, in Rhode Island, and of his death and burial at West Greenwich, is put at rest by Dr. Stiles, in his "History of the Judges." Some further notice of Goffe will be given in the details of Philip's war.

Not long after the two judges came to Hadley, colonel John Dixwell, another of the judges joined them at Mr. Russels, where he resided some time; but departing from that place, and wandering about the country, he at length settled down at New Haven, under the assumed name of Davids, where he married, and had several children. His real name and character were not made known to the public until his death, which happened in 1689; nor was it known in England that he had fled to America. He was buried at New Haven, and his grave stone marked with his initials, J. D. Esq. "deceased March 18, in the 82d year of his age-1688-9," is often visited as a curiosity. President Stiles has attempted to shew that the three judges were buried at New Haven, and conjectures that he has found their grave stones.*

The story of the judges was first given to the world in * Hutchinson's Massachusetts, Vol. i. Stile's History of the Judges. Dwight's Travels, Vol. i. Letter 35.