28. James, John. Rev. John James was one of the first if not the
first, pastor of the Seventh-day Baptist Church worshipping in Bull Stake
Alley, Whitechapel Road, London, (since known as the Mill Yard Church). He was
born of poor parents, and became a ribbon weaver, afterwards a small coal man;
but finding this business too much for his health, he returned to ribbon
weaving. Sabbath-day, October 19, 1661, while preaching to his people at their
meeting place, he was twice rudely interrupted by officers of the law and
commanded to come down. He was then dragged out of his pulpit. The charge of
uttering treasonable words against the king was made by a journeyman tobacco-pipe
maker, named Tipler; but so disreputable a person was Tipler that the justice
refused to commit Mr. James on his testimony unless it was corroborated; this
was done, and the good pastor was sent to Newgate prison. On the I4th of
November he was brought before Chief Justice Forster, and three other judges,
at Westminster Hall, where he was charged with "endeavouring to levy war
against the king, with seeking a change in government, with saying that the
king was a bloody tyrant, a blood sucker and a bloodthirsty man, and that his
nobles were the same; and that the king and his nobles had shed the blood of
the saints at Charing Cross, and in Scotland." But there was no show of
evidence to substantiate any of the charges. Mr. James was remanded to Newgate
for four days, when his trial came off. Previous to this he received a letter
from a friend of distinction, informing him that for many years there had not
been such efforts to pack a jury, and that his only hope of safety lay in
challenging them, or "most of the chief men of them."
When Mr. James was brought into court, the
chief justice exclaimed, "Oh, Oh, are you come?" and this was a
specimen of the way in which his trial was conducted. He was condemned in
accordance with the plot of those who planned his murder, and was sentenced to
be hanged at Tyburn, near Hyde Park, and while still alive to have his entrails
drawn and his heart taken out and burned; his head to be taken off and placed
first on London Bridge, and afterward set up on a pole in Whitechapel Road
opposite to the meeting place in Bull Stake Alley; his body to be cut in
quarters and placed on four of the seven gates of the city. The next day after
sentence was pronounced against him, his wife presented a petition to King
Charles 11, proving his innocence and appealing for mercy; but the only reply
of his majesty was, "Oh! Mr. James, he is sweet gentleman!" and the
door was shut against her. The next morning she made another appeal to the
king, and his cruel response was, "He is a rogue, and shall be
hanged." When asked if he had anything to say why sentence of death should
not pronounced against him, he said:- "As for me, behold, I am in your
hands: do with me as it seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain
that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon
yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of this saints. He that toucheth you
toucheth the apple of mine eye." And when Mr James heard his sentence, he
immediately added, "Blessed be God: whom man hath condemned, God hath
justified." The sentence was executed November 26, 1661. He was bound to a
sled and drawn through the slush of the streets to Tyburn where he spoke with
such power and prayed with such fervor that the hangman would not execute the
full sentence, but permitted life to be fully extinct before he was drawn and
quartered. On the same sled which brought him to the place of execution, his
quarters were taken back to Newgate and then upon Aldgate, Bishopgate,
Moorgate, and Aldergate - the four gates nearest to the meeting-place in Bull
Stake Alley, in front of which his head was exposed upon a pole. Elder James
gained great sympathy and respect for his devotion and submission to God. At
the place of execution his remarks were gentle and loving, and his soul brave
and full of hope. He was an inoffensive and benevolent man, free from any
blemish in his character, and guiltless of every charge in the indictment. He
was savagely murdered by Charles 11, his courtiers and his tools (the judges)
to terrify the Dissenters, and especially the Baptists, into loyalty. And
undoubtedly the vengeance of God, invoked by the innocent blood of John James
hadsomething to do with driving the Stuarts from the throne of England.
Reprinted from
"Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America" Vol 1 (pp. 78-79)
Published by the American Sabbath Tract Society, Plainfield, New Jersey 1910.
Cover page of a
Narrative of the Execution of John James - Published 1662
