James II
had heard, they brought in Mr. Ashton guilty of murder"; and after "some very frivolous motions in arrest of judgment," sentence of death was pronounced. Great efforts were made by his co-religionists to save him; "but in good earnest," wrote Clarendon, "the evidence was so full against him, and he had so little to say for himself, and the fact was so horridly foul, that I cannot think him a proper object of his Majesty's mercy; and it is highly necessary to make examples of such as commit such horrid outrages, not to be suffered in a good government." In order to appease the indignation of the Protestants, Judges Lyndon and Nugent recommended that the condemned man's estate, which, as the law then stood, was forfeited to the crown, should be restored to his family; and this request being supported by the Lord Lieutenant, was granted by the government.27
On one point, and on one point alone, the court continued to offer an obstinate resistance to the popular demands. At the beginning of his reign James had announced his intention of preserving the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. Clarendon, on taking office, had given the colonists a similar assurance; and even Tyrconnell, while denouncing those Acts in no measured terms, had admitted that they could not safely
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