Henry Cornish (died 1685) was a London
alderman, executed in the reign of
James II of England.
Life
He was a well-to-do merchant of London, and alderman of the ward of
St Michael Bassishaw; in the ''London Directory'' for 1677 he is described as a
factor residing in 'Cateaton Street, near Blackwelhall Gate.' He was a presbyterian in religion, and in politics was a strong whig. On 24 June 1680 he was chosen
sheriff of London in conjunction with
Slingsby Bethel
Slingsby Bethel (1617–1697) was a Member of Parliament with republican sympathies, during the period of the English Civil War.
Early life
Slingsby Bethel was the third son of Sir Walter Bethel of Alne, North Yorkshire, who married Mary, the s ...
. It was afterwards discovered that Cornish and his colleague had not taken the oath according to the
Corporation Act, and the election was declared void. A second election was fixed for 17 July, when Cornish and Bethel took the oath under the Corporation Act, and claimed the appointment.
Charles II decided to force on the city two sheriffs of his own choosing, named Box and Nicolson. The latter demanded a poll, which lasted until 22 July, and on the 29th Cornish and Bethel were declared elected. Cornish headed the poll with 2,400 votes.' On 14 May 1681 Cornish, with other members of the corporation, went to Windsor to present a petition to the king for the summoning of parliament, but Charles declined to receive the deputation. Cornish appeared as a witness for the defence at the trial of
Edward Fitzharris
Edward Fitzharris (1648? – 1681) was an Anglo-Irish conspirator. His prosecution following the waning of public belief in the Popish Plot hoax became a struggle for jurisdiction involving the courts and the two Houses of Parliament. He was e ...
, a Catholic informer (9 June 1681); this may have been due to a misconception.
On 18 January 1682 he was one of the five aldermen on the committee of defence against the
quo warranto writ brought against the charter of the city of London. On 3 July 1682 proceedings were taken against him by the court for rioting and abetting riots in the city on the occasion of the election of sheriffs in the preceding June, when the lord mayor, a friend of the court, had been roughly handled. On 8 May 1683, Cornish was convicted, and on 26 May was fined. In October 1682 the city whigs desired to choose Cornish as lord mayor; three candidates were nominated for the office, but by the wholesale rejection of votes, Cornish was defeated. He polled only forty-five votes below the successful candidate, although he stood at the bottom of the poll.
John Rumsey, arrested on suspicion of complicity in the alleged
Rye House plot in 1683, was aware of Cornish's unpopularity with the authorities, and offered to produce evidence implicating the alderman in the conspiracy. The offer was not accepted, because no other testimony against Cornish was forthcoming. But Cornish was narrowly watched by the agents of the court, and since he proved himself no more conciliatory to James II than to his brother, it was deemed advisable in 1685 to remove him. Goodenough, an attorney whom Cornish had antagonised by declining to make him his deputy-sheriff in 1680, arranged with Rumsey to corroborate the false testimony with regard to the Rye House plot, and to add evidence proving an attachment for the
Duke of Monmouth. In the middle of October 1685 Cornish was arrested suddenly, and committed to
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey Street just inside the City of London, England, originally at the site of Newgate, a gate in the Roman London Wall. Built in the 12th century and demolished in 1904, t ...
on a vague charge of
high treason. The trial took place at the
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
on Monday, 19 October; Rumsey and Goodenough gave evidence, and Cornish was convicted and condemned to death. Benjamin Calamy attended him in prison. Four days later he was executed in
Cheapside, at the corner of King Street, within sight of his own house. The indignation which he displayed in his speech from the scaffold led enemies to state that he died drunk, but
William Penn, who witnessed the execution, declared that Cornish showed the resentment of an outraged man. After his body had been cut down and quartered it was buried in the church of
St Lawrence by the Guildhall
ST, St, or St. may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Stanza, in poetry
* Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band
* Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise
* Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...
.
On 30 January 1689 an act of parliament was passed reversing the attainder of Cornish. An account of Cornish's trial appeared in 1685; his last speech in the press-yard of Newgate was issued, together with the last words of
Richard Rumbold. ''Remarks on the Tryal of Henry Cornish'', an attack on the judicial procedure at the trial, was written by
Sir John Hawles
Sir John Hawles (1645–1716), of Lincoln's Inn, was an English lawyer and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1689 and 1710.
Early life
Hawles was born in the Close at Salisbury, the second son of Thom ...
, solicitor-general under William III.
References
*
* Old Bailey Proceedings Online
www.oldbaileyonline.org version 8.0, 14 December 2019), Ordinary of Newgate's Account, October 1685 (OA16851023).
* Old Bailey Proceedings Online
www.oldbaileyonline.org version 8.0, 14 December 2019), October 1689 (o16891009-1).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornish, Henry
Year of birth missing
1685 deaths
English merchants
Sheriffs of the City of London
People associated with the Popish Plot
People of the Rye House Plot
Executed English people
17th-century executions by England
People executed by Stuart England by hanging, drawing and quartering
English politicians convicted of crimes