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1 True Copy of a Letter Written by the Lord Viscount Kenmure to a Certain Nobleman the Day before His Execution 1716

handle is hein.trials/tcpyltr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: A true Copy of a LET T E R, Written by the Lord Vifcount K ENM UR E, to a certain No- bleman, the Day before his Execution. My very good Lord, 0 U R. Lordfhip has Interefted your fell fo far in Mine and the Lords ny Fellow-Prifoners Behalf, that I fhould be the greateft Criminal now breathing, fhould I, whether the r,, the Refult of your generous Intercefficn is Life or Death, be negkful of paying my Acknowledgments for that Ad of Compaffion. We have already difcourfed of the Motions-that induced me to take Arms againt the Prince now in Poffeffion of the Throne, when you did me the Honour of a Vifit, three Days fince, in my Prifon here : I fhall therefore wave that Point, and lament my Unhappinefs for joyning with the reft of the Lords in Pleading Guilty, in Hopes of that Mercy which the General Wills and Carpenter, will do us the Juflice to fay, was promifed us by both of them. Mr. Piggot and Mr. Eyres, the t4o Lawyers imploy'd by us, Advifed us to this Plea; the Confequence of which might have given us further Time for looking after the Concerns of another Life though it had ended in the fame Sentence of loofing this, which we now lie under. Though Thanks be to the Divine Majefly, to whofe infinite Mercy as King of Kings, I recommend my felf, in Hopes of Forgivenefs, tho' it thall be my Fait to fail of it here on Earth. Had the Houfe of Commons thought fit to have receiv'd our Petitioin with the fame Candour as Your's has d,e; and recommended us to the Compaffion of the Prince now Reigning, we might then have entertain'd fome Hopes of Life; but the Anfwer from St. 7ames's is tuch, as to make us have little or no Thoughts of it. Under there difmal Apprehenfions then of approaching Diffolution, which I thank my Good God for his holy Guidance, I have made due Prepara- tion for; give me leave to tell you, that howfoever I have been cenfur'd on Account of the Family of the Gordons, which lam an unhappy Branch of, that I have ever liv'd, and will die in the Profeflion of the Proteflant Religion, pradis'd in the Church Govern'd by Bithops; and that I abhor all King killing Dodrines, that are taught by the Church of Rome, as Dan- gerous and Abfur'd : And that though I have joyn'd with fome that have taken Arms, of that Perfwafion, no other Motive but that of Exercifing my Loyalty to the Perfon cll'd the Pretender, whom I firmly believe to be the True Son of the late King James the Second, and in Defence of whofe Title I am now going to be a Sacitfice, has induced me to it. Your Lordfliip will remember the Papers I have left with you, and de- liver them to my Son. They may be ot Ufe to his future Condudt ir Life, when there Eyes of mine are clofed by Death, Which I could have wih'd might have flolen upon me by the ordinary Courfe of Nature, and not by the Hands of an Executioner.

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