Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Appendix · Account 29 – Account 30
¶A note of William Woode.
ACcording as I hauehave sent vntounto you the true recorde of my examination before the Doctors aboue mētioned, so I thougt it not inconuenient to send you likewise certayne uotes of my other two deliueraunces in Queene Maryes time, and this I doe not as God knoweth to get any prayse to my selfe or to reproche any other, but that God may be glorified in his workes, and that our brethrē may knowe that though there be, many times, but little help in earth,Two notable deliuerances of William Woodman. yet that there is more in heauen: About a month after my examination, there was one Apleby and hys wife, that were persecuted from Maydstone in Kent came to my house in Strowde & desired me that he might hauehave a place in my house for him and his wife for a tyme, because persecution was so hote, that hee coulde no longer stay there, and I at his instaunce let him hauehave a place with me, but within a fortnight after the Papists espyed him and complayned of him to the Bishop of Rochester, and the bishop sent his chiefe man called Raphe Crowch, and he caryed him to Rochester before the Byshop & the sayd Apleby stood in the defence of the trueth boldly, and the Bishoppe sent both hym and his wife to the Iayle of Maidstone, and there they were burned for the Testimony of the Gospell of God. And the Friday fortnight after I was in the market at Rochester talking with an other man, and the sayde Raphe Crowch was sent for me and he comming within a stones cast of me where I was talking with my neighbour George Smally, and one William Stanley a papist dwelling also in Strowde, met with the sayd Crowch, and they two talked together a whyle, and I doubted that they talked of me because many times in theyr talke they looked on me, and then the said Raphe Crowch went ouer the streete to an other officer or constable whiche knewe not me, and sent the sayde Constable for me, and comming for me, knowing my neyghbour, George Smally tooke him in the steade of me, and caryed him to the Byshop, and when he came before hym the Byshop sayd to the officers this is not he knaue, thys is not he knaue, and the bishop checked the Mayor & hys officers and sayd that they mocked him, because he caryed the other man for me, suche was the mighty prouidence of God to defend me, and the Mayor the same night sent 40. Billes and menne with other weapons to beset my house to take me, but the Lord kept me from them and deliuered me out of theyr handes, to hym be glory therefore, Amen.
The third time that the Lorde deliuered me was on Easter day next after, I had bene at London all the Lent and on Easter euen at night I came home to Strowde to to my wife, and a childe of three yeares olde tolde one of the neighbours that her father was come home. And on Easter day after theyr popishe euensong was done, came Maister Read Thomas Crowch brother to the abouesaid Raphe Crowch, William Stanley, Thomas Bettes, Lionell Newman and Roger Braunche, with a 60. people or there aboutes and searched my house very straightly for me, but as Gods prouidence was, there was mault a drying vppon the Kell, and they searched so narrowly for me that I was glad to heaue vp a corner of ye hayre wheron the mault lay, and went into the Kell hole, and there stood till they were gone, and so I escaped from them, but within an houre after there came a woman to my wyfe to borrow a brush, and spyed me thorough the key hole of a dore, and she carying tidinges abroad. Immediately came a great company of men and beset my house rounde about, and I said to my wife, you see that these foure men seeke for my life, that is, Maister Read, Thomas Crowch William Stanley, and Thomas Bettes, for I doe thinke that none of the rest will lay handes on me, and therefore I pray thee wife follow these 4. men, and talke lowde to them yt I may heare & so escape, & if they search on ye backe side I may auoyd on ye street side, & be of good comfort for our liues are in Gods hand, and though there be little helpe here on earth, yet there is help enough from heauen; and when these men were searching on the backside, I went into the streete, among as I gesse an 100. people, and none of them layd handes on me, neyther sayde they anye thing to me, so I went out of the towne, & lay there at an honest mans house at the parish of Cobham that night.
And at that same time also two of my neighbours, honest men and of good wealth, the one called Iohn Pemmet a fisherman, the other named Iohn Bayly a glouer, because they came not to theyr popish Church to buy none of their Idolatrous wares, were complayned of to the Iustices, who did binde them to aunswere for theyr fayth before the Iudges at the ascises whiche were holden at midsommer after as I remember at Rochester in ye pallace yard, and there was at that tyme a sayle cloth of a ship tyed to the top of the Byshops Pallace wall to keep away the sonne from the Iudges because it was hote, and the winde blew and shooke the sayle, so that when these two men were called to be examined, and when they shoulde hauehave aunswered, there fell from the top of the wall, 3. or 4. great stones vponupon the Iudges neckes, so that some of thē whiche sate on the Benche were sore hurt and maymed so that they arose sodenly all amased and departed, and the two men were deliuered.
From Tuddenham in Suff. the 25. day of Iuly. 1583. Per me Gulielmum Wood, Vicarium de Tuddenham.
The history of Iohn Alcocke.
THis Iohn Alcocke or Aucock, of whome mention is made before pag. 1561. was a very faythfull and honest man, by his occupation a woad setter, singularly wel learned in ye holy scriptures, and in all his conuersation a iust and righteous man, that feared God, and studyed to do in deed that thing that he had learned in the scriptures. Nowe after that sir Richard Yeaman was driuen away, and the people on sondayes and other dayes came to the Church, and had no man to teach them any thinge (for as yet person Newall was not come to Hadley to dwel, nor had gotten any Curate. Besides that, the lawes made by king Eward were in force, and the latin mumblinges not yet receaued eueryevery where.) Iohn Alcocke therefore tooke the english booke vsed by king Edward, exhorting the people to pray with him, and so red certain prayers in english before them: and moreouer hee gaue them godly lessons and exhortations out of the chapters that he red vntounto them. For this, the Bishoppe of Winchester Steuen Gardiner sent for him, cast him into Newgate at London where after many examinations and troubles, for that he woulde not submitte himselfe to aske forgeuenesse of the Pope, and to be reconciled to the romish religion, he was cast into the lower doungeon, where with euill keeping, and sicknesse of the house he dyed in prison. Thus dyed he a martyr of Christes veritie, whiche hee hartely loued and constantly confessed, and receaued the garland of a well foughten battell at the hand of the Lorde. His body was cast out and buryed in a dounghill, for the Papists would in all thinges be like themselues: therfore would they not so much as suffer the dead bodyes to hauehave honest and conuenient sepulture.
He wrote two Epistles to Hadley, whiche followe here.