A Collection of Letters and other writings, Relating to The Horrid Popish Plott. Parts 1 & 2

Pamphlets disbound. Good margins. Leaves are generally clean with the odd stain and mark. Please see the slideshow on our website in order to gain a better appreciation of the contents and condition.

Sir George Treby JP (1643–1700), of Plympton, Devon, and of Fleet Street in the City of London, was Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and six times Member of Parliament for the Rotten Borough of Plympton Erle, Devon.

In March 1677 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Plympton, over which pocket borough his family exerted considerable power. He was re-elected for both the February and August Parliaments of 1679, and again in 1689 and 1690. In Parliament Treby focused on subjects such as the wool trade, and other topics which concerned Devon. Treby acted as chairman of the Committee of Secrecy dedicated to investigating the supposed Popish Plot revealed in November 1678 by Titus Oates. In June 1679 proposals were discussed for Treby to be elected Speaker of the House of Commons, but were not acted upon as he was so short sighted as not to be able to distinguish between different MPs. He failed to be elected Chairman of the Committee of Elections and Privileges in 1679, but in 1680 was named to the committee investigating people who had promoted the ‘abhorrences’ of petitions to King Charles II for summoning parliament. He became Chairman of the Elections Committee and continued to investigate the Popish Plot, helping introduce the second Exclusion Bill to Parliament.

In December 1680 he was one of the lawyers trying William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, the first peer to be arrested as part of the Popish Plot. At about the same time he was appointed Recorder of London and was knighted on 22 January 1681. In February 1681 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for London and Devon. He was again elected MP for Plympton in April 1681 for the Third Exclusion Parliament, and helped to introduce the Third Exclusion Bill. He disclosed information gained about the Popish Plot from Edward Fitzharris, intending to impeach him and thereby to gain more information about the other conspirators. Following the dissolution of the Third Exclusion Parliament and after any information revealed was no longer a threat to the King, Fitzharris was charged with treason. Along with Sir Francis Winnington and Henry Pollexfen, Treby went to court to try to prevent the execution of Fitzharris, his most important witness. The argument was that the Court of King’s Bench could not try Fitzharris as he was currently being prosecuted by Parliament; to do so would be to move the case from a higher court to a lower one. The argument was thrown out as the dissolution of Parliament meant that the impeachment case had effectively ceased, and Fitzharris was executed shortly after. After his execution Fitzharris’s alleged confession was published by Francis Hawkins, in which it was claimed Treby and others had attempted to pressure him into giving false testimony. Treby is thought to have published Truth Vindicated to defend himself.