The Three Judges, John Dixwell, William Goffe, and Edward Whalley were brave, noble, strenuous, interesting..men who gave us a wonderful story to tell. I think that what they did was okay but they had a lot of guts to do it. People would say, "They should die, they gave the king the last thing he wantedDEATH!!!!" but that doesn't mean that they didn't have any support. No they had a lot of supporters like the people that hid them, the townspeople in the new world, old friends and just people who thought what they did was wonderful and saved this world. You will find in this report that there are some journal entries of Goffe's; Goffe's journal says he was a nice and gentle man, but his life tells he was a brave man. Now as you start to read this report I will take you back into 1659 and you can see where they went, whom they trusted and what they did. You be the judge tell me would you have done that?
In the year 1659 king Charles the 1 lost his life. People would ask "Why did those silly people betray their king by cutting off his head?" Dixwell, Whalley or Goffe (Known as the three judges) or any of the people who signed the death penalty for the king would have told you: "He tried to rule our beloved home; England without any help from the parliament. And believe us he could not do it." After the king died Oliver Cromwell took over as king, while his cousin Whalley and second cousin once removed Goffe two of the judges, Whalley and his son-in-law Goffe fled across the ocean to Boston on the Prudent Mary in July 1661. The captain of the ship was Captain Pierce. On Monday they sailed and were happy to be away from England. The day after the new king was proclaimed Goffe wrote in his journal " May 13, we kept Sabbath aboard." The ship was very small and it took her ten weeks to get to Boston. Goffe wrote" July 27 we landed between Boston and Charlestown, between eight and nine in the morning. All in good health through the hand of god upon us." When they got to Boston they were around friends of their own political party. Even though they felt comfortable the two judges changed their names to Edward Richardson (Whalley) and William Stephenson (Goffe) because there could be lookouts for the king there. After calling on the governor of Massachusetts Bay colony they went around freely and almost lived a regular life- (except for the fact that they killed someone but they didn't seem to mind) -they went to church on Sundays and watched training days for they were officers in the army themselves. Goffe wrote in his journal, " August 9. We went to Boston lecture and heard Mr. Norton. We went afterwards to his house were we were lovingly entertained with many ministers and found great respect from them." And on the 29" we visited elder frost who received us with kindness and love." Once there was a guy who was challenging anyone to a dual, one of the judges dressed up as a woman and went and took up the challenge and beet the guy in a dual. The guy he beat yelled out "you must be either satin or one of the judges" after that they lived at the house of Major Daniel Gookin in Cambridge for seven months. Gookin was a member of the governor's council. Soon there became trouble for the judges, King Charles the 2 had just become king and Captain Breedon told the king of their whereabouts. When they heard about that the angry judges packed their stuff and went to New Haven, regarding the weather (which was really bad.) I t was a really hard winter. They got to Hartford and were appreciated but went on to New Haven. They got to New Haven in early march. Whalley's sister used to live in New Haven so they had friends there. For three weeks they stayed with the reverend John Davenport who was there friend. John Davenport was born in Coventry England and died in Massachusetts's March 1669/1670 at the age of 53. It is said that the reverend preached for them, " Hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth." Whalley, Goffe, Cromwell and Davenport were all puritans. When the judges heard of a reward to anyone who found them they pretended to go to New York but only went as far as Milford. They stayed in Milford for a day and then crept back to New Haven in the night. They soon went to Milford and stayed there for three years. They came back too new haven and stayed with the reverend again. When they came back they saw Dixwell another one of the judges that signed the penalty, Dixwell had stayed with Henry Whitfield. From then on the three of them stuck together. A royal order came to Boston for their arrest; the governor was obliged to forward it to New Haven. The governor gave it to Thomas Kirk and Thomas Kellond. The people of New Haven heard about the arrest before it got there and they were worried but it was dangerous for them to help the judges. When Davenport heard what the English were doing he sent the judges up to the top of West Rock. A man named Sperry sent his kids with food for the judges on the rock late at night. One night when the judges were asleep they woke up from a strange sound and saw a panther looking curiously at them, they fled to Sperry's house.

Meanwhile Kirk and Kellon had just gotten to the house of William Leetes the governor of New Haven Colony and gave him the royal paper. Leetes took it and read it aloud hoping someone would hear him because he like everyone else in New Haven liked the judges. Kirk and Kellon interrupted him and told him that the letter was too important to read aloud. They then asked for a search warrant and horses to take with them to New Haven. It took a long time to get the horses; there was one delay after another, and the governor said he could not give them the search warrant without consulting with the other judges, but he would write a letter. It took a long time to write the letter, and when both horses and the letter ready it was too late to start that night. The next day was Sunday and nobody was allowed to travel on Sunday in New Haven colony. So the messengers waited impatiently for Monday to come. During that time they heard rumors that the judges had been seen in New Haven, and that Reverend Davenport must be protecting them because he had recently put ten pounds of daily supplies in his house; that made them even more impatient. On Monday they finally got to go to New Haven, a few hours later Governor Leetes followed them-very slowly- and called all the magistrates. It took them such a long time to decide what to do that Kirk and Kellond asked whether they wanted to honor or disobey the king. Leetes answered, " We honor his Majesty, but we have tender consciences." They finally made a decision to search for the regicides but by now Kirk and Kellond were sure it was useless and they left for New York. They were right it was useless; for a Native American runner had come quickly from Guilford on Saturday and the three judges were gone.

Several stories are told of their narrow escapes at this time. One says they were on the Neck Bridge over Mill River on State Street when they heard the horses of there pursuers behind them and had only time to slip under the bridge and lie there hidden while the men rode over their heads. Another tells how a woman hid them in her house, in a closet whose door looked like a part of the wall with pots and pans hung on it. When they left the settlement they took refuge in the wild forest, and most of that summer they lived in a cave in a pile of boulders on the top of west rock. The cave is still there, and is called "Judges' Cave" today. Richard Sperry carried food to them or sent it with one of his boys, and sometimes on very stormy nights they crept secretly down and stayed with him. Once in June, they went back to New Haven and offered to give themselves up to save their friends, if necessary, and arranged that Governor Leetes would always know were to find them. Most people thought they had left the colony altogether, but they were in their cave on the rock, or in some other hiding place in the deep woods. Rewards were still offered for them and they dared not venture out. They called West Rock "Providence Hill" because god had provided for them there. And now these three men, who had led stirring, active lives in England, lived in a great loneliness and silence, with no friends near them, no sounds but the distant crashing of a tree, or the wind sighing in the forest branches. There were prowling Native Americans and prowling beasts. In August when the search for them was pretty much over they went to Milford. They stayed there very secretly for three years, until, in 1664, there was danger of another search being made. They went back to their cave on the rock; but it was no longer a safe place for them because some Native Americans in their hunting discovered the cave with the bed. Their friends made a different plan for their concealment.

The exiles set out on another long journey. They traveled only at night, stopping and hiding in the daytime. The trail they followed led them up the valley of the Connecticut River, beyond Hartford and far into the north, until they got to what is now known as Hadley Massachusetts. This was then one of the farthest settlements in the wilderness and very remote and very lonely. Reverend John Russell, the minister there, gave them shelter and took care of them. There was a cellar under a part of his house, and, by taking up some loose boards in the floor above it, they could drop down into it quickly if visitors came unexpectedly. In spite of the danger for himself Mr. Russell kept them safe for twelve or fifteen years. A few friends wrote to them or sent them money, but no one else in the world knew what happened to them or if they were still alive. There is a famous story of one of the regicides in Hadley. Once, it says, in King Phillip's War the Native Americans attacked the place. They burst out of the woods and rushed upon the settlement on a Sunday while everyone was at church. Terror stricken and thrown into confusion by the sight of the yelling savages, the people of Hadley were helpless. All at once, an unknown man with whitening hair and strange garments appeared in the midst of them and took command. He led them out against the Native Americans and drove them back into the forest. As soon as he had come, the hero of Hadley disappeared. No one ever saw him again, and the people thought he must have been an angel God had sent them. Long afterward they heard that what they thought was an angel was really General Goffe.

There is not much more to tell about the judges. Dixwell left and went to New Haven. No search was ever made for him because everyone thought he had died in Europe. Every one in New Haven knew him as Mr. John Davis; it was only on his deathbed that he allowed people to call him by his real name. His house stood on the corner of Grove and College streets; he married and had several children. He was a great friend of Reverend James Pierpont.

Whalley is an old man now, and Goffe wrote to his wife, who was Whalley's daughter, "Your old friend" (he dared not say her father, and he signed himself Walter Goldsmith instead of William Goffe) " is yet living, but continues in a very weak condition and seems not to take much notice of anything that is done or said, but patiently bears all things and never complains of anything. The common and very frequent question is to know how he doth and his answer for the most part is, ' Very well I praise god,' which he with a very low and weak voice."

After Whalley died, Goffe left Hadley and went to Hartford. We did not know much about him there. We know that he was still an exile with a price on his head and still hiding. In one of his letters he says to a friend, "Dear Sir, you know my trials are considerable, but I beseech you not to interpret any expressions in my letters as if I complained of gods dealing with me." His family in England had moved and he didn't know there address or how to reach them, and in April 1679 he wrote to a friend, "I am greatly longing to hear from my poor desolated relations, and whether my last summer letters got to them." What answer he received, whether he heard from we can never really tell. For here is where their amazing story ends. You can still go up west rock and see the " Judges Cave" and see where they lived.

~Nina Fiellin