Judges' Cave - a hideout for British lawyers who had a hand in the destruction of the monarchy (11 photos)

You live in peace and try to do your job well. And then one day - and you find yourself in voluntary exile and hiding in a cave as a recluse without basic amenities.





Edward Whalley, William Goffe and John Dixwell were among the 59 English judges who pronounced the death sentence on King Charles I. As a result, the monarchy came to an end, and the country was led by Oliver Cromwell.



Charles I

When Charles II, the son of the beheaded monarch, was restored to the throne in 1660, he took brutal revenge on those who had executed his father. The new king issued a decree that every member of that court should be brought to justice, hanged, and then quartered for good measure. To avoid an unenviable terrible fate, Wally, Goff and Dixwell fled to North America.





John Dixwell remained in New Haven, Connecticut. And Wally and Goff moved to Boston. Even far from their homeland, overseas, the judges feared for their lives. Wally and Goff were constantly shaking from tension, which could be noticed by spies and informants. Shortly after their arrival, a warrant was issued for their arrest. And the men joined Dixwell in New Haven, where a colleague lived under the false name John Davids and had already managed to fit into local society.



The local Puritans, for the most part, were supporters of Cromwell, took pity on the fugitives and helped them. At first they were hidden in the house of the Puritan Reverend John Davenport. When this refuge was threatened, Wally and Goff were hidden in the woods in what is now West Rock Ridge State Park.



In this wilderness there is a large rock with several deep crevices. It was here that the fugitives hid for some time, starting on May 15, 1661. The judges ate alms brought to them by kind local residents. The wandering was helped to end by the panther, thanks to which people finally realized that it was not worth taking any further risks. One particularly dark night they fled during the night to Hadley, Massachusetts, where they remained for the rest of their lives.



In honor of the notorious fugitives, the small grotto was called the “Cave of Judges.” The path leading to the cave was given the loud and rather pretentious name “Trail of the Regicides”. Three streets radiating outward from downtown New Haven were named after the judges.



On the west side of the cave there is a tablet with the inscription: “Here on the fifteenth of May, 1661, and for several weeks thereafter, Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe, members of the General Parliament, officers of the army of the Commonwealth, and signers of the death warrant of King Charles the First, found refuge and shelter from officers of the crown after the Restoration. Resistance to tyrants is submission to God, 1896.”