William Disney, the printer of the treacherous 1685 Declaration of James, Duke of Monmouth

Faithless I proved to my Prince and Nation,

Printing a most Rebellious Declaration:

By which foul Fact I wrought my overthrow,

Let all beware that they may not do so.

My Head upon the Bridge must surely stand,
Because I was a Traytor to my Land:
Upon the Gates they'l set my Quarters too,
For doing what I was forbid to do.

William Disney - seemingly a "barrister at law" of the "Citty of West Minister" - was charged with high treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on Kennington Common in London on 29 June 1685. His head and quarters were displayed on one of London's city gates.

Why? His home, and business premises, had been raided by King James II's troops on 15 June where they found a printing press, along with 750 partially complete copies of the Duke of Monmouth's Declaration, and five which were fully complete. These were all burned before the Royal Exchange, apart from one copy which is shown below (it's from the Lansdowne MSS in the British Museum.)

When Monmouth and his rebels first landed at Lyme Regis on 11 June, his Declaration was publicly read at the market cross, at Taunton on 20 June ("where he suffered himself to be proclaimed king") and probably at numerous other places too during his six week rebellion in south west England. 

Disney had form. Around 1680 he had gone to some lengths to prove that Monmouth, who was the first born son of King Charles II, to Lucy Walter, was in fact legitimate and was therefore the rightful heir to the throne. Disney had been implicated in the failed 1683 "Rye House Plot" to kill King Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, who became King James II.

The real King?
The Declaration refused to acknowledge that King James II was king at all, referring to him by his prior title of Duke of York and denouncing him as a usurper. 

One of Disney's colleagues in the printing operation was printer John Bringhurst (article here) who managed to escape to the Netherlands. Another was Henry Danvers (Wikipedia here). The project seems to have been masterminded by "W. C." of Paternoster Row, a prolific London printer of the era.

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• Here is an online edition of the published True Account of the Behaviour and Confession of William Disney Esq. Text edition is online here.

• Oxford DNB entry for William Disney is online here.

• The Declaration of James, Duke of Monmouth is online here.

• An analysis of the 1685 Declaration of James, Duke of Monmouth, and how it compares with the 1688 Declaration of William Prince of Orange is online here.

(top image from the English Broadside Ballad Archive)