Whitbread was arrested in London on
Michaelmas Day (i.e., 29 September) 1678, but was so ill that he could not be moved to
Newgate until three months later. The house in which he and his secretary Edward Mico (who died in Newgate shortly afterwards) had been lodging was part of the Spanish Embassy in Wild Street, but for whatever reason, there was no claim of
diplomatic immunity, as there was in the case of some other priests. He was first indicted at the
Old Bailey, on 17 December 1678, but the evidence against him and his companions broke down. Oates testified that he had overheard Whitbread and other senior Jesuits plotting to kill the King in late April 1678 in the White Horse Tavern in
the Strand. This was probably garbled second-hand information about an actual Jesuit meeting which was then going on at
Whitehall Palace: but no one corroborated Oates' story, and Whitbread could in good conscience deny the assassination plot, and that he had ever been in the White Horse Tavern. Given the state of public opinion, it was unthinkable to the Government that Whitbread, whom Oates and the other informers had identified as one of the originators of the Plot, should be allowed to escape punishment. Accordingly he was remanded and kept in prison until 13 June 1679, when he was again indicted for
treason, and with four others was found guilty on the perjured evidence of Oates,
William Bedloe and
Stephen Dugdale. The importance of the trial is shown by the fact that it was heard by a bench of seven judges, headed by the
Lord Chief Justice,
Sir William Scroggs, who was a firm believer in the Plot and deeply hostile to Catholic priests. In the circumstances Whitbread could not have hoped to escape, and, although he strongly maintained his innocence, Kenyon suggests that he had resigned himself to death. Certainly the sermon he had preached at Liège the previous year suggests that he expected to suffer the death of a martyr, sooner or later. He was sentenced to be
hanged, drawn and quartered at
Tyburn. The King, who knew that he and his fellow victims were innocent, ordered that they be allowed to die before being mutilated. The well-known story that they were offered a
pardon on the scaffold if they would confess seems to have no substance. The crowd showed that on this occasion its sympathies were with the victims, and it listened in respectful silence as Whitbread and the others made lengthy speeches protesting their innocence. The others executed with him were
John Gavan,
John Fenwick,
William Harcourt and
Anthony Turner. After the execution, his remains, and those of his companions, were buried in
St. Giles's in the Fields. ==Works==