3-057-463 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The 'Monmouth Roll', 1685. The 'Monmouth Roll' is a return made by local constables in Somerset, Devon and Dorset of those people suspected of joining the rebellion of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II, against the Roman Catholic James II, in 1685. Shown here is the beginning of the Somerset returns, with the names of suspected rebels in 'Killmersdon' (ie Kilmersdon), Chewton and Milverton. This document was intended to assist the prosecution of rebels at the 'Bloody Assizes' of Judge James Jeffreys at which more than 300 rebels were sentenced to death and hundreds more condemned to transportation as slaves to the West Indies.