LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685), commonly known as Lady Alice Lisle, was born about 1614, and married John Lisle (d. 1664), a member of Cromwell's House of Lords. On July 20, 1685, a fortnight after the battle of Sedgemoor, the old lady consented to shelter John Hickes, a well-known Nonconformist minister, at her residence, Moyles court, near Ringwood. Hickes, who was a fugitive from Monmouth's army, brought with him Richard Nelthorpe, also a partisan of Monmouth, and under sentence of outlawry. The two men passed the night at Moyles court, and on the following morning were arrested, and their hostess, who had denied their presence in the house, was charged with harbouring traitors. Her case was tried by Judge Jeffreys at the opening of the "Bloody Assizes" at Winchester. She pleaded that she had no knowledge that Hickes's offence was anything more serious than illegal preaching, that she had known nothing previously of Nel thorpe (whose name was not included in the indictment, but was, nevertheless, mentioned to strengthen the case for the Crown), and that she had no sympathy with the rebellion. The jury
reluctantly found her guilty, and, the law recognizing no distinc tion between principals and accessories in treason, she was sen tenced to be burned. James II. allowed beheading to be sub stituted for burning. Lady Lisle was executed in Winchester market-place on Sept. 2, 1685. One of the first acts of parlia ment of William and Mary reversed the attainder on the ground that the prosecution was irregular and the verdict injuriously extorted by "the menaces and violences and other illegal prac tices" of Jeffreys.