On the 14th of July, John Ury was examined, and denied ever having been at Hughson’s, or knowing any thing about the conspiracy; said he never saw any of the Hughsons, nor did he know Peggy Carey.  But William Kane, the soldier, insisted that Ury did visit the house of Hughson.  Ury was again committed.  On the next day eight persons were tried and convicted upon the evidence of Kane and Mary Burton.  The jail was filling up again, and the benevolent magistrates pardoned fourteen Negroes.  Then they turned their judicial minds to the case of William Kane vs.  John Ury.  First, he was charged with having counselled, procured, and incited a Negro slave, Quack, to burn the king’s house in the fort:  to which he pleaded not guilty.  Second, that being a priest, made by the authority of the pretended See of Rome, he had come into the Province and city of New York after the time limited by law against Jesuits and Popish priests, passed in the eleventh year of William III., and had remained for the space of seven months; that he had announced himself to be an ecclesiastical person, made and ordained by the authority of the See of Rome; and that he had appeared so to be by celebrating masses and granting absolution, etc.  To these charges Ury pleaded not guilty, and requested a copy of the indictments, but was only allowed a copy of the second; and pen, ink, and paper grudgingly granted him.  His private journal was seized, and a portion of its contents used as evidence against him.  The following was furnished to the grand jury:—­

“Arrived at Philadelphia the 17th of February, 1738.  At Ludinum, 5th March.—­To Philadelphia, 29th April.—­Began school at Burlington, 18th June.  Omilta Jacobus Atherthwaite, 27th July.—­Came to school at Burlington, 23d January, 1740.—­Saw ——­, 7th May.—­At five went to Burlington, to Piercy, the madman.—­Went to Philadelphia, 19th May.—­Went to Burlington, 18th June.—­At six in the evening to Penefack, to Joseph Ashton.—­Began school at Dublin under Charles Hastie, at eight pounds a year, 31st July, ——­ , 15th October, ——­ , 27th ditto.—­Came to John Croker (at the Fighting Cocks), New York, 2d November.—­I boarded gratis with him, 7th November,—­Natura Johannis Pool, 26th December.—­I began to teach with John Campbell, 6th April, 1741.—­Baptized Timothy Ryan, born 18th April, 1740, son of John Ryan and Mary Ryan, 18th May.—­Pater Confessor Butler, two Anni, no sacramentum non confessio."[250]

On the 21st of July, Sarah Hughson, who had been respited, was put on the witness-stand again.  There were some legal errors in the indictments against Ury, and his trial was postponed until the next term; but he was arraigned on a new indictment.  The energies of the jury and judges received new life.  Here was a man who was a Catholic,—­or had been a Catholic,—­and the spirit of religious intolerance asserted itself.  Sarah Hughson remembered having seen Ury at her father’s house on several