He presided at the trials of the Rye House Plot conspirators, of those implicated in the Popish Plot, and of Richard Baxter, but he is chiefly associated with the Bloody Assizes (1685) that followed Monmouth’s rebellion. Contemporary reports of his brutality may have been prejudiced, but he certainly browbeat witnesses and his sentencing of the 80-year-old Alice Lisle to be burnt for treason caused widespread revulsion. Following the glorious revolution he was imprisoned, but died before proceedings could be taken against him.