THE Bloody Innkeeper, OR Sad and Barbarous News from : BEING A True Relation how the Bodies of seven Men and Women were found Murdered in a Garden belonging to a House in Putley near Gloucester.  
With the strange and miraculous manner how the same was discovered by a Smith that lately took the House, digging to set up his Anvil, and finding a Knife in one of the Bodies.  — Nec Hospes ab Hhspite Tutus. 
London, Printed with Allowance, 1675.   

The Bloody Innkeeper, OR Sad and Barbarous News from .  
BEING A true Relation how the Bodies of seven Men and Women, were found Murdered in a Garden belonging to a house in Putley near Gloucester.  
I Shall not, like too many of our modern Pamphleteers, nauseate the Reader with a tedious, or Impertinent Preamble, let it ●herefore (to awake his attention) suffice to say, ●●at the sad and Tragical Relation, I am hear ●o give him, is no less remarkable for its certainty, than its Bloody Cruelty, and equally most true, and most Barbarous, the Circumstances being thus.  
Some years ago a person that had served as a Soldier in Cromwel's Troop, being after our present Sovereign's most happy restoration, had put a Period to the necessity of those chargeable standing forces disbanded, and having Married a Scotch woman, whilst he resided in that Nation, and brought her with him into England, they took a small House situated in a village called Putley on the Road between Glocestor and Bristol, and therein sold Drink, and Entertained Passengers and Travellers, that had occasion to lie there as a little Inn, and particularly his Wife being a Scot as aforesaid, divers Persons of that Nation who usually Travel from thence into England with Scotch Cloth and other commodities, resorted thither, and chose rather to Lodge there than elsewhere, for her sake, as being their Countrywoman;  
But their Custom being but now and then for a night or two, and their Trade otherwise very small and inconsiderable, their House standing in a place out of the way, where no great Guests could be expected, all their Neighbours concluded that if they could but live, and keep even with the world, it was as much as they could hope for, but contrary to all expectations, they began to thrive amain, furnishing their house rarely well with all sorts of Household goods, and convenient Utensils, and having money on all occasions to lend his Neighbours at a pinch, which all that knew them much admired at, as being sensible that very few years before, when they first came thither, they were very poor and necessitous, and which way they should increase their stock so well, they could not Imagine, for the Man being of a fair plausible carriage, and making large pretences of honesty and just dealing, they had not the least suspicion or mistrust of the unhappy truth, that this spring tied of Fortune was swelled with blood, and his Gains taked together with the Barbarous hands of Robbery and Murder.  
Indeed Fortune is only the Imaginary Goddess of fools, there is nothing really happens without its means and  causes, when we see the hand move on a Dyal, reason tells us there must be some wheels and springs within (though unseen) which produce that motion: Solomon assures us that he that is hastily rich, is really innocent, those that from nothing on a sudden heap up great estates, without any visible trade or way to obtain them, give us grounds to suspect they take some indirect courses, and tread by-paths no way justifiable.  
After this person whose name I forbore, merely that I may not seem to prejudice him, before the Law passes on him, had remained some years in this little House, he sound himself so well furnished with money, that he resolves to take a greater, and accordingly settled himself very Comodiously and completely in all respects in a large Inn near the City of Gloucester, sometime after which a Smith happening to hire the said house he went out off for the conveniency of his Trade, was forced to erect a small shed, to serve as a shop on part of the Garden belonging thereunto, and digging pretty deep to see't up his Anvil, which requires a good foundation that it might stand fixed and steady, he found the bones and part of the fl●sh of a man buried there, the sight whereof strangely surprised and affrighted him, and caused him to acquaint his Neighbours therewith, who upon serious consultation about it, advized him to dig further thereabouts, offering him their assistance therein, which being done, they in short time found the Skeletons or Bones of seven several persons, the bodies or flesh of them were much consumed, yet some of them had certain remnants of woollen and linen Garments remaining, whereby it might be perceived that they were buried there in their .  
Strangely various were the People's Censures and apprehensions of this sad accident, as not knowing on whom to fix the guilt of so much Inhuman Barbarousness, for it plainly appeared that these persons must be Murdered and Interred there for concealment, at last just Heaven, whose purer eyes could not suffer such villainy to escape unpunished, wonderfully opened a way to the discovery, for as they were viewing more narrowly the bones and corpse, and removing the earth and rubbish to behold them the plainer, they perceived a Knife Stuck in by the Blade bone of one of their breasts, which being taken up and scoured from the rust, they found thereon engraven the name of a man who owned it, which together with divers other Circumstances being considered, the Neighbourhood had violent suspicions of him who had been the Author of all these horrid Murders.   
FINIS.