constant experience they are found to be that both informer Parliaments and this present Parliament the House of Commons have thrown divers Patentee-Monopolists out of the House as altogether unfit to be law-makers who have been such law-destroyers It had been pure Justice indeed if they had made no exceptions of persons but swept the House of all such and then the King in his Declaration of the 12. August 1642. Book Declar. pag. 516. had not had so much cause too justly to hit them in the teeth with being partiall in keeping Justice Laurence Whittaker c. who the King there saith hath been as much imployed as a Commissioner in matters of that nature as any man And by all the information that I can get or heare of from those that knew him well before the Parliament the King in this particular hath spoken nothing but truth and I am sure and will to his face make it good secundum legem terrae that is by the law of the land but not by the arbitrary law of Committees that his estate and head will not make a sufficient satisfaction to the kingdome for those intolerable In-rodes that he hath made since this Parliament into upon the fundamental and essential liberties privileges and lawes of England Therefore to you my fellow-Citizens the Cloke-men of London I make this exhortation to make a petition to the Parliament to bring him all such Delinquents to condigne punishments which both the most of you and the Parliamēt are bound unto not only by your own interest but also by your protestation c. Book Declar. 156. 191. 278 629. And good encouragement you have from their own Declarations so to doe For there they say Book Decl. 656. The execution of Justice is the very soul and life of the law And pag. 39 they say They are very sensible that it equally imports them as well to see justice done against them that are criminous as to defend the just rights and liberties of the Subjects and Parliament of England And in pag. 497. they say Woe unto them if they doe not their duty Therefore never think that the Parliament will be worse then their words or throw their own Declarations behind their backs and therefore if you want the fruit of them blame your selves for not pressing them to make them good unto you For I am sure it is their own Maxime and saying that of the Parliament there ought not to be thought or imagined a dishonourable thing page 28. and therefore as they would have men to believe the truth of this Maxime so undoubtedly they will be very careful and wary not to do a dishonourable action much lesse to protect visible Delinquents and Offendors amongst themselvs in the great Councel of the Kingdom which were not only a dishonourable action but would justly open all rationall mens mouths not only to think but also to speak dishonourably of them But it may be you will say that your Grandees of London tell you the Parliament will receive no Petitions from a multitude of Citizens unlesse it come through the Common-councel I answer true it is there hath been a very strong report of such a thing in London but roguery knavery and slavery is in the bottome of it for if the prerogative-men of London could once bring you to that they might tyrannize over you at their pleasure ten times more then they do Therefore an enemy to the Liberties of England and London in the highest degree hee is that would perswade you to believe any such thing Yea and I say further he is an enemy to the honour dignity and safety of the Parliament that so doth for this were to destroy the fundamentall freedomes of England which the Parliament themselves cannot destroy being appointed to provide for our weal but not for our woe Book Decl. p. 150 81 179 336 361 382 509 663 721 726. and themselves say pag. 700. that all interests of trusts are for the use of others for their good and not orherwise And punishable is he that shal make the people believe any such thing the Parliament judging it the greatest scandal that can be laid upon them that they either do or ever intended such a thing as to inslave the people and rob them of their liberties and freedomes Book Decl. p. 264 281 494 496 497 654 694 696 705 716. And therefore when the King chargeth it upon them as a crime that they have received Petitions against things that are established by Law they acknowledge it to be very true And further say that all that know what belongeth the course and practice of Parliament will say that we ought so to do and that both our Predecessours and his Majesties Ancestors have constantly done it there being no other place wherein lawes that by experience may be found grievous and burthensome can be altered or repealed and there being no other due and legall way wherein they which are agrieved by them can seek redresse Book Decl. pag. 720. Yea and when his Majesty hits them in the teeth with the great numbers of people that used to come up to Westminster the beginning of this Parliament calling them tumultuous numbers They tell him that they do not conceive that numbers do make an Assembly unlawfull but when either the end or manner of their carriage shall be unlawfull Divers just occasions say they might draw the Citizens to Westminster where many publike and private Petitions and other causes were depending in Parliament and why that should be found more faulty in the Citizens then the resort of great numbers every day to the ordinary Courts of Justice we know not Book Decl. p. 201. 202. And therfore pag. 209. they affirme that such a concourse of people carrying themselves quietly and peaceably as they did ought not in his Majesties apprehension nor cannot in the interpretation of the Law be held tumultary and seditious And therefore up and be doing againe as then you did and also petition for the exemplary punishment of those amongst themselves that have robbed you of your Lawes Liberties Franchises and Trades for besides all that is before named a greater is behinde namely the disfranchising of all you Clokemen of London in giving any vote in chusing your Burgesses for Parliament although I am confident you are above three hundred for one Livery-man and although your Persons and Estates I dare say it have been voluntarily ten times more ready and serviceable in these late distractions to preserve the Parliament and the Kingdome and the lawes and liberties thereof then the Gowne or Livery-men although you be rob'd by them of yours Truly for my part I speake from my soule and conscience without feare I know no reason unlesse it can be proved that you are all slaves vassals why you should be concluded by the determinations orders and decrees of those that you have no vote in chusing for it is a true and just maxim in
Franchises And that they namely the Commonalty have not onely liberty to chuse their Lord Maior and that not onely from amongst the Court of Aldermen but also if they please they may chuse a discreet man from amongst themselves And the Commonalty in every Ward upon a fixed day are inabled once every yeare to chuse an Alderman in every Ward with an expresse Prohibition that one man shall not be Alderman two yeares together And the Commonalty expresly have a power to chuse Chamberlaine common Sergeant Bridge-master c. and to whom alone they are to be accountable for the moneys in their offices received Now having brought this Discourse to this period it behoves me a little to Apologize for my selfe because I beleeve I shall have a whole sea of indignation to arise against me which I heere professe I feare not nor value if I may have faire play and have not my hands and feet bound and then challeng to fight and defend my self And truly I must say and that in the presence of God I have in the singlenesse of my heart without ends of my owne discharged my conscience the boylings of which I could not withstand being at the writing hereof in Jeremies case when he said pleading with God Thy word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my Bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Jer. 20.9 But yet because what-ever I meet with besides I perswade my selfe I am sure to meet with the revilings and reproches of the barking curs of the times such as S. Shipard c. who in my close captivity have nibbled at my heeles like brats of the old Serpent I shall therefore for my present apologie publish to the view of the world the dealings of Mr. Iohn White a Warder in the Tower with me who lately writ a most false and scandalous book against me with much importuning the Lieutenant of the Tower being prohibited Pen Ink and Paper I obtained leave from him upon certain conditions made with him to write an answer to it which was that I should not in the least meddle with his masters that committed me and to let him see it before it was printed which I performed But my Angatonist old Iohn White as it appears to me hearing the Answer was very plain and home English sent me a message by a Gentleman my fellow-prisoner That he desired to put the difference betwixt us to arbitration And I being a man of peace and willing to avoid jangling if it were possible upon agreement to compose it I did chuse two of my fellow prisoners strangers to me and men of opposite principles but knowing the Justice of my cause and being convinced of the morall Justice of the Gentlemen I chose Sir Lewis Dive and Sir William Morton and he chuse Sir John Strangewayes and Sir John Glanvill and the first day of the hearing of the businesse was before Col. Francis West Lieutenant of the Tower at his own house where we both referred our selves to stand to the finall award of our foresaid Arbitrators at which hearing they were pleased to give my Antagonist certain dayes time to procure Witnesses to prove the essentials of his Charge and he out-stripping the time and I lying under his publike disgrace and calumny I pressed them for a conclusion upon which they issued out this following Warrant WE whose names are subscribed Arbitrators indifferently chosen to end all differences betwixt Lieutenant-Colonell John Lilburn of the one party and Mr. John White one of the Warders of the Tower of the other party have appointed to morrow next at three of the clock in the afternoon at Mr. Lieutenants house in the said Tower further to hear and finally to determine the said differences whereof wee desire the said parties to take notice and then to be present with their Witnesses and all such proofe as they will use in the premises Given under our hands this 5. of October 1646. John Glanvill John Strangewayes Lewis Dive William Morton But the next day the Lieutenants office not permitting him to be present at the finall hearing we all met at Sergeant Glanvils Chamber where after a large and faire hearing they made this award under their hands and seales the Copy of which thus followeth TO all true Christian people to whom these presents indented shall come We Sir John Strangewayes Sir Lewis Dive Sir John Glanvill and Sir William Morton Knights Arbitrators heretofore that is to say upon the 26. day of Septemb. last past before the date hereof indifferently chosen by Lieutenant Col. John Lilburn of the one party and John White one of the Warders of the Tower of London of the other party for the ending of all differences and matters of controversie betwixt them having entred into the hearing of the said differences and matters of controversie upon the said 26. day of September and having upon the 6 day of this instant moneth of Octob. 1646. in the 22. Yeare of the Raigne of our Soveraign Lord King Charles fully heard the said differences and matters of controversie Doe find the same to be and arise by and upon the writing and publishing in print of a certain Book entituled John Whites Defence in behalf of himself c. against a lying and scandalous Pamphlet written by John Lilburn entituled Liberty vindicated against Slavery In the 7. p. of which Book to written and published by the said John White he intimateth That the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn was and is the Author of another scandalous Libell entituled An Alarum to the House of Lords and in a Postscript added to the same Book of the said John White pag. the 12 he alleadgeth the said Lieut. Col. John Lilburn to be the Author and contriver of a printed Letter annexed to the said Book or Treatise of Liberty vindicated against Slavery of which Letter hee rehearseth a passage reflecting in a scandalous way upon the honourable houses of Parliament Of which Book entituled John Whites Defence the said John White confesseth and acknowledgeth himself to be the Author and Publisher But the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn denied himself to be in any sort the Writer Contriver Author or publisher of the said other Books Treatise and Letter or of any of them or that he had any hand direction or approbation in or concerning the writing printing or publishing of the same or any of them And the said John White did not at our entring into the hearing of the said differences and matters of controversie nor at any time since produce or offer unto us any sufficient proofs by witnesses or otherwise Wherby it did or might appear unto us That the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn was the Writer Contriver Author or publisher of the said Bookes Letters and Treatise so by him denied as aforesaid or of any of them And the said John White being now offered further time to produce his witnesses or other good proofs which he had to
insist upon for the making good of the severall Imputations in and by his the said John Whites book laid and fixed upon the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn He the said Iohn White absolutely refused to take any further time in that behalf expresly saying hee would travell no more in it We the said Arbitrators upon due consideration of the whole premises aforesaid aâ—e câ—eer of opinion That the said Iohn White as the caâ—e hath been is represented appearing before us had no sufficient ground to write print or publish That the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn was the Writer or Author of the said Bookes Treatise and Letter or any of them But that the said Iohn White in and by his writing pâ—inting and publishing of his said Book entituled Iohn Whites Defence c. in manner and form as aforesaid hath unjustly scandalized the said L. Col. â—ohn â—ilburn And thefore we the said Arbitratâ—â—s do most unanimously â—ward That the said Iohn White shall before the 10. day of this instant moneth of October make a publike acknowledgment before Col. Francis West Lieutenant of the said Tower of London at his the said Lieutenants house in the said Tower That he the said Iohn White hath done the said Lieut. Col. Iohn Lilburn wrong and shal make and pronounce the said acknowledgment in these words following That is to say I Iohn White one of the Warders of the Tower of London Do acknowledge that I have unjustly wronged Lieutenant Col. I. Lilburn in and by my writing and publishing in print in such sort as I did That he was the Writer Author or Contriver of a Book called Liberty vindicated against Slavery And of a Printed Letter thereunto annexed And of a Booke called An Alarum to the House of Lords For all which and for all the unjust and scandalous matters and language alleadged and used by me in my said Booke reflecting upon the said Lieutenant Col. Lilburn I am heartily sorry We the said Arbitrators doe also award That after the said Iohn VVhite hath so made and pronounced the said acknowledgment before the said Mr. Lieutenant Hee the said Iohn White shall then deliver his said acknowledgment in writing subscribed by him the said Iohn VVhite into the custody of the said Lieutenant Colonell Iohn Lilburn to be by him kept and disposed of for his better vindication against the said scandals said upon him by the said Iohn White in his the said Iohn VVhites said Book Lastly we the said Arbitrators do award That this our award shall be a finall end of all differences and matters of controversie whatsoever betwixt the said Lieut. Col. I. Lilburn and the said Iohn White to us or to our award in any wise submitted by the said parties from the beginning of the world unto the day of their said submission to our award so farre as the same doth or may concern the said parties or either of them in their particulars and that the said parties from henceforth shall continue lovers and friends without any repetition of former injuries on either part And for the better clearing of the said Iohn White in his credit touching some rumours of couzenage and perjury by him supposed to be committed or touching his being forsworn lately scattered abroad to his discredit We the said Arbitrators do unanimously declare that we have not found any colour much lesse any just ground to fix upon the said Iohn VVhite any suspition of or for the same or any part thereof But doe thereof in our opinions absolutely cleer him Given under our hands and seales the 7. day of Octob. aforesaid 1646. John Strangwaies Lewis Dives John Glanvill William Morton But the Lieutenant not being willing for causes best knowne to himself that the submission or recantation should be made before or in his presence it was done at Lir John Glanvils chamber the Copy of which thus followeth I John White one of the Warders of the Tower of London Doe acknowledge that I have unjustly wronged Lieut. Col. Iohn Lilburn in and by my writing and publishing in print in such sort as I did that he was the Writer Author or Contriver of a Booke called Liberty vindicated against Slavery and of a Printed Letter thereunto annexed and of a Book or Treatise called An Alarum to the House of Lords For all which and for the unjust and scandalous matters and language alleadged and used by me in my said Book reflecting upon the said Lieut. Col. Lilburn I am heartily sorry and in testimony thereof I have hereunto subscribed my hand the 8. day of October 1646. JOHN WHITE Subscribed pronounced and accepted the 9. day of Octob. 1646 in the presence of us Knights John Strangwaies Lewis Dive Iohn Glanvill William Morton Henry Vaughan Christopher Comport Warder in the Tower And now to conclude at the present because there is not any discourse of mine own abroad in Prinâ— since I was first locked up so close as I was by the Lords in Newgate by way of Narrative to state my case to the world I shall it may bee informe and silence many mens rash censures by inserting first my Wifes late Petition to the House of Commons and because by a Gentleman of the Committee to whom my cause was referred it was judged a Dâ—claration rather then a Petition and so unfit to be insisted upon any further after once reading there although I am not apt to think if I had been a man accustomed to write Letters to my Lord Cottington when he was at Oxford at that time when by Ordinance of Parliament it was little lesse then death so to doe her Petition and my cause would have found more favour from that Gentleman then they did whose cavels necessitated me to send a Petition of my own to the same Committee which I shaâ—l also insert But first of all my wifes Petition thus followeth To the Chosen and betrusted Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in the high and supream Court of PARLIAMENT The Humble Petition of ELIZABETH LILBURNE wife to Lieu. Col. JOHN LILBURNE who hath been for above eleven weeks by-past most unjustly divorced from him by the House of Lords and their tyrannicall Officers against the Law of GOD and as she conceives the law of the Land Sheweth THat you only and alone are chosen by the Commons of England to maintain their Lawes and Liberties and to do them justice and right a a Coll. of decl pag. 264. 336. 382 508 613. 705. 711. 716 721 724 725 726 729. 730. which you have often before God and the World sworn to do b b Coll. decl page â—6â— 6â—â— protestation â— and covenaâ—â— yea and in divers of your Declarations declared it is your duty in regard of the trust reposed in you so to doe c c Coll. decl pag. 81â— 17â— 262 266 267 340 459. 462 471 473 5â—â— 690. without any private aimes personall respects or passions whatsoever d d Col. declar p. 464 490
nature no man can binde me but by my own consent neither do I see how in reason or conscience it can be expected from you to pay any taxes c. but that the whole charge that is layd upon this City should totally be borne by the Aldermen and the Livery men till you be actually put in possession and injoy your equall share in the lawes liberties and freedoms thereof as by the law of nature reason God and the land yea and your own antient and originall Charters the meanest of you ought to do as fully and largely in every perticuler as the greatest of them And now I am upon this theame I will make bold humbly to propound or declare to the consideration of the Parliament an insufferable injury and wrong that is done unto thousands of the freemen of England by vertue of Prerogative Charters and corporations and the restrictive and unjust statute of the 8. H. 6. chap. 7. First by Prerogative Charters the King makes corporations of what paltery Townes he pleaseth to chuse two Burgâ—sses for the Parliament in diver of which a man may buy a Burgesship for 40. or 50. l. and in some of which is scarce 3. legall men to be found according to the Statute of 8. H. 6 7. that is to say men that are worth 40. s. in land by the yeare above all charges and in others of them are scarse any but Ale-house-keepers and ignorant sots who want principles to chuse any man but only those that either some lord or great man writes for and recommends or else one who bribes them for their votes and this undenezing of those Corporations is an undenezing to all the towns and villages adjacent in which live thousands of people that by name are free-men of England and divers of them men of great estates in money and stock which also also are disfranchised and undenezed by the fore-mentioned unrighteous Statute because they have not in land 40. s. per annum and so shall have no vote at all in chusing any Parliament man and yet must be bound by their Lawes which is meer vasalage and besides unrighteous it is that Cornwall should chuse almost 50. Parliament-men and Yorkeshire twice as big and three times as populous and rich not half so many and my poor Country the Bishoprick of Durham none at all and so indeed and intruth are meer vassals and slaves being in a great measure like the French Peasants and the Vassals in Turkie but the more fooles they for I professe for my part I would lose life and estate lived I now in that Country before I would pay 6. d. taxation unlesse it might enjoy the common and undeniable priviledge in chusing as others and all the Countries in England besides do Knights and Burgesses to sit and vote in Parliament the greatest hinderer of which at the present I judge to be old Sir Henry Vane the Vaine and unworthy Lord Lieutenant thereof who hath done more mischiefe to that poor Country by his negligence if not absolute wilfulnesse perfidiousnesse and treachery the discovery of which you may partly read in the 19 20 21. pages of Englands Birth-right and which I understand is likely shortly more fully to be anatomized if he turn not the more honester and juster speedily by them or him that to the death will avouch it then his life and estate can make satisfaction And therefore me thinks it were a great deale of more Justice and Equity to fixe upon the certain number of the men that the House of Commons should consist of at 500. or 600. or more or lesse as by common consent should be thought most fit and equally to proportion out to every County to chuse a proportionable number sutable to the rates that each County by their Bookes of Rates are assessed to pay towards the defraying of the Publique charge of the Kingdome and then each County equally and proportionable by the common consent of the People thereof to divide it selfe into Divisions Hundreds or Wapentakes and every Division of and within themselves to chuse one or more Commissioners to sit in Parliament sutable to the proportion that comes to their share which would put an end and period to all those inconveniencies that rarely happen which are mentioned in the foresaid Statute of the 8. H. 6 7. and restore every free-man of England to his native and legall rights and freedomes Oh! that England might enjoy this peace of pure Justice the which if it do not the free-men thereof may blame themselves But now to return back to the City and its prerogative-Monopolizers who and their predecessors I may justly say have been main and principall Instruments of all Englands woe and miserie as I dare pawn my life upon it cleerly justly and rationally to demonstrate for what hath brought all the present wars upon us but the unjust swelling of the Prerogative beyond the just Bounds of the known and established Law and who hath put the arbitrary commands therof in execution but principally the Monopolizing Citizens as in hundred of particulars might cleerly be evidenced and furnished the King from time to time and year to year with vast sums of money to supply his extravagancies and the extravagancies of his extravagant Courtiers which did inable him to break off former Parliaments at his pleasure and to keep them off so long till this poor Kingdome with oppression and injustice was almost destroyed And sure I am if the King had found none to obey or put in execution his illegall commands our former miseries and these present warres had never been and impossible it would have been for the King to have kept off Parliaments so long as he he did if these men and their predecessors had not been beginning originall and ill presidents illegally from time to time for their own particular ends and advantages to supply his necessities with vast summes of money yea I have heard it from very good hands of solid and substantiall Citizens That after the breaking up of the Parliament in the third of this King the Corporation of MERCHANT ADVENTVRERS freely and voluntarily without any compulsion made a most unjust and England-destroying and inslaving order in their Company TO PAY VNTO THE KING CVSTOMES c. for all their Merchandise contrary unto law and the liberties of England Yea and in affront of the late or most excellent Parliament that had made the Petition of Right by which all royall impositions and levies whatsoever are damn'd and not onely enacted but also declared to be against the Fundamentall lawes of the kingdom and yet I never heard of any of these men whose life and estate was made a just sacrifice there-for although to my understanding they as much if not more deserve it then the Earle of Strafford But contrary to their deserts divers of the Grandees of this very Monopoly and illegall Corporation are become the great Treasurers of the kingdomes money both in the
750. And that you think nothing too good to be hazarded in the discharge of your consciences for the obtaining of these ends e e Coll. declar p. 214. 67. And that you will give up your selves to the uttermost of your power and judgement to maintain truth and conform your selves to the will of God f f Col. decla p. 666. which is to doe justice and g g Ier. 22. â—5 16 17. right and secure the Persons Estates and Liberties of all that joyned with you h h Col. declar 666. 673. imprecating the judgements of heaven to fall upon you when you decline from these ends * * Col. Declar. 4 you judging it the greatest scandall that can be laid upon you that you either doe or intend to subvert the Lawes Liberties and Freedoms of the people i i Col. decla p 264 281 494. 497. 654 694 696. Which Freedoms c. you your selves call The coÌ„mon Birth-right of English-men k k col declar p. 738 14845. who are born equally free and to whom the law of the land is an equall inheritance And therefore your confesse in your Declaration of 23. Octob. 1642. l l Pag. 660. It is your duty to use your best endevours that the meanest of the Commonalty may enjoy their own birth-right freedome and liberty of the lawes of the land being equally as you say intiteld thereunto with the greatest subject The knowledge of which as coming from your own mouthes and Pen imboldned your Petitioner with confidence to make her humble addresse to you and to put you in mind that her husband above 2 moneths agoe made his formall and legall appeal to you against the injustice and usurpation of the Lords acted upon him which you received read committed and promised him justice in But as yet no report is made of his busines nor any relief or actuall justice holden out unto him although you have since found time to passe the Compositions and pardons for the infranchising of those that your selves have declared Traytors and Enemies to the kingdome which is no small cause of sorrow to your Petitioner and many others that her hâ—sband who hath adventured his life and all that hee had in the World in your lowest condition for you should bee so slighted and disregarded by you as though you had forgot the duty you owe to the kingdome and your many Oathes Vowes and Declarations ** ** Decl. 460. 498. 666. 673 which neglect hath hastned the almost utter ruine of of your Petitioner her husband and small children For the Lords in a most tyrannicall and barbarous manner being encouraged by your neglect have since committed her husband for about three weeks close prisoner to Newgate locked him up in a little room without the use of pen ink or paper for no other cause but for refusing to kneel at the Bar of those that by Law are none of his Judges m m Magna â—harta 29 Sir â— Cook 2. 〈◊〉 Instit fol. 28 â—9 Rot. 2. Ed. 3. The cruell Jaylors all that time refusing to let your Petitioner or any of his friends to set their feet over the threshold of his chamber doore or to come into the prison-yard to speak with him or to deliver unto his hands either meat drink money or any other necessaries A most barbarous illegall cruelty so much complained of by your selves in your Petition and Remonstrance to the King 1. Decemb. 1641. n n col declar 6 7 8. and digested and abhorred there by you as actions and cruelties being more the proper issues of Turks Pagans Tyrants and men without any knowledge of God then of these that have the least spark of Christianity Honour or justice in their breasts And then while they thus tyrannized over your Petitioners husband they command as your Petitioner is Informed Mr. Sergeant Finch Mr. Hearne Mr. Haile and Mr. Glover to draw up a charge against your Petitioners husband without giving him the least notice in the world of it to fit himself against the day of his tryall but contrary to all law justice and Conscience dealt worse with him then ever the Star-Chamber did not only in keeping his Lawyers from him but even all manner of Councellors and Friends whatsoever even at that time when they were about to try him and then of a sudden send a Warrant for him to come to their Bar who had no legall authority over him to heare his charge read where he found the Earle of Manchester his professed enemy and the onely party of a Lord concerned in the businesse to bee his chiefe Judge contrary to that just Maxime of law That no man ought to be both party and judge a practice which the unjust Star-chamber it selfe in the dayes of its tyranny did blush at and refuse to practice as was often seen in the Lord Coventries case c. And without any regard to the Earle of Man hesters imment in your House of treachery to his Countrey by Lieu. Gen. Cromwel which is commoely reported to bee punctually and fully proved and a charge of a higher nature then the Earle of Straffords for which he lost his head And which also renders him so long as he stands so impeached uncapable in any sense of being a Iudge And a great wrong and injustice it is unto the kingdome to permit him and to himselfe if innocent not to have had a legall triall ere this to his justification or condemnation And besides all this because your Petitioners husband stood to his apeale to your Honours and would not betray Englands liberties which you have all of you sworn to preserve maintain and defend they most arbitraâ—ily illegally and tyrannically sentenced your Petitioners said husband to pay 4000.l to the King not to the State for ever to be uncapable to beare any Office in Church or Common-wealth either Martiall or Civill and to lie seven yeares a prisoner in the extraordinary chargeable prison of the Tower where he is in many particulars illegally dealt withall as he was when he was in Newgate Now forasmuch as the Lords as they claime themselves to bee a House of Peeres have no legall judgement about Commoners that your Petitioner can heare of but what is expressed in the Statute of the 14 Ed. 3. 5. which are delayes of justice or error in judgement in inferior Courts onely and that with such limitations and qualifications as are there expressed which are that there shall be one Bishop at least in the judgment and an expresse Comission from the King for their medling with it All which was waÌ„ting in the case of your Petitioners husband being begun and ended by themselves alone And also seeing that by the 29 of Magna Charta your Petitioners husbaÌ„d or any other Commoner whatsoever in criminall cases are not to be tried otherwise then by their Peeres which Sir Ed. Cook in his exposition of Magna Charta which book is
printed by your owne speciall authority saith is meant equals fol. 28. In which saith he fol. 29. are comprised Knights Esquires Gentlemen Citizens Yeomen and Burgesses of severall degrees but no Lords And in p. 46. he saith No man shall be disseised that is put out of seison or dispossessed of his freehold that is saith he lands or livelihood or of his liberties or free customes that is of such franchises and freedoms and free customes as belong to him by his free Birth-right unlesse it be by the lawful judgment that is verdict of his Equals that is saith he of men of his own cōdition or by the law of the land that is to speak it once for all By the due course and processe of law And saith he No man shall be in any sort destroyed unlesse it be by the verdict and judgment of his Peeres that is Equals or by the law of the land And the Lords themselves in old time did truly confesse That for them to give judgement of a Commoner in a criminall case is contrary to law as is clear by the Parliaments record in the case of Sir Simon d' Bereford 4. Ed. 3. Rot. 2. the copy of which is now in the hands of Mr. H. Martin they there record it That his case who was condemned by them for murthering King Edw. ◠shall not bee drawne in future time into president because it was contrary to law they being not his Peeres that is his Equals And forasmuch as the manner of their proceedings was contrary to all the former wayes of the law publickly established by Parliament in this kingdom as appeares by severall Statutes o o 5. Ed. 3. ◠25. Ed. 3 4. 28. E. 3. 3. 37. Ed. 3. 8. 38. Ed. 3. 9. 42 Ed. 3. 3. 17. Ri. 2. 6. Rot. parli 43. E 3. Sir Io Alees case Num. 21 22 23 c. lib. 10. fol. 74. in case delar marshalses see Cook 2 part Instit fol. 46. which expresly say That none shall be imprisoned nor put out of his free-hold nor of his franchises nor free customes unlesse it be by the law of the land And that none shall bee taken by Petition or suggestion made to the King or to his Councell unlesse it bee by indictment or presentment of good and lawfull people of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done in due manner or by processe made or by Writ originall at the common-law Which Statutes are nominally and expresly confirmed by the Petition of Right by the Act made this present Parliament for the abolishing the Star-chamber and thereby all acts repealed that formerly were made in derogation of them But contrary hereunto the Lords like those wicked Justices spoken of by Sir Ed. Cook p p 2. Part. Instit 51. in stead of trying her husband by the law of the land proceed against him by a partiall tryall flowing from their arbitrary will pleasure and discretion c. * * Rot. part 2. 1. H. 4. mem 2. num 1.27 Instit f. 51. Book declar 58. 39. 278. 845. For though they summoned him up to their Barre June 10. 1646. to answer a Charge yet they refused to shew it him or give him a Copy of it but committed him to Newgate June 11. 1646. although he behaved himselfe then with respect towards them both in word and gesture meerly for refusing to answer to their Spanish Inquisition-like Interrogatories and for delivering his legall Protestation Their Mittimus being as illegall as their summoning of him and their own proceedings with him Their commitment running To be kept there not till hee be delivered by due course of Law but During their pleasure which Sir Edward Cook saith is illegall q q 2. part instit fol. 52 53. and then locked up close that so hee might bee in an impossibility to understand how they intended to proceed against him Wherefore your Petitioner humbly prayeth to grant unto her husband the benefit of the law and to admit him to your Bar himself to plead his own cause if you be not satisfied in the maner of his proceedings or else according to law justice and that duty obligation that lieth upon you forthwith to release him from his unjust imprisonment and to restain prohibit the illegal arbitrary proceedings of the Lords according to that sufficient power enstated upō you for the enabling you faithfully to discharge the trust reposed in you to vacuate this his illegal sentence and fine and to give him just and honorable reparations from the Lords all those that have unjustly executed their unjust Commands It being a Rule in law and a Maxime made use of by your selves in your Declaration 2. Novemb 1642. r r col declar 723. That the Kings illegall commands though accompanied with his presence doe not excuse those that obey them much lesse the Lords with which the law accordeth and so was resolved by the Judges 16. Hen. 6. s s See Cook 2. part Instit fol. 187. And that you will legally and judicially exexamine the crimes of the Earle of Manchester and Col King which the Petitioners husband and others have so often complained to you of and doe exemplary justice upon them according to their deserts or else according to law and justice punish those if any that have falsly complained of them t t 3. E. 33. 2. R. 2.5 37. E. 3. 18. 38. E 39. 12. R. 2. 11. 17. R. 2. 6. 122. p. M. 3. 1 El. 6. And that you would without further delay give us reliefe by doing us justice v v 9 H. 3. 29 2. E. 3. 8. 5. E 3. 9. 14. E. 3 14. 11. E. 2. 10. All which she the rather earnestly desiteth because his imprisonment in the Tower is extraordinary chargeable and insupportable although by right and the custom of that place his fees chamber and diet ought to be allowed him and paid out of the Treasure of the Crown he having wasted spent himself with almost six years attendance and expectation upon your Honours for justice and raparations against his barbarous Sentence c. of the Star-chamber to his extraordinary charge and dammage and yet never received a peny and also lost divers hundred pounds the yeare he was a prisoner in Oxford Castle for you Neither can he receive his Arreares for the price of his blood his faithfull service with the Earle of Manchester although he spent with him much of his own money And the last year by the unadvised means of some Members of this Honorable House was committed prisoner for above 3. moneths to his extraordinary charges and expences And yet in conclusion he was releast and to this day knoweth not wherefore he was imprisoned For which according to law and justice he ought to receive reparations but yet he never had a peny All which particulars considered doe render the condition of your Petitioner her husband and children to be very nigh