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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91211	The lyar confounded, or A briefe refutation of John Lilburnes miserably-mistated-case, mistaken-law; seditious calumnies, and most malicious lyes against the High Court of Parliament, the Honourable Committee of Examinations, Mr Speaker, with other members of the Commons House; and Mr William Prynne; wherewith he hath seduced many ignorant overcredulous people. Manifesting the Parliaments extraordinary clemency towards him, their justice in their commitment of, and proceedings against him; for which he so ingratefully and falsely taxeth them, with tyranny and injustice / By William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P4002; Thomason E267_1; ESTC R212413	54,867	55

Law or Iustice executed the summons being ever the first proces and meanes to bring men to appeare before the Officers of Iustice who are to examine their misdemeanors complained of and so to informe them of them when they appeare and if men should know their particular accusers or accusations before their summons it would be a meanes First to make the Delinquents fly or hide away to avoyd the hand of Iustice if they could possibly make escapes Secondly to corrupt the Informers and witnesses that should prosecute to smother or ex●enuate theeir crimes Thirdly to furnish the Delinquent with premeditated answers and evasions and so introduce a totall subversion or pervertion of Iustice All which inconveniences a generall summons which the Lawes provide and allow of prevents In few words a summons to appeare without an actuall attachment of the person summoned is no imprisonment no outing of any man of his freehold lands goods franchises no sentence passed against him Therefore clearely no proceedings at all within the words or intent of Magna Charta or the Petition of Right as this New Lawyer out of his deep ignorance hath most magisterially resolved being one of those unintelligent Lawyers that St Paul speaks of 1 Tim. 1. 17. Desiring to be Teachers of the Law understanding neither what they say nor what they affirme These Premises make way for proofe of the second Conclusion to wit That the Committees sending for Lilburne in custody upon new information of the Stationers against him for printing his libellous Answer given in to them contrary to their expresse Order with scandalous marginall Notes and other schismaticall seditious Papers contrary to Law and severall Ordinances of Parliament is agreeable to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right not any wayes repugnant to them For the clearing whereof to the very meanest capacy we must distinguish between a warrant to apprehend a man in nature of a processe or attachment and the commitment of a man to a prison goale or Messenger upon his examination after an apprehension or attachment In the first of these a generall warrant made to a Sheriffe Constable Messenger or any other inferiour Officer upon a precedent particular information or vehement suspition is and ever was reputed just legall without expressing the name of the Accuser or particulars of the Accusation in the warrant For example If an information be given in to the Lord Maior of London or to the Chiefe Iustice of England or any Iustice of Peace that any particular person hath committed or is suspected to be guilty of such a Murther Robbery Treason Trespasse or offended any penal Law the breach whereof they have power to examine there is nothing so ordinary in daily practice and experience as to send a warrant to the Sheriffe Constable or other under Officer to apprehend and bring the party accused or suspected before them to answer such things as shal be objected against him The like is done daily in all Courts of Iustice upon complaint of Misdemeanours in and by both Houses of Parliament their Committees and Sub-Committees and hath been done of late in many thousand persons cases who neither did nor could of right so much as once complain of the breach of Magna Charta And I appeale to Iohn Lilburn or any other Officer or Souldier in our Armies whether the General Councel of warre and other Officers doe not every day almost upon complaints send for Souldiers and others in custody and apprehend them by the Marshall sometimes by a warrant in writing sometimes by a meere verball command without acquainting them before hand with the Accusers name or his particular accusation but only in generall termes to answer such things as are or shall be objected against them and did ever any Souldier yet complaine that this was tyranny injustice in their Generall the Counsell of warre their Officers or contrary to Magna Charta the Petition of Right and the Liberty of the Subject for which they fight What ground then hath this clamorous Libeller to raile against the Parliament or Committee of Examinations for sending for him in custody upon a precedent true just and vi●●ble complaint even the printing of these libellous Papers conttary to their expresse Order the priviledges of Parliament and Ordinances against unlicensed printing which inflict in this case imprisonment by this very Committee with other penalties upon such offenders Certainly none at all but only his owne seditious malignant venomous rankor against the Parliaments justice But certainly if others yet he of all men had least cause to complaine thus in this case because though the warrant was to bring him in custody yet he was not brought thither in custody as other prisoners ate but only summoned to appeare and that upon a more particular warrant then others expressing in generall termes the cause for which he was sent for and when he came he was neither committed to any prison nor forced to put in Baile nor deteined in the Messengers custody as a prisoner but remained with him one night at his free liberty as a friend and paid no fees nor any thing for his diet and lodging as the Messenger himselfe will depose And was this sending for an infringement of Magna Charta and the Lawes of the Land Certainly if it were it was only in his favour that he was not according to the Law of the Land Magna Charta and the severall Ordinances concerning printing presently committed to some Goale or other for his seditious Libels and Lies and there detained as he hath been since This case of summons and attachment by vertue of a generall warrant being cleare out of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right the sole question will be What commitment and imprisonment that is which is against Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and whether Lilburnes was such a commitment This will best appeare by the very Petition of Right it selfe and the originall case and votes in Parliament which were the grounds and occasion of this Petition The case was only this Divers eminent Gentlemen of the Kingdome in the third yeare of King Charles were sent for by Pursevants before the Lords of the Councell for refusing the loane of moneyes then set on foot contrary to divers Statutes and by them committed to severall prisons sundry monthes without expressing any cause of their commitment in the warrant And when for their deliverances they brought their Habeas corpus in the Kings Bench the Iaylors certified no cause of their deliverance or commitment but only the Kings speciall Command signified by the Lords of his privy Councell yet the Iudges would not bayle but remaunded them to prison Hereupon in the next Parliament complaint was made that this imprisonment and detaining of them in prison only upon the Kings bare Command without any other cause expressed was against Magna Charta and other Statutes and the Iudges remanding of them to prison upon such a generall

warrant illegall And after a long and sound debate of the businesse it was thus unanimously resolved in the Commons House 3 April 4. Car. Regis and afterwards A Conference had by a Committee o●●oth Houses concerning the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject 3 April 4 Car. printed 1642. p. 66. consented to by the Lords 1. Resolved upon the Question That no Free-man ought to be detained or kept in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King or the Privy Councell or any other unlesse some cause of the commitment detainer or restraint bee expressed for which by Law he ought to bee committed deteined or restrained 2. That the Writ of Habeas corpus may not be delayed but ought to bee granted to every man that is committed or deteined in prison or otherwise restrained though it be by the Command of the King the Privy Councell or any other he praying the same 3. That if a Free-man be committed or detained in prison or otherwise restrained by the Command of the King and Privy Councell or any other no cause of such commitment detainer or restraint being expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed deteined or restrained and the same to be returned upon a Habeas Corpus granted for the said party then he ought to be delivered or bayled These Votes and the Lords concurrence with them begat the Petition of Right after many dayes debate which thus states the Subjects grievance in this particular First it recites Magna Charta c. 29. and 28. of Ed. 3. That no Free-man should be taken or imprisoned without being brought to answer by due processe of Law and then proceeds thus Neverthelesse against the Tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws and Statutes of your Realme to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed And when for their deliverance they were brought before your Justices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas corpus there to undergoe and receive as the Court should order and their keepers commanded to certifie the causes of their detainer no cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesties speciall Command signified by the Lords of your Privy Councell and yet were returned back to severall prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the Law Whereupon they pray in this Petition That no Free-man in any such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or detained To which the King subscribed this Answer Let Right be done as is desired Now what is this to Lilburns case Who was not now committed to prison by the Committee without any cause expressed but only sent for in custody to come before the Committee as these Gentlemen were sent for by Pursevants to come before the Privy Councell to answer to such things as should be objected against them which sending for was never so much as once complained of in Parliament as a breach of the Great Charter or Subjects Rights but admitted to be legall Had the Parliament or Committee sent Lilburne then to Newgate without expressing any cause of his commitment in the warrant and he had brought a Habeas corpus in the Kings Bench to be bayled as these Gentlemen did and then no cause of his commitment or detainer had been returned but only the Committees pleasure if thereupon hee had been remanded perchance then he might have had some colour to complaine of injustice and breach of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right But the Committee not so much as then proceeding against him so farre as to commit him but only sending for him in custody and permitting him to goe at large upon his appearance without baile only upon his bare word to attend them when he should be summoned how this can be brought within the compasse of Magna Charta or the Petition of Right as a breach of both or either transcends my understanding and all other Lawyers but himselfe I am credibly informed that this upstart monstrous Lawyer since he was called to the Barre at Newgate where he now practiseth hath the Book of Statutes there lying open before him which he reads and interprets to all the poore ignorant people that visit him telling them that he will in a few dayes make them understand the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme as exactly as any Lawyer in the Kingdome Belike he keeps now his Reading in that Inne of Court and will be a Serjeant at Law or a Iudge very shortly since he hath commenced a Reader of Law in so short a space But I shall beseech his Readership to resolve this Mootpoint against what clause of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right his sending for in custody by the Committee of Examinations is and what coherence there is in this his Argument No man ought to be detained or kept in prison upon a Habeas corpus returned in the Kings Bench unlesse some legall cause of his commitment be returned upon the Writ because it is contrary to Magna Charta and so resolved in the Petition of Right Ergo the Committee of Examinations in sending for John Lilburne in custody to examine him for his printing divulging Libels contrary to the Common Statute Law and Ordinances of Parliament without any commitment of him or any Habeas corpus brought or returned is contrary to Magna Charta and so resolved in the Petition of Right When all the wise men of Gotham Colledge can make this argument Sense or Reason it may passe for Law among the vulgar Separatists till then it deserves no other censure but this that it is only John Lilburns Newgate Law Yea but he hath something more to say against the Commons House though not against the Committee of Examinations in this point which is contrary Object as he conceives and it is but his conceit to the true intent of Magna Charta And what is that forsooth he was by the forementioned Vote of the House of Commons on the 19 Iuly 1645. upon Dr Bastwicks Paper only which the Doctor hath sufficiently clea●ed to bee a meere Lye and sland●r to defame him ordered to be forthwith taken into custody by the Serjeant at Armes attending that House and so kept till the House took further order by meanes of which Vote he was committed to prison to his custody only before he was ever heard speak This forsooth is the grand breach of Magna Charta so much declaimed against in his Letter to a Friend and since seconded in another most seditious printed paper entituled The Copy of a Letter from an Utter Barrister to his speciall friend concerning Lievtenant Colonell Lilburnes Imprisonment there justified to be illegall and against Magna Charta I answer and averre that this Commitment of his by the House of Commons was most just and necessary if the occasion and ground of it be considered Answ Iohn Lilburne had that very

examined before they ever acquaint them with their Accuser or Accusation or heare them speake one word in their own behalfe yet none ever deemed these ordinary proceedings of theirs either Arbitrary Tyrannicall or Illegall contrary to Magna Charta or the Subjects Liberties but most iust And shall not the Parliament the supremest Court have as great a liberty and power thus to summon and attach men upon informations against them onely to answer their Accusations when ripe for Examination as the meanest Iustice of the Peace doth dayly ex●rcise without exceptions How many thousands have the Lord Mayor of London the Courts of Guard and Committee of Examinations sent sor attached and restrained thus for a short space of their liberty till they could be examined before ever they knew their Accuser or Accusaton or could be brought to publike examination and yet not one of them ever made such an horrid outcry against the Legality of their proceedings as this Ignoramus who understands the Law and Magna Charta no more then a Iack-daw as one once said of a doting Lawyer But to proceed to his other falsehoods Page 7. he writes That during his imprisonment at Oxford he was ruined in his estate to the value of six or seven hundred pounds which he left behind him at Londō which he can clearly make appeare Which he likewise recites in two other printed papers This certainly is as grosse a lye as any of the former For his best and neerest friends will attest he was never worth halfe so much and the maine reason why he left the City and went into the Parliaments Forces was not so much for any good affection to the Parliaments cause as to protect himselfe against his Creditors arrests for these many debts which he incurred by renting of a Brew-house which both himself and his Father oft times told me when they repaired to me for advice in Law concerning it had quite undone and broke both himselfe and his friends who stood ingaged for him And this Libeller himself Pag. 5. insinuates as much complaining for want of recompence for his imprisonment TO PAY HIS DEBTS and buy him and his bread So that he was as much or more beholing to the Parliaments Service for protecting him from the arrests and executions of his Creditors as they were to him for any of his good services the praise whereof he hath now utterly lost and blemished by his evill Libellous and Seditious attempts against them Pag. 16. He most scandalously and falsely avers That many of the House of Commons tooke to themselves 3. l. 10. s. a weeke and some of them more and others of them great places worth 500 l. 1000 l. 1500 l. 2000 l. and more per annum and live in as great pompe superfluity and bravery as ever they did in their daies by the ruine of the Common-wealth when as thousands who have spent all they have in the world and done the Kingdome good service have not a bitt of bread to put in their mouthes c. This is a most notorious Lye the Lords and Commons having removed all their Members by a speciall Ordinance from all the Offices conferred on them by the Parliament though well deserving and fit to mannage them And when this slanderer shall make good this false charge by sufficient witnesses against any particular Members guilty of it he shall receive a fuller answer Page 5. He complaines that the Parliament and House of Commons who formerly owned him having served their turnes of him hee could never have Justice from them though he hath been as faithfull a friend to the Common-wealth as ever any they imployed And whereas Magna Charta saith Justice and Right we will deny to none we will deferre to none yet have I waited these foure yeares upon them at great expences and cannot get them to put their Votes in execution And now of late I have followed them about this six moneths to the expence of about 100 l. to get a Petition read that I might have justice and reparation but have been denied Justice and Right and could not get my Petition read which he ingeminates inculcates in sundry other pages To which I answer that it appeares by the next preceeding words that the Parliament served his turn first not he theirs First By inlarging him out of Prison and restoring him to his Liberty Secondly By hearing his cause and Voting his sentence in the Star-Chamber illegall and that he ought to have reparations Thirdly By saving him from an arraignement for his life before the whole House of Peeres about the Earle of Strafford when the King himselfe sent in an Accusation against him Aug. 4. 1641. for his seditious carriage To which he might have added and doth elsewhere relate a fourth by saveing his necke from the Gallowes at Oxford and purchasing his release by an exchange from thence to which I contributed my owne best assistance But did the House ever imploy him in any publike service to serve their turnes Surely never for ought I could learne and if they had they should have heard of it to purpose in this Letter What an ungratefull lying Merchant then doth he shew himselfe thus ill to requite the House of Commons for this their extraordinary favours to use such scandalous false speeches and Libellous invectives against them that having served their owne turnes of him he could never have Iustice from them since c. Yea but he hath waited above foure houres space and can have no reparations for his losses according to their Votes But is this the House of Commons fault Have they been backewards to doe him right or rather hath not he beene negligent and wanting to himselfe in procuring a transmission of his cause to the Lords without whose concurrence his sentence cannot be reversed nor his dammages ascertained and repaired Surely it is very well knowne to the world that my owne Sufferings Imprisonments Losses transcended his by many degrees and that the Commons Voted me Reparations and Dammages for them long before they passed their Votes for him that never yet received one farthing recompence for all my Losses Dammages eight yeares Imprisonment Exile the losse of my calling and estate in any kinde whatsoever though I presume I have done far greater more and better Services for the State Church Parliament then ever he performed for them Yet did I never complain either of or against the Parliament for breach of Magna Charta in not doing or delaying to do me Right or Justice neither had I just cause to do it since the weightier publike affaires of three bleeding Kingdomes Churches and our Bloody Wars and Schismes in all three have ingrossed all their time thoughts and deprived them both of vacancy opportunity and since of present meanes to right me in this kind in these necessitous times The like I might say of my Dear Fellow-sufferers Doctor Bastwicke Mr. Henry Burton Mr. Peter Smart Dr. Leighton Mr. Walker and

and put themselves upon the trial of the Country the law of the Land deemes it such an high contempt against justice that presently without further triall or evidence of their guiltinesse they are for this their obstinacy and contumacy * See Brookes Abridgment ti● Paine and Penance adjudged to be prest to death in the most painful manner far worse then any hanging because their contempt in not answering is in Law a greater offence then that for which they stand indited as obstinacy in any sinne is worse then the sinne it selfe And in case they answer not guilty and so come unto their legall triall the Iudge Iustices and Iury somtimes doc usually strictly examine and interrogate them again as well as the witnesses touching the particular Treasons and Felonies whereof they stand indited and oft times when witnesses fayl or prove short finde them guilty and hang them by their own examinations and confessions at the Barre or at their apprehension If then Iudges and Iustices may proceed thus to examine Traytors and Felons themselves in their own cases in capital crimes which concern their very lives and estates without violating Magna Charta or any other Law may not the House of Commons then much more appoint the Committee of Examinations to interrogate Lilburn concerning his * See p. 6 7 8. forementioned speeches and Letter without any infringement of Magna Charta or the Subjects Liberty which protect no man against such legall examinations There was never any Traytor or other grand Delinquent to my knowledge committed by the Parliament Privy Councell or others to the Tower or any other prison but was once at least if not twice or thrice examined concerning the Treasons and offences for which they stood committed How m●●y members of both Houses in form●● Parliaments and in this especially which hath stood most of any for the Subjects Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament have beene thus examined in their own cases yet never any of them at any time refused to be examined or ever esteemed it a breach of Magna Charta or a thing against the Subjects Liberty I dare say the Committee of Examinations have examined above five thousand persons of all sorts sexes degrees before them in cases which concern themselves and yet never met with any that refused to be examined or that pleaded Magna Charta against it till Lawlesse John Lilburn or some of his Disciples came to be examined before them who when he was sent for before this very Committee about his first printed Letter to my selfe had not learned so much Law as he hath gained since for he then submitted to an examination wherein he confessed both the writing and printing of that Letter and for this his conformity was not then committed but suffered to goe at large till the matter should bee reported to the House Not to spend more time or cite presidents in so plaine a case the two grand Irish Rebels Mac-Guire and Mac-Mohon were upon their apprehensions in Ireland examined touching that late horrid Treason and Rebellion there of which they were chiefe contrivers and being sent for over hither by the Parliament were severall times examined by Order of the Houses both by the Chiefe-Iustice and others and by their own examinations thus taken being the principall evidence against them condemned and executed at Tyburn according to their just demerits never pleading nor pretending that their examinations the proceedings against them were against Magna Charta If Io. Lilburn then and all others cannot but subscribe to all the premises he must then recant his false mistaken Law in this particular as well as in the former This poore Ignoramus hath nothing to object against this but that to be examined upon Interrogatories concerning our selves as we were in the Starchamber and High-Commission is against the Law of Nature and that which caused this Parliament to suppresse those Courts and to vote his own sentence there illegall unjust arbitrary against the subjects Liberty and yet now they walk in the very same steps and build up that again which by that Vote they formerly destroyed So he dogmatizeth in page 15 of his Letter Take then an answer to it in few words 1 It is neither against the Law of Nature nor of the Land nor Magna Charta nor the Petition of Right for a man to be examined against himself upon interrogatories as all the premises sufficiently manifest no not in cases of Treason Felony nor in any other case nor yet against the Law of God for then Ioshua had never thus examined Achan in a case where his confession cost him his life Iosh 7. 14. 15. 19 to 26. nor Peter Ananias and Saphyra wherein their Lie lost their lives Acts 5. 1. to 11. Indeed in capitall and some other meere criminall causes a man by our Lawes ought not to be examined upon his oath against himselfe nor yet in case of Illegall Loanes the only thing complained of and provided against by the Petition of Right but without oath men are and may be thus examined against themselves by the rules and constant practise of our Law and in some criminall causes upon oath to 2 The examination of men upon their oathes in Starchamber was held lawfull and used there above an hundred yeares without dispute neither did this Parliament ever judge such examinations against Law or pull down that Court for them nor yet in your own case so vote or adjudge But that which they voted against and that for which they suppressed this Court was the bloodinesse and exorbitancy of their Censures Fines for small or no offences for making that criminall which was legall that a great offence which was neither a fault nor crime and making that Court as an Engine to undermine all our Lawes and Liberties by degrees and bringing those into it as Sheriffs Iustices and others who refused to levy or pay Ship-money or opposed any Oppressions Monopolies unlawfull Taxes Projects Impositions Innovations or Arbitrary proceedings in State or Church or maintained the just Rights Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects against them And the High Commission was voted down on the like grounds but not principally for the Oath ex Officio which was condemned in them not so much because it was unlawfull for any man to accuse himselfe or be examined in his own cause with or without an oath for then the Chancery Exchequer and Court of Wards where men are to answer and are examined upon oath against themselves should have been suppressed as well as it but upon two other reasons 1. Because men were there forced to take this Oath before sight of their Articles and so sworn to answer criminally to what they knew not when they took the Oath so as they could not sweare in judgement 2. Because the High-Commissioners had no power given them by the Statute of 1 Eliz. c. 1. or any other Law to administer any such Oath 3 Sundry Acts of

would be to the Parliament and what cause of clamours and just exceptions it would give to the Kings Malignant party to exclaim against them if they upon the information of those false Coyners who were Traitors by Law and had relapsed into this offence after a Pardon and now fled from thence to escape the hands of Iustice should thus be sent over thither by the Parliaments Authority as their Agents to apprehend Sir Philip the Governour a man of honour and credit who had formerly saved them from the Gallows and did now but his duty in prosecuting them and craved my advice therein before their arrivall here and bring him prisoner over hither who had just cause to apprehend and hang them there That this would be such an Act of indiscretion and injustice as would open the mouthes of all the world against them and alienate the heart of Sir Philip the whole Island and all good men from them And thereupon I desired them to take some course to call in their Warrant which they thought very just and desired my assistance therein whereupon I imployed one to finde out their lodgings which he did at last informing me withall that they were full of money and that Maximilian had offered a small Ingot of gold to sell whereupon I conceiving they had here set up their Coyning trade for which they fled from Jersey procured a Warrant from Iustice Hooker to apprehend their persons and search their lodgings for suspition of Coyning which was delivered to one Master Stone a Constable in Saint Clements who coming early in the morning to their lodging and standing at their Chamber door heard them telling mony on the Table which he conceived to amount to five or six pounds at least by the noise it made after which he knocking at the door and demanding them to open it they suspecting by his words and carriage he was some Officer refused to do it stood upon their guard and Maximillian offered to escape forth out of a Garret window and after that at a back door but at last they were both apprehended and searched but no money could be found about them except three or four pieces of French and Spanish Coyn not amounting to above five or six shillings But in Maximilians Trunk there was found a plate and mould to coyne with which himself bespoke about a month before of a Smith neer Charing Crosse bringing him the pattern in paper pretending it was an instrument which he must use in the Army wherein he pretended he was to be a Trooper together with powder to cast gold and silver mettle in and Alchimy Salts to colour their false silver with in the chamber over theirs there was found about a pound or two of their false mettle hid under the mats in a corner some in the lump not sophisticated some in small pieces newly melted and so cunningly sophisticated with Alchimy ingredients that it shewed like silver and would indure the Test insomuch that the Goldsmiths themselves could not discern whether it was sophisticated or not till Sir John Wollastons servants melted it down and then there was not one grain of silver in it being the most artificiall counterfeiting of silver without any mixture of it that they ever saw Vpon these pregnant evidences of their guiltinesse of coyning false money here seconded with their reall guilt of it in Iersey whence they so lately fled They were examined by Iustice Shepherd where Maximillian confessing his having the Ingot of gold which he tendred to sale and being examined what he had done therewith First he said he had given it away but to whom he knew not then that he had exchanged it for some Commodities he wanted but when where and with whom he exchanged it he knew not afterwards he said he had delivered it to a Master of a Ship and being taken tardy in that his last envasion was that he had sent it to Saint Mal●es in France Vpon all these circumstances they were both committed Prisoners to the Gate-house there being nothing wanting fully to convict them but only some of their false Coyne which they conveyed away in such sort that no piece of it could be found though the Constable heard them telling it as he conceived After which they were examined by Sir Robert Harles Master of the Mint who took away the Warrant they had from the close Committee to apprehend Sir Philip which Maximillian carried about him in a little box Not long after this these two Coyners lying prisoners in the Gate-house procured some Iersey Anabaptists and other of Sir Philips adversaries to informe some Members of the House of Commons that these two Coyners were very honest men who came purposely from Iersey to complain of Sir Philip to the Parliament for his Malignity and great oppressions and that by a meer plot and combination of some Malignants and friends of Sir Philips their lodgings were searched and they committed by Iustice Hooker and Iustice Shepherd to the Gate-house of purpose to take them off from prosecuting Sir Philip who was a great Royalist and notorious Enemy to the Parliament and would keep the Island only for the King they having complained against him and one or two of his Agents here that were in custody to the Committee of Examinations Vpon which mis-information both the Iustices and Constable were sent for to that Committee to be examined touching this practise who acquainting me therewith I accompanied them thither and hearing them begin to examine Iustice Shepherd in a criminall way upon the pretended plot against these Coyners I the reupon took all the businesse on my self that the Iustices and Constable did what they had done upon my information being meer strangers to Sir Philip and the Prisoners acquainted them with all the premises produced Sir Philips Letters the Mettle Mould and other particulars to make them good informing how they had abused the close Committee and this Committee too through their mis-informations and what a dishonour it would be to countenance or imploy such villains whom they should either hang here or send over thither in a way of Iustice to be executed desiring them to take some course to punish those who did thus mis-informe and abuse them neither of them daring to appear to make good what they suggested Whereupon the Iustices were dismisled these Coyners remanded to the Gate-house and Ordered to be proceeded against at the Sessions Whilest these things were in agitation about the time of these Coyners first arrivall in England Sir Philip assembled the Estates of Iersey together in nature of a Parliament where he and the States in name of the whole Island framed and joyned together in two Petitions the one to the King the other to the Parliament to this effect That they were deeply affected with the dissentions and civill Wars in England between the King and Parliament that they feared the like distractions there unlesse timely prevented by their wisdoms and care